ActiveCollab vs. Notion

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCollab
Score 4.4 out of 10
N/A
Active Collab is a project management solution built around features such as task management, collaboration, time tracking, and invoicing.
$8
per member/per month
Notion
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Notion aims to present users with an all-in-one workspace — for notes, tasks, wikis, and databases, from Notion Labs in San Francisco.
$5
per month per user
Pricing
ActiveCollabNotion
Editions & Modules
ActiveCollab Project Management
$8
per member/per month
Self-Hosted Plan
$999.00
license
Personal Pro
$48
per year per user
Team
$96
per year per user
Enterprise
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCollabNotion
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
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
ActiveCollabNotion
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
3.7
13 Ratings
68% below category average
Notion
8.3
22 Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management6.012 Ratings9.220 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings9.213 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings7.614 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings6.512 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.513 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management3.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration4.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access1.510 Ratings9.318 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking2.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management2.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Search00 Ratings7.621 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.716 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
Notion
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates6.97 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing6.96 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Notion
8.5
20 Ratings
6% above category average
Chat00 Ratings7.77 Ratings
Notifications00 Ratings8.016 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings7.911 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings8.84 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings9.617 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings8.88 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Notion
8.4
21 Ratings
3% above category average
Versioning00 Ratings9.012 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings7.515 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings7.211 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings8.421 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings8.418 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings7.913 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings9.213 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCollabNotion
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCollabNotion
Likelihood to Recommend
3.8
(13 ratings)
9.2
(27 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCollabNotion
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
Notion Labs, Inc
Notion is good for a plethora of use cases. The templates that it offers give just a few established pages for common uses but these are some of my favorites:
  • Kanban board: we use it a lot in my company to manage tasks and meetings
  • Note taking: whether in a professional or academic environment, Notion is well suited to take notes of everything regardless.
  • Software documentation: the "code" component to insert code snippets is perfect for creating tutorials and documentation for software development.
  • Finance control: I use the "my finances" template to have a proper following of my monthly transactions, which allowed me to be more responsible with my money.
  • Inventory management: Since I own multiple peripherals and general equipment, being able to have a portable inventory of all of it that includes their original value, warranty length and current state has been perfect to know when clean, maintain or straight up replace everything.
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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
Notion Labs, Inc
  • Team Collaboration. In Notion's software is the ability to see precisely who is working on a project and where. This eliminates any confusion when on calls or when working on the same project simultaneously. It is easy to tag co-workers to precise moments and build conversation streams.
  • Text Coding. When transitioning text from our Notion ideation and drafting boards to our website backends, the coding holds on all of the text.
  • Organization. Whether it's utilizing a "pin board" set up or nestling pages within pages, it is possible to keep everything organized and easy to find for every member of your team.
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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
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Notion Labs, Inc
  • The increase in integrations with third parties will always promote the adoption of the platform in companies.
  • Personalization with logos and corporate colors sometimes makes the difference when selecting a tool in a corporation.
  • Having multiple functionalities for working in manufacturing companies and with devices developed by third parties encourages other companies to select Notion as their flagship tool to offer implementation packages under alliances that favor its use.
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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.
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Notion Labs, Inc
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.
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Notion Labs, Inc
Trello only has the Kanban board feature and is great for task management, while Notion has a vast array of features, is easier to use, and has a more visually-appealing interface. I choose to use Notion over Trello due to its increased versatility and greater customization capabilities.
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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!).
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Notion Labs, Inc
  • In just a short amount of time, the majority of my course draft has been transferred into an interactive online course, always live
  • Sufficient control over page structure gives a clean look, with sufficient means to add some personal touches
  • After a learning period, I could concentrate on the content rather than the tech
  • A huge motivational drive to learn more about no-code platforms (enthusiastic learner!)
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ScreenShots

ActiveCollab Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboard with an overview of projects.Screenshot of multiple task views currently 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.