What's a good, cloud-based project management tool for a small group?
I am on the planning committee for a small, annual convention, and we need a way to organize all the tasks that must be considered and accomplished for each year's event. We want to be able to identify a task, categorize it, give it a deadline, and assign it to a committee member. We imagine something cloud-based (and preferably free) would help the six of us coordinate amongst ourselves (we are scattered throughout the country). But we're not familiar with project management software, and left to our own devices, we'd probably resort to using something lame, like a Google Docs spreadsheet or a wiki.
My hosting provider offers one-click installations of dotProject, but I haven't yet investigated exactly how it or others might suit our needs. Both Basecamp and Wunderkit have been recommended, but I haven't yet delved into either. Can you recommend some further options that are worth experimenting with?
Answers
RationalPlan offers a suite of PM products and among them you can try RationalPlan Server both as on-premise with a one time payment and as cloud based project management with a monthly payment.
And since you are not familiar with project management software this is even more a good choice for you since it was especially desined for novice project managers.
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I suggest to take a look at Paymo (http://paymo.biz/ ) that's what I use and they're getting more and more popular. They have a really nice project management system + time tracking & invoicing ( invoices, reports, expenses, estimates), mobile apps, and even an automatic tracking tool.
It's not free, but it's not that expensive either. Hope this helps
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We were using a light weight client to manage contacts, calendar, tasks etc on windows platform called as Chaos Intellect However it does not sync very well with dropbox or google drive. They have their own paid hosting solution which I haven't tried but at $99 a year it seems much cheaper than a lot of apps listed here. Link: http://www.chaoshost.com/
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Hi Ken,
I would like to suggest you ZilicusPM - our own online project management software. IMO, it meets your requirements and very easy to use.
- You can create tasks
- Identify a group for task
- Set deadline & assign to team members
- Share documents (yes, you can use Google Docs too)
- It works perfectly with dispersed team members since it is online & organize tasks as per timezone.
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I would love to throw our app TeamworkPM.net into the mix here. We have a full free plan that will give you 2 free projects and unlimited users. This should be able to help you out with your planning of your event.
We also have features like a global calendar and recurring tasks which you might find very useful for what you are doing
Make sue you take a look, and if you have any questions please feel free to ask.
You can also see what our users have been saying about us as well here.
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You might want to check out Zoho's online project management tool:
Here's a link with more details:
Top 15 Reasons to Choose Zoho Projects
http://www.zoho.com/projects/top15-reasons.html
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I can offer you the tool that our team has been using. I hope it will be rather effective for you. This is Comindware task manager. A great tool for team work for sure and that is why for a small company it will ideal as well.
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Hi Ken, have a look at Psoda (http://www.psoda.com) - it is easy to use/learn but offers a wide range of features for project management.
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Hi Ken, have a look at Psoda (http://www.psoda.com) - it is easy to use/learn but offers a wide range of features for project management.
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ProjectDesk is good for online project management, and is free for up to 4 users.
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I suspect your team will struggle with dotproject (or any open-source software), as they tend to be quite technical and not so user-friendly, as they don't have companies behind them focusing on usability, support, etc. The same is likely to be true of more full-featured tools, like MS Project, that are designed for use in more complex project and by more experienced users. And while I'd love to recommend my company's product, WorkZone, (I'm actually the CEO), I think it might be more than you need as well, though it's much easier to use than the others.
As you've probably seen, there are literally hundreds of project management software tools out there, so it can be a bit overwhelming. One of the best, that's been around for a long time, is Basecamp. I'd suggest giving that a try first. It's not free, but it's relatively inexpensive and very easy to use. It won't have some of the advanced features of tools like WorkZone (e.g., dependencies, Gantt Charts), but it sounds like you may not need that (at least in the beginning).
Good luck!
Rick Mosenkis
President & CEO
WorkZone
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You could try Teamwork http://twproject.com. You can have your private environment running on Amazon cloud for less than 100€ per month. In Teamwork you can create your projects, resources, and assign them to tasks. Teams share agenda, documents, and boards.
The interface is friendly and you should be (quite) happy with that.