13 Best Project Management Software & Tools for 2023

If you’re a small business or agency looking for a project management tool with advanced time-tracking features and want to invoice your clients, Paymo should be your top choice. What’s excellent about Paymo is that you can use this tool to manage a project from the initial plan to getting paid. This way, you won’t need to use and pay for multiple apps.

The Table View in Paymo gives you an overview of the project’s tasks.

Paymo offers all the necessary features to create the perfect project plan: it shows you exactly what needs to be done, who should work on which tasks, what the priorities are, how you’ll communicate, what resources you’ll need, and what your budget and deadlines are.

On top of this, Paymo also has something that many other PM tools lack, namely, time tracking integrated into its core project management functionality. Time tracking is a native feature, which means flawless interactions with the other modules. As previously mentioned, this way, you don’t have to spend extra dollars on dedicated time-tracking solutions.
This integration is critical in managing work and projects because you see exactly where time is spent at the end of the day. You can adjust tasks and priorities accordingly, making it the ideal tool for project time tracking.

For example, looking at where time is spent on your project, you may find a manager spending too much time on trivial tasks. You can delegate the task to another team member or assign more people to work on it. This way, you can address problems as they occur and avoid ending up in bottlenecks where everybody starts blaming others (you know what I mean…) You can then chat with that person about the snag and take action before it’s too late.

Paymo is a project management tool best used by many in a project manager position focused on tracking their time spent on tasks. Unlike many other popular project management tools like Asana, Basecamp, or Monday.com, Paymo has put a lot of time and effort into making time tracking as straightforward as possible while allowing you to invoice your clients based on the time spent on the project.

Paymo even went so far as to develop a fully automated time-tracking method, where you don’t have to do too much to track the time. All you need to do is start a desktop app that will record everything you do on your computer and, at the end of the day, match the time with the corresponding tasks. Compared to other time-tracking apps, Paymo Track doesn’t take screenshots of employee screens. All recorded activities are stored locally on the computer, and the user controls which entries are logged.

Knowing exactly how much money you make at the end of the day is the goal of any business. With Paymo’s profitability feature, you’ll see how profitable each client, project, and team member is.

What I would like to see implemented is a more helpful dashboard and the ability to import data from other systems if you decide to switch to Paymo. The app gets better the more you use it, so it’s a shame that those from other software don’t have an easy way to bring their data, too.

Fourteen years ago, Paymo started as a time-tracking and invoicing tool for freelancers. In time, Paymo evolved into a full-fledged work management software for small businesses and agencies since more and more features have been added.

It allows small businesses to manage projects and tasks, create work schedules, invite clients to collaborate on projects or use the mobile app if you’re on the go. As for product updates, both its mobile app and software are updated frequently.

Regarding pricing, Paymo offers a free plan with consistent features, and the paying plans start from $5.9/user/month. What’s interesting is the fact that people working in the academic world can use the software for free without limitations. This is a benefit we haven’t seen anywhere else. You can check here all the prices.

Need a fun interface complete with unicorns? You’ll likely get accustomed to the interface from the first minutes of using Asana. Its workspace is among the most used, as it is easy to get accustomed to by all kinds of team members, from creatives to analytical types with all kinds of work experience.

Need a project management tool for creative agencies or design firms? Asana is a common choice for small business needs or creatives looking for a colorful and fun interface—yes, they have unicorns (I know I mentioned that already). Out of all the best project planning software, this tool is better suited for non-complex projects that need to unite tasks, conversations, and files bundled up in one workspace.

Asana’s interface is a bit crowded but fun and filled with unicorns.

With its simple-to-understand interface, Asana can be used for team collaboration and task management from day one. It’s also a solution to those pesky meetings you’d otherwise have in person to check on the task status or briefly update your team.

If simplicity and ease of use are paramount to you, you could try Asana, as it has one of the lowest learning curves in the industry. To help you get started, you’ll see a welcome video on signing up. There’s a knowledge base – the Asana Guide – split into three parts so you can go straight to the topics relevant to getting familiar with the app.

Instead of adding all activities manually, you can import tasks directly from a CSV file, spreadsheet, or email. While Asana’s lack of reporting might put off managers when opting for this PM tool, the rest of your non-technical team will likely get accustomed to the interface from the first few minutes of using it.

Yet, Asana doesn’t leave out all features for project managers, providing a Timeline view—their version of a light Gantt Chart—and Portfolios to get a general overview of everything happening within the company.

The UI remains colorful and fun, something you’ll probably remember about Asana. See for yourself—once you hit the Tab+B command, it will fill your screen with cats—I’m not joking.

Surf their customer use cases page or head to the community to see how others use Asana. The community area covers integrations – including your developers and API tips and tricks – helpful hints, team onboarding, feedback, and announcements.

Compared to other cloud-based project planning software, Asana is often praised by its users for its intuitive task management system. The task list is modern, practical, and visually appealing. If you have a team of non-technical people who need a basic, reliable, and easy-to-use task management system, then Asana should be the first thing you try.

However, on review websites, I noticed Asana users complaining that it’s missing basic task management features like multiple assignees per task. Having the ability to add a collaborator or a stakeholder from another department who needs to sign off or help in some way would clearly be beneficial.

