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There is no doubt that project management software helps you be more productive.

With program management maturity, an organization’s projects are far more successful than without it — 76 percent compared to 54 percent according to our 2015 Pulse of the Profession ® report. The Program Management Professional (PgMP) ® is a visible sign of your advanced experience and skill and gives you a distinct advantage in.

How do we know? Because you can track tasks completed, the time spent and then compare that to how you do over the long run.

What’s even more amazing is that you can improve your productivity…for free!

And what’s awesome is when you get the best productivity tools in one free package, especially if you’re looking for project management software.

Nearly every team I’ve been on has used some type of project management software, and the other teams should’ve used project management software. And when it’s free, there’s no downside!

Wait…your team hasn’t used project management software or tools before? Then this list will give you a great headstart on the many different options to try out.

Let’s take a look at the top options and find the free project management software that will fit your team, your personality and your needs–no matter what task you need to accomplish!

Note: For other ways to increase your productivity check out our guide on how to be more productive.

1. ClickUp

What if you had one project management tool that the whole organization could use…for free?

And what if the tool were one of the most highly rated project management software tools…for free?

Pretty good deal, right?

What you get in the free version of ClickUp:

Most companies demand premium prices for what ClickUp delivers for free. Enjoy access for unlimited users, tasks, multiple projects, and all of the product features in the forever free plan. There are no limits to which task management options or features you can use!

• Custom Fields: Set up project management the way you want it. Add more columns for contact info, notes, budgets and more. So simple to use!
• Customized Views:Each team member or user can include how they want to work. It’s that simple. See a list, box, Gantt chart, board, or calendar and find a setting that matches you or your team and quickly find the task you’re working on.
• Priorities: Unsure which tasks are most imperative in order for your team to finish up the job? Set up custom priority levels and collaborate on various tasks based precisely upon how vital each task is to the project!
• Goals: Set goals for your whole team to use! Track tasks, set numerical progress, or a simple yes/no for completion.
• Drag and Drop: This is one of the key features, especially if you have multiple teams using spaces and projects in ClickUp. You can drag, drop, move, and re-assign tasks to people, clients or teams in just a few steps. There are no annoying menus. You move the tasks to where they need to go and in any view.
• Assign Comments: Have a great idea that your team is commenting on? Assign that comment right away as a subtask, and set up specific dates and times to follow up. Or convert it to a task.
• 50+ Unlimited Features: In this list, you’ll see lots of solutions that cap you with their functionality. ClickUp limits your amount of storage on the free plan but never limits what you can actually do using the tool. That way as you grow, ClickUp grows with you. Activate the features you want, and leave the rest. ClickUp makes your life simpler, not more complicated.

ClickUp is conscious of how work actually gets done, which sparked our motivation to obsessively create features to enhance productivity.

And because ClickUp interacts with so many essential collaboration tools, your team will hum along as it’s always done–just faster and more efficiently on multiple projects. Everyone from individual users to project managers will enjoy using ClickUp.

There’s a forever free plan available to your team, along with an upgrade to unlimited storage for just a few dollars more a month. Feel free to try out the free version with all the features, and upgrade to unlimited storage at any time!

ClickUp is also a great option for agile project management and agile development–meaning all of your team members can use it!

What People Think About ClickUp:

“The ClickUp team is amazing. I have used just about every project/list management software in the market, and ClickUp blows them away.” – G2Crowd

“I love ClickUp! I did a TON of research on different project management platforms and tried them all out. ClickUp was by far the best. I then had to convince my team to switch over from our previous tool and they all love ClickUp. Even my team member who thought Trello was the best system has been convinced. It’s a really nice tool and has helped my team to be more efficient and organized with all the various projects we have.” — G2Crowd

“Click up is highly customizable, which allows me to adjust the view according to my team needs. The interface is very contextual and intuitive. Despite the high complexity of the tool and the variety of options it gives, it is easy to use from the very first time. I like the ability to filter, the micro-interactions, the tone of voice and it is clear that the product designers of this tool were thinking out of the box when creating it.” — G2Crowd

Ready to try ClickUp? Start here.

2. MeisterTask

If you want to try out Kanban boards instead of Post-It notes, then take a look at MeisterTask. They try to make Kanban boards more practical. Your tasks, comments, notes, due dates, and more will be set up like Kanboard boards in one place. It’s a flexible project board and cloud-based project management that goes along with your workflow.

