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ActiveCollab
Streamlined Project Management
4.2
(93)
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ActiveCollab Reviews & Product Details

ActiveCollab Overview
What is ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab is a project management solution for creative professionals. It offers cloud-based subscription plans or a self-hosting license with organizational features that can be viewed according to what is most convenient among users. Automatic rescheduling allows for the child's tasks to follow the change made to the parent task automatically and tasks can be viewed as a timeline or a kanban board, a calendar, or a list.

Company ActiveCollab Inc.
Year founded 2007
Company size 11-50 employees
Headquarters Delaware, United States
Social Media
ActiveCollab Categories on Findstack
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What ActiveCollab is best for?
How does ActiveCollab compare to Asana?
What are the pros and cons of ActiveCollab?
ActiveCollab Product Details
Capabilities
API
Segment
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
Deployment Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone, On-Premise Linux
Support 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support
Training Documentation
Languages English
ActiveCollab Features
Agile Methodologies Support
Budget Management
Calendar Integration
Client Portal
Collaboration Tools
Customizable Dashboards
Dependency Tracking
Document Management
File Sharing
Gantt Charts
Integration with Third-Party Apps
Issue Tracking
Kanban Boards
Milestone Tracking
Mobile Access
Notifications and Alerts
Portfolio Management
Progress Tracking
Project Planning
Project Templates
Real-Time Updates
Reporting and Analytics
Resource Management
Risk Management
Role-Based Access Control
Sprints Management
Task Management
Team Communication
Time Tracking
Workflow Automation
ActiveCollab Media
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ActiveCollab Screenshots
Disclaimer
Our research is curated from diverse authoritative sources and meant to offer general advice. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each use-case, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Feel free to share your feedback.
Last updated: July 04, 2024
ActiveCollab Logo
93 ActiveCollab Reviews
4.2 out of 5
Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 22, 2024
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Practical, not on the go"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

It's quite intuitive. Easy to handle and delivers timely notifications to the team working on the different projects effectively. It has a clean presentation that makes it easier for everyone to track hours and the activities happening in different projects. It also facilitates sharing needed content for each project.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

There's no really functional version on the go. Some of my teammates and myself were the kind to be going from meeting to meeting or event. In those cases, if we did not have a laptop with us, it was quite difficult to get back to our teams if they required assistance through ActiveCollab.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We would manage our client's digital marketing campaigns. We would all be contractors, so being able to input our hours was great importance, and being able to properly see them and understand them clearly, was even more dire for our management.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 24, 2022
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"The goto CRM platform for starters"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

The interface is easy to use. The learning curve is not very steep. Spend only 1-2 hours to get started easily without any hassle. The separation between tasks and discussions is very helpful.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

The platform is half CRM and half issue board, hence it is jack of all and master of none. The main focus should be either on CRM or issue board and the other thing can be presented as an addon.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are using the active collab platform as our only CRM tool. We onboard our customers to the platform, and from there on, the support team takes over for both technical and business communication. Being easy to use and simple learning curve, the support team can be scaled without worrying about the deep orientation of the platform to the new hires.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 10, 2022
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Good software for tracking scrum tasks, but with some quirks"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

It's a great tool for tracking our project management tasks as part of our weekly scrums. I can see what everyone is working on in my sprint, add notes, track time, and categorize it appropriately.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

I wish Active Collab would learn the proper categories for each task. I find that I have to switch back and forth a lot since I work with a lot of different categories.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are able to see what our team is working on at any given time and what is assigned to us. If multiple people are working on a project, we can see notes as well.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 05, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Best Tool"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Activecollab allows my company and me to organize projects, track time and much more.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

Sometimes specific tabs don't open or they take a while to load.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Organization, client time tracking, able to see task on hand that need to be completed

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 01, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Active collab to keep customers informed of projects"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Ability to create task and assign to Customer or keep internally

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

searching can sometimes be hard across projects

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Using it to work with customers for project dev and communicate higher-level issues then level 1 support

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Nov 07, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great project management solution"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Ability to customize the interface to adapt to the company needs. We needed the ability to have events with target dates (and assign the targets to specific people) and also be able to associate instructors/presenters with those events.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

The workaround for creating an instructor/presenter record is a bit kludgy. We would like an option to be able to create a dedicated section for instructors versus lumping them into notes. it works but we can see where it could work better. Would also like to be able to create an annual calendar of just events.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Keeping track of multiple training events and all of the moving parts associated with the (contracts, schedules, etc).

