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Alternative to Conductor

Conductor gives each change a workspace. Podium gives the whole job a plan.

Both run several coding agents at once. In Conductor, the unit of work is a workspace with its own branch, files and pull request. In Podium, you talk the idea through and ask your agent to coordinate; it records the tasks, and what each waits on, in issues you and your agents share.

By Podium · Updated

Choose Podium if…

  • Your work splits into tasks that wait on each other, and you want agents to track those links.
  • You'd rather describe a change in conversation and have your agent turn it into tasks you can edit.
  • You want one agent to hand tasks to others, say Claude Code to Codex, and still open any of them yourself in chat or its own CLI.
  • You want agents on your machine or on a VPS you maintain, reachable from a browser.

Choose Conductor if…

  • Teammates need to share one agent chat, see who is there and prompt the agent together.
  • You don't want to run a server. Conductor Cloud is managed and keeps working after your Mac closes.
  • You work one branch per change and want diffs, review comments and pull requests inside the app.
  • Your security review needs a SOC 2 Type II report.

One change, followed through both

Say you're building Folio, a form builder, with agents already on the editor, publishing and responses, and you want to add conditional questions that only appear after a yes.

  1. Step 1: Add it to the plan

    Podium

    You ask the coordinator in chat. It creates the task under the form builder, records that it waits for the editor and publishing tasks, and makes the end-to-end check wait for it.

    Podium capture The coordinator's reply, with each task linked. podium.do

    Conductor

    You create a workspace for the change, with its own branch. Its todos list what has to happen before it merges, and @todos hands that list to the agent.

    Conductor capture A new workspace, branched from main. conductor.build

  2. Step 2: Run it in parallel

    Podium

    The new task waits in the backlog, marked blocked, while agents finish the tasks it depends on. Sessions run in parallel across worktrees and paired machines, and you can open any agent and switch it between chat and its own CLI.

    Podium capture Conditional questions waits in Backlog, marked blocked and blocking. podium.do

    Conductor

    Use separate workspaces for changes that can land on their own, or several agents in one workspace when they share a branch. Each workspace has its own Git worktree and branch for the change.

  3. Step 3: See what's waiting on what

    Podium

    Open the conditional-question task to check its recorded blockers, parent and dependent work. Keep it waiting while the editor and publishing tasks are unfinished.

    Podium capture Every task in the plan with its state; the new task is blocked by two. podium.do

    Conductor

    On Cloud, Home lists the team's workspaces and filters them by teammate or project. Inside each workspace, the todos show what is left before it can merge.

  4. Step 4: Review the result

    Podium

    Ask the agent to attach the prototype and check notes to the end-to-end check task, then post a review offer so you can accept the work or request changes. The files remain readable after the session ends.

    Podium capture The finished check, with its artifacts on the task. podium.do

    Conductor

    Review the diff in the workspace and send line comments back to the agent. Then create the pull request, act on failing checks and merge.

    Conductor capture Its changed files and a pull request ready to merge. conductor.build

Where Conductor is the better pick

  • Working in one chat together

    In a shared Cloud workspace, everyone watches the agent's output live, sees who is typing and can prompt the same chat. Reassign the workspace and a teammate picks up where you stopped.

  • No server to look after

    Conductor runs Cloud for you: agents keep going after your Mac closes. The pricing page lists Pro at $50 a month with Cloud compute included for now.

  • A SOC 2 report

    Conductor reports SOC 2 Type II and provides the report on request.

Conductor capture A shared Cloud chat, with a teammate pulled into review. conductor.build