What you get in the free version of MeisterTask:

• Unlimited number of projects, tasks and project members and users
• Two integrations (such as with Slack or Zendesk)
• Checklists, comments, tags, task and time tracking features
• User-friendly interface
• File sharing adn attachments (up to 20MB)

What People Think About MeisterTask:

“The one thing I’m not really happy with is the inability to batch move tasks from one section to another. I don’t know why we can do that! You can only move one task at a time. Also, the scroll bar is pretty small and hard to click on because it’s pretty skinny. The free version doesn’t support recurring tasks so that’s something to be aware of if you are not going to pay for it.” – Capterra Verified Review

Note: Import a CSV file of your tasks into ClickUp! Start here.

3. TeamWeek

Okay, if you’re really into visualization and Gantt charts, then TeamWeek may be the option for you. You can see important deadlines and due dates in a calendar form right when you log in.

That’s handy just for a quick view of what’s happening. Another selling point? You can use it as a resource management tool, as well. If you’re curious about who’s overloaded or what a certain team member’s schedule looks like, then TeamWeek will clue you in.

What you get in the free version of TeamWeek:

• Unlimited projects
• Unlimited tasks
• Free mobile app
• Up to 5 team members/users

What People Think About TeamWeek:

“Good Project Management Tool that could use a bit more functionalities.” – Capterra

4. Trello

Trello has become a popular free project management solution in the last few years, bringing the Kanban board approach to the masses.

The boards are projects and the cards within the boards. Each task and set of tasks is then grouped on a board. You can then move the cards to different progress points, depending on the work that has been done and the tasks that still need to be done.

Then add task details, create checklists, and upload files onto the card. However, for the free version, it has basic features as far as integrations are concerned.

What You Get In The Free Version of Trello:

• Unlimited number of boards, task lists, cards, users, checklists and attachments.
• One integration per Board
• Up to 10MB for files

What People Think About Trello:

“So far Trello is doing a great job. What is advertised is done as expected. The only thing I will like to mention is the modern user interface. I would really like to have a new and fresh look for this software which will make the user experience more effective.” — G2Crowd

Learn how to import from Trello into ClickUp.

5. Wrike

Wrike works well for small teams, and their folder system keeps everything organized. Their activity stream dashboard is helpful to see who is working on what tasks and projects. You can also store several projects within Wrike and quickly access them, but their file system can be overwhelming at times. They also have an issue tracking feature that would be helpful for development teams.

What You Get In The Free Version of Wrike:

Unfortunately, their free version is quite limited, as you lose out on their best features, and much more until you upgrade to their premium plan. That’s a major consideration when you have so many other options with truly great task features and functionality. Before starting with Wrike, check out these top Wrike alternatives.

• Tasks, folders, projects
• File sharing
• Table view
• Inbox
• iOS and Android apps

What People Think About Wrike:

“Sometimes changing some options will affect all the folders, other times you want an option to be applied to the sub-folders but it will only be applied to your main folder. Setting up the tool can be quite a long process without adequate training” — Technology Advice

Note: See the top Wrike alternatives!

6. Bitrix24

Be a master of none or a niche player? That’s an age-old question!

Bitrix is an intuitive tool that’s an all-in-one project management solution that tries to solve multiple business needs at once. That’s great for some businesses, especially small businesses, but it kind of depends on both your personality and your team’s habits.

Features in Bitrix include a high-level dashboard view, social intranet that includes chat, video, document storage, calendars, task management, mail, and more. The hard part is that you’re probably using several of those tools already, and integrating may be better than going all out for a one-stop-shop solution (that’s confusing!).

But for project management, you get tasks, Gantt charts, and task dependencies for free. The only cap is with the number of users and storage–so only part of your team can use it and you can’t store many documents.

What You Get In The Free Version of Bitrix24:

• Task management
• Kanban boards
• Resource management
• 5GB of storage
• 12 users

What People Think About Bitrix24:

“Bitrix is riddled with whimsical graphics that smooth over the transitions from page to page. They ultimately slow down the experience and draw the eye away from the more critical business elements of the page. On top of that, helpful reminders reminiscent of ‘Clippy’ show to block key functions of the page, making them hard to ignore and, at the end of the day, frustrating.” — G2Crowd

7. Teamwork Projects

Teamwork Projects is a very well-known project management solution, but is geared more for the enteprise audience with single sign-on, HIPAA compliance and premium support. Their paid plans has lots of feature options for teams, and offers a suite of tools such as billing and invoicing.

