This is an user contributed article.
Project management software is not just for managing software based project. It can be used for variety of other tasks too. The web-based software must provide tools for planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve project goals and objectives. A web-based project management software can be accessed through an intranet or WAN / LAN using a web browser. You don't have to install any other software on the system. The software can be easy of use with access control features (multi-user). I use project management software for all of our projects (for e.g. building a new cluster farm) for issue / bug-tracking, calender, gantt charts, email notification and much more.
Obviously I'm not the only user, the following open source software is used by some of the biggest research organizations and companies world wild. For example, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses track software or open source project such as lighttpd / phpbb use redmine software to keep track of their projects.
You use the following top 10 software for personal or business use. Keep track of all your projects in one place and finish them successfully on time.
#1: Codendi
Codendi is an open-source collaborative development platform offered by Xerox. From only one interface, it gathers, all the needed tools for software development teams: management and versioning of code, bugs, requirements, documents, reporting, tests etc. It is mainly used for managing software project processes.
#2: Redmine
Redmine is a flexible project management web application. Written using Ruby on Rails framework, it is cross-platform and cross-database. It includes calendar and gantt charts to aid visual representation of projects and their deadlines.
#3: ProjectPier
ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, self-hosted PHP application for managing tasks, projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. ProjectPier will help your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done Its function is similar to commercial groupware/project management products, but allows the freedom and scalability of self-hosting.
#4: Trac
Trac is an open source, web-based project management and bug-tracking tool. Trac allows hyperlinking information between a computer bug database, revision control and wiki content. It also serves as a web interface to a version control system like Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and Darcs.
#5: Project HQ
Project HQ is a collaborative open source project management tool, similar to Basecamp and activeCollab. Project HQ is built on open source technologies like Python, Pylons and SQLAlchemy and is fully database independent. Project HQ uses a structured workflow to assist you in managing your projects.
#6: Collabtive
Collabtive is a web-based project management software that is being published as Open Source software. The project was started in November 2007. It strives to provide an Open Source alternative to proprietary tools like Basecamp or ActiveCollab.
#7: eGroupWare
eGroupWare is a free open source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists.
It is used either via its native web-interface, making access platform-independent, or by using different supported groupware clients, such as Kontact, Novell Evolution, or Microsoft Outlook. It can also be used by mobile phone or PDA via SyncML.
#8: KForge
KForge is an open-source (GPL) system for managing software and knowledge projects. It re-uses existing best-of-breed tools such as a versioned storage (subversion), a tracker (trac), and wiki (trac or moinmoin), integrating them with the system’s own facilities (projects, users, permissions etc). KForge also provides a complete web interface for project administration as well a fully-developed plugin system so that new services and features can be easily added.
#9: OpenGoo
It is a complete online solution focused on improving productivity, collaboration, communication and management of your teams. OpenGoo main features include document management, contact management, e-mail, project management, and time management. Text documents and presentations can be created and edited online. Files can be uploaded, organized and shared, independent of file formats.
#10: ClockingIT
ClockingIT is a free Project Management solution, which helps your team stay focused and on top of things.
Ed: The following two paragraphs added by Vivek Gite:
I also use project management software to keep track of how much time I spent per client and project.
My Personal Choice
redmine is my personal choice because I like to use ruby on rails and I often work with small teams. We track networking issues, data center issues, capacity planning, trouble tickets and much more using redmine. I can track multiple projects and its flexible role-based access control make sure only authorized eyes can view the details.
Other FOSS Project Management Software Projects
- JotBug
- Bugzilla (only bug tracking)
- OpenProj (desktop app - replacement for MS-project)
How do you manage your IT / software and other projects? Are you using a better option? Let us know in the comments.
About the author: Rocky Jr., is an engineer with VSNL - a leading ISP / global telecom company and a good friend of nixCraft.
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- Last Updated: Dec/5/2009
{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
We’re currently using Assembla, which supports remote svn/git repositories (including github integration), integrated ticket tracking, collaborative wikis and more. We’ve been very happy with it so far, and best of all it’s free for open source projects! One of the best parts is that they offer RSS feeds for almost everything. So we’ve been able to integrate commit notices into our local IRC channel. I can’t speak for many of the other options (although I’m not a big fan of Trac). But I think Assembla is definitely worth a look.
@Tristan
Thanks, but it is not FOSS app. I’m more interested in open source stuff
@Vivek Gite
Hah, that’s what I get for skimming the article!
Our team is pretty small (~4 people) but we’ve had a lot of luck with just a local install of MediaWiki and a private IRC channel.
I’ll have to look into some of the other solutions you mentioned. I haven’t heard of half of them.
