15 Useful Project Management Tools
by Cameron Chapman
There is a huge variety of project management applications out there. Most are general purpose apps, not aimed at any one industry. But there is a growing number of project management apps aimed specifically at one industry or another. Applications geared to creative types are becoming more readily available, and some of the offerings are really quite good.
Many of these project management apps have built-in code repositories and subversion browsers (or are built around them). A few have built-in bug and issue tracking. Others include more than just basic project management. All of them can help you keep track of activities and team members. There are both free and paid options. Some have very slick interfaces, and some are modeled more after desktop applications. All are relatively easy to use and easy to set up.
Below are 15 useful project management applications, almost all of which are targeted directly at Web developers, designers (both Web and print) and other creative types. The last one is not geared specifically to creative types but is the most unique project management application I’ve found and is included on that basis as well as because of its potential usefulness for designers and developers.
Also consider our previous article:
1. Basic Project Management Apps
These applications are marketed specifically for project management. Most include things like task-, team-, and goal-management features. Some include additional features such as time tracking and invoicing.
Lighthouse
Lighthouse is a bug- and issue-tracking app that tracks timelines and milestones, integrates with your email client and more. You can update tickets through your inbox, manage your beta testing (by making tickets and milestones public), integrate it with subversion and manage and prioritize your tickets.
Project creation is simple; only a project title and description is required. Once a project is created, tickets, messages and milestones can be entered. Ticket creation can be done by email (the email address to send tickets to is displayed on the “Tickets” page). You can show tickets based on a variety of criteria, including date, state (open or closed) and who is responsible for them. Message creation is easier than email, and you can attach files up to 50 MB in size. When you create a milestone you simply enter the title, the date it’s due and the goals or focus for that particular milestone. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Permissions are easy to set, and you can invite users by email. One of the best features of Lighthouse is its Beacon and API integration. With the API, you can customize tickets, projects, changesets, milestones, messages and more. Integrate it with other services (such as Google Calendar), or make desktop applications that use Lighthouse. The APIs make Lighthouse infinitely more useful, because you can really customize it to fit your current workflow.
Lighthouse is great for Web development teams (or individuals) and has a very easy-to-use interface. They have paid and free plans, all of which include unlimited open-source projects. The free plan lets you manage one private project with up to two people on the account. The paid plans range from $10 per month for the Personal plan (with up to 3 projects, 10 users and 100 MB of file upload storage space) to $120 per month for the Platinum plan (with unlimited projects, up to 50 public projects, unlimited users and 30 GB of file upload space).
When combined with a subversion app, Lighthouse provides a pretty complete project management app for developers. Subversion integration is pretty straightforward, and the help file provided gives complete step-by-step instructions for setup.
Springloops
Springloops is another subversion browser that integrates project management. It counts a unique AJAX code browser and Basecamp integration as among its features.
The Springloops interface is very intuitive and easy to use. Tabbed navigation provides access to the log, source and deployment information. Adding users is done via email, along with the ability to create usernames and passwords (making it easier and faster for them to get on board with a project). Creating new projects is simple, with a few different templates available (including a starter template). You can migrate an existing repository into Springloops as well (including plain text dumps). For added project management ability, Springloops can be integrated with Basecamp.
Springloops has a number of plans available, both paid and free. The free plan includes 25 MB of space, 3 projects, 3 deployments per day (using FTP or SFTP connections), roll-back capabilities, Basecamp integration, subversion and an unlimited number of users. The paid plans range from the “Flowerpot” plan at $9 per month (including 1 GB of space and 10 projects) to the “Forest” plan at $96 per month (including 18 GB of storage, unlimited projects, automatic deployment and secure SSL encryption). All of the paid plans include a free 30-day trial.
CreativePro Office
CreativePro Office offers complete office management tools. CreativePro Office is completely free, setting it apart from the other apps here.
CreativePro Office has the usual tabbed navigation, including tabs for clients, projects, time sheets, finances and team members. The dashboard presents a calendar with upcoming events, a list of your projects, outstanding invoices, notes and search functionality. Project creation is a bit more in-depth than with most other apps listed here, though only a client name and project name is required (you can also fill in a project URL, description or comments, category, date range, status, contacts and tags). Client tracking is integrated, making this handy for those who work with lots of different clients, and it could even serve as a simple CRM program, depending on your needs.
Integrated invoices and financial information is handy, and the finances page gives you options for viewing and creating invoices, expenses and reports.
CreativePro Office is very robust for a completely free application and is definitely worth checking out before shelling out for an expensive paid solution.
Jumpchart
Jumpchart is a website planning application that allows you to plan the navigation of your website by creating, dragging and dropping pages into the plan. You can also add text and formatting to pages and then export your CSS files and site map when you’re finished.
This is a great planning app for Web designers, though it’s not strictly a project management application. You can add comments to each page, which could serve to keep track of tasks related to specific pages. More traditional project management functions could be kept track of in the text of each mockup page or through the comments. The mockup and planning capabilities of Jumpchart make it worth using, even if hacks are needed to make it more conducive to full project management.
