Best Project Management Software
Based on In-Depth Reviews
- 200+Hours of research
- 50+Sources used
- 60Companies vetted
- 4Features reviewed
- 7Top
Picks
- Organize, assign, and overview projects
- Look for software with multiple tools and integrations
- Pricing generally depends on the number of users
- Sign up for free trials or versions, most platforms offer them
How we analyzed the best Project Management Software Providers
Our Top Picks: Project Management Software Reviews
Project management software works much like a comprehensive virtual planner that lets you coordinate personal or business projects all from one place. Although popular among marketing firms, these platforms are suitable for any industry that manages multiple projects at the same time, such as real estate firms, construction, human resources departments, sales teams, and even teachers. This type of software offers numerous tools to help set goals, determine deadlines for each project component, and delegate tasks to those in charge of its completion. Users can collaborate with team members, save relevant documents, invite clients to keep them updated, and in some cases, set budgets, manage invoices, and track billing hours. As a result, users get a complete view of their business and teams’ workflow.
Most project management software offer similar features, nonetheless choosing the right one will depend on how well its different organizing tools—gantt charts, kanban boards, calendar view—and templates adjust to you and your business’ goals.
Podio review
Best for Communication
Founded in 2009, Podio stands out for its fast-communication tools which let users ask questions, post statuses, and create discussions with team members.
The software includes built-in chat for instant messaging, and Podio Meetings for audio and video calling from within the software. It integrates with major third-party services, such as Google Suite, Dropbox, Evernote, Microsoft’s Onedrive, Freshbooks, and many others. Additionally, users can access their projects from anywhere with their mobile app.
Cost: Podio offers a free version limited to five users, and three other tiers—Basic, Plus, and Premium. When billed monthly tiers cost $9, $14, and $24 per user. If billed annually, there’s a 20% discount.
Trial: Sign-up to their free version
monday.com review
Best for Ease of Use
Monday.com is a cloud-based team and project management suite that provides multi-user collaboration tools online and via mobile app. The platform’s interface is visually simple and easy to configure. It includes guiding text, tutorial videos, and webinars to help speed-up the set up process.
Users can pick from a variety of ready-made templates to customize Monday’s board. They can set predefined actions for automating workflow, such as creating a new task whenever an email with specific keywords is received and sending reminders when a project status changes.
Cost: There are four plan tiers—Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise—, available for a minimum of three users up to 200. Their pricing is based on the features included and the number of users on the platform. In the case of subscriptions with less than 50 users, prices range from $8 to $16 dollars per user per month.
Trial: 14-day free trial.
Basecamp review
Best Discounts
Launched in 2004, Basecamp is among the most popular cloud-based project management software in the market. The software features all the basic tools needed to organize projects and improve internal communication within teams. It includes scheduling features, automatic check-ins, to-do lists, private messaging, real-time chat, and file storage. It’s important to note however, that it doesn’t provide tools for managing budget or expenses.
Basecamp’s interface is intuitive and uncluttered. On its homepage users can get an overview of their teams and projects and access Basecamp HQ, a type of bulletin board where users can post company-wide announcements.
Basecamp offers a 15% discount to users that pay for a year up front and a 10% off for non-profits. Teachers and students get their premium account for free if they send an email from their school account after signing up for their 30-day free trial.
Cost: Basecamp offers two plans: Basecamp Personal and Basecamp Business plan. Basecamp personal is free but limited to three projects, 20 users, and 1GB of storage space. Basecamp business, on the other hand, includes all their features plus unlimited projects and users for a monthly flat rate of $99 dollars.
Trial: 30-day free trial.
Asana review
Best for Marketing Projects
Asana features ideal tools for boosting productivity while keeping track of everyone’s progress. Teams and managers can easily co-create to-do lists, set up project templates, monitor workload, and color code projects’ priority and progress. They can create an overview of the steps needed, which lets each collaborator see how their tasks interact with others in the larger scheme of the project. Additionally, managers can set up goals for the project to ensure everyone on the team knows the expectations.
Asana has different ways to organize projects and visualize progress, such as kanban board (where tasks are divided in columns), list, calendar, and timeline view. More importantly, it integrates with over 100 apps and software that enable communication, file sharing, reporting, and time tracking.
Cost: Users have 4 plans to choose from: Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise. Basic plan is free for up to 15 teammates. Premium and Business cost $10.99 and $24.99, respectively, per user per month, when billed annually. Enterprise is marketed to company-wide initiatives interested in having advanced data control and support, in which case users must request a quote.
