Best Project Management Software Comparison — Top 13 Tools Reviewed for 2024

With the best project management software, you’ll have the tools you need to easily manage numerous projects and ensure their timely completion.

The best software for project management will also help keep you organized, improve your team’s communication, and help you make informed business decisions.

We’ve rounded up and reviewed the best project management platforms to help you find one that ticks all the right boxes for your needs.

From the almighty Monday.com to Quire, you’ll learn what you need to know to make the right choice for you and your business. Let’s dive right in.

Best Project Management Software — Top 13 for Teams 2024

By taking factors like usability, customer reviews, and value for money into account, here’s our top list of the best project management tools for various needs and budgets:

1. Monday.com  — Overall, the Best Project Management Software in 2024. Be Sure to Take Advantage of the 14-Day Free Trial.
2. ClickUp  — Best Free Project Management Software for 2024. Has a Free Plan + Affordable Paid Plans.
3. Smartsheet — Deeply Customizable PM Tool With Advanced Automations. Offers a Free Forever Plan.
4. Hive  — Best PM Software for Collaboration + Has a Boatload of Integrations and a Free Plan.
5. Awork  — Phenomenal Project Management App for Beginners. Check Out the 14-Day Free Trial Before You Commit.
6. Teamwork  — Best Project Management Tool for Client Management + Has a Lengthy Month-Long Free Trial.
7. Zoho Projects  — Popular PM App for Small Businesses with a 10-Day Free Trial and Handy Zoho Integrations.
8. Bonsai — Superb Task and Project Tracking Tool for Freelancers
9. GanttPro  — Best Construction Project Management Software. Test it With the Free Plan Before Opting for a Paid Subscription.
10. Basecamp  — Leading PM Software for Remote Teams + Has a Generous 30-Day Free Trial.
11. Kintone  — Excellent Project Management Software for Small Teams, Also Has a Solid 30-Day Free Trial.
12. LiquidPlanner  — Impressive PM App for Robust Features + Over 1,000 Integration Options.
13. Quire  — Ideal Project Tracking Tool for Simplifying Workflows, and Has a Staggering 5,000+ Integrations.

Selecting Project Management Software: A Quick Guide

1. Identify Needs: List your team’s essential features—task visualization, communication, project tracking.
2. Budget: Set a clear budget. Options range from free to premium.
3. Ease of Use: Opt for user-friendly interfaces to avoid implementation headaches.
4. Consider Contenders:
   • Monday.com: Versatile, highly customizable.
   • ClickUp: Budget-friendly with a robust free plan.
   • Smartsheet: Ideal for spreadsheet enthusiasts and complex planning.
5. Integration: Ensure compatibility with existing tools.
6. Test Drive: Leverage free trials to find the best fit.

Choosing wisely means aligning software capabilities with team workflow for effortless project management.

Best Project Management Tools  —  Reviewed

To decide which software is best for you, it’s important to do your research and compare different products. Let’s review some of the most popular project management software on the market and see how they compare.

1. Monday  — Overall, the Best Project Management Software in 2024

Monday.com is an award-winning tool that boasts ample glowing reviews. It’s a go-to solution for countless individuals and businesses alike — in fact, it’s one of the best free project management software solutions and among the best for small and growing teams.

One of the biggest benefits of using Monday.com is that it’s visual and incredibly customizable. This means that you can effortlessly adjust it to fit your organization’s needs and have a clear overview of everything happening in real-time.

This makes it a breeze to track and streamline your departments, teams, and projects to ensure they are completed on time and within budget.

Features:

1. Automation — Simple IF/THEN automation rules to streamline your processes, boost the efficiency of your teams, and minimize the need for mundane, repetitive tasks such as updates and email notifications on project progress.
2. Collaboration — Monday.com offers real-time team collaboration capabilities — whether it’s comments or sharing files and documents, everything is centralized in one location for easy management.
3. Project Views — Choose from countless visual views — including Kanban, Gantt, Calendar, and more, so that you and your team can track your work in the best visual format possible.
4. Integrations — Seamlessly connect with the tools your business already uses, such as Gmail, Zoom, Slack, and Zapier, for 1,000s more.

On the whole, Monday.com simplifies it all and makes managing your teams, projects, and business processes a breeze. It keeps your teams in sync and visually gives you a complete overview of what’s happening so that you can make informed decisions.

More information about Monday:

Pricing:

Monday.com offers a free plan that has no time limits and allows for up to 2 users. This is great for testing the platform’s suitability for your business.

Beyond this, Monday.com boasts 4 additional plans suitable for anyone looking for the best project management software for small teams all the way up to enterprise level.

Get started now and simplify how your business runs with Monday.com’s intuitive, customizable, project management solution.

