Quire

Benefits:

Wow, just wow! I was looking for a "better" alternative for Trello and I stumbled upon Quire and I wasn't disappointed. With the dark theme on as well, I was ready to boost my productivity.

Drawbacks:

None at the moment. I do wish there was a cheat sheet for shortcuts and key bindings, but that's just nitpicking.

In sum:

It was (and still is) very pleasing.

Benefits:

The tags funtionality is the best. Not many Project Management tolls have that. It's super fast and works well on iPhone too. I like the notifications functionality on iPhone.

Drawbacks:

The file upload size is only 5 MB. That's a major constraint. This should be raised to atleast 500 MB. You don't want to upload files elsewhere, share links and waste time.

In sum:

It helps us to manage our tasks in a better and a more efficient manner. It lets me keep a track of tasks on the move through my iphone.

Benefits:

Simple. Fast. Intuitive. Not distracting. Gives everything a freelancer, SMBs or corporate might need. It's not overly complicated with unnecessary features. Tree structure is absolutely awesome! This way you can break every project into actually manageable tasks. Every task or subtask can have priority, start and due date, responsible person or external team and files attached. FREE.

Drawbacks:

Minimalistic view might give an impression it's super basic and won't provide what you need [but the truth is exactly the opposite]. Some people might find lack of chat or message board a disadvantage [but for me tasks comments are enough and allow me to keep things tidy]. There is no calendar view so it can be seen as a negative by some people [but there is a timeline view which is good enough for me]. Not sure how pricing structure will look like in the future.

In sum:

Overall I'm loving it and using Quire on a daily basis. It made my life so easy that I cannot believe how I managed before without it. It's clean, elegant and for me very easy to use. It took me maybe 2-3 hours to figure out most of the stuff and a day or so to feel really comfortable with it. Quire has all the features I wanted to have and gives me the ability to organize my business efficiently. It's brilliant that I can have several workspaces with multiple projects. Which I can further split into nested tasks with subtasks, but also into linked sublists with differnt view, e.g. boards. Even if I'm looking for something it turns out to be better thought out then how I would expect it to be or look like. Plus I can get an overview of progress stats and progress summary. Not to mention the support is amazing! Fast, responsive and eager to help. Something that you won't see much when it comes to free tools. Honestly, I can't believe it really is a free tool.

Benefits:

The ease with which you can add tasks using keyboard shortcuts. For almost all the other systems I had used, it was very difficult to populate the tasks into the system and hence it didn't work out for our small team. But quire did a wonderful thing managing tasks by breaking a big task into smaller pieces so that everyone in the team is aware of the progress without any email communication. Everytime we introduce a new tool, adaptability is the main issue as employees will be reluctant to use tools. But with quire, it was a breeze. Everyone adapted to it quickly.

Drawbacks:

Quire doesn't have an android app yet and that is a big worry. Even though they have a very responsive web app which works really good in mobile, the native experience is missing. Also I would like to have a feature where I can select a member and see all the tasks assigned to that person.

Benefits:

Simple UI Easy inline entry of tasks and restrictions such as due date, start date, assignees, tags, files and everything else one could need to get their tasks in order and their team up to date In line chat and descriptions let people talk about important issues The overview and kanban board options are great for people who organize their information in different ways, and the ability to have the boards interact with one another in various ways is excellent

Drawbacks:

Very minimalistic (A positive for me, but maybe not for everyone!) Constant improvements being rolled out (A positive for me, but not everyone wants to have to learn new features constantly) FREE!

In sum:

It took all of 4 days for me to become comfortable with their version of markdown and the in line task entry system. Creating check boxes, tables, asigning tasks in line, assigning deadlines and start dates in line, all of it. There has been no issues to date with the software, and I am now using it to organize my entire life. NOT just my working life. Getting my team onboard was easy, and everyone who uses the software comments on how easy it was to learn to use in our context, and how lightweight/quick it is to use.

Benefits:

There is the option of adding new sub list items to top or bottom of list There are nice shortcut instructions when hovering over function icon It is easy to keep track of who is collaborating on a project Collaboration conversations can be always in view Quire is a little different from other apps that I have tried. The design and layout doesn't seem to get in the way as much. There is the ability to add Due Dates and Reminders I rarely collaborate on projects with others. If I collaborated more often I might be more inclined to use Quire regularly. I am impressed that Quire developers have reached out to me several times to asking for feedback about my usage and to answer questions that I had. There is a detailed history of editing of each specific project

Drawbacks:

Like most other note taking apps available, Quire does have a somewhat rigid structure that gets in the way of productivity for me, but may be useful for others. Navigation on the Quire screen is a little more spread out than the WorkFlowy screen. Making use of the Keyboard shortcuts is suggested A few times I unintentionally pressed the complete button and "completed" an item on Android I find navigating the page, using built-in calendars and other features is unnecessary for what I want to accomplish Quire is a little slower than WorkFlowy to refresh I am able to do pretty much everything in Quire that I can do with WorkFlowy, but it is a little more time consuming The adding tasks and subtasks and breaking them down is a little more complicated in Quire a benefit of WorkFlowy is that you can compose or copy and paste any portion of your entire WorkFlowy list into an email, letter, article, app or document. There is some exporting of Quire into a CSV document, which can be copied and pasted into a document with some reworking. As much or as little of your whole WorkFlowy list can be shown at one time #n Unlike Quire, WorkFlowy does not have predetermined frames to enter text into you can always see the entire text

In sum:

I have been experimenting with Quire, It has some nice features, however I prefer WorkFlowy for its ease of navigation and plainness, but had I not discovered WorkFlowy after Springpad shut down, I would have probably started using Quire because of it's features and functionality.