The free Jumpchart plan offers 1 project with 1 MB of storage and a maximum of 10 pages and 2 users. The paid plans range from the Simple plan at $5 per month (including up to 5 projects, with 25 pages and 5 users per project, and 100 MB of storage) to the Deluxe plan at $50 per month (including up to 30 projects with unlimited pages and users and 5000 MB of storage).
No Kahuna
No Kahuna is a simple project management and issue-tracking platform. It’s very straightforward and easy to use, with an excellent user interface. Features include task and activity tracking and collaboration tools.
No Kahuna is excellent for basic project management and ticket tracking. There aren’t a ton of features, which can be a very good thing. It’s very quick to get started, also a big plus.
There are free accounts available that include unlimited projects and users. However, if your projects accumulate more than 30 open tasks, you will need to upgrade. Paid options are reasonably priced, ranging from 3 projects for $9 per month up to 100 projects for $99 per month. Open-source projects are always free, no matter how many open tasks you have.
Basecamp
Basecamp is often considered to be the best project management and collaboration platform out there. Its features are impressive: to-do lists, file sharing, message boards, milestones, time tracking, project overviews and commenting.
The user interface is definitely one of the best out there, and because of its popularity, tons of other companies are making products that integrate with Basecamp, extending its capabilities.
Pricing is reasonable, though it’s definitely not the cheapest solution out there. The Basic plan is only $24 per month and includes up to 15 active projects, 3 GB of file storage and unlimited clients and users. The Max plan is a hefty $149 per month, but includes unlimited projects, 50 GB of file storage, time tracking, SSL security and a free Campfire Premium account.
2. Wiki-Based Project Management
Wikis are another option for project management, whether you use one instead of a basic project management application or in addition to one. One of the solutions below is geared to complete project management and includes additional features, while the other is just a wiki and is suitable for project management and other uses.
Trac Project
Trac Project is a project management app that is based on wiki functionality. It also includes a subversion browser, a timeline, ticket tracking, a road map (showing milestones and the number of current open and closed tickets) and builds status tracking.
One of Trac’s best features is the range of plug-ins available for it. There are plug-ins for Web administration, authentication, code documentation, file management, ticketing, testing, user management and version control.
Another big advantage: Trac is free and licensed under a modified BSD license.
PBwiki
PBwiki is one of the easiest free wikis out there to use. You can share files with other users, set access controls for individual pages and folders, add other users to your wiki, monitor and track version changes and more.
Setup is quick and easy and can be done in less than a minute. The PBwiki interface is very intuitive, and there is virtually no learning curve. Creating folders and pages is straightforward, as is editing existing pages. You can also comment on each page, and get a printable version with a single click.
There are multiple themes you can choose from for the design, as well as templates for individual page content (or you can start from scratch). There are a few different plans available, both paid and free. The free plan allows from 1 to 3 users. Paid plans range from $4 per month per user (if you have more than 10,000 users) to $8 per month per user (for 4 to 999 users).
3. Bug and Ticket Tracking
Any time you work on a Web application or website, there are going to be bugs and issues that crop up. While some basic project management applications have built-in ticket tracking, others don’t, and sometimes the built-in solution doesn’t quite meet your needs (either because it’s too robust or is missing key features).
16bugs
16bugs is a very simple bug-tracking system. Its main advantage is the color-coding system used for different types of information (like updates, comments and closed tickets).
Setup is quick and easy. The user interface is easy to figure out. Creating bugs is easy, and the color-coded labels on the activity tab make it easy to see what’s going on at a glance.
There are a variety of account types available. The free account allows 1 project, 1 MB of storage and Basecamp imports. Starting at $8 per month, paid plans include more projects (3 with the Basic plan), 150 MB to 10 GB of storage, RSS and email notifications, Campfire notifications and SSL (starting with the $15-per-month Big plan).
JIRA
JIRA is issue- and bug-tracking software that includes a lot of great features. It has advanced reporting features, workflow mapping as well as issue and project organizing; it is also customizable.
JIRA also offers a number of plug-ins to extend its functionality, including Bamboo integration, charting, time tracking, project management, a calendar and more. By using plug-ins, you can customize JIRA to meet your exact project management and issue-tracking needs.
JIRA’s biggest drawback is its pricing; it’s not cheap. A hosted account starts at $299 per month for up to 25 users and goes up from there (250 users costs $599 per month). If you want to download JIRA and host it on your own server, it starts at $1200 for a single project team, and goes as high as $4800 for an entire organization. If you need an academic license, solutions start at only $600.
4. Collaboration and Conferencing
If you’re working with a remote team on your project, you’re probably going to need some online space to collaborate and meet, whether it’s to work on general concepts or to work out specific bugs. Here are three solutions to help you collaborate with those on your team or with your clients.
activeCollab
activeCollab is a project management and collaboration tool that lets you set up a collaboration area right on your website. You can have unlimited projects, organized into groups for easy management.
Collaboration features include file sharing, discussions (set up like an online forum), assignments, collaborative writing and reminders. Project management features include printing and exporting, time tracking, calendar and schedule functionality, ticket management and milestones. Plug-ins (modules) mean that activeCollab can be extended to suit your specific needs.
