About ActiveCollab

ActiveCollab is a project management solution for creative professionals. It offers cloud-based subscription plans or a self-hosting license. Projects are split into tasks and subtasks. Tasks can be filtered by the due date, assigned users, or custom labels. Dependencies between the tasks can be set, so there’s always an exact order of tasks. Automatic rescheduling allows for the child tasks to follow the change made to the parent task automatically. Tasks can be viewed as a timeline (with shown dependencies), a kanban board, a calendar, or a list. Users can track time and budget spent on each task, set hourly rates, send invoices directly from a project, and export reports. Automatic reminders for clients can be set when payments are overdue. ActiveCollab offers a platform where all the communication (comments, discussions, reactions, in-app chat), projects, tasks and files are centralized. Support is provided online and via email. Monthly, yearly and one-time price plans are available.
ActiveCollab Software - ActiveCollab Workload is a visual resource management tool built for agencies and creative professionals
ActiveCollab Software - Multiple task views currently showing a Kanban view of the tasklists and tasks
ActiveCollab Software - Everyone’s availability at a glance
ActiveCollab Software - My work with tasklists and tasks with high priority options, assignees, due dates and task dependencies
ActiveCollab Software - Calendar view with task dependencies
ActiveCollab video
ActiveCollab Software - ActiveCollab Workload is a visual resource management tool built for agencies and creative professionals - thumbnail
ActiveCollab Software - Multiple task views currently showing a Kanban view of the tasklists and tasks - thumbnail
ActiveCollab Software - Everyone’s availability at a glance - thumbnail
ActiveCollab Software - My work with tasklists and tasks with high priority options, assignees, due dates and task dependencies - thumbnail
ActiveCollab Software - Calendar view with task dependencies - thumbnail

ActiveCollab pricing

ActiveCollab has a free version and offers a free trial. ActiveCollab paid version starts at US$11.00/month.

Starting Price:
US$11.00/month
Free Version:
Yes
Free trial:
Yes

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ActiveCollab Reviews

Feature rating

Value for Money
4.4
Functionality
4.2
Ease of Use
4.5
Customer Support
4.4
5 reviews of 399 View all reviews
Sinoun
  • Industry: Internet
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 12/12/2018

Great, but a lot of improvements can be made.

Overall, I like ActiveCollab, but I want to so bad love it more. There is a lot of potential with AC and room for improvement, and I really hope they listen to people's suggestions and needs! Either way, I do highly recommend ActiveCollab, especially if you're a web designer like me who manages hundreds of sites.

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.

Verified Reviewer
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 10/11/2020

Self hosted or hosted, an excellent team tool

We have a global team that work on projects together, ActiveCollab keeps us progressing them.
We also use it for collaboration, requests and idea sharing.

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.
Mari-Nella
  • Industry: Design
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Features
2
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 7/9/2021

It is a beautiful app but not that useful

It was nice in the beginning but I just soon realised I needed something with easier to use features and no hidden costs. Onces a app like this becomes too complicated to navigate or customise - you will not use it as you need to daily because of that hassle.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.!

Alternatives Considered

Pluto LMS, monday.com and ClickUp

Reasons for Choosing ActiveCollab

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.

Switched From

Todoist and Asana

Reasons for Switching to ActiveCollab

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

Response from Active Collab

We appreciate your honest feedback, and we are sorry to hear you had this experience with ActiveCollab.
As for the pricing, additional features such as Invoicing, Time Estimates, Workload, Availability, etc., are listed in the GePaid bundle section, which is charged additionally and is not a part of the basic paid plan. You can check out our pricing on the official site here: https://activecollab.com/pricing

Replied 15/9/2021
Verified Reviewer
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
0

4
Reviewed on 21/7/2020

Simple and extensive

It was very good to us during 6 years.

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
Malcolm
  • Industry: Design
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
0
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 9/3/2022

Not Just Project Management! Superior Time Tracking and Reporting for Clients Too!

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.

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