Comparison

Linetrack vs.
Stackfield

Stackfield brings chat, documents and tasks together in an end-to-end encrypted platform hosted in German data centres. For teamwork, that is a solid foundation. This comparison shows which planning level Stackfield works on, what planning a machine building project needs above that level, and how Linetrack connects the levels from the schedule down to the individual task.

Linetrack compared with Stackfield for planning industrial projects across project planning, detailed planning and task tracking

In short

Stackfield is an encrypted collaboration platform with chat, documents and tasks. Linetrack is a multi-project management system for mechanical and plant engineering. Both are well set up on data protection; the difference is the planning level. Stackfield collects tasks for the team. A project with design before manufacturing before assembly also needs a schedule with a critical path, a capacity view across all projects and the detailed planning of each department. Today these levels usually run in separate tools. Linetrack connects them on a shared data basis, with task tracking as the lowest level. Anyone looking for a comprehensive system for complex projects is therefore better served by Linetrack.

400+

Excel spreadsheets and
planning tools replaced

56 %

already had a PM system
and switched anyway

59 %

named manual status requests
as their starting problem

10 days

from kick-off
to go-live

Every figure on this page comes from a full survey of all live Linetrack implementations, as of August 2026. Multiple answers were possible for the starting problems.

Starting point

What Stackfield was built for

Stackfield is built as a secure workspace for teams. Chat, tasks, documents and video calls live in rooms that are end-to-end encrypted. Data is stored exclusively in German data centres, and the platform itself holds its own ISO 27001 certification, audited by TÜV SÜD. Where confidential documents and conversations need to stay in one place, that is a well-considered choice.

For projects, Stackfield offers a schedule module with dependencies and a project portfolio that shows status, progress and timeframe for all project rooms. That works well for recording what needs doing and who does it. How the other system categories for planning industrial projects fit in is covered in the software comparison.

Planning levels

Three planning levels, three isolated tools

Machine building projects are planned on three levels. Sales and project management create the schedule and the resource forecast, usually in MS Project or Primavera. Department heads plan their area in detail and decide a few weeks before the work phase starts who works on what. Detailed scheduling systems or Excel lists are used for that. On the lowest level, employees work through their tasks. This is where Stackfield is at home, as are Trello, Asana or Monday. Today each level has its own tool, and none of them knows the data of the others.

Staff deployment planning is, at its core, assigning a person, a task and a due date. Task tracking should come straight out of it. When all three levels sit in one system, the resource demand from the project plan flows into the departments, and employee feedback lands back in the project plan. That is what Linetrack does. A tool that covers only the lowest level remains one more island. The framework is described on the multi-project management page.

Sales and project management
Project planning and resource forecast
A schedule across the project duration and a forecast of which department needs how many hours, and when.
Typically used:
- MS Project
- Primavera P6
- Excel
Cost side:
- ERP project module
The forecast goes to the departments as resource demand.
Department heads
Detailed and staff scheduling
Each department plans its share in detail and assigns staff a few weeks before the work starts.
Typically used:
- Detailed scheduling system
- Excel sheets
Staff scheduling becomes the task: person, activity, due date.
Staff
Task tracking
Work through the tasks and report back. The feedback turns the planned status into an actual status.
Typically used:
- Trello
- Asana
- Monday.com
- Stackfield (this comparison)
- Microsoft To Do
The actual status goes back into project control: plan vs. actual, scenarios, rescheduling.

Linetrack connects all three levels on one data basis

The forecast lands directly in department planning
Staff scheduling creates the tasks
Feedback via the app updates the plan
Plan vs. actual and scenarios in project control

Today each level often works in its own system, reconciled by email, meetings and Excel sheets.

Breaking point

Where task management reaches its limit

Stackfield's limit is neither collaboration nor security. It is the point where many tasks are supposed to become a reliable schedule across several projects.

None of this is a flaw in Stackfield. The platform is built for teamwork and serves that purpose. For planning machine building projects, it lacks the structure of the upper levels: tasks with dependencies, capacity across all projects and detailed planning per department. How dates and capacity fit together is described on the scheduling and capacity planning page.

