My Favorite Project Management Application

Freedcamp is an amazing tool that works well in small businesses with no need for Program or Portfolio Management. Managing multiple projects at that level might not be an easy thing to do. I track a dozen projects at any given time, but my business structure is simple and does not rely on overly complex resource allocations or time management... I am a small shop managing projects as needed, keeping tabs on time spent for billing, and track of tasks to be completed. Freedcamp does provide a means of tracking milestones as well and fits the bill to my exact business needs. From what I can see with my daily use, Freedcamp can be cumbersome in environments with heavy development. It does not provide for defect management, testing, etc. It is a task board that can be customized to fit many needs, but definitely not an enterprise tool.

Pros

Freedcamp provides a flexible and effective pricing structure to fit any business needs, including a free account. The list of standard features alone are impressive: shared file management, tasks, discussion boards, calendar, message boards, unlimited users, projects and storage, even time tracking... a feature that is often considered a premium with other project management applications. It has a pleasant UI which makes it easy to use. Even the setup is easy. Most of all, it provides customization at each project level. The home page now offers a dashboard that displays specific information for each logged in user. Get a bird's eye view of your work, updates, projects and weekly calendar overview on a single page to start off your day. Want an even more customized experience? Head straight to the widgets and create your own dashboard tailored to your specific needs. Freedcamp also provides the ability to change the display of many pages to a different view (i.e. view projects as cards or as a list).

Cons

I use the free account because it provides me with all the features I find essential for my simple business structure. But, it would be nice if there was some sort of basic or simple reporting features at this level. Unfortunately, reporting is only part of their paid subscription. But their pricing is low enough that it is actually worth forking out the extra few bucks. For as long as I have been using Freedcamp, I have not yet encountered anything else I would consider a con, as it has provided me with a solution to all of my project management needs. I do not work with Program or Portfolio Management, so I am not sure if Freedcamp provides such level of management. Based on their features list, this does not appear to be something Freedcamp has been designed to do. But if Program or Portfolio Management is not a part of your environment, Freedcamp is definitely worth looking into.

I use this application to monitor my task and complete timesheets. Very useful. Very efficient.

This software saves me time when doing my monthly timesheets and reports. It has helped me to better organize my work life, and my home life. I am looking forward to seeing this as a phone app, so that I can have access to it quickly, and on the go. Thank you to the freedcamp team.

Pros

Each project can be divided into task groups, which allows for a better separation of goals. The tool is probably designed for groups and teams to work together. But I am still in the midst of encouraging my team to use it officially. Currently, the Tasks page works well for self management. I am able to write as many notes as I like, set due dates which will show red when I am approaching the deadline. I love organization, and this page is by far the most useful for me. As a developer at a small company, I am responsible for many different tasks concerning several different projects at any given time. All of these tasks have deadlines and sometimes highly time sensitive. Coming into the task page and seeing things labeled in red, and due dates visible makes my job a little easier to manage. Before this, I was using Google Spreadsheets with the rest of my team to track tasks and deadlines. They still use Google, but I have been using this more and more. Even for my personal task and goals outside of work.

Cons

I like the time tracker. But I feel it could be better organized. It would be useful to store a collection of time records in an archived folder somewhere. I use the time records to keep track of my time each month, in order to bill my client. But after the bill is sent out, I no longer need to see the previous months records. However I would like to access them quickly without playing with the current filter setting. It would also be nice to have a MAX TIME option for a time record. Sometimes I get distracted and forget to hit the stop button. When I return to the time record, it may have 100+ hours and counting. Then I have to guess when I actually stopped working on the task. A selected many feature would be nice as well, in order to delete multiple records at once. I love the Tasks page, but I probably spend more time in the Time tracker page.

It changed the way we work

Projects and ongoing service development was done using Word documents and Spreadsheets. these were emailed around and project documents stored in shared folders but in no real structure. Keeping track of tasks and their staus was difficult and keeping project documents up to date and tracking who changed them was very difficult. We had a major project to implement and we looked at different project management solutions and decided on Freedcamp. Much of what you can do is in the free parts but some of the add ons make a big difference, especially sub tasks which expand your ability to allocate work within a particular task, and Wiki which allows you to hold 'live' documents, we use this for change control plus other things. The biggest benefit I have found is it makes people work collaboratively. Using notifications you can control what people get update emails about. These give a precis of changes and keep people aware and involved and it has been a real culture change. It is much harder for people to forget about the project until the next meeting and if you do a task review based on due date it adds urgency. You still have to drive the project but as a tool it really helps you do that.

