ActiveCollab Reviews & Product Details

ActiveCollab is the work management platform for agencies and service businesses — from the first task to the paid invoice, in one place. Plan projects in List, Kanban or Gantt view, track time on every task with a built-in stopwatch, manage workload and capacity, and turn tracked time into estimates, invoices and profitability reports. Budgets, expenses, billable rates and online payments (Stripe, PayPal) are built in — no bolt-ons. Bring clients inside: client seats are unlimited and free on every plan, with their own view of progress, files and approvals, so feedback stops living in email threads. Connect the tools you use — Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, Zapier, QuickBooks — and let your AI assistant work in your workspace through the built-in MCP server. Available in the cloud or self-hosted on your own server. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

Seller

Active Collab

Discussions

ActiveCollab Community

Languages Supported

Czech, German, English, French, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Serbian, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Simplified)

Solution Type

All-in-One

Overview by

Miriam Kljajic

Pricing

Pricing provided by ActiveCollab.

Plus

$15.00

3 Users Per Month

Pro

$11.00

1 User Per Month

View More Pricing Information

Top-Rated Alternatives

View All Alternatives

User Insights

Average based on 97 real user reviews.

Implementation Time

<1 month

Perceived Cost

$$$$$

Typical contract price

$0k - $0k

Per Month

ActiveCollab Reviews FAQs

Generated using AI

Last updated: Nov 04, 2026

What is ActiveCollab, and what problem is it built to solve?

ActiveCollab is project management software for agencies, consultancies, and other service businesses that do client work. It brings projects, tasks, time tracking, workload planning, budgets, estimates, and invoicing into one workspace, with clients able to join for free on every plan; it runs in the cloud or as a self-hosted edition.

What languages does ActiveCollab support?

ActiveCollab supports 20 languages, including Chinese (Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, and others.

What company sizes and industries is ActiveCollab the best fit for?

ActiveCollab is used across small and mid-sized organizations, with positive experiences clustering in these company-size and industry segments:

Small businesses: Teams with 50 or fewer employees are a prominent group.
Mid-market: Organizations with 51–1,000 employees are also well represented.
Marketing and advertising: A leading industry segment, often using the product to coordinate client work.
Software and design: Computer software, design, and graphic design teams also feature prominently.

What customer support options does ActiveCollab provide, and how do users find the overall support experience?

ActiveCollab provides direct support and self-service help, and users describe the experience as mixed. Support includes live chat and video calls at no extra cost, along with email help and self-service resources. Users appreciate prompt, helpful responses, while others have encountered delays or inconsistent assistance.

What is the experience like for teams switching to ActiveCollab from another tool?

Teams have moved to ActiveCollab for a simpler, more affordable way to manage projects, tasks, and client collaboration in one place. It has served as an alternative to tools such as Jira, Trello, Basecamp, and Wrike, with users valuing its easier workflows, broader project-management functionality, and self-hosting option. The transition has felt straightforward for teams seeking a more intuitive setup, though ActiveCollab’s fit depends on whether its task and planning workflows match their needs.

What features or capabilities could make ActiveCollab even more useful?

More flexible reporting and project views would make ActiveCollab easier to adapt to different teams and management needs. Users would benefit from improvements in areas like:

Reporting and dashboards: Add more detailed, customizable reports and clearer visual summaries of project progress.
Task assignment: Allow tasks to be assigned to multiple people and give subtasks more independent scheduling options.
Mobile experience: Make mobile workflows faster and more consistent with the desktop experience.
Search and organization: Improve filtering, sorting, and file organization so teams can find project information more easily.

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Verified User in Computer Software

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Originally submitted 7/4/2019

"Great Client Management Software for Freelance Web Developers"

4.5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

There is no reoccurring cost. It is easy to use and feature rich Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

I wish the one time cost, $500, was little less. Also I wish it integrated with other services & software Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kenny S.

Internet marketing manager

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/31/2019

"Excellent project management software."

5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Fast and convenient. The ability to clearly distribute tasks. There are elements for project management. Integration with dropbox. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

You can not separate the subtasks. And you can not change the templates. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

★J

★ STACI J.

Production Manager

Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Originally submitted 7/7/2018

"Project Management System for Project Work "

4/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Active Collab provided the opportunity to set up templates and we could copy those templates into our active projects. As a project manager, also found the Activity tab to be super helpful. You could see how things are processing within the project and what team members have been completing. It was a good way to reference back a few days or past weeks if you needed to. It's an overall easy system to dive in and start to use. We found that the system was focused mostly on the projects setup and structure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

We found Active Collab to not be as customizable around the individual team member view. This is an area we'd like to see Active Collab improve upon. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ActiveCollab:

If you are looking for a project management system that provides the work you are doing (aka projects) with a focus of getting the work completed, then this will work out nicely. You can also use the Add-ons such as integrating Slack. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were looking for a system that had the functionality for not only Projects but also for the team. From pulling various reports, to seeing what was due within your My Work tab on a per project basis. You can also use the Add-ons such as integrating Slack. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Originally submitted 4/4/2019

"Simple, effective tool"

3.5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab helped us track time as an agency and keep track of the scope of multiple projects & clients. We tracked profitability partly with this app. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

The tasks feature was not helpful for our use case Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Marketing and Advertising

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/3/2018

"ActiveCollab is very finicky and makes everything harder."

