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Automated project management tool
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Recommended
Jolie H.
Visual Space & Training Manager
Consumer Goods, 51-200 employees
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Speaker 1: My name is Jolie. I'm a retail services manager in the cycling industry. I give ActiveCollab,...
Joe C.
Account Manager
Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
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Joe C.: My name is Joe, and I'm an account manager working in digital marketing. I am reviewing ActiveCollab...
Ross C.
11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It organizes my life every day.
Solid options for organization and streamlining processes that even clients can be taught to use. As a creative agency selling our time it's important to communicate quickly and efficiently with our clients. A big part of that happens at the beginning of every project when they fill out a creative brief. We've used ActiveCollab to set up standard brief templates so AC asks all the questions and they go down the list and fill it out. The time tracker works great and is a painless way to keep track of time. Email notifications are great, especially being able to respond to comments VIA email really speeds things up. Support staff is great. Always available and helpful.
The invoicing functionality is great but is missing major sorting and display capabilities. For example, if I wanted to show each time entry with its note about what that entry was for organized by project, I cannot do that. My wife has also complained about the App not having a lot of functionality, but I have not used it much personally. I also think the 'Notes' 'Files' and 'Discussions' tabs are kind of random. Haven't found a good place for those in our workflows and they're confusing for clients. I realize it's a big thing to ask, but I'd also like to see some way of incorporating something like Slack into Active Collab, so we can move away from Skype completely.
Linda K.
Higher Education, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We have been using AC for five years to manage projects in an in-house marketing and communications team. Overall, we've been able to adapt the system to our needs. AC makes it easy to stay out of email for day-to-day tasks like assigning work, reviewing work, checking on project status, etc.
Being able to: - upload images and files into task discussion threads to facilitate easy review of work - easily add and archive users - run reports at the task, project, client, and user levels
- No integration with Microsoft Teams. - Limited ability to manage user groups or fine-tune user permissions. Most needed feature: - The ability to mark notifications "unread" or "priority".
Sarfaraz K.
E-Learning, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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Overall, my experience with ActiveCollab has been positive. The software is user-friendly and easy to navigate, making it simple to keep track of tasks and projects. The interface is clean and intuitive, and the ability to assign tasks to team members and set deadlines is a great feature. The dashboard gives a clear overview of progress, and the ability to integrate with other tools like Google Drive and Slack makes it even more efficient. The customer support team is also responsive and helpful. The only downside I have found is that the software is a bit expensive for the small business.
One of the things I liked most about ActiveCollab software is its user-friendly interface. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, making it simple for my team to quickly access the features and tools they need to manage our projects. Additionally, the software is highly customizable, allowing us to tailor it to our specific needs and workflows. The ability to create custom workflows and labels helped me to stay on top of my projects and keep everything organized. Another feature that I liked is the ability to collaborate with team members in real-time and leave comments on tasks, which helped to streamline communication and keep everyone on the same page. Overall, ActiveCollab software is an efficient and productive tool for managing projects and teams.
One of the things I liked least about ActiveCollab software was the lack of flexibility in customizing the interface. While the overall layout and design was user-friendly, I found it difficult to make small adjustments to suit my team's specific needs. Additionally, the reporting feature could be improved with more detailed and customizable options. Another downside was the limited integration capabilities with other tools and platforms. Overall, while ActiveCollab offers a solid project management solution, there is definitely room for improvement in terms of customization and integration options.
Djordje S.
Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Using ActiveCollab daily for over two years felt easy, but also like a chore sometimes. Doing things manually falls within one's job, and it offers good control over how things happen, but sometimes you just want to automate things exactly to your liking. The former describes using ActiveCollab better, but as mentioned, that is sometimes a good thing.
For all intents and purposes, ActiveCollab is awesome at doing what it advertises it's doing - project and task management, with easy-to-use, uncomplicated and effective tools. And really, especially on the task level, it is great and will save you a lot of time and brain power.
On the other hand, if you're the one to experiment with your software, look for ways to improve it in new and unexpected way, I hope you're not expecting a lot of success with ActiveCollab. It is a good piece of software, as long as you stay within its area of expertise. Otherwise, you're just stopped in tracks for the most of time, with little or no ways to go forward.
Matthias J.
Used daily for 2+ years
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It helps me organize a great number of projects as one-man business without losing more time than necessary.
It's amazing how flexible AC can be depending on a project's needs. It can serve as a simple reminder list with great speed and simplicity but also get fully blown up for projects involving production teams and clients at once. Compared to its competition it never feels like its dictating you to use it in a certain way, it just hands you a great bunch of options and lets you use them without interference....
I personally don't like the free limitations of users. I know there's a business model behind it but I hate to delete other clients/team members just to make room for someone else.
Matthew J.
Marketing and Advertising, self-employed
Used daily for less than 6 months
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Overall, I really like the product and I think for any team that has been plagued with trying to find the "right solution" to their PM needs, either overwhelmed by more technical PM tools or underwhelmed by lightweights, then ActiveCollab slots in nicely as being a very viable, competitive solution. You just have to ask yourself if the pricing is worth it.
