Redbooth Review: Features and Best Alternatives
What is Redbooth?
Redbooth is an online workspace collaboration tool that allows teams to manage their projects, stay organized, and complete tasks while maintaining proper and effective communication between members.
This software is quite easy to use, and it functions to ensure that all users find it efficient for task delegation and assignment. It is designed with intuitive task management tools to streamline the whole process.
Redbooth dashboard is quite clear and concise, which ensures that with a single look at it, one can immediately see project timelines, the people working on different projects, as well as the progress of each project.
When you choose Redbooth for your project management, it is important to understand the different apps that it integrates with. Some of the best include Dropbox, Evernote, Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, and Box, among others.
Redbooth Features
You will realize that Redbooth features are primarily designed to develop, delegate, plan, and organize tasks. As a management tool, Redbooth could use more complex features like employee scheduling and job costing.
These would be essential in guiding project managers on issues like project budget, but unfortunately, Redbooth does not provide such. Regardless, Redbooth is still a great project planning platform that effectively supports communication throughout the team. Keep reading to understand some of Redbooth’s key features.
1. Dashboard
With the Redbooth Dashboard, users can smoothly check out the tasks assigned to them together with their due dates. You will also get to see due soon and overdue notifications for tasks whose time is about to elapse and those whose deadlines have already passed. On the “Updates” tab you can view the activity tracked on all tasks assigned to you.
2. Project Management
When you come across “Workspaces” in Redbooth, those are your projects, or rather where you will add your projects. With the Kanban board view, you can easily plan and track your projects with the help of such columns as “To-Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” Timeline view, which is also Redbooth’s Gantt Chart, will allow you access to your workspaces.
3. Tasks
Besides task creation and delegation, Redbooth allows you to develop subtasks and even generate due dates for them. If you are constantly creating the same task, make the work easier for yourself by creating a template.
4. Gantt Charts
Redbooth has a section named “timeline view”. If you are looking for the Gantt chart, this is exactly it. With this feature, you can easily create and delegate tasks.
You can also adjust project timelines and develop task dependencies, whatever you need to do. Any changes you introduce on the timeline view will automatically reflect on the Kanban board view. It is important to note that you can never use the Gantt Chart as your default view, as Redbooth has set that to be the Kanban board. Also, when adding tasks to your timeline view you have to remember to set their due date.
For some platforms, the process is automatically provided you establish the task duration and dependencies. Redbooth does not have a feature that automatically generates due dates based on the provided data.
5. Team Management
You can easily manage your team with the help of the Workload Reports feature, which allows you to access and view tasks assigned to various members of your team. It is important to remember that this feature will not help you determine the amount of time needed for each task, nor will it consider employee schedules. If this is essential data for you to run your team, you have to figure out another way.
6. Calendar
You will find the calendar in the Reports section. With this feature, you can view the projects and tasks assigned to various individuals. You can also use it to add projects/ tasks using the calendar view.
7. Time Tracking
You don’t have a stopwatch kind of time tracking mechanism with Redbooth. However, you can enter time manually to show the duration you have worked on each project. You can find this feature in the comments section.
8. Messaging
Redbooth allows you access to several communication tools, and with each workstation, you get a chat tab where your team can discuss issues relating to their tasks and projects. Through the common conversation tab, team members can easily share files and documents directly. You can tag a team member by using @mention, to quickly notify them about a task or to share any information with them that necessitates their immediate attention.
9. Email Settings
With Redbooth you can easily receive email notifications about your tasks and projects. There are also settings for those who never want to receive any notifications. Gmail and Redbooth have an integrated plugin that allows you to turn email discussions into projects or tasks.
10. Reports and Analytics
With Redbooth, you have access to multiple reports, all of which are essential in helping you monitor the various workspaces you are responsible for. Through this feature, you can easily view projects and their progress, as well as pinpoint those that are on time, yet to begin, and even the late ones. Although quite basic, these reports are effectively structured so that they are useful to you and easy to use at the same time.
11. HD Video Calls
Together with Zoom, Redbooth offers users HD video call features to help schedule face-to-face meetings between team members and even conference calls.
Are there any benefits to Using Redbooth? If so, what are they?
Yes, Redbooth is quite essential, especially for teams that work online. It is a great way to increase efficiency within the team and build a good workflow. The project managers can easily monitor the input of their employees while closely following up on the progress of each project.
Also, they won’t require too much movement or feel the need to constantly question employees about their workload progress. Below is a list of some important benefits of using Redbooth.
- Virtual workplaces: Redbooth provides your team with a central place for project management. It helps you get rid of disseminated teamwork efforts in your workplace by increasing visibility and promoting planned and synchronized work schedules.
