[HN Gopher] Show HN: EnkiTask: Lightweight Project Management fo...
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Show HN: EnkiTask: Lightweight Project Management for Freelancers
Author : booper
Score : 64 points
Date : 2025-03-17 10:02 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (enkitask.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (enkitask.com)
| zareith wrote:
| The project looks cool, but I'd strongly recommend against the
| per-task pricing.
|
| This makes budgeting & forecasting difficult to impossible for a
| lot of teams, and creates wrong incentives. It is better to have
| a per user pricing, and then allow them to use as much as they
| want.
| steelaz wrote:
| Threw me off at first as well. I was thinking of tasks per
| month. But this seems to be just pay as you go top-ups. Makes
| sense from a freelancer perspective. If I have work, I top-up
| my account. If there is none, I don't feel pressure like from
| all the other monthly subscriptions.
| rapind wrote:
| I love this pricing model as a potential customer. The cost is
| so little that it wouldn't be a deterrent. This is way better
| than another subscription.
|
| There's a lot of problems trying to run a business with this
| model though IMO (forecasting, recurring expenses, etc.). I
| hope it works out for them though!
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Seems like they are targeting the side of the market where per
| user pricing doesn't work.
| internet101010 wrote:
| Pay as you go is better for all but the heaviest of users. The
| low cost per task and topping up a balance make it one less
| thing to think about, one less monthly fee, and will almost
| certainly result in cheaper cost per month.
|
| It's the same reason why I use api keys from all of the LLM
| providers rather than pay monthly fees to any one individual
| company. It's $5-10/mo vs. ~$80/mo.
| mbesto wrote:
| I like the pricing - I think its interesting. But I think the
| author should just give the option to do one or the other.
| Unlimited at $10/month or per task.
| zareith wrote:
| Yes, that would make it ideal.
| qwertox wrote:
| "Beyond Jira", but searching for API yields no results, except
| for Zapier.
|
| Jira is so much more than just the Web-UI, it has a very powerful
| API and it can be queried in a very flexible way.
|
| https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/jql-f...
| briandear wrote:
| That power makes it annoying. Product Managers get their inner
| Stalin thrills using Jira. It's obnoxiously complicated.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Looks interesting, but do freelancers want something like Jira in
| the first place?
|
| Jira is mainly used in enterprise settings and good luck
| convincing project managers to switch from it...
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Yeah it's the bane of my existence. Such a terrible product.
| Really poor UI. But it gives project managers pretty pictures.
|
| My hatred for Jira (and the wider 'agile' methodology) ensures
| that I'll never use something similar when I have the choice
| though.
| mathgeek wrote:
| You have several typos on your pricing page (not sure about any
| others, only page I looked at).
| nik736 wrote:
| Who is behind this project?
| bloomingkales wrote:
| What kind of question is this?
| nik736 wrote:
| Well usually there is an about us page, or you know some kind
| of legal details which company I am buying from.
| notpushkin wrote:
| > Company: when this policy mentions "Company," "we," "us,"
| or "our," it refers to Feedban, Inc., 30 N Gould St Ste R
| Sheridan, WY 82801 that is responsible for your information
| under this Terms & Conditions.
|
| > Country: where EnkiTask.com or the owners/founders of
| EnkiTask.com are based, in this case is UA.
|
| Not quite buried, but definitely could be more
| straightforward: https://enkitask.com/tos
|
| Edit: Feedban seems to refer to their other product,
| https://feedban.com/
| SCdF wrote:
| I get the task pricing motivation: you want folk to pay for how
| much they use, not a flat rate, because if they are freelancing
| why spend a flat fee for variable use. One of the reasons I don't
| use Lightroom is that I only take lots of photos a few times a
| year, and I feel stupid paying for a month in which I don't use
| it.
|
| * _However*_ , this alternative is pretty weird. Think about it
| from the perspective of a software developer. Would you really
| want the granularity of your tickets dictated by a pricing model?
| dsmurrell wrote:
| > Would you really want the granularity of your tickets
| dictated by a pricing model?
|
| I think the pricing is reasonable enough for this not to
| happen.
| fladrif wrote:
| On the whole it's also conflating different incentives. You
| don't typically associate your costs with _how_ you're using
| your tools, at least you don't want to. It creates a bad (or
| perverse) incentives to change how you work in order to
| minimize costs, you're rewarding your users to use your
| product less.
| matt-p wrote:
| It's 1 or 2 cents per task though on all but the lowest plans.
| SCdF wrote:
| I have seen an at least 10x variance in how people document
| their work in tickets. So 1 or 2 cents per "story" for some
| becomes 10 to 20 cents per "story" for others.
|
| For me that just feels like a weird external factor. If it
| doens't bother you more power to you.
| 0x457 wrote:
| I remember when I set up integration between GitHub Issues and
| some external ticket system, I've introduced infinite loop and
| issues being created on both sides. I'm glad that I didn't pay
| per task.
