Hive

Pros

Hive has become an indispensable tool in my daily workflow, and its best feature, in my opinion, is the seamless integration of project management and collaboration tools. The ability to centralize communication, task management, and file sharing in one platform has significantly enhanced team collaboration and efficiency.

Cons

The mobile app experience could use some improvement. The app is functional, but it lacks some of the features available in the desktop version. Enhancing the mobile app's capabilities would be beneficial for users who need to manage tasks and collaborate while on the go.

Pros

It has a smart analytics feature that allows users to track their progress, performance, and productivity, and get insights and recommendations from machine learning.

Cons

The task dependencies feature is not available or not working properly. Users cannot create dependent tasks or link tasks to each other.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Hive

Pros

Hive for over four years has been a main backbone tool for managing projects in my organization.
I like that it requires zero manual workflow to carry out PM and TM processes with Hive.

Cons

Hive lack capabilities for global enterprises even though it has a robust backend integration feature.

Pros

Everyone using it at the omnicom agency I worked at, were in agreement hive lacked basic features, rushed poorly planned new features weekly (in response to complaints), which caused disturbing time-wasting new bugs. The ‘pro’ to this is we all agreed
I used it throughout 2022 and changed jobs 2023- and I don't have to use hive now- big YAY

Cons

Fundamental functions lacking included: cut, copy, paste ,undo (if software does not have these features working, run don’t walk from it)
Did not do their homework and as a result were missing many standard features. For instance: minor but expected: no total of comments in a route reviewing WIP deliverable (people want to know a review’s progress, counting 70 comments to inform the team is wasteful: feature was later added)
Reacting to complaints by adding features weekly indicates bad programming with poor planning. It’s not acceptable because….
New features = risk of new bugs - and hive’s weekly upgrades resulted in constant bugs, which incurred 2-5 wasted hours of each users time weekly spent documenting and finding work-arounds. We could not trust the software.
Heres just a few of the continuous stream of bugs that would suddenly occur, a non-ending assault, boggling comprehension.
-In the timeline list view suddenly all days of the week disappeared. The feature was reinstated in a week or 2, but only moving forward. In all previous timelines the days stayed missing
-This was crazy ; in timelines suddenly all line items reading ‘Client Review’ literally dropped to the bottom after in market date.so there was a stack of clients reviews after the project ended. We had to drag them back into position. Fun times!
-Suddenly but randomly, teams review routes started to freeze. The status of the supposedly current reviewer would read “reviewing” far too long. I would contact them for status and find they were not reviewing and often did not have that Hive project open. The notification that it was their turn was not received. To get the route working when that happened, I has to delete all reviewers which would remove approvals. The team members on the route had to be manually re-entered. The bug evolved and started mixing up the reviewer data. For instance it would insert my name reviewing for the Account team. I was project management…same work-around delete reviewers and re-enter..
I could go on and on.
I was tasked to write up the issues our agency wanted to retire hive. However removal would be hard as someone purchased hive for every omnicom agency. I’m not sure what happened.
My first company-wide software dev project was in 1991 for Atlantic records tracking sales in real time. Since then i have managed 12 similar scale software dev projects.
My hive experience reminded me of one where we inherited partially done development whose code was so ill-conceived the fix was trash it and start over.

Pros

Hive efficiency makes it a top tool for our company.
I love the capabilities and amazing interface of Hive.

Cons

Hive has been efficient and reliable.
It has always been flawless.

Pros

They have a very good support team and the project gantt charts are useful.

Cons

The UI is unbelievably poorly designed with lots of inconsistencies and everything takes more clicks and time than it should. It is incredibly inaccessible for the neurodiverse because of it's poor design. It takes a long time to learn and is quite glitchy. I frequently encounter problems and it is difficult to work out whether each problem is due to a Hive glitch or a user error because of the poor UI. It's a total time sink and makes me want to quit my job.

Pros

It's incredibly straightforward, yet packed with flexible features. handling projects as a manager. Assigning work to team members, keeping tabs on their progress, etc.

