The world of web apps is over-saturated with project management apps. It often seems like the only new apps you hear about are new project management, time tracking, or invoicing apps. There’s only so many ways you can design an app for the same purpose, and so many project managers look like they were copied right from 37signals playbook. Then, the features different project management tools include vary widely, and they’re often designed more for large teams than freelancers.
Solo is a fresh new entry into the project management field that uses a drastically different approach. It’s a fully unique design, with modern, beautiful typography and charts that make the important parts of your work stand out. Plus, it’s designed from the ground-up for freelancers, so you won’t feel out of place working without other employees. Keep reading to see our review of Solo, and get a chance to win one of 5 year subscriptions for Solo!
Typographic Centric Design Meets Project Management
Fire up Basecamp, then fire up almost any other project management app at random. Chances are, you’ll notice a striking resemblance. So many web apps have a main color heading, tabs for navigation, and the same bland fonts throughout their interface. Solo turned this model on its head, opting instead for a clean, typography driven design with a modern color scheme and unique menus and navigation. It’s been designed to make your most important information front and center, almost like a departure board for your projects.
And that’s the most important thing: your projects. Solo is designed for freelancers that work on their own, and need to manage all of their clients, projects, and more right in the same app without any other employees.
Project management designed for freelancers with style
Solo is unique enough that it might take a few minutes to get used to. The main dashboard shows your upcoming tasks and quick info about your projects in a banner view near the top. When you first signup for Solo, it’ll show quick tips on getting started until you’ve added current projects. The main navigation is still based on buttons on the top, but they’ve been grouped to keep similar functions together. Plus, you can quickly add anything you need from the + sign on the top left.
A Dashboard that tells you what you need to do
Covering the Bases, and More
Adding all of the info you need about projects, meetings, clients, and more is simple in Solo. Rather than limiting you to a small amount of contact or project info, Solo has full-featured options to include almost any detail you can think of. All Add dialogs open as a top pop-over in the web app, letting you stay right where you need to work while adding the data you need. Plus, if you already have contacts in another app, you can import them into Solo to save time.
Adding content from drop-down entry forms
Unlike many project management solutions, Solo doesn’t only let you manage your projects. It also includes almost everything you’ll need to keep up with your work. You can manage your contacts, clients, and projects, make invoices, track time, plan your schedule, and even keep up with your personal to-do list. Most of these features are built right in where you’ll need them, such as the timer that sits innocuously in the top right of the dashboard. Best part is, you can always take your data with you, as most parts of Solo let you export your data in PDF, CSV, and other formats.
Time tracking, invoicing, and more, all built right in
Bringing it All Together
My favorite feature of Solo is the Planner. This unique view opens as a drop-down over the main Solo interface, and shows a nicely designed overview of what you need to do over the next week. You can quickly add new tasks, meetings, and more right from this view, or drill down into work for specific clients or projects. If you’re needing to plan out into the future, you can even set the Planner to show everything upcoming over the next month, 90 days, or year. This is one of the more unique ways to keep up with your projects and tasks, and feels more natural to use for project planning than a traditional calendar.
The Planner is one of Solo's nicest and most unique features
All together, Solo makes a nice, streamlined app that has plenty of features for managing your personal and professional projects as a freelancer. The unique design and nice touches make it fun to use, and once you’ve used to using it, you’ll likely find yourself saving time with all of your business tools right on the same page.
Simple charts, clean typography, and unique style make Solo refreshing to use
You Just Might Get Started With Solo For Free!
Solo has a 14 day free trial that anyone can use to try it out and see if it’s the perfect fit for their work. But how about using Solo for a year for free? The Solo team has offered 5 free year subscriptions to Solo for our readers. All you’ll have to do is enter a comment and let us know how you’ll put Solo to use. Send out a tweet mentioning this article and giveaway, and add the link in a comment for a 2nd bonus entry. We’ll close the giveaway entry on Wednesday, December 14th at midnight CST, and will randomly draw 5 lucky comments to win a free year of Solo.
Please Note: Envato staff or people who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm are ineligible to enter. Additionally, this competition is intended for new customers only. Existing Solo subscribers may not enter.
Project management is a crowded space, and Solo’s broad feature set and unique design sets it apart from the rest. If you’re already using Solo, we’d love to hear how you’re putting it to use in your business, and why you chose it over competing apps!