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Best Project Management Software Of 2024

Updated: Nov 27, 2024, 11:02am
Written By
Staff Reviewer
Edited By
Lead Editor, SMB
Expert Reviewed
Education Expert
& 2 others
Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Project management software makes it easy to plan projects, allocate tasks and keep teams organized so that deadlines and goals are met. Our research shows that ClickUp is the clear winner thanks to its robust set of task and project management tools, real-time collaboration features and competitive plans. Still, with so many software solutions on the market today—all with different pricing, plans and features—the decision on which to choose for your use case can be difficult.

To help, our Forbes Advisor experts analyzed over a dozen leading providers and collected data covering 27 project management factors across seven categories, including pricing, features and customer support to help select the best project management software in 2024.

Read more

Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, hands-on testing, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

Learn More: How We Test Project Management Software

  • 22 providers evaluated
  • 34 metrics applied to each provider
  • 7 weighted categories for scoring
  • 680 data points collected
  • 130-plus hours testing software

What Is Project Management Software?

Project management software is a digital platform/tool that businesses or individuals use to plan projects, allocate and track project resources, schedule project timelines and tasks, assign tasks, track progress, capture and implement knowledge and ideas. It further helps companies stay organized via document storage, search and organizational features.

Additionally, many pieces of project management software include real-time collaboration tools, such as live chat, whiteboards, document creators, mind maps and proofing systems, that allow distributed teams to work together seamlessly. Artificial intelligence is also making its way into the field and can help project managers summarize projects for stakeholders, create tasks and automations, and even write project scopes.


Best Project Management Software


Best for Agile Development Teams

ClickUp

ClickUp
4.9
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$10 per member per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more

Collaboration tools

Comments, @mentions, real-time edits

ClickUp
Learn More Arrow

On ClickUp's Website

$10 per member per month

(billed monthly)

Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more

Comments, @mentions, real-time edits

Expert Take

ClickUp is best for teams that use Agile frameworks. While it includes all the features you would expect from a great project management app, it goes further with templates and features that allow for an Agile software development process. Plans with these features start at free for startup teams and increase to $10 per member per month (if billed monthly) for multiple teams.

Brett Day, our Forbes Advisor project management expert, says: “If you need a do-it-all project management platform that can not only help you track tasks and manage resources, but that can also help you collaborate with distributed teams on documents, brainstorming sessions and creating mind maps, ClickUp is hard to beat.”

General Features

ClickUp’s feature offering is robust. It offers collaboration tools (such as real-time editing, mentions, calendar sync, and role creation and permissions), preset and custom automation recipes, reporting dashboards, project-tracking tools (such as checklists, timelines, Gantt charts, Kanban boards and dependencies) and over 1,000 integrations. Use templates or customize dashboards so your team works on its own terms.

It also offers advanced task management, making it one of the best task management software options on the market. In my opinion, because of its advanced features. When testing ClickUp, I appreciated the clean layout of the dashboard. It was easy for me to find tasks I needed to complete, comments I’d been tagged in and which to-dos were most important to other people (in the Trending section).

Additional Features

I tend to prefer more visual representation of tasks, which is why I like Kanban and Gantt charts. With that said, I also appreciate linear representation, so I wasn’t too sure about the mind mapping tool but after trying it I found it was much easier than I expected (I wasn’t playing in an open field because there are still boundaries in ClickUp). I also really liked ClickUp’s reporting section because it caters to almost everyone: It includes charts, graphs and numbers.

Cost

As an individual user, the free plan from ClickUp was serviceable for my needs. With that said, $10 per user per month for the Unlimited plan might be worth it for the unlimited integrations and custom fields. The $19 per user per month Business plan seems better for a more established and bigger team that needs timesheets and workload management.

Customer Service

If you’re like me and you work at odd hours of the day or night (sometimes the wee hours are the most creative), 24/7 support is handy. However, ClickUp’s promise of 24/7 support is a little misleading in my opinion. You have 24/7 access to the ClickUp help center, but not to support agents. Plus, live chat support (there is no phone support) is only available to paid plan users. The chatbot is helpful but it isn’t perfect; still it can redirect you to helpful knowledge base articles and offer suggestions in the chat application.

I also tested how quickly ClickUp responds to email requests. At present, ClickUp only provides email support for billing and technical support. I asked the chatbot a question it deemed to be worthy of email support and I completed the help request. It took a representative roughly nine hours to get back to me. Help through live chat was rapid. The help received was high-quality and the representative was friendly.

Mobile App

It’s rare that I use a mobile app for project or task management, but it is nice to have when I don’t want to pull out my laptop. I was able to easily respond to comments, check progress of tasks I’d assigned and create reminders for myself (or others). Not all features on the browser or desktop app are mirrored on the mobile app, but I doubt I’d want to use a whiteboard feature or Gantt chart from my phone.

Who should use it: 

With robust features, ClickUp is great for any team looking for advanced project management capabilities. But, it is best for companies with Scrum Agile product development, marketing or sales teams.

Learn more: Read our ClickUp review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.5

3.5/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #6Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 13% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    81%
    13%
    6%
    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 13% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
  • #11Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 21% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    68%
    21%
    11%
    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 21% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 34% of people had negative sentiments
    66%
    6%
    34%
    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 34% of people had negative sentiments
  • #13Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 36% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 46% of people had negative sentiments
    36%
    18%
    46%
    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 36% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 46% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    84%
    5%
    11%
    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments

ClickUp is generally well-regarded for its flexibility and wide range of features, with many users appreciating its customizability and robust project management capabilities. However, it is also noted for having a steep learning curve and some users have reported concerns about the user interface being cluttered or buggy. While the platform offers significant functionality in its free tier, users have expressed mixed feelings about its performance and reliability.

Pros & Cons
  • Free forever plan for individuals
  • Over 1,000 integrations
  • Advanced task management
  • Top tiers can get pricey for small businesses
  • Time tracking can be glitchy
  • Can be overwhelming for new users

Best for Startups

monday.com

monday.com
4.9
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$12 per seat per month, billed monthly

(minimum of three seats)

Integrations

Zoom, Google Docs, Salesforce, Slack and more

Collaboration tools

Document collaboration and comments

monday.com
Learn More Arrow

On monday.com's Website

$12 per seat per month, billed monthly

(minimum of three seats)

Zoom, Google Docs, Salesforce, Slack and more

Document collaboration and comments

Expert Take

Regardless of budget limitation, monday.com offers something for everyone. Even if you are working on a team of two with no budget, monday.com can help you get your project done on time and with limited risk. If you are a small two-person team, you can enjoy monday.com for free. If you’re part of a growing team, use advanced project-tracking features, automations and integrations for as little as $12 per team member per month, if billed monthly (minimum of three seats per plan).

General Features

Along with most project management software today, monday.com offers multiple project views, so it’s keeping up with its competitors. In my experience with monday.com, I found I preferred its table view for managing single projects. The color coding of statuses, customization of columns and inclusion of headshots or initials helped me know where each task stood and who was responsible—at a glance. In fact, the Kanban view was too cluttered for my taste because monday.com tries to give you all the fields in one card.

Jeffrey Weide, a project management expert and our advisory board member, likes the platform’s user experience: “It’s visually appealing and with UX designed for end users. It’s a flexible tool for a variety of processes and tasks for integrated teams.”

Additional Features

Creating automations was an easy task. It’s as simple as filling out fields to determine if this happens, then this happens, or condition triggers and actions. I was able to quickly create automated workflows for redundant work so I could focus on completing other work.

I also appreciated how easy it was to read reports but options are limited. The only way to see your data any way you want is to upgrade to the Enterprise plan and I don’t have the budget for that (which is fine because I don’t love creating pivot tables anyway). What I don’t love is that advanced features are mostly locked behind the higher-priced plans. In short: Love the automations; don’t love that they’re on the Standard plan and up.

Cost

We named monday.com one of the best free project management apps available, and it’s definitely a free all-in-one work management solution I’d choose for myself if all I needed were task and project management. However, its pricing structure could be frustrating for small teams that want to upgrade.

The free version is only good for two people, but paid plans have a three-person minimum, so you’re looking at paying at least $36 per month for the entry-level plan. Then, you have to purchase seats in five-seat increments up to 30 and then in 10-seat increments. So, it can get pricey.

The Standard plan costs $42 per month with the three-seat minimum, while the Pro plan will cost $72. I received a quote for the Enterprise plan and was told for a team of 25 the price would be $16,000 to $19,000 annually.

Customer Service

Similar to ClickUp, monday.com offers 24/7 support. You’ll find a chatbot that can answer questions and direct you to knowledge base articles and live support if needed. You also have the option to request a call from an agent if nothing in the help center answers your question. I had no problem finding answers in the help center.

I found the chatbot to be quite helpful and the live support staff to be very courteous and knowledgeable. I also sent an email to the customer support team. I received a helpful email back from them in under an hour, which is impressive.

Mobile App

Although the mobile app theoretically allows you to create tasks and manage your work, it doesn’t always work as intended. I had a few issues with the app getting out of sync with the browser version and I had to force quit a few times. When it did work, I could do the basics, similar to most other project management mobile apps.

Who should use it:

Startup businesses should consider monday.com. It offers a free version and free trials so users can test more advanced tiers as their companies can afford them.

Learn more: Read our monday.com review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.8

3.8/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #14Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 69% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
    69%
    10%
    21%
    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 69% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 79% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    79%
    10%
    11%
    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 79% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
  • #14Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 28% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 62% of people had negative sentiments
    28%
    10%
    62%
    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 28% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 62% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 93% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    93%
    3%
    4%
    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 93% of people had positive sentiments
    • 3% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 89% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    89%
    7%
    4%
    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 89% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments

Monday.com is commonly viewed as a flexible and customizable project management tool with a visually appealing interface and a wide range of integrations. Users appreciate its functionality for managing tasks and projects, although some find the platform to be expensive and limited in handling certain complex workflows. While it is commended for ease of use and collaboration features, it faces criticism for its complicated automations and perceived high cost for advanced features.

