Top 44 Project Management Tools Tested and Reviewed in 2020
Project management tools and apps have come a long way in the last few years. We thought it was about time for a detailed review about the modern tools designed to support the ways teams work today.
We scoured the market to come up with the top 44 tools used in project management. These are products that scale with you, let your team manage their projects the way they want to and have a user experience that isn’t… horrible.
Most of the tools that made our list are more suited for small and medium businesses.
Keep in mind we only focused our research on tools that have complete project management features, leaving aside software that’s used solely for time tracking, task management, human resources, file management, or accounting as sometimes these market themselves as “project management tools”.
Top project management tools
We have conducted an in depth review of most used project management software and tools. Here’s our pick of the top 10 best project management tools.
- Paymo
- Asana
- Basecamp
- Wrike
- Airtable
- Monday.com
- Teamwork
- Podio
- Zoho
- Smartsheet
These are the first options you should consider due to their winning combo of features, usability, and reliability along with being the most appreciated ones by their users.
Paymo is a work management tool that connects teams looking to manage tasks, schedule team workloads, track worked hours, and bill clients from a single platform.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Paymo is right for all small to medium teams who are looking to gain control over their projects, without having to use multiple tools. This work and project management platform brings together features like task management, resource scheduling, team collaboration, time tracking, and billing all under a single roof whether you're working remotely or from the office. Among them, the native time tracking one has been continuously developed over the past decade to help you build a healthy habit, while making sure you get paid accurately. By seamlessly connecting tasks, time records, and invoices, Paymo aims to offer an easy-to-adopt work management software that people actually look forward to using.

How To Get Started
Thanks to its extensive offering, the initial onboarding process lets you choose what you want to use Paymo to: plan projects, manage tasks, track time, or create invoice). Each goal will trigger a different set of activation emails, packed with specific tips and tricks for a faster onboarding.
Don’t worry, you still won’t start from scratch, as Paymo offers 9 different project templates to play around with.
There’s also a detailed Knowledge Base to explore every module step-by-step on your own. As well as a lively community forum where existing users can share thoughts with each other on how to best use Paymo for their given industry.
Paymo doesn’t have a project import feature so you’ll have to build your projects from scratch, then save them as a template for later use. You might turn to their fully-documented API to code one on your own, or use Zapier to import data from other tools via a spreadsheet or CSV file.
How Easy Is It to Use
Despite having lots of features, Paymo’s interface is fairly easy to get used to, making it a good choice for team members and managers alike. The sidebar is customizable so you can only keep at hand the modules you rely on the most. Similarly, you can create shortcuts to the views you access on a daily basis.
Regular team members can use the My Tasks area to see the upcoming tasks they need to take care of. They can also register time in various ways - manually, in bulk, or through the desktop and mobile apps - with all the time records being automatically centralized in a common timesheet.
Managers, on the other hand, will find the Team Scheduler module useful as it will give them a bird’s-eye view over the team’s workload and availability, to prevent any over bookings. They can also create time reports based on tracked time with just a few clicks to evaluate the team’s productivity, offer raises for high performance, or send them to a client as proof of work.
These time entries can be turned into invoices you’ll be able to customize to better reflect your brand. The project accounting module also allows you to generate accurate estimates based on existing project data, keep all your expenses organized in a single place, and get paid via payment gateways for your work.
For international users, Paymo is available in 23 languages including more exotic ones like Japanese, Mandarin, Polish, and Norwegian.
This tool also works with the apps you already use like Slack, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Google Calendar, or Adobe CC.
Pricing
After the 15-day free trial is over, you can pick between two pricing plans:
- Small Office: $11.95/user/month. Ideal for small or growing teams who need integrated task management (including Kanban boards) and time tracking.
- Business Plan: $18.95/user/month. An option for medium and large businesses looking to take control of all aspects of their projects.
For the full list of features under each plan, check out the complete pricing list.
There’s also a 20% discount offered for annual payments and a free plan for freelancers.
Nonprofits are eligible for a 50% discount on any of the paid plans, while schools, colleges, and universities can use the paid plans for free for 1 year. Refunds do not apply.
Pros
Easy to use
Kanban boards
Native and automatic time tracking
Resource scheduler
Invoicing and quoting features
Cons
No profitability feature
No custom fields
Need a fun interface complete with unicorns? Asana’s workspace is easy to get accustomed to by all kinds of team members from creatives to analytical types.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Asana is a common choice for small teams and creatives looking for a colorful and fun interface (yes, they have unicorns). Out of all best project management tools, this tool is better suited for non-complex projects that need to unite tasks, conversations, and files all bundled up in one workspace. With its simple to understand interface, Asana can be used from day one for team collaboration and task management. It’s also a solution to those pesky meetings you’d otherwise have in-person to check on a task’s status or briefly update your team.

How To Get Started
Asana has a low learning curve and you’ll see a welcome video on signing up which will help you get started. There’s a knowledge base (the Asana Guide) which is split into 3 parts so you can go straight to the topics that are relevant to your familiarity with the app. You can directly import tasks from a CSV file, spreadsheet, or email instead of adding all activities by hand.
You can browse how other people are using Asana with their customer use cases page, and head into the community for more. The community area covers integrations (including those for your developers and API tips and tricks), helpful hints, team onboarding, feedback, and announcements.
How Easy Is It to Use
While Asana’s lack of reporting might put off managers when it comes to opting for this PM tool, the rest of your non-technical team is likely to get accustomed to the interface from the very first minutes of using it. Yet, Asana doesn’t leave out all features for project managers, providing a Timeline view (their version of a Gantt Chart) and Portfolios to allow them to get a general overview at everything that goes on within the company.
Personalization options are limited to paid plans with custom fields available with a Premium plan and above and custom branding at Enterprise level only. The UI remains colorful and fun, something you’ll probably remember Asana for once you press the Tab + B command to fill your screen with cats (no typo here).
Asana is available only in 6 languages at this moment: English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese.
This tool is easy to connect to other apps you’re already using like Slack, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Google Calendar, or Adobe CC through their native integrations
Pricing
- Basic: This free option is for up to 15 users who are looking to get started with managing their first projects.
- Premium: $10.99/user/month billed annually for small and medium teams who are looking to plan their work and create reports based on it.
- Business: $24.99/user/month billed annually for larger teams handling multiple project portfolios.
- Enterprise: The plan is commonly used by enterprise teams, providing extra security and support. Pricing is tiered and you’ll have to contact them for a quote for your organization.
To see all features you’ll get with a plan, check out their pricing list.
A 30-day trial applies to the Premium plan, but you’ll have to give your credit card info. Nonprofits can get a discount with Premium and Business annual plans. No refunds available.
Pros
Timeline view
Smooth learning curve
Kanban boards
Multiple integration options to choose from
Cons
No invoicing and quoting features
No time tracking possibilities
Limited reporting
Beyond being a tool for managing projects, Basecamp remains a strong team collaboration app that removes the need for other intermediary communication software.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Instead of regarding Basecamp as one of the best project management tools, look at it as a top collaboration app for small and medium businesses. Missing out on a piece of information or deadline is close to impossible with features such as 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 and you’ve got a reliable tool for team collaboration. Only a meetings feature would turn Basecamp into the leading option for communication.

How To Get Started
It’s easy to register for an account and get a signed letter directly from the CEO, which is a nice touch.
There are 7 videos as your initial training sequence but no knowledge base if you just want to browse what the tool can do. You can find user-generated content on YouTube but as with all cloud-based systems, the product is frequently updated so be careful if you choose to rely on third-party created user guides as they might not be up-to-date. There’s no import feature though, so you’ll have to create all projects and tasks from scratch.
How Easy Is It to Use
Just like Asana, Basecamp is one of the most popular project management tools that’s better suited for teams and not managers. With missing features such as a resource scheduler, invoicing and budgeting, or limited reporting, Basecamp remains strong on the collaboration side of it all.
Project and team managers, on the other hand, will enjoy using Hill Charts to get a visual look at where each stage of the project is. Besides these, only the Stuff I’ve Assigned and Activity sections can be used to monitor any changes around a project so managers will still have to turn to external tools or paper-based documents for other duties like risk management or simply seeing who’s being overworked in a team.
The current version of Basecamp is only available in English, so it’s not really the most international-friendly tool you could opt for.
Basecamp integrates with 50+ tools like Zapier, Retool, Slickplan, Instabug, etc.
Pricing
At $99 month for your whole business, it’s certainly a transparent price structure. There’s a free plan with limited features for personal usage.
Here’s their pricing page so you can see everything you’ll get with the plan. Check out their refund policy to understand if refunds apply to your case.
Basecamp is free for students and teachers (only when used for classroom activities) and offers a 10% discount for NGOs.
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Great collaboration features
Gantt Charts
Client access options
Cons
No project portfolios
Limited reporting
No resource scheduler available
No Kanban boards
No invoicing or budgeting
Wrike encompasses a complete suite of features - except the ones that help you get paid - including Wrike Proof for designers to give visual feedback, work with external collaborators, and take their work through all review cycles.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Wrike is one of the most popular project management tools that’s complex and balanced, providing a bit of everything. It’s a good option for creative teams who are looking for varied functionalities and working with collaborators. Their top feature remains Wrike Proof through which designers can offer visual feedback through multiple review cycles and even invite external reviewers. Looking to also get paid? Not with Wrike. There are no financial indicators, invoicing, budgeting, or billing features so Wrike can only help you take your project to delivery and not beyond it.

How To Get Started
When you sign up to Wrike you’ll hit a welcome video, and the process to create an account is easy. As you get started, you can work through the walkthrough tutorial. There’s live in-app and phone support 24/7 and a detailed knowledge base as well.
The team runs regular webinars and there is a community forum.
If the standard offerings aren’t enough, the company offers consulting services to help you get ready to launch Wrike to your teams.
To avoid having an empty workspace from day one, data can be imported from Excel, MS Projects Files, or Outlook Tasks. Quite a few templates are available to help you with your goals from managing events to launching a product.
How Easy Is It to Use
Due to its complexity, the interface isn't intuitive to work with for first-time users and the onboarding and set-up process are frequently seen as lacking by current users. The search function though does its job to help you find a task you’re working on even when you’ve had it with the interface.
To keep up with the changes that go on in the app you’ll have to adapt to Wrike’s notification system. 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. Ideally, it would be best if you’d select the time of day when you want to get your daily emails.
Aside from these weaker features, Wrike manages to reunite features that both project managers and team members will find useful. From Gantt Charts and strong reporting through Wrike Analyze to real-time discussions and a proofing tool to help creative teams deliver work faster.
International users get more attention through the following languages: English, French, Portuguese (Brazilian), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish.
Their integration list, although not the best one, is gradually growing and currently includes tools like Salesforce, Tableau, Box and more.
Pricing
There are 6 pricing plans, each adding more features:
- Free: Small team with low budget looking to manage tasks together? This plan will do for now.
- Professional ($9.80/user/month): Choose this plan if you’re a small team looking for collaboration and full project planning features like Gantt Charts and shareable dashboard.
- Business ($24.80/user/month): If you’re aiming to get 5 to 200 users on the system, this is a good plan for you. It introduces more functionality including report templates, resource scheduling, user permissions, and your own branded workspaces. This is the plan where Salesforce integration kicks in, and it comes with 50GB of storage.
- Enterprise (custom pricing): All the other features, plus enterprise-grade functionality like password policies, network access, IT-controlled admin permissions, and 2-factor authentication.
- Wrike for Marketers (custom pricing): A plan designed for creatives with Adobe Creative Cloud extension, document and video proofing workflows and a tailored workspace. You need to sign up a minimum of 5 users on this plan.
- Wrike for Professional Services (custom pricing): The same as the Enterprise plan but with the Adobe Creative Cloud extension, their resource management tool, and only 50GB storage.
Check out their pricing list for all features. University students can use a 15-user Wrike Professional account for free. Refunds only apply in countries where these are mandatory by law.
Pros
Kanban board
Time tracking
Gantt Charts
Resource scheduling
Cons
No invoicing, budgeting, or billing properties
No in-app notifications
Quite expensive
If you can’t work without tables and spreadsheets, Airtable could be the right choice for your projects, allowing you to create advanced databases which you can share publicly too.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Are you a spreadsheet lover who can’t imagine doing project management without a table? Airtable might just be right for you. This app is very different from other online project management tools. Instead of task lists, you’ve got advanced databases where you can connect tables, drag-and-drop files, filter them to your liking, collaborate on items, and so much more. The best part? You can embed all this on your website or blog post if you want to share the data.

