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Show HN: Simple tool to manage time on projects for developers and freelancers
- dutchbrit 14y agoUI could do with quite a bit of extra work, it's also not clear on the pricing table if you're talking about 1 time fees, monthly or yearly. What happens if the Sumo package get's too small for me? -- EDIT -- Besides that good work, don't take my comment negatively :)
- paulloggable 14y agoIt's early days so really appreciate the feedback. Perhaps we need a 'bespoke' talk to us option for bigger than Sumo. Also fees are monthly.
- paulloggable 14y agoWhat do you think of the pricing and plan options?
- dutchbrit 14y agoPricing, based on the amount of users, is good. Also nice that you have a free plan for the solo user. But I'm not sure if the user/project ratio is good (the amount of projects per user could be higher).
- paulloggable 14y agoThanks, we are currently reviewing our plans, nothing is concrete at the moment and feedback is always appreciated. So potentially we could have a free plan that also includes more users.
- paulloggable 14y agoObviously, if there are more users we won't be calling it solo :-)
- iamben 14y agoWorth taking a quick look at the site on a mobile - the homepage is a little messed up... (Android/Chrome) Good work though! :-)
- scottmagdalein 14y agoYep, rough of iPhone, too.
- paulloggable 14y agoYep, we need to work on mobile support - thanks for the heads up
- iamben 14y agoNo worries - for the (really) quick (while you have traffic from HN) fix, stick: @media only screen and (max-width: 800px) { .tuck-corners .headline, .tuck-corners h2 { display:none !important; } } at the end of your style sheet. It (should!) hide the messy bit on the homepage from smaller screens and let people see/fill in the 30 trial day form.
- paulloggable 14y agothanks, much appreciated. We'll get this done once the server cools down. A deployment would kill it :-)
- variousbagels 14y agoOh, look. Lobster.
- paulloggable 14y agoCurrently struggling to handle the traffic from Hacker News - please bear with us people
- paulloggable 14y ago...and we're back :-)
- paulloggable 14y agoThis might help explain it a bit more to get people started, it's on the homepage but can't help to link it: http://vimeo.com/ggapps/loggable-getstarted http://vimeo.com/ggapps/loggable-getstarted
- ericcholis 14y agoPricing page portion for the Free/Solo package is a bit confusing. "30 Day Free Trial" for a package that is free? Perhaps you could replace it with "Always Free", or "100% Free"
- paulloggable 14y agoAgreed, good point
- kleinsch 14y agoI'm a freelancer and I didn't get a good sense of why I would use your product. Why is analyzing how I spend my time and looking at graphs going to make me more effective? Isn't the goal to spend more time working on projects and less time managing my tools? I think for many freelancers the question is going to be: why would I stop using Harvest to use your tool? For me, I didn't see the reason. Not saying you don't have a good product here - just think the marketing message could be clearer.
- erebrus 14y agoI second that, except that I use Toggl, which has a great free layer.
- paulloggable 14y agoToggl is a great tool
- paulloggable 14y agoThanks for the feedback. We definitely need to work on a clearer marketing message that focuses on the benefits. We use the data from the time logged to assess how accurate our estimates were against actual time to deliver a project so that we improve future quotes for projects. We realised that in addition to quoting time spent developing the ability to review time spent on planning, in meetings and fixing bugs is invaluable information.
- reefab 14y agoTerrible presentation on that page imho, the video needs to be replaced by a quick blurb explaining the service.
- paulloggable 14y agoYep, realised that after I posted, the quality full screen is poor. We do need to work on clearly explaining what it is.
- erebrus 14y agoSomething really basic, but it wouldn't hurt to say that the prices are (I assume) monthly. Also, having to start writing a project's name to find it is not very efficient.
- paulloggable 14y agoInteresting, do you think it would be better to replace autocomplete with a standard drop down for the project selector? Agreed, a couple of people have commented about how to make the pricing plans more obvious and clearer
- paulloggable 14y agoHuge thanks so far to everyone who has commented. It's really early days and its clear we need to work on the mobile support, pricing plans and most importantly the marketing aspects of the product and website. Really appreciate the feedback.
- paulloggable 14y agoHere's a recent interview that attempts to explain where we are coming from: http://doeswhat.com/2013/01/17/interview-with-paul-rhodes-loggable/ http://doeswhat.com/2013/01/17/interview-with-paul-rhodes-lo...
- ckevinc 14y agoI find this a very interesting product category - and I'm part of a very (I feel) undeserved category of consultant/freelancers. The essence of what you seem to be doing "uber simple" (the the home page states), is what had me interested. But, after seeing your video, and the number of times a user has to click on different elements - it's clear this is not a simple logging tool. I also think the video could be (a) called out above the fold and (b) include some sort of voice over. I feel there is a market ready and waiting for those that work on more abstract sorts of things. Situations where work might form more organically from a blog post on http://blogging.cwl.cc http://blogging.cwl.cc (it's happened) or a small idea (more frequent), and eventually turns into billing or a larger scale project. With tools like these that are project-based - It feels like logging friction is much to high. The problem is not being solved (in my opinion) because generally no one wants to log what they do, but for those that have decided to do so, there should be little to no clicking and a process to capture everything written in very low overhead manner (mobile support is essential). So far, no tool seems to be as good as a simple OTA sync'ed calendar. So far.
- paulloggable 14y agoThanks for the feedback. We've had a few comments about the video and it's currently under review. I think a series of screencasts with voiceover would help. It's interesting that you were attracted by its simplicity headline, but that you feel it's not that simple to enter time. We definitely need to address this if it could be streamlined further. Agreed that mobile support is essential and we are working on resolving this. Low overhead is key. We are learning a hell of a lot as a result of the feedback on Hacker News and you raise some key fundamentals areas to review. Thanks, I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know your thoughts.
- ckevinc 14y agoYou're very welcome. I'm reading what I've written and it seems overly critical of your work. I don't want you to feel that's the case; it does look like a wonderful tool and, in the case of a developer or a web freelancer, may be very useful indeed. I look forward to seeing how this project unfolds and I appreciate you taking the time to read my suggestions. Kevin
- face7hill 14y agoThis looks like a pretty cool project. I would love to try it out once your servers cool down, particularly your API. I'm playing around with APIs for Harvest and Freshbooks now. Full disclosure: I created a minimalist time tracking tool for freelancers/agency folks that lowers the barrier to logging your work: https://timestreamapp.com/ https://timestreamapp.com/ It's not for everyone, but it resonates with some folks (the minimalist UI + keyboard driven nature and available CLI).
- paulloggable 14y agoJust checked out your app. Really cool app! I like the fact that you can enter statuses from a variety of routes and the video explains it well.
- face7hill 14y agoRight on. Thanks Paul. Are you guys planning to open up an API?
- paulloggable 14y agoYes we have an API on our roadmap but no exact date of release yet I'm afraid. Still fixing some fundamentals :-) I'm keen to keep abreast of your tool too.