Good organization is one of the most important aspects of every business, and even more so when the tasks require teamwork. Keeping all team members on the same page and working in sync can be challenging, especially when everyone is working remotely.
This is where team or collaborative project management software comes in. These platforms are designed to help you plan and organize your projects, assign tasks, and track their progress, so your business can run as smoothly as possible.
However, new team project management tools seem to be springing up more often than ever, making it difficult to choose the best one. For this reason, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to review the most popular platforms and narrow the list down to the top ten best team project management software solutions.
Keep scrolling to read about these platforms in detail and find out more about this type of software, its uses, benefits, and the ways in which it can help your business.
Best Team Management Software for 2024
According to our thorough analysis, here are the top ten online collaborative project management software services you can use in 2024.
- Monday — Overall best collaborative project management software
- Trello — Best small team project management software
- Wrike — Excellent for marketing businesses
- Hive — Most useful for agencies
- Asana — Top pick for complex tasks
- Zoho projects — Most versatile project management platform
- Gantt Pro — Excellent choice for Gantt charts
- Teamwork — Best free collaborative project management software
- ClickUp — Most convenient and easy to use
- Paymo — Top choice for teams working remotely
Best Collaborative Project Management Software Reviews
Project management toolshttps://www.business2community.com/workflow/project-management-software are not a new invention. Over the years, many different kinds of this software have appeared on the market, so choosing the one that is perfect for your team can be a challenging task. Luckily, after careful examination of the most sought-for platforms, we were able to create a list of ten of the best team and project management software tools.
1. Monday.com — Overall Best Collaborative Project Management Software
Monday.com is one of the best and most popular PM tools in the market. It has a streamlined layout and user-friendly interface — as a result, it is easy to use and navigate. It also has some of the most innovative and sought-for project and team management features. It stands out for its versatility, which makes it ideal for any kind of business.
This project and team management software has built-in templates you can use, which may help teams who are just starting to learn the ropes of the platform. On top of that, Monday.com lets you customize your boards to the point where you can define your projects and tasks from scratch, no matter their nature.
You can set deadlines, assign team members to the task, add a status column, or specify other selections according to the unique requirements of the project. The program also features various search filters that let you sort tasks by assignee, location, status, urgency, or any other term of your choosing.
Other features that let you have better control of your projects include different types of views. For example, the Timeline View lets you monitor your projects’ progress, and it works similarly to Gantt charts. The Workload View showcases the amount of workload assigned to each team member, thus allowing you to delegate tasks more easily.
Finally, Monday.com facilitates fast communication between coworkers via its conversation panel. It also boasts numerous integrations and automated processes that can help you minimize manual tasks, thus saving you time and money. Moreover, it’s also one of the best bug tracking software.
Software | Monday.com |
Core Features | Customizable boards
Built-in templates Multiple task view options Conversation panel Multiple automations and integrations |
Price | Basic — $8/seat/month
Standard — $10/seat/month Pro — $16/seat/month Enterprise — Price available on contact |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Simple and easy to use
- Highly customizable features
- Easy collaboration and communication
Cons:
- Top features available only with Pro and Standard plans
2. Trello — Best Small Team Project Management Software
Most project team management software services contain a whole host of features aimed at making them flexible and applicable to different types of projects. While this versatility can be a good thing, small businesses may find most of these functions unnecessary and complicated to learn and use.
Luckily, Trello boasts straightforward features, which makes it one of the simplest and most user-friendly PM tools out there, as illustrated by this Trello review. The platform is most suitable for smaller teams and simple project planning because it uses to-do lists and Kanban boards as its main productivity features.
In addition to its streamlined interface and modern design, Trello boasts convenient cards, boards, lists, and other tools that let you and your team stay on top of your projects. Some of the functions you can perform on the platform include breaking down tasks into simple steps, setting deadlines, and assigning tasks to specific team members.
In addition to Kanban boards and to-do lists, you can also use calendar view, timeline view, charts, and tables. The platform also enables multiple automations and integrations with other popular services, including Google Calendar, Notes & Docs, Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, and many others.
It also has specialized integrations for communication and collaboration, thus creating a uniformed digital workspace that brings teams together.
Software | Trello |
Core Features | To-do lists
Kanban boards Multiple task view options Built-in templates Automations and integrations Communication and collaboration tools |
Price | Standard — $5/user/month
Premium — $10/user/month Enterprise — $17.50/user/month |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- No complicated features
- Top Kanban-style platform, suitable for small teams
- Useful integrations and automations
- Excellent collaboration and communication features
Cons:
- Not suitable for larger companies
- Limited free features
3. Wrike — Excellent for Marketing Businesses
Wrike is a flexible project management tool with highly customizable features, lending itself to different types of businesses and projects. It works for event management, capacity planning, finances, and project coordination and is especially useful for advertising and marketing.
