The awork Test - What does the tool from Hamburg offer?

Im awork Test zeigt sich, dass die Software neben einer soliden Aufgabenverwaltung auch Zeiterfassung und Ressourcenplanung bietet. In this review, you can read what else the Hamburg-based company emphasizes and which features are convincing.

Intro

In this awork test and review, features are highlighted and the most important criteria for selecting a project management software are used. This should give you a good overview of the pros and cons. A first overview is provided by the summary of the review of awork “In a nutshell”.

The most important facts in brief:

As task management software, awork offers a good basis for cooperation, especially for agencies
With individual Kanban boards, automation and a solid timeline, the foundations are laid.
Time tracking offers more than many competitors and can also be used via the app, which makes bookings much easier.

The data storage takes place on server locations in Frankfurt and complies with the DSGVO
The pricing system is clearly arranged. There is no freemium version and you get a fully featured software even in the cheap version.
Support is provided via chat and phone
awork is not designed for comprehensive project planning – at least in the classic sense of project management

awork discount code
Simply enter awork discount code PMTOOLS10 to receive an additional 10% off your first year at awork*.

Test awork directly now*

The company

Awork is the software of HQLabs GmbH from Hamburg in Germany. The company was founded in 2012 and initially developed the agency software HQ. As a goal, the 30-member team would like to support productive project work via modern software with its tools. In this review, the Premium version was tested in a 14-day trial.

What features does awork offer?

Awork proves to be a solid software in the test, which puts a focus on a good and intuitive operation. Compared to pure Kanban style task management software, awork already offers in-depth features like resource planning, time tracking and a simple timeline.

Team planning in the awork test — *Teamplanning* in awork

At the beginning of the test you create a project and can define first tasks. Brief help in the software shows the first steps. Templates enable quick access to project and tasks. Thanks to the intuitive operation, you don’t need any further support to find your way around the basics in the program.

awork sidebar — *The sidebar leads to the individual areas*

The program is divided into a sidebar with personal area, dashboard and time tracking, as well as the workspace for cross-project editing and a main screen. On the main screen you can always see the selected menu item and edit content.

The overview in projects is simplified with four menu items in the main view:

Details
Tasks
Times
Settings

In detail, this review goes into all the individual menu items in the following feature overview.

Project planning in awork

Basic equipment for project planning is included in awork. However, you should only expect basics like a project outline, task management and a simple timeline. Anything beyond that – network or work breakdown structure – is not currently supported.

General project data

On the detail page as project profile you can deposit the most important information like:

Project name
Project status (Planning, Running, Completed..)
Type of project (customer project, internal project)
Assign keywords (tags)
Project description
Tasks and progress
Participants in the project

In addition, you can see an activity stream from the project e.g. with changed deadlines and completed tasks.

The project profile in awork

Task Management

The presentation of each task is similar to that of the project brief. You can enter description, editor, deadline, etc. This lays the groundwork for later timeline and resource planning. Interesting is the multi-assignment of a task to several agents, which reflects the reality especially in teamwork.

The upload of files is supported and via comments you can mention other users.

Via the automation function, a kind of autopilot can simplify your projects and reduce administrative work. awork provides over 400 different automations.

Gantt chart or Gantt plan

With the different views for views awork limits itself to the most important representations such as task list, Kanban Board and Timeline. When working with views, you quickly notice that awork values simplicity. This benefits the quick familiarization and intuitive editing.

Timeline can be used to keep a good overview of the project and give the team a visualization in time. Es ist zu beachten, dass Aufgaben nicht automatisch in die Zeitleiste übernommen werden. This has the advantage that you only take on the most important tasks and thus maintain an overview. Thus, it is conceivable to define the milestones and project phases as tasks and thus maintain an overall view a flying height above the tasks.

As already written, in-depth project planning is not possible. especially for large projects with complex time dependencies, the planning of dependencies and representation of critical paths is missing as in a normal project plan according to classic project management methodology.

By the way
An additional free tool for creating milestone plan and network plan is GanttProject.

Communication and cooperation with awork

As a project management software, awork naturally emphasizes successful collaboration. Visualization of tasks is a part of it. Here again the simplicity of awork becomes apparent. It’s nice that there is no exaggeration here and the focus is on the most used representations. In addition to the temporal representation in the timeline already described above, there is also the list and the Kanban Board.

Thetask lists displays all tasks of the project divided into different lists. This is the perfect representation to create new tasks, add them via the import function and structure the project with lists.

