As web developers our projects are complex and Project Management Systems (PMS) are essential to our success. A great PMS has many benefits but if you're using one that is under powered or isn't a good fit you can really be hindering your team's productivity and workflow. Modern PMS' offer more complete business solutions bundling CRM, invoicing, time tracking and more. Below we will explore some of today's best PMS' so you can determine which would be the best fit for your organization.

Popular PMS’

ActiveCollab

License: Commercial
Type: Web Based Self Hosted
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: $249 / $499 One time fee – you own it

ActiveCollab recently released a new version and with it a host of new features making it a much more full featured suite including source control integration (SVN, GIT, HG), invoicing, quoting, payment processing, project budget tracking and time and expense tracking. Version 3 also brought a quick, sleek and easy to use AJAX style interface making it very fast to use. It is has a solid project management core and a vibrant 3^rd party community which have created over 100 helpful add-ons. Some of the downfalls of ActiveCollab are that it lacks any CRM capabilities and the newly introduced quoting and invoicing system is very basic.

Basecamp

License: Commercial
Type: SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Starting at $20 per month

Basecamp is one of the most popular PMS’ and features a one page project layout making all aspects of a project accessible from a single page. It has quick and easy to use interface and has some nice features like drag and drop and email feedback. Basecamp has a solid project management core but lacks any extras. It does however have a rich API which many other applications have integrations with to fill the gap including many from their parent company.

Zoho

License: Commercial
Type: SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Starting at $20 per month

Zoho is a software suite which has many applications within its suite some of which include Zoho CRM, Zoho Project, Zoho Time Tracking, Zoho Bug Tracker, Zoho Invoice, and many more. Each application is a separate entity and each has an associated cost with it. The applications do share data in between each other but each application has a separate interface instead of combining all parts into one. The project management system provides all the basics needed but not much in terms of extra features that would make it stand out. The interface is not AJAX style which can slow you down.

Mavenlink

License: Commercial
Type: SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Starting at Free / Starting at $29 per month

Mavenlink is full featured project management system with integrations to Quickbooks and Google Apps. It’s extras include invoicing, time tracking, $0.50 flat online payments, budget and expense tracking, change orders, mobile access and more. They don’t currently have any CRM capabilities however there website claims that one will be available in 2012.

Others Worth Mentioning

Insightly

License: Commercial
Type: SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Starting at Free / Starting at $29 per month
Notes: Runs on Google Apps

vTiger

License: Open Source
Type: Web Based Self Hosted / SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Free / $12 per user per month
Notes: Joomla! Integrations

Project Fork

License: Open Source
Type: Web Based Self Hosted
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Free + starting at $5 for add-ons
Notes: Joomla! Native

Feng Office (formerly OpenGoo)

License: Open Source
Type: Web Based Self Hosted / SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Free / Starting at $20 per month

Other Options:

For large companies the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is common. ERP systems are used to manage the entire business including full accounting, human resources, inventory, project management, ecommerce, CRM and more depending on your vertical. What’s great about ERP systems is the business analytics and reporting they give you from all data being in one spot. What’s not so great is the need to customize the system to your business and the terrible user interfaces. The two ERP’s most suitable for web developers are OpenERP and NetSuite.

OpenERP

License: Open Source
Type: Web Based Self Hosted / SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: Yes
Price: Free / Starting at 39€ per month

NetSuite

License: Commercial
Type: SaaS
3^rd Party Add-ons: No
Price: Starting at around $300 per month

There are many options available when it comes to project management. It is important to find a tool that is a good fit.

What tools have worked well for your business?