But it will complicate things a lot in terms of user experience. Granted, the development team has to consider many factors and variables to add a simple feature like multiple assignees per task. And then, the tool will get more complicated and won’t be so easy to use anymore. That is why they stand firm behind having only an assignee per task.

Asana invoicing? Sadly, no. Suppose you need something more technical, like time tracking on each task or invoicing your client after completing your assigned tasks, then it would be better to try more specialized tools used in project management. There are great Asana alternatives, such as Paymo or Teamwork.

Similarly, regarding task management issues, you can only see the first line of the tasks and can’t see the remaining ones until you complete the first one. Many users complain about this, saying it doesn’t make sense. But it does. If you add more visible descriptions, the interface would feel crowded, and it wouldn’t be so simple anymore.

In the military, there’s a technical term called “commander’s intent,” meaning the desired outcome of a military operation. It must be clear, simple, and easily understood by all subordinates below the commander. I’ll give you an example—an airline company. Let’s say that the commander’s intent of your airline company is to be the lowest-cost airline. So, when employees decide whether to add better quality food for longer flights, they have to check the commander’s intent.

If adding better food increases ticket prices, they won’t do it. All these small decisions will add up and, eventually, end up with the cheapest flight tickets. Even if the food is the worst and your airline company gets bad reviews, you’d still be the cheapest on the market.

So, in our case, with the best project planning software, the commander’s intent when developing Asana was probably to be the easiest-to-use project management tool. So, developers had to filter by this intent when adding new features. Will the tool be more complicated if we add more task assignees? Yes! So, they did not add multiple assignees. It’s not because they cannot do it; they want to keep it simple.

The same goes for recurring tasks. Adding a complex recurring task system can complicate the interface and experience for new users. The solution is to either keep it simple or have you find a workaround. If you have more specific needs, try another tool designed to handle them.

Another significant and frequent complaint about Asana is the pricing system. The pricing is hugely deceptive. This reminds me of Wrike’s pricing scheme. You must purchase a bundle of seats (in increments of 10) when you need to expand. You can’t add them one by one as your team grows. And you guessed it—they don’t clarify this before you pay. They let you invest time and energy, so it will be harder to say no. Here is the summarized story of a user complaint:

“We worked with an account rep before signing a 2-year contract for Asana Business. We told the account rep that we needed 60 users, but we might need to add more in the future. A month later, when we went to add five more users, she said, “No, sorry, you can only add in blocks of 10 users.” This is mentioned nowhere in our contract. It’s mentioned nowhere on Asana’s pricing page. The Asana T&Cs made vague references to “pricing tiers,” but they also say tiers will be shown on the order form—which they weren’t.

When it takes a few clicks and less than 30 seconds to add a new user to a software program, there’s no logical reason why Asana would force you to add users in blocks of 10—or they told us the blocks increase to 25 users once you get beyond 100 total users! It’s downright deceptive that they don’t disclose this during the sales process or anywhere on the contract or pricing page.”

This is similar to what Wrike does; sadly, this still happens. If you still decide on using them despite all these issues, make sure you do it first for a shorter period, and only after you have tested them thoroughly decide to use them for the long term. And keep an eye on the price because it can easily reach crazy numbers.

Asana was founded 13 years ago but was launched commercially nine years ago, along with its mobile app a year later. If diversity and inclusion matter deeply, Asana makes strides in this respect, like Wrike. As for updates, Asana releases product enhancements every month.

With Monday, everything is visual and colorful to make using the app more fun daily. It was made for users who enjoy using a flat task structure, or as the guys from monday.com call it, “an intuitive, flat way to organize information.” By comparison, most online project management tools rely on a hierarchy that could be more difficult to navigate for specific teams and certain project types.

You can tell from the start that this will be a colorful experience.

If color makes a big difference in managing tasks and priorities, you should try Monday. But before you try it, you should know that even though the use of colors is among the most praised features, it’s also among the most criticized—some like it, others don’t.

Check out the picture below for a glance over the interface. Make sure you are in a group of people who like it, at least before you pay.

Also, for those who’d instead use Monday.com in their native language, this project management tool is available in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, German, Chinese, Italian, Russian, and Dutch. If you’re looking for an alternative in your mother tongue, Paymo is also available in 20+ most common languages.

One of the frequent complaints users have is related to notifications. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by notifications if you have a larger team, but imagine getting unnecessary notifications even if you are not assigned to those tasks or projects. Ensure you are okay with it before committing to it long-term.

After checking hundreds of user reviews, the second most frequent complaint I noticed is how confusing or overwhelming it may be for new users. Even the best project management tools have this problem but to varying degrees. Compared to other project management software, Monday.com receives most complaints that it’s pretty complex, lacks tutorials, and is hard to pick up without training.

Maybe Asana would be better if you find it hard to understand new systems without step-by-step guidance. But I have to say that recently, they’ve made significant progress and added a library of tutorials and webinars. I used it to test the complaint and found the onboarding process reasonable.

Time tracking is another area where it’s lackluster. Time trackers can sometimes be glitchy and don’t always track time properly. Sometimes, they must be refreshed multiple times to display the correct time. In my experience, time tracking is non-negotiable. So, if time tracking is more important than your color-coded system, and you need time reports and invoicing to get paid, Paymo is a better Monday alternative.

