10+ Top Project Management and Collaboration Applications
Projects require lots of planning, organization, communication, and coordination between members. There are a huge variety of project management applications out there. By picking the one that helps your workflow, you will improve your client support tremendously. We have compiled the list below along with a brief summary of their provided features for free project management accounts.
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.
BaseCamp Dashboard
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.
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.
activeCollab Dashboard
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.
CreativePro Office
CreativePro Office offers complete office management tools. CreativePro Office is completely free, setting it apart from the other apps here.
CreativePro Office Dashboard
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.
Central Desktop
Central Desktop is a top pick amoung many with it’s straight forward layout and the various different workspace types such as project management, wikis, databases, project blogs, and user forums.
CentralDesktop Dashboard
The video tutorials make it easy to learn how to take full advantage of each tool and feature. Additional features include integrated instant messaging, who’s online, project updates and notifications, personnel and productivity reports, bookmarking and much more. The free plan includes 2 workspaces, up to 5 members, and 25 MB of storage space.
CentralDesktop’s pricing will range from a Free account to a Company Plan that is $99/mo for up to 25 users. They also offer Enterprise and Community Edition for $10/mo per user and $3/mo per user.
5pm
5pm includes projects/tasks tree, Gantt charts, deadline assignments, groups, private projects/tasks, notifications, client login, project and task sorting, file uploads and attachments, time tracking, time reports, RSS, corporate branding, iCal integration, email integration, 256-bit SSL data encryption, contacts import tool, API, drag-and-drop functionality, auto-archiving, reminders, and the ability to import data from Basecamp.
5pm Dashboard
5pm does not offer a free account, but does have a 14 day free trial. Monthly pricing ranges from $18/mo to $175/mo for unlimited users and projects.
CoMindWork
Comindwork also has lots of features: member management, invites, project blogs, wikis, milestones, time logging, file sharing, cases/issues, history, search, and reports. Under the free plan you can manage up to 5 active projects, assign up to 5 users per project, and use up to 5 GB of storage!
CoMindWork Project Dashboard
CoMindWork has both hosted and self-hosted solutions. The Free account comes with one project, unlimited users, 20MB of storage. The Enterprise account is an unlimited amount of users and projects, for a monthly billing. One unique feature, for anything under their business accounts, which will allow up to 20 projects, they have daily billing. You only pay per day that someone logs into the system.
Updated from CoMindWork: Business and enterprise plans offer a lot cool features like e.g. custom workflows – users can create their own unique project management and business processes.
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects too has a great set of useful tools and features such as an integrated timer, tasks, milestones, calendar, meetings, documents, time sheets, reports forums, and a user list. The free plan gets you 1 project and 100 MB of storage space.
Zoho Projects Dashboard
Zoho Projects does offer a free account for one project with unlimited, but their flagship account is their Premium Account. The Premium Account has 50 projects, unlimited users, 5GB Storage, file sharing, and time tracking for $35/mo. Those that need more storage or projects can go with the Enterprise with unlimited projects and 25GB of storage for $80/mo.
Project HQ
Project HQ is a collaborative open source project management tool, similar to Basecamp and activeCollab. Project HQ is built on open source technologies like Python, Pylons and SQLAlchemy and is fully database independent. Project HQ uses a structured workflow to assist you in managing your projects.
ProjectHQ Dashboard
Project HQ is an open source project management application. It’s web based, meaning that you simply need a web browser to interact with it. It’s also written in Python, which means that you are not tied to a particular operating system in order to run it.
Since Project HQ is open source it is free and must be installed on your own server
Collabtive
Collabtive is web-based project management software. It is Open Source software and provides an alternative to proprietary tools like Basecamp. Collabtive is written in PHP and JavaScript and is intended for small to medium-sized businesses and freelancers. Collabtive is open source and is free to install on your server. They do offer commercial installation if it is not something you are comfortable with.
Collabtive Project Dashboard
OpenGoo
OpenGoo is a complete online solution focused on improving productivity, collaboration, communication and management of your teams. OpenGoo main features include document management, contact management, e-mail, project management, and time management. Text documents and presentations can be created and edited online. Files can be uploaded, organized and shared, independent of file formats.
OpenGoo Dashboard
OpenGoo is also an Open Source format so it just needs to be downloaded and implemented onto your server.
One Place
OnePlace
OnePlace is the powerful online small business organization solution that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the people in your business, so you can achieve more. By using tools such as online project management and team collaboration, OnePlace is your trusted source for task organization and online communication. OnePlace not only improves employee efficiency, it empowers your business to get organized, so your business success is more than even you imagined possible.
If you need more options then what was listed above, you can also check out SimpleSpark, which lists out more than 300+ Project Management tools.
comments | (15 comments)
December 8th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Thanks for mentioning Comindwork! I would also like to add that our Business and enterprise plans offer a lot cool features like e.g. custom workflows – users can create their own unique project management and business processes.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Thanks for the info. I updated the post to let others know. Keep up the good work over there at comindwork.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
[...] This post was Twitted by dnnsldr [...]
March 9th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
This is a nice list! I'd like to add OnePlace to the list – OnePlace uses online project management and team collaboration features to increase the organization and productivity of all members of the business. If anyone wants to take a look OnePlace is at http://www.oneplacehome.com
March 9th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Dana, thanks for the information. I will be updating the post to add OnePlace to the mix.
April 12th, 2010 at 9:35 am
I am a huge fan of your blog and I read it regularly. Keep up the great work!
April 28th, 2010 at 6:35 am
thanks !! very helpful post!
May 21st, 2010 at 11:57 am
Interesting stuff.. I’m trying to learn BPM myself.
June 28th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Good stuff. I’ve gotta express though that in terms of operating systems, I’m still old school and tend to stick with models that have had the bugs ironed out for a year or so, what about you?
July 6th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
As a business, i think you need to stick with a solid operating system that has been tried and tested. Linux, Windows and Mac are all fine.
July 15th, 2010 at 7:11 am
I really enjoyed your website. Excellent posts! Please keep posting such great cotent.
July 27th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
[...] As business owners, freelancers, service providers, or just anyone that gets paid for the work services or products they provide time tracking and invoicing can be a pain. Keeping your business organized and making sure that you are being paid for the time you spend on projects is vital to any small or mid-sized business. Well, it’s vitally important to large corporations, but at that time you most likely have huge firms to manage all of your accounting. This article is aimed at those that are looking for inexpensive ways to track time and invoice their clients. If your also looking for a way to manage projects, be sure to check out our 10+ Top Project Management and Collaboration Applications. [...]
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I am currently working on project for the purpose of my computer school, we are starting to learn some coding in addition to standard website design. I need to create a blog site, had been taking into consideration making use of wordpress as the platform it appears to be to be amongst the most common. Your blog site seems to having a customized theme and some additional html coding did you undertake it yourself or retain the services of a programmer? Is extremely good overall web design appears to be quite simple to use! Nonetheless I may use your site as a reference, of course not copy it as that is against our class policies as well as the law I believe!
August 10th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
custom theme from the ground up. thanks for the comment and good luck
August 13th, 2010 at 8:16 am
Amazing blog and very interesting stuff you got here! I definitely learned a lot from reading through some of your earlier posts as well and decided to drop a comment on this one!
Anyways, I just signed up for your newsletter and will definitely come back for more. Feel free to do the same for my blog when you get a chance!
Also, if your looking to do some guest posting or promoting some of my products definitely check out my site: Make Easy Money Online with Dino Vedo.
All the best,
Dino Vedo
PS: Like my Facebook fan page and follow me on Twitter and I’ll do the same for you!