The details

Alternative to Conductor, grouped by area
QuestionPodiumConductor
Issues and planning
BacklogNative issues with priority, labels and search; start a task now or later.Humans add todos to each workspace.
Shared recordsYou and your agents edit the brief and notes on a durable issue.Agents read a workspace's todos through @todos.
Sub-tasks and dependenciesSub-tasks and blocking links keep dependent work together.Not documented.
PlansIssue briefs, notes and todos hold the plan across sessions.Plan Mode for Claude Code and Codex sessions; workspace todos for longer work.
Orchestration and visibility
DelegatingYour agent coordinates on request, starting other harnesses' agents and messaging their sessions.Separate workspaces, or several agents in one workspace, run in parallel.
Seeing it allParallel sessions across worktrees and paired machines; task stages and session states appear on the board.Cloud Home filters workspaces by teammate and project.
Knowing it's doneChild agents report results to the coordinator; a task that needs your decision is flagged.Review comments return to the agent; the Checks tab shows CI status.
Remote execution
Where agents runYour machine, or a VPS you set up and maintain.Managed Cloud sandboxes on Pro, Teams and Enterprise. Your own servers aren't supported.
SetupHeadless installer, then configuration in the browser.A managed sandbox created for each Cloud workspace.
Long-running jobsClosing the browser leaves agents running while their host stays on. Idle sessions may hibernate under policies you set.Sleeps after four idle hours, stops at 23h 50m. Files and chat history persist.
Human collaboration
Working with peopleSmall teams can share an instance; the interface centers on one operator.Live shared chats with presence and co-prompting; reassign a workspace to hand it over.
Specifications, review and shipping
Results and reviewScreenshots, HTML and documents attach to the task and stay there.Diff comments go to agents; guided pull requests; Cloud plans and screenshots sync to your Mac.
Access, pricing and security
AppsmacOS app and browser access, including phones.Mac app; Cloud workspaces also open in the iOS app.
Agent billing and costsYour Claude or local ChatGPT/Codex login, or supported Anthropic and OpenAI API keys.Bring subscriptions or API keys. Per-task costs: not documented.
Price, checked 9 October 2026Apache 2.0 source. Agent usage runs on your own provider account.Listed prices: Free $0; Pro $50/month; invite-only Teams $60/user/month.
SecuritySelf-hosted, so the host and its security setup are yours.Reports SOC 2 Type II; report on request.

Trying both

Podium runs agents in worktrees and Conductor gives each workspace its own branch, so you can try a change in each against the same GitHub repository.

Your agent accounts come with you: Podium uses your Claude or ChatGPT/Codex login or API keys, and Conductor Cloud accepts existing subscriptions and keys.

Try both on a fresh piece of work, so neither tool needs records from the other.

Questions you might have

Does Podium start coordinating agents on its own?
No. Ask your agent to coordinate when the work calls for it. You can create tasks without starting agents and open individual sessions directly.
Does Conductor bill my model usage?
No. Your agent provider bills model usage. Conductor accepts your existing subscriptions and API keys locally and in Cloud.
Who looks after the server if I run Podium remotely?
You do. The headless installer puts Podium on a Linux server you own; keeping that machine running is your job.
What happens to a long job in Conductor Cloud?
A sandbox sleeps after four idle hours and stops after 23 hours 50 minutes. Files and chat history survive; running processes need restarting.
Sources and method

Evidence, by section

Product captures

  1. Podium: chat.png
    From podium.do · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-marketing · SHA-256 b980a3ea0b7da86b…

  2. Conductor: git-worktrees-codex-workspace.png
    From conductor.build · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-documentation · SHA-256 2b884de44b20c356…

  3. Podium: board.png
    From podium.do · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-marketing · SHA-256 66517c7ae87390ae…

  4. Podium: flightdeck.png
    From podium.do · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-marketing · SHA-256 7b1e647b0aee35ba…

  5. Podium: evidence.png
    From podium.do · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-marketing · SHA-256 9505a033af7f5705…

  6. Conductor: conductor-app-hero-light.webp
    From conductor.build · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-marketing · SHA-256 ab1a752bad8e4a61…

  7. Conductor: cloud-collaboration-chat.png
    From conductor.build · Retrieved 2026-10-08 · first-party-documentation · SHA-256 7a4f5147e0844602…

Written by Podium from each product's public documentation and pricing pages and from Podium's public source code. This is a documented comparison, not a hands-on benchmark. Folio is fictional demo data from podium.do. Captures come from podium.do and conductor.build. Podium sources were checked on 9 October 2026; Conductor sources on 8 and 9 October. A separate agent reviewed the evidence.

Product capture