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What’s It All About?  A Developer Critiques ActiveCollab!

ActiveCollab is a project management and collaboration tool, which you can host and run on your own web server. In many ways, it is similar to Basecamp. However, there are several key things which make it stand out from the 37 Signals software. I’ll cover these shortly.ActiveCollab provides the following features.

• Milestones
• Discussions
• Files (Upload different versions of the same file to the site. Share files…etc.)
• Calendar (What is due when)
• Pages (Facilitates collaborative writing)
• Tickets
• Time (How long have you spent on the project)
• People (Who is on this project)

Furthermore, the ActiveCollab platform can be expanded to add and create any number of new features with “modules.”

Getting it Running

The installation of ActiveCollab is quick and easy. If you have installed any web application like Wordpress or phpBB, you will be able to do this. Just enter the server details and it does all the monkey work for you.

Usability

The key to project management software is that it is easy to use and learn. You will be exposing your clients to this software and the software should facilitate the project management. It shouldn’t act as a barrier. In short, if a client has to ask questions about the project management software and how it works the software is failing.

ActiveCollab does carry a small learning curve when it comes to the administration side. Setting up users and permissions will probably require a quick look at the documentation. The same goes for assigning people to milestones.

From the client side it is all much simpler. The navigation is simple and clear. Dare I say that once a project is set up and milestones created, the software is pretty much idiot proof.

The Good

What this software has going in its favor is how clean, concise and simple the application is. It has a good range of features, which certainly made my project management easier. The potential to create your own modules is also pretty exciting. Instead of hoping that the developers create it for you, you can make it yourself. This greatly increases the usefulness and lifespan of the tool.

The Not So Good

There are a couple of small faults.  First, the great potential in the modules is somewhat lost when you find that there are almost no user contributed modules on the ActiveCollab website. It seems that such a great selling point is lost by the lack of publicly available extensions.

I also found that page load times were a little slow. JavaScript is used nicely throughout the site. I found that when adding multiple milestones the short delays really sucked the fun out of it. It would be nice if such tasks could be AJAX-ified to speed it all up. Or, perhaps if the program allowed the user to add several milestones at a time, the delay wouldn’t be so noticeable.

My final criticism has to be that nothing new is being brought to the party. The features are well implemented and developed.  The program is quality built.  But, there is no real unique feature which makes you HAVE to get this product over something else like Basecamp.

Conclusion

I like ActiveCollab.  It’s clean, it’s easy to use, and it makes project management easier. You can expand the platform to add new features. I also like that you are paying for it “up front.”  You do not have to incur a monthly charge. This said, ActiveCollab isn’t perfect. Adding milestones can be slow and the software doesn’t introduce any new ground breaking features.

If you want to be free from the shackles of Basecamp’s monthly fee, then you should certainly consider this product. If you are looking for a project management tool, ActiveCollab should definitely be on your list!

Check out ActiveCollab’s website here.

http://www.activecollab.com/

Developer Rating: 4.5 out of 5!

Full Reviews

• Jacob Haug (Multimedia Specialist)
• Mark Poppen (Designer)
• Jason Stanley (Developer)
• Rich Komatz (Accessibility Professional)
• Luke Dingle (Client Prospective)