Project management software is indispensable for any company, large or small. It helps in all aspects of project management, allowing managers to plan and execute tasks effectively and efficiently. Project management software plays an important role in facilitating collaboration between various departments as well as with outside parties.
More than 70% of project managers say it is a challenging task to manage multiple clients and projects. There are several reasons for this. One of the biggest is the lack of Project Management tools for small and large scale businesses.
In present day corporate world, project management has gained immense importance. Today the organization has to work with different kinds of people and for that proper coordination and communication is vital. People come together with an objective to achieve their task in a timely manner.
Why is Project Management Software So Important?
Project management software is a must for businesses. According to the Forbes magazine report of 2015, only 33% of companies use project management tools in their day-to-day operations. This puts them at great disadvantage while they shift focus on core services and ignore the projects.
Using software specifically designed for managing projects is a great improvement over manual methods. More of your tools can be consolidated into a single system, saving you the trouble of switching between different applications. If you consolidate your toolkit, you’ll have more time to focus on your actual projects.
The use of a unified project management solution facilitates communication and cooperation between departments. One can keep track of how much work has been completed and what still needs to be done by coordinating with the appropriate people on the appropriate projects and making the most of the sharing of documents and other crucial information.
Are you in a hurry… You can scroll down to the summary below this article. We have recommended 3 great project management tools to get you started.
Monday.com
Best for Larger Teams or Anyone that Needs to Manage Complex Workflows
Monday.com, which was formerly known as dapulse, is another one of the excellent online project management solutions that are available today. On the other hand, it gets its name from the day of the week that nobody likes the least. What does that portend for what’s to come? Let’s find out:
You will be able to manage projects more effectively with the help of monday.com’s various features, which include reporting, a calendar, time tracking, and planning. It is adaptable to any type or size of company.
Monday.com includes resource and project management, time tracking, collaboration, and reporting features for managing projects. Users can, for instance, upload and attach files to cards, make comments, and mention teammates. It also provides an excellent project reporting dashboard that can aggregate data from multiple boards, allowing for enhanced progress monitoring. You can use monday.com to track hours, timelines, and invoices, despite the fact that it does not provide a complete set of tools for project accounting and invoicing as other tools do.
Overall, it is a highly configurable tool that allows you to work in any methodology—Kanban or otherwise—that is appropriate for your project and team. You will also find workflow automation tools to automate portions of your process. Read our comprehensive monday.com review for a comprehensive overview of the tool, as well as a brief video demonstration of its fundamental features.
Notable Features
- Kanban, Timeline, and Charts track project development.
- Reporting.
- members.
Pros:
- It’s collaborative.
- Application integration.
Cons
- Cost
Pricing Details
- Free trial.
- Basic Plan: $25 for 5 users/month.
- Standard: $39 for 5 users/month.
- Pro: $59 for 5 users/month.
- Enterprise: Get a quote.
ClickUp
Best All-In-One Free Project Management Software
ClickUp is a platform that allows for customization and comes with hundreds of features, some of which include task management and management of processes.
ClickUp has tools for creating, sharing, and collaboratively editing documents and Wikis. Users are able to annotate documents and tasks, assign comments, and chat with other team members in order to enhance team communication and collaboration. In addition to the ability to create customized dashboards, there are six predefined report types for team reporting.
Task management capabilities include task checklists, subtasks, and task templates, as well as the capacity to filter, sort, search for, easily reorder, and view tasks in a manner that is most convenient for the team. To visualize tasks, you can also create Gantt charts, calendars, and timelines.
Notable Features:
- ClickUp is a customizable platform with process and task management.
- Add task dependencies.
- Click has recurring checklists, agile board view, sprint management, and templates.
Pros:
- ClickUp supports Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.It’s customizable.Integrations abound.
Cons:
- Dashboard not exportable
Pricing Details:
- Free plan
- Unlimited: $5 per member/month
- Business: $9 per member/month
- Enterprise: Obtain a price estimate.
A Comparison Table of Monday and Clickup
| Monday.com | Clickup | |
| Pricing | Free to $20 per seat, per month (min. three seats per plan) | Free to $29 per member per month |
| Time Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Templates | Yes | Yes |
| Storage on Free Plan | 500 MB | 100 MB |
| iOS and Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Real-Time Chat | No | Yes |
| In-App Video Recording | No | Yes |
Nifty
Best for Reducing Project Development Cycles
The NiftyPM team has done an incredible job combining multiple tools to cover the entire project cycle. It strikes the perfect balance between big-picture planning (the roadmap is fantastic) and the everyday grind (tasks, files, and collaborations) that we all deal with on a daily basis.