You must know that the pricing system is another area for major complaints—especially for low-end users, such as small companies or businesses. Not only is the price too steep for small teams, but it’s also inflexible. For example, you might have a set number of seats available. If you need to add a new team member, you must double the seats for that upgrade. Monday.com is not the best option if the pricing is your crucial decision factor. In this case, a better option would be Podio.

Founded almost a decade ago, Monday.com (formerly daPulse) set out to create an inclusive and transparent workflow with customizable building blocks. It launched its mobile app five years ago and evolved to a 2.0 version last year. As for product updates, Monday.com releases updates in bulk every couple of months.

It’s a business operating system integrated to drive efficiency. This tool works for all users, from small and medium teams to enterprises. There are also specific needs that Teamwork caters to through their risk register and file versioning options.

Teamwork is the kind of complex software that won’t be easy to start with. It’s like a sophisticated board game with many rules requiring much learning time. But if you manage to get past this—it will take a while—the software becomes pretty intuitive. If you need everything in one place and are not scared by complexity, then Teamwork would be a good thing to try.

A few things are worth mentioning that facilitate and improve the overall experience with this product. You can organize projects into folders and add files directly to projects, ensuring that everything related to a project is kept in the same place. There’s file versioning, multi-user assignment for tasks, copy projects feature, bulk edit, and a trash can, which is handy if you’ve deleted something by mistake.

In my experience, with every tool, there’s a trade-off. Teamwork doesn’t have a lot of room for personalization. You get exactly what you see. If you want the interface to look specific, you would be better with other tools like Podio, Airtable, or Smartsheet.

Teamwork looks similar to Monday but doesn’t have a lot of room for personalization.

Another consequence that comes out of complexity is that the system is glitchy. Users are complaining about frequent glitches, login problems, or downtime. But you cannot do much about this; developers are probably working constantly to fix the issues. You must get used to this downside if you need a complex system. ActiveCollab is built on the same idea—to include as many features as possible—but it has similar problems dealing with glitches. If you want something with fewer problems like these, try Asana — but you will miss some features.

Some users complain about the graphic interface, saying it’s not the best looking and that the minimalist icons make it harder for users to see if the task is completed. If looks are essential for you, Monday would be a better alternative — but again, you will miss some features.

There’s another critical issue regarding the task view. If most of your work involves task management, you should know that some users have trouble finding some tasks/subtasks and complain that working with tasks is not precisely how they would like it to be. In contrast, if we compare Teamwork with Asana, Asana gets more praise for the task management system. In this case, it might be better for you.

Founded 14 years ago, Teamwork values profitable and happy work. Its mobile app was launched earlier this year, which could be seen as being a little late in the game, but the UI looks promising. As for updates, Teamwork releases product improvements every month. Plus, Teamwork has an excellent roadmap for each product.

This powerful yet flexible project management software is flexible enough to work in traditional waterfall methodologies, in an agile environment, or as a hybrid of both. That’s because it has multiple project views that let everyone on the project team use the tools they prefer. The cloud-based software fosters collaboration, with file sharing and commenting at the task level.

For structured projects, ProjectManager has interactive Gantt charts that help project managers organize tasks, set milestones, and assign team members. But unlike many other Gantt charts, it links all four task dependencies to avoid costly delays, filters for the critical path to identify essential tasks, and sets a baseline to track project variance in real time. 

Other project views include the task list, kanban boards to visual workflow, sheet, and calendar views. All project views are updated together in real time, so if a team member in the field updates their task list, the project manager will see it reflected on their Gantt chart. Everyone is notified of any changes by email and in-app alerts. 

In addition to having features to plan and execute project tasks, there are time and cost-tracking tools that give project managers a real-time window into the progress and performance of their projects.

Unlike lightweight alternatives, ProjectManager’s live dashboard doesn’t waste time with lengthy setup procedures. It captures a high-level view of the project, tracking metrics such as cost, time, workload, and more, displayed in easy-to-read graphs and charts. 

Another way this software differentiates itself from the competition is with its portfolio management tools, such as roadmaps and portfolio status reports. In fact, there are customizable reports for status, workload, timesheets, and more. All of which can be filtered and shared with stakeholders.

Also, impressive are the task, resource, and risk management features that help keep projects on schedule. For example, risks can be identified and tracked, resource availability can be defined, and workloads can be balanced to keep teams productive and working at capacity.

Other impressive features include workflow automation to streamline processes, with task approval settings for quality control. Recurring tasks to avoid having important work slip through the cracks and a mobile app for Android and iOS to connect teams wherever they are.

One of the most popular online project management software that is complex and balanced, providing a bit of everything, is Wrike. It’s a good option for creative teams looking for varied functionalities and working with collaborators. Their top feature remains Wrike Proof, where designers can offer visual feedback through multiple review cycles and invite external reviewers. This is something that I’ve seen at Paymo.

An excellent example of how Wrike is better than its competitors would be in the case of a design agency. That’s if you have to communicate with many clients and get constant feedback, but you don’t want to train each one in the use of a complex and bloated project management tool. The Wrike Proof is the best thing for you. Like in the picture below, with just a few clicks, you can invite a guest reviewer, decide what s/he is allowed to do, and set an access expiration date.