Tasks do not add up to a schedule. A machine building project consists of tasks that build on each other: design before manufacturing before assembly. Stackfield's schedule module represents dependencies, but a critical-path calculation is not documented. Someone has to work out for themselves which task puts the delivery date at risk.
The portfolio shows status, not capacity. The project portfolio lists status and progress for all project rooms. Is engineering overbooked in March across all projects? It cannot answer that, because it does not hold capacity.
Demand starts at the top, the task at the bottom. In a task management tool, the team creates its own tasks. In an industrial project, demand arises in the project plan and has to reach employees via the department's detailed planning. A tool for the lowest level does not represent that path.
A ticked-off task says nothing about the date. What matters to project control is what a status update means for the plan. Is assembly still on target, and which successor moves? That can only be answered if the update is attached to a task in the schedule.
The ERP stays outside. Orders, project numbers and hours sit in the ERP. Stackfield offers an API with webhooks and a Zapier connection; there is no ERP connector. Every connection therefore has to be built individually.

Core argument

Stackfield collects tasks, Linetrack connects the levels

Tools such as Stackfield, Trello, Asana or Monday are good at collecting tasks and making them visible to the team. Stackfield adds an encrypted environment for chat and documents. For this level, that is a sensible choice. On security, Stackfield and Linetrack are both well set up, so the comparison does not hinge on it.

A machine building project cannot be assembled from tasks. It starts with the project manager's schedule, runs through the departments' detailed planning and ends with the task at the workstation. Anyone who needs a system for projects like that needs all three levels on one data basis. Linetrack provides exactly that.

The test: assembly reports that a task will finish two weeks late. In a task management tool, the task is then simply done later. In Linetrack, the shift ripples through the chain of successors, and the capacity histogram shows which department is overbooked in which week as a result. Project management runs through scenarios and then decides.

In Linetrack, task tracking is the lowest planning level. Employees report their status directly on the task, and the planned state becomes an actual state. Project control responds with the plan-vs-actual comparison.

Side by side

Stackfield
versus Linetrack

Seven points that show which level each system works on. Security is left out on purpose; both are well set up there.

The table describes two different scopes. Stackfield covers collaboration at task level, Linetrack covers planning from project management down to the task. Which systems Linetrack connects to is set out on the interfaces and integrations page. Stackfield figures as of our own research on Stackfield's product pages, August 2026.

Aspect	Stackfield
Planning level	Task tracking and teamwork	Project planning, detailed planning and task tracking on a shared data basis
Planning object	Task in a project room	Task with date, duration, dependencies and responsible department
Scheduling logic	Schedule module with dependencies, critical-path calculation not documented	Dependencies with critical path, shifts ripple through the chain
Capacity across projects	Project portfolio with status and progress, without capacity	Capacity histogram directly below the bar chart, across projects
Who plans	The team creates and assigns tasks	Project management plans roughly, department heads plan in detail down to employee level
Feedback	Task status in the project room	Task tracking on the task via desktop and mobile app, plus baselines and plan-vs-actual comparison
ERP integration	API with webhooks and Zapier, no ERP connector	ERP integration with SAP, proALPHA and AP+ among others, plus time recording integration

Security & Trust

Your data. Secure in Germany.

Linetrack runs entirely within the EU – hosted with an ISO-certified partner, fully encrypted, and backed up regularly.

Made in the EU

GDPR-compliant

Hosted in Germany

Application, database, and backups run exclusively with Hetzner in the Falkenstein data center.

Fully GDPR-compliant

Your data is processed and stored exclusively within the EU.

ISO/IEC 27001:2022-certified data center

Our hosting partner operates the data center to the internationally recognized ISO/IEC 27001 security standard.

Encrypted in transit and at rest

Data transmission via TLS 1.2/1.3, storage secured with AES-256 encryption.

Multi-tier backups

Hourly, daily, and monthly backups with a typical recovery time of under one hour.