However, their free tier is quite limited, only offering very basic feature functionality.

Many clients and teams will pony up for those advanced features, but it’s a risk if you don’t want to be locked into a long-term pricing plan. In the Pro plan, for instance, you get lots of integrations–such as to Dropbox and Slack–and way more storage and up to 50 users.

You won’t get that on the free plan, which seems to be a starter option to try it out before jumping to a larger tier.

What You Get In The Free Version of Teamwork Projects:

• 2 active projects
• Limited task boards
• Subtasks
• Color themes

What People Think of Teamwork Projects:

“The software seems to be popular just in Europe, so there are a few third-party apps who have developed something connected to Teamwork but it have access to the API and webhooks to compensate.” — G2Crowd

8. Asana

Asana is a very well-known project management software tool that’s used by a lot of teams. They got a huge boost as a company because their CEO was one of the early founders of Facebook. Users generally like Asana because it’s a visually appealing tool that utilizes projects and sections to keep work organized and gives team clarity over precisely who is in charge of what in your project planning. Asana is simple to use compared with most other project management software solutions. It’s easy to move your task and assign work. Their drag-and-drop features are helpful and intuitive. One problem with Asana has been its reliability with its rapid growth. Before committing to Asana for the long-term, check out these Asana alternatives.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Asana:

• Unlimited tasks, projects, and conversations
• Basic dashboards
• Basic search

For more about what you get (and don’t get!) in Asana, check out this comparison.

What People Think About Asana:

“Asana’s feature set and complexity requires a relatively steep learning curve for the uninitiated. That hampered roll-out efforts in my organization, along with the fact there is no desktop app for Asana. After nearly a year, I’m still figuring out all the features and best uses, so it would be nice to have a variety of case studies/examples from which to glean best practices.” – Capterra

Note: Compare Asana and ClickUp!

9. Todoist

In Todoist, it’s easy to quickly capture thoughts and ideas on your phone and then get reminded about them later. You can also plug in deadlines, like pay bills in 3 days, and the app will automatically remind you. You’ll get a view of the week ahead and you can plan your to-do list and task list accordingly.

In the premium plan, you can create your own tags, setting your own themes/views, and storing templates. Other task management apps don’t have all that.

Todoist was built as a personal task management app, and not as project management software for businesses and collaborations. To easily manage all users and their tasks, you’ll have to opt for the paid plan or a different tier version. You don’t get any real-time collaboration features in the basic free version.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of the Todoist App:

• Access on 10+ platforms
• Recurring due dates
• SSL secured connection
• Sub-tasks & sub-projects
• Task priorities (4 levels)
• 80 Active projects
• 5 people per project

What People Think About Todoist:

“I haven’t found a way to get integration with Google Calendar in a way that works for me, It syncs tasks, but the manner in which it does so isn’t fluid with the way that I work so that is probably due to user error or my personal preference and less likely a reflection of the program.” — G2Crowd

Note: Compare Todoist with ClickUp!

10. Airtable

Airtable is a beautifully designed table meets database. It takes what you love about Excel and Google Sheets and puts a modern web-based project on it. Think of Airtable as a fancy spreadsheet that helps you track inventory, lists of reference items or as a bootstrap CRM.

If you’re used to the “workbook” concept in Excel, then in Airtable it’s called a “base.” Airtable bases can be saved as templates, empowering others to use it for their work as well.

Essentially, Airtable is a super-friendly, non-intimidating database for the 21st century, disrupting traditional database management systems that rely on SQL or other complex languages. The cells and design look like a spreadsheet, but you can also link records across tables, and reference files or attachments quickly and easily as well.

If you’ve used Excel as project management in the past, then you may want to look at Airtable as well, though we don’t usually recommend spreadsheets for project management.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Airtable:

• Unlimited bases
• Unlimited scheduling views
• Rich field records
• Commenting
• 2 GB of storage
• 2 weeks of historical data

What People Think About Airtable:

“I hate that it doesn’t have reminder/follow up capabilities especially knowing they advertise as a team collaboration tool that’s used for customer service.” — G2Crowd

Compare Airtable and ClickUp for project management.

11. TeamGantt

If you’re looking for a high-quality, free project management software with a sole focus only on Gantt charts, then TeamGantt is your best option. This software product is amazing at building out and visualizing Gantt charts to see what tasks may overlap and who is responsible for what.