There are two pricing options available: Corporate and Small Business. The Small Business edition includes source-code browsing, plug-in support, themes, discussions, milestones, checklists, files, project templates, a mobile interface and localization support. It’s priced at $199, with support and upgrades being an additional $99 per year after the first year. The Corporate edition has all of the above features, plus the calendar, tickets, time tracking, pages (with collaborative writing and more), a project explorer, and status updates. Both packages include unlimited projects and users. You can also purchase a Copyright Removal license, which removes the “activeCollab Powered” graphic from the footer of each page, for an additional $199.
DimDim
DimDim is a Web-conferencing platform that provides collaboration tools for meeting online. It’s scalable, reliable and flexible, with both hosted and on-site versions available.
DimDim allows you to share your desktop with those you’re meeting with, as well as share and present documents (both PowerPoint and PDFs). You can also share Whiteboards, and it has built-in voice-over-IP and teleconferencing capabilities. There are public and private chat capabilities as well as annotation and markup tools.
There are free and paid plans available. The free plan offers the complete feature set, with support for meetings of up to 20 people. DimDim Pro offers the complete feature set, plus custom branding and up to 100 people in a meeting for only $99 per year. There is also an Enterprise-level package that includes all of the above but also allows simultaneous meetings with up to 1000 attendees for $1998 per year.
Vyew
Vyew is a browser-based Web presentation service that allows for custom branding and PowerPoint-like authoring. With Vyew, you can give a live presentation or just post a document for your colleagues to review at their convenience.
Features include real-time desktop sharing, whiteboarding and drawing tools, embedded comments, built-in voice over IP, free teleconferencing, built-in webcam video support, text chat, dedicated rooms and direct URLs and more. It’s a complete solution for Web conferencing.
Vyew has a number of plans available, including a free plan, which includes unlimited meetings, SSL secure log-in, up to 20 participants (all seeing ads) and up to 5 VyewBooks (presentations) with up to 50 pages each. There are two paid plans: Plus at $6.95 per month, which includes everything the free plan has plus up to 25 participants (or 5 with no ads), and up to 25 VyewBooks with up to 100 pages each, and Professional at $13.95 per month, which includes everything the Plus plan has, but with up to 45 participants (or 15 with no ads), and up to 100 VyewBooks with up to 300 pages each.
5. Invoicing
Unless you’re working on an internal project, chances are you’ll need to send out invoices. Having an invoice program that also does proposals is helpful, as is having one that integrates directly with your project management app.
Simply Invoices
Simply Invoices integrates with Basecamp, More Honey, Tick and Harvest to invoice based on time that you track with those programs. Features include invoice templates, unlimited invoices, the ability to save invoices as PDFs and invoice tracking.
There are a few different plans available, including a free plan that includes up to five invoice templates and SSL support. Paid plans start at $9 per month (which includes up to ten invoice templates, plus a custom logo and link-free invoices) and go up to $25 per month (which includes an unlimited number of templates).
Less Accounting
Less Accounting is a simple online accounting and invoicing program that is incredibly easy to use. Less Accounting has a variety of features, including proposal creation and tracking, mileage tracking, sales-lead management and expense tracking. You can import your existing Wesabe.com account, and you can even invite your CPA to look at your books. Less Accounting also sends a weekly email with an update on the status of your accounts.
There are a variety of account plans available, including a free plan. The free plan includes up to 5 invoices, expenses, sales notes, deposits, proposals, mileage logs each month, SSL encryption, reports and bank-account integration. The paid plans range from the Even Less plan at $12 per month (including invoicing, expenses, contacts, SSL encryption, technical support, deposits and reports) to the More plan at $24 per month (including everything in the Even Less plan, plus sales notes, bank accounts, proposals, mileage logs, bank reconciliation, support for multiple types of sales tax and more). A 30-day free trial is available for all plans.
6. Time Tracking
Whether you need to keep track of your time for billing purposes, for your boss, or just to measure your own productivity, chances are you’ll need a time-tracking application.
LiveTimer
LiveTimer is an easy-to-use time-tracking program that works on both your computer and iPhone. It can be used for billing purposes or simply to improve your productivity and accountability.
Features include a daily ledger, bulk time entry (by day or week), customizable classifications, multiple currencies, custom billing rates, intelligent report filters and a developer API. The iPhone integration makes it easy to track your time even if you’re not at your desk, making it more useful than many other Web-based time-tracking applications.
Pricing is cheap, at only $5 per active user per month. Qualifying non-profits get a 50% discount. There is a 30-day free trial available.
fourteenDayz
fourteenDayz is a time-tracking program specifically for teams. It features day-by-day time sheets, exportable reports (in both PDF and Excel formats), drag-and-drop categories and no user limit.
There are 6 different plans offered, including a free account (which includes up to 4 active projects/clients, 10 project categories, an unlimited number of users and reporting functions). The paid plans range from the Personal at $5 per month (which includes the free account features plus up to 7 active projects/clients, 15 project categories, 30 project subcategories and PDF reports) to the Platinum at $99 per month (which includes all the Personal features plus unlimited active projects/clients, unlimited project categories and subcategories, XLS/CSV exportability and SSL connections).