Pros:
- Beautiful interface, very intuitive to use.
- It is a huge plus that it is so easy to use and transition to.
- There is a Rockstar support team that will be able to assist you.
Cons:
As far as I know, nothing significant is worth mentioning.
Pricing Plans:
- Starter plan: $39 per month for the first three months
- Pro plan: $79 per month per user
- Business: 124 dollars per month for a small business
- Enterprise: You can get a quote from them by contacting them.
All Plans Include:
- Portfolios
- Overviews
- Workloads
- Time tracking & reporting
- Unlimited active projects
- iOS, Android, and Desktop apps
- Google single sign-on (SSO)
- Open API
- Unlimited guests & clients
- Discussions
- Milestones
- Docs & files
- Team chat
Wrike
Best for Businesses of All Sizes
With Wrike you are able to manage your projects with impressive automation capabilities and real-time monitoring capabilities. Firstly, you get a ton of templates that are exclusively designed to enable you to create and manage a wide range of projects. The Gantt chart or Kanban board can also be used as a tool for organizing the progress of your projects in a more effective manner.
In addition to this, it is also very helpful that this software allows you to tailor the dashboard, the workflows, etc. according to your preferences, largely due to its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, which makes it very easy for you to customize this software in accordance with your preferences. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Wrike is the unparalleled level of visibility you have over projects across the various departments of your organization that it offers you.
Wrike’s intuitive design lets users toggle between multiple views of their workload, including traditional calendars, Gantt charts with interactive drag-and-drop functionality, and Kanban boards. Wrike also allows for real-time communication and collaboration in addition to task lists, subtasks, schedules, shared workflows, file sharing, and more. Tools for advanced reporting on project performance, resource management and allocation, and more are available to users.
Wrike has a clean design that makes it simple to navigate between your various workspaces, folders, and tasks. Timetrackers, calendars, reports, and streams are just some of the features that can be accessed from the main screen (for notifications and messages). Wrike has a robust community in addition to its user-friendly interface and comprehensive documentation.
Features:
- Templates for Purpose
- Plan Kanban
- Flowchart
- Custom Requests
- Schedules for teams
Pricing:
- Plan freeProf: $9.95/user/monthBusiness: $24.80/monthContact for enterprise plan14-day free trial available
Pros:
- Interface that drags and drops
- Analyses and reporting
- Tracking manual and automated
- Create projects with pre-built templates
Cons:
- Individuals and small businesses cannot use it.
Despite its simplicity and excellent functionality, Wrike stands out as a project management software. This is one of the best tools to monitor and manage multiple departments across mid-sized and large enterprises.
A Comparison Table of Nifty and Wrike
| Nifty | Wrike | |
| Pricing | Free to $124 per month. Contact them to get a quote for enterprise | Free to $24.80/user/month |
| Time Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Templates | Yes | Yes |
| Storage on Free Plan | 1 Gb | 2 Gb |
| iOS and Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Real-Time Chat | Yes | No |
| In-App Video Recording | No | Yes |
Zoho Projects
Best For Remote Project Collaboration
All types and sizes of projects are within the scope of Zoho Projects’ capabilities. The app is compatible with mobile devices running iOS, Android, and other operating systems, and it includes functions that mimic those found on social networking sites, such as feeds, forums, and discussions.
The Gantt chart features in Zoho Projects are what swayed me to use it for planning and monitoring my projects. These charts make it easy to divide up massive endeavors into more manageable chunks and specific to-dos, as well as to create a clear visual representation of the various steps involved in the project. In order to see how your team is being utilized and how your project is progressing, you can use the Gantt charts in Zoho Projects. You can see who is free, who is busy, and who is overwhelmed by looking at the resource utilization table.
Once work has begun, you can use Zoho Projects to keep track of how far along it is, who is responsible for what, when it needs to be done, and how much has already been done. Create a recurring task to automatically perform tasks at predetermined intervals, and schedule email notifications to serve as reminders.
Project documents, presentations, and spreadsheets can all be made or downloaded, and files can be uploaded and shared for group work. Time spent on tasks can be compared to projections if notes are kept. Either manually or with the help of a built-in timer, you can accomplish this. Your timesheet records your entries automatically, and invoices can be made with just a few clicks.