Cons

The only drawback thus far is the cost. Although it is not the cheapest service we have used, it has everything we need to keep our projects on schedule and working smoothly.

Pros

The visual interface is intuitive. Our Marketing team can benefit from using the proofreading tool. By streamlining the approval process, it shortened the time it took to complete our projects. Anxious users will like the "my actions" tab's streamlined perspective. It's great that any member of our team may serve as the project manager for their respective tasks.

Cons

I'd like it if the statuses could be modified to suit individual needs rather than coming prepopulated, or if the option to delete the default statuses was available.

Pros

It was pretty simple to onboard our team and also simple to create a workflow system.

Cons

I think we need a more robust notification system to keep track of project tasks.

Pros

If you complain about Hive enough you'll get a thirsty email from Hive's [sensitive content hidden] asking for free advice.

Cons

Hive proudly proclaims itself "the world's first democratic project management platform," then goes on to explain, "That means that our product is built by users, for users, via feedback on our Forum." What it actually means is not only do they expect end users to beta test their unfinished software but also that they expect those end users to pay for the privilege. The backlog of bugs that users have reported via their forum is five years long. They have no plans to actually fix anything; instead they're obsessed with addeing "new" features that are really just re-packaged old features that never worked right and still don't. Hive somehow manages to fail at even the simplest functions of basic project management. For example, if the dates for a project shift back a week, you have to manually change the date for every single action and subaction in that project. Unless, that is, you pay for an add-on tool that lets you automate that. But you'll have to program it yourself. And it probably won't work anyway. Because they didn't bother to test if the automate tool and they're using you, the paying user, as a guinea pig.

Pros

The intuitive nature of Hive's functionality makes it easy for anyone to use and to quick to onboard and learn. The ability to move between different views allows users to the program in their favorite mode. Once you've set up templates it makes building cadenced projects even more simple.

Cons

I would love to see the ability to quote jobs added to Hive - it would help eliminate another program we use at the Agency.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Hive

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Hive

Pros

It is so easy to find out everything about your home energy on a simple app

Cons

It was difficult at first to get around the app.

Pros

It's magical project management software. It manages the different tasks automatically. It's simply great software. I recommend it to all project managers.

Cons

It's great software that works great but the mobile app is limited in some features.

Pros

The software is incredibly user-friendly, making it easy for everyone on our team to collaborate seamlessly on projects. It offers great features which allow us to assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress all in one place has made our workflow much more efficient.

Cons

We didn't face any issues with the software, but some minor bugs irritated us sometimes which I think is not a major issue.

Pros

It is easy to access as it is compatible with a variety of operating systems.
When I start new projects, I can keep track of the ongoing ones. My favorite aspects are the division of projects by phases, the customizable timeline, being able to budget/schedule, and set a defined framework. The labels and colors help me individualize and highlight project phases for a better overview and control.

Cons

*Using the mobile version, I see that it limits the functionality and potential of Hive.

*Also there should be clearer tutorials for the initial setup.

...However, once it is all set up, it is very nice to work on projects, but it could save headaches at the beginning.

Pros

Know Hive is a Project Management tool MFT has taken it to the next level. We use Hive to following the manufacturing process from start to finish. As the Quality Manager, I use Hive to track scheduled fabrication on a daily basis. As orders are generated, the fabrication process is tracked throughout the build, to completion. Quality inspections are reported, and documented, then uploaded results so the team can review results. At this point, the jobs are tagged as complete and moved to the next step which is packing and shipping.

Cons

As sales orders are generated, they are inputted into Hive along with all applicable documents, PO#, drawings, travelers and additional notes is needed. Hive use to be able to open a Autocad file or Solidworks file, but now, the drawing file has to be downloaded then opened. This is an extra step we didnt have to do in the past. The recent update eliminated the ability to open these files from Hive.

Pros

Hive seems to work best for organizations under 100 employees. It's cross collaborative and does a good job keeping you informed of upcoming due dates for tasks. The messaging service is also very useful and easy to understand, it's barebones but it gets the job done.