2.5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

This software, when fully functional, is awesome for client relations. We are able to upload files, google docs, and more, all into one platform. Additionally, we can send messages, create and complete tasks, and even run time reports for what we need to do. Although it has issues, it is a good software, and there is nothing out there like it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

IT IS NEVER FULLY FUNCTIONAL. There is never a day (use it daily) that Active Collab fully works. The entire thing will be down, we won't be able to upload files, and reports can all be down at different times throughout the week. It sucks because it is so great, and we rely on it to work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ActiveCollab:

Try and see if there is any other software out there that may be better for your business. Active Collab is really great, but their technical support SUCKS and it is honestly not worth integrating everything over to AC for all of those issues. I wish someone told us before we got up to our shoulders. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

Client communications, internal communications, to obtain information about past projects, and more. We have realized that the software is fabulous, but it is SO HARD to rely on it because of the inconsistencies and poor management. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Rick T.

President

Marketing and Advertising

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

9/18/2018

"SMB project management"

4/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

This software was surprisingly easy for our small business to adopt given we had little exposure to SCRUM but a need to systematize for our rapid growth. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

Had some difficulty with the app, specifically the login when using Google integration. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Marketing and Advertising

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/31/2018

"Good collaboration"

4.5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

Working for a marketing agency it was a good way to communicate across departments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

I think just some additional tabs would make the accessibility easier. Easier ways to communicate with other co workers, like messenger. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Joseph H.

Owner/President

Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/16/2018

"This has been the perfect solution for our project management needs. "

5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

It has the sophistication we need and remains very easy to use. I've tried nearly every other project management software out there, and this one makes the most sense to me. It allows us to effectively collaborate with clients, and it gives us complete control over what can be seen and accessed. We use it for time tracking as well. It connects with a number of other services including Quickbooks. They really seem to listen to their users. I've asked for things and have seen them implemented. Overall, it's a great solution for us, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to better manage their projects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

I'd like a little more flexibility in the license levels. It would be nice to pay by the user when we need extra users rather than have to bump up to a level that many more users than we currently need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Marketing and Advertising

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/18/2018

"Really great workflow solution with a pricing structure that won't be more expensive as you grow"

3.5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab is about the only high quality workflow product that doesn't charge per user. It has a clean no-nonsense UI that is easy to stare at and use. Project, to-do's, and team management are intuitive and flexible enough to mend to all types of products and team organizations. It has customer facing views/logins, a time-tracking app, and an ever increasing amount of other integrations like Slack or Quickbooks. It is the best bang for the buck as far as workflows and project management is concerned and if you're willing to deal with a few of its fundamental quirks, you can shed a number of other apps you may be using. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab seems a little confused as far as being an all inclusive software that fundamentally lacks features other project management (or time management) softwares have. I wish ActiveCollab had a chat feature (although it does interact with Slack) and the time management only allows a user to time track on to-do's that they're assigned (although in the backend in the software, anyone can add a time entry to any task). Likewise there's no simple way to look at all of your projects and see them labeled by client (you have have to click a drop down tab and sort everything you'll ever need to see in a more focussed view). Reporting works similarly- there's not an easy way to create your own report (although you can save certain parameters within pre-determined reports). Some info on the reports are only viewable by downloading .csv, not in the actual app. There seems to be a few easy intuitive features like those that were dropped, or were half thought through when implemented. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ActiveCollab:

Like with any project management tool, really get to know it. It will have plenty of quirks, but we found in our experience that learning how to deal with them outweighed the complexity and cost of using other apps. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ActiveCollab solving and how is that benefiting you?

We have solved the yearn for an inclusive project management system that stores time entries, allows multiple contractors and clients access, has some sort of customizable reporting, and on top of all of that looks good. It's pretty much in a league and price range of its own, and I think with a few minor additions could be the best project and workflow management software out there. It has allowed us to easily track projects, rates, budgets, and time entries in one place for us and our clients to see. I'm always surprised ActiveCollab isn't much much bigger than it is. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Noëll T.

Eigenaar

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/13/2017

"Excellent"

4.5/5

What do you like best about ActiveCollab?

I have to say that Active Collab is a great alternative to people who have tried Basecamp in the past. It connects employees with clients and let them easily collaborate on their project. It works out of the box and has great service in case there's a problem. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ActiveCollab?

There's always a downside on a management platform, but with Active Collab I actually haven't found one. The apps are fast and easy to use, the system is easy to operate and the server requirements are pretty standard. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.