Best Project Management Software (2024 Rankings)

Wrike’s workflow management features and project planning templates for scheduling make it ideal for agile teams and an easy choice for the title of Best for Strategic Planning. Wrike is designed for more than simple project boards and can help teams with many aspects of workforce management, like resource allocation. Teams can templatize projects and automate workflows to keep their process consistent every time. Multiple project board views are available, including Kanban boards and Gantt charts, and teams can create custom dashboards for helpful insights and analytics.

Teams that have projects involving complex budgets, a variety of due dates and a large team of contributors may find that Wrike can help streamline everything into one easy-to-use platform.

While Wrike includes a ton of useful features for project management, it does require some set-up in order to customize a project from templates and include the functionality you need. However, Wrike does offer over 400 integrations, making it easy to include with your current workflow.

Wrike offers a free plan that allows for unlimited users, but teams will need to choose a paid plan to unlock full functionality for features like work schedules, Gantt charts or custom fields. Wrike’s Team plan starts at $9.80 per user per month, billed monthly.

Smartsheet’s robust customer support options earn it the title of Best Customer Support. In addition to its helpful project management features, Smartsheet offers 24/7 online web support for all plans, with the Smartsheet Community forums available to all users as well.

Smartsheet isn’t just limited to project management functions and includes team collaboration features like an in-app chat and calendar. Teams can also add custom branding and email domains through Smartsheet so that you can send automated emails right from the platform.

Teams can use Smartsheet to create spreadsheet-style project views and other board types like a Kanban or timeline. Teams that currently use spreadsheets for project management may find Smartsheet to be a massive upgrade, though there may be a learning curve for teams that are unfamiliar with using spreadsheets for project management.

Smartsheet offers a free plan for individual users and paid plan options for teams of all sizes. The forever-free plan has much to offer, but it’s limited to one user. The starter plan is priced at $7 per user per month, billed annually.

Monday.com’s “monday work management” plans include many helpful project management features designed to fit how your team works. Project management features are just one of monday’s offerings in their work management suite.

Monday’s project management highlights include a variety of project board view options, including Gantt charts and Kanban boards. Their workflows are made of intuitive building blocks that you can customize as you work, which makes for added flexibility. Teams that are trying out different workflows or those that may need to rethink their process on short notice will find monday.com’s customizable features helpful.

The monday work management free plan is limited to two seats, while larger teams can take advantage of their paid plans, which include the ability to create dashboards for key insights and prioritized customer support. The starter plan starts at $9 per seat per month with annual billing, meaning it may not be as cost-effective for larger teams. Teams can reach out to customer support via phone and live chat.

Teamwork.com is a team collaboration platform with many helpful project management templates. With helpful project planning features like task lists and budget templates, Teamwork easily earns the title of Best for Workforce Management. Teams can track time, plan capacity and run projects all within the same platform.

Teamwork’s project boards offer lists, Kanban boards, Gantt charts and tables to help teams customize how they visualize project work. For teams that need to be conscious of time tracking and billable hours, Teamwork is uniquely set up to help keep your project under budget. Team members can log time for specific tasks, and hours can be designated as billable directly within the platform.

Teamwork’s free plan is available for up to five users, but they offer three different paid plan options. For certain plans, project board features like custom fields or templates may be limited. The Starter plan has a three-user minimum and starts at $5.99 per user per month, billed annually.

ClickUp earns the title of Best Overall for its robust project management tools and team collaboration extras, like whiteboarding and in-app chat features. Its user-friendly interface offers multiple board views, including Kanban boards, tables, calendars, Gantt charts and lists. Teams can visualize work in any way they prefer, with cards being organized into different board views within one workspace. ClickUp allows users to view all tasks in multiple project views, even in their forever-free version, making it a cost-effective software option for project management.

ClickUp’s collaboration features also set it apart. Teams can use docs, collaborate on digital whiteboards and chat back and forth, all within the ClickUp platform. This means that a lot of day-to-day collaboration can happen right alongside your team’s project boards. ClickUp’s features are great for remote teams that want to plan projects and collaborate virtually in real time.

ClickUp offers many helpful features, but it may take some time for new users to adjust to implementing it in their daily workflow. ClickUp offers an intuitive interface, but the sheer number of functions within the platform may have a slight learning curve. ClickUp’s lowest-tier paid plan, Unlimited, is priced at $7 per user per month, billed annually.

Asana is a great option for teams that need a fully customizable Kanban board, complete with automated rules, timeline views and task dependencies. While known for its Kanban board functionality, Asana also offers a to-do list, calendar and multiple other views to help teams visualize projects. Tasks templates are fully customizable with options for custom fields and tags.

Asana is ideal for businesses with multiple teams that collaborate cross-functionally, earning it the title of Best for Team Collaboration. Users can create boards for different teams or functions, move task cards between those different boards and create dependencies between different teams. It’s also easy to include docs and files in Asana tasks and integrate the work software you already use.

Asana offers customer service via live chat, but they don’t have a customer support phone number. They do have a robust help center and offer live tutorials and trainings every week.

Asana’s free plan is available for up to 10 team members, while there are two paid plan options meant for small and medium-sized businesses. The Starter plan is priced at $10.99 per user per month, billed annually. Asana also offers custom pricing for enterprise-level users. A paid plan will be required if you want to access features like automations or specific board views like timelines and Gantt charts.

Jira is an Atlassian software with features that are great for all industries, but it has a specific emphasis on software development teams. Jira makes it easy for teams to maintain backlogs and get quick overviews of task statuses at any stage of a project. This makes Jira boards easy to use in standup meetings for both waterfall and agile project approaches.