- Video Conferencing: It doesn’t matter the physical location of your team members. With Redbooth, you can easily share ideas and communicate through the incorporated HD video chats. You will appreciate the face-to-face meetings that you can hold on the screen.
- Business Chat: You can easily hold team chats designed to promote the overall productivity of your team. With the business chat feature, you can create a safe and effective space for idea generation and sharing. This will also be beneficial in task development, assignment, and completion.
- Advanced Reporting: As the team leader you can easily go through the Redbooth dashboard to evaluate employee trends and gain insight on how to effectively allocate tasks and pinpoint at-risk inventions in time before they become problematic.
- Mobile Collaboration: When traveling, you can remain integrated with your team on your phone. The Redbooth platform is accessible on your iPhone, iPad, and even Android phone, so you will never miss any important updates even when on the road.
- Private Clouds: Redooth’s private cloud, which is hosted behind your firewall, ensures that your hardware is well protected and secure.
What are the disadvantages of Redbooth if any?
According to reviews, Redbooth users have a few complaints about the software. Find below some of the most common customer complaints.
- Basic Features: The Kanban board is the most suitable when using the Redbooth task management tool. If you rely on the software’s Gantt Chart, you are likely to disregard the mediocre project management tools. Most users also complain about the lack of a budgeting tool, which makes it difficult to track project expenses, which in turn makes budgeting similarly hard.
- Shoddy Customer Support: Most users complain that they can only receive support via email, which is not ideal, especially in situations where you need immediate assistance. Some customers have also raised complaints about the support not being so helpful after all.
- Less than smooth Documents: Difficulty in viewing Microsoft Word documents is quite a common complaint among most Redbooth users. Customers have mentioned that since you cannot view the documents on Redbooth, they have to constantly download every Word document they want to view. The process is quite time-consuming and less than ideal.
Redbooth’s Pricing
Redbooth has 3 pricing levels: Redbooth Free, Redbooth Pro, and Redbooth Business.
Redbooth Free
This plan is accessible for free, and it offers all the basic Redbooth features designed to help you easily organize your projects including:
- A maximum of 2 workstations
- 2 GB storage space for your files
- Task assignment and deadline setting
- Subtasks
- Reporting and Gantt charts
- iOS, Android, and Apple TV apps
- Infinite conversations and commentaries
- Project templates
- Email correspondence
- Free assimilations for Slack, Google Drive, and Dropbox
Redbooth Pro
You and your team can easily access Redbooth Pro for $9 a month. This plan is especially suitable for you if you aim to grow and develop your team. When you subscribe to the Pro membership plan you will have access to all the features that come with the Free plan and then the ones listed below:
- Infinite workstations
- 5GB storage space for your files
- HD Zoom Meetings
- Free guest users
- Pro Reporting
- Time tracking
- Private projects and workstations
- Pro assimilations for Cisco Spark, Evernote, and Box
Redbooth Business
Redbooth Business is accessible at a monthly fee of $15. This plan is especially suitable for large organizations. When you subscribe to the Redbooth Business membership plan you will have access to all the features that come with the Pro plan and then the ones listed below:
- Infinite workstations
- 50GB storage space for your files
- Delegable subprojects
- Business reporting
- Priority Support
- Business assimilations with Okta, Microsoft OneDrive for Business, and OneLogin
Conclusion
Redbooth is quite a useful project management tool, and the best part is that it is also quite easy to use. It has a few challenges, but that’s understandable as nothing is ever perfect. If you can look past these challenges, then it can be quite a great platform for your project management activities including task delegation and employee monitoring.
Besides, you have access to a free plan, which is quite a good place to start if you are not sure about the platform.
FAQs
Q. What is Redbooth used for?
Ans. Redbooth is known for providing workspaces where teams can collaborate, discuss, share files, and track time when working on various tasks and projects.
Q. Why should you choose Redbooth?
Ans. There are many reasons you should choose Redbooth. First of all, it is quite affordable regardless of the plan you choose. Secondly, it is a great project management tool that makes task delegation and employee monitoring quite smooth.
Q. How to use Redbooth?
Ans. To effectively use Redbooth, you have to understand such features as employee scheduling and job costing, and how you can use them to develop, delegate, plan, and organize tasks.
Q. What is the pricing structure of Redbooth?
Ans. Redbooth is quite affordable really and even has a free plan. The Pro and Business plans go for $9 and $15 monthly respectively if you go for the annual subscription.
Q. Is Redbooth worth the investment?
Ans. Yes. Redbooth is a great tool for developing and managing integrated workspaces, and you will appreciate the convenience that comes with running tasks, projects, and teams, online. That said, it is definitely worth the investment especially because it is quite affordable as well.
