5 Great Open Source Project Management Platforms

Open-source has been gaining momentum for some time now. It seems that every year, more companies have been adopting open-source solutions to meet their business objectives. In fact, the results of the 2013 Future of Open Source Survey revealed that 62 percent of respondents believe that more than 50 percent of purchased software will be open source in the next five years.

Open-source software is most often-used for one of four reasons:

  1. Low Cost
  2. Better Security
  3. Freedom from Vendor Contracts
  4. Better Quality

While these four characteristics probably don’t raise any eyebrows, the reason users choose open source software might.

76 percent of respondents to an Accenture survey rated the quality of open source software as its most attractive feature. The next two most desirable characteristics? 71 percent said Reliability, while 70 percent cited Security. Price didn’t even make the top three, though it would be unwise to write off the cost savings of implementing open-source software.

Not to mention the freedom. Choosing open source software means that your business isn’t chained to a particular software vendor. If a platform is underperforming, it can be dropped.

This flexibility is particularly relevant for project management. The needs of large enterprise level projects vary widely from the requirements of small startup companies, so not getting locked in to a vendor contract is a huge plus.

Let’s examine five open source options for project management. These applications were selected for their variety of features and ease of use. It’s important to note that not all of these platforms are free, because free isn’t always synonymous with open-source.

Redmine

A popular solution in the open-source community, Redmine offers project managers a range of options for how to organize their upcoming tasks. Redmine’s controls are comprehensive and feature private and public projects, all with dedicated subprojects. Managers can also control user access through role-based controls.

Redmine features a number of project management standards, like Gantt charts and calendars as well as documents and file management, but this software really shines when used for tracking bugs and system issues. Redmine was built with the Ruby on Rails framework, and works across platforms.

EGroupWare

Especially easy to install, EGroupWare offers project managers a solution for addressing any potential interoperability issues with importing and exporting CVS files. Managers can also sync EGroupWare to their mobile devices or with their Outlook client. Unfortunately, notes and calendars cannot be synced with Outlook, but can be accessed via the Web.

In terms of functionality, EGroupWare covers all the major project management based, like time tracking, task management, document management, and even per-project wikis.

FengOffice

At $10 a month, FengOffice carries a higher price tag than most open-source software. However, if you’re willing to look past the monthly fee, FengOffice offers one of the most user friendly interfaces available, as well as a robust suite of tools including calendars, universal platform tags, and even an imbedded HTML editor.

The HTML editor in particular reduces the need to switch between programs, and adds a bit more value in exchange for FengOffice’s $10 fee. If you just can’t stomach the cost – or simply don’t want to – check out OpenGoo, FengOffice’s first free iteration. Why would you look it up? Because it’s still free.

Ganib

Ganib features a large set of tools, such as timesheets for tracking billable hours, task management capabilities with numerous filters, and dashboards that give users an overview of their project in seconds. Ganib’s Community and Startup versions are free, though the Startup version is limited to 10 projects at a time.

ProjectLibre

Roughly translated as “Project Free” – or “Free Project” if you want to be precise — ProjectLibre received InfoWorld’s Best of Open Source award in 2013, reinforcing its credentials as an excellent project management tool. ProjectLibre markets itself as a direct replacement for Microsoft Project, and with its real-time progress tracking, Gantt project planning views, and resource management capabilities. It’s a difficult assertion to refute.

______

Author Bio:

Zach Watson is a content writer at TechnologyAdvice. He covers project management, EHR solutions, and more. You can connect with him on Google+.

 

 

 

 

This post is brought to you in association with the CQ/Change Intelligence Certification Program:

Get the tools you need to become an even more effective change leader yourself, to develop change leadership capacity in the clients you coach, and to facilitate powerful and sustainable results for the teams and organizations you support.  PMs who get CQ get results!

