Software for Project Managers for Small Business

If you wish to learn about software for project managers for small business free, or about software for project managers for small business free download, then read this article. You will receive the information (and there is a lot of it) regarding these software and how they can improve the way you operate your small business.

I took the time to try out, research, and compile some of the best project management software for small businesses. I personally tried out each of these products and created a list based on my experience using them. This list will help you get a quick overview of your options so that you can decide which one is best for your needs.

GanttPRO

Best for Gantt chart templates

GanttPRO screenshot - 10 Best Project Management Software For Small Business

GanttPRO lets you break projects into tasks and milestones and keep track of progress.

GanttPRO is project management software that comes with Gantt chart templates for planning, managing, and executing projects such as marketing projects, retail processes, or event planning tasks.

GanttPRO comes with features for work planning and scheduling, and task and resource management. GanttPRO also comes with features for setting up work calendars, tracking time, reporting, communicating with customers, and importing and exporting projects.

GanttPRO integrates with Slack, Google Drive, and Jira Cloud. More integrations are available through their API.

GanttPRO costs from $8.90 user/month and offers a 14-day free trial.

14 days free trial

From $8.90 user/month (for teams); from $15 user/month (for individuals) Check out GanttPRO

Pros

  • Online Gantt chart that can be shared with 3rd parties
  • Handy Gantt chart templates
  • Advanced reporting with statistics

Cons

  • No ability to set up recurring tasks
  • No free version though there is a fully-featured 14-day free trial

Flowzone

Flexibility and customization are among the top requirements of any tool that caters to small businesses. In their initial stages, businesses deal with high-impact projects and need to deliver results with consistency. Flowzone can help you with that. Being true to its name, this small business project management software tool comes with an inherent flexibility that makes it a great fit for any industry.

From the simplest projects to complex setups, Flowzone has everything you need.

Contrary to the pricing structure of many tools in this list, Flowzone does not limit its features based on the plan you purchase. All features are available from day one and the only limit is on the number of users.

Here are the plans:

  • 10 – 50 users: Monthly charges of $12/user. The minimum number of users is 10.
  • 51 – 100 users: Monthly charges of $9/user.
  • 100+ users: Monthly charges $6 per user

Blocksted

Blocksted is a small business project management tool that focuses on minimizing clutter by focusing only on the important things. This tool is specially designed for small businesses and allows managers to keep an eye on all ongoing processes in only a few clicks.

Here are a few key features of Blocksted:

  • Task and project management
  • Kanban boards
  • Reporting analytics
  • Task delegation
  • Timelines

Unlike many other options, Blocksted offers a very simple pricing structure. There are only two plans:

  • Personal ($0) – Absolutely free for up to 10 users and 10 clients. You have 3 projects and storage of 1 GB
  • Business ($76/month) – Unlimited users, projects, and clients. This plan offers 500 GB storage space along with access to priority support at any time.

Deskaway (Brightpod)

Brightpod is a specialized project management system for marketing teams that uses flexibility, visualization, and simplicity to optimize performance. Being designed for marketing project management does not mean that Brightpod can’t work in other industries. For small businesses, the ability to adapt quickly and communicate effectively are paramount for success.

A project management tool like Brightpod can help you achieve that with the following features:

  • Excellent visualization
  • Task delegation and tracking
  • Workflow automation
  • Specialized widgets for content and social media strategy
  • Task and project management

The pricing structure of Brightpod is also favorable for small businesses. Instead of paying for additional features depending on your requirement, Brightpod allows you to pay one flat rate for all services. You’ll pay for the number of users and projects you can run. Here are the 4 plans they offer:

  • Professional ($29/month) – All the features with 5 users, 15 projects, and a maximum 10 GB storage.
  • Studio ($59/month) – All the features with 12 users, 50 projects, and 100 GB storage.
  • Agency ($99/month) – Unlimited projects for 25 users with 250 GB storage and advanced insights.
  • Agency Plus ($199/month) – Unlimited projects for unlimited users with 500 GB storage and multiple add-ons.

monday.com

Best for flexibility & integrations

monday.com screenshot - 10 Best Project Management Software For Small Business

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 costs from $8/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.

