Task management software and project management software helps people and other business units maintain and control tasks to be performed, coordinate those who will do them, and provide overall direction for the work.
There are several different types of task management software. Open source project management software is a type of web-based application that can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection as well as by others using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
MyCollab
mycollab_kanban-board.png
MyCollab is a suite of three collaboration modules for small and midsize businesses: project management, customer relationship management (CRM), and document creation and editing software. There are two licensing options: a commercial “ultimate” edition, which is faster and can be run on-premises or in the cloud, and the open source “community edition,” which is the version we’re interested in here.
The community edition doesn’t have a cloud option and is slower, due to not using query cache, but provides essential project management features, including tasks, issues management, activity stream, roadmap view, and a Kanban board for agile teams. While it doesn’t have a separate mobile app, it works on mobile devices as well as Linux, Unix, Windows, and MacOS.
[Read next: Beware the dark side of agile project management]
The source code for the latest version of MyCollab is available on GitHub. It is licensed under AGPLv3 and requires a Java runtime and MySQL stack to operate. It’s available for download for Linux, Unix, Windows, and MacOS.
OpenProject
openproject-screenshot-agile-scrum.png
OpenProject is a powerful open source project management tool that is notable for its ease of use and rich project management and team collaboration features.
Its modules support project planning, scheduling, roadmap and release planning, time tracking, cost reporting, budgeting, bug tracking, and agile and Scrum. Its agile features, including creating stories, prioritizing sprints, and tracking tasks, are integrated with OpenProject’s other modules. OpenProject also offers options for paid hosting and support with an enterprise edition that adds features such as custom branding, easy Single Sign-On (SSO), additional metadata, and several UX conveniences.
OpenProject is licensed under GPLv3 with source code available on GitHub. Helpful documentation is available for developers at OpenProject.org/development, or you can learn more about installing and configuring it in Birthe Lindenthal’s article “Getting started with OpenProject.”
Gitlab
gitlab-issue_board.jpg
On the Internet, Gitlab is known as a website hosting open source projects in Git repositories. But within the walls of companies and organizations, Gitlab is possibly better known as an open source, locally installed web application for software development and project management. You can pay for hosting plans, or host it yourself, and if you’re running the community edition, then you’re running only open source components.
Gitlab’s community edition is distributed under the MIT license, and supports Agile development through scrum and kanban, sprint planning, epics, bug tracking, documentation, dashboards, charts, scheduling, automation, CI/CD, and more. There are many additional benefits, not the least of which is general developer familiarity with the platform. While many developers may have learned either Microsoft’s Github or just pure Git (the open source backend to Github, Gitlab, and many others), it’s fair to expect them to understand the workflow of using Git through a web interface.
For the project managers running the show, Gitlab’s interface is intuitive, consistent, and robust. A project manager doesn’t ever have to leave Gitlab. All tasks, from assigning tasks and planning sprints to accepting merge requests and deleting branches, can be done from within the Gitlab UI.
As Gitlab continues to develop, there’s every reason to believe that even more features for project management will be added. The Gitlab developers are happy to take feature requests and are quick to respond to feedback. You can download the Community Edition from Gitlab.com/install.
Orangescrum
Get a scalable and secure open-source project management tool – Orangescrum to manage agile and simple projects for your teams. It helps you make strategies, plan it well, execute your plan, and allow your team to finish within the deadline to complete a project successfully.
Orangescrum helps you plan everything strategically to achieve higher efficiency and have optimal results. Apart from creating project plans, you can also monitor and deliver them seamlessly. It also helps in real-time collaboration and minimum resource utilization when you are assigning roles to your teammates.
Orangescrum integrates your workflow with visual project planning to increase the success rates. Get insights into portfolio performance and initiatives through real-time data in your dashboards. Furthermore, you can manage financial activities and budgets by monitoring project expenses and resource costs to achieve higher profit margins.
Secure your data with role-based access control (RBAC) and Single Sign-On. You can also download Orangescrum on Android or iOS devices to manage the same work being outside. In addition, centralize your project information to access easily from anywhere.
If you are a startup and want to keep track of the work, choose the startup plan at just $9/month for 10 users and avail benefits like unlimited tasks, projects, Gantt chart, status, task reminder, 5 GB storage, and 5 guest users.
Taiga
taiga_screenshot.jpg
Taiga is an open source project management platform that focuses on Scrum and Agile development, with features including a Kanban board, tasks, sprints, issues, backlog, and epics. Other features include ticket management, multi-project support, wiki pages, and third-party integrations.