Project managers and team members can use this project management team software to set up and track tasks from start to finish. Wrike has ready-to-use integrated templates that can help you get started, but it also allows you to customize your dashboards to suit the needs of specific tasks.
It has its own AI software called Work Intelligence™, which can predict tasks and automate them to decrease the need for manual work. Some of the functions it can perform include creating subtasks, identifying potential problems and setbacks, and predicting delays, to name a few.
Wrike also enables the use of Gantt charts and Kanban boards with interactive features. It facilitates seamless workflow by enabling in-image commenting and automated approvals. What’s more, it has hundreds of automatic processes and integrations with services like Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft One Drive, Jira, Slack, Microsoft Office 365, and many others.
The platform’s collaboration features shorten the feedback loop and help everyone in the team stay informed about relevant tasks. These features include shared team calendars, digital publishing, and visual proofing.
Software | Wrike |
Core Features | Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and other types of views
Task predictions, automations, and integrations Interactive and collaboration features |
Price | Professional — $9.80/user/month
Business — $24.80/user/month Enterprise — Price available on contact |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Straightforward use
- Proprietary Work Intelligence™ AI software
- Different types of task views
- Comprehensive task and project setup
Cons:
- Many features lacking in the free plan
4. Hive — Most Useful for Agencies
Hive is a state-of-the-art project management platform offering all the different features you might need to bring your team together and organize your tasks. It has a modern design, a streamlined interface, and an intuitive dashboard that lets you track projects with ease.
The software makes project planning easy by allowing you to set deadlines, track task time, delegate tasks, add useful information using the Notes feature, and much more. Once you define assignments, you can keep track of them using a variety of view options, such as Status View, Label View, Team View, Gantt View, and Calendar View.
You can further automate your workflow with Hive by defining dependencies and adding subtasks, attachments, and links. On top of that, the software lets you auto-schedule meetings and set up automatic assignments of recurring tasks.
No-frills communication services, automations, and integrations are additional benefits of this project management software team tool. The platform enables messaging, and it has integrations with Gmail, Outlook, and more than 1,000 other services.
Software | Hive |
Core Features | Multiple task view settings
Notes feature E-mail integration 1,000+ other integrations Automated workflow Time tracking Messaging tools |
Price | Teams — $12/user/month
Enterprise — Price available on contact |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Flexible and customizable features
- Excellent collaboration and communication tools
- Integrations with more than 1,000 services
- Useful analytic features
Cons:
- Subpar mobile app functionality
- Sub-tasks not deleted automatically after deleting a task
5. Asana — Top Pick for Complex Tasks
Asana is a workflow management software that brings teams together in a unified digital workspace via a set of useful tools and features. It lets you define all important aspects of your projects and keep track of them using a list view, boards, and timelines.
Team members can start by gathering important information about resources, goals, and other essential items from Project Overview. The app also enables setting rules, creating forms, and requesting approvals. If you don’t know where to get started, you can use one of the templates Asana has to offer — there are over 50 of them.
The platform’s reporting feature enables you to keep track of the projects’ progress, identify potential problems, and share important information with the team. Its workflow builder enables easier coordination and planning of complex tasks, including quick adaptation to any changes that might occur along the way.
With over 200 integrations, the platform lets you connect all of your digital tools to your workspace. This way, you can complete your work-related tasks from a single platform, thus saving a lot of time.
Software | Asana |
Core Features | Workflow builder
Multiple view options Integrations and automations Commenting function Built-in templates |
Price | Premium — $10.99/user/month
Business — $24.99/user/month |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Interesting design and user-friendly interface
- Plenty of useful features
- Integrated project templates
Cons:
- Limited number of integrations compared to competitors
- No real-time messaging function
6. Zoho Projects — Most Versatile Project Management Platform
Although Zoho Projects is known as one of the most budget-friendly team/collaborative project management software solutions, it still contains some of the most helpful features for workflow management.
Planning tasks and projects is a breeze with this platform. It has features that allow you to arrange your projects into lists, subtasks, milestones, and other attributes for easier navigation and project tracking. Its view options include calendar, Kanban, and Gantt.
Zoho Projects has multiple free templates you can use. It also enables you to set reminders and dependencies between tasks and use the program’s time tracing tool. In addition to that, the app has a chat function you can use to keep in touch with your team members and share documents.