Register now at Change Intelligence Certification Program

14 Responses to 5 Great Open Source Project Management Platforms
  1. […] Zach Watson gives the elevator pitch for five Open Source project management alternatives. […]

  2. Babynus
    April 20, 2014 | 5:49 am

    Good list, with real Open Source.
    My choice in the list would be Ganib : well thought and really full Open Source.
    I would have more reserved advise on RedMine and FengOffice : business model comes quickly out of opensource to get all functions / plugins.
    ProjectLibreis a good replacement for MS-Project, but only for this : it means it covers only planning.
    Another opportunity is ProjeQtOr : direct competitor to Ganib. Also fully Open Source, few more functionalities and Quality Oriented, but a bit less beautifull.

  3. Scopidea
    May 5, 2014 | 5:24 am

    Scopidea project management techniques and project planning tools are useful for managing any tasks in which different outcomes are possible.Scopidea offering great solution about project management tool , project managment , project management software at one place , For more detail visit us @ http://scopidea.com/

  4. Fixmyprojectchaos
    May 8, 2014 | 11:02 am

    Great informational resource indeed! Thank you so much for taking time to share your valuable knowledge and experience. Love to read your next post!

  5. Annie Craven
    May 9, 2014 | 2:40 pm

    Thanks for sharing all this great information, very useful!

  6. CER Projectmanagement
    June 19, 2014 | 4:26 am

    Great information, very interesting

  7. Praveen Malik
    July 13, 2014 | 5:01 am

    Hi Zach,

    Good article. I think feature wise free tools are no-where near the popular commercial tools but they are certainly useful for small projects. You can read more of my thoughts on http://www.pmbypm.com/free-project-management-software/#.U8JJ1JSSz1Y

    Would it be OK to give reference to your article in the above post?

    BR
    Praveen Malik
    http://www.pmbypm.com

  8. ganaysa
    August 1, 2014 | 1:36 pm

    What about collabtive? is it considered to be one of the list? many people are recommending it.

  9. Manuel Portnik
    September 5, 2014 | 1:08 pm

    Thanks for the overview. I used redmine quite a lot of times. Now I use ERPAL from http://erpal.info as it is open source and I can also manage other parts of my business with it like stuff management, CRM, billing and reporting. Jira has a great usability and I think its worth mentionning here.

  10. Project Management
    September 27, 2014 | 3:13 am

    Nice collection very useful thanks

  11. Project.net Team
    December 3, 2014 | 11:11 am

    Hello Zach,

    I’m not sure is you had considered Project.net in your evaluation. I can provide a trail account to you to check the system.

    Project.net is a leading open source Project Portfolio Management solution with a focus on collaboration. Project.net empowers your entire organization to participate in authoring rich, continuously updating project records that are readily accessible, easy to update, transparent,
    and actionable.

    For a brief demo of the system please use the link: http://project.net/flash_tour

    Also you can download the latest open source version 9.2.6 from http://www.project.net/community

    — Project.net​
    ​ Team​

  12. Jonh Miker
    March 16, 2015 | 11:52 pm

    Thanks for your nice list, Jach. My team did use 2/5 in your list, they are Redmine and FengOffice. They works really nice but due to some missing features, and slow then we switch to MyCollab http://community.mycollab.com, which is an open source project management tool as well. It will the full aspects of project management tool and development is really nice to respond my feedback. Actually, they have some missing features such as advanced search, though they promise to give it soon but I still look around for any better tool though.

  13. Berry Doves
    May 2, 2016 | 12:37 am

    Wonderful article, a very good detailed information about project platforms. The Project Management Professional (PMP)® is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers.If you become PMP certified it would add a lot of value to your career for growth in any organization. If you really want to get certified in PMP you should refer to books or you can learn them from online. After completing the PMP courses you can also take practice online refer to http://goo.gl/85gXuHere after practicing you can also be certified in PMP through the PMstudy .