It also offers a free mobile app for Android, iOS, and Windows devices, and provides import tools that make it easy to migrate from other popular project management applications.
Taiga is free for public projects, with no restrictions on either the number of projects or the number of users. For private projects, there is a wide range of paid plans but the software’s features are the same regardless of what plan you choose.
Taiga is licensed under GNU Affero GPLv3, and requires a stack that includes Nginx, Python, and PostgreSQL. The latest release is available from GitHub.
Twake
Twake is an open digital workplace that allows you to improve your organizational productivity. It will help you communicate with your team seamlessly, invite external users, share files, collaborate on documents, and start a video meeting.
Twake gives you the freedom to manage the whole project, create new tasks, move each task as per their progress, assign work along with deadlines to your teammates. Its drag and drop file manager allows you to access your stored and shared documents easily.https://www.youtube.com/embed/2oWc5QK5GVU?feature=oembed
You can manage labels and versions effortlessly and edit your files as well. When necessary, create new team events, attach video links for conference meetings, configure notifications for the members, attach relevant tasks and files, and set deadlines.
Moreover, install the application you require in your workflow seamlessly with Twake. Every application is independent of files, calendars, and discussions. You can work with the same document in any format such as Google Doc, Libre Office, MS Office, etc.
Twake’s database is encrypted, and hence, your files are secure. Additionally, you have the power to decide who can access the files. All your data and files are securely stored in France. It complies with GDPR and allows secure transfers via HTTPS/SSL encryption.
Start using this project management platform for free with limited features or advance plans to avail more.
Wekan
Another free and open-source project management software in this list is Wekan with the kanban board. Kanban board is an unbeatable tool that keeps your work organized, such as maintaining a to-do list, working in a team, planning holidays, and viewing the project’s current status.
Wekan helps you enhance productivity by freeing time to focus on the items that matter the most. It has a one-click installation option on your computer or server. Wekan is used across many countries and is available in 63 different languages.
This tool has a real-time user interface that allows you to manage everything. In addition, it also supports various platforms. For having Wekan on your computer, you need basic requirements.
It would help if you had 64bit Linux Snap or Sandstorm/Windows/Mac, CPUs where MongoDB and Node.js exist, 1GB minimum RAM free for Wekan, system server with 4GB RAM, and enough disk space.
Phabricator
phabricator-overview.jpg
Phabricator is a collection of web apps by Phacility, and it contains far more tasks than the project advertises in its sales pitch. It’s unusual for a company to intentionally under sell their product, but that’s Phacility’s model, but don’t be fooled by their modesty. There’s Manifest for bug and issue tracking, Projects for Kanban workboards, Diffusion for Git hosting, Phame for blogging, the Phriction wiki, Harbormaster for CI/CD, Conpherence for team chat, and much much more. Everything is intregrated, so there’s no “rewiring” required to make your Kanban board affect your bug tracker. There’s a dashboard for all of the data, too, so tracking progress can happen at every level.
Phabricator is used by many active projects, including some big KDE applications, like Kdenlive and Krita, so its efficacy has been proven by teams distributed around the globe. It’s under constant development and tends to be open to feedback and enhancement requests.
Odoo
odoo_projects_screenshots_01a.gif
Odoo is more than project management software; it’s a full, integrated business application suite that includes accounting, human resources, website and e-commerce, inventory, manufacturing, sales management (CRM), and other tools.
The free and open source community edition has limited features compared to the paid enterprise suite. Its project management application includes a Kanban-style task-tracking view for agile teams, which was updated in its latest release, Odoo 11.0, to include a progress bar and animation for tracking project status. The project management tool also includes Gantt charts, tasks, issues, graphs, and more. Odoo has a thriving community and provides user guides and other training resources.
It is licensed under GPLv3 and requires Python and PostgreSQL. It is available for download for Linux, Windows, and Red Hat Package Manager, as a Docker image, and as source on GitHub.
Focalboard
Are you searching for an alternative to Notion, Asana, and Trello?
Well, you can go for Focalboard, which is an open-source and self-hosted project management software. It helps to organize, manage, track, and define work across your teams by using the Kanban board view. It has two editions:
- Focalboard Personal Desktop: It is a desktop app for personal and to-do projects. It is a single-tenant that runs on a local server to get optimal performance and speed.
- Focalboard Personal Server: It is a self-hosted server to help collaborate better with your team.
Click over “add new boards” to pick project tasks from the different templates.