There are actually two PM tools that I absolutely love - Nifty and Ora, however, as much as I love them, they're a bit too "technical" for the layman to use. If you're not heavily invested in software development, they can be overwhelming, but ActiveCollab offers a really clean UI and superb UX that make onboarding new, casual users a breeze. The features offered in ActiveCollab are on par with the industry and mean that you can grow into the product as a team without worrying about boundaries for the most part. I only say "the most part" because I'm on a lower tier plan that doesn't include things like Invoicing (something I use a different product for anyway).
While I guess it can be seen as a "smart" business decision, I think gating things like Invoicing behind a pay wall doesn't feel great as an end user. It's just the psychological aspect of it all, right? If you said I had to pay $7.50/month for a plan and then an additional $3/month for Invoicing, I would be less inclined versus just being asked to pay $10/month for everything. I think the pigeon-holing of Invoicing being behind a plan that is also a price per member can also be a crux because the functionality doesn't really change between a 2 person operation and a 200 person operation, but the two would pay a crazy amount of difference ($6 vs. $600) just for Invoicing.
Mavares P.
Used daily for 6-12 months
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Control of project operations
In such a complex world, where the time and control factor in operations makes a difference, it is vital to have a platform that allows access to many tasks that, otherwise, would involve and coordinate many people, this type of tools allows us to save costs and reduce involuntary human errors, in everything that refers to the necessary coordination between all the members of the project. The calendar...
As with many platforms, the versions that are used in tables or smart devices show some limitations, in relation to those that are handled by PC, it would be very important to preserve and maximize the benefits when you have other devices and not limit the functions that, After all, knowledge or traditional devices for solving problems are not always available.
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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This is reasonably priced with several features that are very simple to learn.
The user interface is not particularly appealing.
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We use AC for all our task management and time tracking.
The wide possibilities of the AC and the fact that the App originally comes from Serbia :) European apps are of high quality!
We have no problem with the application. It suits all our needs.
Alexander F.
Design, self-employed
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It helps me get my tasks done in no time. The software is really hassle free, so there's never any obstacles when using it. Another great thing about ActiveCollab is that the features are very diverse and the ability to self host really adds to the convenience.
The invoicing module is far too limited. Apart from that, I'm really happy.
Sarah P.
Marketing and Advertising, self-employed
Used daily for 6-12 months
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ActiveCollab keeps us organized and on task. It's a great snapshot of our client work at any given point. We have many moving parts, and ActiveCollab allows us to really stay on target with our goals and on task with our clients.
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...
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...
Joe C.
Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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ActiveCollab keeps our company organized, on task and on budget. From tracking work and projects to tracking the financials surround ing those projects, we couldn't live without ActiveCollab. I love how ease to use it is and how easy to navigate it is.
Active collab is intuitive, easy to use and easy to navigate. There are MANY other project management tools out there and I've used a number of them. Active Collab is the best in my opinion in light of the integrations and ease of use.
There are a number of more in-depth features that are sometimes hard to find in ActiveCollab. Nothing a simple support ticket can't solve though.
Verified reviewer
501-1,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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ActiveCollab is very easy to use. With just a few clicks, you can have a new project created right away. Time tracking, invoicing, payment processing and many other features add an already large depth of features.
Support is quite bad, at least for the self-hosted release of the application. There is no ticketing support system, and instead you have to chat with staff through the activecollab.com site to be able to get issues logged. You never get professional assistance through chat. They copy and paste your chat into their internal support system. You're then at their mercy to reply back via email. If and...
Ulric A.
Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It's a great Project Management System. We moved from a legacy system and had prerequisites for our agency: project & task management, people/roll management and time management. It does these with ease. Then it layered great collaborative working.
The recently launched "workload" feature is an add-on additional cost. As a SaaS the competition is fierce for features and benefits. I personally think this should have been part of their bundle, not additional.
Damien H.
Law Practice, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We have loved activeCollab since version 4. It is a valuable software, which really helps its users on a daily basis and is very flexible in its operation. We greatly appreciate his progress and are reassured about his future. Keep up the good work!
Very smooth operation in a team. It really helps to share information and make quick and concerted decisions.
The invoicing module is far too limited. Integration into QBO or other is not really a factor to be taken into account.
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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No business problems are being solved through ActiveCollab, they are only being created.
I truly do not really like anything about ActiveCollab, but the feature that allows you to hide things from clients is nice.
The title says all of it - ActiveCollab is the single worst project management system I have ever used. Their customer service is the worst part, because it makes solving all of the other issues that go on almost impossible. The timer never works and deletes people's work, the server is often down for days at a time, clients will lose access for no reason at all and not be able to login, we'll stop receiving ActiveCollab email notifications and tasks will show either for the wrong day or not at all. When we reach out to ActiveCollab, they more often than not have absolutely no solution and just say "they are working on it".
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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10000% happy camper
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.
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.
Verified reviewer
Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I use this tool daily to assign tasks to the team. It is a good helper and in general I am satisfied with how the application works.
