Best Project Management Software in 2022 (Ranked & Reviewed)

The idea behind online task management or project management software is to streamline workflows and add control and visibility, essentially creating an ecosystem for a project – where every collaborator, remote or on-premise, is plugged-in and accountable for the project as a whole.

This article outlines the best project management software and ranks each for how it works best. Use the information to align your project management needs to the project management tools available.

ClickUp

Best Overall

If you are looking for fully customizable project management software to do it all then ClickUp is the perfect project management software for you. ClickUp allows teams from companies of all sizes to collaborate within editable documents in real time while using analytic and reporting tools to track productivity within the team.

This project management software has an intuitive user interface where you can add your creative teams and assign tasks to them. It is very easy to manage projects within this project management app.

With ClickUp, all the apps and tools you need for resourcing and managing the tasks within a project are housed in the same place, which allows you to work entirely within the platform. ClickUp is free project management software that offers more essential features than many other solutions.

ClickUp Features

Time management

In view of the current workplace dynamic necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, more project teams work remotely. What this means is that for project management tools, time management features are now a must-have.

Time management helps project managers track progress through resource management and time tracking of team members. This feature amplifies the visibility of team members and their assigned project tasks to ensure efficiency within the project as a whole.

With the platform’s ability to integrate with Google Calendar and other tools, important deadlines and due dates for tasks are not likely to be forgotten as they are baked into the workflow and process. This makes managing resources and project progress easier.

Process management

Project managers have many repetitive tasks that occur throughout a project. Removal of some of these burdens is vital when you are managing multiple projects at the same time. ClickUp’s process management tool allows users to save task templates and lists they create to be used the next time a similar project has to be worked on.

Real-time collaboration and reporting

With ClickUp, project teams can collaborate with each other – working together on documents in real-time. This is an incredibly valuable feature to improve upon resource management and allows project managers to track the progress of project documents.

ClickUp makes it possible for team members to see who else is working on a particular document with them so they can track changes. Since the documents are shared, it’s easy to request feedback and collaboration from other team members when the need arises.

Apps and devices

Using the ClickUp app that project participants can download onto multiple devices, some tasks can be created via email. For example, Gmail users can create tasks within an email and send them to ClickUp to add to the project.

The app is compatible with various devices including Alexa, Chrome, Gmail, Google Assistant, Image Markup, Amazon Fire, Android, and iOS devices as well as all modern browsers and PC operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.

Templates

ClickUp offers lots of fully-customizable templates from at least 19 project categories including design and development, education and event planning, finance, media, and marketing.

Pros of ClickUp

• 15+ Project views to provide maximum flexibility
• Real-time editing of documents
• Two-way calendar sync
• Collaboration on almost everything
• Built-in chat feature
• Time tracking capabilities
• Automation
• Significant number of integrations
• Free training
• 24/7/365 Support

Cons of ClickUp

• ClickUp’s free plan does not give the user many options when it comes to storage and goal-setting.
• Important features such as cloud storage, interactive Gantt charts, and reporting are only available to users on paid plans.
• A lot of customization needs to be done by users in order to fully enjoy the benefits of ClickUp.

ClickUp User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating ClickUp

Capterra -4.7 out of 5, based on 2,759 ratings and reviews.

G2– 4.7 out of 5, based on 4,281 ratings and reviews.

ClickUp Pricing

ClickUp has four pricing plans: Unlimited, Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise. They also offer a Free Forever plan.

ClickUp Unlimited: $5 (per member, per month)

ClickUp's Unlimited plan is best for small teams and comes with the following benefits and more:

• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited spaces with 400 lists/folders per space
• Guests with permissions
• Unlimited dashboards
• Unlimited interactive Gantt charts
• Unlimited integrations
• Custom fields
• Whiteboards
• Mind maps

ClickUp Business: $12 (per member, per month)

ClickUp Business is best for mid-sized teams and comes with everything in Unlimited and adds the following benefits and more:

• Advanced automation
• Form branding and customization
• Advanced dashboard features
• Advanced public sharing
• Custom task IDs
• Publicly share everything view
• Custom exporting and Google SSO
• Freedom to work with unlimited teams

ClickUp Business Plus: $19 (per member, per month)

ClickUp Business Plus is best for multiple teams and provides everything in Business and adds the following and more:

• Admin training
• Custom capacity in workload
• Custom permissions
• Custom role creation
• Increased automation and API
• Priority support
• Subtasks in multiple lists
• Team sharing
• Advanced time tracking widgets

ClickUp Enterprise: contact sales

ClickUp Enterprise includes everything from Business Plus and adds the following and more:

• Access to managed services
• Advanced permissions
• Dedicated success manager
• Default personal views
• Enterprise API
• Guided onboarding
• MSA and HIPAA availability
• Single sign-on (SSO)
• Unlimited custom roles

To subscribe to an Enterprise plan, reach out to ClickUp’s sales team to have your custom quote prepared.