How To Get Started
When you create an account, the process of learning how to use the tool immediately starts via email. Once you enter the app you’ll be guided by a video and step-by-step workspace explanation through the app. For extra help, turn to their support page where most guides come with handy videos to guide you through setting up your bases.
We can safely say they have the most templates available among all the cloud project management tools (they send you emails to remind you of them) and you can even reach out to their Universe creator’s community to see how other clients use the tool. And since we’re talking about a database tool above all, their strong import feature will help you bring all your external data into Airtable.
How Easy Is It to Use
If you’re expecting to get a simple database-like tool, you’re wrong. You can customize and add your own 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 as a visual gallery and just drag-and-drop tasks to reorganize them according to priority or deadline.
Be warned though, team members who strongly dislike spreadsheets will have a hard time using this tool. The search function also lacks as you can only search for workspaces or bases so you’ll have to remember where a file or task is. If you need to do reporting, bear in mind 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.
Airtable is not just for managing projects, sales, or CRM. Recruiters for instance can create application forms (yes, using the same tool we’re talking about) and gather all applicant data directly into Airtable.
Airtable is only available in English and can be integrated with 30+ tools like Zapier, Facebook, JotForm, Pocket, Typeform, and more.
Pricing
There are 4 plans you can choose from once your 14-day Pro trial is over:
- Free (free): Basic plan to get your first database running.
- Plus ($10/user/month billed annually): For teams who are growing their projects database. The only differences between this plan and the free one are at the usage limits: records/base, attachment space/base, and revision history time.
- Pro ($20/user/month billed annually): For teams who have multiple databases to work with and need advanced table and field customization options.
- Enterprise (custom cost): For large companies juggling endless data they need access too for up to 3 years. Extra security features are only included with this plan.
Here’s the full pricing list. Special plans apply to NGOs and educational institutions. Refunds are available only for EU citizens if they make a request within 14 days of purchase.
Pros
Kanban board
Gantt Charts
Advanced database management
Form builder feature
Cons
Limited time tracking
Slow learning curve especially if you’re not used to working within a database
Weak search function
Limited reporting
Monday.com provides a highly-visual workspace that’s the exact opposite of a boring spreadsheet so you can take care of your daily tasks intuitively and not based on a flat hierarchy.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Monday.com is your go-to project management tool if you’re looking for a highly visual collaboration experience. Visual timelines, visual communication, and customizable boards. Everything visual and colorful in an attempt to make using the app more fun on a day-to-day basis. Users enjoy using their flat task structure, or as monday.com calls it “an intuitive, flat way to organize information”. By comparison, most other online project management tools rely on a hierarchy that could be more difficult to navigate through for certain teams and project types.

How To Get Started
When you sign up, and after you’ve gone through the welcome video, you are prompted with five predefined board examples to illustrate what you can do with the tool depending on your workflows. One of those lets you start from scratch so you can have a go before entering your ‘real’ data.
Data can be imported from an Excel or Google Sheet doc, Trello board, Facebook Ad account data, Basecamp lists, or just bring all your projects from Asana to monday.com.
This project management tool offers 24/7 support for everyone and VIP support with an account manager for Enterprise clients. There are daily webinars to help you get started too.
How Easy Is It to Use
At a first glance, monday.com appears to be yet another project management tool that’s right only for regular team members due to its collaborative features, fast learning curve, and fun, bold interface. Yet, its Dashboard feature makes it a good fit for managers too. Besides the fun quote, music playlist, and llama farm widgets, these dashboard items work like reports. For sales, team activity, or even bug tracking if you want to. Instead of Gantt Charts you’ll get their Timeline view and the resource scheduler is replaced by a simple workload widget in this app.
Safe to say a manager could do everything from just the dashboard. In fact any user can create a dashboard with his/her points of interest so they won’t have to search for a task you’re working on across multiple boards. But even the search function is made easy as you don’t even need to remember the name of a task or board to find it. Just type in [YOUR NAME] working on and you’ll get all activities you’re currently in charge of.
For those of you who’d rather use monday.com in your native language, this project management tool is available in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, German, Chinese, Italian, Russian, and Dutch.
Any integrations? Yes, like Slack, Shopify, or Twilio. The number of integrations is limited to your plan though.
Pricing
There are 4 plans available from Monday once your free trial is over. The pricing feels complicated (albeit flexible) as there are different prices for teams of 5, 10,15, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 200+ users. There are discounts available too: save 18% when you sign up for a year and 32% if you subscribe for 24 months. The following prices are monthly fees for a team of 5 users:
- Basic ($39 per month): Basic features to get started with a small team.
- Standard ($49 per month): The plan contains most features a regular team will need, especially if you want to start bringing in some guests to your boards.
- Pro ($79 per month): With its unlimited storage and complete set of monday.com’s advanced features like private boards, look into this plan if your team and business is past the development stage.
- Enterprise (custom cost): Just like its name, this plan is best suited for large companies who are looking for a boost in security perks.
Here’s the complete pricing list. Discounts apply to NGOs and educational institutions. Refunds apply only to yearly or two-yearly plans that you cancel within 30 days since you buy them. For monthly plans you won’t get a refund.
Pros
Strong and varied integrations
Kanban board
Gantt Charts
Cons
No invoicing and billing properties
Limited time tracking options
Teamwork is yet another all in one project management tool that takes your project needs one step further with their risk register and file versioning options.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Currently, Teamwork is one of the most complete project management tools (project management, CRM, document management, chat, and helpdesk software), basically a “business operating system”, integrated together to drive efficiency. This tool works for any kinds of users from small and medium teams to enterprises. There are also certain specific needs Teamwork caters to through their risk register and file versioning options.

How To Get Started
If you’re interested in more than project management, when you sign up, you can choose to try other products in their portfolio (like chat for example).
After signing up, you’ll receive an email that redirects you to a series of videos, but you can also book a daily webinar. During the trial you receive a series of emails, reminding you to try different types of actions in the app, nothing “spammy” though. There’s no live chat function available, so you’ll need to patiently wait for a response or try to find the answer yourself in the help section.
No pre-defined templates for projects to go with. Data from your past projects can be imported via CSV files or from tools like Asana or Trello.
How Easy Is It to Use
Teamwork is the kind of complex software that won’t be easy to start with. It’s like a sophisticated board game with tons of rules that require a lot of time to learn. But if you manage to get past this (it will take a while though), the software becomes pretty intuitive to use.
There are a few things worth mentioning, that really facilitate and improve the overall experience with this product: projects can be organized into folders, and files can be added directly to projects (making sure this way 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” - very useful in case you’ve deleted something by mistake.
In case you miss anything (hard to believe since the tool already comes packed with features), choose from their integrations, including Chatify, Float, and Slack.
Teamwork’s available in lots of other languages like French, Persian, Estonian, Norwegian, and more.
Pricing
After a 30-day trial, choose among 4 project management plans:
- Free forever(free): For small teams of maximum 5 users who need just basic PM features.
- Basic ($56.25 per month for 5 users): A good solution for small and medium agencies who are looking for extra integrations and file editing.
- Premium ($93.75 per month for 5 users): Project portfolios anyone? This is Teamwork’s advanced plan that comes with security features but is limited to a maximum of 100 users.
- Enterprise (custom cost): Nothing really special except that it’s the only option you can go for if you have a team/company that’s larger than 100 members.
These are all base fees and you’ll have to pay extra for additional users.
Check the complete pricing list. Discounts apply to NGOs and for annual plans. No refunds.
Pros
Highly customizable
Easily restore things you’ve deleted by mistake
Option to host data on EU servers
Easy to integrate with other Teamwork products
Cons
Steep learning curve and hard to master
Complex and outdated interface
Below average mobile app
Worth considering online project management tools
These are project management software & tools that excel at particular functionalities that users might be interested in but lack in other key features.
Podio 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 regularly monitor.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Podio differentiates itself from other user friendly project management tools by providing a complete CRM feature. So if you’re looking for an easy-to-use, fun option, Podio is not the right platform to consider. Its strong points though rely on the multitude of extra 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.

How To Get Started
Podio, as with many of the online project management tools in this article, has an online knowledge base. There are quick start guides, a guided tour and more. The online help is heavy on customer use cases so you can see how other companies are making the tool work for them.
It’s worth reviewing the online help because the learning curve is relatively steep. Podio works on apps: you turn your processes and work items into apps to track and manage them. Once you understand the concepts and building blocks behind the system it’s going to make sense, but the jargon and features take a little while to get used to.
Project data can be imported from Excel to get you started but there are no project templates yet.
How Easy Is It to Use
Podio is not exactly the most fun tool you can use. And certainly not if you’re a designer or more creative person. In fact, 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 much as it is a CRM solution that’s better suited for teams who juggle 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 tool provides endless customization opportunities in terms of functionality while it seriously lacks when it comes to colorful personalization options that other tools like Asana or Redbooth have. As if the 100+ extra apps weren’t enough, you can also integrate Podio with tools like Evernote, Box, Campaign Monitor, and even more.
Podio is now available in 12 languages including German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Swedish.
Pricing
Podio offers 4 plans:
- Free (free): The plan’s free for up to five users but you only get the task management + apps and workspaces features.
- Basic ($9/user/month): The same as the free plan but you get unlimited external users and items + user management features.
- Plus ($14/user/month): Very similar to the Basic plan as the only real benefit you’ll get is the automated workflows feature.
- Premium ($24/user/month): Take your activity further advanced workflow management, interactive sales dashboards, the ability to sync contacts, and visual reports.
These are all base fees and you’ll have to pay extra for additional users.
Check their full pricing too. You can get a 20% discount if you purchase a yearly plan. Refunds apply. Students can use the tool for free and a 10% discount if given to nonprofits and startups.
Pros
Highly customizable
Easily restore things you’ve deleted by mistake
Option to host data on EU servers
Easy to integrate with other Teamwork products
Cons
Steep learning curve and hard to master
Complex and outdated interface
Below average mobile app
Despite being packed with all features you might need, Zoho is fairly expensive and difficult to use, its complexity making it a better option when you simply need to make sure you’ve got all features in your stack.
BEST FOR
Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Zoho is another one of the all in one project management tools that comes with all features a team would appreciate. This, however, paired with a not-so-friendly interface makes it a bad choice for smaller teams who are looking for a tool that’s fun to use and not just 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. Even so, you’ll still have to weigh in 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.

How To Get Started
Most users claim they’ve made several calls to the support team to set up their accounts. Quick advice from us in case you choose to test this tool: check all resources like tutorials, videos, webinars, and the knowledge base before you get started. Otherwise, you’ll give up after 5 minutes. The first email you’ll receive will guide you through all this educational content.
At the bottom of your workspace you’ll see a handy chat bar to immediately get in touch with the support team. Or via this contact form or email. Just to be sure.
Existing data can be imported from Jira and Basecamp or MPP/MPX/XLS/JSON/CSV files. No ready-made templates are available but you can reuse your own projects as templates for your next work.
How Easy Is It to Use
So why does a seemingly complete tool have slightly lower reviews than its competitors? It’s simply just time consuming. Let’s just set this straight: Zoho Projects is not the most intuitive project management tool out there and you’ll definitely need to go through all learning materials beforehand. You’ll have to click on tasks and Edit a lot of time to change something and the shortcuts are limited too.
Yes, the tool is full of features, even some others 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 a hang of the rest of the app, you’ll be a power searcher.
Its strong features when it comes to managing tasks, resources, and issues make 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.
International users get users to 17 languages like Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, or Spanish.
One of the advantages that Zoho Projects has 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.
Pricing
There are 4 Zoho Projects pricing plans to choose from:
- Standard: $18month for 6 users. This plan was created to give small teams the opportunity to manage their projects but the tool remains much too complex for companies that are just getting started.
- Express $50/month for 15 users. Basic features + Gantt Charts and timesheet approval.
- Premium $100/month for 20 users. Probably your best choice if you do decide to opt for this tool (again, only for larger companies) as it will give you just the right features to do your work while managing a big team. Work - Planned vs Actual and Resource Utilization chart to name just two.
- Enterprise $150/month for 25 users. Only an option if you need one of the most advanced Gantt Charts ever. Users are actually complaining about its complexity.
To see a complete list of features you get and clarify the total cost according to your number of team members, check out the pricing list. Yearly discounts are available.
10-day Premium trial available. For non-profits or student discounts, reach out to their support team as there’s no universal discount for these categories. Refunds apply.
Pros
Kanban boards
Gantt Charts
Issue tracker
Time tracker
Invoicing and budgeting
Cons
High learning curve
Weak portfolio management feature
Smartsheet helps connect your ERP or CRM data to new projects, acting in many ways like a spreadsheet - hence its name - or database complete with Excel-like formulas.
BEST FOR
Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Excel fans, rejoice! It even comes with its own formulas you probably already know if you’re an avid spreadsheet user. Smartsheet is definitely a tool for enterprises and large organizations, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used by small or medium businesses. Their top feature remains the automated workflows that save time you’d otherwise spend doing everything manually. It’s a good solution to large organizations who are looking to easily connect their ERP or CRM data to their projects through simple imports. So if you need a tool where you can see all tasks, details, and even a Gantt Chart in one single screen, Smartsheet could be an option for you but be prepared to do some training beforehand.

