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GoPlan Takes on 37Signals
Web design and programming firm WeBreakStuff just released a new project planning suite, GoPlan, similar to Basecamp and ActiveCollab. You use this stuff when you want to get a team organized around accomplishing project milestones - a lightweight Microsoft Project with collaboration built right in.
The products have a lot of similarities. They’re all web based applications for managing your team projects. Both GoPlan and BaseCamp are hosted pay services made by staunch Ruby evangelists, while the more basic ActiveCollab is an open source PHP installation. GoPlan and BaseCamp prices range from free plans up to beefier pay plans (BaseCamp’s unlimited maxes out at $150/month, while GoPlan tops off at $100/month). Derek over at 5ThirtyOne has a detailed feature comparison of the three.
GoPlan’s project management tool offers modules for note-taking, calendaring (with iCal export), task management, issue tracking, file management and online real-time chat (optional SSL). BaseCamp has a lot of the same features, minus bug tracking and a public project blog. GoPlan has also approached project tracking with a different design methodology. GoPlan not only lets you choose features based on plan levels, but also turn them on and off as needed to keep navigation free of feature clutter.
GoPlan has also shot for a lower price point than BaseCamp (basic $20/$24; premium $100/$150), but with less file storage (GoPlan tops out at 8GB). Their free account gets you everything except calendaring and chat. However, for the paid accounts, GoPlan unlocks features faster. $10/month gives you all of GoPlan’s features for 12 projects of 8 people each. For an extra $20/month you get unlimited users, and 30 projects (twice BaseCamp).
For readers interested in real-time project collaboration, check out our comparison coverage of ConceptShare and Thinkature.
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Basecamp faces competition in free alternative
Ilija Studen, a developer from Serbia, has released a free clone of the popular project management service Basecamp. Studen’s product is called ActiveCollab and has been down since blowing up on Digg. Though the site is available only intermittently now, that’s not of a lot of consequence because of its service model. ActiveCollab is a PHP/MySQL tool that users download and then install on their own web servers. The end result is a free, open source and web based application.
Studen says he first got the idea of open sourcing his project from a discussion in April on Paul Scrivens’ blog titled “Being 37Signals for Free.” Studen claimed he had created such a product in that conversation and has now returned to update the thread with news of ActiveCollab’s launch.
The creators of Basecamp, 37Signals, have enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the world of high quality, low-cost online project management software. Though the company is widely loved, Studen’s clone could pose a threat to their subscription based business model if it turns out to be of high quality. The company offers a variety of popular online tools, but this is particularly interesting because of the company’s role as one of the key though-leaders in the development of Web 2.0 business models.