Further Resources
For more project management applications, check out:
- Simple Spark
Directory of Web 2.0 applications, with a list of more than 300 project management apps. - Listio
Another directory of Web 2.0 applications, with a huge list of project management apps.
(al)
Tim
November 14th, 2008 7:29 amTeam Foundation Server? I think the title said “useful.” Enough said!
masone
November 14th, 2008 7:33 amWhen it comes to time tracking I swear by mite (http://www.mite.yo.lk).
Jonas
November 14th, 2008 7:40 amYou forgot Gemini from countersoft (I have no affiliation) for issue tracking. Free license for up to 5 users. Seems like you’re just pimping commercial products here and did not spend a lot of time reviewing open source/freeware products.
Tom
November 14th, 2008 7:43 amSlimtimer … Assembla … other real good tools to look at. Trac integrates slimtimer too actually. Though Trac really is the mother of all these tools and if you can work with python and Trac’s templates — you can walk away with something so much better than anything out there, and for free!
Joshua Sortino
November 14th, 2008 8:04 amMost people don’t realize this but ProjectPier (http://www.projectpier.org/) was originally a free program. Someone took the free source code and turned the program into ActiveCollab (which now charges money.)
When you download ProjectPier, it doesn’t have great visual appeal, but there are a few skins (“Sand” is very nice) that are very clean and smooth.
Stefan
November 14th, 2008 8:21 amCheck out tinyPM (http://tinypm.com/) if you are into agile PM-methods like Scrum and project-wikis.
Nice tool–we have been using it for almost 18 month now.
Jessica
November 14th, 2008 8:45 amI use MacFreelance for all my Invoicing. I highly recommend it. :)
Jacob Abshire
November 14th, 2008 8:56 amI suppose the Projonnect was not included in this list because it has not really been promoted in any sort of way. Projonnect is a free Project Manager that includes invoices among some other things. It may be something to look into.
Tess Neale
November 14th, 2008 9:04 amI fully agree with all of you recommending Blinksale! Brilliant system!
I also agree with Christian and Brijesh. This blog post looks like it’s just a list of a few of the Google results out there.
I’m looking forward to seeing a proper researched blog posts/articles describing for example who the different Project/Task management systems suits.
- Paid tools
- Free tools
- Systems for teams up to 5 members
- Systems for teams with 10+ members
- Only task management or solid project management systems
- Separate post about bug tracking or invoicing
- etc.
This time around it just felt like a short mix of everything – didn’t really fit with the title of the post.
Something more in the lines of “10 collaborative project and task management systems for teams with 5+ members” for example. ;)
Any thoughts..?
Cheers,
Tess
Rafi B.
November 14th, 2008 9:19 am+1 for activeCollab. Owned, and self-hosted, open source and extendable.
nwongfeiying
November 14th, 2008 9:56 amNice article. It’s quite useful.
Jared
November 14th, 2008 10:11 amBlinksale def. needs to be on that invoicing list. Best invoice web app out there – and works with Basecamp!
Sean Crowe
November 14th, 2008 10:22 amAnother great option for time management is KLOK . Its free and runs off adobe air. It might not be as extensive as those offered above, but it certainly does the job.
Adrienne Adams
November 14th, 2008 10:33 amI’ve tried several of the tools mentioned in both the article and comments–FreshBooks, Blinksale, and Basecamp. Since February I’ve been using Cashboard for my time tracking, estimating, and invoicing needs. I’ve found it much better than Blinksale for invoicing and far superior to FreshBooks in every way.
All the templates are completely customizable and look really sharp right out of the box–a very important feature for a professional designer.
Cashboard also integrates with Basecamp, has a super-flexible international tax system, and allows your clients to pay invoices online. The price is reasonable and is based on the number of active projects you have.
Best of all, Cashboard’s developer is totally dedicated to improving the functionality, UI, and features of the application. The support forum is top-notch and they’ve just added a cool features request system.
BTW, I’m not affiliated in any way with this company–I’m a true fan!
Stephen B.
November 14th, 2008 10:36 amGreat list. My only nitpick is that it would be nice if it were more clear which applications are 3′rd-party-hosted services, and which ones can be installed on your own server.
One addition would suggest for the bug/ticket tracking section is Kayako SupportSuite (they have both self-hosted options and they-host-it options). It seems to be one of the more sophisticated apps of its type, I notice a lot of hosting companies using it. It does have some collaboration / project management features, but they’re pretty perfunctory.
Harry
November 14th, 2008 11:03 amgreat list, another cool web app for tracking goals and todo list etc, http://www.goalsontrack.com
Justin Mather
November 14th, 2008 11:06 amwhat about action method online (behance’s project management program)
Emmanuel
November 14th, 2008 11:26 amHave a look at Pivotal Tracker.
it’s powerful and incredibly easy to use. It’s like a Project Management system for people who do not like Project Management (but still need it!)
hey man
November 14th, 2008 11:33 amWhy did you blur out C squared, Cameron?