How To Get Started
Upon sign-up you’ll get access to an intro video into the tool which comes in handy for first-time users. Otherwise, the tool is fairly difficult to get accustomed to, compared to other online project management tools. To save you from aimlessly clicking throughout the tool, head to the Learning Center for lots of helpful guides to using each feature. They have a community too, where you can get in touch with other users for their best tips and you can always reach out to their customer support team.
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 own ERP, CRM, or database. You can also choose from multiple pre-made templates to get started.
How Easy Is It to Use
I’ll be honest and tell you that Smartsheet is probably one of the hardest tools on this list to get accustomed to using. Especially if you’re not a spreadsheet user. Instead of projects, you’ve got sheets. I highly recommend you get this project tracking template (or a similar one) before you get started to lower the time you’d spend on setting everything up. UI-wise, I’d place Smartsheet above Zoho but slightly below Airtable which brings in 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 multiple sharing options even when sending access to someone outside of 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.
This tool integrates with third-party apps like Okta, Salesforce, SAP, Box, or Slack.
Smartsheet probably has the most language options international users can choose from from French, Spanish, and German to Arabic and even Irish.
Pricing
Smartsheet offers 4 pricing plans:
- Individual ($14/month billed annually): This plan was created for a single user to get access to Smartsheet features like automated workflows and collaborating with external stakeholders.
- Business ($25/user/month billed annually): This is their first plan dedicated to groups and teams, coming with dashboards, activity streams, reporting, and user management options.
- Enterprise (custom cost): Probably your safest bet as an enterprise looking to use this tool. Just keep in mind you’ll have to pay extra for some features like professional support or add-ons with Salesforce and Jira.
- Premium (custom cost): Pretty much the same as the Enterprise plan but you get Premium support and app integrations + you won’t have to pay for certain extra features like in the Enterprise option.
Check their full pricing. You can get a discount if you represent a nonprofit. Smartsheet currently has one of the longest trials available standing at 30 days. Refunds don’t apply unless otherwise specified.
Pros
Gantt Charts
Automated workflows
Strong reporting
Resource management
Cons
No time tracking
Slow learning curve
No invoicing
All project functionalities aside, Bitrix24 brings in a Websites feature so you can build your own landing pages, online stores, and even websites with little to no coding.
BEST FOR
Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Another one of the project tools that’s better suited for enterprises thanks to its CRM and business phone systems. Yes, you can make phone calls directly from the tool. Compared to most other project management tools, Bitrix24 is available as an on-premise version you can install on your organization’s computers in addition to the cloud version. And, wait for it… this tool is a good choice for small businesses thanks to its Websites feature which allows you to create landing pages and websites with minimal coding. Even create an online store.

How To Get Started
Once you sign up you’ll be prompted to choose your primary use for Bitrix24. Then you’ll be guided through a step-by-step onboarding process to get used to the interface and invite other team members.
You can opt to receive regular training materials when you sign up, so keep an eye for the small box you need to tick. New data can only be imported within the CRM from a spreadsheet or vCard, Outlook, GMail, Yahoo!Mail records. There are no predefined templates to choose from, but you’ll get a few tasks to introduce you into the tool.
How Easy Is It to Use
Setting up your business and having just a few team members? You can definitely get the tool for cheap and use it as a website and landing page builder in addition to the CRM and project management features. Due to its complexity, this tool remains difficult to get used to and it certainly doesn’t have the friendliest interface which many users describe as “clunky”.
Honestly, Bitrix24 is a tool for the “business owner”. Create your website, open an online shop, send invoices and even email campaigns, and handle all your clients and leads. All this and more in one tool. Regular users will probably find it tedious to use as there are no fun features for them.
Bitrix24 supports languages like English, Turkish, Chinese traditional, Chinese Simplified, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Polish, and Japanese.
This project management software integrates with other apps like SendPulse, Zapier, and RingCentral.
Pricing
Bitrix24 offers 6 pricing plans for the cloud tool. Discounts are available depending on the length of the contract. Here are the prices for 1-year plans:
- Free (up to 12 users): This plan gives small teams access to basic team communication and CRM features.
- Start+ ($19/month for 2 users): Includes a CRM and the Websites feature so you can start a business.
- CRM+ ($55/month for 6 users): Similar to the previous one, this plan includes some CRM marketing features that will allow you to send out campaigns and build customer segments.
- Project+ ($55/month for 24 users): This plan has limited CRM options, thus the price which is the same as for the CRM+ plan but for more users.
- ($79/month for 50 users): Access to all features at an Advanced level. This is a better option than the simple Project+ plan if you want strong CRM features in addition to the task management and collaboration ones.
- ($159/month for unlimited users): Access to all features at a Pro level.
Their on-premise version starts from $1,490.
Check their full pricing. Partial refunds apply.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Time tracking features
Invoicing and billing
Extra options for teams looking to create websites and landing pages
Cons
Steep learning curve
The free version is limited
Too complex for small teams
Compared to other project management tools on this list, ProProfs Project is a simpler project tool version you can opt for with its functionalities being kept to minimal options.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
ProProfs Project is a tool for beginner solopreneurs or small teams that are just starting to get the hang of juggling multiple projects. It allows team members and managers to organize tasks, collaborate, send out reports, and even invoice their clients. Bear in mind though, the tool is too simple in terms of features so you’ll really only get basic functionalities as ProProfs Project doesn’t excel at any area.

How To Get Started
The onboarding process is not the best. Because there really isn’t one. However, upon sign up you’ll get a preexisting project model you can test out a bit before adding your own data.
No other existing templates can be used. Importing is limited to documents you can bring in from Word, RoboHelp, or a PDF file.
How Easy Is It to Use
ProProfs Project doesn’t necessarily have a steep learning curve, but the UI of the workspace could definitely use a revamp in order for regular users to actually enjoy using it. I wouldn’t really categorize ProProfs Project as being a must-have for a specific industry. Rather it’s the tool you could use when starting out a team or project. However, as your business grows you might need to switch to a different tool that can provide a better collaborative environment for your team, stronger reporting, resource scheduling, and maybe even industry-specific features like issue tracking or file versioning for design files.
Compared to other tools like Paymo or ActiveCollab that reunite all project-related features in one unified workspace, ProProfs isn’t that complex and thus is a bit less cluttered. Of course, this means there aren’t as many options and filters to choose from, which again supports my claim that it’s much better suited for teams looking for basic features.
Integrations are not the strongest part of ProProfs despite the many tools the company offers including live chat, quiz and survey building, and a help desk.
This project management tool is available in other languages such as French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
Pricing
ProProfs Project offers 4 plans you can choose from after your 15 days of trial:
- Free (up to 10 users): Perfect for individuals or small teams dealing with a maximum of 3
- Solopreneur ($19/month unlimited users): Maximum 10 projects.
- Team ($49/month unlimited users): Maximum 50 projects.
- Unlimited ($199/month unlimited users): Unlimited projects. A good choice for large agencies and organizations.
All projects include ProProfs Project’s features but you’re limited in terms of number of projects, branding, and integrations.
Check their full pricing. No refunds.
Pros
Time tracking features
Gantt Charts
Reporting functionalities (no pre-existing templates for these though)
Cons
No resource scheduler
No Kanban boards
Weak file management and organization option
Redbooth is a collaborative tool that comes with complete video communication options so you can get rid of Slack, stay within one platform, and reduce time spent on admin tasks.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Redbooth is a reasonable choice for small and medium teams that will work both for managers and employees. This also means it’s not the best option for enterprises who could be looking for project portfolio features, risk management, or just more advanced Gantt Charts functionalities. Instead, Redbooth provides a clear interface that’s so easy to get accustomed to along with strong collaboration features (hence the name btw) that allow teams to stay connected in real-time even when working remotely.

How To Get Started
There’s a really quick overview video to welcome you to the tool when you get started, and a help centre with tutorials, troubleshooting guides and general ‘get started’ information.
It’s all self-directed, but if you still need help you can submit a ticket request and someone will get back to you. Importing existing project data from another tool can only be done via a spreadsheet. When creating a new project (known as workspace in Redbooth) you can choose from their own templates for inspiration or create yours.
How Easy Is It to Use
Very easy. The only issue I’ve had was having to click the Save button after changing a task’s name. Otherwise, this tool is very intuitive to use, even more so if you’re already accustomed to other similar format software like Paymo or Asana.
I enjoyed testing their Redbooth Predict™ feature (available to some extent with all plans). Once you have enough data, this smart AI-based tool will give you suggestions related to what due date is best for a task or who should be assigned to the task. Another reason why regular users might enjoy this tool is the clear Dashboard. The focus here is mainly on each individual’s tasks so you won’t get distracted by what your teammates need to take care of or changing priorities on different teams.
This project management tool is available in English, French, German, and Spanish.
Redbooth has a few integrations you can work with (Box, TestLodge, Evernote, etc.) but the list is far from being a comprehensive one.
Pricing
Redbooth offers 4 plans you can choose from after a 14-day trial:
- Free (for up to 2 users): The free way for you to use Redbooth’s basic Gantt Chart and even collaboration features as an individual user or duo.
- Pro ($12/user/month with no user limit): For small teams that are just crafting the future of their projects. This plan should be enough for any small to medium team even as it offers all of their Gantt Charts functionalities and you even get access to their video meetings. Perfect for remote teams too.
- Business ($18.75/user/month with no user limit): Extra space, assignable subtasks, trend reports, and integrations with Microsoft OneDrive for Business, Okta, and OneLogin.
- Enterprise (contact for price): 500GB of file storage space, phone support, and free training. It’s really a plan for very large teams as there are no real bonus features you can take advantage of.
Consult the full pricing list here. Annual discounts available.
You can get a 25% discount if you represent non-profits or educational institutions or are a teacher or student. Groups of minimum 3 students can get a 50% discount. No refunds though.
Pros
Gantt Charts
Kanban view
Time tracking
Video collaboration and meetings scheduler
Cons
No invoicing or budgeting
No project portfolios
No resource scheduler
Putting the outdated UI aside, LiquidPlanner brings in strong external guest access through project portals to share with collaborators, freelancers, and stakeholders outside of your organization.
BEST FOR
Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
The LiquidPlanner design is stuck in 2002 though so it’s not a choice for the “art lovers”. UI aside, this tool is actually packed with handy features both for managers and regular users. Guest access is also strong as you can create project portals to share with external collaborators and stakeholders. That is if the design won’t be too off-putting. If you’re thinking of getting this tool for yourself, keep in mind it might be a bit too cluttered for the needs of an individual and certainly much too expensive. In fact, you’re required to have at least 5 users.

How To Get Started
Onboarding will take you through a step-by-step process to get accustomed to the interface. The customer support can help you with the tool from Monday to Friday. Otherwise, stick to using their learning resources and training videos to become a pro user of each feature.
Data can be imported from a spreadsheet or MS Project but there are no available templates to test out the tool on.
How Easy Is It to Use
Due to its complexity, LiquidPlanner will definitely take a bit longer to get used to. This app in particular is unlike most other project management tools. It doesn’t exactly have a task list, but is not a spreadsheet either. Instead, all tasks, projects, events, and templates are sorted in one big list of cascading items. To rescue the regular users, they have access to a to-do list page where they will only see the tasks they’re in charge of. I guess the best advice when using LiquidPlanner would be not to panic if something looks complicated because there are much simpler alternatives to organizing your work.
Organizing your files here can pose problems as there’s no individual module for storing your images and docs. You just add them to individual tasks. The search function and its handy filters will help you find them faster.
Only available in English. Supported integrations are very few and include Zapier and Dropbox.
Pricing
After the 14-day trial, choose from 2 plans available with this project management tool:
- Professional ($45/user/month with an annual contract): The LiquidPlanner option for smaller teams handling multiple projects.
- Enterprise (contact for price): Increased security for large organizations.
Here’s a detailed look at their pricing. Discounts and special packages apply to education providers. No refunds available.
Pros
Time tracking
Invoicing and billing
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Resource scheduling
Cons
Outdated and messy interface
Steep learning curve
Few integrations
Super expensive
ActiveCollab moves teams through all steps of a project management process but fails to deliver specific features to compete with other project management tools like issue tracking, file versioning, proofing, or CRM.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Want a tool that does a little bit of everything? ActiveCollab could be an option for SMEs to handle their project work and get paid when delivering results. This platform can take your team through each step of the project management process but it lacks specialized features that could make it compete with others like file versioning, proofing, issue tracker, or even a CRM option. Also, if you’re in need of a work management tool to integrate with your current tech stack, keep in mind there aren’t that many alternatives with ActiveCollab.

How To Get Started
The set up process will have you choose an existing project template. Onboarding is otherwise limited so you’ll have to go through their entire help page or reach out to customer support for extra help. For certain features, you’ll get a video pop-up upon first use. You’ll get occasional emails guiding you to change your settings or customize your workspace. Projects can be imported from Basecamp or MS Project.
How Easy Is It to Use
ActiveCollab used to have a very outdated look but they’ve recently updated their interface which was dragging them down in comparison with their competition. This makes it much more enjoyable to use for regular users and a top choice for project managers as well.
While missing project portfolios can keep larger teams from accurately getting a look 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 to set up to the views in other popular project management tools.
Reports can be created for all types of work in addition to tracking expenses and sending out invoices and estimates to get paid for your work. The time management and workload management (this is their resource scheduler) make it easy for managers to supervise work and reassign tasks when employees are overbooked. Just add in some data first before trying the tool. Otherwise, it could take you longer to get accustomed to using features like the report builder when the learning curve for ActiveCollab is in fact fast.
This tool’s available in multiple languages you can choose from the start including French, Hungarian, Chinese, and Spanish. You can integrate ActiveCollab with 3rd-party tools like Xero, Slack, or Stripe. Not too many options though.
Pricing
After the 14-day trial, you’ve got one pricing option + an extra bundle:
Client communication, and team collaboration features for $7 + $4 if you’re a larger team that needs features like profitability, workload management, invoicing, and online payments. Have a look at the complete pricing.
Along with annual discounts, a 50% discount is available for educational institutions and non-profit organizations. No refunds.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Time management features
Invoicing and billing
Advanced reporting
Cons
No project portfolios
No option to hide features that are not used
With its CRM features, Scoro is another good option for teams who are looking to manage multiple leads and contacts alongside their multi projects and task work.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Rather than being just a project management tool, Scoro was created to help you manage all aspects of your business including CRM, quoting, and billing. These make it a good option for teams who’ve got to handle leads and contacts along with their projects. Still, Scoro provides strong reporting capabilities, resource management options, and a project portfolio management feature, making it a great tool for project managers.