Other useful features include resource management, analytics, reports, automations, and integrations with Google and Microsoft apps, Slack, Gmail, calendars, and more.
Software | Zoho Projects |
Core Features | Tasks and milestones
Kanban and Gantt charts Dependencies Calendar view Automated processes Templates Charts and reports Time tracking Collaboration and communication tools Integrations |
Price | Premium — $5/user/month
Enterprise — $10/user/month |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- One of the most affordable PM tools
- Highly customizable and versatile
- Top-notch time-tracking features
Cons:
- Inadequate dashboard functionality
- Platform functions not advanced enough
- Potentially difficult to master
7. Gantt Pro — Excellent Choice for Gantt Charts
Gantt Pro is a popular team dynamics project management software based on Gantt charts — one of the most frequently used productivity tracking tools. Still, that doesn’t mean the program doesn’t have other productivity features to offer — quite the contrary.
It enables setting up and planning projects, assigning tasks, and tracking their development. It has the option of prioritizing tasks, setting milestones, and auto-scheduling recurring tasks. You can also use different filters and colors to visualize different aspects of the projects.
Thanks to the platform’s integrations and automated processes, you can minimize the need for many manual tasks and streamline the entire workflow.
In addition to that, you can track your tasks from multiple different angles using view options like Grid View, Portfolio View, Gantt View, or Board View. Gantt Pro also enables fine tuning your projects by setting assignees, deadlines, priorities, dependencies, project status, cost, duration, and other key aspects.
The software also has built-in communication and collaboration features. These enable you and your team members to communicate in real time, receive notifications, send links and documents, leave comments, and much more.
Software | Gantt Pro |
Core Features | Gantt charts with advanced features
Auto-scheduling Integrations and automations Useful view options Communication and collaboration features |
Price | Basic — $7.99/user/month
Pro — $12.99/user/month Business — $19.99/user/month Enterprise — Price available on contact |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Easy to learn and navigate
- Advanced Gantt charts
- Wide variety of viewing options
Cons:
- Limited number of integrations compared to competitors
8. Teamwork — Best Free Collaboration Project Management Software
Teamwork is a highly versatile PM tool designed to help your team complete tasks as smoothly as possible. It has a whole host of features that can help you plan projects and tasks, keep the staff functioning uniformly, and monitor progress, among other things.
You can start by creating a task and defining its most important characteristics, such as deadlines, assignees, and milestones. The platform also allows you to give access to your clients so that they can be in the loop about how a specific project is progressing.
Teamwork’s workload management option is excellent for checking how busy your team members are. This can help with task delegation and scheduling, which is quite important if you want to prevent burnout and optimize time management.
To get a better visual representation of your tasks and projects, you can use calendar view, Kanban boards, or Gantt charts. Other useful features of Teamwork include templates, automated functions, integrations, comment sections, and a chat feature.
Software | Teamwork |
Core Features | Workload management
Many view settings, including Kanban boards and Gantt charts Templates Automations Integrations Comments Chat feature |
Price | Deliver — $10/user/month
Grow — $18/user/month Scale — Price available on contact |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Suitable for different types of businesses
- Plenty of advanced features
- Billing and invoicing options
- Commenting and client feedback facilitated
Cons:
- Subpar milestones functionality
- Some features not available in free mode
9. ClickUp — Most Convenient and Easy to Use
ClickUp is one of the most versatile team/collaborative project management software tools you can use. It can meet the needs of a wide variety of businesses and cater to both individuals and companies with hundreds of employees.
It has top-notch collaboration and communication features that can save you a lot of time. Its chat and commenting functions enable you to mention and assign team members, share files, links, and embeds, receive notifications, and more.
In addition to planning, creating, and tracking projects, ClickUp also helps you create specialized reports. This option can give you a more comprehensive insight into your business, thus helping you identify potential problems and areas of improvement.
Finally, ClickUp lets you automate a whole host of processes and use integrations with popular services. It also has more than 15 different view settings that let you track your tasks from multiple angles. If you want to find out more about this incredible platform, you can read our comprehensive ClickUp review.
Software | ClickUp |
Core Features | 15+ view settings
Chat and commenting function Integrations Automated processes Reports and charts |
Price | Unlimited — $5/user/month
Business — $12/user/month Business Plus — $19/user/month Enterprise — Price available on contact |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Affordable pricing
- Lots of customizable functions
- State-of-the-art organization features
Cons:
- Slightly difficult to get used to
- Limited integrations compared to some competitors
10. Paymo — Top Choice for Teams Working Remotely
Paymo is one of the best medium and small team project management software solutions. It can cater to different niches, such as creative businesses, web design and development, social media and marketing, IT services, and more.
