

Show HN: Simple tool to manage time on projects for developers and freelancers - paulloggable
http://loggable.co.uk

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dutchbrit
UI could do with quite a bit of extra work, it's also not clear on the pricing
table if you're talking about 1 time fees, monthly or yearly.

What happens if the Sumo package get's too small for me?

\-- EDIT -- Besides that good work, don't take my comment negatively :)

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paulloggable
What do you think of the pricing and plan options?

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dutchbrit
Pricing, based on the amount of users, is good. Also nice that you have a free
plan for the solo user. But I'm not sure if the user/project ratio is good
(the amount of projects per user could be higher).

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paulloggable
Thanks, we are currently reviewing our plans, nothing is concrete at the
moment and feedback is always appreciated. So potentially we could have a free
plan that also includes more users.

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ckevinc
I find this a very interesting product category - and I'm part of a very (I
feel) undeserved category of consultant/freelancers. The essence of what you
seem to be doing "uber simple" (the the home page states), is what had me
interested.

But, after seeing your video, and the number of times a user has to click on
different elements - it's clear this is not a simple logging tool. I also
think the video could be (a) called out above the fold and (b) include some
sort of voice over.

I feel there is a market ready and waiting for those that work on more
abstract sorts of things. Situations where work might form more organically
from a blog post on <http://blogging.cwl.cc> (it's happened) or a small idea
(more frequent), and eventually turns into billing or a larger scale project.
With tools like these that are project-based - It feels like logging friction
is much to high.

The problem is not being solved (in my opinion) because generally no one wants
to log what they do, but for those that have decided to do so, there should be
little to no clicking and a process to capture everything written in very low
overhead manner (mobile support is essential).

So far, no tool seems to be as good as a simple OTA sync'ed calendar. So far.

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paulloggable
Thanks for the feedback. We've had a few comments about the video and it's
currently under review. I think a series of screencasts with voiceover would
help.

It's interesting that you were attracted by its simplicity headline, but that
you feel it's not that simple to enter time. We definitely need to address
this if it could be streamlined further.

Agreed that mobile support is essential and we are working on resolving this.
Low overhead is key.

We are learning a hell of a lot as a result of the feedback on Hacker News and
you raise some key fundamentals areas to review.

Thanks, I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know your thoughts.

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ckevinc
You're very welcome. I'm reading what I've written and it seems overly
critical of your work. I don't want you to feel that's the case; it does look
like a wonderful tool and, in the case of a developer or a web freelancer, may
be very useful indeed.

I look forward to seeing how this project unfolds and I appreciate you taking
the time to read my suggestions.

Kevin

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paulloggable
No problem. It's great to get your opinion from a brand new user's
perspective. We don't want to build a product we think people will want.
Instead we want to help businesses be more profitable and improve their
processes. To do this we really need to userstand our markets and messages.
Our plan is to review all the feedback, implement and then post on Hacker News
when the next iteration that addresses some of the comments is available.

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face7hill
This looks like a pretty cool project. I would love to try it out once your
servers cool down, particularly your API. I'm playing around with APIs for
Harvest and Freshbooks now. Full disclosure: I created a minimalist time
tracking tool for freelancers/agency folks that lowers the barrier to logging
your work:

<https://timestreamapp.com/>

It's not for everyone, but it resonates with some folks (the minimalist UI +
keyboard driven nature and available CLI).

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paulloggable
Just checked out your app. Really cool app! I like the fact that you can enter
statuses from a variety of routes and the video explains it well.

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face7hill
Right on. Thanks Paul. Are you guys planning to open up an API?

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paulloggable
Yes we have an API on our roadmap but no exact date of release yet I'm afraid.
Still fixing some fundamentals :-) I'm keen to keep abreast of your tool too.

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kleinsch
I'm a freelancer and I didn't get a good sense of why I would use your
product. Why is analyzing how I spend my time and looking at graphs going to
make me more effective? Isn't the goal to spend more time working on projects
and less time managing my tools?

I think for many freelancers the question is going to be: why would I stop
using Harvest to use your tool? For me, I didn't see the reason.

Not saying you don't have a good product here - just think the marketing
message could be clearer.

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erebrus
I second that, except that I use Toggl, which has a great free layer.

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paulloggable
Toggl is a great tool

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paulloggable
Huge thanks so far to everyone who has commented. It's really early days and
its clear we need to work on the mobile support, pricing plans and most
importantly the marketing aspects of the product and website. Really
appreciate the feedback.

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paulloggable
Here's a recent interview that attempts to explain where we are coming from:
[http://doeswhat.com/2013/01/17/interview-with-paul-rhodes-
lo...](http://doeswhat.com/2013/01/17/interview-with-paul-rhodes-loggable/)

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paulloggable
This might help explain it a bit more to get people started, it's on the
homepage but can't help to link it: <http://vimeo.com/ggapps/loggable-
getstarted>

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ericcholis
Pricing page portion for the Free/Solo package is a bit confusing. "30 Day
Free Trial" for a package that is free? Perhaps you could replace it with
"Always Free", or "100% Free"

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paulloggable
Agreed, good point

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erebrus
Something really basic, but it wouldn't hurt to say that the prices are (I
assume) monthly.

Also, having to start writing a project's name to find it is not very
efficient.

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paulloggable
Interesting, do you think it would be better to replace autocomplete with a
standard drop down for the project selector?

Agreed, a couple of people have commented about how to make the pricing plans
more obvious and clearer

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iamben
Worth taking a quick look at the site on a mobile - the homepage is a little
messed up... (Android/Chrome)

Good work though! :-)

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paulloggable
Yep, we need to work on mobile support - thanks for the heads up

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iamben
No worries - for the (really) quick (while you have traffic from HN) fix,
stick:

@media only screen and (max-width: 800px) { .tuck-corners .headline, .tuck-
corners h2 { display:none !important; } }

at the end of your style sheet. It (should!) hide the messy bit on the
homepage from smaller screens and let people see/fill in the 30 trial day
form.

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paulloggable
thanks, much appreciated. We'll get this done once the server cools down. A
deployment would kill it :-)

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reefab
Terrible presentation on that page imho, the video needs to be replaced by a
quick blurb explaining the service.

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paulloggable
Yep, realised that after I posted, the quality full screen is poor. We do need
to work on clearly explaining what it is.

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paulloggable
Currently struggling to handle the traffic from Hacker News - please bear with
us people

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paulloggable
...and we're back :-)

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variousbagels
Oh, look.

Lobster.