All members of a dispersed team can stay in constant communication thanks to the online forum included in Zoho Projects.
Features:
- It features task management, Gantt charts, different task views, issue management, etc for simplifying projects.
- There are timers, timesheets, invoicing, budgeting, and calendar functions.
- Budget forecasting, timesheet reports, and issue reports are all provided.
- Workflows can be designed to automate tasks.
- Chat, feeds, forums, and chat functionality support team collaboration.
Pros:
- Using Zoho Projects is easy.
- Integrates with Zoho apps and third-party apps.
Cons:
- There are no cons.
Pricing Details:
- 10 day free trial
- 3 users for free.
- Monthly subscription: $5.
- Enterprise: $10/user/month.
MeisterTask
Best for Agile Project Management
MeisterTask is an online tool for managing projects and tasks in an agile manner using straightforward Kanban-style boards. In addition to its straightforward design and intuitive features, this tool also integrates easily with other programs commonly used in a given project’s ecosystem.
The tool’s colorful, editable boards are just one of the ways they aim to improve efficiency and productivity in your projects. The timeline function enables effective workload management by providing a Gantt-style overview of tasks, allowing users to easily identify and eliminate bottlenecks. Automations can be set up to perform repetitive tasks automatically, making manual labor more efficient.
The best way to visually monitor the development of an undertaking from its inception to its conclusion is to break it down into manageable tasks, incorporate them into individualized workflows, and present the results on attractive, digital Kanban boards.
You can invite as many people as you need to work on a project, and then use comments and mentions to communicate with them. This facilitates real-time interaction between users, allowing for improved collaboration and productivity. Tasks serve as a repository for any and all relevant data and files, ensuring that they are never misplaced.
Its iOS and Android apps allow you to manage your tasks even when you’re on the go.
Pros: Automated tasks, mobile apps, and integrations with Slack, GitHub, Zendesk, MindMeister, Freshdesk, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, IFTTT Github, G Suite, Harvest, and others.
Cons: It does not have a Linux desktop app and the time tracking feature could be improved.
There are many integrations that MeisterTask is compatible with, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, G Suite, Zapier, IFTTT, MindMeister, and more.
There is a freemium plan for up to three projects with MeisterTask which is available for $8.25/month. In addition to a 30-day free trial, they offer paid plans with a 30-day money back guarantee.
Forecast
Best Ai-Native Project Planning Tool
Users can compare their actual work time with their planned time and keep tabs on their task completion status.
Forecast is an end-to-end platform for managing resources and projects, with features like intelligent automation to estimate when a project will be finished, how much space will be needed, and how to maximize productivity by predicting delivery dates and reserving it in advance. Their AI builds its rules on the backs of hundreds of thousands of projects’ worth of data.
Let’s talk about the features, which is why I went with Forecast. With Auto-Schedule, projects can be easily planned out, estimates can be generated, and tasks can be automatically assigned resources. It has a drag-and-drop component that facilitates instantaneous changes to schedules and allocations. The tool also generates a budget for each project, complete with the essential financial metrics for comparing the two. It also allows for simultaneous and accurate support for multiple billing models (such as fixed price and time and materials). It offers superior, up-to-the-minute reports that can be modified to your needs.
In addition, Forecast debuted an innovative tool for handling projects in a retainer arrangement. Maintaining an eye on staff workloads and time spent on delivery is difficult without a dashboard that displays retainer periods and totals for ongoing projects.
Forecast Standout Features & Integrations
Features: Among the features offered by the software are resource management, project accounting, company intelligence, retainer budget type projects, auto-scheduling, and AI-based recommendations.
There are several integrations available with popular project management tools, such as Jira, as well as turnkey integrations with popular projects. With its PM capabilities, it is a great complement to accounting systems like Quickbooks and Xero as well.
Forecast Plans & Pricing
With a 10-seat minimum in an annual plan, forecast costs are expected to range from $29 per user/month. Free trials are available for a period of 14 days.
- Free 14-day trial available
- As low as $29/user/month (billed annually)
PROS
- It is easy for projects to be planned and timelines to be met.
