Looking for a good web-based task management system

February 2, 2009 5:20 AM

I'm looking for a web-based task management system. I want to be able to create projects and individual tasks and assign them to different users with deadlines. A user needs to be able to login to see his/her assigned tasks. Any suggestions?

I have had a look at TaskFreak and it's pretty close to what I'm looking for, but want to see some alternatives too. Whether it's a script I install on my own server, or it's a service hosted elsewhere doesn't matter. Free is always good, but I'm willing to pay for a system that does the job. It definitely needs to support multiple users, and be able to handle lots of different projects and tasks, as I want to use this to help manage contractors for my web development business, so it's not just for my own use.

Any suggestions on a good system to handle this would be appreciated!

posted by Eastgate to work & money (9 comments total)

OpenGoo is significantly better than Project Pier but, despite both being open source, neither come close to the user-friendliness of Basecamp
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 5:24 AM on February 2

The interface is a little bit dated, but our team lives and dies by WebCollab.
posted by jbickers at 5:26 AM on February 2

Basecamp, hands down.
posted by dmd at 6:10 AM on February 2

Bored with the screaming Basecamp fanboy club - and because I hated the user interface - I left Basecamp for Teamwork and we have lived happily ever after.

When I make UI or feature suggestions, Teamwork is eager to get them. They implement sensible suggestions within hours, and there is no internet-wide referendum about each and every change irritatingly running through every blog in the known universe, either.

Plus, you can pick up the phone and call Teamwork and they're delighted to talk to you. Basecamp, not so much.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:25 AM on February 2

I use (and like) Basecamp, but activeCollab looks like a good self-hosted fixed-price alternative.
posted by scottreynen at 6:28 AM on February 2

I wrote a blog post about our company's process of picking ActiveCollab over basecamp and others here. You might find it useful.
posted by brian60640 at 6:49 AM on February 2

Hiveminder.
posted by eafarris at 8:02 AM on February 2

I use Basecamp and I like it for my purposes but one of the big drawbacks is that you can't assign deadlines to tasks. You can create milestones (date-based events) and then associate sets of tasks with those milestones, but individual tasks don't have much in the way of customization that are common with to-do systems, specifically no deadlines and no priority.

For just a to-do list, I much prefer Remember the Milk. The system is completely task-based, so there are none of the other features you'll get with a more full-featured project management app. Each task has tags, due date, priority, etc.

Tasks can be sent/assigned to other people but the caveat is that each person must have an RTM account in order to have their own list so they can be sent tasks. That might be too much overhead if you're wanting just to have a central project manager who sends e-mails to task assignees, rather than everyone having their own list.
posted by camcgee at 8:15 AM on February 2

Thanks for the answers guys. I actually got told of one outside of AskMeFi, which I have decided to use, at DeskAway.com. It's similar to Basecamp but seems a bit more task-oriented, which I think is more where my focus is. Subscription plans start off free, and you can upgrade as needed to get more users/projects etc. Might be worth a try if you're looking for a similar solution to what I was.
posted by Eastgate at 1:45 AM on February 5