  14. rateyourpm
    August 3, 2016 | 6:14 am

    Thanks for this article, Rate your project manager to visit at Rateyourpm.com

5 Great Open Source Project Management Platforms

Open-source has been gaining momentum for some time now. It seems that every year, more companies have been adopting open-source solutions to meet their business objectives. In fact, the results of the 2013 Future of Open Source Survey revealed that 62 percent of respondents believe that more than 50 percent of purchased software will be open source in the next five years.

Open-source software is most often-used for one of four reasons:

  1. Low Cost
  2. Better Security
  3. Freedom from Vendor Contracts
  4. Better Quality

While these four characteristics probably don’t raise any eyebrows, the reason users choose open source software might.

76 percent of respondents to an Accenture survey rated the quality of open source software as its most attractive feature. The next two most desirable characteristics? 71 percent said Reliability, while 70 percent cited Security. Price didn’t even make the top three, though it would be unwise to write off the cost savings of implementing open-source software.

Not to mention the freedom. Choosing open source software means that your business isn’t chained to a particular software vendor. If a platform is underperforming, it can be dropped.

This flexibility is particularly relevant for project management. The needs of large enterprise level projects vary widely from the requirements of small startup companies, so not getting locked in to a vendor contract is a huge plus.

Let’s examine five open source options for project management. These applications were selected for their variety of features and ease of use. It’s important to note that not all of these platforms are free, because free isn’t always synonymous with open-source.

Redmine

A popular solution in the open-source community, Redmine offers project managers a range of options for how to organize their upcoming tasks. Redmine’s controls are comprehensive and feature private and public projects, all with dedicated subprojects. Managers can also control user access through role-based controls.

Redmine features a number of project management standards, like Gantt charts and calendars as well as documents and file management, but this software really shines when used for tracking bugs and system issues. Redmine was built with the Ruby on Rails framework, and works across platforms.

EGroupWare

Especially easy to install, EGroupWare offers project managers a solution for addressing any potential interoperability issues with importing and exporting CVS files. Managers can also sync EGroupWare to their mobile devices or with their Outlook client. Unfortunately, notes and calendars cannot be synced with Outlook, but can be accessed via the Web.

In terms of functionality, EGroupWare covers all the major project management based, like time tracking, task management, document management, and even per-project wikis.

FengOffice

At $10 a month, FengOffice carries a higher price tag than most open-source software. However, if you’re willing to look past the monthly fee, FengOffice offers one of the most user friendly interfaces available, as well as a robust suite of tools including calendars, universal platform tags, and even an imbedded HTML editor.

The HTML editor in particular reduces the need to switch between programs, and adds a bit more value in exchange for FengOffice’s $10 fee. If you just can’t stomach the cost – or simply don’t want to – check out OpenGoo, FengOffice’s first free iteration. Why would you look it up? Because it’s still free.

Ganib

Ganib features a large set of tools, such as timesheets for tracking billable hours, task management capabilities with numerous filters, and dashboards that give users an overview of their project in seconds. Ganib’s Community and Startup versions are free, though the Startup version is limited to 10 projects at a time.

ProjectLibre

Roughly translated as “Project Free” – or “Free Project” if you want to be precise — ProjectLibre received InfoWorld’s Best of Open Source award in 2013, reinforcing its credentials as an excellent project management tool. ProjectLibre markets itself as a direct replacement for Microsoft Project, and with its real-time progress tracking, Gantt project planning views, and resource management capabilities. It’s a difficult assertion to refute.

______

Author Bio:

Zach Watson is a content writer at TechnologyAdvice. He covers project management, EHR solutions, and more. You can connect with him on Google+.

 

 

 

 

This post is brought to you in association with the CQ/Change Intelligence Certification Program:

Get the tools you need to become an even more effective change leader yourself, to develop change leadership capacity in the clients you coach, and to facilitate powerful and sustainable results for the teams and organizations you support.  PMs who get CQ get results!

