Show HN: EnkiTask: Lightweight Project Management for Freelancers
26 comments
·March 17, 2025joshstrange
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).
SCdF
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?
matt-p
It's 1 or 2 cents per task though on all but the lowest plans.
SCdF
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.
dsmurrell
> 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.
zareith
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.
rapind
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!
steelaz
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.
qwertox
"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
That power makes it annoying. Product Managers get their inner Stalin thrills using Jira. It’s obnoxiously complicated.
ysavir
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.
MomsAVoxell
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?
weakfish
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.
petargyurov
Looks nice but why wouldn't one use Shortcut [0] instead? It's got a completely free tier.
foundzen
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.
mathgeek
You have several typos on your pricing page (not sure about any others, only page I looked at).
zwilderrr
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 :)
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.