A while back I posted a few lists of Freelancer Tools for tracking time and collecting money. Great tools but they only take you half the way. There is more to delivering great projects to clients on time than these can offer. Keeping track on tasks/activities, scope, agreements, plans, dependencies etc. is critical and will be more and more essential as size and complexity increase. In this post I have collected some of the most interesting tools for tracking elements of Project Management and Collaboration. Hope you find something you can use and that you will let us all know if I missed a good tool you think deserves to be added to the list!
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Project Management and Collaboration
Writeboard – As simple as it gets really.This this service provides free web-based text documents you can share, that save edits, so you can collaborate, roll back and compare.
ConceptShare - If you need to share your designs and get feedback this is a cool tool. Feedback can be given with visual annotation tools. Allows you to setup secure online workspaces for sharing designs, documents and video and invite others to review, comment and give contextual feedback
Wridea – “Idea management service and collection of brainstorming tools”. It’s a free tool for writers focusing on idea generation
GoPlan – Goplan is an online project management and team collaboration platform. It offers note-taking, calendaring, task management, issue tracking, file management and online real-time chat etc.
Toodledo – Simple and easy to use web based to-do list wit ha lot of features. It offers a iPhone app.
Ta-Da Lists – a simple and free to-do list application that can be shared with the world. The application is provided by 37 signals (known for tools like Basecamp and Campfire) and is the “little brother” of Backpack (next in the list)
Backpack – Very easy to setup and use service that integrates to-do lists, notes, files, images, and a calendar with reminders that can be sent to your email or cell. See examples here
ActiveCollab – Very feature rich collaboration and project management tool that also allows you to track time and send invoices. Could be a all in one stop for a free lancer or small consulting company.
MonkeyOn – Your to-do list for things that you want other people to do! Concept is that you send a monkey… ie. give your monkey a recipient, a description, and a deadline. Monkey On Your Back will send the recipient regular reminder emails to make sure they don’t forget.
Remember The Milk – To-Do List manager. Receive reminders via email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are all supported). Use the map to see where your tasks are located in the real world. See what’s nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done. Share, send and publish tasks and lists with your contacts or the world. Remind your significant other to do their household chores.
Function Fox, TimeFox is the time and project tracking system of choice for professionals in advertising, design, web, communications, and all realms of creative service.
myclientspot – ClientSpot is a Integrated Project Management and Time Tracking for Busy Teams which handles project and task tracking, time tracking and reporting, calendars, and file sharing.
statuswiz – Very simple and sleek tool for sharing tasks, create reports and more.
aceproject.com – This is a very feature rich project, ressource etc. management tool that are free for up to 5 users.
deskaway – is a Simple, powerful and affordable collaboration service backed by personalized customer service. Loads of features and free for up to 3 projects.
Proposal Kit – Proposal and contract management tools. Tons of templates and examples.
MemoToMe – Feature rich memo, todo and reminder service.
TeamLive – an online collaboration tool, great for mocking up website designs and collaborating with clients. Also useful for highlighting changes to existing websites using the capture tools.
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Great list, will need to add freedcamp.com to it soon
Thanks for featuring DeskAway!
Check out http://www.veoproject.com... you can build online project plans and connect shared tasks to email, google calendars, twitter, salesforce.com, and ms outlook.
I would like to also mention RationalPlan:
http://www.rationalplan.com
It is an affordable alternative to MS Project with some extra features like multiple projects management, shared resources and email integration.
Thank for your list. It’s great
You are missing Open Atrium: http://openatrium.com/
Don’t forget teambox.com and Google Sites
Check out collabtive for self hosted open source goodness for small teams. collabtive
Also check out http://www.easyprojects.net, it features enterprise modules aimed at professional project management including activity, request and issue tracking, portfolio management, real-time conferencing, estimation analysis, interactive gantt chart and support for Microsoft Project file import and export.