ClickUp Support

Regardless of their subscription plan, all ClickUp customers get 24/7/365 access to support. However, Enterprise consumers get priority support in addition to having their own account manager.

Additionally, there is an extensive help center for users – meaning by simply browsing through the available resources, a user is likely to find answers to their questions without having to speak with a customer support agent.

Teamwork

Best for Agencies

Team collaboration can be a complex business, whether virtually through apps and platforms or in person. In view of that, Teamwork was designed to cut out the complexity of the process, so that teams can work without distraction in order to achieve their objectives.

This project management software includes features like task management, resource management, time tracking, project planning, to-do lists, own custom workflow, and other options to carry out complex projects. It is easy to track the progress of your tasks using this agile project management software.

From the personal dashboards to the Teamwork chat and timer apps, this project management software was designed to put your project at the center so that every team member could stay focused on the task at hand well as anything that needs special attention.

Teamwork Features

Task management  

Unlike other project management tools that restrict leaders to only assigning tasks to one team member at a time, Teamwork lives up to its name by allowing team leads to assign tasks to more than one member at a time, and the good thing is, tasks can be created directly from the user’s account or email.

With Teamwork, tasks can be scheduled to recur on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis – with a new one automatically replacing any task that has been marked as complete.

The platform provides features that allow a user to log time for tasks as well as sub-tasks – with autonomous start and end dates being allocated to the latter, which can also be assigned to a different team member.

Project management

This feature of the Teamwork software allows users to plan and manage projects. Perhaps Teamwork’s most prominent feature, the platform comes with multiple project management software tools for executing different tasks, such as Teamwork's Gantt charts, the more traditional project management method for managing waterfall projects.

Also, with the overview dashboard, the user gets to see a breakdown of the progress being made on all tasks as well as project milestones related to the project.

Email integration

Email integration is important for communication within projects in general, and Teamwork does a good job with this in that it allows users to make comments or respond to reminders and updates right from their email.

The platform understands the need for convenience and also allows users to forward non-Teamwork emails to their accounts so they can be viewed at the user’s convenience.

Integrated chat

Teamwork comes with its own integrated chat option. It allows users to have real-time communication with their team members; the chat app also integrates with the project tab.

This means there can be communication between team members regarding tasks and related issues without there being a need to switch tabs on one’s desktop.

Time management 

This is handy for users and team members who like to ensure accurate time tracking. The desktop app from Teamwork allows users to install timers on their Windows or Mac device.

The timer can be displayed in compact or full view, so all the user has to do is log in to their account, select the project that needs to be worked on, and simply start logging their work hours. Whenever the user appears inactive, the auto-pause feature simply stops the clock once it detects inactivity.

Billing

Teamwork comes with a billing feature for creating invoices. With this billing feature, you can set prices as well as rates for each of the teammates if their logged-in hours are billable. The project lead only has to set the rates and the software will automatically calculate the appropriate rate totals.

Invoices can be exported to Blinksale, Excel, FreshBooks, and other payroll tools such as Harvest, Quickbooks, and Xero.

Pros of Teamwork

• Project and task management capabilities
• Powerful automation to streamline project tasks
• Portfolio view across multiple projects at the same time
• Time tracking software built-in
• Unlimited free client users
• File sharing and versioning

Cons of Teamwork

• Gantt charts cannot be viewed when using the mobile app
• There may be occasional bugs and malfunctioning. While that’s quite normal with software, it can be an inconvenience when you have time-bound tasks and deadlines approaching
• Only individual subscriptions are allowed at this point
• Limited subscription options and an overall higher cost than other solutions

Teamwork User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Teamwork

Capterra – 4.5 out of 5, based on 703 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.4 out of 5, based on 971 ratings and reviews.

Teamwork Pricing

Teamwork has three pricing plans: Deliver, Grow, and Scale. They also offer a Free Forever plan.

Teamwork Deliver: $30 ($10 per member, per month, billed annually with a 3-member minimum or $12.50 per member/mo.)

This package is great for small teams that manage multiple projects.

This package comes with everything in the free version and adds the following benefits:

• Agile view with workflows
• Collaborative document editor
• Intake forms
• Integrated team chat
• Project templates (20 total)
• Table view
• Project level teams
• Task templates
• Multi-level subtasks
• Invoicing
• Unlimited free client users
• Unlimited collaborators

Teamwork Grow: $90 ($18 per member, per month, billed annually with a 5-member minimum or $22.50 per member/mo.)

Teamwork Grow has everything in Deliver, including the following features: 

• Integrations with HubSpot, OneDrive, SharePoint, MS Project, etc.
• Project templates (50 in number)
• Time and financial budgeting
• Project portfolio management
• Resource allocation
• Agile reports
• Burndown reports
• Utilization reports
• Workload resource management features

Teamwork Scale: call sales

Teamwork Scale ships with everything in Grow and adds the following benefits and features:

• Advanced resource management
• Profitability report
• Unlimited financial budgets
• Unlimited projects
• Unlimited project templates
• 500GB in storage

To subscribe to Teamwork Scale, a business will need to contact the Teamwork sales team to have a custom quote prepared.

