ActiveCollab Reviews

Pros

Before I decided to go with ActiveCollab a few years ago, I researched and tried all the project management softwares I could find. I ended up going with ActiveCollab for a number of reasons.

One, their interface is simple, practical, and easy on the eye. I found other project management softwares trying to hard and it essentially complicated simple things. Also, I loved how my projects can be displayed and searched. I know this sounds trivial, but when you manage hundreds of projects (websites), I need an interface that works for me. Their interface works perfectly for someone with my needs. I constantly have to go back and forth on so many notes for projects and ActiveCollab has made it user-friendly for me to do this.

Second, ActiveCollab had awesome customer service when I had any issues or questions. This was a big plus because I then knew I was in good hands.

Third, they had some add-ons other softwares didn't have so it was nice to have features I wanted to use all in one place, like time tracking and invoicing.

Fourth, it was reasonably priced.

Cons

While I went with ActiveCollab, I am still frustrated with some of their features:

One, I use notes A LOT. Their notes interface design looks like something from the 90's.

Two, while they have the invoicing option available, it's sub-par. There are a lot of things they can improve with their invoicing. I wish I could use it, but it's just very limited. An example of a limitation is that you can't even enter or send an invoice without "inviting" the client to join ActiveCollab. I tried testing an invoice by putting an email manually because they claimed you could, but nothing gets sent, unless I "invite" someone into my account. This is silly. Another issue I have with the invoicing is that it shows "Active Collab" as the sender and you do NOT have the option to change this. Kinda stupid.

Three, you only have a measly 3 ways to categorize or filter projects: Client, Category, and Label. This can be very limiting depending on what you're doing.

Pros

We tried many alternatives, but the simplicity and the ability to self host won us over.
Task lists, Kanban Style boards, Time tracking, Notifying and Assigning all work well.

Cons

I feel the file sharing (or at least referencing a file you have already uploaded) could be simpler. Apart from that we're really happy.

Alternatives Considered

Trello, Basecamp and Asana

Switched From

Asana

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Primarily the ability to self host, and have a large team accessing without paying by user per month.

Pros

Onboarding is easy, interface is easy to use and understanding. It's also one of the cheapest option in the market. For features that are not available, the ActiveCollab team is keen to consider adding that feature though during our usage, we didn't really see the feature being rolled out.

Cons

I used to use Basecamp and when compared, there are a lot of features that are lacking in ActiveCollab such as being able to create a Gantt timeline, quite messy grouping of projects on the main home page, not able to add vendors (only can add clients, yet we do not use ActiveCollab to collaborate with clients). As a project management tool, we also would like to see how we can gauge the workload of each team mate and if each team mate might be overload within the day or week, this function at the moment is not available. Completed tasked are being archived and under archived, the completed tasks are not organised according to task list. Some features such as invoicing and budget management cannot be adopted by finance team as they uses a more advanced thou legacy system which includes a whole lot of other functions on top of merely invoicing.

Pros

Web used Active Collab during several years in our servers. The database structure is very simple and allow us to create dashboards with user data.

Cons

Lack of features like kanban and of user interface improvements during updates

Alternatives Considered

Redmine, Jira and Basecamp

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCollab

Jira was so complicated and hard do mantain. I'm talking about 2009

Switched From

Redmine, Jira and Basecamp

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Price and simples maintenance

Pros

I really appreciate the simplicity and the power behind the features it delivers. On the surface, it offers just a list of tasks me and my team manage throughout our design and development process, but under the hood it offers task dependencies, estimates, time tracking and many other cool things that make it deceptively powerful.

Cons

Probably the speed of the app on some larger projects. It's lightning fast for everything small to medium, but on larger projects it can take a while to load everything.

Alternatives Considered

Jira, Teamwork and Asana

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Asana is a bit confusing to get into, and it can really get expensive really fast when you need more powerful features. Teamwork was probably our second pick, bit it can be all over the place, not as elegant as ActiveCollab. JIRA is just a beast and we don't need that much complexity (and power) for our everyday development.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

Time tracking. It's wonderful. We are able to track our time down to the specific task within projects. We can also label each project by client and bill clients based on the time we've specifically tracked for each task and project. All of this tracking also allows for reporting to our clients - down to being able to let them know how much time was spent on each task. Customer service is also amazing. One of our team members has made suggestions for new/alternate features/revised functionality, and things were updated fairly quickly! So good. Thank you!

Cons

I'd love to see the organization of the projects in a different way. Organized instead by client on the main page. The main page is otherwise less organized than I need it to be.

Pros

I have tried multiple task management software for our company, But anyhow I was not satisfied with other product because of no option to manage workload or time and invoice calculation or somehow workflow is difficult for non technical user to use.
Activ Collab has the most simple UI and Design. Only 1 or 2 days training will be sufficient for any users to understand it.
Workload segment is really simple and most important functionality it have.
And the support team is really great.

Most importantly - it have self hosted options which is utmost priority for us for data security and privacy and also we can reduce cost for our users.

Cons

Android app needs improvement. It doesn't comes anywhere near to desktop web version.

Alternatives Considered

ProofHub

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Selfhosted options not available in Proofhub, Data security and privacy is a big concern for us. Design of Activ Collab is much more simple.

Pros

ActiveCollab ensures that I meet my deadlines and deliver quality work always. I can manage my work and collaborate with my team effectively and hassle-free. Its interface and design offers simplicity and helps me manage everything on one platform from tracking tasks, file sharing to planning on my calendar. I am really impressed with it and it is really helpful in terms of communication. I can recommend it to anyone.

