Project management seems to be the holy grail of collaboration software. There are dozens of products out there, some of them sharing the same approach of a task-based workflow.

Some of these tools rely on the Scrum method, others just use tickets to burn down, or even more agile workflow principles. I did some research today, and most of the tools I encountered use monthly subscription models. In fact I could not find a single solution that would allow free usage beyond a 30 day trial limitation.

I have three projects which I need to organize and restructure, and since Basecamp stopped its free offer (which was limited to one project, but at least it was for free), I have no alternative left. Today’s research results left me pretty frustrated. Apparently there is no good solution out there that just covers a few basics, which I have outlined below.

I don’t need a system that requires extensive manual studies and adopting strange behavior patterns, like “getting things done”. What I need is a simple tool to assign tasks and track them along a timeline. I need to be able to communicate with production team members and generally know what is going on and where we are standing with the project.

Of course I’m somewhat flexible with my requirements. If the catch is that only one project can be handled simultaneously, but otherwise it’s a great tool, I could live with that. If the catch is that uploading and sharing files is allowed, but limited to 250MB or 1GB, that’s fine too. It just needs to be simple, easy to learn and use and easy to adopt by team members. I need something to work with.

Here is a brief list of what I need and don’t need:

Requirements

• Simple project management (if possible, no single project limitation)
• Collaboration tools (text only is fine)
• Free (no 30 day limit)
• Good usability and ease of use (perhaps like WhoDoes 2.0)
• File repository (no absolute must)
• Content database (text files with access data, logins, etc.)
• Calendar (GANTT chart would be nice, but is definitely not a must)
• Reasonable space (250MB to 1GB would be enough)

Not required

• Division between client and team access
• Code repository
• Conferencing or chat
• Time sheets or time tracking
• Self-hosting
• Open Source or API access

If you know such a tool, please leave a comment. All hints or constructive comments are welcome.