MangoApps

While there are a host of similar SaaS offerings in this space, they all seem to fall short in one area or the next. Some capabilities are missing, the feature set is not complete, it has reduced/limited functionality, etc. MangoApps is one of the few that has a refreshingly wide breadth of features and capabilities, combined with admin options for customizing and branding to your needs. When considering a collaborative tool like this, it can only be helpful to you if it has the ability to support all of your needs. MangoApps has that. Projects, Departments, Teams and Groups allow you to tailor the site to your organizational structure. Within each of those, there are tools for managing documents, group sharing/collaborating, managing tasks, calendaring, creating informational and blog pages, social interactions (feeds of discussions, etc), as well as a wide variety of pseudo database-like "trackers" for action items, defect tracking, managing resources, ideas, and so on. And if the stock trackers aren't enough, you can create your own and reuse them. The admin features are powerful and granular, meaning you can control almost every aspect of your site, including visibility, access, branding, configuration and more. User membership is also granular, and includes guest accounts which don't count against per-user limits. Our main reason for choosing MangoApps was because it was capable of satisfying every box we had on our list. The others fell short. Highly recommended!

Along with awesome features, can come some confusion. MangoApps has evolved and improved on a very regular schedule, which means new features and capabilities are added all the time. Unless you stay on top of the changes, you may get lost in the many admin pages provided. The good aspect of that is that they are constantly improving (unlike some others that haven't changed in years) and growing the product, but it does mean you need to pay attention. And browsing through all of the admin configuration settings can take a fair amount of time; there are many settings. In some respects, it would be nice if they offered a quick "Wizard" setup tool for new customers to get a basic site up and running. Our site is fairly well set after several years, but new users might feel daunted by the options facing them at the start.

The per-user pricing can get expensive, depending on how you use it. There is a trade off between the power of the tool versus what it would cost you to develop your own site/portal/intranet yourself. In that regard, the ROI analysis is probably something you'll need to perform for your organization, but it's worth the time to do so, and unless your needs are very basic, you'd be hard pressed to match what they offer . If you can work with the guest users concept (somewhat limiting, depending on needs), then costs come down. If you ARE looking only for a basic portal, then this may not be the cheapest tool for you. Their sweet spot is in terms of productivity.