In a Nutshell

Backlog by Nulab is a collaborative project management tool built especially for software developers, web designers, and product managers. It is also suitable in some situations for IT, sales, and marketing teams. It has everything you need to manage your projects – all in the one place. With Backlog, you can create tasks, make changes, give feedback, and have conversations with other team members – all right next to your code.

Backlog at a Glance

Top Features

Backlog gives you everything you need to plan, build, and release software, websites, or products. Its interface is easy to use, allowing you to work with developers, clients, designers, and other teams on one connected platform.

Remote project and task management.Backlog enables each team member to create and assign tasks and subtasks. People can not only connect to their own schedule but to their teammates’ schedules too. In addition to managing their own projects and deadlines, each team member can comment within tasks and subtasks created by others.

Bug tracking.With Backlog, your team can collaborate to fix bugs by logging them as issues. Issues are your central hub for discussing, working on and resolving each bug. They detail information about any changes made to your code, and track who is working on it and when. You can even set priorities for each bug, assign them to team members, and change due dates to make room for new projects or new bugs.

Version control. This tool lets you discuss changes or new features with team members before officially integrating them in a project. Backlog is fully integrated with Git and SVN, allowing you to manage source code next to your projects, have discussions inline with your code, and see differences between files. You can bring version control to any documentation and use it to compare or restore previous versions at any time.

Simple user permissions.Users can grant each other access to their workspace with role-based access control. You can even create guest accounts for clients or non-technical team members to keep them in the loop.

Visualization

With Backlog, you can check the progress of your project at a glance with visualization options such as Gantt charts, Kanban-style boards, Git graphs, and burndown charts.

Integrations

With Backlog, you can use any of these 11 integrations or build your own with Backlog’s API.

The pre-built integrations are:

• Typetalk: Notifications of new Backlog activity such as comments, updates, pull requests, and more.
• Cacoo: Lets you insert Cacoo diagrams into Backlog comments, issues, and wikis to visually organize ideas.
• Nulab Pass: Enterprise‑grade security, including SAML.
• Slack: Live notifications in Slack whenever your Backlog issues are updated.
• Redmine: Lets you migrate Redmine data to Backlog to improve your team's collaboration and project management.
• Jira Importer: Lets you import Jira data to Backlog to improve your team's collaboration and project management.
• Jenkins: Connect Backlog to Jenkins for continuous integration of new code.
• iCal Sync: Syncs your Google, Apple, and Outlook calendars with project milestones to help you keep track of deadlines.
• Email Importer: Designate an email address, and Backlog will create an issue out of the messages that email address receives.
• Google Sheets Importer: Enables creation of Backlog issues in bulk via Google Sheets.
• LambdaTest: Lets you create issues on your Backlog project directly from LambdaTest.

Plans & Pricing

Backlog has five price plans: Free, Starter, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. The three main differentiators between the plans are the maximum number of users, maximum number of projects, and amount of storage. Aside from that, only Standard plans and up include Gantt charts and only Premium and up include custom fields. Enterprise gives you your own private server and unlimited projects and storage.

Prices shown below are for month-by-month billing, with no annual commitment. Backlog offers a 16% discount (as in 16% less the prices shown below) for annual subscriptions. All new users can try out Backlog with a free trial period of up to 30 days.

Nulab Pass security features (see below) cost an additional $3 per user per month.

Ease of Use

Whether you’re an admin or a user, getting started with Backlog is simple thanks to its collection of free video tutorials and guides. Administrators have access to all settings and can manage organization settings, users and projects. Users can manage their personal profile, create tasks, and collaborate within tasks.

Backlog's iOS and Android native apps are free and automatically sync with your online workspace.

Privacy & Security

For an additional $3 per user per month, Backlog offers full integration with Nulab Pass, a security management app. This centralized security subscription gives you enterprise‑grade security and governance across all your Nulab products, namely Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk.

Features include:

• Full admin control over your organization’s Nulab products
• SAML sign-on (SSO) – a simple and secure login for your entire organization
• Integration of Nulab products directly to your external directory or cloud identity provider (Nulab Pass follows standard specifications such as SAML and SCIM APIs, making it compatible with most ID providers)
• User provision – automated user management from start to finish (coming soon)
• Organization audit log – secure and thorough tracking of important activities (coming soon)

Customer support

Backlog is headquartered in Fukuoka, Japan, and has offices in Tokyo, Kyoto, New York City, Amsterdam, and Singapore. The best way of reaching Backlog is by leaving a message with the AI chatbot on the Backlog website and waiting for a customer support rep to get in touch with you.

User Testimonials

“Before Backlog, information sharing was difficult. New project members experienced information gaps. After Backlog, people joining in the middle of a project could easily follow progress and get up to speed quicker.”

-Atsuyuki Matsuda, Global Business Development Manager, SoftBank Robotic

“Backlog is agile and intuitive. Whoever is designing your interface is a very gifted group of people, very nicely done.”

-Lillian Adrigan, Chief Software Architect at Thunderbolt Software.

“We recently redesigned our entire line of products. It was an incredibly complex project that involved several teams including external consultants. Backlog was fundamental to succeed.”

-Marco Pozzo, CEO, SmartCoach Technologies

Bottom Line

Software developers and website designers will find Backlog addresses most of their project management needs. This software enables bug tracking, version control, and collaboration across teams – and best of all it all takes place alongside your code for maximum visibility.