The importance of project management is hard to overstate. It’s a critical part of running any kind of business, and it’s often the difference between success and failure on an individual level as well. That’s why there are so many tools out there designed to help you manage your projects more effectively.
To help you get started with the right apps for your needs, we’ve prepared a quick overview of the best project management apps on the market. Read on to find out which ones work best for you!
Table of Contents
Best Apps For Project Management
Everyone has a different way of managing projects. Some people like to use their inbox to keep track of tasks. Others prefer to visualize work on a Kanban board or in a calendar view, while some even prefer the old pen and paper system.
Connect your project management software to your other apps
Make your job easier
That’s fine on an individual level, but when you collaborate on projects as a team, you need a flexible and capable project management tool that works for everyone. And with so many teams still working remotely, there’s an even more pressing need for a task management app that can help track projects, collaborate, and keep everyone in the loop.
The good news: free project management software can give you the flexibility you need to manage tasks, communicate with stakeholders, and maintain project visibility—without paying a cent. We considered more than 50 free project management tools, and after extensive testing, we’ve settled on our choices for the best.
The 8 best free project management apps
Trello for visually managing projects
Asana for teams
ClickUp for customized task views
Wrike for spreadsheet-like features
Paymo for freelancers and small agency teams
Airtable for building a customized project management app
GoodDay for multiple project management methodologies
Jira for developers
What makes great free project management software?
How we evaluate and test apps
All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who’ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it’s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We’re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.
To narrow down our list of the best free project management software, we looked for tools that met the following criteria:
Free for unlimited projects. All the project tracking software we chose lets you manage an unlimited number of projects for free (and include at least 10 users for free).
Hosted. There are a lot of great, free, self-hosted project management tools, but they take longer to set up and manage. We’re featuring task management software that’s hosted by the companies that provide the tools. If you’re interested in free, self-hosted project management software, we recommend checking out Taiga, Lavagna, and Redmine.
Collaboration and sharing features. The apps we included make it quick and easy to add team members to your project management setup and control user types and permissions.
Integrations. A great project tracker should fit seamlessly into the rest of your stack, so we’ve only included apps that integrate with other popular software like email and Slack, calendars, document storage, and more.
We selected tools that offer web apps (though many offer synchronized web, mobile, and desktop apps). If it’s not important to you that your project planner is accessible online, you may also want to consider ProjectLibre and GanttProject in addition to the apps listed below. Both of these tools are powerful desktop-only apps that are designed to be alternatives to Microsoft Project.
Need more features and have a bit more flexibility in your budget? Check out our recommendations for the best project management apps.
Best free project management software for visually managing projects
Trello (Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android)
Trello, our pick for the best free project management software for visually managing projects
Trello is simple project management software that gives you a way to organize your projects with Kanban boards. And with a free plan that allows for unlimited boards and users, it’s a tool that anyone can use. Freelancers can use Trello to plan their assignments on a personal board, and teams can use Trello to build a complete project workflow with visibility at every stage.
Start by creating a new board from scratch or choosing a template from dozens of options across marketing, sales, design, team management, and more. Add a handful of lists for your tasks (each list is a column), and customize those lists with the steps in your workflow (e.g., to-do, doing, and done) or as separate parts of your project (e.g., development, design, and distribution). Next, add your tasks as visual cards in each column—with labels, due dates, members, checklists, images, attachments, and comments to keep everything in one place.
As you start completing tasks, simply drag the cards to the appropriate list. You can keep track of all comments and tasks that mention you—or that you’re watching—from the activity menu.
For more features, Trello’s Power-Up options (now unlimited even on the free plan) let you view tasks on a calendar, add voting options on tasks, fade away old tasks automatically, and much more. And you can make Trello boards for everything—personal and work tasks alike—to get your work done in a way that best fits your needs.
For even more flexibility, use Trello’s Zapier integrations to connect Trello with your favorite apps, like Gmail and Slack. Or check out these 6 ways to automate Trello.
Create Trello cards from new Gmail threads
Gmail + Trello
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Create Trello cards from new saved Slack messages
Slack + Trello
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Trello Price: The free plan includes unlimited cards and members, 10 team boards, unlimited Power-Ups, and 250 automated commands each month; upgrade for $5/user/month (billed annually) to the Standard plan that includes unlimited team boards and Power-Ups, custom fields, up to 1,000 automated commands per month, and more.
Want to use Trello as a team? Learn how Trello uses Trello for its own project management needs. Want to use it as a personal to-do list? Here’s how to use Trello for GTD.
Best free project management software for teams
Asana (Web, iOS, Android)
Asana, our pick for the best free project management software for teams
Your to-do list isn’t bad—you just need a few more features to manage your team projects. Asana offers just that. It’s a project management tool that lets you break projects down into sections and sub-lists, along with dashboards to see how much of the project has been completed already. You’ll add, rearrange, and complete tasks the same way you would in a to-do list app, but with the collaboration and organization features you need to work as a team.
For your personal tasks—or the things at work that don’t fit into a precise project—you can make extra lists in Asana that are only shared with specific people. Your own assigned tasks will also show up in your My Tasks view for a quick way to see the things you need to take care of.
Whether you’re working solo or with a team, you can automate Asana with Asana’s Zapier integrations, letting you connect project information to other apps. Try one of the workflows below, or get inspiration from these automations from real users.
