Project management software helps project managers and teams complete client requirements and manage time, budget, and scope constraints. The business application of project manager software provides benefits especially if chosen correctly to match an organization’s requirements.
Top Project Management Software
Project management platforms are expanding their functions and crossing boundaries with their combination of features, further complicating the user’s selection process. From project scheduling software to project planning apps, we built a list of the best software for project management for different types of industry and business needs to assist you in this crucial selection process.
What Is Project Management Software?
A project management tool helps project managers, teams, and individual contributors complete tasks, organize client requirements, and manage time, budget, and scope constraints.
Companies that use the right project management benefit by delivering projects that provide the expected results within cost and on time. This guide covers the types of project management implementation, the major features you should look for, and what companies of all sizes should consider when making a purchase.
Types of Project Management Software
When project software became available and affordable to businesses, companies replaced their pen-and-paper project tracker systems with project management solutions.
But technology continues to evolve, so desktop applications improved in features, scale, and security that allowed multiple users access to the software over a company’s own data network. When cloud computing presented options and advantages, management software vendors offered their subscription-based products over the internet to businesses of all sizes. It also opened the market to more providers offering a variety of systems.
Online Project Management Software
Web-based project management programs are accessible through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription from any internet-connected web browser. These online platforms cater to businesses of all sizes across industries. Users in various locations can access the tool from different devices such as desktops, tablets, and smartphones to get up-to-date project status and information from a central database.
Today’s online project management software has a rich set of features that can compete with enterprise systems. Many of these apps provide several methods to visualize project tasks and goal progress, collaborate with coworkers, automate workflows, share files, message team members, and integrate with email.
By expanding their feature sets, online management software also fall into the categories of collaboration software or business process management software. Examples of online project management solutions include Zoho Projects, Microsoft Project, and Basecamp.
On-Premise Project Management Software
On-premise project management programs reside on the company’s own server. The server will be inside the company’s data center and managed by its IT employees. Companies often purchase a single on-premise license and may have to purchase additional upgrades or updates. Companies prefer on-premise project software due to concerns about as well as long-term costs.
When the company runs the software on their private servers, they have full control over the data storage and security protocols to protect that data. Enterprises with 50, 100, or more users can save from monthly subscription costs if they purchase one-time license fees used in on-premise project management programs. They also have control over when to schedule software updates to make preparations and not experience any downtime due to an automatic product update inherent in SaaS systems.
Integrated vs Best-of-Breed Software
Today’s project management solutions include several features and tools to manage a wide array of business project scopes. Specialized project software can manage simple projects satisfactorily. A best-of-breed application specializes in one particular capability, such as task management, scheduling, or time tracking.
Integrated suite applications combine several functions like task management, Gantt charting, and time tracking. Businesses prefer integrated tools for a unified solution that provides visibility, improves collaboration, and supports accountability.
Startups and small businesses need simple management software solutions with fewer features that cover basic functionality. Task management, team collaboration, document management, and email integrations are all common features that should be included in your chosen project management tool.
A comprehensive project management solution has more features that cover core project management functions such as scheduling, resource management, and financial management on top of more advanced project management features. A PM suite will have a higher cost but also deliver accurate estimates, dependencies control, unlimited projects within a single instance, real-time progress tracking, and comprehensive reports that justify the price of the solution.
These tools also require more oversight and time to be more effective in managing projects. Larger organizations and teams prefer integrated management software, especially for more complex projects.
Free Project Management Solutions
Free software is available for home use, for very small teams of 1-2 people, and as a fully-featured free and open-source system.
However, many of these simple project management solutions are offered as a free tier by project management vendors that also provide various levels of paid service. Free tiers may have more limited features, may be restricted to a few users, or may come with limited personalized support. However, many small teams and those just testing out a new tool may find these options useful to help in their decision-making process.
Open-source is a valuable option for large teams looking for free management software. These tools provide all of the same features you may find in a subscription or on-premise tool and many of these tools are highly customizable for different project types. However, access to support, implementation help, and custom changes will need to be managed by an in-house or third-party development team.
Industry-Specific Project Management Systems
Not every industry is best-served with a standard project management system, and so industry-specific software for project management was developed to reduce the amount of customization a company will need upon implementation. Construction, software development, financial services, healthcare, and law all have features and customizations that make them better suited to industry work.
In industry-specific tools, you can expect to find collaboration tools, expense tracking, portfolio management, contractor management, resource management, and more. These tools may also help you manage a creative team, a remote team, or a specialized project within your larger portfolio.