2. ClickUp  —  Best Free Project Management Software for 2024

ClickUp is another tool that’s well worth a top 3 placement on our list of the best software for project management. Besides being intuitive to use, it boasts more visual project views than most other programs.

In addition to the standard list, calendar, and task-based tabs you’ll find with most PM tools, it also includes Gantt Charts for those looking at managing their work schedule or planning events with precision — all for free.

Features:

1. 11 Different Task Views  – Including a Kanban board, calendar, and list view. Not only that, as mentioned above, you can get a Gantt and Mind maps view for free. This means you can customize how you view your work to match how your brain works best.
2. 100% Customizable  – You can completely change the look of ClickUp to fit your company’s branding or your own personal preferences. This includes changing the font, adding images, and creating custom fields.
3. Page Views  – Chat, Doc, Embed, Form, and Settings. These pages give you important contextual data about your tasks and projects without wasting precious space on your task list.
4. 100% Customizable  –  You can add or remove any of the default features and create your own custom features.
5. Multiple Integrations  – This means that ClickUp can connect to a hundred other apps, giving you even more power to automate your work.

More information about ClickUp:

You can also read our ClickUp review for more information about this project management tool.

Pricing:

ClickUp offers a completely free plan so you can test its suitability without putting any money on the line. Beyond this, you have these options:

With all things considered, ClickUp is a solid tool worth considering for anyone looking for the best project management software. It’s flexible, affordable, and, more importantly, scalable.

3. Smartsheet — Deeply Customizable PM Tool With Advanced Automations

Smartsheet is a great choice for organizations with complex workflows since it allows you to leverage custom forms, set up a critical path and task dependencies, and neatly organize every project in a separate spreadsheet.

In addition to the spreadsheet view, you can also utilize Gantt charts, timeline views, and performance dashboards to keep track of project progress. Another reason to opt for Smartsheet is enhanced collaboration between different departments, given that it provides easy access to cross-department data and lets contributors leave comments, attach files, set up notifications, and initiate conversations within the app.

Features:

1. Activity logs — Managers and department heads can see every change to spreadsheets, dashboards, and reports with a single click. You can also apply filters to see updates on particular projects or activity logs of a specific team member.
2. File attachment — Team members can easily attach files to different tasks in Smartsheet to provide context or instructions. You can add a link, a document from Google Drive, files from Dropbox and OneDrive, notes from Evernote, and more.
3. Workflow automations — You can save valuable time by setting up advanced automations that send alerts and notifications on status changes, automatically request approvals and updates, send reminders based on due dates, and lock rows based on spreadsheet changes.
4. Document generation — Smartsheet enables quick and easy document generation through a drag-and-drop interface. You can create custom PDFs in seconds and draft proposals, contracts, purchase orders, and other work documents faster than ever before.
5. Advanced filters — While a comprehensive overview of your projects can be useful, sometimes you need a very specific piece of information. With Smartsheet, you can configure your personal view using smart filters to see specific tasks based on priority, department, due date, owner, and a variety of other conditions.

More information about Smartsheet:

Pricing:

Smartsheet offers a free forever plan, although it’s limited to a single user and two editors. Still, it’s a great way to test out the tool in practice before upgrading to one of the paid plans below:

Considering the customizability of the platform, Smartsheet is quite affordable. You’ll only be paying for users that need admin access to create and manage spreadsheets, dashboards, and reports, while everyone else in your company will have access to the view-only versions free of charge.

4. Hive  — Best PM Software for Collaboration

Hive simplifies your work in one unified system with configurable project views, dependencies, infinite projects, and dozens of connectors. This software is a wonderful solution for various enterprises and work styles since it is used by teams ranging in size from 10 to 1,000 individuals.

Hive is a unique for managing complex projects with multiple steps and simplifying the proofing and approval process.Plus, it boasts ample customizable templates to cut these processes in half.

Features:

1. Time-tracking  – Keep track of time spent on tasks and projects to better estimate future work.
2. Flexible Views  – See your projects and tasks in a way that makes the most sense to you, whether by date, priority, or assigned team member.
3. Email Integrations  – Easily connect your email account to Hive and have incoming messages automatically added as tasks.
4. Automation – Reduce the time spent on creating and assigning tasks, changing the status of projects, sending emails or notifications to Slack by automating them with simple IF/THEN recipes.

More information about Hive:

Pricing:

Hive has a generous free forever plan that allows you to onboard up to 10 users. With that said, the Small Teams plan is favorable for most as it offers unlimited projects, all the automation and collaboration capabilities, and loads more for $12/user/month.

If you’d like to try Hive out in all its glory, there’s also a risk-free 14-day free trial.

5. Awork  — Phenomenal Project Management App for Beginners

Awork is the perfect solution for any creative team or project that needs to manage its work efficiently. With its intuitive interface, you’ll be able to efficiently adapt it to your day-to-day workflow without hassle.

