Redmine Products / Redmine Planning Add-On Compared
Four plugins. One goal: Redmine becomes even more productive.
What the Planning Add-On offers
The Redmine community delivers many useful plugins - but at some point they are no longer maintained. The result: compatibility issues during Redmine updates, security vulnerabilities, and in the worst case a plugin that has to be removed entirely.
With the AlphaNodes Planning Add-On, we bundle useful plugins for interactive project planning in Redmine - and ensure their compatibility as part of our monthly maintenance.
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 you'll find a detailed comparison of plugin features with the Redmine standard - so you can 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 - and who want to make changes directly in the view, without switching to each individual issue or version page.
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 up to 5 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. Weekends and holidays are highlighted - if the HRM Plugin is active, based on the configured work calendar.
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. Mentions Plugin
Ideal for: Teams where colleagues are regularly involved who are not project members - or anywhere the standard mention email provides too little context.
Comparison with Redmine’s standard @-mentions:
| Feature | Redmine Standard | Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Recognize @-mentions in comments | ||
| Notify mentioned users by email | (from 6.0) | |
| Custom email template for mentions (HTML + text) | ||
| Dedicated subject line with “You were mentioned in” | ||
| Full comment content in the email | ||
| Notification for non-project members as well | ||
| Permission-based triggering (add_issue_watchers) | ||
| Overrides standard Redmine mentions behavior | ||
| No notification when mentioned in description | ||
| Mention in private notes triggers email |
Redmine has supported @-mentions since version 6.0 - but the notification email contains little context and only works for project members. The Mentions Plugin completely replaces this behavior: the email contains the full comment text, has its own subject line, and reaches people outside the project as well. Mentions in private notes also trigger a notification. Triggering can be controlled based on permissions.
4. Collapse Closed Issues Plugin
More about the Collapse Closed Issues Plugin
Ideal for: Anyone working with issues that have many subtasks or related issues - especially in long-running projects where the completed portion grows over time.
Comparison with Redmine’s standard behavior for closed issues:
| Feature | Redmine Standard | Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Show subtasks on issue page | ||
| Show related issues | ||
| Open and closed issues always visible | optional | |
| Hide closed issues by default | ||
| Toggle switch “Show / hide closed” | ||
| URL parameter for state persistence | ||
| Server-side filtering (no DOM overhead) | ||
| Display count of closed issues as badge | ||
| Three configurable modes (all / opt-in / opt-out) | ||
| Global setting by admin |
Redmine always shows subtasks and related issues on the issue page in full - regardless of whether they are open or closed. For issues with many completed subtasks, the page grows considerably over time. The Collapse Closed Issues Plugin hides closed issues by default and instead shows a badge with the count. A toggle switch lets you show them at any time. The admin can set the behavior globally; users can override it via URL parameter. Filtering is done server-side - no DOM overhead, no performance penalty.
All plugins are available as part of our Redmine Enterprise Support offering - or can be added monthly as the Planning Add-On for our Managed Application Hosting customers.