How To Get Started
There’s a large support portal online, and from within the app itself, there is contextual help based on where you are. You can ask for a guided 15-minute demo tour. Choose the date and time, and the next available account manager will hop online to show you around.
If you’d rather learn by doing, there’s a trial site filled with demo data so you can play without accidentally billing one of your clients. There are no ready-made templates for you to start from but you can definitely test this tool’s multiple demo projects. You can also import data from a CSV, .XLS, or.XLSX file.
How Easy Is It to Use
This is one of those project management tools that may appear overwhelming to use at first. Particularly for regular users who don’t always need its multitude of filters and settings. Luckily, your employees can be well off just by hanging in the Tasks module where they’ll keep track of everything they’re in charge of. Plus, the search function will help you find anything in a matter of seconds.
Managers on the other hand will see Scoro as an all-rounder: project planning, timesheets, team planner, budgeting, and even detailed reporting complete with demo samples to give you an overlook from the start. A Gantt Chart features would add a plus to the suite though.
In the Scoro Marketplace you’ll get access to multiple integrations with 3rd-party tools like Mailchimp, PayPal, Zapier, GitHub, Evernote, or Dropbox. Or you can create your own integration using the API.
For other languages, you can opt for others like Russian or Finnish along with English.
Pricing
Scoro offers 4 plans:
Scoro’s features mean it places itself in the bracket of not very affordable project management software tools. They have a fairly complicated pricing system so make sure you check out their pricing page in great detail before picking one. The cheapest, Essential plan, starts at $26/user/month. There are separate hubs (feature packages) to suit your specific needs: Work (from $37/user/month for creative and professional services teams), Sales (from $37/user/month for teams looking to manage sales), and Business (from $61/user/month).
Onboarding for all these plans starts at $899 or you can get free self-onboarding for free for teams of up to 9 people.
Better head to their pricing page to clarify which plan is right for you according to your needs and team size.
14-day trial. Discounts apply for annual payments. No refunds available.
Pros
Time tracking
Kanban boards (Pipeline)
Project portfolio management
Strong reporting options
Cons
No Gantt Charts
Weak collaboration features
Limited document management
Very expensive
Freedcamp is literally the cheaper version for Basecamp [they built it as a free alternative] if you’re looking for a low cost project management tool that relies heavily on collaboration.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
If you’re looking for a tool with solid communication features like Basecamp, but want additional functionalities like time tracking or invoicing, try Freedcamp. In fact, this project management software was first created as a free alternative to Basecamp. Their pricing plans are much on the lower end so 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, small and medium teams, and enterprises alike.

How To Get Started
The biggest issue with Freedcamp is that there’s no onboarding process to take you through the app or at least present the workspace’s elements. Your only choice is to turn to their knowledge base, YouTube channel, or customer support to save some time.
This project setup process though is clear 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.
How Easy Is It to Use
The tool is surprisingly easier to use 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 which made creating and editing tasks a breeze.
As for the target users of Freedcamp, I’d say it works just as well for both managers and team members. Employees can easily get accustomed to the interface and create bookmarks (shortcuts) or just use the advanced search function in case they ever get lost. Learning how to use this tool will take a bit longer for managers though. Why? Well, you’ve technically got 2 different interfaces to work with. One with your Dashboard, projects, all tasks, reports, and other widgets. And another workspace for each project. This is where you’ll find options like discussions, file management, calendar, and even an issue tracker for a specific project.
Freedcamp only integrates with Zapier, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox, but you can use their API to create yours.
This tool is conveniently offered in languages such as German, Russian, Greek, and Hebrew with other upcoming ones planned out too.
Pricing
After the 14-day trial, you can choose from 4 plans which are considerably cheaper than most other options:
- Free: Includes all of Freedcamp’s core apps for file organization, and collaboration.
- Minimalist ($2.49/user/month): A cheap option if you’re looking to integrate the tool with Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox (although you might not need this since you get unlimited storage anyway) and have subtasks and recurring tasks/events.
- Business ($8.99/user/month): This is the first plan that’s better suited for teams since you get reporting capabilities and data snapshots.
- Enterprise ($16.99/user/month billed annually): Everything in the Business plan + your typical security features for large organizations.
See the full pricing list here. Annual discounts available.
Free Minimalist plans (for less than 30 monthly active users) and other discounts apply to nonprofits and schools. Refunds only apply in case of major bugs in their project management system.
Pros
Time tracking
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Invoicing and billing
Affordable
Cons
No resource scheduler
No onboarding
Few integrations
WorkflowMax is your go-to choice if you’re already a Xero user and just need extra CRM and reporting features to connect to your account.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Any Xero users here looking to get access to CRM features? WorkflowMax does just that. It’s not really a true project management tool. In fact, it markets itself as an app for handling jobs. Sure you’ve got your basic collaboration features, but WorkflowMax’s abilities rely on their CRM and reporting. Be aware though, this is not an option for designers or creatives. Read on to find out why.

How To Get Started
WorkflowMax has one of the most complex educational programs as you’re basically forced to learn how to use it. So all learning materials are presented to you at the very beginning through 7 complete steps. I guess it’s a good way of making sure users won’t complain about a steep learning curve.
To actually start using this tool you’ll first need to activate your account from the very first email you get from them. At this point, you’ll get a second “onboarding” process that will take you through the interface of this PM software. You can opt to get “demo data” so you won’t start with a blank workspace. And of course, you’ll get another video pop-up in case you missed the previous ones.
Any data can be imported from a CSV file. Only two ready-made templates are available for you to start working on projects (called jobs in WorkflowMax).
How Easy Is It to Use
So we’ve had tools that seemed hard to use but turned out to be easy to implement, and now we have WorkflowMax. Despite all learning materials, the outdated UI makes it difficult to find certain features and especially settings which are all cluttered in an interface that honestly looks like a slightly edited Google Docs.
All design aspects aside (and not to mention it’s not really a tool regular users will love getting back to each day), WorkflowMax is a quite powerful option if reporting is vital to you. You’ve got dozens of printable reporting options although they are not customizable or shareable. Plus, it can help you get paid by creating quotes and invoices.
Its strongest capabilities, and the only reason you want to go with this option, besides the fact that you might already be a Xero user, lie in the CRM. Although not the best on the market, it can help you keep track of your leads, clients, suppliers, and purchases along with all related financial aspects.
Team collaboration is limited to email exchanges but you can send status updates to your stakeholders complete with an audit trail.
Only available in English. This tool obviously integrates with Xero (since they were acquired by Xero) along with other add-ons like Zendesk, SuiteFiles, or Deputy.
Pricing
14-day trial available with the possibility to opt for a $15/month plan for one user. The plan works as a CRM module to help small and medium businesses handle their projects, clients, and leads.
When creating a WorkflowMax account you’re technically getting a Xero account so WorkflowMax is just an add-on to Xero.
No refunds or discounts. Check the full pricing details here.
Pros
Invoicing and billing
Time management features
CRM capabilities
Strong reporting
Cons
Steep learning curve
Outdated UI
No advanced task management features like Kanban boards or Gantt Charts
Weak team collaboration options
ClickUp is one of those tools used in project management that are complex but none of the features really excel with the exception of their varied client permissions.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
When choosing ClickUp as your next project management tool you’ll need to be aware that it faces one of the common issues of other complex PM apps: it has lots of features, but none are perfect. ClickUp is a good option for small and medium teams who are looking to optimize their work process and take care of their tasks, team members, and related projects aspects until the delivery stage is over. Their vast client permissions make it a decent choice if you’re planning on collaborating with your clients or stakeholders regularly. Invoicing or billing your customers is not possible via ClickUp.

How To Get Started
When you sign up, you’ll be sent an email to activate your account and be guided through the process of setting up your account, inviting team members, setting up integrations, and even importing projects from other apps.
If you get stuck, support is available 24/7 and there’s a knowledge base with tutorials, a demo page, and a YouTube channel. When setting up your first project you can choose from multiple templates and even import data from other PM tools like Trello and Jira, or from a CSV file.
How Easy Is It to Use
ClickUp is one of those project management tools that could seem easy to use at first but will in reality require a bit of extra training. Mainly due to its cluttered interface. But that’s a normal thing with complex apps.
From a manager’s point of view, choosing ClickUp can seem like a complete package since they also provide project portfolios. The resource scheduler and reporting tools are yet to be further developed though, but smaller teams could do with them at their current stage too.
Users, on the other hand, will enjoy ClickUp’s customizability and emojis to add the fun factor to their daily work habits. There’s an offline mode you can use to work from anywhere and even turn off your wi-fi every now and then to focus on the duties at hand. Guests have special roles in this app as they can view, comment, edit, or get complete access to a task they’re assigned to.
From the moment you create your first project, there are multiple integrations you can choose to work with including tools like Harvest, communication software like Slack, or must-have file storage solutions such as Box. This project management platform is currently only available in English but they’re taking suggestions for future language updates.
Pricing
There are 4 plans you can choose from to use ClickUp:
- Free: It gives you access to the basic features, 100MB for storage, and unlimited tasks and users. No guests and permissions included here though.
- Unlimited ($9/month/user): Free features along with goals, portfolios, unlimited storage, reporting, and integrations. This is a great plan to get started and still have access to tons of features.
- Business ($19/month/user): Besides the extra guests, improved security, and Workload feature, this plan is similar to the Unlimited one in terms of core project management features.
- Enterprise (custom cost): The same as the Business plan but you’ll get attention and support during onboarding and as you use the tool along with Single Sign-On, increased API limits, contract review and HIPAA, and advanced permissions.
Annual discounts apply. You can get a refund within 30 days if you’re not happy with the tool. Universities and NGOs also get access to a discount if you inquire. Head over to their project management tool’s pricing page for all details.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Easy onboarding process
Time tracking
Cons
No invoicing or billing capabilities
Weak resource scheduling function
Limited reporting
In spite of its not-so-friendly UI, Easy Projects is a project management tool option that’s surprisingly intuitive and comes with an option for you to create project requests via forms or guest portals.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Easy Projects is not exactly the “prettiest” project management tool option out there, but it’s surprisingly intuitive and packed with handy features. In particular, managers will enjoy handling entire project portfolios and teams, while regular employees can get easily accustomed to the tool. This is not a tool for individual users as you’ll get many more features than a single worker might need. Instead, it works best for small, medium, and large teams that need to juggle multiple projects and will have a manager monitoring their activity allocation. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can only track time by manually entering time logs as there’s no time tracker yet.

How To Get Started
Upon signing up you’ll be presented with a video to take you through the entire app. This “tutorial” is a perfect introduction into the tool so you won’t feel totally unfamiliar with the interface. You can always reach out to the support team in case of further issues.
Data can be imported from spreadsheets. You can convert client requests (done via project intake forms) into new projects.
How Easy Is It to Use
When it comes to usability, Easy Projects looks like it would be difficult to get used to but it’s actually pretty intuitive. The task management features in particular don’t take much time to get accustomed to. Even for regular users who have full access over their calendar so they can request a vacation, travel day, or simply a leave of absence themselves.
This project management tool is ideal for managers who are looking to keep a close eye on all activities until project delivery, create strong reports, and even get paid. The saved views you create are a quick way for you to create shortcuts to the tool modules you use most often. You’ll also get a few samples of these views from the moment you sign up for inspiration.
Guests are a solid part of this tool as they can submit project requests via forms you send them and they have access to a guest portal as well.
The app integrates with other tools like Zapier, Zendesk, or Toggl to replace the missing time tracker.
Besides English, Easy Projects can be used in other languages such as French, German, and Polish.
Pricing
There are 2 plans you can choose from after the 15-day trial:
- Business ($24/user/month billed annually): All features needed by small and medium teams. Storage space is only 50GB though.
- Enterprise (custom cost): Everything in the Business plan + advanced security and Gantt Charts.
At an extra cost, you can get more security features and options such as flexible rate cards and billing reports. To see if these match your needs, go to their pricing page.
Volume and term discounts are available. No refunds.
Pros
Resource scheduler
Time tracking
Invoicing & billing
Advanced task management (complete with Gantt Charts and Kanban boards)
Cons
The visuals of reports could use some work
No Portfolio Gantt Charts
No custom branding
Up-and-coming project management tools
The list of project management software and tools continues with some choices that still need lots of improvement in order to match up to the rest.
Trello is the kind of highly-visual tool anyone will be able to use in no time although this does mean its features are limited, the app frankly being a Kanban board with extra add-ons.
BEST FOR
Individuals
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Trello is a light-hearted tool you can use for your personal tasks, small team projects, or side-gig work. This tool is more of a task management one and is mostly based on Kanban boards which make the whole activity organization process a highly visual one. If you’re a recent graduate, you’re probably already familiar with it since many student projects are done via Trello.