It’s also a great tool for measuring team and individual progress against the project milestones.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of TeamGantt:

• 1 project
• Basic planning and collaboration
• 3 users
• Team availability and workload

What People Think About TeamGantt:

“The free version only allows one project. The next step up is not that expensive though.” — G2 Crowd

12. FreedCamp

Freedcamp gives you multiple views including a list, kanban boards, and Gantt chart. It also has a wall for social communication and private tasks. It also includes white labeling for client spaces, invoicing and CRM capabilities. It moves beyond project management software into an all-in-one solution, which can be frustrating at times if you depend on one tool for every single business function. The free plan is limited and then pricing plans begin at $5.99 per year.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of FreedCamp:

• Tasks
• Time tracking
• Discussion boards
• Password manager
• Personal task manager
• Subtasks
• …and more!

What People Think About Freedcamp:

“I don’t like the fact that it has no mobile application, that would be great to communicate and manage tasks straight from the mobile.” — G2Crowd

13. Redbooth

Redbooth helps teams team streamline their work and stay focused on the most important tasks. It features a simple, user-friendly interface that helps teams feel comfortable right away. Managers feel empowered to change workloads and resources very easily.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Redbooth:

• Assigned users
• Tasks
• Gantt charts
• Conversations
• 2GB of storage
• Community forums/email support

What People Think About Redbooth:

“File storage is extremely unhelpful. When you upload attachments to tasks, they are just stored as files within a master file, and it takes significant time to organize them separately. We wound up ignoring this feature altogether.” — Capterra

Note: Compare ClickUp with Redbooth!

14. Pivotal Tracker

Pivotal Tracker has become a favorite among agile teams. Their simple kanban board style and clean storyboarding lead to a very organized feel. They also have automatic planning which means you can focus less on planning who needs to do what and actually doing it. Detailed analytics make sure your reporting is granular and accurate. The professional plans of Pivotal Tracker start at $12.50 a month and that is for 5 users if purchased annually.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Pivotal Tracker:

• 3 Collaborators
• 2GB Space
• 2 Private Projects
• Support

What People Think About PivotalTracker:

“Solid task management and project management features, with good 3rd-party integrations.” — Verified Review on Capterra

15. Paymo

Paymo is a great option for single users. People who have simpler project management teams love Paymo since it offers Kanban Boards and Time Tracking that allows for freelancers to easily keep track of time tracked for each of their clients. The biggest downside of Paymo is that the free plan is limited to a single user. The biggest issue is when teams grow you either need to start paying or migrate over to an entirely new platform.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Paymo:

• 1 User
• 1GB of Space
• Reporting
• Time Tracking
• API

What People Think About Paymo:

“Absolutely love the granular control on the reports and ability to manage users, projects, tasks and more.” —Verified Review on Capterra

16. Podio

Podio is almost like a project management and chat software hybrid. They offer conversations in the app and the ability to view all your tasks at an overview or drill all the way down to a specific task. They offer many integrations with many popular software like ZenDesk, Evernote, and Google Drive.

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Podio:

• 5 Users
• Integrations
• Unlimited Workspaces
• Chat Capabilities

What People Think About Podio:

“Reliable communication with the team through the chat function. Good personal tas management and also knowledge management. Even though we stored or files in a cloud service, we ‘indexed’ and sorted our knowledge through Podio.” — Capterra

17. HiTask

If your team isn’t large, and you don’t want to pay for project management, take a look at HiTask. They are free for up to 5 users and HiTask gives you unlimited tasks and projects. You’ll also get a half a gigabyte of space.

A downside? HiTask’s free plan doesn’t allow any sharing so you’ll need to get creative if you are working with clients.

Capital Program Management Software

Here’s what you get in the free version of Hitask:

• Up to 5 Users
• Unlimited Tasks and Projects
• Shared Task Lists, Projects, and Calendars
• 0.5GB of Space

What People Think About Hitask:

“This product is very easy to use, but the user interface is not very intuitive. The pricing is fair considering what you will get in return. If you plan to use this for a personal reason then this tool may be sufficient. ” – Capterra

18. Zenkit

Another option for free project management software is Zenkit. With Zenkit, you’ll get a decent spread of features and templates to make setting up your workspace easier. While they do make it easy to establish, the 5000 item limit can be a barrier to entry for teams that are busy or who move from another software.