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Jul 12, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"ActiveCollab for file storage and file sharing"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

I use ActiveCollab as a member of the research group for the management of my ongoing projects. It is a very convenient tool, that allows me showing the other member of the group my progress, intermediate results, final manuscripts.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

Overall I am happy with this tool. It could be a bit complicated for the first time, there is why we had an introductory lecture on ActiveCollab.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Ongoing research project management, file exchange, and file storage.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Mar 15, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Active Collab for Team and Project Management"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

I like the ease of use with email response into a thread. I also like how you can set up private threads and public with clients.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

When loading files, sometimes it gets hung-up and it takes longer than necessary.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use active collab while managing creative projects between different creative team members and the client.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 31, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Reliable ticket managment system"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Easy to customize for the unique needs of our organization

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

I'd like to see better integration into Git

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Internal process and communication, engineer and gatekeeper ticket routing/management

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 01, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"It's okay and functional but there are a lot of bugs"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

I like the look. It's very modern and clean.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

There are so many bugs. From time allocations not loading in workload view (which they took forever to roll out). When searching for a project, old and completed projects clog up the autofill results so it's hard to find what you're looking for quickly. Most recently, we have tasks acting like they have dependencies when they in fact, do not.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We're scheduling work to our various employees but also using it to track the progress of client projects and work. We can go back and reference when things were created and completed.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Oct 15, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Good time tracking, hard to search and run past reports"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

We use ActiveCollab primarily for time tracking. I like that you can assign a task as non-billable or billable by default. It's also easy to see what hours you've tracked and where those hours were tracked to.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

A lot of my job involves quoting future projects, and I like to look at past project time reports to help with this. I find that really difficult to do in ActiveCollab's new interface. I sometimes need to pull a particularly old project, possibly several years old, from a list of hundreds of projects. I may not know the exact name of it. From there, I need a list of the time entries. I use the legacy time report to do this, but it's not easy. I also wish that ActiveCollab supported assigning different billing rates at the project level. For example, I have an internal project that runs at a discounted billing rate. I bill as a web designer. I wish that the web designer rate could change on that project instead of remembering to bill a different rate every time. Or, if a project could have a default billing rate set, that would be easier too.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We're able to integrate ActiveCollab with a custom billing system, including pulling time tracking numbers for billing on a schedule. This has helped remove a lot of manual work.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
May 07, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Simple, effective tool"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab helped us track time as an agency and keep track of the scope of multiple projects & clients. We tracked profitability partly with this app.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

The tasks feature was not helpful for our use case

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We tracked scope and profitability using the time tracking feature of activecollab.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 18, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Really great workflow solution with a pricing structure that won't be more expensive as you grow"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab is about the only high quality workflow product that doesn't charge per user. It has a clean no-nonsense UI that is easy to stare at and use. Project, to-do's, and team management are intuitive and flexible enough to mend to all types of products and team organizations. It has customer facing views/logins, a time-tracking app, and an ever increasing amount of other integrations like Slack or Quickbooks. It is the best bang for the buck as far as workflows and project management is concerned and if you're willing to deal with a few of its fundamental quirks, you can shed a number of other apps you may be using.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab seems a little confused as far as being an all inclusive software that fundamentally lacks features other project management (or time management) softwares have. I wish ActiveCollab had a chat feature (although it does interact with Slack) and the time management only allows a user to time track on to-do's that they're assigned (although in the backend in the software, anyone can add a time entry to any task). Likewise there's no simple way to look at all of your projects and see them labeled by client (you have have to click a drop down tab and sort everything you'll ever need to see in a more focussed view). Reporting works similarly- there's not an easy way to create your own report (although you can save certain parameters within pre-determined reports). Some info on the reports are only viewable by downloading .csv, not in the actual app. There seems to be a few easy intuitive features like those that were dropped, or were half thought through when implemented.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We have solved the yearn for an inclusive project management system that stores time entries, allows multiple contractors and clients access, has some sort of customizable reporting, and on top of all of that looks good. It's pretty much in a league and price range of its own, and I think with a few minor additions could be the best project and workflow management software out there. It has allowed us to easily track projects, rates, budgets, and time entries in one place for us and our clients to see. I'm always surprised ActiveCollab isn't much much bigger than it is.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Mar 30, 2022
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Helpful with organizing but too many tasks"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Easy to navigate and assign tasks but no way to do recurring tasks by day

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

Layout is not easily formatted and colors clash

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

It gives access to everything and has a lot of storage capabilities. Helps us manage accounts and set up daily, weekly, and monthly assignments. Easy to tag other team members

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Dec 12, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Used to manage complex projects"
What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Visually it is a great tool to see all of your ongoing project (Projects Tab) at a high level.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

If your projects don't follow a repeatable plan, the tasks tab can be tough to manage/interact with.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Better organization on our projects. Ability to share status and project notes across multiple teams.