Add Guest in Wrike

Guests can easily highlight precisely what they want to be changed, and over time, you can compare the original with the updated versions. But this is nothing new in the industry, even among top project planning software.

Other software—Wrike alternatives like Paymo or ActiveCollab—have proofing capabilities. Just that Wrike’s is more robust if you compare it with others. But before you decide to try Wrike, let’s cover some of the parts about which users complain the most.

Looking also to get paid? Not with Wrike. You need to know that there are no financial indicators, invoicing, budgeting, or billing features, so Wrike can only help you take your project to delivery but not beyond it.

Due to its complexity, the interface isn’t intuitive for first-time users, and current users frequently see the onboarding and setup process as lacking. The search function does the job of helping you find a task you’re working on even when you’ve had it with the interface — Monday.com seems to be on the same level of complexity.

In contrast, Basecamp is way more straightforward and praised because it’s way easier to use, but what users complain about Basecamp is the lack of features and functions, which is a significant drawback.

There’s also Asana, which is way easier to get into with good tutorials and user onboarding, but again, it lacks some of the advanced features Wrike has. You should choose the one that matches your experience and needs.

Wrike’s interface is not necessarily the most intuitive one.

Another reason why Wrike gets a lot of complaints is the notifications. Users complain that email alerts are overwhelming, that they get many pointless notification emails, and they aren’t instrumental. Notifications are only available via email or desktop, and you’ll have to edit your email notification settings to prevent it from spamming your inbox with every tiny change. So, it would be best to select the time of day when you want to get your daily emails.

Pricing is another serious cause of concern. Many users complain that it is expensive and that you must purchase at least five licenses (or seats). It is $9.80/user/month when you check their pricing page. But this is very misleading because you must pay a minimum of 5 users. So, this should be written as a minimum of $49/month.

Even worse, if you want to buy it for six users/month, you have to pay for ten users. Their plans go in increments of 5 or 10. Why is this enforced, you ask me? That’s because they are really expensive, but they just don’t want you to know upfront.

They let you invest time and energy in using their product, and then when you want to upgrade, it is almost impossible for you to refuse the deal because you’ve already invested so much time. This is important to be known upfront. Who would trust their money to companies that employ such shady tactics? Who knows what else they are cooking up?

However, if you still want to go for it, ensure you do it first over a shorter period and only after you’ve tested it thoroughly. If pricing is a key decision-making factor in choosing a project management tool, then Freedcamp would be a better alternative for you.

If we compare Wrike to Monday.com, they are similar in many aspects. For example, both are very complex and hard to get into. They get similar complaints: notification issues, time tracking is basic or has issues, and both are very expensive. While Monday.com is better in terms of its visual appeal, Wrike would be better for working with external collaborators and has a proofing feature for creatives.

Both are weak at time tracking, and if you need financial indicators, budgeting, billing, and to get paid, Paymo would be a better alternative and more affordable. If you need something easier to use, then Asana might be a better choice.

Founded 15 years ago, Wrike was the first to market Gantt charts and launched its first mobile app eight years ago. As for product updates, Wrike has weekly release notes. Speaking of Gantt chart makers, read this article for an in-depth review of the top 8 Gantt chart software—Wrike is also featured.

Are you a spreadsheet lover who can’t imagine managing projects without a table? Airtable might be right for you. This app is very different from other online project management tools. Instead of task lists, you’ve got advanced databases to connect tables, drag and drop files, filter them to your liking, collaborate on items, and more. The best part? You can embed all this on your website or blog post to share the data.

If you can’t work without tables and spreadsheets, Airtable could be the right choice for your projects, allowing you to create advanced databases that you can share publicly. I can safely say they have the most templates available among all the cloud project management software—they send you emails to remind you of their templates.

Like in Smartsheet’s case, Airtable’s interface looks similar to a spreadsheet.

Plus, you can contact their Universe creator’s community to see how other clients use the tool. And since we’re talking about a database tool, their strong import feature will help you bring all your external data into Airtable.

If you’re expecting to get a simple database-like tool, you’re wrong. You can customize and add your text, number, and rich fields. And if you get bored of the table view, you can always switch to the Calendar view, Kanban board, or a visual gallery and drag-and-drop tasks to reorganize them according to priority or deadline.

However, team members who strongly dislike spreadsheets will have difficulty using this tool. The search function used to fall short—you had to remember where a file or task was because you could only search for workspaces or bases. They released advanced filters, so we’ll see how that pans out.

If you need to do reporting, remember that this feature is limited to creating charts via their beta Blocks. This offers a set of extra functionalities users can add to their database, like a time tracker, map, 3D model explorer, video chat, countdown timer, and others.

There is a definite learning curve to Airtable since it’s different from standard spreadsheet products like Excel. In some ways, it’s similar to Smartsheet; it has a lot of versatility and many ways to view the same data, which, while helpful, is easy to get lost in.

Getting new team members to use it will take a long time, and there is often severe pushback in getting them to use it. It’s better to commit briefly, especially if you don’t know your team well enough.

If you have a non-technical team that you know and can’t handle tables and sheets well, it would be better to try some of the more accessible tools to get into, like Asana.