- Multi-project resource management
- Spreadsheet predictive tasks
CONS
- Intensive learning
- Training and onboarding fee
- Rather than separating milestones, data is grouped
WorkOtter
Best Integration Among Different Dashboards
The WorkOtter software is a web-based project management tool that is based on the cloud. It is cloud-based, agile, has a wide range of features, and is very affordable.
There are a number of things this software can help you do with ease, including creating workflows quickly, forecasting resources and assigning them accordingly, tracking project completion time via interactive status boards, and so much more. WorkOtter also boasts advanced reporting capabilities and can be highly customized to suit the needs of the user.
Features:
- Logging of projects is built-in to the software
- Planning projects can be done in a variety of ways
- Reporting on a project-by-project basis
- Dashboard that can be customized on-the-fly
- Workplans, spreadsheets, or hybrid forecasting options available.
Pros:
- Support 24/7
- Planning and assigning resources
- Dashboard that customizes
- Maps and status boards for workflows
- Protocols for bank security
- Implementable and easy
Cons:
- Creating reports can be time-consuming.
Price: WorkOtter follows a pay-per-use model, contact them for a quote. Request a free demo.
Smartsheet
Best for Flexibility & Customizability
Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and list views are just some of the different ways that information regarding a project can be viewed and visualized using Smartsheet.
The project management software Smartsheet functions similarly to spreadsheets. If you are comfortable working in Excel but want a break from complicated formulas, Smartsheet is a nice platform to use because it performs all of the calculations for you across multiple sheets.
Why I chose Smartsheet: Smartsheet has useful project management features such as workflow automation and visualization of tasks in Gantt, calendar, and card views. Team members are notified in real time of any significant changes, and the tool offers shared perspectives, a detailed history, activity logs, automated alerts, and reminders, as well as status reports, to ensure that everyone is on the same page and stays informed.
In addition, the Critical Path feature draws attention to all of the activities that have a direct influence on the date that your project is scheduled to be finished. This helps you keep an eye on the various important milestones. If you are the type of person who wants everything personalized, including your tools, you have the option to not only add customized brand logos, but you can also set color themes for individual projects.
Smartsheet Standout Features & Integrations
Features: include dashboards, reports that enable you to consolidate multiple sheets of data, workflow automation, resource management, multiple views, forms to collect information, as well as digital asset management using Brandfolder.
Integrations are available for Microsoft and Google apps, as well as for development essentials like Jira and useful business apps like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Box, and Tableau. With the help of a REST API, the platform is extensible through webhooks, as well as a REST API.
Smartsheet Plans & Pricing
The pricing for Smartsheet starts at $9/user/month, with a minimum of 3 users and a maximum of 25 users per account. There is a 30-day free trial available that you can take advantage of.
Trial period of 30 days for free
Monthly $9/user
PROS
- Dashboards you can customize
- Shareability
- Resources & templates
- Linked sheets
CONS
- Colors can’t be customized
- Real-time changes don’t happen
- Premier plan only for Jira, Salesforce, and Dynamics
Asana
- Users can manage project activities using Asana’s web and mobile applications without sending emails.
- It’s easy to view the progress of the project without forwarding emails or setting up meetings.
- One of its main drawbacks is its complexity.
- The Asana application is available for free trial on the Asana website. A total of three pricing plans are available, including the Premium plan ($9.99 per user per month), the Business plan ($19.99 per user per month), and the Enterprise plan (Get a quote).
Summary
To summarize, in addition to the greater than 90 percent of businesses that use project management software without being monitored, an additional 15 percent of businesses do so without oversight. This indicates that roughly one-third of the world’s businesses use project management software. With a projected increase in the number of businesses employing project management software, it is difficult to deny why this is the case. These numbers demonstrate that project management software is here to stay, and that in the future, more businesses will likely increase their efficiency by adopting and investing in project management software.
Monday.com, Clickup and Wrike have shown great promises over the years and performed outstandingly over other project management tools. However, the choices vary with user preference. Take for instance, some users prefer Monday.com to Clickup because of its pricing difference whereas others prefer Clickup because of its real time chat feature.
At the end, it all balls down to what suits you and your business needs.
In conclusion, Successful businesses cannot function without sophisticated project management software. Software for managing projects can improve efficiency in the workplace by allowing for easier communication and collaboration among employees and the management of tasks from start to finish. In fact, the top 18 companies in the market for project management software took in $1.1 billion in revenue. While all of these tools improved efficiency and collaboration within businesses, some programs provide more features for the user.