How To Get Started
The set-up process will take you through setting up your first Trello board. So when you start using this tool you’ll already have data to work with. On-screen cues will guide you to personalize your workspace.
The only ways in which you can import card data into Trello are via Zapier or spreadsheets. For some inspiration and Trello board templates, they have hundreds of community-created boards to choose from.
How Easy Is It to Use
By far one of the easiest tools to use on this list. This is of course due to its few features which are all centered around task and collaboration management. Trello ultimately remains a tool for regular users whether you want to use its boards for personal task organization, for small business projects, or schoolwork.
There’s plenty of power-ups (these are their integrations) you can opt to add to your boards including maps, voting, checklists, and a bunch of third-party tools like Typeform or Evernote. So for missing resource scheduling features (project management tools Paymo or Monday include these) you can definitely add a power-up.
Lots of languages to choose from (which is great considering that this tool is also aimed at students of all ages) including: French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian.
Pricing
There are 3 plans you can choose from and there’s no trial since the paid plans are just giving your extra space, power-ups, and support:
- Free: All of Trello’s task management and collaboration features including unlimited personal boards, cards, and lists.
- Business Class ($12.50/user/month): Includes unlimited team boards and power-ups + extra security options so it’s the best option for agencies or small and medium teams.
- Enterprise ($20.83/user/month for 20 users and above): Very much like the Business Class plan but you’ll get stronger security and organization-wide permission levels.
For extra features and power-ups you get access for free to Trello Gold for 1 year and pay $5/month after your first year.
Check the complete pricing here. Annual discounts apply. Other discounts are available for education providers and non-profits. Refunds are available.
Pros
Easy to learn interface
Fun to use for regular team members
Handy power-ups (integrations)
Cons
No time tracking (you can use an add-on to fix this)
Missing other features managers would be interested in like invoicing, reporting, Gantt Charts, portfolio management, or resource scheduling
Just like Trello, Notion is more of a productivity tool with limited but fun options to keep you focused solely on managing your activities and ideas.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Notion is quite similar to Trello in the sense that it’s more of a productivity tool with limited features to keep you focused solely on task management. The main difference between Trello and Notion is just the fact that you have multiple views for your tasks in Notion and not just Kanban boards. Plus you’ve got emojis instead of stickers. Yet again another simple-to-use tool with limited features but perfect but personal projects or simple to-do lists, notes, and file storage. You can even use Notion as a replacement for Google Docs thanks to its text editor that’s fully optimized to keep you focused.

How To Get Started
Signing up gives you the opportunity to choose from a series of templates from the start. All templates are tailored to your department and needs. You’ll get an introductory email and a private template designed as an onboarding process to help you understand how the tool works. For extra help, there’s their help page that’s just as emoji-friendly as the rest of the app.
Importing data is strong in Notion as you can bring in your current data from Asana, Evernote, and Trello or even from a CSV, XLS, DOC, TXT, or MARKDOWN file.
How Easy Is It to Use
If you’re a fan of Kanban boards, you’ll probably go for Trello. If you live and breathe checklists, Notion is the better option. Plus, emoji fans will enjoy the super fun lists they can create for anything from simple tasks, to meeting notes, roadmaps, and checklists. Thanks to its simplicity and lack of extra features, it will also take you roughly 5 minutes to get the hang of the tool and probably less than an 1 hour to become a pro user.
But as in Trello’s case, Notion remains a project management tool (or rather productivity software) for regular users and individuals and not so much for small businesses. Not for managers. The collaboration options are limited to real-time comments and user permissions along with your regular email, desktop, or mobile notifications.
This tool’s only available in English but you can technically write all your task lists and notes in a different language so there’s not really a purpose for other languages.
Notion integrations are not currently available but custom integrations and integration workflows are in plan with tools like Asana, Slack, or Trello.
Pricing
Choose from 4 plans that offer the same features but with different limitations as follows:
- Free: All of the Notion task management and collaboration features limited to 1,000 blocks and 5MB which is definitely too little for teams or agencies.
- Personal ($5/month): This plan is created for individual users so the collaboration aspect is limited and you only get 30 days of version history on your Notion pages.
- Team ($10/user/month): The plan for teams. Includes collaboration but is limited by the 30 days of version history.
- Enterprise (custom cost): You get unlimited everything + security options but the tool is not really made for large organizations due to its few features.
See the complete pricing. Annual discounts apply. The Personal plans are free for students and teachers. Refunds are available.
Pros
Strong task management with a focus on productivity
Notes and file organization
Clean and fun UI
Cons
Limited features with missing invoicing and billing, reporting, team scheduling, and project portfolios
Runrun.it is - like in Trello’s case - is another project management tool that’s mostly based on visual Kanban boards and minimal other options around them.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
More Kanban boards! Runrun.it is (like Trello) another PM tool that’s based on the highly-visual Kanban boards. While this tool markets itself as being for corporate teams and enterprises, its lack of solid features like project portfolio management and stronger resource scheduling make it better suited for smaller teams or medium ones with many team members but fewer projects and less complex tasks.

How To Get Started
The onboarding process will take you through setting up your first project and all of its steps. This way you’ll quickly get accustomed to using the workspace. At least the project view. You’ll have to choose between a series of predefined workflows depending on your type of team. Consider these as their project templates.
Another fun thing I liked is that when you want to create a new report (for costs, hours/project, people allocation, etc.) you first see an example, so you’ll know what to expect. No external data import option though.
How Easy Is It to Use
Getting used to Runrun.it as a regular use is easy. However, you’ll need a bit of time and project activity in order to use their smart features efficiently. Once you move your cards through multiple board columns, the tool automatically calculates delivery dates by taking into account your other priorities. Simultaneously, it calculates for how long a task stays in one stage so you can identify the steps that are causing bottlenecks in your workflow. Their Predictive Burnup® chart can be used for smart estimates of future project deadlines.
Although the tool strongly relies on Kanban boards, a Gantt Charts view is available via reports. You can view the tasks you’re in charge of or responsible for in a task list format too (see the Tasks, Teams, and Me module). Finally, collaborating is non-complicated here as communication is done in real-time on individual tasks, via the common Bulletin board at a company level, and through face-to-face meetings.
This tool’s only available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Integrations are limited to what you can do using Zapier or via the API.
Pricing
After the 14-day trial you’ll be able to choose from 2 plans to use this project management tool:
- Free: For small teams of up to 5 users.
- Corporate (starting at $10/user/month for minimum 5 users): Includes all of Runrun.it features like managing tasks, creating reports, and collaborating (except for face-to-face meetings).
- Enterprise ($49/user/month): Everything that comes with the Corporate plan but you’re paying considerably more money for some extra security options, face-to-face meetings, and an activity log. Additional fees apply for the security features.
Check the complete list of prices to get your final cost based on the number of members of your team. Annual and volume discounts apply. No refunds unless required by law like in Europe.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Time tracking and predictability feature
Strong reporting
Cons
No invoicing
Weak integration options
Time for extra Kanban boards with Flow, one of those easy project management tools that reunites task lists and Kanban boards, only this time we’re dealing with a complete app for managing projects instead of a productivity platform.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
We’ve got even more Kanban boards! This time though, Flow reunites task lists and Kanban a tool that’s convenient to use for small and medium teams alike. While this project management tool helps you manage most stages of your projects, you won’t be able to invoice your clients directly from Flow.

How To Get Started
During onboarding, you’ll set up your company’s teams. A pop-up video will get you accustomed to the workspace before you create your first project. For extra help on getting started, turn to their help center or support team.
There’s no import function and no project templates to match your exact needs. However, your workspace comes with a demo template for each team type you’ve added into the system. This way you’ll be able to get the hang of this tool without actually starting work in it.
How Easy Is It to Use
Flow’s workspaces are easy to get familiar with. Plus, they accommodate a regular user’s needs for displaying tasks in a to-do list format or as a Kanban board. But really that’s it: a task management tool with collaboration resuming to comments and workgroups.
Their best, but not excellent, feature for managers remains the Workload. This allows you to do just what it’s name says: view a team’s workload in a calendar or list view. It can only be used to get a general look at what your team is working on but there’s no way to see who’s overbooked based on the number of hours they’re putting in. There are no project portfolios and no Gantt Charts (except for their basic Timelines) like you’d find with other tools such as Paymo or ClickUp. Reporting is also limited to exporting your tasks (if you can call that reporting…) All in all, not a tool for the project manager.
This project management tool integrates with apps like Box, Slack, or Harvest. Flow is only available in English.
Pricing
At the end of your 30 free days of trial you’ll get to choose from 2 plans:
- Starter ($7.50/user/month): To get work started with unlimited teams, projects, and tasks.
- Pro ($14.95/user/month): The only reasons you’d opt for this plan instead are because you get the resource management options here (although you could try them out in the trial too) along with the project timelines which work in a similar way to basic Gantt Charts without dependencies or other specifics.
Check the full list of prices. Annual discounts apply along with a special discount you can inquire about if you’re a non-profit. No refunds.
Pros
Resource scheduling features
Advanced task management (Gantt Charts are replaced by a project timeline)
Cons
Time tracking can’t be done without an integration
No way to invoice your clients
Limited reporting
Mavenlink is a project tool solution, from our project management tools list, that packages a lot of features you’ll need a large budget for, especially if you want to use their top functionalities such as portfolio management and reporting.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Mavenlink is another one of those project management tools that bundle a lot of features but you’ll need a huge budget to get access to their top options like portfolio management and advanced reports. While they promote themselves as a good fit for all kinds of teams, including freelancers, this app might be just too expensive for small teams.

How To Get Started
To sign up for the 10-day trial (definitely not enough if you want to test it together with your team), you first have to request the trial. The onboarding process in Mavenlink is quite simple. Upon sign up, you’ll be guided to build your first project and invite other teammates.
24/7 support is available and you can access their help center or training courses too.
Projects and tasks can be imported via templates created in a CSV file. No ready-made templates.
How Easy Is It to Use
Mavenlink is a tool for managers. Other team members will find the interface tough to get used to and certainly not fun. Their strong asset relies on permission levels and reporting options, both of which are a great add-on for admins. But this is not a perfect tool for project managers either due to its missing risk management features and due date alerts.
Reporting can really be useless if you can’t even get a reminder when a deadline is approaching. I’ve had to always refresh the tab to see my last changes so I rest my case that this might not be the best option considering its costs.
For Mavenlink integrations with tools like Slack, Jira, or Salesforce, you’ll need to pay an extra fee. But they do have a solid integrations management platform called M-Bridge that you can use to create your own add-ons via their API.
Available Only in English.
Pricing
With Mavenlink, choose from 5 plans but keep in mind you have to buy them on an annual contract only:
- Free: This plan is hidden so use this link to create one. The first 10 days you’ll get the trial with more features and then the plan will just be downgraded.
- Teams ($19/user/month): For up to 5 users to get started with basic collaboration.
- Professional ($39/user/month): Includes time tracking but there are no project portfolios or resource scheduling options in this plan although it’s quite expensive.
- Premier (cost upon request): This is the plan you’re looking for at an enterprise level if you need resource planning and portfolios.
- Enterprise (cost upon request): This is the only plan you can opt for if you need advanced reporting. Only 1TB for file storage so you might have to store them separately.
Have a look at their full list of prices. Non-profit discounts apply. No info related to refunds is available so feel free to ask them nicely.
Pros
Resource scheduling
Invoicing and billing
Time tracking features
Advanced reporting
Cons
Weak collaboration options
Slow learning curve
Very expensive
Maintaining our series of to-do lists and Kanban boards, Azendoo is yet another tool that’s more of a collaboration software reuniting Slack-like functionalities and task organization.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Continuing our series of to-do lists and Kanban boards, Azendoo allows you to track time. In fact, it’s not really a project management tool as it is a collaboration software with activity streams and direct chat on top of which you can also manage your tasks through multiple views. So if you’re a big fan of Slack, but always felt like you’d need a better way of organizing your tasks, Azendoo could be the right solution for you if you’re part of a small or medium team. Otherwise, the workspaces are likely to get overcrowded and cluttered.

How To Get Started
To begin using Azendoo you’ll need to first create a project with a few tasks. No real onboarding process here besides an intro video you’ll find on the left side of the workspace. There’s a learning center with ebooks for beginners too. Definitely a better choice than their help page - which is one of the worst for the project management tools on this list.
Data can only be imported from Trello and Evernote. No project templates to choose from.
How Easy Is It to Use
Azendoo is very much a hybrid. Think Slack comes together with Facebook and a to-do list, if that makes sense. Easy to use nevertheless, no doubt about that. Fun fact: the Activity stream looks a lot like Facebook’s wall.
So briefly put, this tool is super user-friendly and does its job for task management (tracking time included) and collaboration which includes direct messaging so you can technically replace Slack. Apart from this though, Azendoo doesn’t really excel at anything. Compared to other PM tools like Paymo or Scoro, there’s no resource scheduling, no invoicing, not even a solid reporting tool for managers besides basic time reports.
You’ve got though quite a few integrations to choose from including Typeform, Mailchimp, and Workable but none really replace the missing features despite making this tool more suitable for certain teams like recruitment or marketing.
Azendoo is available in multiple languages like Spanish, French, or German.
Pricing
14-days trial with a possibility to choose from 3 Azendoo plans:
- Teams (€6.67/user/month): Basic features for small teams but you do get unlimited boards and projects along with the Project Timeline view.
- Business (€15.00/user/month): Unlimited guests and workspaces. This is the first plan that allows you to track time.
- Enterprise (€24.17/user/month): Just some extra security features, invoice billing, and unlimited storage.
Have a look at the full plans. You can get a discount for yearly payments. Students can use the tool for free for 1 year. For other special discounts, non-profit organizations and school representatives can send in an inquiry. No refunds available.
Pros
Time tracking
Intuitive design
Guests access
Cons
No invoicing
No resource scheduler to see task allocation
Limited reporting
If Gantt Charts are your thing, TeamGantt was developed entirely around this feature so you can plan projects through drag-and-drop actions and get an overall look at all project timelines.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Say hello to one of the project management tools that’s entirely built on Gantt Charts but still has task lists for regular users who are not keen on charts. Mind blown? With extra options like time tracking (only available with their most expensive plan 😒) and resource workload scheduling along with more advanced reporting and portfolio management, TeamGantt is a good option for larger teams too. And if you’re just an affiliate looking for the next tool to promote, their partner program pays well.