The Kanban Board can be customized to your own needs. Thus, the columns and labels of columns can be changed or deleted completely. This allows any workflow to be mapped. The predefined task lists can also be mapped, so you can also map different project areas or teams.

The personal dashboard is a great way to keep track of current projects, tasks and deadline. Individualization is possible and even times and absences can be displayed.

The user can be informed about notifications via email, internal notification in awork or the app. The decisive factor can be various events, from the status change of a task to the mention of one’s own name via @-Mentions in the comments.

The rights and role system enables the assignment to defined roles such as project management, project member or external. But an individual role definition is also possible.

A chat function is not integrated, but can be extended via the external provider Slack.

Requirements management

Requirements management is not directly provided for in awork. However, with practice, you can create a project type that can be used for conceptual projects via reviews and automation.

Resource planning

If you want to plan the team and need a good overview of the workload in the next weeks to months, you can use the team planning. Here you can see a workload at the project level and at the user level. With absences, vacations can be entered and a forecast of the workload is also possible. Even a 10-hour limit for working timeper day can be set if required to meet occupational health and safety requirements.

Project controlling

Controlling can easily be done via the time evaluations. With the creation of monthly reports, you can keep track of the project budget. The progress in the project can be linked to the completion of tasks, so that you can also track the achievement of goals. A connection to Google Sheets enables further analysis of the project.

Document Management

In awork there is no possibility for classic document management besides simple upload of documents. The file overview of all files or the connection to external cloud storage such as GoogleDrive or OneDrive makes it possible to keep track of everything.

Multi-project management

The Workspace menu item can be used to control all projects, users and customer profiles across all projects. A global task view also provides an overview of the most critical tasks in the program or company. This also makes it possible to control several projects at the same time. Controlling and team planning also work across projects.

How does awork perform in the most important evaluation criteria?

Features and functionality

Awork offers more than a solid base of features for project management and team collaboration. However, the focus is on collaboration and not on long-term project planning with network and work breakdown structure. What is also convincing are the areas of resource planning and time tracking, which you don’t always find in other software or have to pay extra for.

In the settings, you can still make various integrations at the project level. Currently, in addition to Slack as a chat and various billing tools, Zapier and Webhooks are particularly interesting. Especially with Zapier you can integrate a lot of external tools.

Especially when processes in projects of a company remain the same over a longer period of time, awork facilitates the work with individualization. With the creation of specific project types, you can build your own templates or use existing ones. Whether the automation with certain rules, the columns on the Kanban board or fixed task packages to start – one has the possibility this depending upon project type again to specify

Other evaluation criteria

Currently only english and german languages are available. Thus, the DACH region can be solidly covered and international communication in the western world is also possible.
The premium version can be used free of charge for 14 days for testing purposes.

An import function allows easy transition from other project management tools. As examples awork mentions here the well-known representatives monday.com, MeisterTask, Asana and Trello.

User interface and ease of use

The interface is intuitive to use and the start is kept simple. This is precisely where HQLabs also continuously develops its software, instead of relying on too many functions. Anyone who wants to set up a project as a project manager can do so in just a few steps. Team members will also quickly be onboard and find their way around thanks to the simple menu navigation. The minimap feature also helps here: Use awork on the big screen, so you can better keep track of large amounts of tasks.

The scope of awork is still manageable, and the more complex areas such as resource planning and time evaluations can only be viewed by certain groups of people. It is noticeable in a positive way that awork does not make any annoying internal advertising for the Enterprise version.

There are not many customization options in terms of design, so you will always find your way around. Only a dark mode and changes to the logo are provided.

The awork mobile App

With an additional app, you can also edit your projects in awork well on the go.

One of the main advantages, however, is time tracking via the app. This means that you can also enter your times in offline meetings or at the customer’s site easily and directly via the app and do not have to add the 5-10 minutes for time recording at the end of the day. Via the Thumb menu you have alternatively access to

the assigned tasks
the projects in the company
the current notifications

Data protection, hosting and service

Data protection – Where is the data located and where are the servers?

We comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and guarantee server locations in Germany with ISO 27001 certification.
awork website

With a focus on the German and European market, data protection is an important building block for the awork offering. Awork offers further information on data protection here and provides a template for commissioned data processing.

The server is located in Germany, which complies with the requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation.