I’ve been using Trac for a few years now… I wouldn’t say its the best but it works for me. I like it similarly to why you selected redmine… I like Python. At the same time, I really like the community… I’m on the IRC channel quite often and anytime I ask a question, I typically receive the help I need in a short time.
I dislike rails and ruby, but redMine is plain awesome and I use it to run the Gnucap+ project (http://www.gnucapplus.org/) as well as a lot of commercial software. Best project management for software out there.
I wonder why it doesn’t seem to get much press or use? It makes thi trac, mantis, and bugzilla look ancient.
@Tristan, heh
yeah, that makes sense. Lots of people who works from home (just an example) use one of those web based hosted project for a small amount of monthly fee.
@nick, community makes real difference with open source software.
A new Project Manager software is http://openatrium.com/. It’s based on Drupal. I like how it uses Drupal’s community.
We’re using wrike.com. It’s not open source, but we don’t need open source. We’re quite happy with wrike, as it has several really cool features like gantt charts with drag and drop support and email engine, that lets you create tasks with attachements from emails and sends you interactive to-do lists. One more cool thing, it charges per user, not per project.
We’ve been using Streber ( http://www.streber-pm.org/ ) for a few years now, and like it muchly. Its PHP-based, and can be used both for software development and general project management (we use it for both).
CodingTeam is worth mentioning here.
We are using http://www.comindwork.com, it is not open source, but the free version is still good for small projects
One of the best I’ve found (and I try a lot) is DotProject (http://www.dotproject.net) it’s FOSS and built for PHP/MySQL without stringent prerequisites. We’re using it to manage a network infrastructure upgrade project for a large school system (2 years – 18 million) and it performs very well and there’s a wonderful community behind it. There has been a recent fork – web2Project that I am very interested in since it improves a great deal on some of the most useful components of the original project. I recommend either application for anyone needing a serious web based project management system.
Many businesses consider project tracking as part of each project plan where management reviews staffing requirements, status on key milestones and cost overruns for one project.
I think its the wrong approach; it should be all projects for the business should use the same Project Tracking process to monitor all projects. (as standalone project and in comparison to other projects within the business).
What is the best Project Tracking/Time Reporting system?
I see James’ point – there are many different ways to accomplish project management goals and lots of different applications to support the effort. Although not free or open source LiquidPlanner (http://www.liquidplanner.com) is worth a look because of the innovative and dynamic way in balances task loads.
As for consolidation of all of the projects into one system; I believe that an ERP application would better fit the overall management needs of a business. We split our projects up because our clients have access to their information and use the collaborative features of the system.
DotProject allows task level tracking, human resource allocation, and timed task logs – as does web2Project.
Thanks for the article. Its always great to hear about new Project Management products.
Anyone interested in learning more about Project Management should visit the University of Texas at Dallas’ program webpage – http://som.utdallas.edu/graduate/execed/projectMgmtProg/. Its got lots of info. about their program and upcoming seminars. I highly recommend it.
don’t miss RailsCollab:
“RailsCollab is a free web based Project Management and Collaboration tool largely inspired by Basecamp, the communication-oriented project management solution from 37signals.”
http://github.com/jamesu/railscollab/tree/master
@Anon
oooh, shiny! I’m not a huge Drupal fan, but I might have to give that a whirl.
H,
we are using http://www.unfuddle.com for Repository/Bug Tracking in combination with http://www.timewhale.com for time tracking. So far we are very pleased with both.
Check this out
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10290686-16.html
Microsoft opens Hyper-V to Linux
You can delete this post, but I don’t wanted to send an email.
In my opinion it is a bad move, we don’t need Hyper-V.
I work with Codendi and I have to say it is a powerful software with a strong tracker. There was a lack of project management tools but with the 3.6 and 4.0 releases it offers services as graphs and dashboards. It is a good point. It is not a famous software but I encourage you to keep an eye on it.
Any good Project management software, which is not web based? Othen than Microsofy project.
@Akshay you could take a look at Open Workbench http://www.openworkbench.org/ its opensource equivalent of MS project. It is written in Java but I have found that unlike a lot of java apps its interface is familiar to windows users and it doesn’t have the usual performance issues.
Thanks for sharing this informative post
I prefer using DeskAway (http://www.deskaway.com) because of its features richness and affordability. Also the tech support is excellent.
Although shared hosting is a less expensive way for businesses to create a Web presence, it is usually not sufficient for Web sites with high traffic. These sites need a dedicated Web server, either provided by a Web hosting service or maintained in-house. With shared hosting, numerous web sites are sharing a single server.
If you’d like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this application inspired by David Allen’s GTD:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
This sounds right on!. Quality knowledge work is more about decentralized decision making . The better project management tools are web based and collaborative.