Its task views include some of the most useful and popular options, such as to-do lists, a calendar view, spreadsheets, Gantt charts, and Kanban boards. The program allows you to create subtasks, assign multiple people to the same project, prioritize, and leave comments on tasks in real time, among other things.
Paymo also offers the option to create custom workflows, set milestones, and use existing templates to kick-start your project planning. It has top-notch time-tracking features, and it allows you to extract reports and create timesheets.
What’s more, it enables commenting on tasks, sharing files, and discussing key points right on the spot. Its expense tracking lets you stay on top of your finances. Plus, you will get to share important info with your clients, send invoices, and receive online payments.
Software | Paymo |
Core Features | Numerous view settings
Custom workflows Templates Chat and commenting function Reports and timesheets Invoices |
Price | Starter — $4.95/user/month
Small office — $9.95/user/month Business — $20.79/user/month |
Free Trial | Yes |
Pros:
- Excellent time-tracking features
- Facilitates client access
- Useful analytic, performance evaluation tools, and reports
Cons:
- Potentially complicated for beginners
- Editing project table layouts slightly difficult
Team Project Management Software: Comparison
The table below shows a side-by-side comparison of ten of the best collaborative project management tools, ranked by some of the most important criteria users commonly look for.
Platform | Monday.com | Trello | Wrike | Hive | Asana | Zoho Projects | Gantt Pro | Teamwork | ClickUp | Paymo |
Price per Person per Month | $8 | $5 | $9.80 | $12 | $10.99 | $5 | $9.99 | $12.50 | $5 | $4.95 |
Storage | 5 GB | n/a | 50 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | 100 GB | 5 GB | 100 GB | Unlimited | 25 GB |
Free Version | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free Version Storage | 500 MB | n/a | 2 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | n/a | n/a | 100 MB | 100 MB | 1 GB |
Free Version Number of Projects | Up to 3 boards | Up to 10 boards per workspace | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 2 | n/a | 2 | Unlimited | 50 |
Dependencies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gantt Charts | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Integrated Timer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Time Estimates | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | n/a |
Resource Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Budgeting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | n/a | n/a |
Billing and Invoicing | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | n/a | Yes |
Customizable Roles/Permissions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | n/a |
Client Access | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What Is Collaborative Project Management Software?
Collaborative project management software is used to help managers and teams plan, distribute, organize, control, and keep track of complex tasks. It works by enabling users to coordinate their projects, delegate tasks, and keep everyone on the same page.
These team/collaborative project management software tools enable breaking down projects into smaller units, assigning them to team members, and creating dependencies, thus facilitating smoother workflow.
Project management platforms also allow users to comment, chat, and edit tasks in real time so that everyone involved can be in the loop. Thanks to all these features, PM tools can help you minimize delays, anticipate and remove roadblocks, and automate the workflow to save time and money.
Why Use a Team/Collaborative Project Management Software
Project management tools have many uses and benefits and can cater to the needs of different kinds of businesses. In this section, we’ll go over some of the most prominent advantages of using these platforms.
Improved Collaboration
Complex projects often include multiple team members — in fact, they may even involve different teams. With everyone working on their part of the task, it can be difficult to sync schedules and arrange meetings to discuss important aspects of the project. This can lead to delays and miscommunication, which is bound to put a strain on efficiency.
This is where project management software collaborative tools come in. They create a centralized workspace everyone can access individually. Here, all the latest information and updates are available. What’s more, most of these platforms also feature tools like comment sections and chat rooms, enabling real-time communication between team members.
Better Scheduling and Planning
A good plan is one of the most important aspects of any project. However, depending on the complexity of the task, this phase can prove to be extremely challenging and time-consuming.
Luckily, thanks to the useful features contained within project management platforms, you will be able to plan your tasks successfully. These tools will allow you to define projects’ goals and milestones, break tasks into smaller chunks to make them more manageable, assign team members, set dependencies, share resources, and much more.
Workload Management
While your team members are working on ongoing projects, new tasks will spring up, and someone will have to deal with them. In these situations, it can be difficult to delegate work evenly, especially if you are not sure which team members are available.
You don’t have to worry about this when you’re using team/collaborative project management software. These tools have integrated features that track engagement in real time, so you’ll always know who’s available to take on more work and who has enough on their plate.
