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Jan 13, 2013
Basecamp. Affordable effective and easy to use. No gismos, no complicated stuff.
Just a tool to get the work done.
Jan 13, 2013
Zoho Projects and AceProject are affordable options that are quite good. I prefer Zoho as it integrates with other Zoho applications and seems to have better reporting capabilities.
Jan 13, 2013
I've used both Basecamp and Podio. They are both good. I tend to like Podio personally.
Jan 14, 2013
Basecamp was ok, but the low number of projects at a reasonable cost makes cumbersome structuring necessary. I found it most effective to treat "projects" really as file folders, with multiple related projects within each folder.
Jan 14, 2013
In addition to scores of others, I've used all the ones suggested here (except Daylite - poor reviews, costly). Always leaning toward free plans or shareware options, the only one from below I recommend is Podio.
It can take a while to get used to, but that's because it offers just about all the flexibility you ever think you might need, through the "app market" where you install modules that create additional functionality. Zoho products for me have always been buggy or unintuitive/inflexible (and I've been marketing online since the late '90s). I also want to reduce the number of services for which I pay a monthly fee, which nixes Basecamp for active businesses.
Because Podio became a bit much after I moved away from lots of team work to more individual work, I now use Producteev. Recent updates have made it easier and more full-featured to use. Before that, I briefly tried Asana. Again, free, and very cool ... but its funky interface confused me a little and ultimately turned me away.
There are many others I've used, and I also have a spreadsheet of a few options I had one of my admins compile for project managers best suited for Web designers. Would be happy to share if you're interested. The "best" one depends on what sort of business you are and what specific features you need. For me, it was frustrating to find one that fit exactly, as if you have several specific *needs*, it's a crap shoot.
There was one, too, that plugged right into Gmail and was an AWESOME and simple task manager... whose name I can't remember. If that sounds interesting to you, I can locate it again, too.
Take care!
Jan 15, 2013
Dear Dennis,
I work for GetApp, the #1 apps directory for small businesses. We help freelancers and small business owners discover and compare business apps. Therefore, allow me to answer this question. I thought you might be interested in having a look at this infgraphic: http://www.getapp.com/infographics/top-online-project-management-software It compares the most important project management tools. The infographic is also clickable, feel free to digg deeper into the apps you are interested in ;-)
Jan 16, 2013
Hi Dennis. We use Zoho Projects for our project management and find it very useful. As a matter of fact, we use a lot of Zoho products, which all communicate with one another.
We use:
1. Zoho CRM for managing leads and contacts
What is great about the CRM is it is very customizable. It allows us to modify our dashboard and how we get around.
2. Zoho Invoicing
Zoho invoicing is really straight forward and great for easily creating estimates and invoices. Created invoices are payable online
3. Zoho Projects
Zoho projects is what I work with mainly in the company. It is VERY simple to create tasks and milestones and communicate with the team. Clients also have access and can communicate directly to us through the system. The biggest thing for us is keeping comms OUT OF email.
Check it out - hope it helps.
Jan 16, 2013
I've been impressed with Assembla. I like its integration with git, and its simple agile planning model.
Jan 17, 2013
We're an internet development company - and therefore have technical requirements for our developers - but we use the suite of products from Atlassian pretty heavily. We also have a Basecamp account and have tried others, but it's sort of a pain when you're storing information redundantly.
In Atlassian's Jira product you can create and track tasks and issues. You can tie the issues to your Wiki. If you're a tech company, you can actually tie the issues to your codebase, and about a million other things. We only use a fraction of what it can do.
I don't work for Atalassion - just a customer - but I'm sort of transitioning away from Basecamp. I like Basecamp's simplicity, but also a bit disappointed they have not continued to extend the product more rapidly considering the money they charge for it.
Jan 17, 2013
Basecamp is the best for web designers and developers to share task lists and resources.
Podio is used by many, but I find it lacks in simplicity and usability.
I'd like to add Workflowy as a place you can keep your own to-do lists, and share them (all or parts thereof) with others. On simpler projects, that's what I opt for.
Jan 18, 2013
The best free options are http://www.zoho.com/projects/- the best Paid tool is http://basecamp.com/
Apr 3, 2014
I would like to suggest proofhub for online project management. Super simple, intuitive, effective and features rich. Highly Recommended!
Jan 14, 2013
Basecamp is cost effective and simple and therefore efficient to use. The new version has had some useful functionality stripped out of it but it still works well when there are many stakeholders, files and communications all need to be in one organised place and a coherent plan is required.
Jan 15, 2013
I like Basecamp too, but it's more of a workgroup management tool, not a project management tool. Looked at from a project manager's point of view, I like being able to assign, hand off and comment on tasks, estimate completion dates, see what's next, what your velocity is, etc. For that I've had great luck with PivotalTracker - it was designed to support agile software projects and uses some terminology from that world, but I've found it to be excellent for non-technical projects as well.
Jan 15, 2013
The online project management tool I use and recommend to my clients is teamworkpm.net.
It is simple, straightforward and provides daily reports to keep you on focused and on track. Free for 60 days! Then a modest monthly subscription fee.
Jan 15, 2013
Check out Team Headquarters at www.Entry.com. Hosted solution that is very powerful, full audit, security et al and can import/export to MS Project as needed.
Hi Harmony,
I find Google software to be easy to use and fairly intuitive, as well as free. So, if you can remember the name of the task manager in Google, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll "Google it" :-) For now, I'll look into Producteev as I do most of the research projects on my own with subs, not an in-house team.