Add new Evernote notes to Asana
Asana + Evernote
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Create Asana Tasks from new emails in Gmail
Asana + Gmail
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Asana Price: The free plan includes unlimited projects, tasks, and storage, up to 15 users, and basic search features; upgrade for $10.99/user/month (billed annually) to the Premium plan that includes project timelines, advanced search, and task dependencies.
Learn more about how to use Asana for GTD and how to take advantage of Asana’s hidden features.
Best free project management software for customized task views
ClickUp (Web, iOS, Android)
ClickUp, our pick for est free project management software for customized task views
Most project management apps let you choose from only a handful of task views, like a list, calendar, or Kanban view. Additional views, especially Gantt charts, are usually a premium feature. ClickUp is different.
It’s a simple and free project management app that lets you choose from 11 different task views, including Gantt charts and mind maps. There are also four different page views: Chat (which displays conversations alongside your tasks), Doc (which lets you create docs, wikis, and knowledge bases), Embed (to add apps and websites next to your tasks), and Form (to add a form next to your tasks to gather, organize, and collect data).
ClickUp’s dashboards are just as customizable, letting you choose from more than 20 different widgets so you can only highlight the most important project information.
There’s a lot to parse when you’re first getting started with ClickUp. The onboarding process won’t be as simple as Trello, for example, but the extra customization is worth it—especially when it’s completely free. Plus, the company has done a great job with guided in-app onboarding to get you started.
With ClickUp’s Zapier integrations, you can connect ClickUp with your favorite apps. Try one of the automations below, or read about why ClickUp users love Zapier.
Create new ClickUp tasks from JIRA issues
ClickUp + Jira Software Server
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Create ClickUp tasks from new HubSpot form submissions
ClickUp + HubSpot
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ClickUp Price: The free plan includes unlimited tasks and users, up to 100MB of storage, and up to 100 uses of Gantt charts, mind maps, dashboards, and timeline views. Upgrade to the Unlimited plan for $5/user/month for unlimited list, board, and calendar views, unlimited dashboards, and guests and permissions.
Best free project management software for freelancers and small agency teams
Paymo (Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android)
Paymo, our pick for the best free project management software for freelancers and small agency teams
Paymo is a project management app and time tracker with a free plan that makes it easy for freelancers to plan, prioritize, and keep track of their work for multiple clients and projects.
Work is bucketed into three categories: clients, projects, and tasks. For each task, you can assign due dates, set priorities, and add descriptions and attachments. You also have two options for how to view your tasks—as a list or in a Kanban board—or use Paymo’s filter to sort all of your tasks for every client and project by status, due dates, priorities, and more.
When you’re ready to start working on a specific task, just select that task in Paymo’s time tracker and click the play button to start tracking your time. When you stop the timer, it adds the time to your timesheet and attributes it to the right task, client, and project.
When it’s time to bill your clients, use Paymo’s time reports to pull the exact data you need. You can even set work hours and hourly rates for your team to make billing a breeze. Export, print, or share the report with your clients in a detailed list view or as a pie graph or bar chart, or take the data and use it to create a branded invoice directly in Paymo. You can even set up your invoices to allow for online payments through Stripe, PayPal, and more.
You can also use Paymo’s Zapier integration to connect your freelance projects with other workflows, connecting Paymo to other task management apps or your calendar.
Create detailed Google Calendar events for new Paymo tasks
Google Calendar + Paymo
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Create Paymo tasks for new JIRA issues
Jira Software Server + Paymo
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Paymo Price: The free plan includes 10 users, unlimited projects and clients, 1 GB of storage, and up to three invoices; upgrade for $9.95/user/month for the Small Office plan that includes unlimited invoices and users, 50 GB of storage, and project templates.
Looking for more apps to simplify your administrative tasks as a freelancer? Here are our recommendations for the best time tracking apps and the best accounting apps for freelancers.
Best free project management software for spreadsheet-like features
Wrike (Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)
Wrike, our pick for the best free project management software for spreadsheet-like features
If it were up to you, would you manage your projects in a spreadsheet? If so, you might like Wrike. Wrike offers the same flexibility of a spreadsheet—with columns for every bit of info you want to track about tasks. (If you like spreadsheets but need even more customization, head down to our review of Airtable.)
Wrike lets your team update the status of tasks at various intervals—in-progress, on hold, canceled, or completed. Additionally, you can set the status of projects to green, yellow, red, on hold, or canceled, making it easy to create your weekly project status reports.
While you can do a lot with Wrike’s free plan, its best features—including time tracking, Gantt charts, and custom dashboards—do require a premium plan. If you’re running a small operation now but planning to scale in the future, Wrike grows alongside you, giving you all of the tools you need to run both a single small project and many concurrent large ones.
If you’re interested in the free plan, Wrike’s Zapier integrations can help you do more with the project management app, like automatically creating tasks in Wrike from other tools.
Create Wrike tasks from saved Slack message
Slack + Wrike
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Create new Wrike tasks from Zendesk tickets
Wrike + Zendesk
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Wrike Price: The free plan includes unlimited projects for unlimited users; upgrade for $9.80/user/month (billed annually) to the Professional plan that includes Gantt charts, shareable dashboards, and more.
Best free project management software for building a customized app
Airtable (Web, iOS, Android)
Airtable, our pick for the best free project management software for building a customized app
If you’ve tried other project management software and haven’t found the one, Airtable will let you build it. The app is ready out-of-the-box with a default view similar to a spreadsheet, and it suggests a handful of templated projects based on your team within the company. You can start from one of the suggested templates, browse the rest, or build your own project (called a “base”) from scratch.
