To help me stay organized I’ve been a basecamp project management user for the past couple of years. I’ve recently been bumping up upon a couple of features I want but that they don’t provide at the price I want to pay. So today I spent time looking for the next best thing to help me both stay organized with better time management.
I did like the intuitive user interface of basecamp, but since I’m pretty much a one person shop (although I often bring a variety of clients on board during projects) I didn’t like paying $24 per month and I still couldn’t get one feature I wanted - time tracking unless I paid $49 per month when other companies as I learned offer that feature at the entry level. I wanted to pay no more then $20 dollars per month.
The search seemed long and as I watched the hours count down I became more and more frustrated. Many of the project management software programs I found were offered too much, seem complicated and are really geared towards a project manager or larger company. If I purchased their “solo” person package I didn’t even get the features I wanted. Some wanted your email before you could even look so I immediately said good bye.
I kept looking and viewing the screen shots - looking for some thing that was feature packed, clean and intuitive interface and wasn’t geared to manage a million dollar projects.
My business isn’t really that complicated but I did want some specific features:
- clean and easy to use interface
- hosted by them
- time tracking
- the ability to set up templates so I can save time
- the ability to have numerous projects
- the ability to have more then 10 people without having to pay $50 plus per month. Although I am the primary person, I do bring clients and others in for projects so my “user” number varies and I didn’t want to have to keep paying for “them” or continually upgrading and down grading.
- a user forum and or blog
- I wanted to find a product that allowed me to import my data from basecamp
It’s 3 hours later and I’ve easily moved my project data (except for the documents which I’ve got to do manually) and I’ve signed up for the “professional” user at $10 per month. So I’m saving $14 per month and I have more features.
I have to personally thank they guy who created Basecampsux for putting together an amazing list of project managment software. I only wish I would have found it before I spent close to two hours on google. Once I had his list I was easily able to look for what I wanted and found it with Deskaway.
If you’re trying to figure out if on demand project management software is for you check out these 10 reasons why you may want it from Deskaway.
If you have something you recommend I’d love to hear about it.
UPDATE: Deskaway finally added an affiliate program.
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Thanks Michele,
Glad you are finding DeskAway useful to manage your projects!
Sahil Parikh
Founder, DeskAway.com
Hi Michele,
Glad to hear you liked DeskAway. Do feel free to contact us if you need any help with it.
Regards
Hi Michele,
Thanks for suggesting DeskAway. I was looking out for a good project management software and after reading your experience with DeskAway I personally tried it out and it worked well for me . Its a nice tool.
Susan.
Saw your post. Previously I was also using basecamp. It does not offer any required visual representation.Moreover its not a value for money ! Looking for another tool
Deskaway update: 4 months later I’m still very actively using deskaway and loving it - and glad that I made the switch. I did upgrade to the $24/month version because I needed to add more than 10 projects on a regular basis.
One of my current - technology phobic clients recently signed up and really likes it too.
Now, if they could get an affiliate program going…hint, hint.