ActiveCollab vs. Microsoft To Do

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
Microsoft To Do
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft To Do replaces the former Wunderlist task management tool.N/A
Pricing
ActiveCollabMicrosoft To Do
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
ActiveCollabMicrosoft To Do
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
ActiveCollabMicrosoft To Do
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
3.7
13 Ratings
68% below category average
Microsoft To Do
7.7
73 Ratings
2% above category average
Task Management6.112 Ratings9.673 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings9.239 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings4.58 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings9.755 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings6.433 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.513 Ratings7.867 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.07 Ratings5.117 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.01 Ratings6.316 Ratings
Document Management3.08 Ratings6.937 Ratings
Email integration4.09 Ratings8.939 Ratings
Mobile Access1.510 Ratings9.769 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking2.09 Ratings6.613 Ratings
Change request and Case Management1.08 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management2.07 Ratings9.06 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
Microsoft To Do
6.5
7 Ratings
13% below category average
Quotes/estimates6.97 Ratings5.04 Ratings
Invoicing6.96 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Project & financial reporting1.07 Ratings7.96 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCollabMicrosoft To Do
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
ActiveCollabMicrosoft To Do
Likelihood to Recommend
3.9
(13 ratings)
8.8
(73 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.7
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
7.6
(30 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCollabMicrosoft To Do
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.












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Microsoft
It's such a simple and effective tool! If you need an app to safely store your To-do's and make sure you stay on top of things, this is it. You can divide tasks lists into folders (like "home" and "business"), share the lists with co-workers, set notifications, even mark items as a priority. It's great for smaller, day-to-day tasks but if you need something to manage a bigger project or a team, you should look into more robust project management tools. Although this is a great app, it cannot replace tools like TeamWork, Basecamp etc. But they work great together
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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.
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Microsoft
  • Wunderlist is what you need for your to do lists. It's really simple to use.
  • Allows you to set due date to your lists, share them with your team and/or create a folder to divide and organize all your list set
  • Also, Wunderlist is compatible with all platform and devices. So you can always be updated on your list or work on them from wherever you are and with all the devices you have.
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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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Microsoft
  • Viewing more than one task at a time.
  • Email forwarding tasks - sometimes can be buggy and not always smooth.
  • Option to show more detail on a task without clicking task - example: being able to see attachment without clicking on task to view.
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Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It's working, and doing precisely what we selected it for. The only hesitation is if Microsoft suddenly drops the platform.
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Usability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
The actual user interface and the way to navigate around the app is very intuitive and easy to learn/use which would make me give it a high ranking, but the syncing issues drop down my rating because there are times where you add an item to the list and then it just disappears. Then when you add it again the sync will happen and now you have duplicates. The other negative with the usability is adding extra information to an item, such as files or comments or assignments. You can do it but it's difficult to tell which items have this information from the main screen. You have to click on them individually.
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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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Microsoft
I have not had an issue where I needed to reach out to Wunderlist, but I know their contact and online chat is easy to access and feel confident that they would be helpful. My only worry is Wunderlist is becoming Microsoft to-do in May 2020, and I believe the app will become worse after that.
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Implementation Rating
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Wunderlist giving 100% work satisfaction for me and my organization
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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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Microsoft
Wunderlist is the cleanest of all these products, and also the most functional. It performs exactly like you would expect a to-do app to work, and you can make it as simple or as complex as you want. Trello boards were too much for my employees to comprehend and they could never get the hang of it. Microsoft TO-DO is just a stripped down remake of Wunderlist and will be a while before it catches up (if it ever does). Todoist is the most similar to me, and it was mostly an aesthetic choice that made me choose Wunderlist.
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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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Microsoft
  • Productivity Increase - Knowing exactly what I need to do and when makes sure that I am on the right track, working on the right project and task at the right time, and not missing anything (or wasting my time on tasks that don't move the needle).
  • I'm delivering and following through on projects (big and small) without worrying about if I'm missing anything. This has helped specifically in product releases. One task I used to be late on every year was holiday greeting card releases in May. No one is ever ready to design holiday cards in April, so I wasn't even thinking about it. However, retail shops are buying their holiday products in the summer. I would always remember September as the weather started to change, which would lead me to miss out on the bulk of retail shop sales. With Microsoft To-Do, I mapped out the entire project, starting with designing 3 Hanukkah cards, to 3 Christmas cards, to printing them, photographing them, listing them, and marketing them. All with deadlines attached. Every detail was planned out in a doable way. For two years in a row, I did not miss out on this release and my sales have increased 300% year-over-year in part because of my release planning in Microsoft To-Do.
  • Do you know those tasks that pop up in meetings that you write down somewhere and then sometimes just completely forget? No? Just me? Either way, I used to have them scattered in notepads, sticky notes, and notebooks, and a lot would be lost in the wind. With Microsoft To-Do, I take all of those to-dos gathered during the day and add them to my to-do list with a deadline at the end of my work day. Now, I never miss anything.
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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.