If we compare Airtable with Podio, both can store a lot of essential information in one place, but Airtable has a more visually appealing interface. Because of this, I don’t think Podio will be a good alternative.

The same goes for Monday, which is frequently praised for its looks. Airtable also seems pretty good, so in my opinion, there is not a big difference between the two. I would say that Airtable is the most useful for those who want to work with tables and need a lot of flexibility when working with them.

Founded eight years ago, Airtable is new on the market yet boasts an extensive team across seven locations—if you compare it to ActiveCollab. Five years ago, Airtable launched its mobile app, and since then has been developing the app to help teams create their unique software, updating it every month.

Two things set Basecamp apart from its competitors. First, there are the improved communication features, and second, the simplicity and ease of use. Because of these two aspects, Basecamp is one of the most popular project planning and tracking software better suited for teams and not managers. This is pretty rare because, for other tools like Monday or Wrike, one of the frequent complaints concerns the chat and team communication.

This is where Basecamp fills in the gap. With Basecamp, missing out on a piece of information or deadline is nearly impossible with features like comments on all files and tasks, the Campfire chat room for non-work topics, message boards for announcements, and automatic check-ins to replace your daily scrums.

And we’re not done yet. Pair all this with team workspaces, pings (private chats), real-time notifications, and file versioning; you’ve got a reliable tool for team collaboration. Conversely, in contrast to other more popular tools like Monday or Wrike, Basecamp is consistently praised by its users for how easy it is to learn and use. This means that this one might have a chance if you don’t like tools with a steep learning curve.

But this is not the end of the story. You should know that while many users love and praise the tool, there are a bunch of people who disagree. After having looked over hundreds and hundreds of reviews, I came up with a ratio of 2:1—for every two people who praise it, there is one who disagrees. It’s still a pretty impressive achievement, considering that nobody praises other competitors like Wrike or Monday, with loads of people thinking they are way too complicated and cumbersome.

I would recommend Basecamp in three cases, which I try to illustrate here. The first example is when your team is missing a project manager, and the team members are treated as having similar authority. In this case, they will probably need to communicate a lot. This is because communication options set Basecamp apart from its competitors and where it shines the most.

(Note: What is the difference between a product manager vs. project manager, you might ask? Read this article that highlights key differentiators, skills, and experience.)

The second example is when your team has trouble getting used to other tools or is simply too overwhelmed by their complexity or lots of features and buttons. Then, this might be just the right project management tool for them.

The third example is for teams where communication between team members is crucial to success, and using another external tool like Slack is not an option. These are the pros of Basecamp. Now, let’s have a look at some of the cons.

One of the most important complaints is that the product feels abandoned. Some users say they have not seen any updates in over a year. Ssummed up with the fact that the design looks a bit obsolete, this gives the feeling that it does not belong to the present day.

To-Do list in Basecamp

This gets even worse if we consider the lack of useful modern features. It seems like Basecamp may have been a good tool in its current state a decade ago. Basecamp 3 was released in 2015, but it seemed like its previous version.

They are still working on Basecamp 4, which looked like it might have been live by the end of 2022—yet it’s already the end of 2023. There were some improvements along the way, and they promised a facelift, but this looks pretty bad compared to Wrike’s weekly updates.

Now let’s get back to the lack of features and try to grasp the magnitude of the problem by looking at a real example of a user complaining:

“It seems like Basecamp may have been a good tool in its current state about ten years ago. However, since every company developing software already uses some form of git, the features of GitHub, GitLab, etc., and they have almost all the features of Basecamp, there’s no reason to use Basecamp. Your Git platform of choice + Slack is going to have more features, and odds are you’re already using them.”

Plus, many users ask for time tracking features, available only with integrations (many complaints voice how these are poorly done),  a resource scheduler, invoicing, and budgeting. If time tracking and invoicing are crucial for your business, you should consider Paymo as a Basecamp alternative. Basecamp also has limited reporting, which might be to the detriment of most companies.

Even if the interface looks outdated, Basecamp is easy-to-use software.

Basecamp is 17 years old and has gone through multiple stages of development. The next generation, Basecamp 2, was developed nine years ago. Then followed Basecamp 3, which was launched six years ago. The latest version, Basecamp 4, is scheduled to be finalized sometime soon. What do I mean by ‘finalized’ – Basecamp 3 will keep releasing main product features every two months or so until it eventually evolves into Basecamp 4.

Excel fans and experts, rejoice! Smartsheet is a tool for enterprises and large organizations, but that doesn’t mean small or medium businesses can’t use it. It even comes with its formulas — as you might already know if you’re an avid spreadsheet user. Their top feature remains the automated workflows that save the time you’d otherwise spend doing everything manually.

It’s a good solution for large organizations looking to easily connect their ERP or CRM data to their projects through simple imports. So if you need a tool to see all tasks, details, and even a Gantt Chart on one screen, Smartsheet could be an option, but be prepared to do some training beforehand.

Smartsheet helps connect your ERP or CRM data to new projects, acting like a spreadsheet—hence its name—or database complete with Excel-like formulas. Since this tool is table-based, you can import new data from a spreadsheet, Microsoft Project project, or Trello board.

The premium Data Uploader add-on lets you bring in data from your ERP, CRM, or database. You can also choose from multiple pre-made templates to get started. So, if you worked a lot with Excel (or tables) in the past and you still like doing it, this tool would be a good match because Smartsheet is like Excel or Google Sheets on steroids!