Register now at Change Intelligence Certification Program

14 Responses to 5 Great Open Source Project Management Platforms
  1. […] Zach Watson gives the elevator pitch for five Open Source project management alternatives. […]

  2. Babynus
    April 20, 2014 | 5:49 am

    Good list, with real Open Source.
    My choice in the list would be Ganib : well thought and really full Open Source.
    I would have more reserved advise on RedMine and FengOffice : business model comes quickly out of opensource to get all functions / plugins.
    ProjectLibreis a good replacement for MS-Project, but only for this : it means it covers only planning.
    Another opportunity is ProjeQtOr : direct competitor to Ganib. Also fully Open Source, few more functionalities and Quality Oriented, but a bit less beautifull.

  3. Scopidea
    May 5, 2014 | 5:24 am

    Scopidea project management techniques and project planning tools are useful for managing any tasks in which different outcomes are possible.Scopidea offering great solution about project management tool , project managment , project management software at one place , For more detail visit us @ http://scopidea.com/

  4. Fixmyprojectchaos
    May 8, 2014 | 11:02 am

    Great informational resource indeed! Thank you so much for taking time to share your valuable knowledge and experience. Love to read your next post!

  5. Annie Craven
    May 9, 2014 | 2:40 pm

    Thanks for sharing all this great information, very useful!

  6. CER Projectmanagement
    June 19, 2014 | 4:26 am

    Great information, very interesting

  7. Praveen Malik
    July 13, 2014 | 5:01 am

    Hi Zach,

    Good article. I think feature wise free tools are no-where near the popular commercial tools but they are certainly useful for small projects. You can read more of my thoughts on http://www.pmbypm.com/free-project-management-software/#.U8JJ1JSSz1Y

    Would it be OK to give reference to your article in the above post?

    BR
    Praveen Malik
    http://www.pmbypm.com

  8. ganaysa
    August 1, 2014 | 1:36 pm

    What about collabtive? is it considered to be one of the list? many people are recommending it.

  9. Manuel Portnik
    September 5, 2014 | 1:08 pm

    Thanks for the overview. I used redmine quite a lot of times. Now I use ERPAL from http://erpal.info as it is open source and I can also manage other parts of my business with it like stuff management, CRM, billing and reporting. Jira has a great usability and I think its worth mentionning here.

  10. Project Management
    September 27, 2014 | 3:13 am

    Nice collection very useful thanks

  11. Project.net Team
    December 3, 2014 | 11:11 am

    Hello Zach,

    I’m not sure is you had considered Project.net in your evaluation. I can provide a trail account to you to check the system.

    Project.net is a leading open source Project Portfolio Management solution with a focus on collaboration. Project.net empowers your entire organization to participate in authoring rich, continuously updating project records that are readily accessible, easy to update, transparent,
    and actionable.

    For a brief demo of the system please use the link: http://project.net/flash_tour

    Also you can download the latest open source version 9.2.6 from http://www.project.net/community

    — Project.net​
    ​ Team​

  12. Jonh Miker
    March 16, 2015 | 11:52 pm

    Thanks for your nice list, Jach. My team did use 2/5 in your list, they are Redmine and FengOffice. They works really nice but due to some missing features, and slow then we switch to MyCollab http://community.mycollab.com, which is an open source project management tool as well. It will the full aspects of project management tool and development is really nice to respond my feedback. Actually, they have some missing features such as advanced search, though they promise to give it soon but I still look around for any better tool though.

  13. Berry Doves
    May 2, 2016 | 12:37 am

    Wonderful article, a very good detailed information about project platforms. The Project Management Professional (PMP)® is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers.If you become PMP certified it would add a lot of value to your career for growth in any organization. If you really want to get certified in PMP you should refer to books or you can learn them from online. After completing the PMP courses you can also take practice online refer to http://goo.gl/85gXuHere after practicing you can also be certified in PMP through the PMstudy .

