ActiveCollab

Pros

ActiveCollab was perfect for us in the early stages of our creative services company. It made project management, task management, time tracking and invoicing pretty simple.

Cons

As our team grew, we needed a more customizable system with further automations and integrations.

Pros

Great dashboard, different types of reports, milestone preview, calendars, time tracking tool are just a few of the features that make this software irreplaceable tool when it comes to project management.

Cons

Lack of integration with Git or another version of control system.

Pros

The native features are very adapted to our uses, and we were able to add the missing features.Especially, time and budget tracking are good to have and

Cons

Not us directly, but our customers are sometimes disturbed by the UX, despite huge leap forward recently.We sometimes find it a bit slow in terms of performance - we host it so we may be to blame - and access to data (because we have a lot of projects and customers).

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Pros

Visually easy to see what projects and tasks are priority. I also love the budget tracker which allows me to make sure projects stay on budget. This program is extremely easy to learn to use as both an administrator and a day-to-day user. I have worked with so many project management systems in my career (some at a much higher price point) and ActiveCollab is a true competitor for a fraction of the cost.

Cons

When pulling invoices, I wish we had more options as to how to import the time entry notes. Because we require our team to place notes as to what they were doing for the hours logged - we do spend more time than desired editing invoices once the data is pulled in.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Pros

Great tool for managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders
Pretty robust feature set
Simple to access and easy to invite collaborators in & out of my company

Cons

Upgrades have been a bit buggy and while the team are responsive, they don't always believe that they've broken something

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCollab

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Pros

Ability of me to create a task list with effective durations and add dependencies of each is very easy to use and it's efficient

Cons

With ActiveCollab you will have limited user support help and delayed assistance

Pros

I've had a good overall experience with ActiveCollab. Keeping track of tasks and projects is made easier by the software's ease of use and navigation. The ability to assign tasks to team members and establish deadlines is a terrific tool, and the design is clear and easy to use.

Cons

Despite all of ActiveCollab's good features, the one that I disliked the most was how little possibilities there were for layout and design customisation. Although the software had an easy-to-use interface, there weren't many choices for customising the appearance and feel to fit certain tastes or brand identities.

Alternatives Considered

Pros

It is simple to organize and manage work and projects with activeCollab.I can easily track time used on projects and tasks with this tool.It is simple to plan work and projects with ActiveCollab.

Cons

I lack anything that is detestable with ActiveCollab as it meets all my requirements and needs.

Pros

I tried it out as an active replacement for Capterra; I enjoyed how they are trying to revamp and make new strides in the front of organizational telemetry/communication. They offer a wide variety of integrations and visualizations that, frankly, Office does not. It's sort of like Trello and the traditional Office platform all in one.

Cons

It was hard learning and getting up-to efficiency on everything they offer.

Pros

wow what software!!!. it allows me to increase my output and it motivates me and my team.

Cons

Unfortunately the number of tasks is very limited and there is no communication tool

Pros

ActiveCollab's user-friendly interface and seamless integration of project management, collaboration, and invoicing impressed me. Customizable dashboards and time tracking add flexibility, making it a comprehensive solution.

Cons

While comprehensive, the limited third-party integrations may hinder seamless workflow connections. Exploring advanced features can be time-consuming, impacting initial ease of use.

Pros

It's been more than 10 years using ActiveCollab since the day they had this 90s looking masterpiece of project scheduling platform. Today ActiveCollab grew sooo much and we love the minimalist style, the fact that they keep integrating and updating new features and functionalities making it every next day better and better.

Cons

I've tried so many other Project planning and Teamwork platforms but this one is the best I've ever seen for what we need - combining teamwork, with project planing, milestones progress, resource scheduling and time tracking.

Pros

The platform makes communicating with team members a breeze. We have a multitude of projects and tasks within the three departments - A/C helps keep everything organized and on track. LOVE the landing screen "My Work". The calendar view is awesome for our morning meetings. It is great that we can filter by person or project on the calendar. It's a robust feature that other platforms did not have. Really enjoy the notifications when I mention a team member. The robust area within a project including Tasks List, Discussions, Files, notes, Time, Expenses, Activity is great. Not only does it encourage collaboration it fully supports remote work. On the task list, we can drag/drop tasks. Filter by assignees, tasks lists, due dates, or completed tasks. You can also review the overall project progress. A/C has some great reporting features. I like how we can star projects. Simple features like that are NOT overlooked in the A/C platform.

Time tracking, invoicing, and estimates functions look great. We haven't used them yet but we will eventually. I appreciate the pricing. The customer support is quick and responsive. Our team has embraced the platform and I feel we will continue to use it for years to come. I would recommend the platform to others.

Cons

Disclaimer: We use it a bit outside of its intended purpose. Our group is Marketing, Web Development, and IT. Although there are a ton of project-based objectives within the departments there are some marketing functions that are not project based. This is the biggest thing I've got it's not a deal breaker. Maybe extend the software to include flexible user accounts or setup different types of project areas. That isn't necessarily project oriented.

Minors:
Recurring tasks are a bit of a pain to setup the first time
Multiple different calendars confuse people sometimes and they end up creating a calendar for themselves.
Maybe we could setup tasks requiring a sign-off? Maybe this is already a feature and I don't know how to do it yet?