The good ol’ Excel has just received a facelift.

Smartsheet is ideal for someone who tracks a lot of information in Excel and has multiple random files cluttering their desktop. When things become too hard to manage, then Smartsheet would be the solution.

I’ll be honest and tell you that Smartsheet is probably one of the most challenging tools on this list to get accustomed to using, especially if you’re not a spreadsheet user. The word ‘expert’ is not an overstatement. In Smartsheet, instead of projects, you’ve got sheets. I highly recommend getting this project tracking template (or a similar one) before you start to lower the time you’d spend setting everything up. UI-wise, I’d place Smartsheet above Zoho but slightly below Airtable, which brings a pop of color to your tables.

For these reasons, Smartsheet remains a tool for larger organizations that will probably only come in handy for managers who handle multiple databases (similar to Airtable) and even collect data through custom Smartsheet forms. Stakeholder communication is made easy through various sharing options, even when sending access to someone outside your organization.

The resource management feature is quite decent (and similar to MS Project if you ask me), allowing managers to see over and under-allocated team members, of course, all from a spreadsheet. All allocations can be adjusted from the same table. If you want other resource management software, read our extensive review of the top 7 tools.

Smartsheet was founded 16 years ago, boasting many awards and recognitions for diversity, work-life balance, and women in leadership. The company vision is to drive people to excel (pun intended). Their mobile app was released nine years ago. As for product updates, Smartsheet releases monthly enhancements and updates.

It is another all-in-one project management software with all the features a team would appreciate. This, however, paired with a not-so-friendly interface, makes it an unwise choice for smaller teams looking for a fun tool, not just a chock-full of functionalities.

Add in one of the most expensive pricing options available in the industry, and you’re facing a tool that’s probably more suited for huge companies and enterprises. Zoho Projects comes at about $10 per user/month for the standalone product. But Zoho comes in bundles, meaning you’ll have to pay $2-3 for every extra product, plus $3 for every client user you bring on.

You’ll still have to weigh the pros and cons as the portfolio management features are weak compared to other functionalities, such as the resource utilization chart and Gantt Chart view.

One of the advantages that Zoho Projects has compared to other project planning software is the seamless integration with their other tools, including Zoho CRM and Zoho People, along with a few other third-party tools like Google Tasks and Box. Many people who use project management software complain about the lack of CRM functionality, and the truth is that it’s constrained across the board.

For example, Paymo has limited CRM functionality, and some users complained about its lack. In contrast, other tools like ActiveCollab have a CRM system to manage customers (and prospects) more efficiently without integrating it with other apps. Let’s be clear: Zoho Projects does not have CRM features like ActiveCollab. It has instead a very good integration with Zoho CRM developed by the same company. But you have to pay extra for it.

Zoho Projects has robust features when it comes to managing tasks, resources, and issues, making it an ideal tool for project managers, but other team members might not enjoy using the app as much besides the handy chat feature, which can help members of an organization get in touch with each other in real-time.

Although packed with all the features you might need, Zoho is pretty expensive and difficult to use. Its complexity makes it a better option when you need to ensure you’ve got all the features in your stack. So why does a seemingly complete tool have slightly lower reviews than its competitors? It’s simply time-consuming.

Let’s just set this straight—Zoho Projects is not the most intuitive project management tool out there, and you’ll need to go through all the learning materials beforehand. You’ll have to click on tasks and edit a bunch to change something, and the shortcuts are limited, too. There is little to no automation, and there are no templates available.

The interface is not so friendly, although it has been improved lately.

Yes, there are other features, even some that other project tools don’t have, like an issue tracker, but you first need to find them. The search function will become your best friend at this point, and by the time you get the hang of the rest of the app, you’ll be a “power searcher.”

In some ways, among such project tools, Zoho Projects is similar to Basecamp. Although it’s complex/convoluted and many people complain about usability, some users praise it as user-friendly—after repeated use, it gets much more straightforward. So, I will put both Basecamp and Zoho projects in a particular group of project planning software that might be easy to use and intuitive for some users but not everybody. If you feel like you can handle complexity, give them a try.

Or Freedcamp, another noteworthy mention among user-friendly project tools. Users often review it as a more intuitive app, but it does not have the training materials Asana has. But if you can be bothered to do a bit of exploration and trial and error, Feedcamp would be a decent alternative.

Some people complained about the Zoho Projects interface being too “stale” and even asked for rebranding for a more eye-catching look. If the design and feel of the app are vital for you, then Monday.com would be a better pick owing to its visual and colorful interface.

Another downside to high complexity and numerous features is the slow load time. Precisely like in Basecamp’s case, people are complaining about the slow loading time. It’s practically inevitable — it will take longer if you have more stuff to load. Remember when choosing a project management tool because if you don’t use most of the features, you will waste a lot of time waiting for them to load each time you use the app, similar to Monday.com.

Formerly AdventNet, Zoho boasts 25 years on the market. The first Zoho product released was Zoho CRM 20 years ago. Since then, Zoho has expanded into offering many tools used in project management: Zoho Projects and Zoho Sprints. Zoho Projects has monthly updates and enhancements.