Dina
November 14th, 2008 11:54 amI put my vote in for Fogbugz and LiquidPlanner!
passatgt
November 14th, 2008 12:32 pmGood for admin panel inspiration:)
listio
November 14th, 2008 12:46 pmThanks for the link to Listio! We also recently did a series of reviews (including a comparison) of 4 project management applications: 5pm, GoPlan, Basecamp and Central Desktop. Comparing Product Management Tools: 5pm, GoPlan, Central Desktop, and Basecamp
Parker
November 14th, 2008 2:26 pmLooks to me like there are as many project management applications as there are people on the planet. Jeez – talk about a market saturated with tools and utilities.
Vincenzo Acinapura
November 14th, 2008 2:30 pmAnother vote for Redmine, it has Subversion, Git, Darcs, Mercurial, CVS and Bazar support, Gantt, calendar, forum and tons of other features. His interface is very simple and well designed. It is also available via Bitnami stack (so it takes 5 minutes to have it up and running :D) Good post, cheers
Phil
November 14th, 2008 3:20 pmFor German users: mite (http://mite.yo.lk) is my favorite timetracking service.
Aaron
November 14th, 2008 3:24 pmI too agree with Christian and others. The blogsphere’s need for link collection posts without extra information-like reviews or pro and con lists-is over. We have too many lazy, money hungry, and search enging whoring bloggers writing these type of lists daily.
We know smashingmagazine and its contributors can write insightful articles; that fact is why we visit and support this site.
Please think about what I and others have said in regards to the content of this post. But also remember its about more then just this one post. Successful blogs like this one set the standard that others will follow. Will you lead other design bloggers into writing indepth, thought provoking posts? Or will you subdue creativity by showing them yet again that a quick google’d link list post is all the bloggsphere needs?
Good luck. And thank you to the commenter that mentioned opengoo. I just installed it. Works great :-)
themanager
November 14th, 2008 3:32 pmIf you want the full package (timesheets, project management, planning, reporting, contact and document management, approval and invoicing) at a sensible price as well, check out TimeSuite (Australia based). I got to see the beta version of their new system a few weeks ago and it rocks. Think they are releasing it early 2009.
Robin
November 14th, 2008 3:41 pmThanks so much for the mention of Creative Pro Office – I’ve been looking for something exactly like that.
For invoicing, you missed Quicken’s free Billing Manager: https://billingmanager.intuit.com/ – I’ve been using it pretty regularly and love it!
Adam Soltys
November 14th, 2008 5:16 pmYet another vote for redMine. It’s super easy to use, very flexible, and is also actively developed and maintained. We switched from Trac about two years ago and haven’t looked back.
aperta
November 14th, 2008 5:18 pmHow About Huddle (www.huddle.net).
Minchyp
November 14th, 2008 8:51 pmgreat list of useful tools, but as a web project manager, MS Project is still the only tool to manage a really complex job (admittedly I tend to do big complex projects). You need to get the manaul out, learn how to use it properly and plan the job to the last detail, but without that lies chaos.
veggar
November 14th, 2008 9:25 pmVery good information.
Thanks a lot.
Amar Damani
November 15th, 2008 12:17 am@ Brandon
thanks for your comment, we have created all the user accounts & all in santexq but if i can get where i can threaded discussions, client integration & gnatt chart, anything like that or should w go ahead with santexq? any feedback anyone? i can go for a paid solution too if i can get exactly what i want..
thanks in advance
Amar
M4rc0
November 15th, 2008 1:39 amHow could you not mention ClockingIT ?
Makes Basecamp feel like a kiddo
Mortaza Doulaty
November 15th, 2008 1:59 amNice article, thanks.
Cause we are not sure about the security and stability of those free servers, I think developing an small project management system is better. I’m now checking those free one’s to see that they have, so that our’s would be better ;)
It may be an open source one…
Jon
November 15th, 2008 7:53 amWe use SharedPlan (http://www.sharedplan.com) for the planning and management of our projects. They are particularly strong in the planning phase which is something I find lacking from most other similar tools and without good planning the rest doesn’t much matter. They also have online tools as well as native tools for Mac and Windows.
To each his/her own but SharedPlan works very well for us.
joanne
November 15th, 2008 10:36 amThere is a neat little time tracking software tool called Fanurio. I love it! You can try it for free too. You can just click to start, pause it, etc and you can do nifty reports. I use it to track the time I spend on client projects. Even though I only bill hourly for consulting projects, it helps me to see how much time I’m spending to make sure my rates are in line.
Brade
November 15th, 2008 12:02 pmThanks for the list. I had just heard about another free option recently: ClockingIT
It looks pretty great, and I’m curious if anyone has experience using it.
At my previous job, we used dotProject, basecamp, projectpier, and fogbugz, and still weren’t totally pleased with any of these. Fogbugz was probably the best, but had the serious shortcoming of not being able to see what other team members were currently working on…
James
November 15th, 2008 3:23 pmShocked that Cashboard isn’t included in this list!!! FAIL!
