Project management sounds easy in theory. You never realize how much planning it takes until you’re knee-deep in complex projects. But, if you follow these tips for software for project management, you’ll be able to plan your projects easier.
Software for project management is a common request from clients and employers alike. They want to know what software to use for their project management needs, but they may not quite understand the differences between these different programs. According to Project Management Institute (PMI), project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project objectives”. Project Management Software is a tool that helps project manager or any other stakeholder to manage and control projects effectively and efficiently.
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is a popular offering from Zoho that helps businesses keep track of tasks, collaborate, bug tracking, and run intuitive reports. The tool offers features like Gantt charts and the ability to billable hours on multiple projects simultaneously. Zoho Projects also boasts a very impressive suite of communications tools, including real-time chat and forum pages
Many users say the Gantt charts are cumbersome to use and reporting breakdown may not be sufficient for large teams. You can share documents from within the tool.
Pricing: Zoho offers several choices when it comes to a subscription plan:
- There’s a forever free version with basic features and limited users
- The Standard plan costs $3 and has features like custom statuses and issue tracking. It supports upto 10 users.
- The Express plan is priced at $4 and supports up to 50 users. You’ll get features like recurring tasks, Gantt charts, and timesheet approvals.
- The Premium plan starts from $5 and supports up to 100 users. It includes features like task automation, business rules, resource utilization, and budgeting.
- The Enterprise plan is priced at $6 and has no cap on the number of users. Custom roles, global Gantt charts, inter-project dependencies are some of the features available.
All plans are per user per month.
Monday.com
Monday.com combines a visually appealing interface and useful project visualizing tools into intuitive, simple project management software. It’s flexible and offers a transparent way to organize your work. There are project templates on top which you can build your own boards. There are plenty of display options available like the map view and the calendar view.
One common reason for dissatisfaction among customers is the lack of recurring tasks. The mobile app is clunky to navigate for some users. They also offer great security, robust features, and easy customization.
Pricing: The pricing system is overly complicated. There’s no freemium plan and you’d have to spend time investigating the number of users, automation, and integration actions you’ll need every month. Paid plans start at $39/month for five users.
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
Workzone
Workzone was built by experienced ad executives who wanted to help agencies and creative teams get visibility into all of their work.
Top features:
- Personalized, individual to-do lists
- Create subtasks and task dependencies
- Set permissions for specific users (including clients) to access projects, tasks, and files
- Quickly see statuses with Gantt charts
- Assign people to more than one task
What’s special about this tool: Workzone has many powerful features but is simpler to use than more complex tools.
Pricing: From $24 user/month
Scoro
Scoro is known as one of the most comprehensive business management software for professional and creative services. For those who wish to bring structure to your work, Scoro is the right pm tool for you.
Features:
- A single place for projects, clients, and teams
- Be organized in every aspect of your business with seamless workflow
- Get a real-time overview and automated reports
- Can be integrated with tools like DropBox, Mailchimp, Outlook, and more
Pricing: Premium plan starts at $33/user/month
Filestage
Filestage is an enterprise-ready marketing project management software that helps teams to get their project deliverables reviewed and approved faster. Filestage streamlines, organizes, and automates feedback on deliverables throughout the proofing process while reducing errors and ensuring compliance guides are met. Enable colleagues and clients to view and annotate project deliverables (such as documents, images, or videos) in real-time for marketing projects, video production, website design, product catalogs, or anything else – and to approve files when they are complete.
Features:
- Build consistent review and approval processes
- Comment on videos, documents, images, and audio files in real-time
- Clear deliverable version management
- Project dashboard to keep an overview of all deliverables
Pricing: Starts from 89 € per month
GanttPRO
GanttPRO is one of the best pm software, appreciated already by 250k project managers around the globe. It helps build project plans and timelines, track workflow, control expenses, follow deadlines, and arrange productive collaboration in a single place. The solution offers ready-made Gantt chart templates for an easy start.
Features:
- Workload: keep all resources engaged and balanced
- Collaboration: comments, attachments, and notifications
- Workspace: Gantt charts and Board view
- Project templates for easy start
Pricing: Team plan starts from 7.90$ per user/month (billed annually)
Conclusion
If you love to lead and coordinate projects, you must know the software for project management. Otherwise, what is the use of leading and coordinating? Though most of the tasks can be complemented with applications created in MS Office like Visio and PowerPoint, you still need to use special applications in the project management area to help you in managing and coordinating them better. For example, if you want to run time tracking for your team or organize your projects in a calendar view, you´ll certainly need some specialized software. I´ve included this type of software in my list of best software for project management.