Honest boundaries

When Stackfield remains the right choice

Not every company needs a system across all planning levels. Four cases in which Stackfield fits well:

Secure collaboration is the actual job. If chat, documents and tasks need to sit confidentially in one place, Stackfield delivers exactly that with end-to-end encryption, German data centres and its own ISO 27001 certification.
Work without long task chains. If a few people work on tasks that hardly depend on each other, a task list with a timeline is enough. A critical path or a capacity view across projects adds little in that case.
The team only needs a place to coordinate. If the schedule is deliberately kept in another system and the team just needs somewhere for tasks and coordination, Stackfield can take on that role. The planning levels then remain separate.
Areas outside the project business. Administration or quality management often work without a schedule and without shared capacity. For their coordination, a collaboration platform is the right tool.

Scheduling and resource planning in Linetrack across several projects and departments

The case where Linetrack makes the difference: several parallel projects, departments with shared resources and a schedule that has to hold from sales to assembly. Anyone who needs a comprehensive system for that should use Linetrack. Only there are project planning, detailed planning and task tracking connected, and the isolated tools in between fall away. The comparison with another task management tool is on the Linetrack vs. Asana page.

How it fits together

How task tracking works in Linetrack

In Linetrack, the task comes out of the planning. Project management sets up the schedule, the department head plans the area in detail and, a few weeks before the work phase, assigns a person, a task and a due date. Employees see their tasks on the desktop or in the mobile app and report their status there. That update is the actual state of the project plan. Nobody has to enter it again.

Project control works with this actual state. Baselines record what was originally planned, scenarios show the consequences of a shift before the decision is made. Nothing is rescheduled automatically; people decide. What feedback on the move looks like is shown on the mobile app page.

Work breakdown structure in Linetrack with the work packages and activities that employees' tasks come from

To get started, existing schedules from Excel, MS Project, Primavera or SAP are imported using the standard function. It takes ten working days from kick-off to go-live. Testing before the decision is free of charge. The process is described on the implementation page.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Still have questions?

Book a meeting with our team.

What is the difference between Stackfield and Linetrack?

Stackfield is an end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform with chat, documents and tasks and works at the level of task tracking. Linetrack is a multi-project management system for mechanical and plant engineering. It connects project planning, the departments' detailed planning and task tracking on a shared data basis, with a critical path and a capacity histogram across all projects. The framework is described on the multi-project management page.

Is Stackfield suitable for project management in machine building?

For teamwork and managing tasks, yes. For planning machine building projects, the levels above are missing: a schedule with a documented critical-path calculation, a capacity view across all projects and an ERP integration that does not have to be built via API or Zapier. How Linetrack plans these projects is described on the mechanical and plant engineering industry page.

Is Linetrack more secure than Stackfield?

Security is not what sets them apart. Stackfield encrypts end to end, uses German data centres exclusively and holds its own ISO 27001 certification audited by TÜV SÜD. Linetrack runs in ISO 27001 certified data centres in Germany. One consequence of Stackfield's end-to-end encryption: content cannot be searched server-side. With many project documents from several departments, that can make searching harder.

Does Stackfield have capacity planning across multiple projects?

Stackfield offers a project portfolio with status, progress and timeframe for all project rooms. A view showing the load on departments or employees across projects is not documented. In Linetrack, the capacity histogram sits directly below the bar chart and shows the load across all projects. Nothing is levelled automatically; the department head decides. More on the resources and capacity page.

How does task tracking work in Linetrack?

Tasks come out of the department's detailed planning as an assignment of person, task and due date. Employees report their status directly on the task, on the desktop or in the mobile app. The planned state of the project plan thus becomes an actual state, to which project control responds with the plan-vs-actual comparison and scenarios.

What does Linetrack cost?

Linetrack starts at 10 € per user per month and is modular. Suppliers receive a free collaboration licence, and testing before the decision is free of charge. Linetrack does not comment on Stackfield's pricing. For a figure that matches your setup, use the contact page.