Pros & Cons
  • Free version available
  • Attractive, easily customizable interface
  • Gantt charts and Kanban boards
  • Limited features in the lower tiers
  • Cluttered boards for in-depth or complex projects
  • Limited reporting options

Best for Large Teams

Asana

Asana
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$13.49 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack and DocuSign

Collaboration tools

Comments and messaging

Asana
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$13.49 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack and DocuSign

Comments and messaging

Expert Take

One of the main selling points for choosing Asana over other project management software is its ability to bring large teams together. Along with most PM software, Asana allows you to comment on tasks and projects, but it also includes in-app chats for one-on-one conversations or even group chats. Aside from making communication easier for your team, Asana also gives you multiple project views, including Kanban-style boards, calendars, workload views and more.

General Features

I want to give Asana credit for how it handles task dependencies. I like a big-picture view but I also tend to work in the trenches of a project, so it helps to see specific call-outs when a task is blocked by another task. Asana makes this clear with its “blocked by” language and then points directly to the issue. Sure, it’s calling out a mistake I made in planning, but I’m going to take it as constructive criticism, thank you very much. Creating tasks and connecting integrations are intuitive so I was able to use Asana for many years for personal projects.

Additional Features

When I needed more advanced features to manage multiple projects and people, I needed to upgrade to a paid plan. This was the only way to access automated workflows and timeline views with task dependencies. Asana is more customizable at this point with custom fields and project templates. If I worked with more external collaborators, I’d probably spring for the Advanced plan because I really liked the approval feature, which allowed me to accept, reject or return work to a user if I wanted changes; this saved me time because I didn’t have to send an email.

There are a couple of ways you could interpret collaboration in project management software and for Asana, it’s all about communication. I like that I can add comments on a task, tag users or even have a chat without having to pull up a different app. Asana meets most of my collaborative needs admirably, I think, but it does so through integrations. I added Google Chat to Asana, which made the most sense for me because I tend to work in a project management app and my Google Workspace. Sure, I felt silly talking to myself in Asana via Google Chat, but this is how I test software.

Samantha. D, a medical systems trainer who is a user of Asana shared her thoughts: “I like using Asana because it makes it easy for my team to collaborate on projects and I can quickly see tasks quickly or in great detail. I also appreciate having a cloud-based service as it allows me to have up-to-date information at my fingertips whenever I need it.”

Cost

The free plan from Asana worked well for me but only for small projects. The Starter plan is pricier than other project management software I’ve used but it offers a lot of features I needed for more advanced project planning, so I think it was worth the cost. I’d likely only upgrade to the Advanced plan if I was running an agency and I required proofing and portfolio management.

When you opt for a paid plan, Asana automatically sets your seats at five users, which might seem a bit misleading. I was able to edit the seats and choose monthly or annual payment but there is a minimum of two users for the Starter plan, which isn’t clear on Asana’s pricing page. That means it would cost me nearly $26.98 per month (billed monthly) if I opted for the Starter plan for just me (and one other seat).

The Advanced plan costs $30.49 per user per month (billed monthly), which is a huge increase in price compared to the Starter plan.

Customer Service

Although I recognize that beggars can’t be choosers, I didn’t love that I had limited access to live customer support. Asana only offers 24/7 support to those on the Enterprise and Enterprise+ plans. I tried using the chatbot to get a hold of an agent but it only offers to submit a ticket to support. I submitted a ticket and it took over 24 hours to receive a response, which is not ideal when you may need help figuring out an issue that could harm your business.

Still, Asana offers 24/7 support access through its help center and chatbot. Most of my questions were answered in the help articles, anyway.

Mobile App

As with most project management mobile apps, everything in Asana’s mobile app is smaller or there are fewer features compared to the desktop/browser version. I had a few issues with the widgets and had to refresh a few times to make them reappear. I liked that I could update a project’s status or respond to a comment on the fly but that’s about all I’d use Asana’s mobile app for.

Who should use it:

Asana can work for any size business, but it’s most ideal for midsize companies that need to collaborate with clients or across departments.

Learn more: Read our Asana review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.3

3.3/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #11Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 13% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    13%
    10%
    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 13% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 80% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    80%
    16%
    4%
    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 80% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
  • #11Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 45% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 45% of people had negative sentiments
    45%
    10%
    45%
    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 45% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 45% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
    66%
    19%
    15%
    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    84%
    10%
    6%
    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments

Users have a mixed view of Asana, praising its user-friendly interface, robust task management features and flexibility for managing projects and tasks. However, they also note limitations in customization and some frustrations with its complexity for more advanced needs or larger projects, along with issues in customer service and time tracking capabilities.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan available
  • Cross-team collaboration task management
  • Integrates with hundreds of other apps
  • Pricier than industry average
  • May be too complex at the start for some users
  • Limited messaging tools

Best for Teams on a Tight Budget

Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$5 per seat per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Microsoft Teams, Slack, Dropbox, Google apps, Github, Zendesk, Zapier and Zoho apps

Collaboration tools

Real-time chat, comments and @mentions

Zoho Projects
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$5 per seat per month

(billed monthly)

Microsoft Teams, Slack, Dropbox, Google apps, Github, Zendesk, Zapier and Zoho apps

Real-time chat, comments and @mentions

Expert Take

If you consider the list of third-party app integrations Zoho Projects allows, it may seem short, but if you add on the whole of the Zoho software ecosystem, you’ll likely find all the tools you need. Businesses that are starting out may prefer to choose Zoho for all of its apps to round out their tech stack for easy integration. Plus, Zoho Projects (and its complementary apps) are typically priced below the industry average, so it’s affordable for all business sizes.

Jeffrey Weide, our advisory board member, also finds Zoho affordable: “Zoho Projects is cost-effective programming that can link into other Zoho programs and mobile options to help you integrate these tools on the go.”

General Features

Beyond the affordability and native ecosystem of apps, I found Zoho Projects to be one of the easiest project management tools I’ve used. The dashboard had all my tasks listed at the top, with more granular views of what needed my attention below. Rather than show me how I screwed up a project plan (it’s been known to happen; please, no judgment), it didn’t even allow me to create conflicting task dependencies. I know Zoho Projects doesn’t offer a ton of integrations but I also use Zoho Invoice, so I was able to easily create invoices for work I’d done in my project management platform.

I’m a big fan of the shortcuts Zoho Projects offers such as the time tracking feature that you can access from the Kanban board—I didn’t even have to click into a task to start a timer. In fact, the only things I didn’t love about this project management software were the few bugs I came across (I had an issue with assigning a task to a user that appeared as an option but the platform told me there were no matches) and customer support (more on that below).

Additional Features

As useful as the free plan is, Zoho Projects is much better if you upgrade because you gain access to so many more features. The templates and recurring tasks saved me so much time setting up projects but I tend to create projects similar to each other, so this made sense for me. Time tracking helps with figuring out billable hours, and I was able to use Zia, the AI chatbot. Zia was a bit like a virtual assistant for me by retrieving data when I asked for it.

Cost

As much as I like Zoho Projects’ free plan, I’d say its Premium plan offers one of the best value-to-cost ratios. For $5 per user per month (billed monthly), I’d happily subscribe to it to unlock a lot of advanced features, though I was disappointed to see workflow rules are only available on the Enterprise plan. That said, the Enterprise plan only costs $10 per user per month (billed monthly), which is even cheaper than Asana’s entry-level plan.

Customer Service

During my Premium plan trial, I contacted customer support in various ways. Zoho Projects offers 24/5 live support (Monday through Friday). I was connected to a live agent quickly and received the help I needed. If you’re on a free plan, you can still use live chat, but support is only available eight hours per day, Monday through Friday. There’s no phone support, but you can email. I sent a help request through email and received a response in just under 24 hours.

Keep in mind that there is also a knowledge base with articles that can help you out of sticky situations, and there are community forums where you can post questions and get answers.

Mobile App

Perhaps it was the recent update, but I had more bugs with the mobile app than the browser version of Zoho Projects. The app crashed for me a few times and I couldn’t easily access support tickets from the app. I expected the mobile app to not have as many features, so keeping that in mind, it’s fine for quick updates to tasks. I wouldn’t use it as my primary project management tool though.

Who should use it:

Zoho Projects is affordable and is a great pick for small businesses that want to integrate other Zoho apps. It’s especially useful if you’re just starting out and you want to stick to the Zoho ecosystem, as the integrations will be seamless.

Learn more: Read our Zoho Projects review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.8

3.8/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #13Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 28% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    66%
    28%
    6%
    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 28% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
    81%
    19%
    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 81% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
  • #12Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 40% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    60%
    40%
    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 40% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    23%
    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 71% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    71%
    18%
    11%
    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 71% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments

Zoho Projects is generally perceived as a cost-effective and feature-rich project management solution, particularly suited for small to medium businesses. Users appreciate its comprehensive functionality and user-friendly interface, but some feel it lacks flexibility and could benefit from further integration with other tools. There are mixed feelings toward its effectiveness, with some users finding it satisfactory for managing tasks and projects, while others critique its execution of various features.

Pros & Cons
  • Connects to all Zoho apps and big-name software
  • Offers a free plan
  • Includes built-in chat
  • Customer support is limited
  • Must create project templates
  • Storage space is limited (may require integration)

Best for Workflow Automations

Smartsheet

Smartsheet
4.5
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$12 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, and Zapier

Collaboration tools

Real-time doc collaboration

Smartsheet
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$12 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, and Zapier

Real-time doc collaboration

Expert Take

Smartsheet is similar to Airtable in that it’s primarily a spreadsheet project management tool, but it comes with features to enhance it. It’s a highly customizable application, so you can use premade templates to create the type of project you need and then tweak the details to better suit your needs. Its workflow automation is available to all plan users and includes triggers, alerts, reminders and assignments.

General Features

Given that Smartsheet is essentially an enhanced spreadsheet application, it’s the automations that would sell me on signing up for it. One of the things that drives me crazy about collaborative spreadsheets is that I have no idea when someone’s changed something. With Smartsheet, I was able to create an automated alert for whenever someone added or changed a row. In hindsight, this isn’t the best idea unless you love constant alerts. But hey, I got what I wanted. And it was easy to create that automation.

A lot of my work requires me to do repetitive tasks, so I use copy and paste often. With Smartsheet though, I could set up rows with conditional formatting so I could apply the same format to each row. This cut down so much on the manual work I was doing so I could focus my attention on, well, other manual work that no project management tool can help with.

