Project management software is rapidly growing in popularity. This choice can be largely due to the fact that businesses who take advantage of project management software show greater efficiency and profit than those who do not. So, if you’re thinking about getting your business up to snuff with project management software, then look no further than these 4 picks for the best project management software for business on the market today:
As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate. With scheduling meetings, working on budgets, and customer calls, you don’t have time for the busywork of project management! That’s why you should consider using Project Management Software for your business.
monday.com – Best for flexibility & integrations
Small teams can easily keep track of each other’s work, timelines, and upcoming tasks.
monday.com is an easy-to-use project management tool that saves small businesses money in two ways: offering free/affordable entry-level plans and being super user-friendly to cut back on money lost on training and onboarding. They are used by teams at Uber, Adobe, Hulu, and Unilever, so your SMB can feel like its playing in the software big leagues.
monday is flexible and scalable with 5 pricing plans available so that it can grow with you. With their freemium plan, you’ll already have access to unlimited project boards, 200+ free project/task templates, 20+ column types, and their iOS and Android apps. Pay particular attention to the free project template library—here, you’ll find pre-made outlines for editorial calendars, marketing campaign planning, CRM charts, event planning, HR forms, and more. The usefulness of this section for small businesses can not be overstated.
monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier. They also have an apps marketplace with free and paid add-ons to boost your functionality. Again, I cannot stress the level of flexibility and scalability with this form.
monday.com is free to use for up to 2 users with some feature limitations. They also offer a free 14-day trial of their paid plans.
CROOW – Best for workflow customization & automation
Project teams can plan projects with customizable Kanban, Gantt, calendar, and list views.
CROOW is a project management platform with a simple and flexible structure for project collaboration. The tool supports waterfall and agile methodologies, offers multiple views such as Gantt and Kanban, and automates workflows through customizable templates.
The tool includes project planning features for managing to-dos, timelines, and deliverables. Users can also create tasks, assign due dates, and communicate with team members through comments and message boards. Another great feature is the option to create custom workflows that correspond with specific project plans.
CROOW offers additional project and business management features such as automated processes and notifications, forecasting and reporting on dashboards, and Kanban and Gantt views. Users can also manage workloads with resource scheduling capabilities, as well as manage digital assets within the platform. CROOW also provides users with the use and integration of their Agile Management System framework.
CROOW offers a freemium plan, as well as paid plans starting at $20 per month.
Scoro
Scoro is a comprehensive solution that combines all the features you might need in project management software: projects & tasks, contact management, quotes, team collaboration, billing, and reporting.
Top features:
- Projects with sub-tasks and deadlines
- Real-time KPI dashboard
- Shared team calendar & meeting scheduling
- Contact management
- Time tracking and billing for work
- Detailed reports on project progress and finances
- Quoting and invoicing with pre-set templates
What’s special about this tool: Scoro helps to streamline your entire work progress, so you don’t need to use a lot of different tools for every task. All your important information is stored in one central place.
Pricing: From $26 user/month
Try Scoro for free for 14 days
ProofHub
ProofHub offers a replacement for conventional emailing and many other tools, integrating multiple project management features under one roof.
Top features:
- Assigned user roles
- Online team discussions and chats
- Task delegating and assignments
- Reporting and tracking project history
- Secure file storage
What’s special about this tool: ProofHub has a simple and well-designed user interface that helps the team collaborate more efficiently.
Pricing: From $45 month
Basecamp
Basecamp is the preferred tool for thousands of project management teams, who enjoy its modern social media-like interface and carefree team collaboration features.
Top features:
- Projects to manage multiple users’ work
- Message boards for discussing new projects or ideas
- In-app collaboration with the team
- Reporting on project performance
- Separate dashboard for showing to clients
- Email and desktop notifications
What’s special about this tool: Compared to some other project management alternatives, Basecamp doesn’t charge you per person, and it’s free for teachers and students!
Price: Free plans available, paid plans from $99/month
Read on: Basecamp Alternative for Project Management
Asana
Asana combines elements of project management, file storage, and collaboration and helps to manage projects across a team without email.
Top features:
- Tasks and team assignment
- Projects roadmaps and timelines
- Milestones and team progress
- File and track bug reports and sprints.
- Project dashboards to get a quick overview
What’s special about this tool: Asana is a really easy-to-use tool with a simplistic layout ideal for small teams with simple projects.