Change the created date, priority, sort settings, filter settings, and group by settings according to your preference. You can also drag cards from one column to another to change the group property. In addition, edit the cards whenever you want to know the set of properties and content and the list of comments.
Table views help you view the cards in a single place to hover over the title to open one. Furthermore, every board has card templates and board templates to customize each board as per your team. Get a Personal Desktop on your Mac and Windows or Personal Server on Ubuntu.
Restya
Get the open-source project management platform of Restya to manage tasks, chat, to-dos, etc. Restya is a Trello-like kanban board that will offer advanced category Extend Restyaboard and countless options such as scripts, user styles, widgets, integrations, etc.
They have the MyRestyaboards app that is compatible with iPadOS and iOS operating systems. It tracks numerous Restya Boards, and you can import existing boards easily from Asana, which is used in project and work management.
It’s a cloud-based project management solution where you can also import your work instantly from Kantree, a flexible management tool that helps organize, collaborate projects, manage, and plan. Furthermore, you can easily transfer boards from Pipefy, Taiga, Taskwarrior, Trello, and Wekan to Restya Board.
A separate board manages every project, and you can create numerous boards and manage them simultaneously. Use existing templates for instant and quick launches, and duplicate a single board multiple times with different names. In addition, the keyboard shortcut keys let you perform some actions like deletion and addition of members, open cards, voting, etc.
Create one digital platform with classified projects and descriptions. In this digital platform, you will get an interactive interface, better organization visibility, and the option to edit, add a member, remove a member, change permissions, sort, and delete.
View simple boards or apply filters to see a list of boards and set its visibility to public or private. You can also see the cards in grid format or a list view. Restya provides you with a calendar view along with color variations to make it distinct and highlighted.
Additional features you will have are Gantt view, report view, member invitation, list view of members, editing visibility mode, changing the background, modifying textures and patterns, custom background option, automatic subscription, productivity beats, and much more.
ERPNext
Upgrade your daily working style through an open-source project management software ERPNext. It allows you to organize your task, schedule, plan, and analyze the projects by collaborating with your team to accelerate the work.
ERPNext can keep track of your project deadlines with a clear view of the plan. You can manage everything from a single workspace and simplify the projects by discovering a task-driven approach.
ERPNext offers easy collaboration by allowing you to split the project into bite-sized tasks and assign them to your teammates. You will also get access to the progress of your project and its efficiency via priorities and clear scope, milestones, and estimated timelines.
Moreover, ERPNext lets you share and upload multimedia files like images, documents, and videos. Achieve smooth communication with everyone with the help of auto-replies to incoming emails.
Get current and accurate insights anytime you need to stay on top of expenses and budgets, plan better for every project and see how the budget has been spent. It also allows you to build software for open-source projects.
Taskcafe
Taskcafe is an open-source project management tool that helps manage different tasks via a Kanban board interface by setting due dates and adding checklists and labels. Once you get inside the “My Tasks” view, you will see each assigned task.
You will also get options like personal projects, task comments, task activities, etc. If you are searching for an alternative to NextCloud, Trello, etc., you can have Taskcafe that will fit your workflow and help you manage every project easily. It is in the alpha development stage and has many useful and unique features.
ProjectLibre
If you are searching for a tool to solve your management work, ProjectLibre is an excellent option!
It is an open-source alternative for Microsoft Project, and supports Mac, Windows, and Linux, and can open MS Project files. It also provides multi-project management options for teams.
ProjectLibre can be translated into 29 languages, and you can switch the language from the drop-down menu. It offers features and benefits like Gantt charts, PERT charts, network diagrams, RBS/WBS charts, earned value costing, resource histograms, etc.
Leantime
As the name suggests, Leantime offers “lean” project management that innovators and startups would love. It is designed to work flawlessly from project ideation to final delivery. This open-source tool is written in PHP and JavaScript and uses the MySQL database.
Its feature list includes kanban boards for task management, calendar and table views, Gantt charts for milestone management, and Lean Canvas for research boards. In addition, it offers timesheet management, project dashboards, retrospectives, reports, two-factor authentication, and multiple user roles.
You can integrate Leantime with Slack, Zulip, and Mattermost; and export tasks, milestones, and timesheets to CSV. It uses a local file system or AWS S3 for file storage, and this tool is available in English, Russian, Spanish, and Dutch.
Conclusion
It is obvious that open source software can be much cheaper that commercial software products. And sometimes, open source software products can not only compete, but also beat proprietary leaders. There is a vast amount of free and open source project management software available.