Cons

There is a pretty big learning curve for the first couple weeks of use, particularly with assigning tasks and managing projects. It's not the most intuitive software, but once you learn how to use it, it gets substantially easier to use. The process for creating a repeated tasked is a little tedious.

Pros

-Multiple methods of tracking and organizing projects.
-Easy for multiple people to see what needs to be done on a project
-timelines make is easy to see where a project is going
-chats make it easy to keep shared notes available to everybody
-The time tracking feature is a nice addition. We are still getting the hang of using it effectively, but I think it is a good addition.

Cons

-Definitely don't like the new blue expansion boxes in the Gnatt view. Too easy to rename/delete something
-Can't see my notes on Hive mobile.
-Wish the green "complete" mark bubbles could change color depending on what the status of an item is.
-I don't understand why the subactions of a phase don't stay condensed/expanded as I left them, instead of randomly expanding/condensing upon close & reopen of a project.
-Wish there was an option of deleting all the subactions when a phase is deleted, instead of having them appear in a different phase then have to delete each one manually, individually.
-I'm not sure if I'm missing an option, or if there is a bug, but it seems like dependencies don't always make the things they are attached to, move together. Maybe I just need a more through explanation of how the feature works.

Pros

Love the ease of use and how simple it is to get started. Its just customizable enough but not so much that it scares you away.

Cons

Hive seems to be nacent compared to other popular softwares on the market. As they grow I hope the solve some of the missing features.

Pros

It is very easy to learn and quickly become a robust user.

Cons

I really think the reporting functions are lacking.

Pros

I like the fact that it consolidates the functionality of Slack, Trello and other project management software packages into one. I work remotely and it's easy to stay in touch with other members of the team on a minute-to-minute basis.

Cons

I can't get it to work reliably on my iPhone, despite updating it regularly. I have an older phone (5s) because I just like to have a smaller phone to carry. Soon this needs to change, but for now if I get notifications from Hive I have to find a place to pull up my laptop.

Pros

The chat function is HUGE for keeping our team connected while we are apart. We use it every day. I also love the "my actions" view because it keeps everything organized for me and I can stay on track and on time while juggling many different projects at once. Hive takes our feedback and makes improvements in a timely manner. I would recommend this product and it will just keep getting better!

Cons

I think "my actions" should automatically sort by the next due date at the top (the closest date). Instead, you have to manually adjust the order of tasks by due date, which is a little tedious. Maybe you could offer both options? Manual and auto.

Pros

Hive allows for a few different method of project management for both agile and waterfall projects. It has built in time tracking and you can invite clients without having to pay a fee for them to be in your system. The forecasting tools are helpful and has most of everything you would expect to see in a project management system.

Cons

There are two things missing from this software that would make it a great tool. The first of which is an individual users task list that can be prioritized. Each of our employees wants to see what they are responsible for across all projects and then set priority without having to use a separate program (like Asana). Also, Hive does not do much to address the budgeting side of project management, so there is not a lot of insight to how the budget is being used or reporting back to the client on budget over time of the project, let alone any type of portfolio management.

Pros

one of the best features of the tool is the ability to view projects in different ways. Be it as a schedule, status or Gantt view.
This allows us to configure the best way to follow each project, either by the team's need or simply to facilitate the follow-up on a daily basis.
I recommend for teams with a mixed regime of employees (presence and remote) and for those who work with multiple projects requiring daily updating

Cons

Unfortunately the mobile app version of the platform still has many problems. It is necessary to change the visualization of the tasks and to improve the speed of access and update, the simple act of changing the menu options generates a lot of loading time. I believe that the mobile version needs a complete overhaul, I've already tried to use it on the iOS and Android platforms, but the problems are similar and many members of my team simply stopped using the app.

Pros

There are so many features that I love about Hive. My favorite is that you can tailor each project view to what works best. The ability to provide reviews in app and establish approval flows is awesome. Additionally, the template design is robust and allows you to quickly form a project plan.

Cons

I would like a better alert system and the ability to leave alerts unread - once you read them, they disappear from the main notification tab. I would like more high-level reporting that we can bubble up for executive review.