It is the cheaper version of Basecamp [they built it as a free alternative] if you’re looking for a low-cost project management tool that relies heavily on collaboration. The Pro plan is cheaper than a cup of coffee, $2.50/user/month, and even cheaper for the annual subscription. However, their most popular choice—their Business plan—starts at $8.99/user/month.

If you’re looking for a tool with solid communication features, like Basecamp, but want additional functionalities like time tracking or invoicing, try Freedcamp or something similar to time tracking software. This project management software was first created as a free alternative to Basecamp. Their pricing plans are much on the lower end so that anyone can afford its features.

Also, all plans, including the free one, come with unlimited tasks, projects, and storage. Surprising or not, Freedcamp’s core apps and additional features make it a good choice for individual users and small and medium teams.

The tool is surprisingly more straightforward than it might seem at first, but a lack of onboarding materials makes for one of the slowest learning curves in the industry despite the friendly UI.

I particularly enjoyed their drag-and-drop function when I tested it, which made creating and editing tasks a breeze. However, if you don’t like the process of exploration and discovery by trial and error, and if reliable training materials and tutorials are vital for you, then Asana would be better.

Besides this, the pricing is by far the most important thing that sets Freedcamp apart when I compare it to its competition. In contrast, there are Wrike and Zoho Projects, for which users frequently complain about absurd price points and shady pricing tactics.

This is not the case for Freedcamp. We have one of the cheapest solutions for teams or individuals. The 14-day business-level trial seems to be an ideal amount of time required to test and see if it is worth purchasing.

The biggest issue with Freedcamp is that there’s no onboarding process to take you through the app or present the workspace’s elements. Your only choice is to turn to their knowledge base, YouTube channel, or customer support to save some time.

However, this project setup process is straightforward and will help you start work without an entirely blank canvas. No ready-made project templates, though, but you can import data from an XLS file.

The second most crucial issue is related to their mobile app. It’s simple. So simple you can’t even order tasks. If using a mobile app is vital for your type of business, you are better off using another project management tool. However, most project management solutions in the industry have issues with their mobile apps. However, Monday.com and Wrike seem to have the lowest number of complaints.

The tool is also not the most visually appealing compared to its competitors. Some users don’t precisely like the dashboard but stick with it because of the low price. If you need something that looks good, then Monday would be a better alternative.

With an outdated but friendly interface, Freedcamp doesn’t offer a smooth learning curve.

Some people also complain about the lack of features available in other tools used in project management, but let’s be realistic — the price point is somewhat connected to the sheer number of features. It would be ideal to be the cheapest and with the most features. Feature development requires a lot of work, and the more complicated a tool gets, the more work has to be put in to fix all the problems that might appear.

The lack of features is just a drawback you must live with if you want one of the cheapest project-planning software on the market. You should try Wrike or Teamwork if you want a full feature stack.

It’s also among the easiest-to-use project planning software, although the integration area seems lacking compared to other project management apps. You can’t connect the tool with popular communication tools like Slack.

Plus, the time-tracking features are not the best. For example, time tracking doesn’t have a summary for today or the entire week. In Paymo, you can check this up in a few seconds by accessing timesheets.

Another example would be to get a report showing the total hours spent working on all projects split by groups with a subtotal listed for each project within the group.

Freedcamp was launched 11 years ago, offering essential features free of charge. It’s been used by students, teachers, NGO employees, and volunteers. The mobile app was released four years ago, and they are trying to improve it every couple of months — the same goes for their Business and Enterprise plans.

This project management platform can take your team through each step of the project management process. Still, it lacks specialized features that could compete with others, like file versioning, proofing, issue tracker, or even a CRM option. Also, if you require a work management tool to integrate with your current tech stack, remember there aren’t many alternatives to ActiveCollab.

ActiveCollab used to have a very outdated look, but they’ve recently updated their interface, dragging them down compared to their competition. This makes it much more enjoyable for regular users and a decent choice for project managers.

While missing project portfolios can keep larger teams from accurately looking at all projects, ActiveCollab has strong task management features complete with Kanban boards and Gantt Charts. You might already be accustomed to using these since they have a similar setup to the views in other top project planning software, like Paymo. If you’re interested in other task management software, read this review of 13 tools ranked by category.

This means that it might be a good fit for users who want to switch from another project management tool that does not deliver—to help do this, projects can be easily imported from Basecamp or MS Project.

(Tip: don’t miss your deadlines by learning how to manage projects well with this guide, with an example to follow along.)

To have an overall look at how it compares to other tools, I’ll give you a few examples. Compared to Monday.com, it has extra time tracking features, but it’s missing resource scheduling features. Compared to Wrike, it has additional invoicing features but lacks resource scheduling functions. In terms of essential features, it’s similar to Paymo. And when compared to Paymo, it only lacks resource scheduling functions.

OK, we discussed the benefits; let’s cover some drawbacks, too. One of the most essential things when discussing disadvantages is the low number of reviews. It looks like ActiveCollab is way less popular than other tools like Monday.com or Wrike. The number of reviews it gets is a few magnitudes lower than its competition.

I wanted to ensure that the popularity is not connected to the actual functionality of the tool. In other words, to make sure it’s not unpopular because it is terrible. And at a closer look, a few interesting things popped out.