Kissflow Project [ Get Started Now ]

Simplicity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Kissflow Project personifies these characteristics and successfully optimizes the way you handle projects. Small businesses seldom have project managers. This role is usually fulfilled by functional managers who are not formally trained or experienced in the field. Kissflow Project equips them with exactly what they need to succeed.

Here are some of the most important features of the Kissflow Project that are especially useful for small teams:

  • Advanced communication channels
  • Capability to create secret channels
  • Project reporting and analytics
  • Visualization tools between Kanban, matrix, and lists
  • Excellent security features
  • 24/7 support
  • Custom fields
  • Project and task status

Small businesses for project management don’t have the luxury of vast IT budgets and need to be frugal when selecting any tool. Kissflow Project understands that and offers multiple free and paid plans.

  • Free – A basic package for small teams. Can allow 3 users and runs 1 project at a time.
  • Starter ($45/month) – Equipped with everything you need to get your team on track. The package has a limit of 5 users and 5 projects. However, you can pay $5 per additional user.
  • Professional ($75/month) – Unlimited custom views and unmatched capabilities. You’ll find everything you’ll need to optimize your workflows and streamline processes. The package has a limit of 5 users and 10 projects. You can add additional users at the rate of $10.
  • Enterprise (Custom) – Tailored plans to fit your organization’s needs with their excellent capabilities. Enjoy unlimited views, storage, and file-sharing options at a very reasonable price. Kissflow Project pricing here.

Jira (Web, iOS, Android)

Jira interface

While the app also offers a Kanban view, Jira is built for Scrum and Agile workflows. When you first sign up, the onboarding flow asks a few questions about your team’s projects, level of experience with different methodologies, and deadlines—then it recommends a methodology and project template for you.

For Scrum projects, you’ll add epics to the Roadmap page. Then you can add issues to your backlog individually, filling in details and assigning them to sprints. Project tracking happens on a Scrum board, the homepage for each project—you can customize column headers and edit task details and status.

Jira’s catering to developers and engineering teams doesn’t stop there: the app also integrates with other development tools like GitHub, GitLab, Sentry, and Jenkins to make quick work of updating and tracking your backlog. And while you can’t control user access on the free plan, it does include up to 10 users, so it’s ideal for self-contained or smaller dev teams.

You can get more out of the free plan by using Jira’s Zapier integrations to automatically create new issues in Jira based on Slack messages or GitHub issues.

Jira Price: The free plan includes unlimited projects on one site, up to 10 users, and both Scrum and Kanban boards; upgrade to the Standard plan for $7/user/month for more granular user permissions, 250 GB of file storage, and more.

Originally published in May 2017 by Matthew Guay, this post has had contributions from Jessica Greene, Maria Myre, and Kiera Abbamonte.

Wrike (Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)

Wrike interface

If it were up to you, would you manage your projects in a spreadsheet? If so, you might like Wrike. Wrike offers the same flexibility of a spreadsheet—with columns for every bit of info you want to track about tasks. (If you like spreadsheets but need even more customization, head down to our review of Airtable.)

Wrike lets your team update the status of tasks at various intervals—in-progress, on hold, canceled, or completed. Additionally, you can set the status of projects to green, yellow, red, on hold, or canceled, making it easy to create your weekly project status reports.

While you can do a lot with Wrike’s free plan, its best features—including time tracking, Gantt charts, and custom dashboards—do require a premium plan. If you’re running a small operation now but planning to scale in the future, Wrike grows alongside you, giving you all of the tools you need to run both a single small project and many concurrent large ones.

If you’re interested in the free plan, Wrike’s Zapier integrations can help you do more with the project management app, like automatically creating tasks in Wrike from other tools.

Wrike Price: The free plan includes unlimited projects for unlimited users; upgrade for $9.80/user/month (billed annually) to the Professional plan that includes Gantt charts, shareable dashboards, and more.

Conclusion:

There are a lot of benefits to hiring project managers If you have ever considered hiring a project manager for your business or start-up then there are many benefits you’ll want to consider. You will want to know what all goes into a good, experienced and effective project manager and how to find the right fit for your company’s needs. There are many different ways to manage projects and products that come with their own set of benefits and drawbacks. Whatever path you choose, it is important that you find a way that works best for your company.

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