Task Manager Product Comparison and Feature Analysis

WREQ is a nice package as it has several cool features: 1) Automatic FAQing service 2) requests handled by web and email 3) System logging and metric tracking
BTT looks to be a fairly complete tracking system, but uses a language and database that no one has ever heard of. It may be a worth looking at, as the people who did it seem to know what they are doing, but good luck trying to convince anyone except a weirdo CompSci person to try to maintain it.
Debian Bugtracker isn't very user friendly.
Elementool is based on a tiered pay model, and appears to host the product on their own servers, which is bad if they go down/out of business we lose.
Keystone was acquired by another company from the original developer and has since been abandoned. stonekeep consulting who was hosting the page on keystone says not to bother with it and to try RT instead.

Basic Features	TouxDoux	Roundup	ProManager	GNATS	Teacup	Tacker	PHPSAT	Job Control System	Scarab
Contact info:
Demo info:								demo
Evaluated by:	DMH	DMH	DMH	DMH	Will	Will	Will	Jiong	Jiong
0: Rank/Status
1: Record a task entry in database	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, by web or email.	Yes. by web only		Yes
2: Display a task queue a. By task number b. By requester c. By processor	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a. Yes b.Perhaps not as easy c.Yes	a. Surprisingly not, may be possible to configure to do it. b.Yes c.Yes		Probably. There is a "database content' button on the interface.
3: Assign processor to task	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes.
4: Update task status	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Unknown
5: Easy to use: a. UI for requester b. UI for processor c. UI for administrator	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a. No-bugs requests are issued via email b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Probably	a.Yes b.Yes c.Probably			a. unknown b.yes c.unknown
6: a. Free software b. Open source c. Support free server d. Support free database e. Free programming language	a.Yes b.Yes c.N/A d.Yes (PostGres) c.Yes(C++)	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes d.Yes (internal database) e. Yes(Python)	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes d.Yes(PostGres/Mysql) e.Yes(PHP)	a.Yes b.Yes c.N/A d.Yes(internal) e.Yes(C,Perl)	a. Yes b.GPL c.Developed on and tested with Apache 1.3.9 d.PostgreSQL 6.5.2 or later recommended e.Perl 5.003 is recommended	OS: Windows, Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD? a.Yes b.Yes, Zope Public License, GPL compatible c.Yes.Apache d.Zwiki pages, not sure what underlying database is, if any e. Zope / Python		a. yes. Support can be purchased from Bynari International b. yes c. yes. The server resides on a Linux operating system using Apache's web server. d. it uses flat file database. Interconnection with popular open source and commercial databases, and enhanced reporting capabilities will be added. e.Done up with Bourne-shell CGI scripts.
7: Web-based	No-GNOME based	Tickets are viewable view the web, but issued via email	Yes	Yes.GNATS is unix console based- GNATSWeb is a seperate package that makes it web based	Yes	Yes		Yes
8: Dependable a. Actively used b. Being actively developed and supported c. Has a detailed installation procedure	a.Perhaps, but more for project management and not bug tracking b.yes c.yes	a.Still in beta b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Yes b.Yes c.Yes	a.Not sure b.Being actively developed and supported Released on May 1, 2000, with doc updates on May 2, 2000,and apparently no changes since then c.Yes, really well documented overall	a.Probably. b.Email list has 26 people on it, so it seems active. c.Yes, documented		a. unknown b.yes c. yes
9: Email the user with a 'ref number' automatically	No	Yes	No	Yes	I think so.	I think so.		no
10: Email task notification to processor	No	Yes	No	Yes	I think so.	Yes		no
11: Performance: a. Multi-user system	a.Yes	a.Yes	a.Yes	a.Yes	Unknown	Unknown		Unknown
12: Provide secure service	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Username and password administration		Don't know
13: Automated task execution: a. With echoing into task notes field	a.Unknown	a. No	a.No	a.No	Not sure, but looks possible a.Also looks possible	Not sure, but looks possible a.May be difficult until incoming data interface added.		Unknown
14: Metrics: a. Most frequently requested b. Time to task completion	a.Yes b.Yes	a.No b.No	a.Yes b.No	a.No b.No	Some reporting available. a.Not sure what this means? You can see frequencies by priority, requester, etc. b.Not sure	Some reporting available, but couldn't access it without obtaining account. a.Most frequently requested b. Time to task completion		no
15: Archive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Nothing mentioned.	Nothing mentioned.		Nothing mentioned.
16: Task notes field	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Has a log function which might function as a task notes field	Not sure.		Yes
17: Search facility	Yes	No	No	Yes(including regular expression search!)	Yes	Yes		yes
18.Can receive tasks from OPG web form:					Yes, via web-generated email if nothing else	Currently does not accept incoming email,looks like there may be plans to add it.		No
19.Maintenance					Hard to tell.	There is an email list devoted to the product so it may be possible to get help that way.		Nothing mentioned.

* ToudDoux, while a cool application, is more akin to MS-Project than it is a user-based bug tracking/request tool... It is not web-enabled, so its usefullness to us kind of declines...
* Roundup is still very much in beta
* ProManager is definately still in development stage, with lack of niceties like email notification, but it works, and it also supports seemingly several dozen languages. It also has strange features like heiarchical/recursive tasks
* ReqNG: Seems to be down! Is anyone still supporting this?
* GNATS itself is a unix based issue tracking system that is difficult to train users on. GNATSweb is the web interface, but it's development is hinged on the development of GNATS itself. It seems that the queries can get rather sophisticated if you put in the learning time...

* OpenTicket evaluationProduct no longer available.
* HelpDesk I would not recommend this product based on what I've seen, so we can just leave it off the list.

* Open track:This version of OpenTrack uses the SleepyCat database package for storing all PR(problem tracking)s. If you want to use this package commercially, then you should buy a license. Has both TCL and Web interfaces. Source is available but oddly packaged.OpenTrack V4.0 is based upon Tcl8.1. For a commercial, fully supported version of OpenTrack, please see the folks at For a commercial, fully supported version of OpenTrack, please see the folks at AccuRev.Inc.
* ScarabCurrently, the project is pre-alpha: the database schema is being defined, and a GUI mockup has been created. To be implemented as Java servlets.
* Frontdesk: People e-mail their messages into a threaded central repository which may be accessed via the web. Not integrated with a database. Write all tasks into a file.
* WHUPS: still under development. No code yet .. pre-alpha.

flat file database: a relatively simple database system in which each database is contained in a single table. In contrast, relational database systems can use multiple tables to store information, and each table can have a different record format.

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