Teamwork Support

Teamwork has an extensive resource center available to help with any question regarding the Teamwork software. Users can watch the webinars on past live Q&A sessions for tips and best practices.

Contacting support can be accomplished via phone, email, or a support form submission from the contact page on the website.

Asana

Best for SMBs

If you want an easy-to-use, simple project management software that is packed with features for your project then, Asana is a solution to check out. Asana labels itself as more of a program management solution and we've seen it do well as a task management tool.

With powerful automation features and over 200 integrations, Asana comes with a free forever solution that can satisfy many small business task management requirements and those of small teams with ease.

Asana Features

Collaboration

With team collaboration being important to better organize projects, this feature is one of the standouts when it comes to grading and ranking project management tools. This feature in Asana enables team members to share files in different formats, to aid in facilitating communication as a team or within groups.

Any user can assign tasks to another team member as well as set priorities for individuals, create task dependencies, set and adjust due dates, and have records of the communication between teams and members – all centralized within one place.

Teams can make use of the calendar view to plan around each others’ schedules and also stay up to date on new changes or the progress being made without having to resort to email. Keeping all project discussions and management of to-do lists within the platform helps ensure better project progress.

Features like resource planning, resource allocation, project tracking, and resource management make Asana the right project management software for many teams.

Integrations

Do you like the idea of your team receiving instant notifications via Slack whenever a task gets updated in Asana? Then, you will like the fact that there are over 200 third-party apps that Asana integrates with seamlessly to extend its functionality. These include Dropbox, Google Drive, Salesforce, Slack, Tableau, Zapier, Zoom, etc.

Multiple project views

Whether via calendars, Kanban boards, to-do lists, portfolios, timelines, or other views; there are several ways in which Asana users can manage project tasks. With all these options made available, many in the free version of Asana, team members can manage tasks in the manner best suited to them – helping them to be at their productive best.

Being able to switch between views is helpful for project managers and leads as it provides them with a big-picture perspective regarding the project status at any particular point.

Versatility

Asana is known among its users as project management software that’s flexible and adaptable enough to be used for many different business sizes, industries, and management methodologies.

Regardless of what a business’s industry of operation is – be it finance, human resources, IT, marketing, product development, or sales – Asana will always be a great choice to track progress on projects or tasks.

Process management automation

It is important to automate processes in order to ensure repetitive tasks are eliminated and to free up time and ensure things get done the right way. Automation is one thing Asana management software simplifies.

With the graphical workflow builder in Asana, it is easy to set up actions, custom rules, and triggers. For example, a project lead can send Slack alerts to team members when a project is done.

Asana makes setting up basic automation such as cascading due dates and assigning recurring tasks to the next in line within the workflow easy to accomplish. The workflow builder can even be used for complex workflows spanning tasks, tools, and dozens of users.

Pros of Asana

• Asana has one of the most extensive lists of integrations of any of the popular project management software
• You can add unlimited users (in the role of guest) to all paid plans
• The highest levels of security
• Large assortment of automation
• Desktop and mobile apps
• Multiple views and a clean interface for navigating between views

Cons of Asana

• There are too many notifications sent via email and the settings must be adjusted to remain efficient.
• The task management tools only allows for a single user to be assigned. Other users must be added as viewers.
• When commenting, there is no capability to @mention the entire team or the entire team viewing a task.
• Screenshots cannot be copied and pasted into the tool, they must be saved and uploaded.
• No built-in time tracking

Asana User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Asana

Capterra – 4.5 out of 5, based on 10,754 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.3 out of 5, based on 8,304 ratings and reviews.

Asana Pricing

Asana has three pricing plans: Premium, Business, and Enterprise. They also offer a free version, the Basic plan.

Asana Premium: $10.99 (per user, per month billed annually, otherwise, $13.49/mo.)

Asana Premium is suitable for both small teams and SMBs. This package includes everything in the free version as well as the following features:

• Unlimited free guests
• Advanced search
• Forms
• Rules
• Timelines
• Task templates
• Workflow builder
• Start dates and times
• Admin console
• File sharing

Asana Business: $24.99 (per user, per month billed annually, otherwise, $30.49/mo.)

Asana Business comes with everything in Premium and adds the following and more:

• Portfolios
• Goals
• Workloads
• Custom rules builder
• Approvals
• Proofing
• Lock custom fields
• Advanced integrations

Asana Enterprise: contact sales

Asana Enterprise is designed for scalable project management in larger organizations. An Enterprise subscription gives the user access to the complete set of work management tools such as:

• Advanced admin controls
• Configurable member settings
• Increased project data control
• SAML authentication

For an Enterprise solution, reach out to the Asana sales team for your custom quote.