Another thing I liked about Smartsheet was its project dashboard. When I have to show stakeholders where I am with a project and how much work is left, I don’t want to create a new report every time. The dashboard shows automatically calculated completions and it’s easy to read, whether your stakeholders prefer pie charts or bar graphs.

Additional Features

There are a couple of features that are nice to have but only available on the higher-priced plans. I found it was much easier to manage a team and their work with the workload management feature. I could see my team’s workload in one window, determine who had too much going on and then reassign a task from a project timeline.

In fact, Smartsheet offers a lot of additional features that help add functionality to its simple spreadsheet platform, but I don’t love that they’re all kind of à la carte. Most of these advanced features for data synchronization, resource management and advanced automations are costly add-ons.

Jeffrey Weide, a project management professional of 20 years, appreciates Smartsheet for its customization features: “There is a great drag-and-drop and customization element to their dashboards that is helpful if you are starting a PMO or other function that requires status updates to leaders across remote or disperse environments.”

Cost

The free plan only allows you two sheets and it lacks forms, template sets, API calls, proofing and other advanced features, so it’s really only suitable for my personal projects. I do like that there are 100 automations per month on the free plan. However, the Pro plan only costs $12 per user per month if you pay monthly and it unlocks a lot of the advanced features from Smartsheet. The Business plan costs $24 per member per month (billed monthly).

Customer Service

On one hand, Smartsheet is easy to use. On the other hand, it’s a complex system and I needed help figuring out a few things at times, but live support wasn’t readily available. I had to make do with the help center. In fact, there’s no live support for the free or entry-level plan. It’s an add-on that costs more and is only available to Business and Enterprise plan users. It’s the same story with email support.

With all that said, the help center is useful and I was able to figure out how to do something without having to resort to sending an email or spending more money.

Mobile App

There are a few frustrations I’ve had with Smartsheet’s mobile app, such as project planning, but I think that’s just because of the medium. I like that I can access reports easily and it’s scaled well for my phone. Plus, the offline feature is fantastic for when you don’t have service or a Wi-Fi connection. And the times I’ve used the barcode scanner, it was quick and easy.

Who should use it:

Project teams that prefer spreadsheets for data and project management are likely to take to Smartsheet quickly. The automated workflows, forms and proofing features make it much easier to get work done quickly and efficiently, whether you’re collaborating with teammates, clients or both.

Learn more: Read our Smartsheet review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.6

3.6/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #10Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 64% of people had positive sentiments
    • 13% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 23% of people had negative sentiments
    64%
    13%
    23%
    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 64% of people had positive sentiments
    • 13% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 23% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    76%
    19%
    5%
    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 89% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
    89%
    9%
    2%
    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 89% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
  • #12Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 36% of people had positive sentiments
    • 22% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 42% of people had negative sentiments
    36%
    22%
    42%
    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 36% of people had positive sentiments
    • 22% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 42% of people had negative sentiments
  • #10Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 72% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments
    72%
    15%
    13%
    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 72% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments

Smartsheet is praised for its flexibility and powerful project management features, with many users finding its spreadsheet-like interface intuitive and easy to adopt. However, there are concerns about its cost, with some users finding it expensive due to additional subscription needs, and concerns about a lack of advanced features like robust reporting tools. Despite its strengths in automation and collaboration, the user experience is mixed, with criticisms aimed at the interface and certain functionalities.

Pros & Cons
  • Workflow automation for all plans
  • Intuitive for spreadsheet users
  • Card, Gantt and grid views
  • No live support
  • Pricing adds up with time tracking and resource management add-ons

Best for Content Creators

Notion

Notion
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$12 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Slack, Zapier, Jira, Asana, Google Drive, and IFTTT

Collaboration tools

Real-time document collaboration, comments and @mentions

Notion
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$12 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Slack, Zapier, Jira, Asana, Google Drive, and IFTTT

Real-time document collaboration, comments and @mentions

Expert Take

Notion offers one interface to handle all of your content creation projects from start to finish. Not only can you design your content from the platform, but you can also create checklists, store your documents or rich content and share your content from one platform. With a free personal plan and small business paid plans that increase to just $12 per month per user (when billed monthly), even freelance content creators can afford this luxury.

General Features

Notion is a wide-open playground for writers, but I appreciated the templates available because I need boundaries. Using Notion this way made it much easier for me to create project plans and wikis. Once I was comfortable with the tools and menus, I started to think of all the ways I could use it to my advantage. When I was freelancing, I would’ve loved this platform to create a knowledge base with unlimited files for myself and my virtual assistant so we could easily share samples of my work with clients.

Dan Ginn from Them Frames appreciates Notion’s ease of use: “Notion’s simplicity really makes task management easy. It’s become my all-in-one workspace as I can manage my client database, brainstorm ideas and create documents. I especially like using the Kanban board and that I can create tables to manage my budgets.”

Karolina Gorska, a Senior HR Coordinator, has found success using Notion for HR-related work and as a CRM tool. “The first tool I’ve ever used for project management was Notion. We produce a lot of content as HR, and Notion is especially helpful with that. I like the interface, as I’m not a very technical person and I still find it incredibly easy to get around in. Notion is also a great place to keep and build your CRM. One of the most important things about it for me is that it lets you tag each entry. This way, I could create groups that are simple to filter out, according to my needs.”

Additional Features

One of the best things about Notion is the guest access it allows. Even the free plan allows up to 10 guests on your board. I really like Notion for its collaborative features. An upgrade to the Business plan unlocks collaborative workspaces, which is where the real magic happens, in my opinion.

I found this incredibly helpful when I was working with a colleague on a project where we both needed to brainstorm. We were able to work on the same block in real time. It’s an uncommon feature for a project management platform.

I’m also a fan of Notion’s AI assistant because it reduces the number of programs you have open and helps you create whatever you want in Notion. For example, rather than using a search engine to help me develop a content plan, I tried using Notion’s AI and got a few ideas. It’s also a fast way to find an obscure piece of data.

Cost

I like Notion’s free plan, but it’s unlikely I’d use it as my primary project management tool because it’s so limiting. The thing is, I’d say the same about the entry-level Plus plan, which costs $12 per seat per month (billed monthly) because you really get the same features as the free plan but without limits and the addition of live support.

I’d rather spring for the $18 per seat per month (when billed monthly) Business plan that includes more security features and collaborative workspaces. And Notion’s AI assistant is great but it’s $10 per user per month in addition to the plan price, billed monthly, which ups the cost considerably.

Customer Service

It’s nice to see that Notion uses its platform, too—at least that’s how it appears with Notion’s help center. Notion offers priority support, but only to those on paid plans. I did find a support email address in the help center, so I sent a ticket. I received an email from their AI chatbot first asking for more information, so I replied. A human response to my question took over 24 hours, which is not great, especially when there’s no phone support.

Mobile App

I like that most project management software offers a mobile app but it’s never going to be the same as using the platform on your desktop or a browser. Notion’s mobile app includes a lot of the same features but the toolbar looks different. To me, it was a bit like learning a new version of the same thing (or learning two Latin languages) because of the differences and similarities.

I mostly used the mobile version for note-taking and quick status updates. I liked that I was able to add my workspace as a widget so I didn’t have to go through menus in the app to find the area I access most often.

Who should use it:

Notion would be the best fit for content creators who are solopreneurs or have small teams.

Learn more: Read our Notion review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.5

3.5/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #10Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 73% of people had positive sentiments
    • 22% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    73%
    22%
    5%
    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 73% of people had positive sentiments
    • 22% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #13Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 75% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
    75%
    10%
    15%
    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 75% of people had positive sentiments
    • 10% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
  • #12Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 50% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
    50%
    23%
    27%
    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 50% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
  • #12Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 71% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
    71%
    8%
    21%
    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 71% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 21% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 45% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 39% of people had negative sentiments
    45%
    16%
    39%
    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 45% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 39% of people had negative sentiments

Notion is a versatile and highly customizable tool that excels in organizing and managing information, making it a popular choice for a wide range of applications from team collaboration to personal productivity. However, while many users appreciate its extensive features and flexibility, there are criticisms regarding its complexity, lack of offline access and performance issues. It is favored for its clean interface and multifunctional capabilities, but there are concerns about its ease of use and speed, especially for new users who may find the learning curve steep.

Pros & Cons
  • Free version with unlimited pages
  • Highly customizable
  • Unique productivity features, such as habit tracking
  • Small business plans lack security features
  • Mobile app can be tedious
  • Bland user interface

Best for Client-Facing Service Providers

Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$13.99 per user per month, billed monthly

(minimum of three users)

Integrations

Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Project

Collaboration tools

In-app chat, @mentions and guest collaborators

Teamwork.com
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$13.99 per user per month, billed monthly

(minimum of three users)

Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Project

In-app chat, @mentions and guest collaborators

Expert Take

Teamwork.com makes working with and managing client relationships seamless. Paid plans offer unlimited collaborators. This means service-oriented freelancers, consultants and agencies can work directly with clients within the interface to create a deliverable that uniquely meets client needs and expectations.

General Features

The biggest benefit I found using Teamwork.com as my project management platform is that it’s set up ideally for an agency. When working with clients, I need to keep information about those clients separate and I’m able to do that with Teamwork.com’s client view. With the option to add collaborators, I could share project progress with clients and not risk them changing anything or accidentally deleting something.

Another reason you might want to go with Teamwork.com for project management is if you need billing and invoicing features. Although being able to offer rate sheets and create invoices is uncommon for project management software, it’s a core feature of Teamwork.com. I could track billable hours and turn those into invoices for clients, which makes it clear why this software is meant for agencies.

Michael Ashley, the founder of AshleyInsights, likes the features offered by Teamwork.com. “Teamwork is great for small businesses. It offers a wide range of features, including task management, team collaboration, time tracking and project reporting. I believe Teamwork is especially useful for larger projects that require detailed planning and coordination among team members. One standout feature that I found with Teamwork, was its Gantt chart functionality, which provided a visual representation of project timelines and dependencies, making it easier for me to track progress and identify potential bottlenecks.”

Additional Features

I liked that you don’t have to integrate a chat program to communicate with your team in Teamwork.com; there’s a built-in chat feature. Although I do find some of the prebuilt reports helpful, not all of them are necessary in my opinion. I suppose I could use them to share information with stakeholders who don’t want to look at project views but I found time, risk and planned vs. actual reports the most helpful for my needs.

