Active Collab is a project management solution built around features such as task management, collaboration, time tracking, and invoicing.
$8
per member/per month
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
Stackby is designed to bring together the simplicity of spreadsheets, the functionality of databases and integrations with best business APIs to let anyone build their own tools, the way they want. No coding needed. Users can build a database from scratch, import data from pre-existing sources like spreadsheets or Google Sheets, or choose from over 100 pre-built templates across multiple categories. Choose…
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.
Based on my experience, I can provide specific scenarios where Stackby is well suited and others where it may be less appropriate: Project Management: Stackby is an excellent choice for project management scenarios. Its ability to create custom databases, track tasks, assign responsibilities, and collaborate in real-time makes it highly effective for managing and monitoring project progress. CRM and Sales: Stackby is well suited for managing customer relationships and sales processes. Its customizable database structure allows for organizing customer information, tracking leads, managing deals, and generating reports. The ability to integrate with other tools further enhances its usefulness in CRM and sales workflows. Content Planning: Stackby is a great fit for content planning scenarios. Users can create databases to manage editorial calendars, track content ideas, assign tasks to team members, and monitor content performance. Collaboration features facilitate seamless content collaboration and ensure timely publishing.
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
Implement the same views available on desktop into the mobile app
Internal automations (like Airtable)
Ability to implement and display info as a dashboard (like Airtable)
Polish up the formatting of formulas, inputting them causes user frustration due to the formula input cursor jumping around
Better intelligence and ease of inputting data in bulk i.e have the fields automatically identify what data is being input and format appropriately (like Airtable does)
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.
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.
I have also tried Ora.Pm. Infinity has better graphical interface, but nowhere near as many features and the UI isn't as effective (i.e, moving around with keys). Grist has a much more technical interface and it comes from being more of a database/interactive spreadsheet vs Stackby. Grist has much more functionality in terms of formulas, but is much harder to learn to use and less other functionalities. Ora.PM is more of a test at a task management app, and doesn't compare - Stackby is much better.