Atlassian offers its own marketplace of over 3,000 software apps that integrate easily with Jira, earning it the title of Best for Integrations. This allows for tons of customization and makes it easy to add Jira to the apps you’re already using in your team’s workflow. This is especially useful for teams that work cross-functionally or want to add specific features to their Jira project boards.

Jira is presented as being specifically designed for agile teams, and though it offers a simple user interface, there may be a learning curve for new users. Jira offers a free plan for up to 10 users with limited features and several paid plan options that include full functionality, prioritized support and AI tools, depending on the plan you choose. The Standard plan starts at $8.15 per user per month, estimated for 50 users.

Notion offers super customizable boards, called teamspaces, which can be set up for project management. Notion’s user interface is so simple to navigate that it earns the title of Most Intuitive, but setting Notion up as a project management solution does require some time and effort. Luckily, Notion offers a ton of project management templates to help teams find what they’re looking for and customize boards to their needs.

Specifically for project management, Notion allows for Kanban board views, timeline views, lists and more. You can create dashboards to keep everything your team needs in one place. Teams that want to use automations with project boards should note that custom automations are only included in Notion’s paid plans. The Notion Plus plan starts at $8 per user per month when billed annually.

Airtable offers advanced spreadsheet software that’s ideal for project management and earns it the title of Best for Spreadsheet-Based Projects. If your team is looking to upgrade from a basic spreadsheet when tracking tasks and due dates, Airtable is worth considering.

Teams can create projects, group tasks together, assign tasks to team members and get insights about project progress. It’s designed with sprints in mind and makes sense for agile teams or cross-functional teams looking to stay on the same page.

Airtable provides many templates that teams can use to set up specific projects, designed for anything from project planning to resource allocation. The software has an intuitive interface, but it may involve a bit of a learning curve, especially for users who aren’t as familiar with spreadsheet software for project management.

Airtable offers a free plan for up to five users, with paid plans starting at $20 per seat per month, putting them at the pricier end of the project management spectrum.

Basecamp is an all-in-one tool for project management that combines project boards with communication features like message boards and group chats in addition to a real-time activity log. This makes it easy to stay up to the minute on what your team is working on.

Basecamp’s communication features and activity log set it apart and earn it the title of Best for Real-Time Activity. Each project includes a separate timeline of all activity on a project, so you can see who’s working on which tasks and track team progress at a glance. There’s a separate group chat and message board for every project as well, so teams can easily stay connected and keep communication organized. However, teams who are interested in automations for project boards will likely need to rely on integrations, as Basecamp doesn’t offer much functionality for creating rules with project boards.

Basecamp is a great option for teams that juggle multiple projects at once and want to be able to stay connected all within one app. Basecamp does not offer a free plan, but it does offer both a pay-per-user monthly plan and a flat rate option with unlimited users, which could be worth checking out for larger teams. The starter plan is priced at $15 per month per user when billed monthly.

Buildertrend offers project management software designed specifically for construction pros and contractors. Teams can use Buildertrend to schedule projects, create daily logs, share documents with key information and track time. It’s also possible to communicate with clients and process change orders through the Buildertrend platform.

Buildertrend can help teams create more accurate timelines and estimates for construction projects and improve communication between team members, leads and clients. While other project management tools are designed for office or remote work, Buildertrend’s features were made with job sites in mind. Teams can clock in and out with the geofenced mobile time clock, and Buildertrend can easily sync with HR and payroll software.

Buildertrend does not offer a free plan, though all plans include unlimited projects and users as well as integrations. Buildertrend’s features are great for the construction industry, but they do come with a higher price tag. Buildertrend’s Essential plan starts at $199 per month for the first month and then goes up to $499 per month if a team opts for monthly billing. As there’s no per-user pricing, this may not be cost-effective for small businesses without a large number of employees.

Pipedrive was designed for sales teams that want to get organized and visualize progress on leads and deals as they happen. As a dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) software, Pipedrive earns the title of Best for Sales Teams. The intuitive interface makes it easy for teams to navigate, even if your business has never used CRM software before.

With Pipedrive, you can visualize where deals or clients stand within the closing process (or any process) with customizable Kanban boards, timelines and other views. This also gives you insights and analytics regarding team performance and success. Pipedrive also allows teams to automate customer communication, like email follow-ups, so you can save time and focus more on strategy.

While there’s no free Pipedrive plan, there are five different plans for teams to choose from, and all include 24/7 support. However, the Pipedrive Essential plan starts at $21.90 per user per month (when billed monthly), putting it on the pricier end of project management solutions. Larger teams may find that while it’s ideal for sales teams, it may not be cost-effective.

Trello is an Atlassian software that’s considered the more “visual” cousin to Jira, allowing teams to set up easy-to-scan project boards with drag-and-drop functionality. Its simple interface earns it the title of Best for Simplicity and makes it a great choice for teams that want an easily implemented project management solution.

Trello’s main board view is the Kanban board, but it does offer other ways to visualize card-based tasks. Teams can customize their boards with different backgrounds and styles and integrate Trello with a wide variety of other software options.

While Trello is great for teams that need a simple solution, it may not be ideal for teams that are juggling multiple complex projects. Teams must also upgrade to a higher tier of their paid plans to access Trello’s full functionality, like all board views. The free plan is limited in terms of how teams can visualize tasks, but it does allow for unlimited users.

However, Trello is a great choice for small teams that want to keep things simple without spending too much on a project management solution. Trello’s Standard plan starts at $5 per user per month, billed annually.