Cost

I’m never going to be a fan of user minimums or caps and Teamwork.com employs this across all of its plans. The free plan only allows up to five users, though that is generous, I’ll admit. To upgrade to the entry-level Deliver plan, you’re looking to spend more than $42 per month ($13.99 per member) (billed monthly) for three users. Solopreneurs wouldn’t get the biggest bang for their buck here; however, Teamwork.com makes up for this by offering some advanced features even on the lowest-tier plan.

The Grow plan, which has a five-user minimum, costs $25.99 per user per month when billed monthly and the Scale plan costs a whopping $69.99 per user per month when paying monthly.

Customer Service

Teamwork offers an AI chatbot, live chat and email support, along with its help center. However, you need to be an Enterprise member to receive premium support. Still, I spoke with the chatbot and was quickly connected to a live agent who was friendly and helpful. I also opened an email ticket and received a helpful response in about 18 hours.

In addition to the email and live chat support, you’ll find a knowledge base that’s full of helpful articles that will help get you out of a bind. As is the case with many platforms now, Teamwork.com only offers phone support for sales-related questions.

Mobile App

One of the frustrating things for me about mobile project management apps is that they almost always have incomplete or buggy features. I was able to perform basic tasks using the app but it lacks some functionality compared to the browser version and the user experience isn’t the best. I found the app’s navigation to be a bit clunky, but to be fair, I find most project management mobile apps suffer from the same issue.

Who should use it:

Client-facing professional service providers and agencies will find Teamwork.com uniquely meets their needs.

Learn more: Read our Teamwork.com review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
4.0

4/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #6Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 2% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    92%
    2%
    6%
    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 2% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 55% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
    55%
    18%
    27%
    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 55% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 27% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 17% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 17% of people had negative sentiments
    66%
    17%
    17%
    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 17% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 17% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 86% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    86%
    8%
    6%
    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 86% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    100%
    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments

Teamwork.com is generally well-regarded as a robust and flexible project management tool with a wide array of features suitable for various business needs, especially agencies. Users praise its strong support and continuous updates, though some express concerns about its complexity and pricing model.

Pros & Cons
  • Unlimited collaborators on paid plans
  • Budget tracking
  • Client-management features such as invoicing
  • Few integrations
  • Very limited free plan
  • Pricier than many competitors

Best for Artificial Intelligence Features

Wrike

Wrike
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$10 per user per month

Integrations

Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, and QuickBooks

Collaboration tools

Request forms and @mentions

Wrike
Learn More Arrow

On Wrike's Website

$10 per user per month

Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, and QuickBooks

Request forms and @mentions

Expert Take

Wrike is a popular project management solution for all types and sizes of businesses, but it stands out with its commitment to automation with artificial intelligence (AI) assistance. There’s a whole category of features devoted to “smart” actions, including search, replies (via mobile) and text recognition. Nearly all of the AI-assisted features are available on all plans (even the free plan). Only AI-assisted project risk prediction is limited to the higher-paid tiers.

Jeffrey Weide, our advisory board member, mentioned why he likes Wrike: “It’s a project software focused on security, complex projects and high control. It’s a great option for larger PMOs or enterprises.”

General Features

At Wrike’s core are task and project management features, and I had zero issues learning how to use them. I’m a big fan of the customization of dashboards so I could create my personal “home page” for projects; I just chose the widgets I wanted, such as my tasks, tasks I was following and overdue tasks. The project views look and work as you’d expect, with drag-and-drop functionality on the board view and table view with color-coded status and priority tags.

I rarely notice role assignment features but I tried to invite a collaborator to work on a single task and I couldn’t set permissions at the task level. No big deal though; I just created a project with the one-off tasks and allowed collaborators access to that project only. For simple projects, Wrike worked well for me because I only needed a Kanban board to manage them.

Wrike’s interface favors function over form.

Additional Features

Although I could go on and on about all of Wrike’s added value with its integrations and advanced analytics, I want to tell you about its AI features. They’re available for all plans (except risk prediction) and it’s a bit like having a built-in ChatGPT.

It was so easy to brainstorm and fill in with project plans and task descriptions. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and I certainly wouldn’t use the suggestions without adding specific instructions for my projects, but it was nice to have the assistance. As a caveat, it is worth noting that these features are still experimental right now.

The Gantt charts in Wrike are easy to use.

Cost

The free plan may be enough for you regardless of team size because Wrike doesn’t limit your user count. And you still get most of the AI features, which is rare among most project management software that offer AI tools. However, it was a bit too limiting for my needs when I had a complex project to run.

For Gantt charts, better security and integrations, I’d have to upgrade to a paid plan. The cheapest is the Team plan and costs $10 per user per month. The Business plan costs $24.80 per user per month (billed annually) and requires at least five users.

I received a quote for the Enterprise and Pinnacle plans based on a team size of 25. The Enterprise plan costs $45 per user per month or $13,500 annually while the Pinnacle plan costs $60 per user per month or $18,000 annually.

Customer Service

Wrike is quite secretive about the support it offers. The plan page doesn’t list what support options are available, which is odd, and when you click “help” from the Wrike dashboard, you’re whisked away to a help center with an unhelpful AI chatbot and a link to a community forum where you can ask questions. The top of the help center page is where you’ll find the “submit a request” link. It took 28 hours to receive an average response after submitting my ticket.

Mobile App

Wrike’s mobile app isn’t great but it isn’t the worst experience I’ve had either. In my opinion, it isn’t simple enough to be useful on a phone. Using a Gantt chart on a small screen is difficult, at best. And it takes too many clicks to get to a task so it isn’t a time-saving option. With all that said, I liked that I could stay on top of comments in real time.

Who should use it:

Wrike provides a lot of value for its free and low-priced plan users with its AI-assisted tools for mobile and desktop apps. However, the richest feature sets are limited by higher pricing, user minimums and added costs, which means Wrike is likely best for larger companies with bigger budgets.

Learn more: Read our Wrike review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.9

3.9/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #5Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 90% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 3% of people had negative sentiments
    90%
    7%
    3%
    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 90% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 3% of people had negative sentiments
  • #9Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 42% of people had positive sentiments
    • 24% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 34% of people had negative sentiments
    42%
    24%
    34%
    Ranked 9 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 42% of people had positive sentiments
    • 24% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 34% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
    92%
    6%
    2%
    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 92% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 2% of people had negative sentiments
  • #6Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    8%
    15%
    Ranked 6 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 15% of people had negative sentiments
  • #13Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 12% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 20% of people had negative sentiments
    68%
    12%
    20%
    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 68% of people had positive sentiments
    • 12% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 20% of people had negative sentiments

Wrike is generally regarded as a versatile and feature-rich project management tool, noted for its collaboration capabilities and resource management features. Users appreciate its functionality in handling both simple and complex projects, but some express dissatisfaction with its pricing and the learning curve required to fully utilize its advanced features. While it performs well overall, especially for enterprise needs, there are concerns regarding its user interface and efficiency at scale.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan available
  • No user minimum on free plan
  • Custom fields and workflows on all paid accounts
  • Two-user minimum on lowest plan
  • User maximums on paid plans
  • No real-time reports or time tracking on free or lowest plan

Best for Software Development Teams

Jira

Jira
4.3
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$8.60 per user per month (estimated cost)

Integrations

Slack, Zendesk, Outlook, Google Sheets and GitHub

Collaboration tools

Comments and @mentions

Jira
Learn More Arrow

On Jira's Website

$8.60 per user per month (estimated cost)

Slack, Zendesk, Outlook, Google Sheets and GitHub

Comments and @mentions

Expert Take

Given Jira’s history as a bug-tracking tool, it makes sense that it’s best used by product teams and developers. However, it is versatile enough to work for any type of project manager who needs to plan, assign, track and manage tasks and projects. Features such as roadmaps and dependencies make it clear that Jira is best suited for product developers.

Jeffrey Weide, our advisory board member, also sees Jira as a robust tool: “Jira is a great project management program to help with task and issue tracking, agile sprints and reporting for project progress.”

General Features

Although I’m not a product developer, I can appreciate the simplicity of Jira’s project management platform. Even the free plan includes most of what I need to manage a project, whether I want to use a Kanban board, list view or a timeline. In fact, I was kind of surprised to see a Gantt chart on Jira. Creating dependencies is as easy in Jira as any other Gantt chart software; I was able to simply drag and drop the link icon up or down to a task.

What I don’t love about Jira is the user experience and how I tend to interact with project management software. From the list view, I couldn’t just click on a task name to open the task, it would just allow me to edit the task name. Same with the timeline view; I had to click on the bar on the timeline, not the name of the task. To me, that’s not intuitive. But it didn’t take long to retrain my brain.

Jira’s interface is sterile but it gets out of the way.

Additional Features

If anything is difficult about Jira, it’s the language it uses. Not everyone who needs project management software knows what issues or epics are but Agile teams will be familiar with the terminology. I didn’t have trouble using any of Jira’s core features but I could see how the issue feature would be a little confusing. With that said, creating a custom issue type is easy; I was able to drag and drop the fields I wanted to use to collect the information I’d need.

Other than commenting on tasks and using @mentions to bring others into a discussion, there isn’t a lot of collaboration in Jira. That’s likely because Confluence is Jira’s complementary program that brings real-time collaboration into the project management platform.

Dashboards can be customized and show everything from task statuses to pie charts and issues.

Cost

One of the best things about Jira is that it offers a feature-packed free plan for up to 10 users. I was able to create multiple project boards, plus automations, custom workflows and backlog management. It is a bit limiting as far as automations and user roles are concerned.

A Standard plan billed monthly requires at least 10 users and starts at $86 per month, or about $86 per user. This plan has the same features as the Free plan, but offers more security and admin features, such as advanced roles and permissions, audit logs and support during business hours. The Premium plan costs $17 per user per month when billed monthly and retains the 10-user minimum.

Customer Service

I was a little surprised that Jira didn’t include a live chat option in its platform but the help center articles were useful for me. Get used to the knowledge base if you’re a free user as that’s all the support you’ll receive. If you move up to the Standard plan, you receive standard support, but the best support options are reserved for Premium and Enterprise users. I had standard support. I submitted a ticket during regular business hours and received a response in just under a day.