More Organized Remote Work
People no longer have to be in the same office or even in the same city or country to be able to work on the same project. However, remote work comes with its own challenges that intuitive project and team management software can help overcome. Namely, these tools can create a digital workspace where everyone can come together to work, regardless of their location.
Saving Time
All of the features that both paid and free team project management software tools have to offer lead to a more streamlined workflow that can save you a considerable amount of time. Not only will you get to plan projects effectively and make decisions more quickly, but you will also be able to use various automated processes and integrations that will let you skip several steps and improve productivity.
What Are the Different Types of Team/Collaborative Project Management Software?
Team and project management tools come in different shapes and sizes, just like the companies and industries that utilize them. The following sections will tell you more about the various types of this software so that you can choose the best option for your business.
Cloud-Based Project Management Tools
These are some of the most common and popular PM tools out there. They use centralized databases located in cloud storage. Users can access these platforms via their desktop browsers or mobile apps, no matter where they are. To start using such a service, you and your team members need to create an account on the platform. Most of them offer free plans; however, if you need more features, you can always upgrade to a paid plan.
In-House Collaboration Tools
In contrast to cloud-based team/collaborative project management software, in-house PM solutions feature databases that are located on a company’s server operated by its IT sector. Instead of buying monthly subscription plans, companies buy licenses for these programs.
Although they can be more expensive initially, they can end up being cost-effective in the long run, especially if you have a large company with many employees. Companies usually prefer this type of PM tools over cloud-based ones because they can have full control over the security of their information and schedule maintenance and updates themselves.
Specialized Collaboration Tools
Most types of team/collaborative project management software we’ve reviewed are versatile and suitable for different kinds of industries. However, there are also industry-specific platforms designed to manage and organize workflow within a specific niche. For instance, you can find construction project management software, healthcare project management software, and tools geared toward software development, law, economy, and other types of businesses.
What Features Does a Team Project Management Software Need to Have?
The key features of a good team/collaborative project management software include:
- Project templates — The platform should offer built-in templates for different kinds of projects that companies can use to kick-start their tasks.
- Automated processes — There should be plenty of options and features that help automate recurring tasks and minimize manual work.
- No limitations — Your company should go for the software with an unlimited number of tasks and projects.
- Dependencies — You should have the option of creating dependencies between tasks in order to facilitate a more seamless workflow.
- Customizable features — The features need to be adaptable to the needs of different projects and teams.
- Time management — The software you opt for should offer integrated time-tracking tools and the option to create and extract time sheets and reports.
- Reliability and speed — The platform needs to be fast and functional, and it should allow project modifications in real time.
What Is the Best Free Collaborative Project Management Software?
Based on our detailed review of the most popular PM tools, the number one team project management software free is Teamwork. This platform has a Free Forever plan, which includes plenty of useful features that other providers charge for, such as time tracking, workload management, subtasks, milestones, dependencies, Gantt charts, calendar view, and limited use of Kanban boards, among many others. However, we have to note that the free plan accepts up to five users, so it’s primarily suitable for small teams.
How We Evaluated the Best Team Project Management Software
In a sea of platforms available today, finding the best team/collaborative project management software is not an easy feat. Here are the criteria we used to come up with our list:
- Functionality and convenience — Companies look for collaboration platforms because they want to increase their staff’s productivity, save time, and automate the workflow. Thus, a PM tool should be user-friendly — that means it needs to be equipped with demos, tutorials, whitepapers, self-help tools, responsive customer support, and other features that will help you smoothly navigate the platform.
- User interface — When it comes to collaboration platforms, an intuitive and user-friendly interface is a must. The program should allow users to make changes and updates in real time, create custom fields for different aspects of the project, and communicate with their co-workers easily via the chat box or comments sections.
- Affordability — Some collaboration platforms out there charge huge amounts of money for the features that others offer for free. Therefore, we’ve singled out only those programs that have the best price-to-value ratio and flexible pricing plans that you can adjust based on the size of your business.
- Integrations — Streamlining the workflow should be a priority for a project management tool. Therefore, it should offer integrations with other popular services you may need. This way, you will be able to conduct your business from a single platform without having to switch between tabs and programs.
Conclusion: What is the Best Collaborative Project Management Software?
Different businesses may benefit from different collaboration platforms. However, our review has revealed that Monday.com boasts the greatest versatility and the best customizable features. As a result, it can cater to a wide range of industries.
Monday.com offers excellent value for money. Plus, it has a streamlined interface, and it enables a whole host of automated processes and integrations that will save you a lot of time. Still, if you like to keep your options open, make sure to read about other team project management software solutions on our list.
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