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Paldar vs a spreadsheet and email
An honest comparison of running a behaviour-change program with the tools most practitioners already use, and where Paldar changes the work.
2 September 20263 min readAI-assisted draft, reviewed by Jonah Cacioppe
| Feature | Paldar | A spreadsheet and email |
|---|---|---|
| Program design | A table of sessions, surveys and lessons linked to capabilities | A spreadsheet you build and maintain yourself |
| Participants | Invited from the program, each with their own view | A column of names and a mail merge |
| Surveys and 360s | Built in, mapped to capabilities, results in the program | A separate survey tool and manual analysis |
| Between sessions | Scheduled reminders, lessons, an AI coach | Reminder emails written by hand, if there is time |
| Scheduling | Booking from real availability or a hand-set time with an invitation | Email back and forth |
| Quotes and invoices | Built from the program's own durations | A separate template and a separate tool |
| Measurement | Movement per capability, baseline to follow-up | Whatever you can reconstruct afterwards |
| Cost | Pre-launch; pricing to be published | Effectively free, paid for in time |
Most behaviour-change programs today run on a spreadsheet and an inbox. That is not a criticism. The combination is flexible, everyone knows how to use it, and it costs nothing you are not already paying for. For a small number of programs a year, it can be enough.
This page is about where it stops being enough, and what Paldar does differently. It is written from the practitioner's side, and we have tried to be fair to the spreadsheet.
Where a spreadsheet and email work well
They are fast to start. There is no setup, no learning, and no risk that the tool imposes a way of working on you.
They are completely flexible. A spreadsheet holds whatever you decide to put in it, laid out however you like.
They are private by default. Nothing is shared unless you share it.
If you run one or two programs a year with a dozen people each, and you are not trying to prove an outcome, this may be the right answer. We would rather say that than pretend otherwise.
Where they start to cost you
The cost shows up as time and as things that quietly do not happen.
The program design lives in your head and a tab. When someone else needs to run it, or you run it again next year, the reasoning behind it has to be reconstructed.
Participants are rows. Inviting them is a mail merge, tracking who accepted is a column you update by hand, and each person's experience is whatever arrives in their inbox.
Surveys happen in another tool. Getting responses back into the spreadsheet, matching them to people, and comparing baseline to follow-up is an afternoon of work per program, so it often does not get done.
Between sessions, the follow-up you meant to send is competing with everything else in your week. The reminder goes out late or not at all.
Scheduling is a thread of emails. Quotes are a document you rebuild from the program each time.
None of these is a crisis. Together they are the reason so many programs are a workshop with a survey attached.
What Paldar changes
The program is the centre. You design it as a table of what happens and when, each row linked to the capabilities it serves. That table is what participants are invited from, what surveys belong to, what quotes are built from, and what results are measured against.
Participants get their own view: what is coming up, what to read, what to complete. You see who has accepted, who has responded, and who has gone quiet.
Surveys and 360s are part of the program. Each question maps to a capability, so when the follow-up comes in, the movement is already calculated.
Between sessions, reminders are scheduled from the program, lessons come from your content library, and an AI coach is available to each participant within boundaries you set. A second assistant, Chief, notices what needs attention on your side and drafts the follow-up for you to approve.
Scheduling, quotes and invoices come from the same program, so the durations and sessions are already there.
What Paldar does not do
It does not do everything a spreadsheet can. It has opinions about what a program is made of. If your work does not fit that shape, the spreadsheet will feel freer.
It is pre-launch. Pricing has not been published, some features are still being finished, and you will find rough edges. We say that plainly because the comparison is not fair otherwise.
It does not replace your judgement. Chief proposes and Coach supports; neither decides anything about a person.
Who should switch
Practitioners who run several programs a year, want to show clients that a program moved something, and are tired of the between-session work falling through. If that is you, the waitlist is where to start.