But the real power of Airtable happens when you customize it. It will take some upfront effort to tailor Airtable to be exactly what you need—but if you’re willing to spend the time, the sky’s the limit. You can customize everything from the methodology and view type to column headers, field types, data validation, and more.
Head over to the Marketplace to choose from over 80 apps that help you integrate, analyze, and enrich your projects, or build your own custom apps. Airtable also integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically track important information in Airtable, get notifications for activity in your Airtable base, and more.
Save new Google Sheets rows to Airtable
Airtable + Google Sheets
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Add new notes from Evernote to Airtable
Airtable + Evernote
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Airtable Price: The free plan includes unlimited bases, 1,200 records per base, and five view options, including grid, calendar, and Kanban; upgrade for $10/user/month to the Pro plan for 5,000 records per base, 5 GB of attachments, and more.
Best free project management app for working with multiple methodologies
GoodDay (Web)
GoodDay, our pick for the best free project management app for working with multiple methodologies
GoodDay is flexible enough to satisfy a team with diverse project management needs. The app supports a number of methodologies and views, including Gantt, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and waterfall. All are available to use on the free plan, making it the most generous and flexible free plan we tested.
Every project you create can take a different approach, and you can add additional views of the project at any time. Beyond those views, each project has a Summary tab with an overview of tasks, events, users, and burn down. We also love the My Work view, which rolls up work, tasks, calendar, and individual projects assigned to you.
When you first set up your GoodDay account, you can choose from a number of different modules, like time tracking, client portals, and billing to make the app do even more for you. For example, the Clients & Customer Portal module includes an extra project type called client projects, while the HR module includes a custom Vacations calendar view.
Take GoodDay.work’s free plan to another level with its Zapier integration.
GoodDay Price: The free plan includes unlimited projects and tasks, custom workflows, and up to 15 users; upgrade to the Professional plan for $4/user/month for advanced views (like Gantt), up to 250 users, and more.
top 10 project management tools
Looking for the best tools for project management?
Finding a tool that suits the exact needs of your team is hard.
It’s probably harder than deciding which Netflix docuseries you want to binge next!
gasp
But don’t worry, we’ve done all the hard work for you.
In this article, we’ve created a curated list of the ten best project management tools along with their best features, pros, and cons. We’ve also suggested steps you should take to find the right tool for your team, as well as important features you need to look for in a project management tool.
And we’ll also reveal our #1 pick for the best project management tool.
Let’s get started.
Choosing the right tool can be very difficult. Your organization as a whole may be resistant to change or there may be a lot of moving pieces.
That’s why we’ve provided a handy 6-step checklist to help you along your process of vetting the project management tool for you and your team!
Checklist for choosing the right project management tool for your team
Step Considerations
- Define Your Needs -Company culture
-Project management methodology
-Current tech stack
-System interface & integrations - Create Evaluation Team -Represents affected teams
-Standard benchmarks to evaluate
-Tools selected for testing - Test the Tool(s) -Set a timeframe
-Demo with sales team
-Learn the tool - Get Management Buy-in -Objections considered
-Pain points addressed
-Data prepped - Purchase & Implement Tool -Timeline of integration
-Training of team
-Integration of existing toolset - Review Your Implementation -Check in with team
-Check in with tool’s sales team
-Feedback and improvement
For a more in-depth look at each of these steps, click here.
What Are The Top 10 Project Management Tools?
Now that you know the process to selecting the top project management tools, let’s get down to the royal rumble.
Who’s going to come out on top?
Luckily, all of these project management tools all bring something different to the table, and there’s something for everybody in this list.
Here are the best project management tools:
- ClickUp
clickup devices 2021
ClickUp is the highest-rated project management tool. It’s got loads of features that you just won’t find in any other project management software.
Here’s a closer look at some features that put ClickUp in a league of its own:
A. Custom Views
Most companies use different tools for different teams.
This can form cliques within the company, just like in high school.
Tech and software development teams (the nerds) usually want an Agile project management tool.
bart saying nerd! at student
However, sales and digital marketing teams (the jocks) prefer snappy to-do list tools.
Since most project management software tools just have one type of view, you are forced to use multiple tools throughout your company.
This makes it super hard to transfer important information from different teams.
But we aren’t in high school anymore. Your teams need to be united on one single platform.
ClickUp gives you over 10 different views for your projects, so all your teams are on the same page, literally.
That’s not all.
ClickUp is one of the few tools that let you toggle between views on the same project.
Here’s what they look like:
- Board view
This view is perfect for easily moving your project tasks around. It’s a great option for Scrum or Kanban enthusiasts.
Curious about Kanban? Check out this detailed guide to Kanban project management.
board view
- List view
Want to view all your projects in a GTD-style (getting things done) list?
No problem.
With the List view, you can check off project tasks and subtasks with ease.
ClickUp’s powerful list view
- Box view
The Box view shows you all the tasks each team member is working on. Project managers love this work view as project tasks are broken down by assignees. This way, they can keep an eye on any specific team member’s workload.
clickup box view
- Me view
Want to only focus on tasks that concern you?
It’s okay to be selfish sometimes (especially when you don’t want to share your fries.)
joey from friends
The Me view only shows every project and task List assigned to you. No more unimportant tasks clogging up your dashboard
- Saving Layouts
Are you a fan of a particular project plan layout?
ClickUp lets you save it and share the template with your team members.
This way, you won’t be wasting time trying to recreate it for future projects.
B. Custom Statuses
Want to cut down on the number of meetings?
And really, who doesn’t?
