This is an in-depth ActiveCollab review, covering the features, pricing, pros, cons, and more. Use this guide to determine if it’s the best fit for you.
ActiveCollab fast facts
| Free plan | No |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Starting price | $9.50 billed annually/$11 billed monthly |
| Work views | List, kanban, timeline, calendar and Gantt charts |
ActiveCollab is a project management solution with a focus on tools for workflow, client management and finances. You can manage your time, budget, tasks, all while collaborating with your team.
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ActiveCollab pricing
Teams can choose to be billed upfront for the year or go on a month-to-month plan for slightly more.
Pro
Their Pro plan is $9.50 per month for up to three seats, billed annually, and $11 per user, billed month-to-month. This plan has task and client management with unlimited projects and 10GB of storage. It doesn’t have integrations, expense tracking or advanced reporting.
Plus
This tier is $8 per user per month for up to three seats, billed annually, and $9 per user, billed month-to-month. In this subscription, teams get full-time tracking features as well as integrations.
Pro+Get Paid
This subscription is $11.75 per user per month for up to three seats, billed annually, and $14 per user, billed month-to-month. You have access to all ActiveCollab’s full feature set for budgeting, estimates and invoicing with clients.
Key features of ActiveCollab
Services from ActiveCollab center around collaboration, productivity and reporting on budget and spending.
ActiveCollab workload management
Teams are equipped with unlimited projects, task lists (Figure A), subtasks, templates and more. For automation, you can schedule repetitive tasks, task dependencies and batch edits. Your team members will have their own personal calendars and be able to track tasks and projects in a personal timesheet.
Figure A
ActiveCollab client management
Dedicated client management features in the software include the ability to duplicate estimates, invoicing and the option to turn estimates into projects. Teams can keep track of client information such as contacts, rates, past invoices (Figure B) and automation for consistent invoicing.
Figure B
ActiveCollab collaboration
Within the software your team can chat, create different groups, and set up user roles. The project management tool integrates with messaging apps such as Slack and will send notifications (Figure C) to keep everyone on the same page. You can also work with clients by assigning tasks, sharing notes, and inviting them to projects.
Figure C
ActiveCollab time tracking
Services for managing time in the application allow a stopwatch (Figure D) you can set for a project, individual task tracking, and timesheets. Reporting can be done per project, client, month and year.
Figure D
ActiveCollab resource management
For ensuring resources are allocated right, teams can assign tasks (Figure E) while considering employee schedules, project timelines, and reporting. This way when projects are in progress you don’t miss simple oversights such as forgetting someone’s planned vacation.
Figure E
ActiveCollab pros
- Great features for the cost
- A large amount of storage starting at 10GB in the Plus plan
- YouTube channel creates highlight videos of new features
ActiveCollab cons
- No free version
- Most of the budgeting features are in the Pro+Get Paid plan
ActiveCollab integrations
- Teams can share files using Dropbox or Google Drive.
- TimeCamp for time tracking.
- QuickBooks Online for invoicing.
- Accept payments with popular payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe.
- Zapier integration helps connect with more apps of your choice.
Who is ActiveCollab best for?
ActiveCollab has users from a variety of industries including retail, tech, marketing agencies and media companies. The software is flexible enough to accommodate different work styles such as waterfall and Agile Scrum workflows.
Accounting, consulting or any team/agency providing specialized services may be interested in all their client management and budgeting features.
Teams that are growing or more established can certainly benefit whereas individuals or startups might have a stricter budget. ActiveCollab has affordable costs per user, and their best project management features aren’t locked away in a plan 3x more expensive. You can certainly find software with the same functionality slightly cheaper. Always shop around, it’s worth it.
If ActiveCollab isn’t ideal for you, check out these alternatives
There are many other awesome project management tools that have capabilities similar to ActiveCollab. Our suggested products below also offer free plans for newer or smaller teams that need to keep tighter budgets.
| Features | ActiveCollab | monday.com | Wrike | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial | Yes, 14 days | Yes, 14 days | Yes, 14 days | Yes, for ClickUp AI |
| Starting price | $9.50 per user per month billed annually | $8 per user per month billed annually | $9.80 per user per month billed annually | $7 per user per month billed annually |
| Time tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Client management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
monday.com
This project management solution is popular and has workload management, automation and reporting capabilities similar to ActiveCollab. monday allows unlimited viewers and the ability to add guest users with excellent security and support. Compared to ActiveCollab their paid plans are better suited for enterprise teams and can be costly if you’re on a budget. Their free plan is for two members.
Wrike
If you’re looking for more capabilities such as advanced reporting and business intelligence, consider Wrike. They also have budgeting and time management features. Their free plan supports unlimited users, access to multilanguage support, 2GB of storage, task management and project templates.
ClickUp
Teams that want more features and affordability may go for ClickUp. They have 15 different work views, natural language processing, sprint reporting and custom exporting. Their free plan comes with automation, task dependencies, time tracking and security.
Review Methodology
The software was considered in terms of cost, capabilities and possible benefits for different teams. Similar alternatives are also explored to offer more information for decision-making.