The data is stored in data centers in Frankfurt operated by Telekom and Google. The data is encrypted and stored redundantly. If one of the data centers fails, the system automatically switches to the backup data center. All data is of course automatically backed up on a daily basis.
awork

However, data is also processed for the operation of awork in the USA. However, only data for operation and further development is transferred. Data that is entered into the system, such as project data, files, etc., is not transferred or processed.

Accessibility and stability of the project management software awork

Important to know:
There is no self-hosted server installation but only the cloud version (SaaS).

In the test, awork stands out positively throughout with smooth work. There are no failures and the web application responses are very responsive. If the software ever fails, you can check here for the current status of the software.

Support from the manufacturer (customer service) in case of problems

The Help Centerprovides documentation for the entire platform. Besides a guide for the first steps, all functional areas of the software are described in detail and the most frequently asked questions are answered. You can also use the search to formulate your problem and narrow down possible areas.

About every two weeks, awork offers webinars on specific topics. The recordings can also be viewed further afterwards.

By the way, the support goes beyond a standard ticketing system with a chat function and personal phone support from 09:00 to 18:00.

Test of the chat function
For the awork review, the chat function has already been checked and some information also comes from this source. The response time was only a few minutes and all questions could be clarified.

Costs when using awork

At awork, there are only two price levels, Premium and Enterprise, which makes the choice very easy.

The subscription can be monthly, yearly or for two years. Those who commit themselves for two years pay even less than stated here in the review. However, that might not be the standard rate, which is why the figures for an annual contract were chosen.

By the way
awork costs compared with other providers: The costs for project management software at a glance.

Premium

The Premium offer is the basic version, as it was also tested in the review. You get a solid task management software that focuses strongly on collaboration in the team.

awork costs: 10€ /user/month

Enterprise

Especially for larger companies the Enterprise version makes more sense. One still gets the possibility

store your own team URL for awork
make use of the Enterprise Support
pay the upcoming fees via invoice
Single sign-on possible

In addition, the manufacturer is available with consulting services for the integration into the own company.

awork costs: 15€ /user/month

Costs of awork in comparison

Attention:
Support high quality reviews and comparisons on pm-tools.info. Simply enter awork discount code PMTOOLS10 to receive an additional 10% off your first year at awork*.

to the awork review

awork testen *

awork	1 Nutzer	5 Nutzer	25 Nutzer	75 Nutzer
Premium*	120€	600€	3.000€	9.000€
Enterprise*	180€	900€	4.500€	13.500€

Kosten von awork pro Jahr / Pricing for Projectmanagement Software awork per Year - in Euro (pm-tools.info, June 2022, * = Affiliate Link)

in pm-tools price comparison

Our evaluation of awork as a project management tool

The advantages

As a task management software, awork offers a good basis of cooperation

Time tracking offers more than many competitors and can also be used via the app, which makes bookings much easier.

The pricing system is kept simple and no costs are hidden in additional packages.

The data storage takes place on server locations in Frankfurt and complies with the DSGVO

The cons

There is no free basic version like some competitors – the awork review was done with the trial version.

awork is not (yet) designed for comprehensive project planning – at least in the classical sense of project management

If a company is internationally positioned, missing translations besides German and English can cause problems.

For whom is awork worthwhile?

With HQ as agency software, HQLabs has already launched a small ERP system for agencies. With the experience in the industry, awork presents itself in the test and review between a simple task management and a comprehensive project management software.

If comprehensive planning is necessary and is to be structured precisely in terms of time, awork cannot keep up with alternative project planning tools. This applies to companies in the construction industry or to longer-term projects in general.

It is noticeable in the review that the important points for an agency, resource planning, time tracking and a rough overview of the timeline, are covered. Also, there are templates from awork that are based on mainly agency business usage as an example. Whether it’s a design agency, marketing agency, or web agency, they all want to successfully execute projects, bill hours, and schedule their own teams with rather short projects. With the background of HQLabs and the features at hand, awork can definitely be recommended in these service companies of various sizes.

As a self-employed person or freelancer, awork can be a solution, but it doesn’t have to be the first choice, because with very small teams you can also use alternative tools for free. But if you invest a little money, you already get a good basis for billing the customer with the existing time recording, for example.

The use in larger companies(enterprise) makes sense especially in the customer and project-oriented area. Especially in modern structures and the mid-enterprise level, this new software brings a good counterpart for the usual non-intuitive tools in project management. In addition, awork can then be used again in individual teams, such as those with a customer focus, to provide a good view of the efforts in projects.