What you get in the free version of Zenkit:

• Unlimited Collections
• 3 GB of Storage
• Up to 5 Members
• Up to 5 Teams

What People Think About Zenkit:

“It is easy to use from day one since most tools are structured very user-friendly. I like the efficiency it provides for sharing information and tasks with my team.” — Capterra

19. Targetprocess

Next up is Targetprocess. They aren’t as big as some of the other names on the list but they have a big following amongst companies utilizing an agile methodology.

Targetprocess has a generous free plan and is favorited by those who want to get a visual view of the process that Projects move through. Targetprocess is great if you are someone who likes Kanban boards and Project Roadmaps.

What you get in the free version of Targetprocess:

• 1000 entities
• Unlimited Users
• Milestone Tracking
• Diagramming

What People Think About TargetProcess:

“Over the years with TargetProcess my team and our processes have changed considerably, but thanks to the flexibility of Targetprocess we’ve been able to iterate the various presentations of our work data without needing to move to another tool (User Stories, Bugs, Features, and Epics, across boards, reports, and dashboards).” – Capterra

Conclusion

You want the best. And you want it for free.

And don’t forget, you also want your free project management software to do the job. Your whole team should be able to get on board and use its advantages without even considering overpaying for project management software. Because most of these project management solutions are cloud-based, it’s easy to share across your teams, no matter the time or place. Be careful and rank the features that you absolutely need in order to cultivate successful project management. The worst situation is when you enthusiastically embark on a new project – only to be stymied by its lack of features and functionality, baiting you into the paid plan of the solution.

When comparing project management software, think carefully about those features before making a decision. If you want to make a switch, it’s good to back up your tasks into a CSV file and then you’re information is ready to import into your next project management tool.

This post has been updated for 2019.

More Project Management Posts To Help You:

In this article you’ll find an expert review of project management tools so you can choose the best project management software for your projects.

In fast-moving digital agencies, the average project manager is likely using a dozen different project management apps to stay on top of that ever-changing to-do list. This article will help you narrow down the options for selecting the right PM software by answering some common questions and offering a comparison of project management tools along with the criteria used to evaluate them.

Quickly Compare & Evaluate The 10 Best Project Management Tools

Project management is a broad industry—in our project management tools review we’ve selected platforms that are the best for agency environments. Of course, some of these can adapt to different environments (IT, healthcare, finance), but we’re focused on how they work for digital teams at agencies. These include:

• Software development projects
• Web agencies
• Creative agencies
• Digital marketing agencies (although you might have better luck with our review specifically on marketing agency project management tools)

Read on for the best project management software for agencies and studios:

What Are The Best Project Management Tools?

This top project management tools list includes a review of the features, pricing, integrations, and pros & cons of the following tools:

Below you’ll find an overview of these project management tools, with screenshots, feature overview, pricing and our score.

What are project management tools?

What Are Project Management Tools?

When we talk about project management tools, we’re talking about one of two things:

1. The reports, charts, briefs, plans, and documents themselves that a project manager produces and uses in order to do their job.
2. Software for managing projects, which includes features for generating charts and reports, sharing documents, tracking budget, communicating, etc.

In this review, we’re using the term “project management tools” to talk about the second definition—the software. For some great resources on the other type of tools (reports, charts, briefs, plans), start by taking a look at The Digital Project Manager “How To” Guides.

Why use project management software?

Why use project management software?

Whether we’re in agencies, marketing communications or consulting, without good PM software, we find ourselves drowning in an endless sea of spreadsheets, post-its and paperwork. As PMs, our toolkit can be the only thing that keeps us from throwing our toys out of the pram and having a total meltdown. To get projects out the door, we need the right tools to make it happen.

What are agile project management tools?

What are agile project management tools?

Agile tools are project management tools designed to support an agile methodology, whether it’s Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, or other hybrid agile methods. Here are a few examples of agile tools:

• Zenhub
• Taiga
• Pivotal Tracker

Find more agile tools in my complete agile project management software review.

What is the easiest project management software?

What is the easiest project management software?

According to user reviews, here are a few of the easiest project management software tools.

• Paymo – https://www.paymoapp.com/
• Flow – https://www.getflow.com
• Teamwork – https://www.teamwork.com/
• monday.com – https://monday.com/
• 10,000ft – www.10000ft.com/

These have all received praise for their intuitive navigation, simple interfaces, and good training resources that make them easy to use.