Rubric
November 15th, 2008 6:01 pmYou needed to include Wiggio, a free alternate to BaseCamp that is great. We are thinking of switching from basecamp to Wiggio at my company.
Ori
November 16th, 2008 1:04 amI love Merlin’s project management app (think it’s for Mac only). The learning curve is very quick there.
Ben Curren
November 16th, 2008 8:07 pmI’m surprised that FreshBooks.com was not included as well. You may also want to check out GoBootstrap.com for free web based accounting software. We are still in beta but will be rolling out 1.0 pretty soon.
Logo Design Art
November 16th, 2008 11:26 pmgreat! jira is very good!
Steve
November 17th, 2008 2:56 amI’m using RationalPlan at office and I’m very pleased with it. I do not need web or collaboration and this tool is just what I need. That is real project management software.
My experience with web based tools is that are more for collaboration and not project management in the real meaning. So it is well said “1. Basic Project Management Apps”. As about “2. Wiki-Based Project Management” there is no such thing. Folks come on… project management is not wiki style site presentation. You can use wiki for forums, some sort of collaboration methods but NOT project management.
Lukasz
November 17th, 2008 4:59 amFor scrum users, I recommend BananaScrum.
Julien
November 17th, 2008 7:30 amHey I think you should try . A free and full-featured version is available on the website. Planzone users can collaborate better by sharing to-dos, schedules, documents and wiki pages. An update was released a few days ago. Let me know what you think of it.
Jeff
November 17th, 2008 11:31 amThank you very much for featuring CreativePro Office in your list of PM apps. We sincerely appreciate it!
Ivan Pidov
November 17th, 2008 1:34 pmThanks for the great list SM !
Liz
November 17th, 2008 2:41 pmI work for LiquidPlanner. We make project management software that’s online, easy to use, and best of all — helps you manage uncertainty. Free for teams of <4 people, also free for nonprofits/education.
Anthony Lonergan
November 17th, 2008 10:14 pmParasoft’s GRS/Concerto is a really effective way of managing development projects. Provides long-term overview of project progress and the ability to drill down to specifics at a coding or developer level:
Link:[http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/home.jsp?product=GRS&itemId=132]
2pint
November 18th, 2008 6:37 amGreat list!
A few others (FOSS):
Integria
TUTOS
Drupal w/ modules – Spaces, Storm, or self-built on Organic Groups
Reen
November 18th, 2008 9:36 amWell done, but i need a solution (time tracking and/or billing) that i can install on my own webserver. Does anybody knows such a tool?
jasiek
November 18th, 2008 10:17 amCheck this out: epesiBIM – open source CRM with bugtracker, better than mantis
archana
November 18th, 2008 2:54 pmi have used around 5 projectmanagement project. Basecamp is the best.Its really easy to easy for developer and new user(customer).
Darryl Lei
November 18th, 2008 4:46 pmI personally reccomend GatherSpace.com as a great requirements management tool for quick sharing and organization of requirements.
Amar Damani
November 18th, 2008 10:40 pmany thoughts on simplypm & spiraplan? i have chcked the demos of almost all of the links mentioned & think these two can be killer self hosted sols? any exp with these ?
thanks in advance
Amar Damani
November 18th, 2008 11:46 pmafter investing an entire week on finding the right sol i am going ahead with santexq, i think its the best sol for tracking time estimate vs. time taken, it should be good enough for next one year than i ll go for something like spiraplan, santexq is also free which is an added bonus, i would like to mention that 5pm looks great & with some more feature it should be good enough for sme segment who want to make work fun :-) the same goes for wrike it was fun checking out almost 50 tools thru the week. Bye for now!
Levente Kovacs
November 19th, 2008 2:29 amYou did forget about FogBugz!
Premasagar Rose
November 19th, 2008 8:39 amWe recently posted on the Dharmafly blog about our experiences with Basecamp. The post attracted a number of interesting comments about related project management tools:
http://dharmafly.com/blog/basecamp
David Perel
November 19th, 2008 12:41 pmI still find that the best project management tool is a Pencil and Paper.
Dan
November 19th, 2008 1:05 pmNice list.
If you would like a tool to manage your small business activities and Projects, you can also use this web aplication:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your Goals (for business but also in other areas of your life), Projects and Tasks. It has a Checklists section, for the routines and repetitive activities that any business has to do. Also, it features a Schedules section and a Calendar, for scheduling you time and activities.
Some features from GTD are also present, like Contexts and Next Actions.
And it’s available on the mobile phone too, so you can access it from anywhere.
Ilija Studen
November 20th, 2008 12:28 am@Joshua Sortino:
Not true. ProjectPier continued development of open source version of activeCollab, not the other way around. Here is quote from About ProjectPier page:
MikeW
November 20th, 2008 12:59 amGreat list, been searching for a good project management tool for my team for ages. Simpler the better. At the minute I just use OmniOutliner, but today I stumbled upon Actionthis . Anyone got any experience of this? Seems pricy though…
Emily
November 21st, 2008 6:10 amMy fave is wrike.com
Tough I tried some of the ones you write about, including Basecamp. BTW, I found Basecamp pretty simplistic – it’s a great tool for a small project, but it won’t work if you have 10 or 15 of them.