Pros

Accessible anywhere
Intuitive to use and seems fine in all the browsers I have tried
Great for structuring the work. Really helps you do identify priorities and group tasks and documents
Milestones keep people focused and you can link tasks and sub tasks to them to get a fuller view of progress.
If you are a Google user you can synch project calendars to your Google calendar and utilise Google Drive, which gives you another option for collaborative documents

Cons

Some people mention a lack of Gant charts but I just work in a different way now. I just had to adjust to that and some colleagues find Gant charts confusing anyway.

Our Go-To Product Management Site

Overall I love freedcamp, I've been using this software for two years now and it continues to upgrade the things I always have small issues with so I'm hoping to see them tune up the major flaws. I would suggest this to any group or team needing a software to effectively communicate and delegate work.

Pros

Freedcamp is my favorite collaboration service for multiple users which has helped me organize and collaborate effectively via the cloud. Freedcamp is my ideal software for staying in control of projects, resources, budget, and time. My favorite feature is getting notifications in real-time of updates, questions and or comments.

Cons

My least favorite thing about freedcamp is using the software via the app. I don't like the fact that I can't save images that are loaded up by collaborators or myself. The functions of the app aren't half as good as using the website.

A great task manager which works well for managing projects too

Keeps me on track and reminds me when I need to do things.

Pros

The development team is constantly improving the software and it seems to get better and better.

The interface is really nice, and it's very intuitive. You have have lists or kanban boards for tasks, and subtasks too. The projects are colour coded and it's easy to navigate them.

You can import tasks from an excel sheet which is really helpful if you have a standard list of tasks for each new project.

The free version is perfect for me since I work on my own but I can see that it would be great for teams to use as well.

Cons

At the moment you can't have recurring tasks, which is a massive negative. However, this this planned to be included in 2018 I believe.

The Android app is currently a bit basic (and not very stable on my tablet), but I believe this is also due for an upgrade in 2018 so fingers crossed it will get better.

Task reminders could be better - at the moment you can set filters to show tasks due in a certain number of days, but it's a bit clunky and it would be helpful to have start and end dates for tasks rather than just single dates.

Freedcamp has done a lot for me and I feel attached.

For the past year I've been performing an unconventional role as area manager for two movie theatres in Silicon Valley. In March of 2013 I began overseeing both locations without a conventional general manager installed at either location. In customer service and retail industries this kind of flat "start up" organizational structure is unheard of. The "boss" was always off site and the managers were expected to function as a team without any hierarchy. I knew that a key aspect of this radical experiment in re-structuring would be to empower each of the managers to act on behalf of the company while also giving them a way to communicate upstream and downstream with little effort, so that I could "see" what was going on during each shift and the upper management and floor staff could also witness the engagement and commitment of the management team. After test-driving a few social "project" services, I chose Freedcamp. In addition to the cornerstone of manager logs, I use your system for staff schedules, facility maintenance task assignments, HR, special event coordination, logging vacation time, marketing/promotions, emergency forms for police and fire, reporting grosses to studios, a wishlist where all 50 employees can voice their desires for the company, and more. Every department in my company utilizes Freedcamp for something. I was unaware my HR department was using the manager logs until they demonstrated that they were using the search function to look up employees' names and track behaviour over time in advance of disciplinary action. I didn't show them how, they just took the initiative. This was the first clue I got that I wasn't "forcing" the system--that other departments were getting easy access to more information than they had before. A third satellite location in our company is overseen by a technophobe, who has recently and vigorously adapted to the Freedcamp-based maintenance system I developed without my coaching him at all, and now he posts more than anyone else. This is final proof that what I've instituted using your software is self-sustaining, creating a much-needed flow of information within a small but disjointed company that has grown in fits and spurts since 1975. When I took on the new role a year ago, I lost six managers in one month. The strain of the "boss-less" system was too great without some additional infrastructure. Since introducing Freedcamp, my attrition rate is zero. No one wants to leave now.