Mobile App

I think the phrase “your mileage may vary” works here for the mobile app experience. For me, Jira’s mobile app is easy to use for basic functionality. I had no trouble updating tasks and issues. Now if I wanted to create a whole new project and adjust settings, that’s something I’d do on the browser-based platform. I did run into a few errors and issues with tools not appearing as I expected (my keyboard didn’t show up when I tried to search for something) but bugs happen.

Who should use it: Although Jira offers a free and low-cost entry-level plan, it’s most useful at the Premium level and it’s intended for dev teams that need task dependencies, high-level project and resource planningand roadmapping features.

Learn more: Read our Jira review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.1

3.1/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #7Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 47% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 30% of people had negative sentiments
    47%
    23%
    30%
    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 47% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 30% of people had negative sentiments
  • #14Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 24% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
    66%
    24%
    10%
    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 66% of people had positive sentiments
    • 24% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
  • #14Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 29% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 48% of people had negative sentiments
    29%
    23%
    48%
    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 29% of people had positive sentiments
    • 23% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 48% of people had negative sentiments
  • #11Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 74% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
    74%
    18%
    8%
    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 74% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 9% of people had negative sentiments
    76%
    15%
    9%
    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 9% of people had negative sentiments

Jira is seen as a complex and powerful project management tool with extensive configurability, which can render it overwhelming and difficult to set up for many users. It is commonly used in the tech industry due to its robust integration capabilities and market presence, although the user experience can suffer from a steep learning curve and occasional usability issues.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan available
  • Most features available for all plan levels
  • Integrates with popular dev tools, such as GitHub and Figma
  • Limited support for lower-tier plans
  • Complicated guest access allowance
  • Complex terminology

Best for Data-Driven Companies

Airtable

Airtable
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$24 per seat per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Salesforce, Google Calendar, Facebook, Mailchimp, and Slack

Collaboration tools

Comments and @mentions

Airtable
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$24 per seat per month

(billed monthly)

Salesforce, Google Calendar, Facebook, Mailchimp, and Slack

Comments and @mentions

Expert Take

Airtable is a supercharged spreadsheet that allows the integration and management of traditional and rich data points (such as photos, videos and other files). While it is most famous for its spreadsheet-like interface, it also allows for other project views, including Kanban card stacks and gallery, grid, calendar and Gantt/timeline views.

General Features

Perhaps the best thing about Airtable is how incredibly flexible and customizable it is. That leads me to the worst thing about Airtable: It’s so open-ended that it can be overwhelming to set it up to work exactly the way you want it. I especially like the advanced filtering options so I can find exactly what I need.

As far as core functionality goes, Airtable is easy enough for task and project management at the user level. At the admin level, I found it incredibly time-consuming and complex to set everything up the way my team needed it. Automations are useful for my needs in that I’m able to create a task with all the fields I need to track different things such as status, due date, assignee, editor, publish date and URL. I’m also able to set it up so a document is created in Google Drive with an outline.

With all that said above, Airtable is difficult to use to meet the varied needs of different teams. Not every team uses the same outlines, fields or statuses, and Airtable gets increasingly more complicated when you try to make it work for everyone.

Additional Features

Airtable has a forms feature that I think is helpful for collecting data from external collaborators. It also offers an easy-to-read dashboard that I’ve set up to track the data that is important to me. I can see at a glance which tasks are in which stages, so I know where I need to focus my attention.

I touched a bit earlier on the integration with Google Drive but it’s worth mentioning that Airtable also integrates with Dropbox and Salesforce, which is helpful for importing data. I think one of the most frustrating issues with Airtable is for users who have no admin powers. You’re at the mercy of whatever the admins decide to set up for you, so it might not be the best option for larger companies unless they allow workspaces for each team.

Jeffrey Weide, our project management expert, also notes that “Airtable also has unlimited data-entry use for things that can be used by non-licensed team members to contribute information. You can also easily create data collection forms for anonymous or authenticated users for staff/status updates or minor customer relationship management (CRM) jobs.”

Cost

Airtable is expensive compared to most project management software. The free plan is enough for me to use it as a solopreneur but for teams it costs $24 per user per month (billed monthly), and that’s the low-priced plan. The Business plan jumps to $45 per user per month when billed monthly. I also received a quote based on a team of 25 for the Enterprise Scale plan. The cost is $70 per user per month, or $21,000 annually. To get the best of Airtable (customization), choose a paid plan.

Customer Service

Airtable only offers one way to get help from a real customer service agent, and that’s through email. Users will find an AI chatbot that does its best to route you to a knowledge base, but more often than not I found it asking me to submit a support ticket. I submitted a ticket and received a response after eight and a half hours. The response time is better than other platforms, but it still means you could wait a full business day to receive help.

Mobile App

The best use of the Airtable mobile app, in my opinion, is for viewing reports and data. As far as updating records and tasks, I find it’s hit or miss. I’ve added new tasks but found it difficult to input all the data. This is partly because I’m trying to do work on a mobile phone and app and partly because Airtable didn’t build as much functionality in the mobile app as the browser-based app, which is standard for most project management software.

Who should use it:

Airtable is known for its ability to help companies easily import, track and visualize data (even rich data). This makes Airtable ideal for companies with projects centered on traditional spreadsheet-compatible data.

Learn more: Read our Airtable review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.6

3.6/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #8Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 20% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    76%
    20%
    4%
    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 20% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 85% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    85%
    9%
    6%
    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 85% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 47% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 35% of people had negative sentiments
    47%
    18%
    35%
    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 47% of people had positive sentiments
    • 18% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 35% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 94% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    94%
    6%
    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 94% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 75% of people had positive sentiments
    • 11% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments
    75%
    11%
    13%
    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 75% of people had positive sentiments
    • 11% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 13% of people had negative sentiments

Airtable is generally well-regarded for its versatility, allowing users to effectively manage data and automate workflows. Many appreciate its user-friendly design, customizable features and capabilities for project management, which are powered by integrations and automations. However, some users express concerns over lack of offline access and the complexity of its advanced features, which might require a learning curve.

Pros & Cons
  • Free version available
  • Easy-to-use templates for various project types
  • Highly customizable
  • Plans get expensive
  • Clunky automation features
  • Limited internal communication features available

Best for Kanban-Style Boards

Trello

Trello
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$6 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Slack, Salesforce, Marketo, NetSuite, and Box

Collaboration tools

Comments and @mentions

Trello
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$6 per user per month

(billed monthly)

Slack, Salesforce, Marketo, NetSuite, and Box

Comments and @mentions

Expert Take

Trello is a Kanban board-style project management tool. It has four plans to choose from starting with the Free forever plan. This plan is perfect for individuals or very small teams looking to stay organized with their projects. It is iOS and Android compatible with respective mobile apps and has two-factor authentication.

Jeffrey Weide, our advisory board member, shared when he likes Trello: “Trello is a great product for those not requiring a full subscription service to manage tasks or projects. They offer a multitude of simple options that include Kanban boards and Gantt charts, plus can work with small groups. There are advanced features in their paid subscriptions as well.”

Trello’s Kanban boards and task cards can be customized with colors and images.

General Features

Full disclosure: I’ve used Trello for years for personal projects. It’s one of the easiest-to-use project management systems I’ve come across and I’ve introduced it to many people I’ve worked with who had never used project management software before. Creating a project and tasks is intuitive and moving a card from stage to stage with the drag-and-drop functionality is quick and easy.

The 10 boards I get on the free plan are plenty for me, and I have yet to run out of automations for my workflows. The only reasons I might upgrade are for the custom fields and unlimited guests on the entry-level plan. Bigger teams would probably do well with Trello’s Premium plan which offers more project views. The timeline view is as easy to use as the Kanban board (with drag-and-drop functionality here, too).

The Automation Butler in Trello can help you create automated workflows.

Additional Features

A Power-Up is just Trello’s name for an add-on and these are unlimited and free for all users (any cost goes to the third party, not Trello). I found I was able to bypass some of the advanced features available on higher-paid plans by using integrations instead. For example, there’s an export Power-Up that costs $6 per month (or $18 for a year), so if that’s all you need, it can be more affordable than upgrading to Trello’s Premium plan.

Trello offers unlimited power-ups (integrations).

Cost

Trello is one of the most cost-effective project management solutions out there. The free plan is robust enough for my needs and it only costs $6 per user per month (billed monthly) for the entry-level plan. More than double that cost for the Premium plan ($12.50 per user per month, billed monthly) and you’ll get most of the advanced features. There is an Enterprise plan available, but you need a minimum of 50 users. The Enterprise plan costs $17.50 per user per month, billed annually.

Customer Service

Atlassian is the parent company of Trello (along with Jira and Confluence), so you can expect the same type of support. Free plan users get access to help documentation and community support while paid plan users can submit tickets. Phone support is only available to Enterprise plan users. I submitted a ticket regarding a technical issue and received a response back around 23 hours later, which is not great, but the help was excellent.

I was able to set up Trello easily enough but I did use the community forums to ask about admin issues. I got an answer from community users the same day and a staff member the following day.

Mobile App

Trello’s mobile app is one of the few I’ve kept on my phone because I use it for personal projects. I’ve used it to track my out-of-state moves and my international travel. I was able to access all of my boards, tasks and comments easily. Adding and editing tasks was easy. I also like that Trello includes quick actions so I can add an attachment or checklist without having to go through menus to find the features.

Who should use it: 

Trello’s Kanban-style board with drag-and-drop features makes organizing a project and collaboration easy. It’s intuitive to use, and teams respond well to its format.

Learn more: Read our full Trello review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.9

3.9/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #7Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 79% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    79%
    16%
    5%
    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 79% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #7Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    19%
    4%
    Ranked 7 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 19% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 25% of people had negative sentiments
    60%
    15%
    25%
    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 25% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 17% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 7% of people had negative sentiments
    76%
    17%
    7%
    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 76% of people had positive sentiments
    • 17% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 7% of people had negative sentiments
  • #10Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments
    83%
    7%
    10%
    Ranked 10 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 83% of people had positive sentiments
    • 7% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 10% of people had negative sentiments

Trello is widely appreciated for its simplicity, ease of use and flexibility, making it a popular choice for personal and small team projects, especially those employing the Kanban method. While many users praise its intuitive UI and effective organization capabilities, some find it lacking in features for more complex project management and note occasional frustrations with limitations compared to more robust tools such as Jira.

