ActiveCollab
Project management for agencies and consultancies, from an idea to an invoice
About ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is a project management platform built for agencies, consultancies, and other client-service businesses. It combines tasks, built-in time tracking, team chat, resource planning, budgeting, and invoicing in one workspace, and is available as a cloud service or a self-hosted perpetual license.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Time tracking, budgeting, and invoicing are built in, so agencies can go from task to invoice without separate tools
- Clients can be invited free of charge on every plan
- Rare self-hosted option with a perpetual license and unlimited users for teams with data-residency needs
- Clean, approachable interface; G2 reviewers rate ease of use highly
- Native desktop (Windows, macOS) and mobile (iOS, Android) apps on every plan
- 50% discount for educational institutions and nonprofits
Cons
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Resource planning, invoicing, and profitability features are locked to the Pro+ tier
- Tasks support only one assignee, a recurring complaint in reviews
- Reporting is less detailed than dedicated BI or PSA tools
- Smaller integration catalog than larger project management platforms
Key Features
Projects, Tasks, and Subtasks
Unlimited projects, tasks, and subtasks with labels, recurring tasks, project templates, and a cross-project My Work view.
List, Kanban, and Gantt Views
Three task views with task dependencies that update automatically when dates shift.
Built-in Time Tracking
One-click stopwatch on any task, manual time entries, batch editing, billable vs. non-billable hours, and personal and team timesheets.
Workload and Capacity Planning
Cross-project workload view, custom capacity hours per person, availability, utilization, and time-off and holiday management (Pro+).
Budgeting and Profitability
Project budgets, budget vs. cost tracking, expense tracking, and project profitability reports.
Integrated Invoicing
Turn tracked time and expenses into invoices, accept payments through PayPal and Stripe, and sync with QuickBooks (Pro+).
Free Client Access
Invite unlimited clients into projects at no extra cost so they can follow progress and comment.
Team Chat and Discussions
In-app chat, threaded discussions, notes, shared files and folders, and a team calendar.
MCP Server for AI Assistants
A Model Context Protocol server that lets AI assistants connect to the workspace over OAuth, on cloud and self-hosted installs (Pro and up).
Self-Hosted Option
ActiveCollab Self-Hosted 8 runs on your own Linux or Windows server with PHP and MySQL/MariaDB under a one-time perpetual license with unlimited users.
Pricing
- Up to 3 members ($12.50/month billed yearly)
- Unlimited clients for free
- Unlimited projects and tasks
- Task and project time tracking with stopwatch
- Project templates, recurring tasks, subtasks, dependencies
- List, Kanban, and Gantt views
- Integrated chat app
- 10GB storage
- Dropbox and Google Workspace integrations
- Everything in Plus
- $10/user/month billed yearly
- Unlimited members
- 125GB storage (upgradeable)
- Time reporting
- Expense tracking and reporting
- MCP server for AI assistants
- Zapier, Slack, and webhooks integrations
- Everything in Pro
- $15/user/month billed yearly
- Workload management and capacity planning
- Utilization, availability, and time-off management
- Time estimates and team timesheets
- Integrated invoicing
- Project budgeting and profitability
- PayPal and Stripe payment gateways
- QuickBooks integration
- Volume pricing for 100+ seats
- Custom seat count
- Migration help from Dev and Customer Success teams
- One-time perpetual license
- Unlimited users, projects, and storage
- One year of support and upgrades included
- Runs on Linux or Windows with PHP and MySQL/MariaDB
- Desktop and mobile apps connect to your server
Best For
Creative and Digital Agencies
Run client projects, track billable hours per task, and invoice clients from the same workspace.
Consultancies and Professional Services
Monitor project budgets against actual costs and see which engagements are profitable.
Client Collaboration
Bring clients into projects for free to review progress, comment, and approve work without email threads.
Team Capacity Planning
Balance workload across projects using capacity hours, availability, and time-off data before taking on new work.
Self-Hosted Project Management
Organizations with strict compliance or privacy rules can run ActiveCollab on their own servers under a one-time license.
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