Very good task manager for entrepreneurs

In general it is the best application to handle tasks, work teams and projects if you are an entrepreneur. I stopped using it because I needed some features like custom statuses and custom labels. Unfortunately they added them when I had already moved to another application

Pros

I used this software for more than 4 years and was in love since its first use. If you are looking for a simple task manager to keep track of all your pending tasks, Freedcamp is undoubtedly your best option. You can manage your tasks by lists and projects, have as many projects as you want, even in its free version, manage users at your whim, filters, export tasks or entire projects. Freedcamp has instant synchronization with Google Calendar and now they added the integration feature with Zapier or you can develop your own API connection.

Cons

Something I do not like is the invoice manager, missing features that do have others, there is no continuity in the user interface, some features were added over time and look different and finally the mobile application, it still needs a lot of work.

My reasons - flexibility and a low threshold of entering

The first thing I noticed about Freedcamp was its flexibility. Freedcamp doesn't limit the number of members in the project, or the number of projects. It has limits though by features enabled in your projects. This allows you to have a piece of mind when you create a new project. You simply know it is free for any number of participants and if you will need a paid feature ' cost is fixed and is affordable. Any extra module can be purchased separately for the project at any time. If you need Invoices for a particular project, you buy the module. If you need Issue Tracker ' also buy the required module. In this case, you only pay for the functions needed at a particular time. Project is finished and you don't need it' Simply cancel subscription. The second important aspect of the system is a low threshold of entering. It is hard to achieve, based on my evaluations of other system, but Freedcamp truly empowers my team and customers, educate them and show how such tool saves time. It allows to be more effective, work better together and gives us a competitive advantage because our journey with the client gives them new experience they buy. We just say: 'We are going to use Freedcamp. It doesn't require any special skills or special trainings'. Also, they shouldn't check Freedcamp all the time, they receive emails with all discussions and updates in tasks by email, including art work we attached. Freedcamp's basic functionality doesn't have any features aimed to specify type of business, being, in some sense, universal. In other systems, where they create vertical market PM tool (for engineers, marketers, designers etc.) ' language, UI can mislead and turn off clients making project a failure. Personally, I also like ability to add new version to my attachments anywhere in Freedcamp. In my job it's very important, because it allows not to litter a discussion or a task with dozens of copies of the same image by constantly posting minor changes. Instead, Freedcamp allows simply add a new version to an old attachment, while retaining the ability to see all previous changes in a well done interface. Of course, I don't want to say it has all I want to see, but feature set and design that exists now, and my conversations with Freedcamp team, which is always available and not only listens but reacts quickly for my personal bug reports and feature requests, leads me to believe that it will evolve to be an even better tool for me and my team.

We used Freedcamp for project-managing our rural community-based fundraising event.

Pros

You can just jump in and use it without any advanced computer skills and your data is regularly backed up. It's just so easy to get up and going immediately. You can run multiple projects at a time.

The other things I really like about Freedcamp is the speedy, knowledgeable and friendly help desk service, as well as the ability to post suggested improvements in a public forum that other users can comment and vote on. It's like being part of a development team all working to create the best programme possible.

Also, Freedcamp kindly sponsored our non-profit community event by giving us access to all the add-ons at no cost. Apart from producing a wonderful product, it demonstrates a social conscience that is a rarity today. We are extremely grateful to them for supporting us.

Cons

I honestly can't think of a thing. It did everything we needed it to. I would recommend it to others in a heartbeat - particularly to small community groups that don't use project management software on a regular basis or have a large organisation behind them with lots of computer skills. This isn't to say it's not a complex and well-engineered product suitable for a wide range of organisations and businesses - simply that it's designed so that people with ALL levels of experience can use it.

If I had to make a comment on what I'd like to see with Freedcamp, it would be that it is more widely advertised online so that when people search for project management software, it's right there in your face and you don't have to go looking through lists of other, more complex and expensive options. :-)