Trial: Users can sign up for their basic free version
Zoho review
Best Value
Zoho Projects is among the most affordable project management software in the market. The platform is part of Zoho’s software suite, which means that it easily integrates with any of their other management tools for sales and marketing, human resources, and finance, although it's not limited to these.
Zoho Projects includes all the features necessary for managing projects. Users can visualize their projects through Gantt charts (displays tasks across time) and calendar view. They can also track time, produce reports, and manage expenses. They have access to a customizable dashboard that provides a quick overview of all tasks (assigned, pending for the day, and overdue), important events, and timesheets.
The platform includes a discussion board, built-in chat to communicate with teams, and a live chat for customer support.
Cost: Zoho Projects offers five plans, including a free option limited to three users, two projects, and 10MB storage capacity. Their paid plans start at $3 up to $6 per user, per month.
Trial: 10-day free trial.
ClickUp review
Best Unlimited Free Version
ClickUp is a cloud-based project management software with headquarters in San Diego, California. Although relatively new in the market, it offers an attractive interface that appeals to young users and startup companies.
ClickUp follows a hierarchical structure that’s meant to replicate companies' organizational divisions.There are three main components: Workspace, Spaces, and Lists. Workspace represents the company, this is where users get a macro overview of everything that’s happening. Spaces are where teams or departments get split into groups. And then there are the Lists, where each team gets to group together all their related tasks. In other words, account managers can set up ClickUp in such a way that they get a complete overview of all the departments, their projects, and tasks.
When opening an account, users can immediately choose which software they want to integrate for time-tracking, calendar, and cloud storage. They can also customize and decide which features they want in their dashboard.
Apart from the popular displays for visualizing projects—Gantt chart, calendar, list, and boards—there is a box view for visualizing workload by user, embedded view to import charts, tables, and data from other sources, and doc view to create and share documents in Clickup.
Cost: ClickUp’s free version doesn’t have users or tasks limit. They also offer three paid tiers—Unlimited, Business, and Enterprise. Unlimited and Business cost $5 and $9 dollars, respectively, per user when billed annually. For their Enterprise tier, users must contact ClickUp’s sales team for a custom quote.
Trial: Sign-up to their free version
Cage review
Best for Media Designers
Cage is a great option for designers, developers, and agencies that work with media-based projects. The app offers users the ability to sketch, highlight specific details, and leave feedback or annotations directly on the media file that’s being worked on. Additionally, it helps in keeping it organized with to-do lists, built-in calendar, and task tracking.
With Cage, it’s possible to invite collaborators and clients to your projects regardless of whether they’re users, though they won’t be able to modify files. Nonetheless, they’ll be able to see your projects and leave comments. Other peculiar features include a presentation tool and integration with Adobe XD.
Cost: Cage offers a free version limited to one user, one project, 2GB of storage, and unlimited reviewers. There are two other tiers, a Standard and Professional tier, that cost $8 and $14 per user per month, respectively. If teams are larger than 25 users, you can contact Cage’s sales team to ask for a demo and customized quote.
Trial: Sign-up for a free version.
More insight into our methodology
To find the best project management software we looked for scalable platforms that independent contractors and businesses with 50 employees or less could use to handle their multiple projects and collaborate with teams and clients. In order to do this, we vetted a total of 60 platforms. After evaluating their plans and pricing options, features, integrations, trial periods, and support options we made a preliminary selection of 14 companies. Finally, our final selection was made after we subscribed to free trials and evaluated these platforms’ ease of use and customer support.
In general, we focused on the following factors:
Plans & Pricing
As with human resources and payroll software, project management developers commonly charge a monthly fee per employee. Because there are many platforms on the market, prices vary widely. Yet, they usually range from $3 up to $50 per user.
Most platforms offer different tier options that include a basic plan with essential features, an intermediate plan, and a premium. Others offer fixed monthly plans that include all their features, although limited to a specific number of users. In a few others, individuals and small teams can subscribe to free versions that include the most basic features.
If free versions are not available, you should at least expect free trials or demos.
We favored software with free versions or trials.
Ease of Use
A project management software can improve the planning, scheduling, and execution of your multiple projects. However, its effectiveness will in part depend on how well the platform adapts to your needs and goals.
Because this type of software includes different charts and structures for organizing your projects information—Gantt charts, calendar view, Kanban boards, timelines, tasks list—some in neater ways than others, take the time to try them out before making your decision.