Pros

I own and operate a company that specializes in creative strategy and marketing/PR services and this is a good fit for us. I spent many months and went through quite a few trials researching a software that had as many features combined that we were looking for. We settled on ActiveCollab and we're very happy with them. It's a great option without the price tag and disorganization the later versions that Basecamp brings. I like the customization features as well as the billable categories for tracking and reports. We work with contractors in our business and we like the ability to assign tasks and hide back office items from the client. Their customer service has been very responsive and helpful throughout our set up and we're overall very happy with the product and functionality for our needs. Overall good UX / UI.

Cons

We're finding the reports options are a little bit limited, however it hasn't been a huge issue. We're getting most of the data we need. We really wish we could assign tasks to multiple people, but that seems to be a common theme among these software options. I don't understand why as we have many tasks that are worked on by multiple people. This carries over into the time tracking app. If you aren't assigned a task, it won't show up in the time tracking app for you to track against. However the work around is you can add a time report in the desktop version after the fact to any task regardless of who it assigned to. The budget feature per project is nice, however, we wish we could break it down further by task list. Their great customer service has passed this along to the management and dev team for consideration so fingers crossed it will be coming in an update at some point.

Pros

This tool is intuitive to use and had a pretty easy ramp-up period. Projects can be organized easily and tasks are easy to create and assign out. The comment function works well for tracking task updates and notes.

Cons

Does not have a task workflow built into it, and is not great if you have more advanced project tracking needs. The time tracking also needs improvement.

Pros

My team and I do really like the simplicity of the software. It helps us focus on doing the tasks rather than figuring out how to use the software correctly to assign tasks.

Cons

- Unmaintained mobile apps, both iOS and Android versions.
- No function to duplicate tasks list.
- Zipping attachments from a task to be downloaded, takes forever.
- Bulk actions on tasks seem to need an improvement on UX so that it's more user friendly to use. Currently, we need to scroll up and down to choose the actions.
- On the Reports page for Tasks, every time we choose a Custom Report, the columns and "sort by" are always reset.
- As admin, I can't see the full list of other user's Activities. I can only see the last 5 or something.

I might be able to give some more feedback. Do let me know if it helps improve your product :)

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCollab

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Pros

The wide possibilities of the AC and the fact that the App originally comes from Serbia :) European apps are of high quality!

Cons

We have no problem with the application. It suits all our needs.

Pros

This software includes all of the features of the leading brands and more in most cases. I compared ActiveCollab to every system out there and tried demos and trials of each as well. It combines robust options with ease of use, and is more affordable than most other options. We can use kan-ban, calendar or list views, and can organize almost everything to our own preference. They also are continuously upgrading the system and adding features. I also like that they have a roadmap on their website so you know what they will be working on next. Top quality product and service.

Cons

We used to be able to change the colors and design options but now we are limited to one set of colors and 4 or 5 different background images. I know it is probably only the designers who care, but as a design company, it drives me crazy. It's not ugly, per se, and it is definitely not hard to read or use, but it is not how I would like it to look, so, it's my least favorite thing about it.

Pros

I love that you can create projects and upload content & give explanation of the project as well as tag different contacts for responsibilities. This helps us keep so organized!

Cons

I have no issues with anything using Active Collab.

Pros

ActiveCollab has a ton of great features - tasks, messages, time tracking, etc. I like that you can have both internal and external teams and choose what the clients can and cannot see.

Cons

Different features break all the time. Time that you've tracked will be deleted with no warning, tasks will show up with the wrong due date, you won't be able to upload files to the message, etc. Customer Service is quick to *respond* to a support ticket but actually getting the problems fixed usually takes days or weeks.

Pros

Easy to use, affordable, logical, logical, really helps. The latest version has greate GUI and I have been using this tool for last 4 years. I first used it at Xivic, then took it with me to Get My Auto, Everything Online, Digital Advertier, and now my own consulting firm.

Cons

I wish it would connect to other project management tools such as basecamp, asana, etc. I work with many contractors and vendors and if I could do everything in active collab, then it would create a ticket in their platforms, it would be awsome.

Pros

I like the fact that everything is contextually linked, you can dive into a task from a calendar, report, email - anything really.
As a manager it's great for checking workload and distributing tasks efficiently. I've been using ActiveCollab for a while now in different organisations, so much so I recommended we get the self-hosted version.

Cons

The inability to email direct to other modules like conversations and files unlike Basecamp which does allow it. That and not being able to add tasks from the calendar. That would be awesome.

Pros

New version is clean and nice, posting old data from hosted versions is simple. Almost hit's it out of the park fopr use in any ad agency.

Cons

It's no longer supported. We looked to invest a bit of $ to move from a self-hosted to their cloud for AC3 and the support response was crickets. They have a scheduler but, it is not for hourly limits, jsut due dates. If you are trying to schedule against hour constraints you'll need to look elsewhere.

Pros

Active has been amazing for our company, the ability to create tasks and sub tasks for each of our client projects has organized our way of operation. We can then assign each task to its appropriate department and assign who needs to work on it. Furthermore, we keep track of notes and discussion added to each tasks. Recurring tasks is also something very useful.
Active Collab is the best thing that happened to us!! We've been advising many clients to start using this software.

Cons

One thing is that the 'Search' option is not very detailed..

Pros

Very intuitive and easy to use. Has most of the features of the larger competitors. Being able to self-host was a key consideration for our industry, most others are only cloud based. It makes managing projects and teams very easy, and everyone can see what is happening in real-time.

Cons

Don't have many dislikes. Would like to see more flexibility with the time and expense tracking, as well as more admin control over notifications and preferences.