Best Project Management Tools
The best project management tools support project managers, project teams, stakeholders, and the whole organization in delivering projects successfully. Project management tools help small teams adopt digital transformation, increasing company agility and resiliency. Here are some of the top-rated project management tools, in no particular order.
Wrike
Wrike is a project management tool that helps teams be more adaptable to new ways of working. It is versatile for different teams, such as marketing, design, professional services, product management, and business operations. The project management app can easily adapt to a variety of business needs, whether for managing agile teams, clients, or remote workers.
Wrike offers a free plan to unlimited users with basic functionality that can be sufficient to manage simple projects. Paid plans include more advanced features, such as shareable dashboards, interactive Gantt charts, custom fields and workflows, automation, and productivity integrations. Enterprise plans have additional security features such as SSO, 2FA, password policies, custom roles, and audit reports suitable to hybrid workspaces.
Pros
- Task management
- Project visibility and tracking
- Free plan with unlimited users
Cons
- Mobile app needs enhancements
- Users feel the UI could use more colors for easier differentiation
monday.com Work OS
monday.com Work OS is an online work platform that is customizable for various teams, workflows, and use cases. The highly visual project management tool provides a central workspace for users across the organization. Automation, notifications, and team collaboration simplifies management of any kind of work.
The project management tool lets users modify views and dashboards so they get the right information to make confident decisions. monday.com offers a free plan for up to two seats and several paid plans for teams with different work requirements. It has ready-to-use templates, unlimited boards, interactive documents, and custom fields. The software also provides mobile apps, file management, project portfolio management, email integration, calendar sync, and analytics and reporting.
Pros
- Task management, creation, and prioritization
- Team collaboration
- Responsive support
Cons
- Visual UI takes time to get used to
- Users wish for additional third-party integrations
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is an online project management tool for businesses of all sizes. It is a one-stop project management solution for any team, whether enterprise or small business. It has users in the construction, software development, real estate, education, and marketing industries. The project management app offers a free plan for a small team of three users, and paid plans for bigger teams.
Zoho Projects can provide unlimited projects, ready-to-use templates, and online storage space to centralize project information. Users can manage tasks, subtasks and dependencies, receive reminders, build schedules, and automate processes. The project management app also includes time tracking, resource management, custom views, and team collaboration tools.
Pros
- Free plan for a small team
- Interactive Gantt chart with dependencies and critical path plotting
- Automatic notifications
Cons
- Needs additional templates
- Users wish for direct, two-way integration with Power BI and Microsoft Project
Teamwork
Teamwork is a project management tool for teams working on client projects. A central platform lets users manage projects, clients, freelancers, and internal teams with all the features needed to get work done. The PM tool is for companies of all sizes, with a free plan for individuals and premium scalable plans for different teams.
Teamwork provides ready-to-use project templates, multiple work views, team management, time tracking, resource management, and automations. It is collaboration-ready with integrated chat, a document editor, intake forms, notebooks, and followers. Other features are invoicing, billing, custom fields, dashboards, reports, and integration to Teamwork apps and third-party apps.
Pros
- Task management, prioritization, and automation
- Comprehensive set of features
- Free plan for a small team of five members
Cons
- Requires time for familiarization
- Users wish for faster, automated set up of default projects
Jira Work Management
Jira Work Management is one of the best project management tools that connects all business teams. Marketing, HR, finance, and other departments can easily connect and collaborate with technical teams with this platform. Task management features in this project management app enable users across the organization to plan, track, manage, and complete tasks, including repeating tasks. It is free for up to 10 users with scalable paid plans for bigger teams.
Jira Work Management allows users to create and manage unlimited tasks and projects. Users have access to multiple views such as list, timeline, calendar, and board for different perspectives. A drag-and-drop builder lets users create forms to standardize work; automation rules offer multiple actions to choose from. Other features include templates, dependency management, reports, dashboards, and integrations.
Pros
- Time-saving automations
- Multiple work views
- Free plan for a small team
Cons
- Calendar view needs enhancements
- Users wish for simpler customization for reports and dashboards
Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management tool with integrated team communication that’s suitable for all types of work environments — especially remote working. It helps companies, teams, and individuals organize tasks, find the information they need quickly, and get real-time project progress updates. Everyone involved can collaborate with dedicated tools for project planning, sharing files, or discussing ideas.
