easyprojects.net

Full Review

EasyProjects advertises as doing so much, and that generally makes me anxious. From what I know, promising the world rarely makes for a perfect app (if there is such a thing). But EasyProjects has a great feature layout, and makes a very compelling case to at least try the free trial. Just look at all it does: unlimited projects, infinite activity hierarchies, time tracking, live collaboration, custom reports, and more.

EasyProjects includes sample projects in the free trial to give you a feel for what's there, but I created my own project to get the whole experience. I set the name, time frame, status, priority, and had the option to add any custom field I needed for additional information. Files could be attached, and there was room for a project description. I could also manage all the members in the project, which was really neat. Not only can you add as many users as you want, you can assign specific roles. And you can even set the project to automatically assign new tasks to certain members. The flexibility works best for large groups.

Adding activities in EasyProjects is not a quick process. You click "add activity" and an entire page pops up, where you name the activity, assign it to a project, assign it to a user, describe it, etc. Don't get me wrong, it's great to have all those options. But I work for a startup, an activity I would add is something like "Fix RSS feed on site". I don't want this huge page with a laundry list of options, I just need a line where I can type and quickly add another. And if I want, attach files and comments - but that shouldn't be on the default ‘add activity' screen.

In general, EasyProjects screams enterprise. It actually is a great piece of work, but sophisticated to a fault. The dashboard is a great example. It has a wealth of data on it, and the widgets are entirely customizable. But looking at it gave me a headache, I didn't even know where to start. Same story with the GANTT charts. Again an incredibly useful feature, but just gave me a headache to look at - far too complex.

I didn't find the UI that nice to work with. It's clunky, and there's not a lot you can do directly on screen. Adding a new project, new activity, etc drags you away from the main app into a window where you enter in what you need to. Custom reports work fine and look good, but there's much more potential to have some GUI that allows users to truly customize reports (both in content and layout). I didn't get that from this reporting interface.

The Bottom Line

"Easy" is a relative term. If you're a Fortune 500 company, with fifty person teams working on massive projects, I have no doubt EasyProjects will make life easier. It's powerful, feature rich, and not difficult to use. But it's a different story for small businesses and startups, who don't need something this intense. EasyProjects is neither simple nor exceedingly intuitive, and it definitely isn't the cheapest web-based project management tool. So small businesses and startups, spend your money somewhere else.

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