Pricing: Free for up to 15 members, paid plans from $13 user/month
Citrix Podio
Podio is a flexible and highly customizable online hub for work and team communication.
Top features:
- Assign tasks, attach files, and discuss details within the solution
- Share encrypted & large files
- Automate the sales pipelines and project budget tracking
- Get an overview of the company with a visual dashboard
What’s special about this tool: Podio’s workflows feature enables you to add if-this-then-that logic to Podio apps. For example, instruct your app to create a task or comment.
Pricing: From 19.20$ month/user for a full suite of features
Trello
Trello is known for visualizing project tasks on a cardboard-like dashboard that’s great for managing short and quick everyday assignments.
Top features:
- Simple task management on a cardboard
- Creating unlimited task lists
- Image and file sharing
- Organizing lists by dates or priority
- Commenting and collaboration
What’s special about this tool: From startups to Fortune 500 companies, Trello is the most visual way for teams to collaborate on any project.
Pricing: Free for personal use, $9.99 user/month for businesses
Check out this Trello alternative!
ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is a project management software helping your team stay organized while you outgrow email.
Top features:
- Time tracking and invoicing
- Gantt-like timeline for planning
- Kanban cards
- A shared team calendar for collaboration
What’s interesting about this tool: Active Collab is especially great for collaboration, with functions like collaborative text editing and @mentions for communication.
Pricing: From $6.25 member/month
Redmine
Redmine is an open-source project management tool, made highly flexible by its volunteer community.
Top features:
- Gantt charts and calendar for planning
- Newsfeed + document & file management
- Features for planning product roadmaps
- Email notifications
- Simple time tracking
What’s special about this tool: Redmine is an open-source tool and has multilanguage support, which might become handy.
Pricing: Free
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is one of the best-known tools for simple project management that can help teams streamline their upcoming work and tasks.
Top features:
- Task lists with multiple tasks and milestones
- Time tracking and timesheets
- Gantt charts to oversee project progress
- Document and file management
What’s special about this tool: Zoho projects can be integrated with Zoho CRM and other tools to manage almost every aspect of your agency in one system.
Pricing: From $5 user/month
Check out the best Zoho Alternatives for business management!
Deltek WorkBook
Deltek WorkBook is a software suite for project and resource management, CRM, collaboration and file sharing, forecasting & accounting built specifically for agencies and in-house teams.
Top features:
- Project and tasks lists
- Gantt charts
- Sales pipeline
- Client portal
- Financial features (e.g., budgets, forecasts, automatic billing)
What’s special about this tool: Not all clients have the same needs. WorkBook lets you choose exactly the modules that suit your needs and only pay for what you use.
Pricing: $19 user/month, minimum of 30 users
Nifty
Nifty is an affordable, all-in-one project management platform. It comes with project portfolio management, project planning, task management, team collaboration, and timesheet management features.
With Nifty, you can manage projects as well as project portfolios across your business.
You can plan tasks and subtasks along with dependencies on a Gantt timeline. In addition, you can also track project milestones.
Your team members can work together on tasks by attaching files and documents. Plus, they can communicate via comments and team chats.
Additional Features
Nifty also comes with the following features:
- Manage recurring tasks.
- Track budgets and time spent on tasks.
- Manage team workloads.
Nifty Pricing
Nifty does not have a free plan. However, all paid plans have a 14-day free trial.
Paid plans start at $49 per month for up to 10 team members. Cross-project overviews and workload management are available at an extra $20 per month.
Nutcache
Nutcache is an all-in-one project management tool that includes time tracking and invoicing features. It was built for small teams that bill their clients on a project basis.
Top features:
- Project management and tasks
- Time tracking and time billing
- Expense management
- Linking projects and finished tasks to clients
What’s interesting about this tool: Nutcache has a good-looking user interface, excellent for team collaboration, and simple project management.
Pricing: Free up to 20 users (limited features), $6 user/month for project management features
Conclusion
If you’re working on a project and you feel like no one knows what’s going on, it may be time to try project management software. When you have a lot of people working on a single project, it quickly becomes necessary to establish some sort of system for documentation and accountability. Before the rise of web-based applications such as Basecamp, people who needed such software had to purchase expensive off-the-shelf software or build their own systems from scratch. However, it’s never been easier than it is today to find free solutions that work just as well as the paid services of yesterday. The biggest question: what’s the best free project management software?