OpenWorkbench (http://www.openworkbench.org/) is another great candidate, and much superior to OpenProj, in my experience. OpenWorkbench is descended from Project Workbench, which was a real competitor to MS Project back in the ’90s.
Open Workbench is still being developed; OpenProj is pretty much dead in the water: no source code available and nothing happening/supported by the new owners, Serena.
Open Workbench will automatically level your tasks; OpenProj will not, and that one issue is the difference that makes the difference.
A number of valuable web based software solutions are available online; which can improve the operation of a busy office or practice.
To combat the loss in revenues, resulting from missed meetings and appointments (to both clients and practioners), some professionals have utilized a web based room scheduling software or appointment scheduling software; to monitor client meetings and appointments.
Email reminders will reduce no-shows and self-scheduling clients can book their own meetings or appointments online.
In addition, it frees up time for Professionals to concentrate on other areas of their workload; online or in the office.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight.
Best wishes.
So many project management softwares on a single blog. I am really amazed to see the list of such great project management softwares. Really great stuff posted by the author.
I really like your information about Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software. We know that every company has their own way of managing work flow and projects, with their own objectives and desired results. Now a days people are used online project management software to make their work flow easy and systematic.
I was looking for a tutorial to plan the projects at a creative center and I think this is my destination. A really nice blog and a very good explanation.
great resources, as i am new to this field this will help me more to learn new things on which i need to work on.. thanks for informative post.
I persoanlly checked out some of these tools for my projects and they worked just fine and I did not have to face any difficulties using any one of them.
Hi Vivek
We are the people behind ]project-open[, an open-source project management application/ PSA (Professional Services Automation) ranked around #100-200 on SourceForge.
The main difference between your Top 10 and our application is financial functionality including controlling and invoicing, that is included in ]po[.
May I ask if you: Would you consider ]po[ as a candidate for your list, or would you see it in a different category?
Cheers!
Frank
For software project management please consider:
Endeavour Software Project Management is an Open Source solution to manage the creation of large-scale enterprise systems in an iterative and incremental development process. It features support for Use Case management, Iterations, Project Plan, Change Requests, Defect Tracking, Test Cases, Tasks, Document management and many other process artifacts.
http://endeavour-mgmt.sourceforge.net
Thanks for this list. I’m so tired of all the forced upgrade “options” a lot of the top web-based products have. Developers should just build software that everyone can use for one price and support it. That’s all we need.
Project.net http://project.net/ is open source and can be either in-house hosted or web hosted — your choice.
Very interesting page, but wouldn’t be better to have a wikipedia page with feature comparison of all these tool?
Which is the Open source PM tool for onsite offsite software project management.
It should be web based and bug free
Thanks
Anoop
Subject: Ease of Installation
Soo, I’m not a developer, but I am a project manager. During my last position, the lead developer set up trac for me and it was very easy to use. I do enjoy the minimalistic approach (I don’t like Basecamp, for instance – not “intuitive” and too gadgety). I’ve been hired for a position managing a few websites, and the rest of the team is remote. I tried installing trac on my mac (10.6) and ran into problems with some of the add ons that I need (installing the upgrades, etc. My question is – what is the best (minimalistic – and by this i mean let me do the intuitive work, I don’t want my software guessing how my intuition works and trying to plan ahead for me. I like things simple and have a deductive brain – software). I want free (ideally) and something that someone ignorant of programming languages (yes, I know it’s time for me to learn) can install and instruct others how to install remotely.
Thank you!
I’m surprised that your list doesn’t include OpenProj, which uses MS Project file formats.
http://www.openproj.org/openproj
The project is managed on the SourceForge site at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/files/
In addition to the source code, there are installers for Windows, MacOS, RedHat/Fedora (rpm), and Debian/Ubuntu (deb).
OpenProj was developed by Projity, acquired in 2008 by Serena Software. So you can use the open source version (CPAL license) or elect to pay for commercial support and/or the on-demand (cloud) version.
I have no business connection or financial interest in this project, but think that it deserves to be considered by those looking for an open source project management solution.
I would like to add Agilo to this mix. Its a trac plugin that adds everything you need to do scrum project management – and we use it with great success for that.
Go here for more: http://www.agile42.com/cms/pages/agilo/
please consider: netOffice Dwins
netOffice Dwins is a free web based time tracking, timesheet, and project management environment. Use netOffice Dwins for employee timesheets, time tracking, and project management. netOffice Dwins allows managing and sharing information about teams, projects, tasks, deadlines. It also allows anyone with an internet connection to enter time and submit it for approval. Approval requests can be routed to managers, project managers, and HR members electronically.