Oh whoever mentioned collabtive… too bad i tried installing it, and had to fix a bunch of bugs before it would even compile… it’s all about http://freedcamp.com the real free basecamp alternative
I didn’t know about almost 50% of the tools above (and this is odd, as I run a PM website and I tend to be always up to date with what’s going on the PM Software market). I do believe though, that none of them offer something fresh. This article, on the ideal PM tool, examines what should such a tool have in order to lead the market and offer the Project Managers what they need.
PS: A table comparing the features + pricing of these applications would’ve been nice.
@PM Hut, Glad that I could help you learn some new tools. Since you are an subject matter expert I would like to ask if there are great tools that I left out by mistake? And thanks for the article list. I agree that having a list of key features most people will need is very useful!
Our company uses DotProject.net – simple interface, easy to manage and yet free solution
Another vote for Open Atrium. Left Basecamp for it.
Awesome list for freelancer. These tools really helpful for project management for freelancing. Thanks for sharing this nice post.
You’ve covered quite a few, but there’s still a lot out there. I just don’t want to vouch for any tool, they’re essentially all the same thing with a different skin and pricing.
If you need just open MS Project file, you do not need to install any software. Just go on http://www.amiproject.com and open it in browser. That is it!
Thanks for the great list. I was just reviewing this week how best to project manage many clients – this couldn’t have come at a better time. Thanks again.
Great list. Have you tried out Injoos Teamware. I would reckon that they have the most comprehensive integrated collaboration platform. With their latest release they have added a new twist to track and execute projects “the social way”. Checkout their Blog http://injoos.com/blog/2009/10/09/seamless-collaboration-with-release-35/
Great list of varied tools.
I’d love to add Moobiz http://www.moobiz.com to the list, as it has great project management features including shared workspaces, document sharing, to-dos, timesheets, project cost proposals and invoicing as well as accounting and business management stuff like shared calendars, mileage tracking and holiday management.
You can run your whole business from £15/month.
Me and my team are using project management tools from 5PMweb – http://www.5pmweb.com
Its simple and great with a lot of tools for managing projects, clients, task. 5PM has the best timeline.
DeskAway is one of the best project management tools I’ve ever used.
Thanks for sharing this list…!
Hi, Check out Insight, http://www.arquila.com it has been successfully used by freelancers and design teams. It not only manages the projects but also provides all the financial services around these transactions and automates them.
Great list, though you missed Freelance Total (http://www.freelancetotal.com), which is a great app for freelancers
Thanks for this great article. I’d like to add another great tool that I use for sending proofs to clients. It’s very handy to manage all changes that are needed for a revision.
http://www.proofhq.com/
Awesome list .. Also, relevant ..
The Marathon List of Project Management & Collaboration Tools
http://blog.decode10.com/2009/12/13/the-marathon-list-of-project-management-collaboration-tools/
Sidharth.
I would defined remove the old enterprise style products like Ace Project and instead add the newer and much agile products like 5pm (http://www.5pmweb.com).
http://www.wizehive.com is great for collaboration and project management. drag-and-drop task management is great, it’s flexible, easy to set up and use, and you can email notes and attachments right into the work space. twitter integration too.
Another useful task & project management app for freelancers is Intervals. It was built by our web design and development agency, so it is especially well suited to professionals working in this field.
HyperOffice (http://www.hyperoffice.com) is another great solution for SMBs. It was founded in 1998, and has to most comprehensive collaboration toolkit in the market.
Good listing ! thanks for sharing it.
With more than 1,000 users now, Office123 is a worthy contender to that list: http://www.office123.net. The software glues together various open source software especially to enhance collaboration in a team. Consider project manager, email, calendar, wiki, etc.
Good start – Projecturf is a project management tool that is quite impressive…would be great to see something more comparative.
Managing time, tasks and estimates is fundamental to giving your freelancing business the best chance at success. Thanks for sharing these tools.
Very useful tools for project management. Very informative post for freelancers. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post.
I want make my carrier as a project manager. I think and can fill your site open source project management system.
Essential Project Management and Collaboration Tools for Freelancers
Great list. Check out OffBureau (http://www.offbureau.com), an online workspace that fuses online collaboration, document management and a social network.
Yea, very helpful and effective tools. Thanks for the post.
nice & cool list thanks for posting
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