Benefits:

I've used many task management applications before for their various strengths and functionality in conjunction such as Trello, Keep, Workflowy, etc. at the same time but Quire is an interesting middle-ground. While it doesn't consist of the strengths of the other tools, it sits comfortably in between them and is pretty consistent with one's desired workflow. It's simple enough to quickly manage and navigate through, and has enough complex features for someone like me to keep track of larger projects, whether in a team or simply working solo. Its tag-search system is also fantastic! It allows the tool to get out of your way so that you can put more time and energy on your actual work. Another brilliant idea that Quire has had recently is to have an app-less access to your project via browser shortcut on smartphones. What it does is that it saves a shortcut your phone's desktop so you can access your tasks even if offline just like an app without having to install anything! I love that!

Drawbacks:

While the desktop navigation is fantastic via short-cuts, Quire seems to be pretty clunky on smartphones. I can still drag around tasks no problem (except for my chubby finger not letting me see where I'm even dropping it), it's really hard to use it to create and manage tasks or plan-out projects on-the-go. This is partly what keeps me from using it on Android, and instead I still rely on Google Keep. Other things may be considered a "con" for some, even though it wasn't for me, but thought I'd mention either way: For one, Quire's strength is in its simplicity, so there may not be features that high-end project-management tools are expected to have, such as the Timeline feature. Personally I did not require it, because Quire's Progress Stats is fine enough for me. Secondly, part of Quire's simplicity aspect goes into how the tasks are managed; when you finish a task, it is removed from sight, therefore out of mind so you can now focus on something else. While it makes you more efficient and productive (provided you've planned things out ahead of time), in certain projects there are times when I'd like to keep track of completed tasks, and it's not really easy to do that quickly in Quire unless you decide before-hand how you intend to use it. But that's just a minor nitpick, so it doesn't bother me that much. Though I do mind lack of Google Calendar integration.

In sum:

Quire's biggest strength is its simplicity, and that has been a boon for me, which is why I've stuck to it. It allows me to plan-out my projects extensively and manage them at a glance, saving me plenty of time and effort in order to get things done.

Benefits:

Quire makes team collaboration a lot easier. Where other collaboration software focuses on getting the project done, Quire focuses more on the actual team dynamic and requirements. It's basically one giant, collective to-do list in one place. I can just log into my computer every day and see what needs to get done, and if I need someone else to do something, I can just attach their name to the task in the list. Very handy!

Drawbacks:

Learning how to use Quire took a little longer than I would have liked, but after working on a few projects with it, I got the hang of everything. A more comprehensive tutorial would work wonders.

In sum:

So far so good!

Benefits:

I really liked the simplicity of the app which allows me to outline my thoughts powerfully and create powerful and organized plans that have allowed me to accomplish big projects

Drawbacks:

So far I have not found negative aspects of this app

In sum:

I really loved this app because it has allowed me to increase my productivity and my organization through the roof. It helps me create powerful plans for my business and the simplicity of the app makes it easy to execute my plans and achieve excellent results. I highly recommend this magnificent app.

Benefits:

My team and I work in a high speed environment where keeping track of the latest information via emails, texts, calls and more is extremely hard. Quire has been a great tool for keeping the entire team up to date with all of the latest and greatest information. We don't want anyone to have to refer back to emails to see what is correct, so we make sure that we immediately update the project information in Quire and then everyone is on the same page. We set up a tagging system, so that our various clients and the various facilities we do work at each have a tag with a particular color. As we open up a new project, we will apply the correct tags, so we know at a quick glance who the important players are. This is especially useful as everyone on the team bounces around from project to project, so knowing who is involved and what job # to bill to is very important. Quire handles this all very well. Quire also allows you to attach small files, which is one the main features we use, and possibly the most important. We know that the latest spec sheet is in the project on Quire, so we don't have to search around for it. It keeps our artists on track and asking way fewer questions. Quire's sync is very good and updates very quickly when others make changes / updates. We use the web and iOS versions all day every day.

Drawbacks:

I feel like the searching functionality could be improved, so when you search for a particular name or client or job name, it only shows you the tasks that match your search. Right now, it only highlights matching tasks in a long list. It makes it too difficult to find a specific old job, so for instance you can copy information from the old job task to a new job task.

In sum:

We work in a business where we have to be on top of things, we can't make any mistakes, and quick / accurate delivery of elements to our clients is paramount. By using a project management system like Quire, we can have a visual status of our various projects, with up-to-date information, contacts and specifications, so we can move at a quicker pace with significantly fewer questions. The support for Quire has been great, with quick responses and excitement over adding new / different features that we have requested. They also "dog food" their software and use the actual Quire service for their FAQ and some support questions, so they know what works and doesn't work.