With Custom Statuses, you can easily reduce the number of weekly status reporting sessions.
How?
ClickUp lets you add statuses to multiple projects and tasks to keep everyone informed of what stage it’s in.
The best part of ClickUp’s statuses is that they’re customizable. You’re not limited to standard statuses like ‘Open,’ ‘Closed,’ or ‘Review.’
You can get as creative and detailed as you want.
Add statuses such as ‘Ongoing work’ or ‘Plan work.’
ClickUp’s statuses
And since every department has its own processes, you can now customize statuses on a project-by-project basis.
C. Assigned Comments
How many times have you heard your team member use this excuse: “Whoops, I didn’t see that task?”
We bet that it’s way more than the number of online meetings you’ve attended without any pants on!
With ClickUp, that issue is a thing of the past (no, we are not referring to the pantless problem.)
Whenever you want someone to address a comment, you can assign it to them. ClickUp will send them a notification to ensure that it doesn’t get overlooked.
They can then address the comment and mark it as resolved when they’re done.
assigned comment
D. Gantt Charts
Want the ultimate project planning tool?
man introducing man to a woman
ClickUp gives you state-of-the-art Gantt charts to track and manage your projects. You get a bird’s eye view of your project progress and can plan projects in no time. It’s perfect for project portfolio management.
Unlike Excel templates, ClickUp’s Gantt charts also come with tons of automations, so you don’t have to spend countless hours tinkering with your project charts.
ClickUp’s Gantt charts can:
Automatically readjust your task dependencies when you reschedule items
Calculate the project progress percentage based on tasks completed/total tasks
Compare expected vs. current project progress
Calculate the critical path to identify which tasks you must prioritize
Help with the project workflow management
gantt chart in clickup
Learn more about Gantt Chart project management in this guide.
E. Custom Dashboards
Project reporting can be exhausting, right?
You have to spend a few hours every week, poring through project data rather than managing your internal team.
So why not let ClickUp help create project reports for you?
ClickUp’s powerful built-in Dashboards help you visualize and organize your project data automatically.
It displays powerful Widgets that are essential for Agile project management:
Here are a few Agile team metrics you can track with Dashboards:
Velocity Charts: identify how long it takes to complete tasks in a sprint
Burndown Charts: analyze your team’s performance against the target and visualize the remaining work in real-time
Burnup Charts: track how much your team has completed against your project scope
Cumulative Flow Charts: identify potential bottlenecks that are slowing down the project progress and workflow
Want to know how to manage your Agile workflow? This guide has all the answers.
F. Reminders
Have a bad memory?
Don’t worry, ClickUp can help you set reminders for anything you choose (even reminders to drink water!)
ClickUp’s Reminders are some of the most powerful reminders you’ve ever seen.
You have access to:
A reminders inbox: keep track of all your reminders in a single place
A next tab: see what reminders are coming up
A done tab: see what reminders you’ve finished
An unscheduled tab: see which reminders don’t have due dates yet
Delegated Reminders
With ClickUp, project managers can delegate reminders to other team members. Once they do, ClickUp notifies them, and the reminder will appear in their inbox. Your team member can then easily proceed with the upcoming work.
A project manager can also look at a team member’s Profile to keep track and see their assigned tasks and reschedule their reminders accordingly.
G. Time Tracking
Tired of asking this same old question: ‘How long will it take?,’ only to be met with the same response:
scooby doo
With this key feature, this mystery will finally be solved!
ClickUp has a powerful native time tracker to supercharge your productivity levels. Just one click is all you need to start recording how much time a project task takes. This way, you can set realistic deadlines for your team.
time tracking gif
ClickUp also gives you a Time Tracked Report, which can:
Calculate the total time each project team member has spent on tasks
Calculate time entries for each task/project
Export this data for reasons such as generating invoices
If this wasn’t enough, ClickUp could integrate with external time tracking tools like Toggl, Harvest, and tons more. Time management issues are now a thing of the past (get it?) with ClickUp.
H. Custom Fields
Want even more customization?
ClickUp lets you add Custom Fields to your tasks to make them richer and more detailed.
You can add fields such as:
URLs
Dropdowns
Emails
Phone numbers
Currencies
You can also use these Custom Fields to easily filter multiple projects and tasks.
custom fields
I. Docs
Docs save trees.
Wait, what?
With ClickUp you can shift all your company documents online, so there’s a need for those pesky paper sheets.
man tearing paper
Not only that, ClickUp Docs act as a powerful wiki and document management tool for your company, just like Notion.
It’s an all-in-one project management solution for your wiki needs!
J. Integrations
Using other management apps?
No problem.
You can link them to ClickUp in a blink of an eye.
ClickUp has one of the most exhaustive integration lists out there.
With ClickUp’s public API, you can also add as many custom integrations as you want. As new integrations are added every month, you’ll have no trouble switching to ClickUp.
Some of ClickUp’s current integrations include:
Social collaboration tools: Slack, Zoom
File management tools: Dropbox, Google Drive, and other Google apps
Invoicing and time tracking software: Timecamp, Time Doctor, Timely
Sales and marketing tools: Hubspot, Salesforce
Software design and development: Github, Gitlab, Sentry
Check out the entire list here.
Note: If you’re looking to migrate from another project management tool to ClickUp, you’re in luck. ClickUp lets you import all your project data from some of the best online project management tools like Basecamp, Zoho, Todoist, Jira software, and many more.