Is Jira a project management tool?

Is Jira a project management tool?

Yes. Jira, a tool developed by Atlassian, began as a software development tool, but its now used for bug tracking, issue management, and project management. It is designed for use in agile software development and offers tools like Scrum boards, Kanban boards, roadmaps, workflow management tools, and project reporting features along with its software development application.

How do you evaluate project management software?

How do you evaluate project management software?

There’s a symbiotic relationship between our project management tools and techniques. Choosing the right ones for each unique case is an ongoing practice, but you can start with the basic criteria I use to evaluate project management software:

• User Interface: is it well-designed with clear displays and intuitive navigation?
• Usability: is it easy to learn? Does the company offer training, tutorials, and user and tech support?
• Features & Functionality: does it provide the key project management features like task management, scheduling tools, reports, file sharing, collaboration tools?
• Integrations: does it easily sync with other business tools?
• Value for $: does the pricing make sense considering its features and capabilities?

Just realized that you’re not looking for project management software? Have a look at other useful tools:

• Resource scheduling software to help you allocate equipment, rooms, staff, and other resources.
• Workflow management software to streamline your collaboration, documents, and workloads from start to finish.

The 10 Best Project Management Tools Reviews

In this post, we’ve tried to cover a broad spectrum of PM tools, considering complexity, price points and functionality. But it’ll come down to your workflow and what specific functionality you need to make that function better. Have a look around, take advantage of the free trials in order to really find the best project management tools for your agency or studio.

The Digital Project Manager is reader-supported. When you click through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

• 30 days free trial.
• From $60/user/month.

User Interface (UI)

Usability

Integrations

Value for $

Features & Function

Overall Score

Clarizen – Fully-featured, enterprise-grade project management tool with additional portfolio, resource, and workflow management tools.

Clarizen is an enterprise grade professional services automation software solution, designed to speed up the way you do business – integrating work, content and process tightly together to enable more efficient working. Clarizen’s real focus is making projects happen faster with timesaving workflows. Clarizen is a great project management tool if you have lots of repeatable projects that require repeatable processes as the workflow automation is pretty flexible and powerful.

Clarizen screenshot showing the dashboard, enabling everyone on the team to see how their contribution fits into the bigger picture, view project timeline and milestones, budget, discussions, and shared documents.

It covers off the PPM basics of task lists, schedules, docs and files, communications and reporting without breaking a sweat. Clarizen’s project planning tools are a powerful mix of functionality across the planning, executing and controlling of a project. Within planning are project workflows and full featured resource, schedule and task planning tools. It also offers project and portfolio optimization so that you can easily and quickly align projects to business objectives.

For project execution, Clarizen enables everyone on the team to be aligned with a dashboard that enables teams to see how their contribution fits into the bigger picture. They can view project timeline and milestones, budget, discussions, and shared documents.

Instead of being obligated to make educated guesses, project managers can make accurate>[email protected], and 24/7 access to https://help.gmelius.com/, which includes tutorials, guides, videos, and FAQ’s.

Gmelius is a freemium SaaS project management tool which is free to use with some limits. Pricing starts at $9/user/month and offer a free trial.

User Interface (UI)

Usability

Integrations

Value for $

Features & Function

• Free demo, free trial.
• From $30/user/month.

User Interface (UI)

Usability

Integrations

Value for $

Features & Function

Overall Score

Admation – Project Management and workflow management software designed specifically for marketing teams and ad agencies.

Admation is a project management software made for marketing teams and agencies that want the benefit of multiple features rolled into one comprehensive tool. Combining project, resource and approval workflow management, Admation enables users to manage the full production cycle of their campaigns, from project set up to resourcing to managing the entire approval workflow.

With a user-friendly interface, Admation offers an exceptional range of project management software features and tools. A central dashboard enables you to have complete visibility over your projects and resources while offering an intuitive framework from which to manage all facets of your work.

Features include briefing templates, project resource templates, project timelines, scheduling and assigning tasks, document approval, capacity planning, department dashboard & calendar, resource allocation, timesheets and time tracking, a complete brand archive, permissions & access levels, tags & keywords, a secure digital storage system for your finalized ads, and more. Integrations include email systems and Mediaocean, formally BCC, which is ad agency finance software.

Admation costs from $30 per user per month and offers a free demo and free trial upon request.

