Redmine Products / Redmine Planning Add-On Compared
What the Planning Add-On offers
With the AlphaNodes Planning Add-On, we bundle useful features for interactive project planning in Redmine. As part of our monthly maintenance, we ensure their compatibility.
The Add-On is particularly valuable for development and QA teams that want to map structured processes directly in issues, and for mid-sized teams of around 10 or more people where cross-project communication and keeping track of many issues becomes increasingly important.
On this page we compare the plugin features with the Redmine standard. That way you see exactly what you gain with the Add-On.
1. Gantt Plugin
Ideal for: Project leads and team managers who need an interactive plan for dates, dependencies, and progress. You make changes directly in the view. No more switching to each individual issue.
The approach: The Gantt Plugin works with the dates that already sit in your issues. It makes them visible, movable, and linkable, right where your team works anyway. That way the plan always reflects the real state.
When it pays off: The Gantt Plugin shows its strength when dates still move during the project. So in ongoing detail planning, in projects with many people involved, and wherever rescheduling is part of everyday work. If the schedule is fixed after project start and only gets read, the read-only standard Gantt of Redmine is enough. And if you need standalone scheduling with a baseline and critical path, a classic planning tool alongside it remains the better fit.
If you do not want to move anything while reviewing or presenting, you can switch the chart to read-only for yourself with one click.
Comparison with the Redmine standard Gantt chart (read-only):
| Feature | Redmine Standard | Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Show Gantt chart | ||
| Hierarchical display (Project → Version → Issue → Sub-issue) | ||
| Move issues on the timeline via drag & drop | ||
| Resize bars to adjust duration | ||
| Set progress directly on the bar | ||
| Create and remove dependencies by dragging between issues | ||
| Inline editor for issue subject and duration (double-click) | ||
| Move and resize version bars | ||
| Zoom levels Day / Week / Month / Quarter | Month/Quarter | |
| “Today” button to jump to the current date | ||
| Filtering via Redmine standard filters | ||
| Saved queries available in the sidebar | ||
| Show additional columns | ||
| Adjustable column widths and grid/timeline divider | ||
| Tooltip with issue details on the bar | ||
| Info popup on click on issue or version bars | ||
| Avatar and issue title displayed on the bar | ||
| Highlight non-working days and holidays (HRM Plugin) | ||
| Issues without start date visible (scheduling marker + date picker) | ||
| High-priority issues highlighted | ||
| Permission-based (read-only without edit rights) | ||
| Persistent view settings per browser |
The Redmine core Gantt only displays issues and versions in read-only mode. The Gantt Plugin replaces this view with an interactive plan: you move issues via drag & drop, resize bars to change duration, set progress directly on the bar, and create dependencies by dragging between bars. Subject and duration can be edited via double-click in the column area. Filters, saved queries, and column configuration from the issue list are reused one-to-one. With the zoom levels Day, Week, Month, and Quarter, you switch flexibly between detailed and overview perspectives. The plugin highlights weekends and holidays. If the HRM Plugin is active, it uses the configured work calendar for this.
The decisive difference to a separate planning tool: the plan is not a file sitting next to your work, it is the work itself. Everyone sees the same state, permissions and time tracking apply as usual, and the plan never goes stale.
2. Issue Checklists Plugin
More about the Issue Checklists Plugin
Ideal for: Development and QA teams that want to map recurring processes (release checklists, Definition of Done, deployment steps) directly in the issue, without having to create sub-issues.
Comparison with Redmine (no checklist feature available):
| Feature | Redmine Standard | Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Checklist feature for issues | ||
| Create, edit, and delete checklist items | ||
| Mark items as done/open | ||
| Section headings (not counted) | ||
| Drag-and-drop sorting of items | ||
| Progress bar with percentage display | ||
| Show/hide completed items | ||
| Global and project-specific templates | ||
| Automatic template application by tracker | ||
| Visibility control for templates (private/public/role) | ||
| Journal entries for all checklist changes | ||
| Filter and column in issue lists | ||
| Dashboard widget “Open Checklists” | ||
| REST API for checklist items | ||
| Block issue closing when open items exist | ||
| Integration with Automation Plugin | ||
| Integration with AI Plugin | ||
| Full-text search in checklist items |
Redmine has no native checklist feature. The Issue Checklists Plugin adds structured checklists directly to the issue: create items, check them off, sort by drag & drop, and organize into sections. A progress bar shows the completion status at a glance. Reusable templates can be defined globally or per project and automatically applied by tracker. Ideal for release checklists, Definition of Done, or quality assurance processes. Optionally, closing an issue can be blocked as long as open items still exist. All changes are recorded in the issue journal.
3. Timesheet Plugin
More about the Timesheet Plugin
Ideal for: Teams and service providers who regularly record working time at the issue level. Especially when the standard form becomes too tedious for multiple entries per week or when time data is relevant for billing.
Comparison with Redmine’s standard time tracking:
| Feature | Redmine Standard | Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Log time entries per issue | ||
| Define activity types freely | ||
| Record spent time per issue | ||
| Weekly timesheet (grid view with all entries of one week) | ||
| Timer on the issue (stopwatch directly on the issue) | ||
| One active timer per user | ||
| Back-fill the current week in a single form | ||
| Integration with Redmine Reporting (cost and budget analysis) | ||
| Integration with Redmine HRM (daily and weekly target hours) | ||
| Visualization of overrun days | ||
| Granular permissions (own time / others’ time) |
The standard form records each time entry individually: open issue, enter spent time, save. On five days with four issues each, that is 20 separate operations. The weekly timesheet maps the same entries in a grid view and reduces the effort to a single form. The timer on the issue measures actual working time instead of an estimated number afterwards. For project-based billing and budget analysis, this raises data quality. Combined with the Redmine Reporting Plugin, the recorded times are immediately available for cost and budget analysis. With the Redmine HRM Plugin, daily and weekly target hours are shown in the timesheet, and overrun days are highlighted.
4. Templates Plugin
More about the Templates Plugin
Ideal for: Teams with recurring structures for projects, issues, comments, or wiki pages. For example standardized project onboardings, defined issue types, or consistently structured wiki pages.
Comparison with Redmine’s standard behavior:
| Feature | Redmine Standard | Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Reusable templates for issues | ||
| Reusable templates for projects | simple copy | Blueprint |
| Reusable templates for wiki pages | ||
| Reusable templates for issue comments (canned responses, with ServiceDesk Plugin) | ||
| Template selected when adding new content | ||
| Global or project-specific | ||
| Inheritance to sub-projects | ||
| Versioning with comments | ||
| Visibility via groups (private, public, group-based) | ||
| Tag support for template categorization | ||
| File attachments on templates | ||
| Save an existing project as a template (Blueprint) |
Redmine only knows a simple project copy. The Templates Plugin brings a comprehensive template system: when adding new projects, issues, issue comments, or wiki pages, you select a template that pre-fills title, fields, structure, and optionally file attachments. Templates can be managed globally or per project, inherited by sub-projects, and visibility-controlled via groups. Versioning with comments makes changes traceable. You see who changed what and when. From a running project you create a Blueprint with a single click, without affecting the original. Important: you select a template when adding new content. It cannot be applied to existing items.