Creating tasks is easy. I can create subtasks, assign executors and deadlines.
I would like it if the subtasks also had a deadline.
Michel M.
Marketing and Advertising,
Used daily for 2+ years
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Over the past 10 years I worked with several online project management, collaboration and accounting tools, including Basecamp, Harvest/Forecast, Freshbooks, Trello, Asana, Teamwork, Podio, Wrike, etc. Two years ago we started working with Active Collab, and it is the most comprehensive tool so far. Not everything is perfect yet, but compared to all other tools out there, it does the best job in modelling your business, enabling collab workflows and being on top of all projects developments. And it has a nice UX, which is very important if you work 8+ hours a day with an app/software/tool.
Covers almost everything you need for team workflow and managing (digital) project, nice UX, rich features, moderate price
Lacks a dashboard/cockpit, reports should be more flexible and easier to use, design of estimates and documents should be more flexible, billing options should be more flexible
Sergey D.
Public Relations and Communications, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 6-12 months
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It is our primary task tracker that we use for each and every project we work on.
1. Nice and easy-to-use interface. No issues with using it for several hours a day. 2. Several nice feeds: global (across all projects), project-wide and personal. 3. Ability to estimate and then track time for a given task. 4. We are an agency and our clients are REALLY NOT eager to use various task-trackers that different agencies push onto them. Thankfully, you can respond to any ActiveCollab comment via email so our clients do not even need to open ActiveCollab to collaborate with us. Meanwhile, we have all messages and comment in a nice and clean order, all inside our comfy ActiveCollab interface.
At some point we decided to move to a self-hosted version of ActiveCollab. By that point we've been using ActiveCollab for a while and our database (including all the files) was about 150GB. Unfortunately, it took about 6 weeks (from 16/10/2017 to 30/11/2017) for the guys over at ActiveCollab to provide us with a link to download our data.
Chris V.
Railroad Manufacture, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall, this is a major tool for the day-to-day operation of my business. Support is at least average, functionality is fairly complete and mature, and it is a pleasure to use.
I started using ActiveCollab back when it was open source and contributed to the code. Since then it has matured a lot. It is a great over-all solution for project management, communication, time management, and even invoicing. The interface is well-thought-out and has few glitches.
The reporting functionality leaves a bit to be desired, but gets the job done. As others have mentioned, the search functionality is not great and setting up Elastic Search for the self-hosted version is a bit involved. Also, the mobile apps are not great.
Andrew F.
Design,
Used daily for less than 6 months
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I've tried at least 20 different Project Management tools, but they were all either too expensive or simply not enjoyable to use. ActiveCollab saves me hours every week that I would normally spend searching for documents, keeping track of tasks, and double-checking things with clients. It also saved my sanity an email-based PM system is not mentally sustainable! I use it for work, and also for side-projects: learning new things, centralizing my store of ideas to ensure that they get implemented...the list of uses is endless.
ActiveCollab is far less expensive than BaseCamp and more visually appealing than the likes of Zoho or Trello. This makes it ideal for freelancers (myself included), but it could work for larger teams just as well. It's available everywhere I need it: the web, my Mac, and my phone. The overall workflow is insanely simple, yet powerful, allowing you to create new clients, projects, tasks and sub-tasks with ease. Every time you find yourself thinking "hmm...I wonder if ActiveCollab does this..." whatever you try works just as you expected it to. That's a sign of really good UI/UX thinking. Their customer support is fantastic, as well. All the people I've talked to have been real, friendly humans never bots or clueless outsourced drones.
The Mac app is still being worked on, and it has a few startup bugs, but works fantastically, otherwise.
Jona B.
Used daily for 2+ years
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Operational control of projects
Enables us to work efficiently on multiple tasks, with multiple users across multiple projects and multiple geographies. It's not too complicated for non-technical users and not too simple when dealing with technical issues with developers. Also can be used many different types of projects.
We would like more elaborate options for "operational analytics". The reports are ok, but we still have to do too much manual manipulation of data to get what we want. We would also welcome SMS/Text alerts and integration with services such Ghost inspector (e.g. automatic ticket generation).
Stuart S.
Media Production, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It does what we need for the most part, at a reasonable price.
ActiveCollab is pretty straight forward for our needs of project management.
We like being able to create templates for projects, however, there is no ability to copy a template and adjust it to be a different template. Every template needs to be made from scratch, and there's not an easy way to even copy and paste things from other templates. A lot of our templates are similar but have variations. We've contacted support multiple times and they like our idea, but they haven't done anything about it in about two years of asking.
Tomasz C.
Used daily for 2+ years
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+ faaast + intuitive, easy to use + almost everything that small company need in one place (projects, tasks, time tracking, expenses) + invoicing + 3rd party integrations (stripe, xero) <3 + did I mention that is fast ;) Highly recommended, not only for software development. It's highly configurable and as most of the things that you have to work on is "like a project" - you can use it everywhere.
After over two years, I see that lack of simple crm is probably only missing feature. You can use internal notes, but I don't feel it now.