  14. rateyourpm
    August 3, 2016 | 6:14 am

    Thanks for this article, Rate your project manager to visit at Rateyourpm.com

5 Great Open Source Project Management Platforms

Open-source has been gaining momentum for some time now. It seems that every year, more companies have been adopting open-source solutions to meet their business objectives. In fact, the results of the 2013 Future of Open Source Survey revealed that 62 percent of respondents believe that more than 50 percent of purchased software will be open source in the next five years.

Open-source software is most often-used for one of four reasons:

  1. Low Cost
  2. Better Security
  3. Freedom from Vendor Contracts
  4. Better Quality

While these four characteristics probably don’t raise any eyebrows, the reason users choose open source software might.

76 percent of respondents to an Accenture survey rated the quality of open source software as its most attractive feature. The next two most desirable characteristics? 71 percent said Reliability, while 70 percent cited Security. Price didn’t even make the top three, though it would be unwise to write off the cost savings of implementing open-source software.

Not to mention the freedom. Choosing open source software means that your business isn’t chained to a particular software vendor. If a platform is underperforming, it can be dropped.

This flexibility is particularly relevant for project management. The needs of large enterprise level projects vary widely from the requirements of small startup companies, so not getting locked in to a vendor contract is a huge plus.

Let’s examine five open source options for project management. These applications were selected for their variety of features and ease of use. It’s important to note that not all of these platforms are free, because free isn’t always synonymous with open-source.

Redmine

A popular solution in the open-source community, Redmine offers project managers a range of options for how to organize their upcoming tasks. Redmine’s controls are comprehensive and feature private and public projects, all with dedicated subprojects. Managers can also control user access through role-based controls.

Redmine features a number of project management standards, like Gantt charts and calendars as well as documents and file management, but this software really shines when used for tracking bugs and system issues. Redmine was built with the Ruby on Rails framework, and works across platforms.

EGroupWare

Especially easy to install, EGroupWare offers project managers a solution for addressing any potential interoperability issues with importing and exporting CVS files. Managers can also sync EGroupWare to their mobile devices or with their Outlook client. Unfortunately, notes and calendars cannot be synced with Outlook, but can be accessed via the Web.

In terms of functionality, EGroupWare covers all the major project management based, like time tracking, task management, document management, and even per-project wikis.

FengOffice

At $10 a month, FengOffice carries a higher price tag than most open-source software. However, if you’re willing to look past the monthly fee, FengOffice offers one of the most user friendly interfaces available, as well as a robust suite of tools including calendars, universal platform tags, and even an imbedded HTML editor.

The HTML editor in particular reduces the need to switch between programs, and adds a bit more value in exchange for FengOffice’s $10 fee. If you just can’t stomach the cost – or simply don’t want to – check out OpenGoo, FengOffice’s first free iteration. Why would you look it up? Because it’s still free.

Ganib

Ganib features a large set of tools, such as timesheets for tracking billable hours, task management capabilities with numerous filters, and dashboards that give users an overview of their project in seconds. Ganib’s Community and Startup versions are free, though the Startup version is limited to 10 projects at a time.

ProjectLibre

Roughly translated as “Project Free” – or “Free Project” if you want to be precise — ProjectLibre received InfoWorld’s Best of Open Source award in 2013, reinforcing its credentials as an excellent project management tool. ProjectLibre markets itself as a direct replacement for Microsoft Project, and with its real-time progress tracking, Gantt project planning views, and resource management capabilities. It’s a difficult assertion to refute.

______

Author Bio:

Zach Watson is a content writer at TechnologyAdvice. He covers project management, EHR solutions, and more. You can connect with him on Google+.

 

 

 

 

This post is brought to you in association with the CQ/Change Intelligence Certification Program:

Get the tools you need to become an even more effective change leader yourself, to develop change leadership capacity in the clients you coach, and to facilitate powerful and sustainable results for the teams and organizations you support.  PMs who get CQ get results!