Pros & Cons
  • Highly visual design
  • Drag-and-drop usage
  • Simplifies task and project management
  • Limited free version
  • Scalability is costly
  • Limited functionality for complex projects

Best for Form Creation

Coda

Coda
4.1
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$12 per month per doc maker

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Slack, Zoom, Jira, and GitHub

Collaboration tools

Collaborative documents, comments, @mentions and forms

Coda

$12 per month per doc maker

(billed monthly)

Slack, Zoom, Jira, and GitHub

Collaborative documents, comments, @mentions and forms

Expert Take

Coda makes collaboration easy with an interface that feels like a doc but engages with collaborators like an app. There is a free plan you can start with, but if you upgrade to a paid plan, you only pay for document creators—editors are considered free collaborators. All plans get unlimited forms for collecting information.

General Features

At the core of Coda are collaborative documents and forms. There are plenty of templates to give you a quick start with the project management software. I chose a project dashboard because it makes the most sense for my team. It must be a lightweight system because it loads quickly. This is where I’ll admit I didn’t expect there to be any task or project management features in Coda and technically there aren’t; rather, you have to build the functionality yourself (or use a template).

When I first started with Coda, it seemed a bit too complicated to use but it’s really easy to edit layouts and documents to make it do what you want. To me, it’s like a cross between Notion and Airtable but much easier to use. Also, I found I could make as many documents and forms as I’d like on the free plan; the biggest limitation is I could only make big docs (50-plus objects and 1,000-plus rows) for myself. Smaller docs you can share with editors as you’d like.

Carl Rodriguez, founder and owner of NX Auto Transport, shared his thoughts with us on using Coda for his business:

“Coda excels in its ability to create interactive documents. It’s like combining a spreadsheet and a word processor but with the power to create dynamic workflows. One lesser-known feature I’ve found incredibly useful is the ability to embed live data from other sources. For instance, I can pull in real-time sales data from a Google Sheet and display it directly in my project planning document. This allows me to make informed decisions without switching between multiple tools or tabs.”

Coda allows you to create documents your team can edit together in real time.

Additional Features

Along with most project management software, Coda offers integrations but similar to Trello, it calls them something different; in this case, they’re “packs.” There are hundreds of these connectors and the options range from communication tools like Zoom and Slack to inventory management systems and payment processors. Of course, they’re only available on paid plans.

There are AI tools included with all plans but the free plan only allows you to try it out with a single question, edit or automation. Each tier gets 2,000 to 12,000 AI tool credits (it works similarly to automations in other software). It’s a bit like having Grammarly or ChatGPT in the app with you.

You can link Coda with many top software platforms thanks to integrations.

Cost

I’m considering using the free version of Coda for personal projects because I like how customizable it is and the limitations aren’t that limiting. Given that Coda only charges per document maker, it can be an affordable option.

The Pro plan starts at $12 per user per month (billed monthly) but you can share editable documents with as many users as you’d like. Think of it like admins and users; you pay for admins but not users, which makes this an affordable option. The Team plan costs $36 per doc creator per month (billed monthly) but you also get advanced packs, private folders and document locking.

Customer Service

Customer support via live chat isn’t instant, and support is only available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT. I was able to make the chatbot direct my question to a representative but was told they would respond when they could. Fortunately, I only had to wait five minutes. I also sent a help request through email and received a detailed response in just under six hours. Coda does not offer phone support, but you will find a helpful community page and a large knowledge base.

Mobile App

Unfortunately, the functionality of Coda’s browser-based app doesn’t translate well to mobile. I was able to edit my documents but it was a tedious process. Plus it was difficult to impossible to modify layouts. If I continue to use Coda, I’ll only use the mobile app for quick text additions or to answer a collaborator if I’m tagged and nowhere near my laptop.

Who should use it: 

When you want customized forms to gather information, Coda is the pick of the platforms. It allows you to create and brand forms to make information gathering straightforward.

Learn more:Read our full Coda review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.6

3.6/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #4Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 86% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
    86%
    9%
    5%
    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 86% of people had positive sentiments
    • 9% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 5% of people had negative sentiments
  • #2Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 17% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    6%
    17%
    Ranked 2 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 6% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 17% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    84%
    16%
    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #11Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 49% of people had positive sentiments
    • 32% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
    49%
    32%
    19%
    Ranked 11 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 49% of people had positive sentiments
    • 32% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 19% of people had negative sentiments
  • #8Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 82% of people had positive sentiments
    • 14% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    82%
    14%
    4%
    Ranked 8 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 82% of people had positive sentiments
    • 14% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments

Coda is a versatile and powerful tool that many users find beneficial for project management, document creation and data-driven tasks. While it offers significant customization and integrations, some users have reported challenges with its learning curve and performance issues on mobile platforms. The pricing is often considered advantageous, especially for teams, but the limitations of the free tier have been a concern for some users.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan includes useful templates
  • Powerful collaboration tool
  • Easily monitor team performance
  • More expensive than other platforms
  • Difficult to use
  • Tools aren’t always intuitive

Best for Task Management

Todoist

Todoist
4.1
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$5 per month

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Google Calendar, iCalendar, Toggl Track, Time Doctor and PomoDone

Collaboration tools

Comments and voice notes

Todoist
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$5 per month

(billed monthly)

Google Calendar, iCalendar, Toggl Track, Time Doctor and PomoDone

Comments and voice notes

Expert Take

Todoist is a great way to stay on track with personal and team projects. It’s similar to any other project management software in that you can create tasks, subtasks and multiple projects, and assign tasks to other users. There’s also an AI assistant to help reduce manual work. There’s a free plan available but it’s fairly limited.

General Features

Getting started with Todoist is easy with its walk-through as soon as you sign up for an account. For the most part, I found it intuitive to create a project and task but that’s where it ended. As I set priorities and added subtasks, the app seemed to change the priorities of my tasks. It also took several clicks for me to add labels; after creating a label, Todoist prompted me to add tasks to that label, which is not how I like to work. I wanted to create a bunch of labels that I know I’d use but I had to exit one label and click on the menu option to create a new one.

Adding a task to a board in Todoist is easy but along with filters, it’s tedious. You can’t really use keyboard shortcuts to set up a project. I had to click a lot to add due dates, labels and to add the task; tab and enter don’t work to move from field to field or to save a task. I also wanted more control over how tasks are treated in each column; for example, if I move a card into the final column, it should mark the task as complete. As it is, if you mark a task as done, it’s just gone to the archive.

Michael Ashley, the found of AshleyInsights, shared his thoughts on Todoist with us:

“Todoist is excellent for its simplicity and ease of use. I like its straightforward interface and intuitive task management features. It’s great for small business owners who need a no-frills task management tool that helps them stay organized and focused on their priorities. One feature I particularly liked about Todoist was its natural language input, which allowed me to quickly add tasks and set deadlines without navigating through multiple menus.”

Additional Features

The AI assistant can help by suggesting tasks or breaking down a task to make it easier to hit your goal or deadline. I tried using the AI assistant to apply filters to tasks but it didn’t work for some reason. Reminders are a nice-to-have feature but they’re only available on paid plans.

Cost

Todoist’s Beginner plan is free for up to five users, so it’s a good pick for ultra-small teams. However, you only get up to five personal projects, which isn’t the best for complex or collaborative projects. I’d likely use it for myself if I stick with Todoist.

The Pro plan is affordable at $5 per user per month (billed monthly) and allows up to five people but this also includes the AI assistant, calendar views and up to 150 custom filters. If you need Todoist for a whole company, the Business plan is the most viable option at $8 per user per month (billed monthly) because it has far fewer limitations and all the features available.

Customer Service

Todoist offers a help center filled with articles that cover numerous topics from features to teams and billing so you can problem-solve on your own. If you need extra help, you can submit a ticket. There is no live support available and there is no phone support. I created a help ticket during regular business hours and I received a response in under three hours.

Mobile App

If I were to keep using Todoist I might do so just to track my personal tasks. The paid versions can act as a reminder or habit app, so I like it for that purpose. However, I ran into some bugs with this app randomly closing. For project management, it leaves a lot to be desired. Sorting tasks seems to be broken at times (I could only sort once but after exiting the app and trying again, it worked) and it just feels like I have to find loopholes or workarounds to make the app do what I want.

Who should use it: 

Staying on track is the key to project efficiency and completion. Todoist is ideal for keeping organizations on task with ease.

Learn more: Read our full Todoist review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
3.8

3.8/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #12Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 72% of people had positive sentiments
    • 22% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
    72%
    22%
    6%
    Ranked 12 out of 14
    For Task Management and Workflow Customization
    • 72% of people had positive sentiments
    • 22% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 6% of people had negative sentiments
  • #5Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 12% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
    84%
    12%
    4%
    Ranked 5 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 84% of people had positive sentiments
    • 12% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 4% of people had negative sentiments
  • #3Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
    77%
    15%
    8%
    Ranked 3 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 77% of people had positive sentiments
    • 15% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 8% of people had negative sentiments
  • #4Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 59% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 25% of people had negative sentiments
    59%
    16%
    25%
    Ranked 4 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 59% of people had positive sentiments
    • 16% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 25% of people had negative sentiments
  • #14Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 29% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments
    60%
    29%
    11%
    Ranked 14 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 60% of people had positive sentiments
    • 29% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 11% of people had negative sentiments

Todoist is regarded as a highly effective tool for personal task management due to its simplicity and extensibility through features such as natural language processing and seamless cross-platform synchronization. While it excels in providing a user-friendly interface for task organization and reminders, some users feel that it lacks advanced project management features and better handling of start dates, which are seen as areas for improvement.

Pros & Cons
  • Inexpensive plans
  • Easy to learn
  • Seamlessly access tasks from various devices
  • Lacks off-line functionality
  • Not all features are intuitive to use
  • Only suitable for simple projects

Best for Gantt Chart Creation

TeamGantt

TeamGantt
4.0
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$11.99 per month per user

(billed monthly)

Integrations

Slack, Trello, Dropbox and Zapier

Collaboration tools

Comments and @mentions

TeamGantt
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

$11.99 per month per user

(billed monthly)

Slack, Trello, Dropbox and Zapier

Comments and @mentions

Expert Take

TeamGantt is primarily a Gantt chart project management tool that’s easy to use, even for beginners. In my opinion, the free plan is only viable for a solopreneur. The paid plans are much less limited with reporting, workload management, priority support and portfolio management.