Features:

1. To-do List  – Keep track of all the tasks you need to do for your current project with an easy-to-use to-do list.
2. Time-tracker  – Monitor how much time you’re spending on each task so you can accurately budget your project.
3. Visual Reports  – Get a clear overview of your project’s progress with easy-to-read visual reports.

More information about Awork:

Pricing:

Offers a 14-day trial. Upgrade starts at $11.76/user per month

6. Teamwork  — Best Project Management Tool for Client Management

Teamwork offers “client” accounts for your external stakeholders for better planning. Teamwork also has a lot of self-guided training materials, which may be a big help for small businesses that don’t have the time or resources to do 1:1 onboarding of new products across the board.

Features:

1. Client Accounts – Onboard unlimited clients, freelancers, or contractors for easy project collaboration.
2. Multiple integrations – Integrate with some of the best CRM tools, Slack, Teams, and countless others through Zapier to keep everything centralized.
3. Time tracking – Easily keep track of the time spent on projects and tasks and automatically keep your timesheets up to date for accurate client invoicing.

More information about Teamwork:

Pricing:

Teamwork offers a limited forever free plan plus a lengthy 30-day free trial. The paid plans start at just $9.99 per user/month. Try it now before committing.

7. Zoho Projects  — Popular PM App for Small Businesses

Zoho Projects is a project management software that can handle projects of various sizes and complexity levels. The app includes features similar to those found on social networking sites, such as feeds, forums, and debates, and is available for iOS, Android, and other platforms.

Features:

1. Gantt Charts  – Zoho Projects’ Gantt charts allow users to track the progress of their projects and identify any potential bottlenecks.
2. Resource Management  – With Zoho Projects, managers can easily allocate resources to projects and track their utilization.
3. Time Tracking  – The app’s time tracking feature helps managers track the time spent on different tasks and bill clients accordingly.

More information about Zoho Projects:

Pricing:

Offers a 10-day trial. Upgrade starts at $5.00 per user/month

8. Bonsai — Superb Task and Project Tracking Tool for Freelancers

Bonsai’s popularity with freelancers and small businesses is truly unsurprising. Not only does it offer simple task management capabilities, but it also boasts CRM, accounting (and tax), and time-tracking tools — all under one umbrella to keep your business organized.

Features:

1. Task Management – Bonsai lets you create reusable task templates, invite others to collaborate on projects, filter your to-dos, and add comments to tasks.
2. Time Tracking – Built-in time tracking lets you accurately bill clients, plus you can manually or automatically add entries to your timesheets and comments to entries.
3. Automation – Bonsai automates your invoicing, client payment reminders, expense tracking, tax deductions, and more to save you and your team ample time.

More information about Bonsai:

Pricing:

Annual billing starts at $17/month, and $24/month with a monthly subscription.

9. GanttPRO  — Best Construction Project Management Software

GanttPRO is an intuitive project management software that allows you to plan and track the progress of your work, no matter where it’s located in a global or local network.

With its powerful features like scheduling tools for meetings with clients; resource tracking databases so everyone knows who has been working on what at any given time — this program will make managing all types of projects easier than ever.

Features:

1. Milestone Feature  –  You can create a list of tasks that need to be completed to reach a specific goal and then track their progress as they are completed.
2. Subtask and Subprojects  – GanttPRO also allows you to break tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks. You can create a subtask for any specific step in the process and then track its progress as it moves closer to completion.
3. Resource Management  – GanttPRO’s resource management feature is perfect for tracking who’s working on what and when.

More information about GanttPRO:

Pricing:

Offers a free plan. Upgrade starts at $12/user per month

10. Basecamp  — Leading PM Software for Remote Teams

Basecamp, an agile project management veteran, was founded in 2004 and now boasts a user base of 3.5 million people. The software touts its capacity to replace various other paying monthly services, including Slack and Dropbox.

While the program isn’t often a comprehensive substitute, it does combine many of the functions of various tools into one system. Scheduling and calendars and real-time chat, private messaging, file storage, and more are provided.

Features:

1. Private Chat  – Private chat is a feature that allows team members to communicate one-on-one and in groups. This is a great way to keep everyone up-to-date on the project without sending out long emails or disturbing other workers.
2. Message Boards  – Message boards are another way to keep everyone in the loop. They work like a forum where team members can post updates, questions, and ideas for others to see and reply to.
3. Email Integration  – Email integration allows team members to receive email notifications for specific events on the project. This way, they can stay updated without having to constantly check the program.

