Project management is a very intricate, time-consuming, and demanding process. Multiple team members, a budget, and various deadlines, all have to meet expectations to ensure a project is completed smoothly.  Any project has a much higher chance of success when a team is able to communicate effectively and tasks are clearly outlined. For this, many teams make use of project management software. These tools provide a variety of different features that help to promote productivity and organization for all team members as well as helping to reduce the overall time span of projects. 

For additional security and privacy, you can opt for self-hosted project management software. This means that your software is hosted on your own servers rather than on the premises of your provider. You’ll gain much more control over your server and can dictate which security protocols you put in place. We’ve helped you narrow down your choices by selecting the top three best self-hosted project management software providers in 2022. 

Workers on their laptops checking their project management software.
If you want to maximise your business’s potential then check out our full list of the best self-hosted software tools for businesses in 2022!

What is project management software?

Project management software is a tool that is designed to help increase a business team’s productivity and efficiency. Common project management features include budgeting, task scheduling, calendar sharing, document collaboration, roadmap creation, resource allocation, project planning, and analytics. These features will help to streamline the workflow of a team and automate tasks to save a business both time and money.  

Businesses and organizations with large teams may struggle to effectively plan and accomplish tasks which can cause deadlines to be missed or the overall project quality being compromised. Using project management software can close any communication gaps that might be present and allows all members of a team to maintain transparency with each other.  

Did you know that 37% of projects fail due to a lack of clearly defined objectives and milestones to measure progress? 

Why do I need self-hosted project management software?

If you want extra security and privacy, then self-hosting your project management software is a good idea. When self-hosting, you have complete control over the maintenance and management of your server which allows you to dictate the level of privacy, security, storage, speed, and stability of your server. 

Most self-hosted project management software is open source which means that the source code can be viewed and altered by anyone. Programmers often examine source code to ensure that the software isn’t performing any actions that they don’t like, as well as patching any security issues. Due to this, open-source software is generally much more reliable, trustworthy, and secure than proprietary (aka closed source) software. 

Where can I host my project management software? 

There is a huge selection of hosting providers to choose from. However, for self-hosting project management software we highly recommended A2 Hosting. This reputable provider has a range of hosting solutions available for your project management needs. The cheapest option, shared hosting, provides you with 100 GB, brute force defense, DDoS protection,  and a Cpanel control panel account.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a premium experience, then you can opt for one of A2 Hosting’s dedicated hosting plans. With dedicated hosting, you have the option between an unmanaged and managed server. With the managed server, you receive 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD storage, cPanel control, and optional full root access control. Whatever your budget and size, A2 hosting is guaranteed to have a suitable hosting plan for you. 

Our top recommended best self-hosted project management software 

We’ve handpicked the top three best self-hosted project management software based on their user experience, security, privacy, and feature set. 

OpenProject

OpenProject is an affordable project management tool that has been praised by millions of users for its rich set of features and ease of use. This open-source tool has a clean interface, plenty of customization available, and is incredibly easy to set up. OpenProject has all the essential features you need to manage a large team and ensure a streamlined workflow. 

Features provided by OpenProject include a project overview page, hierarchies, temperament, portfolio management, reports, automatic/manual scheduling, deadline calendar, task lists, multi-project view, team boards, backlogs, time tracker, budgeting, project timeline, and taskboards. 

There are also lots of customization options such as custom themes, custom actions, form configuration, roles/permissions management, and group management. With OpenProject, your data is protected by end-to-end AES-256 encryption, 2-factor authentication, and password security. OpenProject is highly committed to user data privacy and complies with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is a data protection law that provides set rules regarding the transparency, confidentiality, and fairness of collecting user data. Put simply, with OpenProject you can be sure that only essential information will be collected from you and any that is will be used fairly. 

OpenProject has a helpful and knowledgeable support team available through phone, email, and tickets. You can also take a look at the informative user guide which explains all the features and functionalities of the software. Even better, OpenProject also has a YouTube channel that can help you with the setting up and management of your account. 

ERPNext

ERPNext is an open-source ERP solution that not only assists with project management but also provides a range of ERP features that businesses can utilize. ERP (Enterprise resource planning) software is a combination of project management software (PMS) and resource management software. As well as managing projects, ERP software manages all other business aspects including human resources, manufacturing, finances, sales, and CRM. 

Focusing only on the project management side of the tool, ERPNext allows you to visualize, optimize, and control your team’s workflow through a single workspace. This task-driven approach allows team members to easily identify their own tasks which helps with deadlines being more accurately estimated. 

You can easily keep track of any project’s process with a clear overview using ERPNext’s all-in-one workplace, Kanban board. This board consists of cards that represent individual tasks that can be dragged and dropped into various columns. This tool promotes collaboration by allowing you to break down your project into smaller tasks and assign them to your team accordingly. 

Top features of ERPNext project management include a to-do list, real-time chat, document storage, email account sync, profitability analysis and time-tracking. Another interesting feature is the customer-accessible portal. This lets your customers or clients take a look at your project status and raise any issues if needed. 

As well as being easy to use, ERPNext is also highly customizable. You can do anything from creating custom scripts to changing form behaviors to ensure that the tool acts exactly how you want it to. You can also print any documents in your supplier’s or customer’s language for further convenience. ERPNext currently has 15 languages available, including German, Spanish, Greek, and Czech.

Focalboard

Focalboard is an open-source self-hosted alternative to popular board management tools such as Trello and Asana. Although this software is currently in early-access beta, it’s still packed with useful features that can help you define, track, and manage various team projects. 

Focalboard ships with Mattermost, a self-hosted collaboration platform. Mattermost is a secure and flexible tool that allows you to manage tasks and projects in a Kanban board structure to ensure a streamlined workflow. With Mattermost, you can create boards, add tracks, and view them by priority or status. You can also utilize Focalboard’s channel-based permissions to create private or read-only boards that can be joined through a generated link. Top features include multi-team view, unlimited custom attributes, backup snapshots, messaging, and file-sharing. 

If you don’t want to create a board from scratch, then you can choose from various included templates that have predefined structures. Available templates include personal goals/personal tasks, sorted by To Do, Doing, Done, project tasks, sorted by Next Up, In Progress, Completed, Archived, and meeting notes. There’s also a roadmap template that lets you filter using bugs, By Sprint, and By Status as well as marking cards as ‘priority’.

Focalboad doesn’t currently have a customer support team in place, however, you can file a GitHub issue if you’ve found any bugs or have a feature idea. Focalboard also has an anonymous feedback form where you can suggest any improvements for the tool. Additionally, for specific queries, you can head to the community channel where you can find various discussions, tips, tricks, and FAQS. 

A final note

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