General Features

If you’re just looking for Gantt charts, TeamGantt could be a good option for managing a single small project. The core features are included on all plans, so I was able to effectively manage a project with tasks, subtasks, dependencies and milestones. The dynamic Gantt chart is so easy to use to add tasks, set dependencies and track a project’s progress.

Admittedly, I’m familiar with Gantt charts but I prefer Kanban- and list-style project management. With that said, I’d say TeamGantt is easier to use than most Gantt chart software. My biggest complaint is that I can’t click on a taskbar on a chart or the line to the left to open a task, so I have to slow my roll with clicking to actually open a task window.

Erwin Vico, CEO of Slick Cash Loans, has found TeamGantt to be the best project management software for his company:

“We have been using TeamGantt for a few years, and we find it effective and efficient for implementing projects. The flexibility that it has for collaboration is excellent. TeamGantt is the best tool we have found to easily build and maintain project plans, with automation built in for resource planning. Being a browser-based tool allows for collaboration and seamless across our project management team as well as clients and other departments. The built-in integrations and open API allow us to sync our work in Team Gantt with other tools we use in our business. My favorite part is that the Team Gantt team is always accessible for customer support and working through user-voted enhancements.”

Additional Features

Beyond the basics are workload management, baselines, time tracking and hourly estimating. Time tracking is easy enough to use and I like that I can view multiple projects at once. Another great feature, which is common with Gantt chart software, is the ability to see planned versus actual time.

And although I’ve seen workload management handled in a similar way, I like how TeamGantt handles it. The workload window is minimized by default but you can pull it up at any time and it just resides below your project. This helps you reallocate resources without having to jump from screen to screen.

Cost

Depending on the size of your business, TeamGantt could get pricey; the Lite plan costs $11.99 per user per month (billed monthly).  To get the more advanced features, which I think are necessary for fully formed teams, you should consider the Pro plan, which costs  $24.99 per user per month (billed monthly).

Customer Service

TeamGantt offers phone support for technical and billing questions. I called and was asked to leave a voicemail. I never received a call back. TeamGantt also provides live chat support. According to the tool, the typical response time is 10 minutes. I received a response in six minutes. Email support was also snappy, with a response arriving in under six hours. TeamGantt users can also access a well-designed knowledge base and sign up for free live classes.

Mobile App

Given that the mobile app is named “TeamGantt Companion” in the app store, you should probably expect it to be as such. I certainly don’t expect full functionality of a Gantt chart platform on mobile. I did just fine using it to view projects in list view and commenting on tasks.

Who should use it: 

TeamGantt is ideal for companies planning on using Gantt charts to stay organized and on task. It is the most user-friendly platform for Gantt chart creation.

Learn more: Read our full TeamGantt review.

Consumer Sentiment Index
4.4

4.4/10Consumer Score
The Consumer Sentiment Index from Forbes Advisor uses a proprietary weighting system designed by our subject matter experts. It evaluates thousands of consumer insights and reviews from leading online forums to determine customer satisfaction at scale.
Consumer Sentiment Index
13,430

How do we calculate

We gather and analyze consumer sentiment from a range of sources to create the Consumer Sentiment Index to determine customer satisfaction levels for each feature outlined below. This data is designed to give you an idea of real consumer experience of the services and product we review. This data is currently separate from our overall rating out of 5

Insights Analyzed
  • #1Ease of Use and Interface

    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    100%
    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Ease of Use and Interface
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #13Pricing and Scalability

    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 42% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 50% of people had negative sentiments
    42%
    8%
    50%
    Ranked 13 out of 14
    For Pricing and Scalability
    • 42% of people had positive sentiments
    • 8% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 50% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1Collaboration and Communication Features

    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    100%
    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Collaboration and Communication Features
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1Task Management and Workflow Customization

    Ranked 1 out of 14
    • 95% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    95%
    5%
    Ranked 1 out of 14
    • 95% of people had positive sentiments
    • 5% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
  • #1Integrations with Other Tools

    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments
    100%
    Ranked 1 out of 14
    For Integrations with Other Tools
    • 100% of people had positive sentiments
    • 0% of people had neutral sentiments
    • 0% of people had negative sentiments

TeamGantt is highly regarded as an easy-to-use and powerful tool for managing projects, with many users appreciating its Gantt chart capabilities and visual project tracking. The free version and intuitive design are particularly praised, though some users note that it can be expensive. Overall, it is considered a valuable resource for effective project management.

Pros & Cons
  • Easy Gantt chart creation
  • Easy-to-navigate interface
  • Visual representation of long-term projects
  • Limited number of projects
  • Finished tasks still show up in progress reports
  • Limited communication tools

Forbes Advisor Ratings


Methodology

This list was a result of careful evaluation of 22 popular project management software platforms that small businesses use. We looked at each contender using our rubric that considers seven categories of 34 project management factors important to small businesses. Next, we gave each criterion a weighted score and tallied all the scores together to land a final star rating.

Decision Factor Scoring Weight Description
General Features
25%
We considered the basics of project management software such as task management and automations.
Additional Features
20%
Sometimes it’s the added features that set a tool apart from another such as client access or budgeting tools.
Cost
15%
Although pricing is important, we acknowledge many project management apps offer free and low-priced plans, so the weight on this is a bit lower.
Customer Service and User Reviews
15%
It’s important to be able to contact support in the way you prefer, so we look at whether live chat and phone support are available. We also consider user reviews in our scoring.
Mobile App
5%
We scored the mobile apps lowest in our data analysis because project management mobile apps are supplemental in most cases.
Expert Score
20%
Some elements of a project management app are nebulous and don’t have hard data to compare, so we trust our experts, who test each software themselves, to determine the value-to-cost ratio, ease of use and unique features of each software.

Read More: How We Test Project Management Software


How To Choose the Best Project Management Software

To choose a project management software, consider each provider’s cost and added fees, overall features and functionality offerings, reporting, integration capabilities, necessary features vs. feature overload, customer reviews and customer support. In this section, we walk you through how to approach this assessment.

Ask an expert

How do I pick the best project management software?

Jeff Weide

Jeff Weide

Education Expert

Brett Day

Brett Day

Senior Staff Writer

Rachel Williams

Rachel Williams

Small Business Editor

 

Ultimately, it is best to take the time to talk to end-users and team members on what is important to them in their project management roles. It is also critical to know if your clients or leadership need reports or dashboards for status updates. Knowing these features will help you dig into the features that may be exemplified for specific products.

Jeff Weide

Jeff Weide

Education Expert

 

Before deciding on project management software, project managers must assess the needs of their team and the projects they will be working on. Managers must consider the workflow management tools needed and whether the platform offers automated workflows and integrations with currently used software. Decision-makers must also think about user-friendliness, reports, communication tools, real-time collaboration features and security and privacy policies. Lastly, take advantage of free trials and make sure your organization can afford your software of choice.

Brett Day

Brett Day

Senior Staff Writer

 

Assessing your team’s needs will help you pick the best software. For example, consider factors like scalability, ease of use, integration capabilities and security features. Take advantage of trials or demos before making a decision, and make sure the software aligns with your budget as well.

Rachel Williams

Rachel Williams

Small Business Editor

Essential Project Management Software Features

Project management software has basic features that most projects need to be successful. However, extra or unique features make some software options better for certain teams or businesses. It’s important to do your research to understand what unique features might make your project more successful based on your team approach, type of business or type of project. Some highly utilized project management tools and features include:

  • Budget planning tools: Budget planning tools allow you to upload your set budget, then track expenses and invoices to compare project costs to the planned budget. By tracking this variance, you can determine if you are running into a budgeting problem. Financial forecasting tools further help you to ensure you don’t run over budget or, worse, have to stop the project because of lack of funds.
  • Resource management tools: Resource utilization tools allow you to plan, track and record where resources—such as your talent—are used in the project’s execution. In doing so, it helps to reveal gaps in availability or when certain team members are overused (risking burnout), then adjust resource allocation to prevent problems.
  • Task management features: Task management features include automations (that eliminate redundant tasks from to-do lists). Examples include automating invoicing, the identification of critical project changes and managing project workflows. Other task management tools include boards (to visualize moving tasks through their stages to completion), calendars, timeline views, scheduling, task tracking and task prioritization.
  • Risk management features: Common project risks include finishing over budget, with a lower-quality outcome than expected or not finishing on time. Many tools within a project management software can help you balance competing demands to finish the project as intended, including critical path charts, checklists, scheduling tools, cost breakdowns, cost variance reports and timelines.
  • Reports and charts: Project management software offers digital charts for planning, tracking and readjusting your projects’ timelines, budget and quality as needed. For example, Kanban charts show tasks on a timeline board and their status. Gantt charts also give an overview of a project’s timeline complete with its phases, tasks and outputs. You can gather or feed data into these charts to update in real time.
  • Mobile app: Mobile apps help teams easily track, manage and deliver project deliverables from anywhere, helping to ensure all members are always in the know no matter where they are. Real-time knowledge can help them make smart decisions that keep projects progressing as planned. Apps also offer personalized content so team members know the tasks, activities and milestones they must complete each day.
  • Integrations: Integrations help to boost a project management software’s performance and cater it to your needs. Slack and Google Drive integrations, for example, allow team members to collaborate within the software on project deliverables. Stripe also allows your team to invoice clients for deliverables. Many project management software offer hundreds or even thousands of integration options.
  • Client management tools: Many project management software offer various features for including your clients in the project’s execution, keeping them up to date on the project’s status and maintaining a professional relationship. Such tools include video-conferencing tools, invoicing and the ability to add clients as users to the project management software while maintaining control over what they can and cannot see.
  • Collaboration tools: Many project management platforms offer tools to help project execution team members work together seamlessly, even across locations. Some come in the form of integrations, such as Slack. Others, however, are built in. Such built-in tools often include shared calendars, group chats, document sharing, chat forums and team email.
  • Demos and team feedback: Project management software may have all the right features but, if your team isn’t comfortable with it, it may underperform in project execution. For this reason, many software programs offer demos your team can use to test them, even allowing you to pilot them in a real project. From there, you can gather team feedback to learn the software’s appropriateness for your team and needs.