Sorry, forgot to provide the netOffice Dwins URL
http://netofficedwins.sf.net
Which Open source Project Management is best? It should be supported PHP & My SQL.
Thanks
Another great project management software, compliant with GTD is Taskfreak at http://www.taskfreak.com/ (PHP+MySQL, single or multi user version).
Ludvik
Tine2.0 (www.tine20.org) is another promising product which features a CRM, ERP, task manager, calendar, addressbook and a time tracker.. I like the cleanness of UI and perceived usability of the interface.
i use Atrium so far Atrium have a friendly interface and its very customable
I give Atrium 4/5 star :)
qdPM is an emerging player to watch. https://sourceforge.net/projects/qdpm/
It is ideal for web based projects and handles remote client/remote team easily.
It is not attempting to be scheduler a la MS Project (at present) so your WBS is not set up with dependencies. You can however set up Phases/Stages etc. based on whatever methodology you are using.
I’m wondering why Chandler and Tracks are not mentioned here. I’m adding this page to my “to-investigate” list. I need to check some of these out. Thx.
In response to Stefano’s request above (#39) for a wikipedia page with feature comparison of all these tools, how about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software
I am suprised that nobody has mentioned InDefero – its an open source PHP clone of Google Code, with support for SVN, git, and Mercurial. I have been using it for a couple of months with excellent results. Very easy to set up and use, very simple interface. It doesn’t have a full fledged wiki, but it works great as a web front end to your SCM.
Good choices. My previous company used Jumptree project management, works great but not free. This list provides a good alternative, thanks
Hi
I just finished an opensource project management programm, perhaps you would like to take a look.
its not 100%ly done yet but it works and you can already download it. Tell me what you think about it:
http://www.jingho-projects.com/
thanks
I know ProofHub isn’t open source, but does provide a free account type with some of those must-have tools that me and my company always wanted in the PM systems we ever used. The list includes in browser real-time chat with history, proofing tool to help our customers review the designs, graphics without having to download them and put comments in photoshop or mspaint, etc.
Hello,
Great article. I’ve installed 3 open source collaboration suites but I can not find one that project centric where you can attached everthing including emails to the project. Goal being to have the ability to see everthing that went on in a project including note’s, emails, to-do’s, files, contacts, etc all in a timeline. Any ideas of one that can do this?
Thanks
Hi Ed, with ]project-open[ you can attach files, notes, to-do’s and contacts to projects. They are currently working on an improved email integration that should be available this summer.
@Ed (Post #53 above): I’m curious: which three open source collaboration suites did you try?
Hi Peter,
Thank you for the reply. I installed Egroupware, PHPProjekt, and VTiger these are the three I thought would be close to what I was looking for. The UI for Vtiger beats them all, Egroupware coming in second, and last but it accomplishes attaching everything to a project is PHPProjekt, foreign language and slow development. My opinion if you took ProjectPier and merged with Vtiger it would be the perfect system. The ProjectPier has the right concept and Vtiger has the balance of a suite that’s needed and a UI that any employee could figure out.
My best,
Ed
Can anyone advise me with a open source program where i can edit and copy project tempplates (like tabels in excel).
Ive been looking for it for 2 days now and i just cant find anything.
Thanks
For an Open Source Software Project Management alternative please try
Endeavour Software Project Management which is an Open Source solution to manage the creation of large-scale enterprise systems in an iterative and incremental development process.
Currently on 1.5 version. More info at, also provided as On-Demand service.
http://endeavour-mgmt.sourceforge.net
What software do you guys use to manage clients and all their usernames, FTP details, Server Details, DB details etc. We currently using keepass, but I want something web based.
I use (and created) http://www.4mypasswords.com. It uses SSL for all interactions (i.e., https) and encrypts the important data to keep it safe and secure. It’s been live since February 2007.
thanks for this,
I would ideal want something I can download and install on our web server. I am a bit wiery about saving highly secure information on a 3rd party server.
Thanks for sharing. After looking at all provided sites, I just downloaded and installed Feng Office (http://fengoffice.com), aka OpenGoo in your list. The open source community edition can be downloaded for free, is php/mysql based and is running superb with https on my server. Wow I love it, it’s really prefect for me as we working as affiliate webmaster having hundreds of domains to control, to get content and links for and to promote via online partner and banners. Getting all tasks linked to emails, links and documents, it is really great to organize all stuff stuff. Thank you very much – this info made my day!
This is a great list of resources – thanks for putting it together! These types of resources can really help those in need of a strong business organization structure. I wanted to add OnePlace to the list of project management software. Run on ruby on rails, OnePlace integrates project management and team collaboration to increase the success of the individual using it, as well as their business.