Asana Support

Asana offers lots of support to its users. The Asana Academy hosts interactive courses, as well as training and webinars for people wanting to learn to use Asana. Also, one can join the forum to ask questions, get answers, and be part of a large community of users.

Users can reach out for help, find use cases, and get the developer's guide in order to customize their Asana experience. Users can contact support via a form on the support page.

Monday.com

Best for Sales & Marketing

If you are in the market for a project management tool with the extensibility to work with other types of tools, Monday should be one of those you’re seriously considering. Its ability to be used to manage projects is at its core but it can be used to manage marketing efforts, content marketing production, as a sales tool or CRM, or for general operations. It is the most versatile tool on this list.

Monday is a new hybrid class of project management software and they succeed because they understand that the need to manage projects holds a different meaning for anyone involved in project management. And they offer features to better manage all types of projects.

Monday.com Features

Versatility

We wouldn't be doing our job well if we didn't start by featuring the versatility of Monday. The extensibility of the tool for time tracking, resource planning, marketing planning, sales enablement, and overall operational use makes it one of the more unique project management solutions.

It is the only project management platform on this list that offers this much versatility for an organization and is the reason it is best for marketing and sales teams.

Easy to maneuver

More often than not, whenever a user has to work with a new project management tool, the first thing they complain about is likely to be the difficulty in understanding how to use the platform. If project management software is intended to help a user save time executing recurring tasks then, it defeats the purpose when the tool is difficult to use.

While other project management solutions are certainly easier out of the box, Monday is relatively easy to get started with. As robust as it is, the average user can typically be up and running with this top project management software in an hour or less.

With hundreds of video tutorials available to help with getting started, their customer support makes it an easy experience to find resources for any issue.

Powerful Capacity for Integration

An important feature or capability for a project management software worth its salt is the ease with which the user can integrate essential 3rd-party apps with the platform. Integration helps improves the efficiency of any software application.

Monday offers a good number of key integrations with other critical productivity tools including over 40 tools and services such as Dropbox, Google Calendar, Gmail, Shopify, Slack, Todoist, and Zoom, to name a few.

Time Tracking

While it is not unusual for a user to download and install a tracker into their project management software, Monday, like others on this list, comes with tracking capabilities already built in.

Although this feature is only available in the Pro version of the software, it is still worth noting that this important upgrade does not have to be sourced elsewhere.

Time tracking is important in project management and accountability. When there’s a timer making people stick to their schedules in order to beat deadlines, there’s better efficiency.

With a click, the user can turn the tracker on or off, and in the event that the user has Monday installed on their smartphone or other mobile devices, the Monday tracker can be turned off remotely with a few taps.

Custom Automation

The average business invests in project management software with the aim of automating repetitive tasks to create organizational or departmental efficiencies. While most of the software on this list provides that convenience, Monday takes it a notch higher.

Through the use of custom automation, a project lead can move tasks to their next phase while assigning a team member as the new lead on that task while notifying them of the new development via email or Slack. This is useful for branching projects into sub-projects.

The custom workflow automation ensures time is saved by making it easy to follow processes without having to manually carry out such actions. Users who have never built automation will find the workflow automation builder to be intuitive – as it follows basic knowledge in its functionality.

Pros of Monday.com

• Superior versatility and extensibility within an organization
• Extensive resources as well as a partner program
• Ability to upload many file types without restriction
• Strong assortment of automation capabilities
• Multiple dashboards that are fully customizable

Cons of Monday.com

• Much of Monday.com’s sought-after features are only available for users subscribed to the higher-priced tiers. Key features such as automation, dependencies, integrations, time tracking, etc, are not available to entry-level subscribers.
• The payment plans for Monday are not built well for certain use cases and therefore offer less value to the user.
• Difficult to get started within some disciplines and areas of the tool.
• Fewer integrations than other project management solutions listed.

Monday.com User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Monday.com

Capterra – 4.6 out of 5, based on 2,605 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.7 out of 5, based on 5,670 ratings and reviews.

Monday.com Pricing

Monday.com has four pricing plans: Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. They also offer a free plan for up to two seats.

Monday.com Basic: $24 ($8 per seat, per month w/ a three-seat minimum, billed annually)

This package is suitable for managing small teams and simple projects. Subscribers to Basic get these benefits:

• File management
• Full API access
• IOS and Android app
• Kanban view
• Unlimited free viewers
• Unlimited shareable forms
• Unlimited items
• Subitems and projects
• 200+ templates

Monday.com Standard: $30 ($10 per seat, per month w/ a three-seat minimum, billed annually)

The Standard package comes with everything in Basic plus the following benefits:

• Calendar sync with Google and Outlook
• Calendar view
• Custom notifications and reminders
• Filters
• Gantt charts
• Guest access
• Automation (250 actions per month)
• Basic analytics and reporting dashboards
• Integrations (250 actions per month)
• Simple project portfolio management
• 2-way email integration with Gmail or Outlook