First, the team of people who built ActiveCollab is way smaller than more popular competitors—similar to Paymo’s, even smaller. And it looks like they don’t have millions of dollars from rounds and rounds of investment funneled into aggressive marketing and ads.

Since I recently tested many project planning software, I am now bombarded with aggressive ads on YouTube and whatever websites I navigate. I saw a lot of ads for Monday, ClickUp, and Wrike, but not for ActiveCollab. It looks like their lack of popularity is because they don’t invest much in advertising. So, I won’t count this as a drawback or weakness. However, we have to rely on way fewer reviews to get a good overall opinion.

There is one important thing I found out about their pricing system. It is not so bad compared to other tools like Wrike, but it’s still a major problem — it has hidden fees. Yes, it’s sad that this is still a practice, but it’s real.

When you load the pricing page, you see $7.5 for the Plus plan means “For smaller teams that need a platform for collaboration and managing projects. Limited to the three seats included in the plan. Get started”. A pretty good deal for a small team; “let’s do it!” you might think.

But when you use it, you discover that this plan does not include a boatload of features. No expense tracking, no time reporting, no invoicing, no budgeting, and no cost tracking. What? Why didn’t they mention this at the beginning? They mentioned “seats” and “let’s start.” Nothing about minimal functionality—and now you have to pay $3 extra for invoicing. How is this affordable?

This tactic significantly chips away at ActiveCollab being one of the cheapest options on the project planning software market. It’s clearly not. I wanted you to know this from the beginning and avoid falling for this kind of trap. OK, let’s cover a few more drawbacks compared to similar tools.

There are slow loading times and annoying bugs on the list of most prevalent complaints. The tool can be slow, especially with a high volume of projects. It’s lightning-fast for small to medium, but loading everything on larger projects can take a while.

The frequent bug complaints are probably a result of having such a small team, and people surely can’t handle everything, at least compared to other popular tools like Monday.com. I tested it and did not find something major or deal-breaking. If you can deal with workarounds and minor annoyances from time to time, this should not be a huge problem.

The mobile app seems to be a common reason for complaints and dissatisfaction. This can be a major drawback if you rely on a mobile device to do your job. The app is slow, and many people complain that it’s not what they expected. It has a 3.9 rating on Google Play Store. So make sure you thoroughly test it and confirm that it does the job for your specific needs before committing to ActiveCollab for the long term.

ActiveCollab’s interface is pretty clean compared to other tools.

Launched 14 years ago, ActiveCollab was once an open-source project that has become a commercial app for over 50,000 teams (well, at least this is what they say). It’s pretty praiseworthy that despite the small developing team, their roadmap is clear. Their mobile app was released earlier this year in June. They release product updates every month.

It offers a balanced mix of project management and CRM capabilities that, although not easy to use, can help you manage all of the business aspects you need to monitor regularly.

The PM tool differentiates itself from other user-friendly project planning software by providing a complete CRM system. Its strong points rely on the multitude of apps you can add to your workspace, from contacts and leads to content planners, staff meetings, events, appointments, design approval, expenses, etc. Even a bunch of apps to help lawyers with settlements and incidents. You name it; they’ve got it. So, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use, fun, and user-friendly option, Podio is not the right platform to consider.

Podio is a very highly customizable app but not the most fun and easy to use.

While Podio is not exactly the most fun tool you can use, it is certainly not suited for a designer or a more creative person. It’s safe to say it’s not one of the project managing tools employees will enjoy using daily. It’s not even a project management platform, as it is a CRM solution better suited for teams juggling multiple clients—we’re talking hundreds—and databases.

This being said, its CRM function is spot on, allowing you to manage all kinds of data related to your clients and projects, even helping you close a sales deal. The word that sets it apart from its competitors is customization. There are so many things you can do with this system! In other words, you can build, edit, maintain, integrate, and code however and whatever you want.

So this will be one of the best solutions for anybody who needs a custom solution that the standard project planning software can’t deliver on the market. But if you want something customizable, it will cost you more! And it has some significant disadvantages as well. We’ll try to cover them in the next section.

This project management tool provides endless customization opportunities in terms of functionality. At the same time, it seriously lacks when it comes to the colorful personalization options that other tools like Asana or Monday have. Many users complain that the application doesn’t have themes; you can’t change the colors or do much “fun” stuff. Honestly, it’s considered an ugly interface by many users.

However, Podio is developing a new look that will be released sometime soon. Granted, this might not be a significant problem for you, so we’ll proceed to other issues.

In general, the more customization cloud-based project management tools have, the steeper their learning curve. Podio has many customization features, and at the same time, many users complain about how hard it is to use and understand, especially for newcomers.

If you think you have the skills to handle it, the next issue would be the loading time. The more complex a system is, the longer its loading time. You can create something that matches all your needs, but you should not expect it to load as quickly as the simple interfaces that most people use. If none of these problems are of particular concern to you, and you want that customization goodness, then you should go for it.

Founded 12 years ago, Podio joined a cloud computing system–Citrix Systems—three years later to keep on developing a tool that reinforces transparency, minimal hierarchy, and peer recognition. Podio released its mobile app ten years ago. As for updates, there are daily bug fixes and platform enhancements every month.