Jump to main navigation, main content

Archived entry | Matt Wilcox .net

ActiveCollab goes commercial

ActiveCollab was/is the alternative to Basecamp. Ilija Studen, the developer of ActiveCollab, wanted a free alternative to Basecamp and promised AC would remain free forever. Things appear to have changed.

AC is no longer free, the 1.x branch never will be free. I don’t particularly blame him for choosing this route, he’s put in a hell of a lot of work and he deserves to reap any reward he likes from that effort; but it is disappointing in the extreme to see how this project has changed. It forgot why it exists at all. To be a free Open Source alternative to a for-money web service. The half-nod back to the original intent is the 0.7 branch remaining free - but no longer in development, and no longer linked or advertised in any way from the main site or the blog. that’s a shame, and it reflects badly on the project when something so fundamental and promised so explicitly is retracted and changed. I certainly would not trust Ilija’s ability to deliver on his intentions any longer.

So, are there any alternatives to this Basecamp alternative that do what AC was supposed to do?

Comments

skip to comment form
  1. Matt Wilcox posted 2 days, 20hrs, 31mins after the entry and said:

    ProjectPier is a new project taking the old ActiveCollab 0.7 build and developing it further. It is basically ActiveCollab as it was meant to be, but under a new management. I have not yet had chance to look into the project in detail:

    http://www.projectpier.org/

  2. Eric Carroll posted 5 days, 6hrs, 16mins after the entry and said:

    Thank you for the update on this. This was the first site I found that mentioned the Project Pier fork.

    Like you, I don't blame the original developer for going to a paid model, but the pricing seemed a bit steep. I realize it really isn't as much as others, but showing a lump sum instead of the monthly rate makes it harder to swallow. I think a lot of us were just expecting something lower.

    The other thing I noticed was that the site was updated to announce 1.0, but I never received notification like I signed up for. I'm not trying to find things to gripe about, but I get irritated with the "signup for updates!" feature on sites that don't bother to send me the information I signed up for.

    Anyway, I'll definitely be checking out ProjectPier.

  3. Renato Carvalho posted 13 days, 4hrs, 55mins after the entry and said:

    Me too.
    I'm very disappointed with AC became commercial.
    I'm disappointed too with the notification tha I never received.

    It appears that ProjectPier will be the best choice from now.

  4. Editor @ WhyBaseCampSux posted 23 days, 17hrs, 48mins after the entry and said:

    Yes, shame about activeCollab. But besides ProjectPier there are many other alternatives. I’ve compiled quite a list of them at my Basecamp b**** site, some of which are open-source, at:

    http://www.whybasecampsux.org/#alternatives

    Hope this helps others find a good project management solution that meets their needs.

  5. Cathrene posted 2 years, 324 days, 22hrs after the entry and said:

    Another great alternative to active Collab is http://www.proofhub.com/

  6. Amos posted 2 years, 340 days, 22hrs after the entry and said:

    Also checkout http://www.proofhub.com/. It is great project management software, easy to use and fast.

  7. Mendrik posted 3 years, 27 days, 9hrs after the entry and said:

    Well there is always a free alternative around corner smiley icon: smile

  8. shelley posted 3 years, 38 days, 16hrs after the entry and said:

    I completely agree with Amos because I have done work with proofhub and it can handle my projects easily. A great effort and searches they have done.

  9. ispeak|Basecamp Alternative posted 3 years, 152 days, 5hrs after the entry and said:

    Basecamp is no doubt one of the best Project management software. However, many people have also an issue with Basecamp an are trying to find an alternative. I have here an article that has a list of project management software for evaluation. Hope you'll find this interesting and useful. http://www.timedoctor.com/blog/2011/02/02/43-project-management-software-alternatives

From the archives

Other enteries filed under:

Web Development

Site information

Built with valid XHTML and CSS, designed with web standards and accessibility in mind. Best viewed in a modern browser [Firefox, Safari, Opera]

This domain and all content is a copy of my old website, for historical purposes only.