Basecamp offers a business plan with fixed monthly pricing that includes all features for unlimited users and unlimited projects. A free plan is also available for a team of up to 20 users. The PM tool includes a to-do list, schedule, docs and files, charts, and automated reports. Users can choose to communicate with message boards, group chat, and direct messages.
Pros
- Seamless communication and collaboration
- Configurable notifications
- Free plan with basic features
Cons
- Single pricing plan is not ideal for small teams
- Users wish for more drag-and-drop UI capabilities
Kantata
Kantata (formerly Mavenlink) resource and project management tool is an ideal solution for professional services firms. It also helps companies to maximize resources across all projects. The integrated PSA features allow users to quickly address staffing demands, so users can find available resources with the right skills and experience.
Kantata gives teams needed control across projects and accounting. It has real-time resource management, skills management, a project portfolio view, visual task management, and time tracking. The software also has tools for seamless team collaboration, project accounting, and real-time financial insights.
Pros
- Integrated project accounting and financial tracking
- Improved project transparency
- Third-party integrations
Cons
- Needs simpler UI workflows
- Missing an issue management feature
Workzone
Workzone is a project management tool with feature-rich software that is easy to use for all types of real-world project challenges. It promotes transparency, so users can easily visualize where projects stand; all stakeholders can request, share, review, and approve documents easily online.
Workzone lets users manage tasks, projects, and project portfolios. It has interactive dashboards that allow users to switch from overview to details quickly. It also has to-do lists, Gantt charts, dependencies, time tracking, group calendars, and templates. Other features include status alerts, request forms, workload reports, image markup, and file versioning.
Pros
- Task management and scheduling
- Project progress tracking
- Responsive support
Cons
- Occasional issues with approval flow routing
- Users wish for more intuitive navigation
Freedcamp
Freedcamp offers a set of project management tools that offer teams a comprehensive list of features to successfully complete any project. It has multiple work views like task management list, Gantt chart, Kanban board, and calendar. Users can organize their work into tasks and subtasks, private tasks, and milestones. They can also store and organize project files centrally with support for versions and comments.
Freedcamp offers a free plan that includes support for unlimited projects, tasks, users, and storage. Paid plans are also available with advanced features such as issue tracking, templates, reports, a wiki, CRM, and invoices. Other capabilities are third-party integration, and desktop and mobile apps.
Pros
- Intuitive user interface
- Email integration
- Free plan with essential features
Cons
- Mobile experience lags compared to the web version
- Users wish for better color schemes
Asana
Asana work management software enables project and task management across the organization. It provides teams an organized workspace where they can look at project data using different work views such as list, timeline, and board. Users can create and assign tasks, build plans, and track project progress over time, as well as customizing workflows.
Asana is free for up to a team of up to 15 members. This versatile project management tool is applicable for tracking bugs and managing sprints, as well as planning and running campaigns, events, and product launches. The project management app has built-in messaging, file storage, a workflow builder, unlimited dashboards, custom fields, forms, automation, mobile apps, portfolios, workload management, approvals, and proofing.
Pros
- Project organization and task management
- Comprehensive set of features
- Free plan for individuals and teams
Cons
- Needs better data export functionality
- Users wish for more how-to guides and case studies to maximize use
Project Management Software Features
As you research your next project management solution, you’ll likely choose the right tool by the features it offers. The right features for your team will depend on the size of your team, the complexity of the projects you run, and the use case you will use the software in.
Task Management
Task management software features let project team members create, update, and manage the progress of tasks throughout a project’s lifetime. This feature allows team members to:
- Set dependencies on a task
- Create and manage subtasks from larger tasks
- Set a task to repeat or recur at a specified time or date
- Assign tasks to one or more people
- Import a list of tasks from an external file
Task management is essential in management software. The best software for project management offers visual task management in Kanban boards, Gantt charts, waterfall dependencies, and burndown charts. These tools give a visual representation of project progress that is often easier to understand than a set of lists or items in a spreadsheet.
Team Collaboration
Collaboration tools help solve complex problems. These features ensure that everyone who can see a task or portion of the project can comment, add assets to, and notate changes in the same interface where all of the project information is stored. Visual task representations, messaging, task descriptions, notation features, asset upload capabilities, tags, email integrations, calendar tools, and more are considered collaboration features. Collaboration tools enable project teams and stakeholders to:
- Exchange information
- Hold discussions
- Send comments or approvals
- Put context to project files
- Directly message one another
Creative teams may run several smaller projects concurrently and can make use of Gantt charts and cross-team approvals to keep work flowing to reach deadlines. Large teams should use collaboration tools to keep the project up to date, alert team members to major and minor changes, and centralize assets.