ClickUp Pros
Custom Views with saveable layouts
Powerful comments
Detailed reports
Powerful to-do lists and reminders
Use the Inbox as a central place to keep track of multiple projects and assignments
Gantt chart tool to manage your project task dependencies
Time tracking capabilities
Supports embedding your spreadsheets from Google Project and Google Sheets right into your project space.
Can add freelancers to your team workspace with Custom Access Rights
Can allocate resources efficiently with Workload View
Use Pulse – a cool feature for remote work
Automations that can create automated workflows for any repeatable process
Sprint Lists to help your Agile team manage their sprint backlog
Goals to plan and track monthly, annual, and quarterly objectives
Loads of integrations with apps for video calls, team chats and other needs.
Powerful mobile apps for iOS and Android
Unlike other project management software, ClickUp has a feature-rich free version
ClickUp Cons
Learning curve due to the number of available features and level of customizability
No Table view in the mobile app
ClickUp is constantly working to fix any minor issues, improve user experience and platform ease of use, and add more tools based on your suggestions.
Want to see a particular feature in ClickUp? Request it here.
Pricing
ClickUp has three pricing options:
Free Forever: Unlimited projects and users with 100MB of cloud storage space
Unlimited ($5/month per user, billed annually): Unlimited projects and users + unlimited number of integrations + advanced reporting
Business ($9/month per user, billed annually): Unlimited projects and users features + two-factor authentication + Google SSO
ClickUp also offers a free trial for its unlimited and business plans.
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.7/5 (1400+reviews)
Capterra: 4.7/5 (2000+ reviews)
- Wrike
wrike
Wrike is an award-winning web-based application for project management. Unlike most project management software on this list, this collaboration tool is especially used in the big leagues. As a result, it’s great for larger teams and huge corporations.
However, like anything meant for the big leagues, it can lose sight of what it means to help the little guys!
Want to know more about Wrike and how it works? Check our detailed review.
Key Features
Here are some of the features that help you hit a home run on all your projects:
A. Three-Pane View
Wrike has a three paned intuitive interface geared towards accessibility and productivity. Here’s what it contains:
Left pane: contains the project hierarchy to edit and adjust subtasks
Middle pane: contains all your current task lists for a project
Right pane: contains detailed information about your tasks
This interface makes it easy to manage everything from one workspace. You can monitor every task dependency, team communication, and project progress reports easily.
B. Analytics
Wrike has powerful analytics to give project managers detailed insights about their project and team. Here are two of their most popular analytics reports:
Global report: Analyzes task data from your projects over eight different categories. It’s useful for expense tracking and calculating future resource management
Performance chart: Graphical representation of your project’s progress over time
With Wrike, detailed insights are just a click away. It’s visual project management at it’s finest.
C. Forms and Requests
Overwhelmed with countless email threads and DM (Direct Messaging) notifications?
You don’t have to switch them off; Wrike eliminates the need for them altogether. With their forms and requests feature, you can assign tasks and communicate useful information easily.
Everything you need to know is on the form itself. You won’t need any other follow-ups.
Wrike Pros
Tons of in-built features such as time-tracking and quick file sharing
Detailed reports and insights to calculate deliverables
Wrike Cons
Mobile apps lack functionality
Not user-friendly, especially for beginners
Bonus: Learn about project management with Wrike.
Pricing
Wrike has three variants to choose from.
Free tier: for teams of up to five members for simple project management
Professional variant ($9.80/month per user): for teams up to 15 members with advanced features
Business variant ($24.80/month per user): for teams up to 200 members with top-of-the-line features
Note: If you have a marketing or creative team, Wrike offers a special creative agencies plan with additional features like a tailor-made workspace and digital asset management tool (price on request).
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.2/5 (1200+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.2/5 (1600+ reviews)
Missing Features
Cannot add multiple assignees
Cannot assign comments to project members
No advanced features like Docs and Mindmaps
Visit Wrike
- Asana
asana
Despite its laid-back yoga-inspired name, Asana is a dynamic project management tool used by companies all over the globe. However, it does have a few quirks that could stress you out – making you want that quick yoga session!
Check out our list of top Asana alternatives to help you breathe easy.
Key Features
Here are a few features of this project management tool that give project managers peace of mind:
A. User Interface
One of the best things about Asana is its intuitive user interface. It’s simple and easy to use.
You get tons of flexibility (pun intended) over how it looks and can move your task list around very easily. You also have access to an activity feed on your dashboard to keep up with what your team members are up to.
This makes it a great project management solution for simple projects.
B. Visual Project Timeline
Asana’s visual project timeline feature is a Gantt chart of sorts. It highlights your task due dates, assignees, and progress over time. However, if you’re looking for a true Gantt chart, you’ll need separate Gantt chart software.
You can get a detailed view of your project with this visual project timeline and can make scheduling adjustments easily.
C. Loads of Integrations
Asana can become one with everything, literally.
Asana can integrate with loads of applications to become a hub for all your business activities. Here are some popular apps it can integrate with:
Slack: for quick team communication
Outplanr: to track time and to-do lists
Google Calendar: to manage your activity schedules
Dropbox: for easy file sharing
Unito: integrate with other team collaboration tools like Basecamp, Wrike, and Trello
Asana Pros
Project timelines for simple workflow management
Tons of helpful integrations
Drag and drop functionality for task management
Asana Cons
Limited features on the free version
Project team members will find it hard to collaborate over a plan
Not meant for heavy project management
Pricing
Asana has four variants to choose from
A basic free variant
A Premium variant ($13.99/month per user), if you have a small team
A Business variant ($30.49/month per user) for loads of features
User Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.3/5 (6800+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.4/5 (8500+ reviews)
Missing Features
Cannot assign work through comments to team members
Cannot add multiple assignees to a task
Cannot switch between views on the same project
No custom statuses
No “Me” tab to only view tasks that concern you
Does not support native mind mapping
No built-in wiki tool
Visit Asana
- Trello
trello
In comparison with the previous tool, Asana, Trello is a simple project management tool. Known for its iconic cards, Trello works like supercharged sticky notes.