How To Get Started
During onboarding you’ll select the exact features you need for your projects and create your first project. Quite a few pre-existing project templates to choose from here. At this point you can already import data from a CSV file.
Then you’ll be taken to an intro video so you can get accustomed to the tool. Fun (or scary) fact: They have a set of videos customized for certain names and they might mention yours too. 🤯 You’ll also get extra videos on the side to continue the learning process.
How Easy Is It to Use
This tool is fairly easy to use, yes, that includes the Gantt Chart. Plus, there are lots of filters and personalization options including ones you might have never thought you needed. Like changing the font size of your views.
The only issue you might have (and I accidentally stumbled upon too) as some current users pointed out is that since there’s no Undo option if you randomly click on the chart or make a wrong move, your dependencies will instantly be derailed. So you have to fix everything manually. But this is really the case for any Gantt Chart with no Undo option.
Overall? A tool for anyone who’s looking to get a full-featured Gantt Chart option. For managers really, but not difficult (and not so fun either) to use for regular team members.
This tool’s interface is only available in English. TeamGantt integrates with very few tools since they already have many features. These third-party apps include Slack and Trello along with their own API.
Pricing
3 pricing plans are available with TeamGantt:
- Free: Need Gantt Charts for a single project? The free plan will do for a team of 3 people.
- Standard team ($49.75/month for up to 5 members): Unlimited projects for starter teams.
- Advanced team ($74.75/month for up to 5 members): Large team or enterprise? This is the only plan that includes reporting and allows you to track time.
There’s a 14-day trial for the Standard and Advanced plans. Check the full pricing to see the exact costs according to your team’s size. No refunds. Along with yearly discounts, teachers can request a free plan.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Time tracking features
Resource scheduler
Project portfolios
Cons
No invoicing or billing
Thought we’re done with Kanban boards? Nutcache puts together to-do lists and the Kanban method by helping you reach all your project-related goals so you can effectively take care of your work and get paid for it based on tracked work hours.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Who’s in for even more Kanban boards? Nutcache unites to-do lists and Kanban with your invoicing efforts so you can do your work and get paid for it based on accurate work hours. Rather than being a project tool for enterprises (missing Gantt Charts, strong resource allocation, and project portfolios) that options like Paymo and Easy Projects have, Nutcache works best for freelancers and small to medium teams who need to do their entire admin work in one place.

How To Get Started
Onboarding is limited to setting up your account so here’s their help center to learn beforehand. No predefined templates to work with either but you can import data from XLS files.
Get a demo by all means before you decide to purchase a subscription for this project managing tool so you can clearly see how your workflow fits in here.
How Easy Is It to Use
Even without a strong onboarding process, learning to use the tool is easy. Especially if you’re already familiar with similar tools. Of course, you don’t get any fun elements like the llama farm in Monday.com or unicorns in Asana, but this tool helps you get your job done without worrying your changes weren’t saved. Plus, it has everything a freelancer needs to ensure they’ll get paid fairly.
As for Agile team managers, you might want to look at the higher priced plan if that suits your budget. This is the only way for you to get access to the Planner which shows you all tasks your team members are working on and helps you assign new tasks and stories. Advanced budget management, timesheets, and approvals are a part of this plan, but if you can do with reporting only (which is likely not the case) the Pro plan will do.
Nutcache can be integrated with tools you’re already using to take care of your work like PayPal, Slack, or GitHub. Not too many options though.
This project management tool is currently available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Pricing
After the Pro trial, choose from 3 pricing plans:
- Freelancer ($8.95/month for 1 user only): Includes unlimited invoices/estimates/projects so you can fully control your business.
- Pro ($6/user/month): On top of the benefits for freelancers, you have project templates and reports so managers can monitor work and spot bottlenecks.
- Enterprise ($12/user/month): Team management and the Agile planner for your stories is only available with this top tier plan.
Check the full pricing. Refunds only applicable where required by law. When you sign up for a yearly plan you get 3 free months.
Pros
Time tracking
Strong reporting
Invoicing & billing
Invoicing and billing options
Cons
Resource scheduling limited to a planner
No Gantt Charts
To keep your email inbox clean, ProofHub provides file versioning, a proofing option, and even request forms that agencies can use to get a client’s request directly into the PM tool.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
ProofHub is part of the project management tools list, being a basic project tool with advanced task management options in addition to the file versioning and proofing features which make it an appropriate choice for small design teams. They have handy request forms agencies can use to get a client’s request directly into ProofHub. Just keeping that email inbox clean. Managing larger or enterprise-level teams can get difficult as there’s no resource scheduler to give you an overview of workloads.

How To Get Started
No onboarding or project set-up process. Just an intro video after which you can book your demo since you might need it. Or just turn to their support page or team.
If you go to your projects you’ll find a demo which will help you get used to the interface a bit. No ready-made project templates to choose from. Existing data can be imported from Asana, Basecamp, or a CSV file.
How Easy Is It to Use
ProofHub won’t take too long to get accustomed to. The slow interface and small bugs that had me refresh the page several times to see my tasks though turn ProofHub into a project management tool that doesn’t really excel at usability. So, yeah, in case you click on a task and get nothing in return, hit that refresh button. 😐
This project management tool is ideal for managers who are looking to keep a close eye on all activities until project delivery, create strong reports, and even get paid. The saved views you create are a quick way for you to create shortcuts to the tool modules you use most often. You’ll also get a few samples of these views from the moment you sign up for inspiration.
ProofHub remains a tool for regular users (if they can cope with the bugs). Collaboration features are decent with all announcements, topics, and one-on-one messages and they have a proofing feature that’s perfect for design teams. As for managers, you’ll have to do with basic reporting and Gantt Charts.
Integrations are another not-so-strong part of ProofHub as you can only add a few tools like Box, Freshbooks, or iCal. Along with English, this tool is available in German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and French.
Pricing
There are 2 plans you can choose from with no per user fees (so the pricing works in the favour of larger teams):
- Essential ($50/month billed monthly): Unlimited users and core features but only 14GB storage which is by far not enough for design or advertising agencies so the file versioning feature is quite useless in this case.
- Ultimate control ($99/month billed monthly): 100GB. Still far from other tools that provide unlimited storage (Freedcamp includes this in their free plan). The extra features in this plan like project managers and managing trashed items won’t really bring in much of an impact so you’re really just going for this plan if you want unlimited projects to work on.
Have a look at their full pricing. No refunds. Discounts only for non-profits and annual payments.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Time tracking
Cons
Limited integrations
Limited reports options
No invoicing
No resource scheduler
Toggl Plan is simply just one timeline you can edit all projects and tasks from a clear workspace any user will find it super easy to get accustomed to and use regularly.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Formerly known as Teamweek, this tool is really just a timeline for your tasks and team activity. While this is one of the easiest project management tools on the list. Toggl Plan can only be used to keep track of tasks and see the team’s workload. Nothing more to add here.

How To Get Started
The onboarding process is basic with a quick project set-up process and an instructional video to teach you how to use their timeline. Or reach out to their customer support team and check out the help page which isn’t as complex since functionalities are limited in Toggl Plan.
The strongest part of this tool might be its importing. Toggl Plan boasts the ability to import your tasks from anywhere. In reality, you are limited to third-party tools like Slack, GitHub, Trello, Podio, Asana, and a few more. No project templates to choose from.
How Easy Is It to Use
This tool is very simple to use as its new design mimics Slack in terms of its menu so you’ll feel like you’re already familiar with the interface. In addition to this, the interface is bright, complete with fun colors you can use to customize your tasks.
Taking all this into account, Toggl Plan remains a tool for the regular employee. Without a doubt. The app has few features that rely on their timeline and Kanban board view, with no strong options for supervision teams or reporting.
Toggl Plan has integrations with all of the tools I’ve already mentioned you can import data from. This timeline tool is only available in English.
Pricing
14-days trial. After, you can pick from 2 plans:
- Free: For small teams of up to 5 members.
- Premium ($9/user/month): You might only want to go for the paid plan if you have a larger team and need multi-assigning on tasks or getting an annual view.
Check their full pricing. No refunds. Discounts apply for non-profits and education providers along with the 10% for annual plans.
Pros
Strong import options
Resource scheduling
Cons
No time tracking (unless you integrate their tool with Toggl)
No invoicing or billing
No Gantt Charts, reports, or project portfolio management in case you’re looking to use the tool within a larger organization
Since Hive markets itself as a productivity software, this tool is not dedicated to project management as much as it is a platform that allows you to manage tasks and collaborate with your team.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Hive market themselves as a productivity platform that won’t make you switch between different tools as you’ll be able to do everything in it. This is why you can use Hive as an alternative to Slack, keep meeting notes, chat, proof and approve documents, and even bring in your email inbox.

How To Get Started
The onboarding process is pretty good as it helps you set up your first project with a couple of tasks. At this point you can opt in for Hive Messaging which helps you replace Slack and use Hive to communicate instead. The Hive Mastery bar will guide you through all steps you need to get accustomed to working with tasks in this project management solution.
The task import options are decent if you’re switching from Trello, Asana, Basecamp, or Smartsheet. Otherwise, just add in data from a CSV file. No project templates as you might know them. Instead, when you create a task you can choose from a series of templates for what I’d rather consider as subtasks (Hive calls them action cards).
How Easy Is It to Use
This tool was surprisingly easy to use. But again, it might be due to this Slack-lookalike trend tools are turning too. Their communication features are top-notch and users will definitely enjoy not having to go back and forth between Hive and Slack. Plus, you can even create new tasks with simple drag and drops or directly from the chat.
Like in Easy Projects, you can create client request forms so a task is automatically created in Hive. Hive works just as well at an enterprise level too thanks to its advanced reporting, resource scheduler, Gantt Charts, and project portfolio view. However, the tool is not as complete as they claim with missing invoicing options that would let you get paid.
This tool’s only available in English. Integrations are limited to Google Drive, Dropbox, Zapier, and Zoom though despite all add-ons you can opt for.
Pricing
The most complicated thing about Hive is its pricing.
You’ve got your base fee that’s $16/user/month and includes most collab features you might need like Hive mail, chat, and meeting notes. Features like proofing, resource scheduling, or custom analytics come with an extra cost.
For other workspace features you might want to add on, check their full pricing here to clarify your requirements. No refunds. Discounts apply for non-profits and annual plans.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Strong collaboration features
Resource scheduling
Custom analytics
Cons
No invoicing
Limited integrations
Is flexibility a must for you? Zenkit takes you through no less than 7+ ways in which you can see and handle your day-to-day activities.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Zenkit is not exactly the project management tool you might expect. Besides the advanced task management features (which include 7+ ways of viewing and working with your activities), you can use it as a spreadsheet software, to create mind maps, or for data management. Its custom field and formula fields turn this into a user-friendly Excel alternative similar to Airtable or Smartsheet.

How To Get Started
There’s no onboarding process, but you’ll get a few demo templates to test out this project management tool’s features. To view advanced features and get a better hold of the tool, check out their video tutorials.
Data can be imported from Trello, Asana, Wunderlist, your calendar, or using CSV files. One of their use cases is in fact as a spreadsheet software. No ready-made template though.
How Easy Is It to Use
Although the UI of Zenkit is clear (too clear if you ask me), you’ll see it hard to find certain elements. For example, I just couldn’t find the delete option for tasks so I’ll just assume you can only archive them. But what if you accidentally create one?
Moving away from this, Zenkit actually offers the most task view options I’ve seen so far. Besides your basic task list, Kanban boards, and Gantt Charts, you can also work with tables, hierarchies, mind maps, and more. And this is it really. No other features. I see Zenkit as a file management tool where you can add your tasks rather than a complete PM solution.
Zenkit is available in other languages such as Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Korean.
Despite lots (too many) of missing features, they are strong on integrations so you can complete your work using other third-party apps like Box, StoryChief, ActiveCampaign, or Moosend.
Pricing
Choose from 4 plans:
- Personal (free): Can only be used for basic to-do lists or small directories of up to 500 items but you can use it with 2 other team members.
- Plus ($9/user/month): This is the first plan that includes Gantt Charts but it’s only for small teams who won’t create more than 50,000 items.
- Business ($25/user/month): This plan will bring you extra security measures along with advanced Gantt features and up to 500 workspaces so you can juggle multiple projects and keep them archived for future reference.
- Enterprise (cost upon request): Unlimited everything but doesn’t really come with extra benefits besides the unlimited workspaces.
See their full pricing. No refunds. Discounts are available for nonprofits and education providers.
Pros
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Good integrations
Cons
No invoicing
No time tracking
No resource scheduling
No option to create reports
Weak collaboration features
5pm is a project management software that looks in many ways like Outlook so you’ll probably find it easy to get used to if you’re a user of the email service.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
A project management tool that looks like Outlook? 5pm. Besides this, there’s not much to say about 5pm. It’s a basic tool with reporting and Gantt Charts, but far from being one of the complete project management tools. This option is really only ok if you already use their other tools (like 8am, FireFly, or SpiderScribe) and need a simple tool for managing a team’s daily activities.