Monday.com Pro: $48 ($16 per seat, per month w/ a three-seat minimum, billed annually)

Monday.com Pro comes with everything in Standard plus the following:

• Advanced formula capabilities
• Advanced permissions
• Advanced project portfolio management
• Integration for Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Todoist
• Milestone management
• Powerful reporting and analytics dashboards
• Resource management
• Task and project dependencies
• Time tracking
• Automation (25,000 actions per month)
• Integrations (25,000 actions per month)
• Unlimited private boards

Monday.com Enterprise: contact sales

The Enterprise version of Monday.com is designed for enterprise-grade business workflows and analytics and comes with unlimited premium support. Users get everything in Pro plus the following:

• Advanced integrations with Jira server and Salesforce among others
• Advanced reporting and analytics enterprise-grade security and governance
• Enterprise-scale automation and integration
• Multi-level permissions
• Premium support
• Tailored onboarding
• Work performance insights

To purchase an Enterprise solution, organizations will have to reach out to the Monday.com sales team for a custom quote.

Monday.com Support

Monday.com provides 24/7 support for customers. For resources, the help center and the blog are available for information regarding the platform. Finally, there’s a wealth of resources available in the community section that is valuable for anyone using this project management platform.

GanttPRO

Best for Formal PMs

As its name suggests, this project management software makes use of Gantt charts to manage projects from a waterfall or sprint approach. There are other views, however, that provide visualizations of the dependent relationship between activities and tasks regarding the execution and completion of a project.

With features that allow for the planning of complex projects, application of filter options, project calendars, and viewing of milestones, GanttPRO has proven to be a platform that affords teams and formal project managers the flexibility to intuitively organize complex tasks.

GanttPRO Features

Collaboration

The developers of GanttPRO understand the importance of collaboration to the successful execution of projects, and that is why they built a collaboration feature to let project managers store information related to the project so that project participants and team members can collaborate amongst themselves.

Whether you need a project management app that allows you to attach files, comment on tasks, describe requirements specific to tasks, get notifications in real-time as well as mention team members, this project management app is where you stop searching and start planning.

GanttPRO Chart Templates

GanttPRO gives users an easy start regarding Gantt charts by providing lots of ready-made templates that can be put to a variety of professional uses. These templates can be customized to suit the needs required by the project even though they are of a typical structure and consequence of tasks.

Resource Management and Resource Workload

With the Gantt charts creator tools, project leaders get to specify the cost of working with real team members in addition to virtual resources. This is a cost-cutting feature as it helps project managers keep budgets under complete control.

With the resource management workload feature, project leads are able to keep tabs on each member’s task load — helping identify the overloaded and the underperformers – while allowing resource reallocation that helps keep the project tracking successfully.

Task Management (Dependencies and Progress Tracking)

Handling small measurable segments more granularly is how big projects are executed, and that is why this feature exists – to make it possible to split projects into smaller phases with milestones so they can be easier to plan projects in order to have better control over the project duration.

This drag-and-drop tool allows users to create groups of tasks and subtasks, as well as set their duration, and track their progress while connecting assignments with dependencies.

Auto Scheduling

This feature automatically adjusts the user’s schedule in the event of any changes in the project plan or dependent tasks.

Also, there is the critical path feature that displays any tasks directly affecting a project’s delivery – providing options to the shorten project's delivery while adhering to the project charter.

Pros of Gantt

• Built to abide by more formal project management principles
• Great tools for tracking project progress across many views
• Project versioning to easily undo and restore actions
• Board views for effective agile project management
• Project health, critical path, and baseline views

Cons of GanttPro

• Could do better with the integrations
• Comes with no billing or invoicing tools
• Does not offer customizable reporting tools or dashboards

GanttPRO User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating GanttPRO

Capterra – 4.8 out of 5, based on 298 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.8 out of 5, based on 282 ratings and reviews.

GanttPRO Pricing

GanttPRO has four pricing plans: Basic, Pro, Business, and Enterprise. GanttPro does not offer a free version.

GanttPRO Basic: $7.99 (per user, per month, billed annually)

This package is for smaller teams looking for basic project management features in addition to clear task visualization. It comes with the following and more:

• Auto-scheduling
• To-do lists
• Gantt and Board view
• Project calendar
• Virtual resources
• Filters
• Dependencies
• Milestones

GanttPRO Pro: $12.99 (per user, per month, billed annually)

This is for teams who want to automate project planning while streamlining teamwork. The Pro package comes with everything in Basic, plus the following:

• Bulk change
• Custom fields
• Custom templates
• Overdue tasks tools
• Cascade sorting
• Saving project templates

GanttPRO Business: $19.99 (per user, per month, billed annually)

The Business package is for companies and teams who need to optimize resource workload while running comprehensive project portfolio management. Benefits of this package include everything in Pro plus the following:

• Jira Cloud integration
• Portfolio view
• Reports
• Time tracking
• Workload management tools
• Resource types
• Estimation and actual cost calculations

GanttPRO Enterprise: contact sales

Designed for departments and organizations looking for advanced security, control, as well as support options, subscribers get everything in Business plus the following:

• Assistance with Enterprise onboarding
• Increased API limits
• Priority support
• SAML Single sign-on
• Customer success manager

Signing on to the Enterprise solution requires that organizations first reach out to GanttPRO via their sales team for a custom quote.