Ease of Use

Look for tools and designs that can help your organization use the software easier, despite barriers such as little knowledge of best practices or a cumbersome number of tasks that must be completed on a daily basis. Choosing the right ease-of-use features for your organization depends on many factors, including your company’s tech-savviness and size. However, some ease-of-use features commonly used by small to midsized companies are:

  • Templates: Project management software templates incorporate project management best practices.
  • Learning materials and opportunities: Software knowledge bases allow project managers and team members to learn how to expertly implement the software’s features based on layman’s terms definitions, videos and more. Demos are another opportunity to learn via often live interaction with software experts who know how to present its features and answer questions in layman’s terms.
  • Automations: Automations make complex tasks instant and effortless by taking repetitive and often tedious tasks out of human hands. Less hands-on interaction makes the software’s involvement in project management easier to manage. Preset automation recipes make this ease-of-use feature even more intuitive.
  • Mobile apps: Logistically, mobile apps make using the software easier by facilitating the gathering and dissemination of necessary information and helping team members complete tasks in a timely manner. Project field practitioners, for example, can update pertinent information on a project’s status without having to hold up the project to go back to the office to input such data.

Reporting and Analytics

Reporting within project management software presents key data in a meaningful way to help you understand the success or needed improvements in your projects. The best project management software offer dashboards that break down data in the form of graphs, tables and the like to make gleaning insights from the data instant and intuitive.

Determine the types of key performance indicators (KPIs) you may need to track and the types of needed reports to help you track them. Then, when evaluating your considered software, explore its reporting and analytics options and dashboards to determine if they have what you need.

Common reports that may be helpful in a project management software include project status, health, team availability, risk, variance and timeline reports. Common KPIs include percentage of tasks completed, return on investment (ROI), schedule variance, planned vs. actual hours and the planned project value.

Next, evaluate whether the software will continue to meet your needs by exploring whether you can customize the reports or dashboards to meet needs as they arise. Customization options may include the ability to add or remove columns or create new reporting views.

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews offer real-world insights into what it is like to use your considered software and do business with its provider. Search your considered software on tech review sites such as Capterra and TrustRadius. Read the reviews of past and current users. As you do, you are likely to learn the glitches the software experiences, hidden costs not highlighted on the provider’s website and how the software compares to competitor solutions.

Customer Support

Access to quality customer support ensures that, should a glitch happen in the software, your entire project isn’t derailed. To learn more about your chosen provider’s customer support, search for it on review sites such as TrustRadius and look at the company’s plans to understand what will be available to you and when. Aim to at least ensure support will be responsive during your normal business hours and via the mediums your team is accustomed to using.

Business Size Considerations

As you look at the feature set, remember that startups have different needs in project management software than do large enterprises. For example, enterprise companies may need to manage projects with execution steps that span the globe, while startup projects are more likely to span one or two locations. Demos can help you determine what tools are useful for your organization’s size and which will unnecessarily create a steeper learning curve.

Though one software plan or tool may be best for your organization at your current size, those needs are likely to change as you grow. For example, as you grow, you may need a software or plan with greater automation capabilities to scale operations or greater file storage capacity. So, while it is important to choose a software without unnecessary features, it is equally important to choose one that will continue meeting your feature needs as they grow.

[Compare Best Project Management Software]


What Does Project Management Software Cost?

monday.com Asana ClickUp
First-tier plan price
Free
Free
Free
Second-tier plan price
$12 per user per month (when billed monthly) (minimum three users)
$13.49 per user per month (when billed monthly)
$10 per user per month (when billed monthly)
Third-tier plan price
$14 per user per month (when billed monthly) (minimum three users)
$30.49 per user per month (when billed monthly)
$19 per user per month (when billed monthly)
Discounts
18% discount when billed annually; 10 free users for nonprofits
50% off plans for nonprofits and educational institutions; save when billed annually
About 45% discount when billed annually, with slight variances depending on plan
Free version
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free trial of paid plans
14 days
30 days
No
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Pricing for small to midsized business (SMB) project management software generally ranges from free to $20 per user per month, depending on the features you want. Most also offer a discount of between 15% and 50% for paying your bill annually. In addition, many companies can use such software for free, including startups, nonprofits and educational institutions. Free trials help users assess whether they want to upgrade from a free plan to a paid one.

More specifically, most providers offer a free plan with a limit on the number of users allowed. For example, monday.com allows two users on each free account. As plans scale up, more users are allowed. In addition, higher-tiered (and so, more expensive) plans offer more robust features, such as more storage, viewers, customer support, security, collaborative tools, automations, customizations and charts. Enterprises often have to request a custom quote.


2024 Project Management Trends

Significant changes are occurring in nearly every industry as technology advances and attitudes surrounding work and leadership evolve. Project management is no exception, and the styles and strategies for managing both the technical and human aspects of team projects are being adapted to accommodate the new workplace landscape emerging in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are the 2024 project management trends that we anticipate growing in the year to come.

A Continued Shift Towards Digital and Remote Work

In our post-pandemic world, fully remote and hybrid work options are here to stay. Gallup reports approximately 56% of full-time employees can fulfill job requirements entirely from home. The transition to fully remote work during the pandemic further illustrated productivity and effectiveness in the workplace could be maintained, even when a majority of employees were working from home.

From a project management standpoint, this transition has its pros and cons. Working in the same physical location as other team members promotes team-building and spontaneous collaboration that can be otherwise limited in a virtual workspace. Despite the perks of in-person collaboration, however, remote employees enjoy the flexible nature of working from home and report increased satisfaction with their work. When given the choice, many remote employees would prefer to remain remote or partially remote instead of returning full-time to the office.

As we move into 2024, project managers are challenged with navigating team dynamics and productivity in an increasingly digital environment. Jeffrey Weide says part of this is finding project management software that meets your remote team’s needs, “but also helps integrate the existing products you use for communication, productivity and scheduling whenever possible.”

Project Management and Change Management

In recent years, companies have enacted increasing numbers of change initiatives to organizations and the structures within. Project managers are learning to integrate the requirements of these change initiatives into project management strategies and plans. It is crucial to create a flexible methodology for integrating change initiatives with specific steps and protocols that your team can follow. These skills will continue to be relevant in coming years as companies grow and conform to the ever-evolving workplace standards.

Hybrid Approaches

Project success strategies have traditionally relied upon adherence to a single project management methodology. Recently, an increasing number of companies have merged multiple approaches to project management in an effort to increase flexibility and create a style that’s adapted to the needs of the individual project. Hybrid approaches also work well when faced with the task of integrating the expectations of new change initiatives presented by company leaders.

Increasing Connection Between Projects and Strategy

Project managers increasingly are asked to expand the scope and scale of strategies in growing workplaces. Rather than simply focusing on individual projects in isolation, project managers are being tasked with learning how individual projects relate to one another and how they work together to advance the goals of the company. This type of understanding can promote the strategic use of a project manager’s skills and help them to consistently make decisions that align closely with the company’s vision.

Increasing Prevalence of AI and Automation

Artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning and data collection and analysis are rapidly becoming critical elements in project management strategies. According to PwC, 77% of high-performing projects utilize project management software to help streamline their work and meet their goals.

AI has the capacity to evaluate outcomes and provide insights into performance strengths and weaknesses, provide organized data to guide important decisions, predict outcomes, estimate timelines, analyze risk and optimize resource scheduling. Project management tools and software can also automate time-consuming administrative tasks normally performed by the project manager, leaving the project manager free to focus time and energy on more critical or more nuanced tasks. “Many of the paid products are now offering AI or automation considerations, which can be a great time savings and help offset the costs from a staffing and overhead perspective,” says Weide.

Project managers who take the time to understand how the AI and automation processes in their organization can complement their role will be well-prepared to take advantage of this resource.

The best AI project management tools can significantly enhance efficiency and decision making.”

—Paul Naybour, managing director at Parallel Project Training


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why is project management important?

Project management is important in business because it helps you complete projects successfully and hit goals for yourself and your clients. Coordinating a multifaceted project for which several people owe deliverables, keeping everyone organized and ensuring the output meets expectations—all this while under the stress of a deadline—presents a challenge for even the most experienced project manager. These challenges become more feasible through project management best practices.

What is the best project management software for small businesses?

Companies should choose the best project management software based on their needs and budget. However, monday.com is a very popular project management software among small businesses for its breadth of features, price and available free version.

What are the three main types of project management software?

Individual project management software is set up by one person with one view, such as a spreadsheet view. Collaborative project management software offers one source of truth but also tools that allow people to work on their terms and within their individual roles, such as real-time editing and task-assignment capabilities. Finally, integrated project management software allows for the management and tracking of multiple projects.

What are the benefits of project management software?

Project management software helps you to plan, organize, budget and track the progress of a company project. It also unites a team around shared goals so all are working toward a successful project completion. In dispersed teams, growing businesses or across multiple departments, this can be difficult to do without a software people can join and access from their own devices wherever and whenever they work.

What are the different types of project management methods that are popular now?

There are several options available when it comes to project management methodologies. For example, there is the waterfall method, which follows a linear path and often has between five or six different phases that rely on the deliverables provided by the previous phase. Another option is the lean method, of which Kanban is a part. Kanban is the process of visualizing your workflow. The lean project management method is geared toward reducing waste and delivering value in a short period. Another commonly used method is scrum. Scrum references a simple framework employed by organizations, businesses or individuals, breaking down complex, overarching projects into smaller increments, with each part completed over a predetermined block of time which is known as a “sprint.” Others that you might consider include extreme programming (XP), critical path method (CPM) rapid action development, Six Sigma or a hybrid of two or more of these methods. All of these methods work well with project management software.

Is project management software secure?

As with most types of software, the best project management software programs offer many levels of security. When choosing this type of software, you want to look for security features that include two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), documentation that shows frequent security updates and patches, intrusion detection, the monitoring of user activities, data encryption and privacy protection.

Who are project managers, and what do they do?

For the best chance at success, every project needs an owner who is responsible for its completion and success. Project managers exist to fill this need, keep a team on task and ensure the project meets the needs of all stakeholders. This designation could be a subset of responsibilities—or an official job title.

 

A diverse range of industries requires the skills of a talented project manager. You can be a project manager in construction, publishing, finance, professional services, utilities and many other industries. Despite the final result of the projects looking very different across these industries, the steps and skills to keep a team organized fluently translate across the business world.


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