In our case, we looked for intuitive interfaces offering easy configuration—quick video tours, and guides—for first-time users. Similarly, we preferred software that supported integrations with third-party software. We also spoke with a graphic designer with years of experience using project management software and signed up for free versions and trials.
Features
Even though most project management software include similar features, their offerening varies by platform.
Some features are:
-
Gantt & Calendar View
-
Task Management
-
Status Tracking
-
Activity Log
-
Time & Expense Tracking
-
Budget Management
-
Billing & Invoicing
-
Storage
-
Message Boards
-
Email Integration
-
Reporting
-
Scheduling
-
Groups Chats
-
Mobile Apps
Help & Support
Getting help whenever you need it is essential. We preferred companies with different types of customer support, including assistance over the phone, email, chats, webinars, or tutorials.
Helpful information about Project Management Software
Preparing a monthly magazine issue, building a house, putting a house in the market and scheduling its showing, and planning a new ads campaign are all projects that require a team and include multiple deadlines. Keeping track of all the tasks these projects demand can be complicated for even the most organized among us. In fact, 93% of organizations opt for project management software.
What is Project Management Software?
Project management software provides tools for working with projects and managing resources. These systems, which are usually cloud-based, can help individuals and teams set schedules alongside budgets, keep activity logs, and track time, expenses, and costs. Its tools allow you to create workspaces where team members can collaborate in real time. Additionally, it lets supervisors track every detail and manage each member’s workload. Additionally, it gives users an overview of projects on the pipeline.
The best project management software would include easy customization, team collaboration tools (group chat, file sharing), integration with your email account, reporting, and financial management. Nonetheless, you should choose the features that better help you get your projects done.
How To Choose The Best Project Management Software
Most project management software offer free trials or versions, we recommend that you sign up with at least three platforms once you’ve done a preliminary selection. This will grant you access to the software’s most basic features, which will help you determine whether its tools are the best for managing your business’ specific workflow and resources.
While evaluating your options, consider the following factors:
-
Features: Most platforms include a wide selection of features. Identify which would really help you manage your projects and resources more easily, since it’s possible that you won’t need all of them. An important detail to remember is that these platforms organize your projects using different types of charts and boards (work breakdown systems), some in more visually attractive and cleaner ways than others.
-
Storage: Check how much storage capacity you’ll get, especially if you need to upload and share files with team members.
-
Integration: The platform’s ability to integrate with other software is fundamental. It’ll facilitate, among other things, the import and export of information from software that you may already be using, such as your email. Some could even help you automate tasks, as for example sending reminders whenever a deadline is near.
-
Scalability: Think about whether your team will continue to grow over time. Verify if your plan will be limited to a specific number of users and what’s the process for adding additional users. This will let you know what type of plan you need.
-
Customer Support: Some platforms provide customer service only during weekdays, others 24/7. We recommend platforms with multiple contact options—phone, email, and chats. Lastly, check if there are webinars and tutorials available, these could provide some guidance on the platform’s functions.
Why invest in Project Management Software?
If your projects are adding up and your to-do list app is not enough, adding a project management software could be the solution. Signing up for a free trial will let you know if it’s worth the investment.
We asked our Senior Designer, José Vélez, who has used project management software in the marketing industry for over ten years, why others should consider using these platforms. According to him, there are three main reasons:
-
“[It] keeps things where they’re supposed to be”: In other words, project management software helps you visualize your work. It keeps you organized and gives an overview of what’s on the pipeline. It lets you upload all the documents you need for a particular project so that they're available to everyone, in one place.
-
“Keeps a record”: It’s an easy way of keeping an activity log of upcoming and pending tasks, and those that may not be completed on time. And depending on the platform, that information could be available for over a year.
-
“Don’t have to depend on phone calls or on requesting meetings”: You can tag team members and assign them a particular task. You can also send messages directly from the platform. Moreover, you can grant clients access to the platform and let them see your progress or ask for feedback.
FAQs about Project Management Software
How much does a project management software cost?
Pricing depends on the number of users and varies widely by platform. It could fluctuate from $3 up to $50 dollars per user. However, it’s possible to find platforms with flat rate tiers.
What does project management software offer for graphic designers?
A project management software not only provides an overview of all tasks, but it’s an ideal tool for collaborating and communicating with teammates, if you have them, or clients, all in one place. There are even options, like Cage, that integrate with Adobe XD and with other third-party software that graphic designers use.
Will I be able to manage project expenses with a project management software?
Yes, some software includes tools for tracking and managing expenses. Some even let you create invoices and bills.