GanttPRO Support

The GanttPRO Learning center has lots of valuable resources for users to take advantage of. There are video tutorials, a blog and customer stories to help acclimate yourself to the product. Users who need support can contact GanttPRO via chat, email and phone.

Hive

A cloud-based project management tool, Hive brings much to the table including powerful analytics tools and collaboration features while being a refreshing blend of resource and task management platform, overall.

Businesses, no matter their size, would find Hive offering all there is to be expected of a tool of its caliber, and that is why it makes an appearance on this list – among the best project management software available today.

Assigning tasks, managing productivity, and tracking a team’s productivity gets easier with this Swiss Army knife of a tool, and it is worth the investment one would make of it.

Hive Features

Centralized communication

It is never pleasant business to have to go through hundreds and perhaps thousands of messages in an attempt to find a message received weeks ago. That is why Hive ‘parks’ all the communication at one grand station.

With this centralized communication feature, apps such as Gmail, Skype, Slack, etc, can all be used within the platform – and with its advanced search functionality, searches can be made with keywords such as the recipient’s name.

Tools for approval and proofing

This is convenient for companies and teams that operate remotely with their creative teams and stakeholders.

In this case, rather than sending out communication via email, the project leader simply adds files in Hive with a request for the authorized stakeholder or team member to approve within the platform. The leader sends a request, the receiver gets the notification and carries out the task, and work is done.

Built-in messaging system

Keeping communication within the project management platform ensures that everything is organized – making it easy to locate specific task-related messages without having to go on a scavenger hunt.

With Hive, users can start private or group chats with the rest of their team, use emojis in reacting to messages, and alert team members about developments by @-mentioning them. Users can simply turn their notifications off or switch their activity status to busy in case they don’t want to be disturbed.

To share files, a user simply has to drag and drop the attachment during the chat, and adding someone to a group is as easy as inviting them via email.

Project summaries

It is important for one to be able to view the progress being made or their performance on a task they’ve been assigned. With this feature, project managers get to view the summary of work done by their entire team.

The stats and figures presented in such summaries can be shared via email with the rest of the team or even the client – in the form of a progress report.

Pros of Hive

• Time tracking capabilities
• Offers flexible add-ons so you can pay for advanced features without having to upgrade your plan
• Unlimited tasks and projects.
• Personal to-do lists
• Team resourcing features
• Capability to auto-schedule meetings
• In-app messaging

Cons of Hive

• Most all-in-one apps come with a steep learning curve
• Common integrations need Zapier in order to be executed
• The mobile app functionality is limited or reduced
• Limited paid plan options

Hive User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Hive

Capterra – 4.5 out of 5, based on 154 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.6 out of 5, based on 337 ratings and reviews.

Hive Pricing

Hive has two paid plans: Hive Solo is the free version, and Hive Teams and Hive Enterprise are paid plans.

Hive Teams: $12 (per user, per month, billed annually, otherwise $16/mo.)

This package comes with everything in the Free plan plus:

• Unlimited storage and users
• Multiple projects and tasks
• External guest access
• Shareable forms
• Time tracking
• In-app calendar

Hive Enterprise: contact sales

Designed for teams and companies requiring custom project management features and extra support, the Enterprise version of Hive comes with everything in Teams plus:

• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited users
• Enhanced security and permission controls
• Custom analytics and reporting
• Unlimited onboarding
• Dedicated customer success manager
• Enterprise API

To sign up to the Enterprise plan, organizations will need to reach out to Hive via their sales team for a custom quote.

Hive Support

Users can visit Hive University to find a wealth of resources available in the form of webinars and articles. Additionally, there is an extensive FAQ and support section. The customer service and help teams can be reached via chat.

Quire

As a collaborative and easy-to-use cloud-based task management tool, Quire allows users to easily plan projects, note down ideas, and of course, collaborate on tasks with the team – even when they are not present in the same location.

The unique element with Quire is the tree-type model users use to build tasks, which is important for better planning and organization. With Quire, task management becomes manageable, simple, and hassle-free.

Quire offers some essential project management features like communication and collaboration, integration, team management, roles and permissions, and more. Quire comes with a couple of unique features that set it apart from other project management apps.

Quire Features

Kanban Boards

When working on a project, you want to visualize the processes and workflow in order to better manage tasks. Quire uses the Kanban implementation in achieving that goal.

Scheduled tasks are marked with ‘To-Do’ and once work starts, their project status change to ‘In Progress’ while some get updated to Review and Completed status. With this feature, you can set the priority level of tasks from Low, Medium, High, and Urgent – letting the rest of the team know the importance of particular deliverables.