And just like sticky notes, they’re great to look at and handy in a pinch, but if you’re looking for something more comprehensive, you might want to look elsewhere.
Key Features
Here’s a closer look at its features:
A. Simple Task Management tool
Trello assigns a “Board” to each task. A project manager can access these boards from their dashboard and make any changes they want. They can add tags, custom fields, and priorities, all with one click.
B. Drag and Drop Functionality
Trello lets you drag and drop tasks around your dashboard. This makes rescheduling and editing tasks and projects easy.
It’s Kanban project management at it’s finest. Uncomplicated and effective.
C. Power-Ups
While they sound like something Mario would like, Power-Ups are Trello’s take on features.
mario
Each project task can be assigned a power-up depending on what’s needed. Most of these power-ups are free and have paid upgrades for more functionality (similar to most freemium games.)
Some of these power-ups include features like calendar views, Google Drive integrations, and quick file sharing.
Trello’s most popular power-up is its “Butler” feature that lets it automate a preset group of tasks.
Want to know how to set up automated workflows in Trello? Here’s our ultimate guide.
Trello Pros
Simple and user friendly interface
Easy task management and scheduling
Useful power-ups for additional functionality
Trello Cons
No views other than Kanban views
No reporting features
Cannot manage complicated projects
Relies on external integrations for functionality
No advanced features like native Mind maps, Docs, and Gantt charts
Pricing
Trello has three variants:
A Free variant for small teams
A Business variant ($9.99/month per user, billed annually) for medium sized teams
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.3/5 (10000+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (17000+ reviews)
Missing Features
No task list or box view. You’re stuck with a Kanban board view
Cannot add multiple assignees to a project
No in-built wiki capabilities
Cannot assign comments to team members
No native spreadsheets
Cannot export projects on the free plan
Visit Trello
- Workzone
workzone
Workzone is a tried and tested web-based software that’s been around since 2000. But that doesn’t mean it’s as dead as a dinosaur. Sure, it’s not the best project planner on this list, but I guess everyone needs a throwback now and then.
Key Features
Here’s why this project management tool is alive and kicking in 2021:
A. Simple Project Management
Since Workzone is old-school, it offers no-nonsense project management.
All your projects are accessible from your project dashboard, where you can easily check their status. Open any project, and you’ll instantly see subtasks, due dates, and the assignees involved.
You’ll also get helpful notifications whenever deadlines are approaching to stay on top of everything.
Workzone is all about functionality, with none of the fluff.
B. Smooth Team Collaboration
Workzone lets your project team members collaborate easily via the comment section present under every task.
This ensures that all your conversations are neatly ordered and are situated where they’re most relevant.
C. Reporting Capabilities
Workzone gives you detailed reports over a variety of topics. You get:
Reports on individual performances
Progress statuses for your projects
Time management reports
You can customize each report too. You can view them as a classic bar chart, a pie chart, or as a table. This gives you the information you need in the way you want it.
Workzone Pros
Straightforward project management
Powerful to-do lists
Good reporting capabilities
Workzone Cons
Mobile applications need work
Lacks features like assigned comments and multiple views
User interface is dated
Pricing
Workzone offers you three variants.
Team ($24/month per user): For loads of features and 100GB of cloud storage for uploads
Professional ($34/month per user): For all the “Team” features + 150GB of cloud storage for uploads
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.3/5 (40+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.7/5 (120+ reviews)
Missing Features
No free version
No board or box view available
Cannot assign comments to team members
Cannot add threaded comments to workspaces
Visit Workzone
- ProofHub
proofhub
ProofHub is another big name in the world of project management. True to its name, it’s a great online proofing tool…but that comes at the expense of it falling short of being the best project tracker out there.
Key Features
Here are the features that make this web-based software a powerful tool:
A. User Interface
ProofHub’s interface isn’t rocket science. You can organize tasks, teams, and projects from your dashboard with ease. ProofHub also lets you set status alerts with the click of a button, making it easy to manage projects.
B. Customization
ProofHub gives you tons of customization options to suit your needs. You have complete control over the color scheme of your tool as well as the layout. You can also white-label it by adding your company name and logo everywhere…just don’t go too crazy with it.
It also offers multilanguage support for French, German, and Spanish.
C. Access Rights
ProofHub lets project managers assign custom roles to employees. These custom roles give employees varying access to your tool. This is a good way to ensure that only certain people can access sensitive projects and useful information.
ProofHub Pros
Loads of customizability
Good security features like custom access rights
Powerful mobile applications for iOS and Android
ProofHub Cons
Lacks additional functionality such as budgeting capabilities
Not meant for complex project management
Reputation for bugginess
Pricing
ProofHub gives you two variants
Essential Version ($45/month, billed annually): for 40 projects + 15GB of cloud storage space + unlimited number of users
Ultimate Control Version ($89/month, billed annually): for loads of additional features + unlimited number of projects + 100GB of cloud storage + unlimited users
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.4/5 (30+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.3/5 (40+ reviews)
Missing Features
No free plan
Cannot add custom fields
Does not support tagging people in comments
Visit Proofhub
- MeisterTask
meistertask
MeisterTask is another Kanban-based project management tool that’s really popular. Unlike Trello, it’s great Agile project management. However, like Trello, there are more comprehensive solutions out there.