See for yourself :)
beauty
November 21st, 2008 8:10 amMy favorite is planzone.com!
Don’t tell me about Basecamp, it’s awful!
Emily, BTW, with Planzone you can use up to 50 projects, in a rather simple way.
Susan Hurrell
November 22nd, 2008 5:06 amGreat list with lots of great resources. One great time-tracking program we use at our office is Slimtimer.com – helps our project managers and production team stay in scope – and works on my Ipod Touch as well. Looking forward to checking out some of these great suggestions.
Indrek
November 22nd, 2008 3:23 pmI think visual planning rocks eg. you need to draw your plans instead of writing. Best way to draw your plan is by using gantt charts. Altought both gantt and PERT charts can be done using pen and paper, specialized software packages are more handy. 2 main problems with charts on paper are rescheduling and sharing your plans. Again, most of the software packages are too complex and hard to implement or too expensive. Well here’s one which doesn’t have too many bells and whistles and can be used free of charge – http://www.yutiti.com
Ollie
November 23rd, 2008 6:25 amThis is a really useful list, you should also consider Copper Project too
Célia Leocádio
November 24th, 2008 2:23 pmGoplan is a great tool. I use it for managing my webprojects. Please mention it in further reviews.
Erica
November 26th, 2008 8:22 am5pm (www.5pmweb.com) should be in that list for project management apps – a truly unique interface.
Dave Price
November 27th, 2008 4:26 amWe use Celoxis for our project management office since the last 5 years. I have used others in the past but if you are serious about project management then try it out. It’s not as cool looking as the others but it gets the job done! For some reason they are pretty low key. Maybe they let their product do the talking. Anyway, check it out.
Walter Adams
November 30th, 2008 12:21 pmA good web based hosted Project Management software that suits my EPM needs is called valleyspeak project server, which I found at http://www.valleyspeak.com. One of the main reasons why I like the product is the fact that I can continue to work in Microsoft Project 2007 while sharing my Microsoft Project plans with my teams.
Because it is a hosted service, I did not have to buy expensive software or deal with installation and maintenance headaches. The functionality that I have with valleyspeak to manage my geographically dispersed teams works well for me.
Krishna Bhatta
December 3rd, 2008 2:13 amNice collection. But i recomend https://www.lumoflow.com.
Which is very best management tool.
Jerimy stewert
December 4th, 2008 3:12 ami agree with Walter, ValleySpeak Project Server is the the most affordable and easy yo adopt too for sharing Microsoft projects on the web.
dawain
December 5th, 2008 7:37 amThere are a lot of good project management tools that have been listed, but the problem I have is we have an IIS6 server and most of the product require a Apache server running php5.
Any good PM tools that you have found that will run locally on a IIS6 server running sql server?
asma
December 9th, 2008 1:18 amHi
Am looking for something where you can track time for team members for different shifts.. any pointers…
Jonny
December 10th, 2008 7:26 amHi,
You can track time for members in projectplace. Projectplace is a web based project management and team collaboration software that you also can track time and many other things. You find projectplace at http://www.projectplace.com. It’s free for 1 to 3 persons.
Good Luck!
/Jonny
Paul
December 17th, 2008 11:42 amare there any related project management tools web apps out there which are catered to the logo design process/projects? I’m looking for a project management app that is less general and more specific to logo development where a client could log in comment on logo proofs and the designer/admin could upload a proof, have it send auto notification of ‘new proof’ to the client, and similar tasks. anyone have any suggestions? maybe there is one out there that would work better for such a thing than others?
William
December 17th, 2008 2:26 pmThe premier on-line collaboration and project management tool is Qtask (www.qtask.com). All services for one price with unlimited projects, storage, etc.
Happy with a Yugo, use Basecamp. Prefer a BMW, check out Qtask. The cool part is they cost about the same.
Ron Fletcher
December 18th, 2008 4:14 amBe sure to check out PlannigForce PM tool at http://www.planningforce.com/ …..
Mikel
December 19th, 2008 10:26 am@Jon
We use SharedPlan too. I just spoke to someone there and they are working on import/export for Basecamp which should be a good addition and round out the lack of planning support in Basecamp.
fyi…
Steve
December 26th, 2008 1:12 amYou have to check out http://www.manymoon.com its the only to online free web application that works with google apps
Manymoon is a secure to do list and project management application for Google Apps! Manymoon is like Basecamp and Sharepoint for Google Docs.
* Private and Shared To Do List (attach Google Docs)
* Turn emails into tasks, receive daily reminders
* Projects and milestones linked to Google Doc
* Add tasks to google Calendar
http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=5019093+13553431478272645297
Flo
January 2nd, 2009 5:10 amGreat compilation of software applications. I’m keen to give Daylite (from Marketcircle) a go but will have to investigate the above ones a bit closer before I decide.