Nested Tasks

This is one of the features that make Quire stand out as one of the best project management tools on this list because of its importance to efficient and organized workflow.

This feature is good for keeping a big picture perspective while working on smaller tasks. After putting ideas into the To-Do list during the planning stage, they are then assigned to boards – after being finalized – for management and completion.

Sublists

It is quite common during team projects to have instances where members have to entertain certain tasks that are not relevant to their role within the team. When that happens, confusion can set in.

Quire’s sublist feature is built to help eliminate the complexity brought about by such inevitable situations by making it easy to assign relative tasks so that individuals focus on their specific deliverables. This reduces the chance that users are distracted by ‘stray’ tasks from other team members – so they can stay focused and ahead of deadlines.

External Teams

The external team feature allows users to assign and outsource tasks to third parties without them having to be privy to the full scope of a project.

In a similar manner, the link-sharing feature allows project managers to send clients an invitation link so they can access the project without having to sign up. This is also a unique feature among the project management software options listed.

Pros of Quire

• Unique features that align to specific use cases for managing projects
• Built to allow for decluttering of project complexities
• Reusable templates
• Outsourcing to external teams
• Support for Agile and Scrum methods
• Native mobile apps for Android and iOS

Cons of Quire

• Some of the features can be challenging to locate or find
• Users cannot create tasks from email
• Contact us just opens an email application

Quire User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Quire

Capterra – 4.7 out of 5, based on 110 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.7 out of 5, based on 57 ratings and reviews.

Quire Pricing

Quire has three paid plans and a free version: Professional, Premium, and Enterprise.

Quire Professional: $8.50 (per user, per month)

For small teams that need to visualize their work in one place. This package comes with everything in Free plus the following benefits:

• 10 GB storage
• Timeline view
• 12 sublists
• 8 Smart Folders
• 8 projects per Smart Folder
• 5 External teams per project
• Share projects with non-members
• Peekaboo capability to hide tasks
• Task bundle
• Email to Quire
• Multiple assignees
• Priority support

Quire Premium: $14.95 (per user, per month)

The premium package is designed for growing teams as well as organizations with cross-functional teams and complex workflows. This package comes with everything in Professional and adds the following and more:

• 30 GB storage
• 30 Sublists
• 20 Smart Folders
• 20 projects per Smart Folder
• 15 External teams
• Customize Quire email address
• Capability to add new roles
• Google Shared Drive integration
• Microsoft OneDrive for Business integration
• Microsoft SharePoint integration
• 1 hr training/consultancy

Quire Enterprise: $19.95* (per user, per month)

This is designed for enterprise-grade corporations in need of ultimate management, security control, and support. Benefits of this package include everything in Premium plus the following and more:

• Unlimited projects
• Unlimited users
• 3 GB × numbers of members or customize
• Unlimited sublists
• Unlimited Smart Folders
• Unlimited projects per Smart Folder
• Unlimited external teams premium support

*Need a more customized plan or further assistance? Reach out to the Quire sales team for a custom quote.

Quire Support

The Quire blog has a wealth of resources on project management tools. You can find tutorials on getting started on the Quire resource page.

Find answers to questions on the FAQ page and if they remain unanswered, send them feedback via email. You can also contact them via email for all forms of related customer support inquiries.

Importance of Project Management Software

Centralized workflows

One main benefit teams derive from a quality project management solution is the centralized workflow. With that, the various functions of a project get centralized so that the resources required for planning and execution are housed under the same roof.

Since the tools necessary for collaborating on any particular project are now together in an “ecosystem”, there’s no need to use standalone tools or applications for communication, file sharing, knowledge capture, or task management, among others.

Having strong workflows and high levels of visibility of those workflows allows you to track projects more intently and with greater resolution.

Enhanced productivity

With all the important details within a project management solution you need in place, one of the benefits you’ll derive is an improvement in the productivity of team members – which eventually impacts workflow and ultimately, the project progress as a whole.

Project management software helps improve decision-making as well as productivity. Do you need to make informed decisions on short notice? Well, you can – with the important details you need in a centralized location.

Improved planning and scheduling

Any project idea that is destined to be successful will need a well-thought-out project plan and a work breakdown structure (WBS). This is one reason top project management software is designed with features that help in planning and scheduling – giving access to past data that can inform procedures based on previous results from similar actions taken.

Improved team collaboration

Communication is important if you’re going to get anything done while working with a team. In project management, this is perhaps the most important aspect, and that is why it is necessary for all team members to be on the same page at all times.

It is quite common for project teams to have members assembled from various departments, and since most will have competing priorities and schedules, it can be difficult for the members to regularly attend team meetings while staying up to date – causing delays due to communication – resulting in inefficiency as well as resource waste.

With project management software teams are able to share their progress reports with each other – going a long way to ensure the project is on course and on time.