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Support Documentation
Software support documentation helps new and existing team members troubleshoot issues within the project software and learn to use the tools quickly. Documentation and support tools that shorten the learning curve include:
- Help desk articles
- Support videos
- Periodic educational webinars
- In-software tooltips
- Chatbots
- Email or phone support
Some tools offer email and phone support only to paying subscribers, while others offer only online documentation or customer forums for paid plans. If you think your team will need personalized support, look for tools with good support ratings.
Email Integration
Email features within top project management software will:
- Send notifications to individual team members regarding the status of their projects
- Send alerts regarding due dates, keywords, or status changes to individuals or the entire team
- Make new or update existing tasks via email
- Add comments, files, or custom labels to an existing task
This feature significantly increases productivity as the user can manage tasks and updates from their inbox without logging in to the tool. Individual members should also be able to set limits on the frequency and types of email notifications they receive.
Document Management
A good project management app provides a space for teams to store and manage files directly in the tool or by using an integrated third-party solution. Document management features that are indispensable in PM software are:
- A centralized document storage
- The ability to attach documents to tasks
- The ability to attach notes and comments to uploaded documents
- Multiple document uploads using drag and drop functionality
- Document organization within folders, projects, or custom settings
- Version control
- Security features that can restrict document sharing to a small team, an entire project, or outside parties
An online PM app also provides cloud storage space or integrates with a third-party service that provides it. Basecamp is useful project manager software that is built around a centralized project document and also provides some asset upload capabilities.
Project Portfolio Management
Large teams that manage many concurrent, complex projects may need to track each of those projects separately while also retaining the ability to report on and analyze their progression. Project portfolio management software gives companies an interface to run several projects within one or more portfolios.
The project managers and stakeholders can then take a high-level view of project progress, quickly identify bottlenecks, and drill down into problem areas with each project. These tools are also instrumental in team resource allocation and expense tracking across a number of project timelines, as they can show where slack can be taken up by other individuals.
A key feature of project portfolio management software is its ability to scale. These tools can manage unlimited projects with their own separate settings and workflows, but have reporting tools that are powerful enough to give a top-level view. Microsoft Project, Jira, and Wrike all provide project portfolio management features.
Mobile App
Today’s work has moved from the office desk to the field. Mobile access via native project management apps helps all types of teams, and are especially useful for distributed or remote teams. It provides a familiar interface and functionality so users can catch up on work, track progress, and message their teammates easily while on the go. PM vendors offer mobile app solutions on various platforms and technology such as iOS, Android, and HTML5.
Third-Party Integrations or API
The best program management software has a solid core of PM features that allow users to manage an entire project effectively. It also has multiple integrations directly or via APIs for features and data sources outside of the project management tool. A flexible solution can readily integrate with many top project management software services in use by companies today such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, or Dropbox.
Zoho Projects, Wrike, Asana, and many other project management vendors offer a lot of integrations to connect to many other types of business software.
White Label, Branding, and Custom Settings
When used for external clients, management software will help teams with additional features such as white labeling, custom branding, or customization settings. These features often appeal to sales and marketing agencies and global or multinational corporations who want to adapt their tool to meet language and cultural requirements.
Reporting
Project management programs have reporting functionality included—but to varying degrees. Consider the depth of your reporting needs and whether the project software you’re considering meets those needs. Another feature to consider is the ability to export project data to a third-party business intelligence tool if your company has one or is planning to have one.
Helpful reporting features might track progress by due date or task type, update stakeholders on resource allocation, give a list of unfinished tasks, use tags to filter data, and estimate on-time delivery.
Scheduling
A PM tool with project scheduling functionality promotes organization in large, multiple, and remote teams. It allows the user to set schedules on tasks, create a project timeline with milestones, and determine dependencies and resources. For some, this is an essential project management function. However, for organizations with simple projects, short-duration projects, recurring tasks, or small teams, this may not be as important.
Time Management
Time management features in a project management app let team members track how much time they spend on independent tasks, let project managers set ideal time goals for the project, and integrate with a timesheet or payroll app. Teams with long-term projects or that regularly employ contractors may find a PM tool like this especially useful.
In project software options built for large teams or industries with contractors, these features may also be called resource management and include expense tracking features.
