ActiveCollab Erfahrungen

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Jira, Teamwork und Asana

Gründe für den Wechsel zu 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.

Vorteile

It is beautifully designed so initially it seemed easier to use and navigate.
It had a client portal and I could track my jobs and invoice/do estimates all from one place.

Nachteile

It has hidden fees. Everywhere it advertises itself as only 7.50 a month. - But using the MAIN FEATURES OF WHY I WANTED THIS APP is extra, like invoicing, time tracking and using the client portal. This was not made clear initially. The client service is terrible. I would ask questions but there response was really terrible english language - not what I would expect from an international app that everyone should be able to understand. Especially a client service person called Darla. Terrible and rude manners and unhelpful.!

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

monday.com und ClickUp

Warum ActiveCollab gewählt wurde

I wanted a app that I could use to track my projects, my daily tasks, and has a timer. Plus I can send out cost estimates and invoices from and my clients can log into to track and make note of project progress and timeline.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Todoist und Asana

Gründe für den Wechsel zu ActiveCollab

Activecollab seems to be the cheapest option where I could managment my projects, finances and clients from one place.

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

- 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".

Vorteile

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!

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

This is reasonably priced with several features that are very simple to learn.

Nachteile

The user interface is not particularly appealing.

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

Diversity of features. It covers calendar integration, task management, expense and time tracking, client estimates and invoicing is integrated, discussions with clients are threaded and neatly organized at all times, file uploads that act as a mini-Dropbox for yourself and your clients, notes, facebook-style timeline of the activity within each project... And I haven't even touched on the level of customization, multitude of extensions (Zapier included), scalability (with self-hosted options!), and the iOS app that works with either cloud or self-hosted versions (our clients LOVE the app).

We love ActiveCollab because of it's diversity. That's the one reason that in our opinion, it's simply irreplaceable. Having to replace it would be like adding tripling the administrative work on our plates. It replaces the need for multiple separate services that do each of those things separately. Who wants that when you can have one single login to one single system that can rule them all? ;)

SIMPLY. IRREPLACEABLE.

Nachteile

The iOS and Android apps needs some work. They don't do as much as the desktop version, so they feel limited. They don't really take advantage of features like gestures or multi-touch, which every smartphone has.

We'd really like to be able to upload more than just pictures from the camera roll; some kind of file picking, or option to upload to ActiveCollab from another app (share sheets) would go a LONG way. Optimization for tablet-size screens would be sweet too, along with the simple ability to make text in the app bigger or smaller, so it's easier to read.

The calendar allows for syndication via subscription links, but stopping there feels premature. It would help a lot to be able to integrate to Calendar apps (via CalDAV), since the calendar isn't available on the mobile app either. It would be really nice so that we can add or edit events from our native calendar apps of choice.

Support is fantastic, and extremely knowledgeable. We run a self-hosted installation, which is more economical for us, but we don't have pros running our server environment. That task falls on us, teaching ourselves as we go, and it feels like support will drop clues about what an issue is, instead of going the distance and going in themselves to help fix the problem. Granted, that's more of a problem with /us/, since we're business administrators and not experts in server management. But support will not abandon you. They've always got your back, no matter how tough the problem!

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

Active Collab is efficient, friendly, and structured just right for our team's work. The reporting, activity stream, project, task, and subtask organization are all well-calibrated for daily use to organize work and to report on projects.

Nachteile

I wish AC integrated with Jira. Our development unit uses Jira, but the complexity means it's a no-go for our unit's daily use. The lack of integration means that sometimes members of our team have to ping-pong between both products, or fail to understand what's happening there. A preview of a Jira ticket in AC would be totally sufficient.

Vorteile

The very first thing I would like to highlight is ActiveCollab's great, minimalist design. It is one of the most beautiful UI I have ever used. Everything is clearly and logically laid out and it doesn't take many clicks to get to the desired item.
The project management is also simply beautiful, so you don't lose track of everything. Tags and statuses can be customized and the integrated calendar provides an overview of upcoming tasks including deadlines. Task lists and to-dos can be added to each project and sorted by priority. The time tracking is also a nice feature, so you don't have to rely on another program.

Nachteile

Currently, I still find creating customers a bit too cumbersome. I first have to navigate to the "Contacts" item and create the respective company before I can assign a project. I would like to be able to add a project directly from the list of the corresponding company/contact without having to switch back and forth in the menu. An integration with HubSpot would also make work easier if contacts are constantly synchronized, because with HubSpot I always have all contacts automatically.

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Basecamp

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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".

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

Working at an agency with 50+ people, where there are many moving parts and everyone wears a lot of hats, Active Collab allows us to stay organized and hold conversations in tasks, with or without clients. Tasks are easy to schedule, reschedule and conversate in.

Nachteile

Overall, these are the issues we experienced with ActiveCollab on a regular basis:

- The ActiveCollab timer erased logged time regularly
- Documents were unable to be uploaded to tasks from time to time, which halted communication on certain topics
- The customer service is very slow. If you're having an issue with the software, it takes weeks to resolve the issue
- Sometimes the software is so slow or won't open for an unreasonable amount of time, ultimately wasting time

Vorteile

- Simple, clean UI
- Easy to learn
- Clear structure (teams, projects, categorized task lists) that works well for us
- Ability to sort things in the My Work list, so I can arrange my priorities for the week and then easily reorder things as tasks are completed.
- Integrates well with Dropbox
- Powerful customizable reports (ex. can easily see what got done in the past week on project A, or can get a clear portrait of what employee B did for the last month)

Also, when you're in the middle of writing something (ex. a comment or a note) and get interrupted, it *retains* what you wrote (even if you didn't submit it and no one else can see it). This has saved me so much effort, since it's hard to juggle doing things with documenting them.

Nachteile

- The Asana importer didn't work for me. This resulted in a huge amount of effort migrating projects and tasks by hand.
- AC emails you every time you're added to a project, and you need to be part of a project to see what's going on in it - we use this for workplace transparency, so there are a lot of projects and the notifications are irritating
- Can't easily transform a task into a project
- The My Work interface doesn't automatically refresh when there's an update on one of my projects, so I can be in AC all day and still miss some notifications (unless I enable email notifications, which I dislike).

Vorteile

Our entire team is happy to finally use only one piece of software for teamwork. Starting with the project manager, up to the developer and the support all use the same software. Due to the interface (API) the software can be integrated wonderfully into our existing system infrastructure.

Nachteile

We use the self-hosted version of the program. One requirement for the search is the use of ElasticSearch. Unfortunately this is not possible at the moment, so that we cannot use the search.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

The Mac app is still being worked on, and it has a few startup bugs, but works fantastically, otherwise.

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

+ 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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

The software is easy to use and easy for others to figure out. We have a campus like environment and are able to work on projects for various departments without having to have so many meetings. All skill levels have been able to easily figure out how to utilize the product. It's been a real life-saver for our department.

Nachteile

I would love to see the completed projects being able to sort and view better. It gets hard to go back to a job and see what we've done before or re-open. Also, copying the entire job itself would be great.