Effective meetings

When working as a team on a project, it is important for meetings to have clear and efficient objectives. Working effectively within project management software enables you to have clear agendas with achievable outcomes in team meetings.

Also, this software comes with features that allow the manager to document meeting minutes as well as schedule the follow-up episode to the initial meeting. Being able to streamline meetings will ensure that there’s a clear understanding of its objectives in order for it to serve a purpose.

Task delegation

A common problem faced by managers who aren’t using a structured method of project management is frustration among members which results in inefficiency within the team. All these issues arise when there’s inefficient task distribution.

When using project management software, managers are able to delegate tasks to members because the software gives an overview of ongoing individual team tasks – and with such insight, the manager is able to see who may be available to be assigned some extra work.

Document management

With every project comes the need for project documents to be managed. From files of specific tasks, to project plans and reports – there is a lot of documentation to be tracked while a project is in progress as well as when it’s completed.

Working with project management software would ensure that processes are documented in an accurate, well-organized, and easy-to-read and share form.

Accountability

When a team is able to collaborate effectively, it becomes easier to track tasks. While project management software cannot replace a team leader, project managers can use the tool to achieve certain objectives, while keeping the team members on track to reaching their assigned goals.

With project management software, it is easier to measure who’s pulling their weight and each member's level of accountability.

Features of Good Project Management Software

Collaboration and communication

Good communication leads to clarity of purpose and results in team projects. That is why good project management software has communication features that enable conversation regarding the project’s progress to freely flow in order to maintain the momentum or speed it up a notch.

When team members are able to directly reference or comment on a particular development, there’s clarity when an answer is found or a strategy is decided for the course of action to be taken. Communication feeds the team project ecosystem, and where there’s communication, there will be effective collaboration.

Third-party integrations

Earlier we mentioned how project management software is convenient because all the project management solutions needed for effective collaboration are housed under one roof. Now, a lot can be done when the software enables integration – making it possible for the user to have both native and 3rd party integrations – helping save time by tracking all the work in one place.

While this is not strictly a feature, it’s an important addition that enables project management systems to integrate with any other tools the user would want to work with. Not having to log in to separate software in order to get some particular task completed is a time saver as one can seamlessly integrate tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, document management platforms and systems, email, and financial applications used for accounting, and Slack – among others.

Task management

Task management – which helps get things done – is at the heart of every project management endeavor. Tasks build projects, and it is necessary for the project manager to know who did what and the time it was carried out.

When your project management software has task management features, the team is able to break the work up into manageable bits so that tasks can be assigned to the right team members – with deadlines by which time they should complete the assignment for others to take over.

Project planning

The project planning feature in project management software is core to the software’s effectiveness and overall value for money. The project planning phase is where the project manager and team figure out what they need to get done.

Here, this feature, which can be in the form of a calendar, Gantt chart, or schedule, makes it possible for the project manager and his team to see how the various pieces of the project fit together – while accommodating changes to keep work on track.

Resource management

Resource management when done right helps the project manager deploy the right personnel and resources to the right teams in order to get the project fulfilled. Having such features on your project management software keeps the manager and project team informed about the individuals working on particular tasks as well as when they were assigned such tasks and how long they’ve been working on them.

Also, having this feature protects the project team as members will neither be overworked nor underworked on multiple projects because they are properly staffed and everyone’s productivity is being assessed and monitored.

Analysis, insight, and reporting

Documentation is important in project management – allowing project managers to monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs) and how the project is faring overall. That is why a project management tool should enable its user to generate project reports.

When you have project reports to work with, as a project manager, you’d have enough insight with which you can make informed decisions. Instead of going in blind and firing at will, you have the progress quantified in the reports to work with, so whatever decisions you make will indeed be backed by facts and figures.

Time tracking

When working on multiple projects with limited time and budgets, it is important to incorporate effective time tracking into the process in order for the project manager to ensure that time spent always yields quality results in terms of the work done.

That is why the time tracking feature is essential when shopping for project management software if the team intends to maximize their limited time by getting tasks completed with efficiency and less effort.

Aside from that, having this feature comes with other benefits including project budgeting, whereby the hours required to work on a project can be forecasted by the project manager and team leaders.

User role management

Projects are usually carried out with critical and sensitive business information such as customer information, financial data, and new product ideas or launches. Such information would definitely be above the pay grade of some team members, if not most – meaning, not every member of the team should have access to such information simply because they are working as part of a project.

Having the user role management feature in the project management tool would help the project leader give access to authorized personnel while restricting unauthorized team members from gaining access to confidential company and project information.

Best Project Management Software 2022 Wrap-up

The size of a team does not determine whether project management software can be used effectively within an organization. From small start-up teams to large, seasoned teams who need to maximize collaboration with other departments, effective project management tools can make the difference on a single project or across multiple projects.

The best project management software provides you with the essential tools and likely more features than you'll ever need. They are built to successfully track projects, the rest is up to the team you've got in place.