How To Get Started
Upon sign up, you’ll get a couple of demo tasks that appear in the Activity board so you’ll get used to the interface and 5pm features. For extra help, contact the support team directly from the app or turn to the help page.
No other project templates to choose from. Data can be imported from Basecamp, MS Project, a CSV file, or from another 5pm account.
How Easy Is It to Use
Despite the apparently clunky interface, this tool is unexpectedly easy to use. Maybe it’s because it resembles an email inbox so much. The problem though is that 5pm doesn’t excel at any of their features. Plus, they have lots of missing features like Kanban boards, resource scheduling, issue tracking, invoicing or billing, and even fun collaboration options.
Unfortunately, there aren’t that many third-party apps to integrate 5pm with either. Only basic options like Dropbox, Slack, or Google Drive.
The tool’s available in multiple languages including French, Spanish, Korean, and more.
Pricing
5pm has a lot of plans you can opt for after your free 14 days of trial, depending on the number of users, active projects, and storage space you need. Plans start at $24/month for 5 users.
See their full pricing. No refunds. Discounts are available for nonprofits and education providers.
Pros
Gantt Charts
Cons
No invoicing or billing
No resource scheduling features
AceProjects is very similar to the 5pm project management tool analyzed above with a Workload feature to replace its missing resource scheduling and management features.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
AceProject is in so many ways similar to 5pm, the previous project management tool in this list. We’ve got yet again an app that’s essentially just for managing tasks. The difference though lies in the fact that AceProject is a bit stronger on the time tracking part and has a Workload feature to make up for the missing resource scheduling tools. Yet again, missing project portfolios, advanced Gantt Charts, and a better look at the team’s activity make it fairly impossible to work with at an enterprise level.

How To Get Started
The onboarding will take you through lots of on-screen cues that are meant to help you learn how to use their interface. You’ll get these pointers whenever you open up a new feature/section of the app.
While there are no project templates, a demo project is available but it really just has one task to guide you to their other learning materials. Definitely check that before creating your own project. Existing tasks can only be imported from CSV files.
How Easy Is It to Use
I present to you what is arguably the most cluttered interface on this list. Luckily, they make up for this huge issue with the onboarding so I wouldn’t exactly say it has a steep learning curve. Nevertheless, it’s by far not a design your team will love getting back to every day.
Plus, the missing advanced features I’ve already mentioned make it difficult to use for managers as well. While the customizable views to see only the tasks you’re reviewing can help, the tool gets a big NO due to its outdated look.
Integrations are practically nonexistent as you can only use their API for this.
This project management software is only available in English and French.
Pricing
Just like 5pm, AceProject has a lot of plans you can choose from based on your number of users, projects, and storage space. Along with the free option, paid plans start at $24/month for 10 active users.
See their full pricing. Discounts are available for non-profits.
No refunds for monthly subscriptions but a refund is available within 15 days of purchasing an annual subscription.
Pros
Gantt Charts
Cons
No invoicing or billing
Limited resource scheduling features
Clunky interface and steep learning curve
Compared to the other project management tools from the list, Avaza is a complex option that has a considerably more modern interface and packs a few functionalities from all features you might need.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Back to more modern interfaces, we’re continuing our list with another complex tool that has a bit of every feature: Avaza. While none of the features are impressive, they all do their job. This makes Avaza an ideal solution for small teams, medium companies, enterprises, and freelancers alike. Ultimately, when choosing to test out this tool, consider its costs based on the number of users you have, invoices you want to create, active projects, or clients.

How To Get Started
Once you sign up, you’ll go through a quick start guide and set up your first project. No existing project templates to choose from though. I found the help page videos handy to check out before you get started. Past data you might have and want to bring into Avaza can be imported from a CSV file.
How Easy Is It to Use
I haven’t had any serious issues while testing out Avaza. This tool is full of features that can help agencies and freelancers get paid for their work while managers within large organizations will certainly find the portfolio management, Gantt Charts, resource scheduling, and reporting helpful.
Users most commonly complain about this PM tool’s speed but you’ll probably need a few months and lots of GB of data to figure that out.
This tool integrates with common tools like Stripe, GitHub, Google Docs, and even Basecamp.
Only available in English.
Pricing
Choose from 4 plans that all include Avaza’s core features. Besides the free plan, their paid options start at $9.95/month.
See their full pricing where they have a cost calculator. No refunds.
Pros
Strong reporting
Client portal
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Cons
Basic integrations
ProWorkflow helps you go beyond projects into managing workflows but this complexity also implies the interface is inevitably overcrowded.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
ProWorkflow is a seemingly very complex tool for managing workflows (more than just projects) but this also means the interface is overly crowded. Surely testing it was no fun. If you’re used to other easier project management tools, you’ll see it hard to find certain features. Your best bet is to just look under Projects. Not a tool for freelancers despite how their cheapest pricing plan is positioned. Won’t be testing it again.

How To Get Started
The onboarding in ProWorkflow is resumed to a Welcome box with a few tutorials and an introductory video to highlight the basics of getting started in this tool. There’s an example project which I appreciate they put together since you can see how a “full” project could look like. Just a few templates you can choose from when starting a new project but they are very specific so definitely not enough for all industries. No import option.
How Easy Is It to Use
ProWorkflow has one of the most cluttered interface design I’ve seen for any tool ever. And yes, it can certainly scare a regular user and is by far not an attractive tool to work in. It was actually one of the few tools on this list I just didn’t even feel like testing.
Of course, the UI is so complex due to the tool’s variety of features. Besides the task views and limited collaboration opportunities done via comments, a team member really had nothing to do here. Instead, ProWorkflow comes in to help managers keep track of timesheets, put together reports, and manage contacts. They do have a resource scheduling feature but it’s so hard to find so check this video before you get started.
This tool for managing projects comes with just a few integrations like Box, FreshBooks, or Xero.
Only available in English.
Pricing
3 plans you can choose from but there aren’t very strong differences between them in terms of features:
- Solo ($10/user/month): While this plan was created for freelancers, it doesn’t include the invoicing module.
- Professional ($20/user/month): Task and time management for small and medium teams. Includes invoicing.
- Advanced ($30/user/month): You need at least 5 users to go for this plan but you only get features like custom fields or teams editor as an extra.
All plans have limited storage space. The most you can get is 50GB with the Advanced option.
See their full pricing. No refunds. Annual 10% discounts apply.
Pros
Time tracking
Invoicing
Cons
Clunky interface
Limited integrations
Lacking advanced task management features like Gantt Charts
Steep learning curve
Apollo is a PM software for those of you who need to manage their CRM data along with the team’s daily tasks.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Instead of being an advanced tool for managing projects, Apollo is a software option that can help you manage your CRM data in addition to your team’s daily tasks. The tool is a good choice for small and medium companies handling deals and contacts in addition to their projects. The proofing feature, time tracker, and budgeting option also position it as a strong competitor among other PM apps for creatives. While collaboration on design-related tasks is easy, the resource scheduling is practically missing.

How To Get Started
Just so you know, they ask for a credit card number when you sign up but you can skip that and still use the trial without adding in any data. Still shady...
No onboarding process or project templates to choose from when starting. Existing data can be imported from Basecamp or via a CSV file. Here’s a link to their help page for further explanations.
How Easy Is It to Use
Despite the missing onboarding, Apollo’s interface is quite straightforward and won’t pose any problems for new users. The main issues lie strictly in their missing features like resource allocation, issue tracking, or invoicing.
Besides these, members that are part of design teams will find the collaboration features and proofing handy since they eliminate back and forth email or Slack message exchange. Managers can benefit from the various types of reports they can create in literally one click, external collaborators they can bring into the system, and even Gantt Chart feature for a complete visualization of time frames.
Apollo integrations are limited to Zapier and the connections you can make via their API.
This tool’s available in lots of languages French, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, and German, including their regional variations.
Pricing
30-day trial.
Choose from as many as 6 plans. All plans provide Apollo’s core features and the difference between them is strictly regarding how many projects you can create, storage space, and number of deals, CRM users, and contacts. Plans start at $14/month for individual users and $23/month for teams.
Check the complete pricing. No refunds.
Pros
Time tracking
Image proofing
Strong reporting
Cons
No invoicing
No resource scheduling
Missing Kanban board view
Brightpod is another tool from the cloud based project management tools list, that’s mainly dedicated to task management, keeping collaboration and team organization capabilities to a minimum.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Collaboration options are limited as well while resource allocation is entirely absent. What Brightpod brings to the table to distinguish itself from most other tools (Airtable and Smartsheet have this too) are their form-builder integrations for capturing requests and sending them directly into the tool. A good option for agencies.

How To Get Started
The onboarding process consists of one Kanban board with a couple of steps to learn how to use the tool. No importing but there are many project templates (see workflows) you can opt for including Site Launch, Facebook Ads, or Email Marketing.
How Easy Is It to Use
To get this out of the way from the start, Brightpod has a totally different layout than other project management tools. This would technically make it very difficult to use but its lack of features, options, or filters turn Brightpod into a tool you can get used to within the first few hours of using it.
Easy usability aside, the UI of this app is not the most pleasant one. So it gets a big minus for its design along with a bunch of other cons that make it difficult to work with both for team members and managers.
Brightpod only supports integrations with Harvest, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box.
This tool’s only available in English.
Pricing
14-day trial after which you can opt for any of their 4 plans. All plans include their task management features but if you want to track time and issue reports you’ll have to go for the Studio plan or above. Plans start at $29/month for 5 users.
Have a look at the complete pricing. Refunds available if you’re not happy with this project management tool. Discounts available for non-profits (10%) and if you buy a yearly plan (one free month to use the tool).
Pros
Time tracking
Kanban boards
Cons
Limited integrations
Weak reporting options
No Gantt Charts
No resource scheduling
No invoicing or billing
As a heads up, you can only use Celoxis as a software project management tool and its complex internal and external collaboration features if you have a team of at least 5 members.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
One of the most complex project management tools on this list, Celoxis can only be used if you’re willing to pay for at least 5 users. This software’s strongest benefit is the way in which it allows you to collaborate with external users, either with your clients, or “virtual users” who can only contribute to a project via email. This is one of the few project management tools I’ve tested that has specific features for customer support and development teams like bug tracking, change requests, or risk management.

How To Get Started
The onboarding process is available on your main dashboard under Trial Assistant. You also get a bunch of project samples to test out the tool on. There are a couple of project templates you can choose from when creating a new project, so you can get an overall look at what your dashboard might look like. Data can be imported via CSV files.
How Easy Is It to Use
UI-wise, the design is clean enough not to be confusing for new users. Yet, I would categorize this app as a better fit for management due to its weak collaboration options that are resumed to commenting and status reports.
Despite a missing invoice creator, Celoxis comes to the aid of managers through strong reporting and a great control over team workload allocation, issues, milestones, risks, bugs, and more. Strong reporting gives them a complete look at what their teams are doing. It’s really a tool for technical teams.
Celoxis integrates with third-party apps like JIRA, Slack, Salesfroce, and Trello.
Multiple languages to choose from Arabic and Spanish to French and Italian.
Pricing
Choose from 2 straightforward plans to use depending on how you want to work with the tool:
- Cloud ($25/user/month)
- On-premise ($450/user billed once)
All plans include free clients and virtual users.
See the full pricing list here. Annual and non-profit discounts available. No refunds.
Pros
Bug tracking and change requests
Risk management
Resource scheduling
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Cons
No invoice creator
The Ora project management tool is best suited for Agile teams who use Scrum or Kanban as their main methods for handling work through increments. Just like Celoxis, makes the list of software project management tools more complex.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Ora was built for teams who work in sprints. Therefore its Kanban boards can be structured for Agile and Scrum working methods. I wouldn’t really recommend this as a solution for enterprises due to missing project portfolios, Gantt Charts, and resource scheduling, all of which are vital features if you want to get an overlook at what’s going on within your company without missing out on vital details.

How To Get Started
After a quick onboarding and an introductory project, you’ll be able to opt for a multitude of project templates to create your first one. These are honestly some of the handiest templates I’ve seen because you can opt for boards for the Scrum framework, issue tracking, or Agile development. Projects can also be imported from Trello, Asana, or GitHub.
How Easy Is It to Use
Are you a small or medium web development or marketing team? This tool might just be for you. The Kanban boards are simple and pose no use problems for users. Task management is advanced (well, they don’t have Gantt Charts) so you can manage comments, set task relations, set tasks to repeat, and so much more. Even add code snippets to your task descriptions.
All this can be then monitored by a manager who can set estimates and milestones, manage agendas, and generate reports that are pleasing to the eye.
Disclaimer: If you want to track time, an add-on needs to be activated for each project before you’ll be able to use.
This tool only connects with a few tools like Slack, GitHub, or Google Calendar.
Only English.
Pricing
Choose from 4 plans to use Ora after the 30-day trial:
- Free: For up to 3 users (yes, you can’t use it if you have more) but only includes basic add-ons.
- Startup ($6/user/month billed monthly): This plan can only be used by small teams of up to 8 members and includes recurring tasks and task relationships.
- Professional ($8/user/month billed monthly): Includes all of Ora’s current and future features with no user limit.
- Enterprise ($20/user/month billed monthly): Only has extra security features as a benefit.
See the full pricing list here. Annual, educational, and non-profit discounts available. No refunds.
Pros
Time tracking
Optimized for sprints
Cons
No invoices yet (this is an upcoming feature)
No resource scheduling
No Gantt Charts
FunctionFox is one more addition to our list of project management tools that offer you a lot of features to help you handle your project under a single roof.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
FunctionFox is yet another one of those complex tools that bundle a bunch of features under a single platform. It’s really an option for small or medium teams who want a bit of all possible features that can help them manage workflows and teams. For enterprises it’s a bit trickier. This tool does come with Gantt Charts, resource scheduling, and basic CRM functionalities, but there aren’t any solid project portfolios. Your choice. As a heads-up for freelancers or just any team looking to get paid, you’ll have to send in a separate email to request invoicing as an add-on.

