Show HN: Simple Alternative to Complex Project Management for Freelancers
The reason we decided to build EnkiTask.com was pretty simple: after trying a bunch of popular project management tools like Trello, Asana, and Jira, none of them really hit the mark for us. Some, like Trello, came close, but they still had drawbacks. Most of the others were either too complicated, packed with features we didn’t need, or had a clunky interface. And then there was the pricing — we didn’t want to get stuck paying monthly for team members who might only be active for a short time, especially since our team changes a lot. So, we built EnkiTask.com to keep things clean, simple, and easy to use, with flexible pricing that doesn’t penalize you for having a dynamic team.
Instead of locking users into monthly or yearly subscriptions, we decided to ditch recurring payments altogether. With EnkiTask, you can buy task packages for really small amounts, so you only pay for what you actually need, when you need it.
We’re not trying to create the next “super killer” software or anything like that. We built EnkiTask.com for ourselves, using it intensively to meet our own needs. After showing it to our friends and family, we received a lot of positive feedback, which motivated us to make it publicly available.
This is just our first version, and we’re constantly adding more functionality as add-ons, keeping the core features clean and easy to use.
Check it out and let us know your thoughts: https://enkitask.com
34 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 80.5 ms ] threadI'd love to see some real-world examples of how EnkiTask has helped teams achieve their goals, rather than just a laundry list of features. And can we get some transparency on pricing? 'Pay-for-task packages' sounds like a great idea, but how much does each task cost, and what's the minimum commitment?
Overall, EnkiTask feels like a me-too product that's trying to ride the coattails of more established players in the project management space. I'd need to see some serious proof of concept before I'd consider using this tool for my team.
To be completely honest, this tool isn't designed for large-scale projects with multiple stakeholders, and I’ve mentioned that it's focused on solopreneurs, freelancers, indie makers, and small teams. We’re still in the early public stages, and our main goal is simplicity for these types of users.
Regarding integrations, we’re actively working on them. Expect to see a lot coming soon in the form of Add-ons—stay tuned! This is just our base version, and there’s a lot of work ahead. If people like it and the demand grows, we’ll invest more resources to develop and evolve EnkiTask.
As for the AI-generated changelogs, I’ll add more detailed explanations and examples in the documentation soon. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely add some use cases to the landing page to show how EnkiTask is helping teams achieve their goals in real-world scenarios.
Regarding pricing, feel free to check out our pricing page here: https://enkitask.com/prices. As you'll see, tasks start from $0.05 and go as low as $0.01—the more you buy, the less each task costs. There's absolutely no commitment—you can buy as many tasks as you need and use them whenever you want.
You're absolutely right! One of the main reasons we built EnkiTask is because we can . I don't have any flashy proof or guarantees – we've spent over a year building it for our own internal use, and it works really well for us. The best proof I can offer is for you to try it out yourself. If you like it, that’s awesome! If not, no hard feelings.
I'd love it if you could just tell me exactly what sets it apart. A lot of the language reads as abstract marketing fluff like boosting my productivity and the like.
Maybe you could tell me what is bad about trello, asana, jira etc that you sought to fix with your product?
I would also ditch the ai image at the top. It kind of sends the message you phoned it in when making the website. You'd be better off just showing the product itself right from the start.
As for why EnkiTask is different, I think the best way to find out is to give it a try. If you like it, I’ll be thrilled! If not, that’s totally okay too. :)
And regarding the hero image—yep, I messed up on that one! I’ll get it swapped out today. Thanks for pointing it out!
To say the least... This one looks like something out of a horror movie.
We've had models that can generate realistic looking people and coherent text for a while now, if they're going to insist on using an AI generated image (for some reason) at least make it a good one. Or better yet just mock up a product image that shows off what you're actually selling.
Since the pricing model is so uncommon, it would be good to get more clarity on how that works in practice. For example, if I work at a company with 25 devs with about 100 tasks going into each two-week sprint, does the pricing mean I need to spend maybe $6 per month to buy 250 tasks? That seems unsustainably affordable.
p.s. scrollbars in the column view on the each column are a bit distracting
For freelance and small contracting work, and then lately for my own side projects and such, I've been running a self hosted instance of OpenProject. It has 2 features that I find are extremely valuable: 1. resource and materials costs 2. Gantt charts
Having costing available is extremely useful for paid gigs: not only for budgeting purposes, but also indirectly in keeping scope creep to a minimum (or alternatively, being able to indicate how much the additional effort is actually going to cost based on task estimates, and having informed conversations with the client if needed).
And gantt charts seem to not be used as much these days, but its really helpful in getting a quick overview of how changes to a projects tasks (new tasks added, delays, resource planning constraints, etc) affect the project timeline.
For the most part, I tend to find that increasingly, "project management" tools are more actually "task management" tools. Which have their uses. But for project management, there's more to a project than just its tasks.
Regarding Gantt charts and budgeting, I intentionally chose not to integrate those features because I wanted to keep things simple and affordable. There are already plenty of great tools for managing budgets and finances. Instead of building those features from scratch, I’d rather focus on creating a lot of integrations with existing tools to provide users with flexibility. That said, I’m planning to launch a Feature Suggestion page soon where users can propose and vote on features they’d like to see added. If those features gain enough support, we’ll definitely consider adding them! :)