Has anybody worked with Daylite yet and if so what do you
Steven
January 5th, 2009 5:11 pmManymoon is a free web based project and task tracking tool which apart from having all the regular features which an online task management tool is expected to have, has a special feature – it allows you to easily attach your documents and sheets in your Google Docs account from within its interface. It also allows you to create private tasks, collaborate with co-workers, turn email into tasks and track the completion of projects.
# Manage your private and shared tasks.
# Simple tracking and completion of projects.
# Find out what other people are working on.
# Collaborate with co-workers, customers and partners.
# Turn emails into tasks.
# Attach Google Docs to tasks and projects.
Its FACEBOOK for work . So simple to use
John Peilow
January 6th, 2009 6:50 amGood list of applications but at work we use Freshbooks for our accounting which we have found fantastic and Teamwork Project Manager for our Project Management and team/client collaboration.
We tried Basecamp but found it too limiting, especially the dates on tasks. The chat was cool but we use IM or Skyoe when we need to chat.
John.
t.gee.
January 7th, 2009 6:23 amWhat about solutions that can be installed on your own hosting server.
We don’t really like placing our data on networks outside of the company, and getting around the monthly fees would be worth it.
There is activeCollab, anything else in the same league?
D Nicholson
January 8th, 2009 2:47 amFixx is a an excellent self-hosted bug and issue tracker which is very simple to use. It’s completely free for one user. It can be downloaded here
Shana
January 8th, 2009 1:45 pmI am a fan of Google Notebook (found at notebook.google.com) It is free, really straightforward and simple, and you can choose to share notebooks with others to coolaborate, or export your notebook to html or to google docs. Typical google apps style, the design is very low on the graphical elements, high on usability.
Probably the best use of notebook is as a personal organizer – not really strong enough for big collaborative projects. But that is all I need, really.
Biserka
January 20th, 2009 2:05 amThanks for the list!
To t.gee. above, check the below, they offer in-house solution (on your own hosting server)
Check this out: http://www.projectoffice.net/Trial.aspx , it is at the same time, project,cost and issue tracking tool, time and task management tool, Wiki collaboration etc. They give 30 days free trial…
Anna Smith
February 5th, 2009 5:55 amA good hosted Project Management software that suits my EPM needs is called valleyspeak project server, which I found at http://www.valleyspeak.com. One of the main reasons why I like the software is the fact that I could continue to work in Microsoft Project 2007 while sharing my Microsoft Project plans with my teams.
Because it is a hosted service, I did not have to buy expensive software or deal with installation and maintenance headaches. The functionality that I have with valleyspeak to manage my geographically dispersed teams works well for me. We also evaluated Basecamp and some other solutions but were not impressed.
jopp
February 14th, 2009 1:20 pmthankssssssssssssssss………….. :-)
medj
February 19th, 2009 12:38 am+1 vote for Redmine
Quite simple, configurable and useful.
In previous companies I’ve worked with MS Project Server 2003/2007, NetOffice, Bugzilla, Borland StarTeam, Mantis, Lotus Notes/Domino based in-house solutions.
Now I use Redmine and I like it since it satisfy most of my requirements for issues management. For sure there is a huge area for improvements but rough overview of solution listed in this article shows that Redmine could beat them in issue management area, IMHO.
Faruk
February 24th, 2009 8:18 pmThanks. Its a great job. I am very fresh in project management site. So I want to know basic or primary level tips and tricks to run a project successfully. How can I get help to know initial tools and techniques about project management? Thanks again.
DennisB
March 6th, 2009 1:03 pmWe use CurrentTrack as our traffic management system & LOVE IT! I’m not really too sure how we could function without it. We are a 23 person agency & it works great for us & keeps everyone on task & in the loop of what is going on & when it needs to be done. It’s web based which is nice when we are working from home or remotely from shoot, etc…
LINK: http://developware.com/
analytik
March 10th, 2009 2:07 amFor simple time tracking, don’t pass the chance to try out bubbletime! Dead simple. http://bubbletimer.com/
Alex
March 20th, 2009 9:47 amWe use santexq and it’s a pretty good online project management tool solution. i have found that many online tools have a lot of features that we don’t need/use and since santexq has a focus on task management it fits us really well. we’re a small team of 6.
Andrew Macdonald
March 31st, 2009 7:35 amThanks for the useful reviews.
Andrew Macdonald
March 31st, 2009 8:40 amAlso, for those interested in other software lists and product reviews, see the Project Management Software Meta-Directory at Project Management Software Meta-Directory (note: also includes to-do list and GTD software, and online and desktop categories).
Vinay
April 6th, 2009 11:35 pmGood Project Tracking Tool with interesting reports and robust integration with Microsoft Office. .
This tool is also has A robust, adapter-based bidirectional integration backbone, that allows ClearVu to tightly integrate with phase-specific tools as well as traditional cross-life cycle management tools
Julia [mite]
April 9th, 2009 5:51 amWow, that’s a pretty extensive round-up, thanks for that!
Just a quick update on the comments by masone (109) and Phil (136): the time tracking tool »mite« that just launched an English version this week. We’ve been working on the German version for two years now – and would be extremely happy to get some feedback from English speaking users.
http://mite.yo.lk/en/