More information about Basecamp:

Pricing:

Offers a 30-day trial. The plan is fixed at $99.00/month

11. Kintone  — Excellent Project Management Software for Small Teams

Kintone’s customizable project-tracking software platform lets you build various apps for anything from your existing spreadsheets and databases to new, custom-built applications.

Kintone offers 24 built-in templates that can be used as starting points or entirely designed from scratch. These will meet any need within the field, including customer relationship management (CRM), business process automation/outsourcing repository systems, etc.

Features:

1. No-code Project Tracking Apps  – Kintone lets you build custom project management apps without any coding required.
2. Custom Workflows  – With Kintone, you can easily customize workflows to match your team’s needs.
3. Custom Notification -  Kintone’s notification system lets you stay up-to-date on project progress no matter where you are. You can choose to receive email notifications, text notifications, or both.

More information about Kintone:

Pricing:

Offers a 30-day trial. Plan is fixed at $24/month per user

12. LiquidPlanner  — Impressive PM App  for Robust Features

With all the features you’d expect from a project management tool, LiquidPlanner is also an excellent way to manage your issue tracker and keep track of resources.

Along with strong reporting that lets users generate reports quickly for any given task or group within seconds. And if nothing else suits what needs doing, then try out all of its integration; it will provide ways around other business apps seamlessly integrated into their interface.

Features:

1. Helpdesk Style Issue Tracker  – LiquidPlanner’s most distinguishing feature is a help-desk-styled issue tracker. It lets you track and manage tasks, bugs, and support requests alongside your other project management tasks.
2. Robust Reporting  – LiquidPlanner offers many reporting options, letting you generate reports quickly for any given task or group within seconds.
3. Cloud Storage  – LiquidPlanner is a cloud-based application, meaning your data is always accessible wherever you have an internet connection.

More information about LiquidPlanner:

Pricing:

Plan starts at $29.00 per user/month

13. Quire  — Ideal Project Tracking Tool for Simplifying Workflows

Quire was designed for teams that struggle to break down large goals into manageable chunks; it will assist you in creating and tracking tasks and subtasks inside each larger project item.

This platform has three basic view modes: Nested List, Kanban, and Timeline. Quire also assists users in managing and tracking their tasks, whether they are working alone or in a group.

More information about Quire:

Pricing:

The standard plan starts at $9/user per month

Best Project Management Software | Compared

While reading a detailed analysis of a tool’s capabilities is preferable, we’re sure you would also like a glance into where each of the tools mentioned above stands in terms of criteria such as pricing, customer support, integrations, etc.

The table below will give you a good idea of all the tools’ strengths, trial lengths, and whether they support different types of devices:

How to Choose a Project Management Software

As we’ve seen in the reviews above, no two software programs are the same. They vary in their features, capabilities, and pricing. So, how do you choose the right one for your business? There are a few factors you’ll want to consider.

What Are Your Business Needs?

Before making any decisions, you need to know what your business needs. What features does your team need to be productive?

Do you need software to help with tasks such as creating Gantt charts, scheduling projects, or tracking progress? Or do you need a way to communicate and collaborate with team members?

List the features you need and then research which software programs have those features. These might include:

• Task management
• Time tracking
• Resource allocation
• Communication tools
• Collaboration tools
• Reporting features
• Integrations with other software programs

You can also find software tailored to specific industries, such as construction or marketing. So, if you know your business falls into a certain category, look for software specifically designed for it.

What’s Your Budget?

Project management software can vary in price from free to several hundred dollars per month. So, you’ll need to decide what’s an acceptable price for your business.

Remember that some software programs offer discounts for annual subscriptions, and some have free trials or plans, so you can try them before you buy.

It can be tempting to avoid the expense altogether, but remember that project management software will save you time and money in the long run. The right software can help your team be more productive and organized, leading to a more successful business.

How Familiar is Your Team With Technology?

Some programs are more user-friendly than others. So, you’ll need to consider your team’s familiarity with technology and choose a program that will be easy for them to learn and use.

Many programs have tutorials and support forums to help you get started. You can also find video tutorials on YouTube or contact the software company’s customer service for help.

If you’re unsure which program is right for your business, ask a friend or colleague familiar with project management software for their recommendation or check user reviews.

By considering these factors, you can choose the project management software that’s best for your business.

Conclusion — What’s the Best Project Management Software?

Project management software is your key to unlocking productivity and organization in your projects. It can also help to ensure that all stakeholders are kept in the loop, deadlines are met, and resources are used efficiently.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of what the best project management software is. However, the programs we’ve looked at in this article are all excellent choices for different types of businesses and users.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive, all-in-one solution, our pick for the best project management software is Monday.com. It’s great for businesses of all sizes, and its features include task management, collaboration tools, and phenomenal reporting capabilities.

Try it risk-free now with the forever-free plan.

FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about what project management software is and how it works, we’ve got the answers: