ActiveCollab vs. Flow

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCollab
Score 4.5 out of 10
N/A
Active Collab is a project management solution built around features such as task management, collaboration, time tracking, and invoicing.
$7
per member/per month
Flow
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Flow Technologies in British Columbia offers the Flow task management app, featuring a range of tools like kanban board, checklist, timeline, and other features for tracking projects from start to finish.N/A
Pricing
ActiveCollabFlow
Editions & Modules
ActiveCollab Project Management
$7.00
per member/per month
Self-Hosted Plan
$999.00
license
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCollabFlow
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$6.25 per member, per month, annual billingNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
ActiveCollabFlow
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
3.7
13 Ratings
68% below category average
Flow
9.3
7 Ratings
21% above category average
Task Management6.112 Ratings9.37 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.513 Ratings10.07 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.07 Ratings8.33 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.01 Ratings7.42 Ratings
Document Management3.08 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Email integration4.09 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Mobile Access1.510 Ratings7.17 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking2.09 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Change request and Case Management1.08 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management2.07 Ratings7.72 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
5.7
8 Ratings
26% below category average
Flow
9.8
4 Ratings
27% above category average
Quotes/estimates6.97 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Invoicing6.96 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Project & financial reporting1.07 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCollabFlow
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCollabFlow
Likelihood to Recommend
3.9
(13 ratings)
9.7
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCollabFlow
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCollab
Scenarios where ActiveCollab works well 1) ActiveCollab works well for small teams specifically T&M teams.Its invoicing feature is unique & can make your life easy. 2) It is very easy to use & posses good range of filters like on the task list, we can drag/drop tasks, Filter by assignee's,
tasks lists, due dates, or completed tasks. 3) It has some simple but awesome features like when you're in
the middle of writing something i.e a comment on story and get interrupted,
it retains what you wrote. 4) It allows you to tag team members in threads of comments to grab their attention, its really needed when teams are distributed. Thus helping team members to collaborate easily & stay on same page. 5) It integrates pretty well with other web apps like quickbooks , Slack, Trello, HubSpot, Zapier etc Scenarios where ActiveCollab did not work well 1) Tasks can not have multiple assignee's here so if two members are working on same task it did not allow you to reflect that. 2) Sorting capability is not their under invoicing 3) It did not work well for larger teams 4) Search option is not very detailed & you may end up wasting lot of time searching one particular bug or issue.












Read full review
Flow Technologies
If you are used to using apps such as Slack, Box or Harvest, you will have an easy time getting use to Flow's UI. Drag and drop features, messaging between users, @tagging for notifications that alert you not only on your desktop but your as well email are particularly useful. If you need projects done fast and easily between multiple teams this is a great application for your business. A particular scenario where Flow is NOT suitable would be if you are used to working soley from your phone. Flows mobile app is slow, not user friendly at all and hard to navigate. Also, you cannot use a mobile site because it directs you to using the app. This IMO is a great desktop project manager, but NOT mobile.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCollab
  • Great for project and task assignments, project workflow and communications.
  • Solid web-based platform that doesn't require software downloads, also includes great mobile platform.
  • Great reporting tools for managing billing, estimating, project workflow and other essential project details.
  • Allows for both the agency and its clients to interact on a single platform using role-specific permissions.
Read full review
Flow Technologies
  • Design: very easy to discern what is important at a glance. The UX just works; it's very well thought out.
  • Ease of use: onboarding was a breeze. Was up and running in less than an hour.
  • Support: in-app support is great, nice website too to find exactly the solutions we needed.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCollab
  • It isn't possible to set members of staff as part time, so if someone is unavailable on certain days you must manually enter them as OOO every single day that they are not in, that other teammates work. Hours also can't be edited individually - everyone is treated as working the same hours in a day, rendering capacity planner useless for flexi working teams
  • Subtasks cannot be assigned their own hours and deadlines, meaning the To Do list view can't be seen in actual date order and capacity planner does not reflect all time allocated to an individual's schedule unless every task is set up as a separate task rather than subtask
  • There is no way to see all tasks of a certain type across multiple campaigns (e.g all copywriting tasks vs all technical tasks) - support team suggested exporting data and making spreadsheets
  • Kanban view isn't available for people's own task lists ('board' view here shows a list)
  • Not possible to have one task be assigned to more than one person
  • Notifications are not sent when tasks are updated, so you have to leave comments and tag people each time
Read full review
Flow Technologies
  • Better integration with Google Calendar -- it could be a bit clunky
  • The mobile app didn't have as much functionality as one would like - you had to download two apps to access the features used on a desktop version
Read full review
Support Rating
ActiveCollab
We have not required support for ActiveCollab as it works pretty seamlessly. We didn't have any issues with using the platform or with any billing issues. The self-service aspect of the platform is robust and easy to navigate so we have not encountered any errors that required assistance from the support team.
Read full review
Flow Technologies
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is easier to use and simpler in its setup. It has the right mix of features and simplicity. It's also project-oriented which is important for our workflow. Other tools are often too task-oriented, making it hard to track projects. Overall, ActiveCollab has a great mix of simplicity with good features.
Read full review
Flow Technologies
Flow, unlike Trello, offers its users a more organized interface and much more complete tools to carry out project management, which is why I consider that for the management of business projects of medium or large companies this tool covers the needs of each. In addition, its ease of use makes it much easier to adapt to this tool because it does not require a very learning curve
Read full review
Return on Investment
ActiveCollab
  • Allows our team to stay organized and keep conversations on tasks.
  • The To-Do List email every morning helps me mentally prepare and know exactly what I should be doing as soon as I start work.
  • Powerful and useful integrations save lots of time (Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, Zapier and more!).
Read full review
Flow Technologies
  • Our biggest issue prior to flow was scrambling at the last minute to meet a project deadline. Flow has helped us manage tasks towards a deadline to execute more successful events and projects.
  • Since Flow is being used across our entire organization, the speed at which we can collaborate cross-departmentally has increased. This is especially true of our communication and collaboration with our Marketing team.
  • Flow has allowed our leadership team to be able to see the progress of a project at any time just by looking at that projects dashboard. This has both given them confidence as well as let them know when they need to intervene.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCollab Screenshots

Screenshot of Dashboard and overview of projects.Screenshot of Multiple task views curently showing a Kanban view of the tasklists and tasks.Screenshot of Overview of all recent activity.Screenshot of Calendar view with task dependencies.Screenshot of Permission settings (owner, member, client, client+).Screenshot of List of available Add-ons.