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Basecamp Alternatives for Manging Freelance Projects

Ive been tracking my Freelance work through the web service SidejobTrack. Its completely free and allows for Multiple simultaneous projects and clients.
They have a clean Web 2.0 style Interface. Features include Time Tracking, Data Export(xml) and Custom Invoicing.

Screenshot SidejobTrack

 

While this servers my purpose for time-tracking and custom Invoice Templates, it leaves a lot missing on the Project Management Side.
The current market leader in that field is 37Signal’s Basecamp. I’ve used Basecamp with a few companies before and its near-perfect. It handles Tasks, Milestones, Notes, Messages, Writeboards etc… basically a full featured Project Manager.
 
Here’s the catch
 
Its Expensive. Its not just ‘not cheap’, its downright expensive. The basic pricing plans limit projects and for my needs i would have to get the $49/mo plan, although I could manage in the $24/mo plan with a 15 active project limit. But even then, monthly fees add up. At the end of the year id be paying a minimum of $288.

 
So I’ve been searching for ‘Basecamp Alternatives’.
 

http://www.php-collab.org
http://www.dotproject.net
http://www.quickbase.com
http://www.intranets.com
http://www.grovesite.com
http://www.copperproject.com
http://www.taskspro.com/
http://www.creative-manager.com/
http://www.activecollab.com
http://www.infowit.com

 
And the ‘Basecamp Killer’ is
 

Active Collab - Its a basecamp clone created by Ilija Studen, a developer from Serbia. Built in Php/MySQL it started off playing catch-up with Basecamp, but with the soon-to-be-released v1.0(currently at 0.7.1) They look like they may offer some features Basecamp still doesnt provide. Im eagerly awaiting the v1.0.
Did I mention it’s open-source and FREE!!
 
(Found: Techcrunch had done a feature on them in June06 )

The Conversation {4 comments}

  1. Aravind 06 July, 09 @ 11:07 am

    Take a look at the just released Zoho Projects 2.0 too. All new interface, Twitter-like project message stream, integration with Zoho Chat/Wiki etc.

  2. Mat Packer 10 September, 09 @ 9:32 am

    Nice write up, I’m liking your opinion.

    I’m finding that I want to use Basecamp as it’s kind of the industry standard, however I’m not so keen on the payment setup.

    Will give ActiveCollab a look and see if it’s going to suit.

    Cheers
    Mat

  3. Kyle Keller 11 November, 09 @ 7:21 pm

    Although we’re biased, we recommend you check out ProjectSpaces as well — www.projectspaces.com. A great online project management tool, which focuses on simplicity but has all the tools you need!

  4. Projectspaces suck 06 February, 10 @ 3:33 pm

    Yes you are biased, given your product is far more expensive than basecamp, comes with PATHETIC file storage space (29/month for a GB???) GMAIL has 7.6 GB currently, RIP OFF

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