Key Features
Here are some of its key features:
A. User-Friendliness
As it’s a Kanban tool, MeisterTask is very user friendly. It’s very simple to use, and the layout is extremely attractive.
Each project is listed as a card on your dashboard that can easily be accessed and moved around. Each card also has an in-built timer to show you how much time you have before it’s deadlines arrive.
Essentially, this key feature does this:
bart saying hurry
B. Good Collaboration Software
MeisterTask is a good project management collaboration software for your team. Each user has a central place to share files and ideas with the rest of the team. There’s also an activity stream for sharing deadlines, updates, and assignments.
C. Customizability
MeisterTask lets you customize your dashboards to suit your needs. You can change the theme and switch projects around by dragging and dropping them to different places.
Each project can also be customized with features like video thumbnails. This ensures that you’re not stuck with the same rigid interface for each project!
MeisterTask Pros
Loads of customizability
Team members will find it easy to collaborate over a plan
Loads of integrations with tools like Slack and GitHub
MeisterTask Cons
Can’t handle complex projects
Mobile tools lack functionality
Pricing
MeisterTask offers you four different versions.
A free variant: for unlimited users + projects
A Pro variant ($4.19/month per user, billed annually): for unlimited users + projects + additional features + unlimited integrations
A Business variant ($10.39/month per user, billed annually): for unlimited users + projects + additional security + priority customer support + security features
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd – 4.4/5 (150+ reviews)
Capterra – 4.7/5 (850+ reviews)
Missing Features
Cannot support a box or list view, only supports a Kanban interface
No Gantt chart tool for a bird’s eye view of your project progress
Cannot customize statuses
Visit Meistertask
- Monday.com
monday
Formerly known as dapulse, Monday.com is another good online project management solution available today. However, it is named after everyone’s least favorite day of the week. Is that a sign of things to come? Let’s find out:
Here’s our detailed Monday.com review!
Key Features
Here’s what makes Monday.com special:
A. Third-Party Collaboration
Most project management tools only allow team members to access their workspaces. This makes working with freelancers and third-party agents difficult.
Not for Monday.com, though.
A team leader can add as many third-party agents as they want.
You can customize their access rights to ensure that they only access projects assigned to them.
B. Easy Communication
Monday.com is a good project management collaboration software because of its comment sections. Teams can use it to share ideas, project tasks, and files with no difficulty.
Monday.com also lets you follow Twitter and Linkedin threads in the app to stay updated.
C. Loads of Native Integrations
Monday.com can integrate with tons of integrations such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Zapier to boost its functionality.
As Monday.com is built on an open-source framework, developers can add their own custom integrations as well.
Monday.com Pros
Open API architecture allows you to add custom integrations
Detailed reporting capabilities
Ability to add freelancers and third-party agents
Monday.com Cons
Cannot handle complex projects
No free plan
Mobile apps need work
Pricing
Monday.com has four plans:
Basic plan ($8/month per user): Includes unlimited free viewers + mobile apps+ 5 GB data storage
Standard ($10/month per user): Includes project timeline view + 5 native integrations + 50 GB data storage
Pro ($16/month per user): Includes time tracking + chart view + 100 GB data storage
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.6/5 (1100+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.6/5 (2100+ reviews)
Missing Features
No free plan
Cannot toggle between views in the same project
Cannot set up recurring tasks
Does not support automatic time tracking
No mind mapping capabilities like MindMeister
Cannot assign comments
Cannot monitor task dependencies
Visit Monday.com
- Teamwork
teamwork
Teamwork is a great online project management tool, which helps you with… team work (was that a little too obvious?)
Key Features
Here’s a closer look at its features:
A. Intuitive Dashboard
Teamwork’s dashboard is unique as it gives you an option to only see your most recent tasks. This way, you’ll never get lost in an ocean of completed tasks. While dealing with loads of projects, this key feature can be useful to identify priority targets and deal with them first.
The dashboard’s interface can also be customized to include your company’s name and logo.
pied piper shirt
(Sorry, they don’t offer custom t-shirts yet.)
B. Email Integration
Teamwork lets you reply to comments and notifications via email. This makes responding super convenient, and you can get things sorted out in seconds.
You can add multiple email accounts and signatures to further customize this process.
C. Invoicing Capabilities
Teamwork’s time tracker has an invoicing tab that can be a useful billing feature. It can calculate billable hours in order to generate invoices for your clients.
As the invoices are directly generated from your timesheets, so your clients know that you’re billing them correctly.
Teamwork Pros
Loads of customizability
Lots of native features such as an invoicing tool for clients using built in timesheets
Good mobile applications
Teamwork Cons
Cannot handle complex project management
Free plan only useful for very small teams working on two or fewer projects
Pricing
There are four Teamwork variants available.
Free: Up to five users working on a maximum of two projects
Pro ($12.50/month per user): Workload view + 300 projects a month
Premium ($22.50/month per user): 50 project templates + 600 projects a month
Enterprise (price varies): Single sign-on, priority support
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.3/5 (680+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (600+ reviews)
Missing Features
Lack of Goals feature
Very limited reporting
Cannot add tasks to multiple lists
Visit Teamwork
- Podio
podio
Citrix Podio is a good project management tool with tons of app integrations. Just like a chameleon, this project tool is famous for its adaptability and customizability. However, it does run the risk of being a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-none.