| petargyurov wrote:
| Looks nice but why wouldn't one use Shortcut [0] instead? It's
| got a completely free tier.
|
| [0] https://www.shortcut.com/
| notpushkin wrote:
| And there's a lot of great open source alternatives you can
| self-host as well, e.g. https://plane.so/ or a newer
| https://kaneo.app/ (recently discussed on HN:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43143097).
| dp-hackernews wrote:
| [delayed]
| ysavir wrote:
| Just a quick note to say that I find the "overscroll-behavior-x:
| none;" setting obnoxious, and it immediately set a resentful tone
| towards your website. Please don't limit how I interact with my
| browser.
| xnx wrote:
| Does this have advantages over Trello?
| misiek08 wrote:
| Just use GitHub projects instead of paying per task? WOW.
| MomsAVoxell wrote:
| I have found Jira to be quite a useful, lightweight project
| management tool for freelancing - but I have three principles: 1.
| Design my own workflow, 2. Make the Kanban the "Workflow Board",
| 3. Everyone reviews the Workflow Board, every day, and pushes
| their issues from left to right, through the workflow.
|
| Each step in the workflow is the 'kind of work' that needs to be
| done on the Issue, all the way to "Release this issue into a
| Version".
|
| My clients love having the Workflow Board just up on a screen, so
| they can see progress as issues go from left to right. My sub-
| contractors like having concise work units, well described, to
| work on - and more to the point, have gotten 'in the flow' as far
| as pushing things from left to right. And I enjoy spending my day
| making sure the issues are well-described, and in the proper
| place in the workflow, as well as collecting data, refining
| issues, and generally being the grease of the wheels.
|
| Of course, this style isn't for everyone, or every kind of
| project - but I have found, if you can usefully describe the flow
| of work from "idea -> done" in concrete stages, and have roles
| and responsibilities well respected by those working on the
| projects (anyone can assign an issue to anyone else, or move the
| issue in the workflow, including backwards in the case of
| inappropriate completion) .. most projects can be run well with
| Jira, and any other project management systems which allow the
| description of workflow.
|
| So, I usually sniff at any PM which claims to be a replacement
| for Jira, while not immediately having custom workflow -> Kanban
| board mapping, and an immediate interface to doing that. I find a
| scrolling list of issues that can only be sorted by tag to be
| particularly irksome.
|
| How does EnkiTask compare in that regard, anyone know?
| yard2010 wrote:
| I must say you bought me the idea of the perfect system for the
| "idea -> deliverable" workflow. I'm gonna try this myself in my
| contracts.
| briandear wrote:
| Pivotal Tracker had a nice pricing model..
| zwilderrr wrote:
| fyi https://docs.enkitask.com/ is not loading the js bundle. i'm
| on my corporate laptop behind a vpn, however, so maybe my company
| doesn't want me being efficient and effective :)
| revskill wrote:
| Seriously, i would bring any forum software and use it as a valid
| project management tool.
| weakfish wrote:
| I am not the target audience, but I applaud the attempt at a
| different pricing model. Even if it has flaws (pointed out
| elsewhere in this thread), I'm happy to see someone attempt
| something other than subscriptions.
| foundzen wrote:
| the author posted it on HN, marked their task done, and went to
| sleep. and we are wondering why do we need another project
| management tool.
| joshstrange wrote:
| As a solo-founder I really appreciate the pricing model. Too many
| tools have a pricing "cliff" that makes it unusable for my needs.
| On top of freelancing/similar my side-business is very "bursty"
| which means free/low tier plans are too small for my busy weeks
| and the paid tiers are either too expensive to keep year-round
| but I'd gladly pay for my usage.
|
| That said, my go-to project management tool has always been
| "whatever my current company is using". It lowers the cognitive
| overhead and has some nice benefits for both my day job and my
| side business (being more knowledgeable of the tool and how to
| use it).
| browningstreet wrote:
| I'm usually a bit leary when I don't see an "About" page for a
| company. I do see from Contacts page that you're in Australia.
| mpeg wrote:
| FYI your pricing page has typos: "Experitaion Date" /
| "Experitaion Date"
| Xmd5a wrote:
| >"Amazingly affordable tool." - Hacker News
|
| ctrl-f "amazing"
|
| >No matches
|
| Ditto in comments for other submissions. This is the way.
| dalemhurley wrote:
| AI generated testimonials. AI's constant need to create fake
| quotes and testimonials is one of the most annoying things when
| using AI to help create landing pages. I constantly am removing
| them.
| jhwhite wrote:
| On your pricing tab "Expiration" is spelled incorrectly on Pro
| and Elite levels.
| dalemhurley wrote:
| I don't get this product offering these days, In about 3 hours of
| almost vibe coding, AI and I created a Kanban board on Toolnames,
| which is completely free and completely client side (using
| localstorage) https://toolnames.com/productivity/kanban-board
| dalemhurley wrote:
| When I say almost vibe coding, I mean I was involved in the
| process and making manual code edits.
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