Cons

I found it difficult to integrate it my calendar when I first started using but so far I'm pleased with it.

Pros

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.

Cons

The invoicing module is far too limited. Apart from that, I'm really happy.

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

monday.com and Bitrix24

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCollab

Lack of bulk actions feature

Switched From

Trello

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

Pricing term and cost effectiveness

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Jira and ProjectManager.com

Pros

Lots of detailed helpful features which don't complicate the interface but are great when you start using them. Customer support has pointed some out when I put in what we thought was a feature request... but it already existed and I'd missed it.

Actively developed and continually updated without annoyingly changing things unnecessarily or 'fixing' anything that isn't broken.

Cons

Using Elastic Search as the only available search feature is limiting, as it's difficult to host and especially so in a shared hosting environment. Without Elastic Search, there's not even a simple text search available for project/task/comment description.

There's a couple glitches that pop up from time to time but customer support has been responsive about them and some of our suggestions have been included as feature requests.

Pros

Active Collaboration is super intuitive and affordable. Before switching to Active Collaboration a few years ago we used WorkFront and it was an absolute nightmare. After 10 months of getting templates set up and trying to learn how to use them our team was so frustrated that I knew that I wouldn't be renewing that tool for another year. Active Collaboration is so easy to use, it literally takes 10 minutes for me to walk a new team member through the tool when coming onboard. I've learned over the years of project managing that if someone doesn't understand how to use something or its too complicated to input a simple request or comment in, they aren't going use so it, they will default to email or drive-byes. I just don't have that problem with Active Collaboration. I highly recommend it.

Cons

I wish there was a feature that if you change a task date there's an option to move out all the dates at one time.

Pros

Very smooth operation in a team. It really helps to share information and make quick and concerted decisions.

Cons

The invoicing module is far too limited. Integration into QBO or other is not really a factor to be taken into account.

Alternatives Considered

Basecamp

Pros

I truly do not really like anything about ActiveCollab, but the feature that allows you to hide things from clients is nice.

Cons

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".

Pros

I like that I can go one place and see all my tasks for the projects I am a part of. It is easy to tag people and the software is pretty intuitive. It allows many people to be part of the big picture and stay up to date on the progress of projects. It also cuts down on the number of emails I need to send because I can follow up on items within the program and tag people.

Cons

The customer support often leaves something to be desired. When issues arise it is not usually a quick fix and when Active Collab is down, our project management comes to a halt because this is the key to our success. The everyday support for quick answers is fine, but when major issues arise the solutions are not always quick.

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

While some project management systems try to force their own project management paradigms, ActiveCollab allows you the freedom to decide how you will manage your projects. Kanban? Click a button. Gannt? Click a button.

You can easily manage milestones, tasks, files, discussions, time-tracking et al. however needed and have every feature you'll need or want available.

Their support and development has been amazing. Quick replies, quick changes to the core product for quality-of-life requests.

Cons

Rich text could use some work as adding formatted content will sometimes yield awful results.

Needs a better way to sort/view items in "My Work" based on tags and deadlines e.g., view all tasks due that week or all view all time based on job types.

A responsive design and more fluid UI would also be a welcome change.

Pros

I love the fact that it's linked to my email account, so if there is a new post I know about it quickly! It's also great that I can reply to threads directly from my email, that feature is so helpful.

I like that the threads within ActiveCollab are easy to keep track of, so no more wading through emails trying to find a reference to something!

The interface is quick and easy to use, and it's great being able to tag co-workers in threads to grab their attention.

Cons

There isn't much to be honest, but I suppose I would like it if the software took me directly to recent activity, as when there are a lot of projects sometimes I find it hard to navigate my way to the thread I'm looking for. But that's a minor quibble!

Other than that, I really enjoy using the software.

Pros

The ability to view information a variety of ways enables each project to be completed according to need.
The flexibility of reports
The fantastic customer service you can tell they put the customer first and genuinley care about you getting the most from the software
The best thing about ActiveCollab however, is the ability to handle general admin tasks along side projects, something very few project managers allow for

Cons

The UI the software really needs a little colour, I know this is a little thing but I also know it is important to some people.
Although the android app works well, I have a personal preference for seeing my task lists on a homescreen widget not having to access through an icon

Pros

MOST: The desktop version. Structurally and organizationally sound. Streamlines workflow and allows multiple leads to see the workload and run reports on their various departments. Really helps with tracking estimated time for the individual and their part in the project. Communication is up and the stress of the communication is way way down. Creatives have more freedom and administrators and managers feel like they have the control they need. Love the Command+K shortcut we found today. We're still learning how to customize it to our team. It has made dealing with 60 national brands much easier and has put an end to the grade school feeling of walking up to the gigantic whiteboard to move color blocks around.

Cons

Notifications - We believe if a Project is set up and has multiple tasks that run linearly, we should be able to connect them and have a notification sent to the next person when the person before them has completed their task - An automated "passing of the baton" type of thing.

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

-Easy to see everything assigned to me
-Ability to star projects to keep them at the top
-Multiple timers all reside under a convenient clock icon at the top
-Ability to add reminders
-Labels

Cons

-Can only sort tasks by name, project, or due date. I wish you could sort by more than one thing at a time (i.e. By project AND due date)
-Sometimes buggy, but a simple refresh usually fixes the problem

Pros

It allows you to make different projects and within the projects itself you have tons of options. Also, you can make tasks and subtasks and assign them to someone, which I find very usefull, certainly when working with a lot of people. The billing-tool is also very easy. I've been working with ActiveCollab for a while now, and it's by far one of the best project management tools I have used.