Key Features
Here’s a closer look at every key feature it has to offer:
A. App Market
Podio’s claim to fame is its app market. You’ve got hundreds of web-based software add-ons that can add functionality to your app.
You have…
Expense tracking apps
Organization apps
Notes apps
Templates
Invoicing tools
And several more.
B. Simple Interface
Podio opts for a simple and user friendly interface that’s easy to operate. Your dashboard shows you your current projects, activity stream, and calendar. It’s everything you need, stored in a single place.
This makes workflow management smoother than cream cheese spread on a bagel.
Podio’s interface can also support over 12 languages to make sure everyone’s comfortable using it.
C. Custom API
Podio is almost an open-source tool. Your developers can use the Podio API to add as many custom integrations as they want.
Podio Pros
User friendly interface
Loads of add-ons in the app store
Can handle custom integrations
Podio Cons
Lacks in-house functionality such as assigned comments and reports
Cannot handle complex project management
Pricing
There are four Podio versions available:
Free Plan: with basic project planning and access to the app store
Basic Plan ($9/month): with project planning + unlimited number of projects and users
Plus Plan ($14/month): with advanced project planning + automated management of your workflow
Premium Plan($24/month): with visual reports and interactive dashboards
Customer Ratings
G2Crowd: 4.2/5 (330+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.3/5 (250+ reviews)
Missing Features
Cannot customize access rights
No Gantt chart tool to manage your projects task dependencies
Cannot switch between views in a project
Cannot add custom statuses
Cannot add multiple assignees
Visit Podio
Note: These are not all of the best project management software available. Here a few honorable mentions:
Basecamp: a minimalistic yet powerful project management software for small businesses
Jira Software: one of the best project planning tools for Agile teams
Liquidplanner: a smart project planning tool with automated scheduling
Celoxis: a comprehensive project management software with loads of dashboards and customizable features
Zoho Project: cloud-based project management solution geared towards small businesses
6 Steps to Choose the Best Project Management Tool
As mentioned in the beginning, it’s hard to get started. Here are the six steps that you can follow to decide on the best project management tool.
- Define Your Needs
First, you need to identify current problems in your current workflow.
It’s also important to consider the company as a whole, as the best project management tool should be cross-functional in order to scale up into the organization. After all, it would be a headache to collaborate with different departments all using completely different project management software.
With this in mind, you need to consider the company culture and the project management methodology adopted by your organization. You want your project management tool to fit seamlessly into this organizational fabric.
- Put together an Evaluation Team
When you move forward to this stage, it’s important to organize a team that can represent several organizational functions for best effect.
For example, the sales team would use the project management software tool in a completely different way from the marketing team. Additionally, managers may be interested in higher-level overviews while specialists need to be able to navigate through granular pieces of a project. Great project management tools need to have this flexibility.
Then, you need to create standards of evaluation. It’s difficult to judge a tool’s effectiveness if everyone’s vocabulary to give feedback differs. Lastly, compile a list of top tools contending for your business. Our top 10 list would be a great starting point.
- Test the Tool
After settling on which project management tool or tools to test, it’s now time to test.
Commit to a timeframe in which you will use the tool to its fullest capacity. This is the time to pilot a project and see if the project management tool will address your needs in step 1.
Learn the tool by reading help docs, watching webinars, or contacting customer service as well as getting a demo from the sales team. For example, ClickUp has 24/7 customer chat and email support as well as coaches and support staff on standby to demo the platform.
- Get Management Buy-in
After a successful pilot, it’s time to convince your boss to switch to this project management tool. When addressing the executive team, it’s important to keep these things in mind
What potential objections will management have that I can address?
What management pain points does this tool help solve?
Do we have data to prove the effectiveness of the project management solution?
- Purchase and Implement the Tool
Congratulations! Management has approved the use of this project management tool. However, your job as a project manager is not over yet. First, commit to a timeline and a plan. When do you want to bring everyone on?
To maximize the impact of this project management tool, how much training will your team members need and who will give it? For example, ClickUp offers professional services to help teams transition into using the platform.
Do you have current software that need to be integrated into the project management workflow?
- Review and Iterate
After implementation, you should review the impact this tool has had on your organization. Did it truly address the needs you set out to fulfill in step 1?
Get feedback from your team after everyone is past the learning curve. Does anything need improvement?
Additionally, the project management tool may have features that you were previously unaware. Continue to work with client success and attend training workshops that might be relevant for your workflows to further integrate the tool into your organization.
What Should You Look For In A Project Management Software?
When you’re looking for a nice bottle of wine, expensive usually means better.
But is it the same when you’re searching for the best online project management tools?
Nope.
You might splash all your cash on a fancy new project management software, only to find out it has just three useful features!
So, what attributes should you use to figure out the best tool for your team?
Here are the top five aspects:
- Team Collaboration
How can you predict your project’s success?
Hint: A magic 8 ball, tarot cards, or an ouija board can’t help you. (And even if they did, the reply wouldn’t be so comforting.)
So how do you do it?
You just need to know how well your team works together.
Team collaboration essentially determines whether your projects meet deadlines or not. Effective teamwork is the core of every project management process: Agile or otherwise.
Good project management software lets your team communicate easily and effectively. They need to easily share ideas, opinions, resources, or even attach files to get work done quickly.
What would happen if your project management software doesn’t have any team collaboration features?
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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