How To Get Started
When you sign up for a trial in FunctionFox, you’re literally getting started with a demo. This means you get a pre-populated project to begin with and test out its features. You can also turn to their help page for more tutorials since the tool is so different from what you might have tested so far. No other project templates though.
How Easy Is It to Use
The UI in FunctionFox is unlike other PM apps you might be familiar with and despite testing out so many tools, I had a hard time with this one. Taking this into account, this project management system is one of the hardest to get used to. Add the fact that its many features just make it too cluttered for a regular user or a small team.
Instead, managers will surely find it handy when it comes to managing projects, tasks, teams, clients, and estimates. There’s even a separate module for CEOs (can be used by any manager/admin) where you’ll get a look at all these vital business elements.
No integrations available.
As for languages, it’s only available in English.
Pricing
Pick from 3 plans after the end of your demo trial but keep in mind that the first user comes at a costly extra price:
- Classic ($5/user/month): Includes time and budget tracking. $35/m for the first user
- Premier ($10/user/month): The first plan that includes Gantt Charts. $50/m for the first user
- In-house ($20/user/month): Advanced reporting and custom job fields. $150/m for the first user
Go to their complete pricing list here. Academic and non-profit discounts. You can request a refund too.
Pros
Gantt Charts
Time tracking
Advanced reporting with top-tier plan
Cons
No Kanban boards
No client portal
No integrations
The Breeze project management tool is focused on managing tasks within projects, having limited extra functionalities that make it a better option for those of you who want a clear interface.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
The Breeze project management tool is frankly just this: an app for managing tasks within projects. Add in a hidden time tracker and resource scheduler. This option works best for teams looking for basic features under a simple design. You know, when you don’t want an overly cluttered interface just to move some tasks through a project’s various stages.

How To Get Started
The sign-up process is literally a breeze. You’ll also be welcomed by a pre-filled project to guide you through the interface. No other pre-existing templates to pick. Tasks can be imported from spreadsheets so you don’t start with an empty workspace.
How Easy Is It to Use
Although the UI of this tool is on point, Breeze lacks a lot when it comes to its other features. Users frequently complain that the time tracking option is not robust enough as well as the app having a steep learning curve due to the fact that it’s so unlike other project management options you could go for. In particular, menu positioning and difficulties finding certain options.
In general, where one feature lacks, another functionality tries to save the day. For instance, while reporting can be done in one click only, managing project portfolios is almost impossible. As for time tracking, I couldn’t even find the timer but their help page and clients mention the option. It was probably an outdated feature, so we might assume you can only track time using their integrations.
Only available in English and can be integrated with Harvest and iDoneThis. Other integrations options available via their API or Zapier.
Pricing
Go for any of the 4 plans Breeze offers. All plans have the same features as the distinctions lie in the number of users you have on your team. Plans start at $29/month for 5 users.
Check their entire pricing list here. No refunds. 😢
Pros
Workload management
Advanced task management (including Kanban boards and Gantt Charts)
Reports you can share publicly too
Cons
No invoicing
Limited time management features
Forecast is a project management app for teams who handle agile workflows, including risk and sprints management to help you adapt to changes.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
Forecast is another project management tool that’s focused on helping teams with their agile workflows. Includes risk management if you want to take your projects to the next level. Not an option for freelancers or enterprises though. Instead, it’s an option to consider if you divide your work into sprints and are looking for a smart tool to help you with time estimates.

How To Get Started
At first, there seemed to be no onboarding at all but you could choose from 3 sample projects. When I wanted to create my first project though, I was guided through a series of small tips for using this tool. You’ll get a demo every time you use a new feature. No pre-existing project templates. Existing data can be imported from tools like Asana or Trello.
How Easy Is It to Use
Back to cluttered interfaces. But not the extreme kind (see AceProject). Menus are everywhere. 😲 It’s manageable though due to its colorful UI so users don’t really complain about the design.
Instead, a frequent complaint is the lack of new feature updates from the Forecast team. This may be in part due to its many already existent features. If you want to imagine a day in the life of your team using Forecast, regular team members will mostly spend time in the My Tasks area. Meanwhile, managers will switch from timesheets to schedules and reports. The Schedule module works as a basic Gantt Chart replacement but is missing key attributes like task dependencies or a critical path.
Lots of integrations to choose from including tools like Xero, Slack, or GitLab.
Available in English, French, Danish, and Spanish.
Pricing
Choose from 3 plans:
- Standard ($30/user/month): Honestly, this plan will do for most teams but it includes almost all of the Forecast features.
- Premium ($49/user/month): Some security features and premium integrations.
- Enterprise (cost upon request): Another case of an enterprise plan where you only pay for the security features which, btw, you also get with the Premium plan. Can’t really see the benefit (or difference for that matter) of this plan.
Check the full pricing. No refunds. Discounts are available for yearly plans.
Pros
Strong reporting including for your project portfolio
Resource scheduling
Time management
Cons
No invoicing
Productive is yet another PM tool to help you handle all activities and even deals visually through Kanban boards while also offering a profitability function and letting you organize your work for retainer clients.
BEST FOR
Small and Medium Businesses, Enterprises
PRICING
CORE FEATURES
Time Tracking
Task Management
Invoicing
Resource Scheduling
Team Collaboration
A project management tool for small sales teams? Productive helps you handle your tasks and deals visually through Kanban boards while also providing a profitability function and letting you manage your retainer clients. It’s an alternative to consider if you’re looking for a relatively cheap option to have full control over your projects and teams while being able to invoice clients based on tracked time too.

How To Get Started
When you start using this tool, you can choose to start with sample data (or just with an empty workspace if you don’t want to later spend time deleting everything).
You’ll be taken through a guide to the Productive features. No templates to choose from creating a new project. Company and client data can be imported from CSV files.
How Easy Is It to Use
I enjoyed seeing they had a target market for which they created specific features: salespeople. Along with the regular boards you can create for sales, there’s a specific Sales module that lets you take deals or prospects through your set sales funnel. Complete with revenue, expenses, and profitability indicators.
This focus on one niche has also made the interface a bit too complicated for first-time users. No complaints from existing users though.
The few integrations you can opt for include Jira, Xero, and Exact.
The interface is entirely in English but in-app documents can be translated into any language.
Pricing
One plan only for $15/month/user billed monthly. Easy choice.
Check out their pricing page for all details. Have a look at their terms and conditions to see if refunds apply in your case. Discounts are available for yearly plans, education providers, and non-profits.
Pros
Invoicing and profitability features
Resource management
Time tracking
Cons
No Gantt Charts yet but they’re on their roadmap
Key Considerations for Choosing The Best Project Management Tool
Before you get started with researching which one of the project managing tools is right for you, think about your needs. Ideally, the final choice should be made by a team member who’s already familiar with the project and company so they’ll be able to spot any issues or growth possibilities that need attention. If this is not possible, just hold a couple of feedback sessions with your team to gather their feedback and find out the tool’s musts. This will ensure you’re not making a mistake that so many managers have already made: choosing the tool they like without considering the team’s input.
Simply follow these 3 stages to make sure you’ve gone over everything:
- List down the team’s likes and problems related to the project management process or tool you’re already using.
- Highlight the vital aspects that need to be improved. Perhaps you need a faster tool, want to see exactly who is taking care of which task, or just want to be updated in real-time whenever a change happens.
- Think of possible solutions to your problems and what features might be useful.
Worth considering online project management tools
For the next steps, here are 7 key considerations you need to go through for choosing any project management tool:
- Features: Top of the list for your decision making should be the features. Start from the list you’ve already created with what your team needs and match all this to what the tool has to offer. Think about what they must have to do their work, what would be nice to have, and what you’d be delighted to have. In other words, if you’re saying yes to a feature, what am I saying no to elsewhere?
- Cost: What are you really paying for? Many products charge more for additional users, so you’ll need to consider how many people are going to be logging into the app once you’ve rolled it out to the whole team. Look for transparency around the pricing, especially if there’s a minimum number of users you have to sign up to. Also, consider any initial setup costs and your own internal costs: would you need to invest in onboarding new team members, transferring your existing project documentation, and schedules or training the team?
- Support: However good your team is at picking up new tools, you’re going to need to tap into the support network at some point. How can you access support for the product? How do customers rate the support? If hands-on support is important to you, consider the vendor’s opening hours, the languages that support is available in and whether you can have a dedicated customer success or account manager. This level of support might only be available with the larger plans, so weigh up what’s on offer with what you think your project team will need and what you are prepared to commit to financially.
- Speed: No one likes waiting around for their schedule to save. Whatever product you’re going for, test out the speed with as much data as you can to simulate real-life projects as closely as possible.
- Reviews: Read what other people say about these tools. Look for reviews on independent platforms like Capterra, G2, SoftwareforPM, Software Advice. Pay special attention to people who have reviewed the product and work in the same industry as you, or who have similar workflows and business models to your organization.
- Awards: The best products win awards! Have a look through the project management software’s website and see what accolades they have picked up over the years.
- Customization: Inevitably not all tools will fully suit your needs in terms of functionality or even design. But some do offer you the possibility to add integrations, hide or reorder feature options according to how often they’re used, and even create a personalized branding for workspaces. As a heads-up from us, many people prefer to go for a PM tool that actually listens to their users’ feature suggestions so be on the lookout for this when you’re reading the reviews.
The good news is that we’ve gone over these 7 steps for you so you can easily choose a few project management tools you’d like to test yourself. Settling for the first option that catches your eye likely means you might miss out on a handy feature or better overall deal.
Similarly, don’t just opt for the cheapest version or that tool everyone uses just because you heard it was ok. With 50+ PM software options out there, we can assure you they all work better or worse for certain kinds of teams and projects. Just in case you’ve ever wondered why there are so many, each with their own specific common buyers types.
Start with a free trial or ask for a demo tailored to your company’s requirements. As a quick industry secret, remember that many PM software vendors offer free trial extension if you ask nicely or just if you haven’t visited your account in a while. This is nice extra time for you to decide and give the tools a full examination.
Testing similar project management tools can get confusing, so be aware of these criteria:
- Make a plan - Prepare beforehand what you’re going to test. Maybe you want to add in a complete project and actually work with the tool for two weeks together with your team. Or you just want to have your colleagues add in some mock data to test a specific workflow.
- Take each trial at a time - Yes, you’ll have to take just enough time to dedicate time to no more than one (ideally) or two test trials at once. This eliminates confusion and prevents your mind from mixing all features and tools up.
- Ask for help even if you don’t really need it - If you’re looking for immediate help with potential problems, this is the perfect time for you to see how fast customer support is.
- Gather feedback - Again, choosing your next project management tool should be a collective effort in order for everyone to be happy with their next digital workspace. Many companies skip this part. This is why you’ll see so many looking for a new tool after using another. Have everyone in the team note down their thoughts, missing features, pros and cons, anything.
The Benefits of Using Online Project Management Tools
You might already have a general idea of how these solutions work, but if you’re not using project management software yet, it’s time you started to consider how it could help your business. Here are the top advantages of project management tools:
- Organize your project activities - Effective work on multiple projects without having structured task lists just can’t be done the right way. To save the day, most project management tools provide advanced task management features to let you sort, prioritize, and monitor every task so none are ignored or misplaced in the project development process.
- Track your progress - Most of these online tools help you automatically create reports for all tasks so you can monitor the team’s progress, find potential issues and challenges, and send updates to any of your stakeholders.
- Get a visual look at your project workflow - While to-do lists are a bit harder to monitor, certain project management systems offer you access to Kanban boards. This a method for you to arrange and see all tasks at a glance through your workflow stages of choice.
- Collaborate effectively – The most significant benefit that is undoubtedly needed for all features to work together is strong collaboration through several projects and duties. From sharing files to leaving feedback on someone’s work so the project can run smoothly and with no delays.
- Maintain balanced team schedules – In this guide we’ve put a lot of emphasis on having a resource scheduler because it’s that one feature you must have if you need to get better visibility at your employees’ schedules. The scheduler gives you a quick look at all schedules so you will know who is overbooked or underbooked and keep workloads in proportion.
- Know where your time is going – Even a simple web timer can help you become more accountable and productive. Pair this with timesheets and time reports and you’ll be able to fully grasp your efforts and give accurate time estimates.
What to do next
And… that’s it, congratulations! You made it through our in-depth tour of the top 44 modern project management tools.
Ultimately, choosing a project management tool is a uniquely personal experience. The right tool for you is going to best meet your business requirements, deliver what you need to get your work done and be easy for everyone in your team to use.
We recommend that you use this deep dive list to create your own shortlist of products that would serve your purposes and sign up for a few free trials to really test them out. You’ll find two or three that make you feel like you’ve found the workspace that is right for you and those are the ones you want to investigate further.
Choosing a project management tool is a big decision for a team. We hope this article will help you choose wisely, and if you found it useful, share it with your friends and teammates.
*Although we regularly update this article, tool features and pricing might differ due to constant product changes.