Buying Considerations
Small Businesses
Small businesses relying on spreadsheets or whiteboards miss an opportunity to manage their projects more efficiently. They can enjoy the advantages of a modern solution and still stay within budget with careful planning and mindful selection of important items while purchasing an affordable PM solution.
User Counts
While it may be helpful for everyone on the team to have access to project manager software, many options base price on user seats. Companies can identify the essential personnel who need paid access and those who can collaborate for free through other channels such as email or integration. Smaller organizations can easily bring the rest of the team up-to-date through reports that are generated without costs.
Free or Low-Price Options
While every company wants to save money on their software, free plans and low-priced options are especially attractive to small businesses who run on a shoestring budget. Affordable paid plans have limitations on the number of access or features, so it is important to plan for growth or expansion.
Open source project management can provide a free plan or low-cost option, but these tools often do not provide the technical support or frequent updates that paid SaaS tools cover.
Visualizations
Task and project visualizations help teams see the progress of multiple projects running at the same time. These tools can assist in managing the progress of the initiative, but they can also be useful for project planning by giving a visual mind map of the project timeline. Whether it’s through a Kanban board, Gantt chart, burndown chart, or other custom visualization, these tools give an overview of the project’s progress.
Small businesses should identify what data or metric is important for them to see and check that their choice of PM solution can display them by default or will allow for customization.
Midsize Businesses
Growing businesses face different challenges such as the task of scaling their company requirements. Project management solutions can help these businesses make a mind map of their upcoming projects, define their project processes, refine existing inefficiencies, and improve overall project outcomes.
Integrations
Midsize businesses have the tendency to adapt a greater number of solutions over time. As such, the ability of management software to integrate to these existing solutions plays a greater role. The candidate solution should have native app connections, capable of API calls, or include webhook features to automatically data transfer and speed up processes.
Time Tracking
Time tracking software helps teams track contract work, employee hours, and billable time spent on projects. Your chosen project management tool should include features that tie work hours directly to individual tasks. The solution should also be able to compute hours across projects or filter hours for individual contributors. You should also look for connections to accounting or payroll systems via export or direct integration.
Time tracking reports are useful for building a project plan because they give the team an idea of how long previous tasks have taken. This can give the project manager and the individual contributors more context when they go to assign tasks.
Reporting and Analytics
Larger teams have a greater need to track and analyze key project data that comes from multiple sources. They need software for project management with a reporting and analytics engine to display the following metrics to help in the successful delivery of projects:
- Total tasks assigned to project and to individual team members
- Total time needed for task and overall project completion
- Tasks by completion stage
- Points, hours, or other metrics to indicate task and project weight
Reporting and analytics can also be useful to help the team benchmark successful projects and understand where they can streamline their processes in the future. Many teams use management software analytics in their retrospectives and for project planning.
Enterprise
Large companies have the financial and infrastructure resources to implement enterprise-scale solutions. They need to find the right enterprise project management tool that will maximize their resources as well as provide them the insights from across a huge amount of data while keeping data secure.
Integrations
Enterprise businesses thrive on automation and connected apps. Whether your project management tool lives inside an ERP or business process management (BPM) system, or exists as a standalone solution, integrations are essential. API connections and native plugins ensure key information flows quickly into the project software and reporting metrics flow back out to the right systems.
Reporting and Analytics
Reporting and analytics features in enterprise project management tools play a vital role for the software to be widely useful. These features show bottlenecks in the process or other indicators of needed efficiencies. They help the team build a future project plan based on real data from previous projects and provide a talking point for otherwise subjective measures.
Enterprise companies need to check if their business intelligence tool can seamlessly integrate, import directly, or is compatible with the export format of their candidate PM solution.
User Controls
Data safety and security should matter to companies of any size, but enterprise companies need user controls to effectively manage data access. An enterprise company looking for their next project management solution should carefully consider how the tools provide administrative authority over access to projects, the number of available user seats, and granular access to capabilities and tasks.
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Implementing the Right Project Management Software for Your Business
Companies should carefully plan how they roll out new enterprise project management software. The project manager responsible should get the support of major stakeholders—from C-level executives to end-users of the project team. Project managers should include a schedule that allocates the time to learn how to use the project software before taking a major project. That way, each and every project will be set up properly.
Be ready with support documents and some training materials to ensure that individuals don’t have to spend too much time learning about these project management programs and can quickly pivot back to their normal workloads.