Register now at Change Intelligence Certification Program

14 Responses to 5 Great Open Source Project Management Platforms
  1. […] Zach Watson gives the elevator pitch for five Open Source project management alternatives. […]

  2. Babynus
    April 20, 2014 | 5:49 am

    Good list, with real Open Source.
    My choice in the list would be Ganib : well thought and really full Open Source.
    I would have more reserved advise on RedMine and FengOffice : business model comes quickly out of opensource to get all functions / plugins.
    ProjectLibreis a good replacement for MS-Project, but only for this : it means it covers only planning.
    Another opportunity is ProjeQtOr : direct competitor to Ganib. Also fully Open Source, few more functionalities and Quality Oriented, but a bit less beautifull.

  3. Scopidea
    May 5, 2014 | 5:24 am

    Scopidea project management techniques and project planning tools are useful for managing any tasks in which different outcomes are possible.Scopidea offering great solution about project management tool , project managment , project management software at one place , For more detail visit us @ http://scopidea.com/

  4. Fixmyprojectchaos
    May 8, 2014 | 11:02 am

    Great informational resource indeed! Thank you so much for taking time to share your valuable knowledge and experience. Love to read your next post!

  5. Annie Craven
    May 9, 2014 | 2:40 pm

    Thanks for sharing all this great information, very useful!

  6. CER Projectmanagement
    June 19, 2014 | 4:26 am

    Great information, very interesting

  7. Praveen Malik
    July 13, 2014 | 5:01 am

    Hi Zach,

    Good article. I think feature wise free tools are no-where near the popular commercial tools but they are certainly useful for small projects. You can read more of my thoughts on http://www.pmbypm.com/free-project-management-software/#.U8JJ1JSSz1Y

    Would it be OK to give reference to your article in the above post?

    BR
    Praveen Malik
    http://www.pmbypm.com

  8. ganaysa
    August 1, 2014 | 1:36 pm

    What about collabtive? is it considered to be one of the list? many people are recommending it.

  9. Manuel Portnik
    September 5, 2014 | 1:08 pm

    Thanks for the overview. I used redmine quite a lot of times. Now I use ERPAL from http://erpal.info as it is open source and I can also manage other parts of my business with it like stuff management, CRM, billing and reporting. Jira has a great usability and I think its worth mentionning here.

  10. Project Management
    September 27, 2014 | 3:13 am

    Nice collection very useful thanks

  11. Project.net Team
    December 3, 2014 | 11:11 am

    Hello Zach,

    I’m not sure is you had considered Project.net in your evaluation. I can provide a trail account to you to check the system.

    Project.net is a leading open source Project Portfolio Management solution with a focus on collaboration. Project.net empowers your entire organization to participate in authoring rich, continuously updating project records that are readily accessible, easy to update, transparent,
    and actionable.

    For a brief demo of the system please use the link: http://project.net/flash_tour

    Also you can download the latest open source version 9.2.6 from http://www.project.net/community

    — Project.net​
    ​ Team​

  12. Jonh Miker
    March 16, 2015 | 11:52 pm

    Thanks for your nice list, Jach. My team did use 2/5 in your list, they are Redmine and FengOffice. They works really nice but due to some missing features, and slow then we switch to MyCollab http://community.mycollab.com, which is an open source project management tool as well. It will the full aspects of project management tool and development is really nice to respond my feedback. Actually, they have some missing features such as advanced search, though they promise to give it soon but I still look around for any better tool though.

  13. Berry Doves
    May 2, 2016 | 12:37 am

    Wonderful article, a very good detailed information about project platforms. The Project Management Professional (PMP)® is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers.If you become PMP certified it would add a lot of value to your career for growth in any organization. If you really want to get certified in PMP you should refer to books or you can learn them from online. After completing the PMP courses you can also take practice online refer to http://goo.gl/85gXuHere after practicing you can also be certified in PMP through the PMstudy .

  14. rateyourpm
    August 3, 2016 | 6:14 am

    Thanks for this article, Rate your project manager to visit at Rateyourpm.com