User Interface (UI)

Usability

Integrations

Value for $

Features & Function

• 14 days free trial.
• from $12/user/month.

User Interface (UI)

Usability

Integrations

Value for $

Features & Function

Overall Score

Hive – Ready-to-scale project management and collaboration platform used by small teams of 10 up to Fortune 500s.

Hive is a project management tool and collaboration platform that powers companies like Starbucks, Uber, WeWork and IBM. With AI-based analytics, thousands of integrations, flexible project views, and more, Hive streamlines your work in one centralized platform. Used by teams of varying sizes, from 10 people to 1,000, Hive is a great option for a diverse range of companies and work styles.

Hive’s time-tracking, analytics and flexible view capabilities allow for transparent understanding of other team-members work and upcoming projects.

Hive’s time-tracking, analytics and flexible view capabilities allow for transparent understanding of other team-members work and upcoming projects. Hive also has one of the first full email integrations in any project management tool, which allows you to send and receive Gmail and Outlook messages from the app. Choose Hive if you’re in the market for a well-laid-out, comprehensive project management tool that can be scaled up or down based on team needs.

The tool costs $12 per user per month when billed annually.

User Interface (UI)

Usability

Integrations

Value for $

Best Program Management Software

Features & Function

Summary Of The Best Project Management Software Tools

Find below a summary of the best project management software tools available in the market.

Software	Overview	Trial/Demo	Price	Score	Site
Read Clarizen features & functionality	30 days free trial.	from $60/user/month.	9.6
Read monday.com features & functionality	free 7-day trial.	from $17/month for 2 users.	9.6
Read Celoxis features & functionality	30 days free trial.	$25/user/month.	9.4
Read 10,000ft features & functionality	14 days trial.	from $15/user/month.	8.8
Read Ravetree features & functionality	Free demo and trial.	from $29/user/month.	9.2
Read Wrike features & functionality	14 days free trial.	from $49/5 users/month.	9.6
Read Backlog features & functionality	freemium for up to 10 users. 30 days free trial.	from $35/month	9
Gmelius	Read Gmelius features & functionality	free trial.	from $9/ user/month.	8.6
Admation	Read Admation features & functionality	free demo and trial.	from $30/user/month.	8.8
Read Hive features & functionality	14 days free trial.	from $12/user/month.	8.6

Other Project Management Software Tools To Consider

Although not included in this review of project management software, below is a list of additional PM tool options. Check them out if you’re looking for the best project management software for your agency or studio:

• ProjectCentral – https://www.projectcentral.com/
• DoneDone – https://www.donedone.com/
• VOGSY – https://vogsy.com/
• Teamwork – https://www.teamwork.com/
• Mavenlink – https://www.mavenlink.com/
• Nutcache – https://www.nutcache.com/
• Twproject – https://twproject.com/
• Citrix Podio – https://podio.com
• Zoho Projects – https://www.zoho.com/projects/
• Workfront – https://www.workfront.com/
• BVDASH – https://www.bvdash.com
• Nuvro – https://nuvro.com/
• Workbook – https://workbook.net/
• Brightpod – https://www.brightpod.com
• Flow – https://www.getflow.com
• Easy Projects – https://www.easyprojects.net
• Genius Project – https://www.geniusproject.com
• Bitrix – https://www.bitrix24.com
• Deltek Traffic Live – https://trafficlive.com
• Workgroups DaVinci – https://workgroups.com
• Workamajig – https://www.workamajig.com
• Pro Workflow – https://www.proworkflow.com
• Workzone – https://www.workzone.com
• Admation – https://www.admation.com/
• Feedcamp – https://freedcamp.com/
• Redbooth – https://redbooth.com
• ProProfs – https://www.proprofs.com/project/
• BrightWork – https://www.brightwork.com/
• Week Plan – https://weekplan.net/

Program Management Software Review

Want Help Narrowing Down the Options?

This tool is pretty useful. We’ve partnered with Crozdesk to give you access to their “Software Finder”.

If you input some of the details about your project and the features you’re looking for in a project management tool, it will generate a list of tools that match your preferences. You provide your email, and they send over a nice PDF guide with a summary of your best matches.

Best Program Management Software

Best In Breed – The One Trick (Project Software) Ponies

But what is the ‘right project management tool?’ There are lots of tools out there that do a single project related job, really well. These are the specialist one-trick-pony tools for project management planning, scheduling, milestone tracking, communication, task management, reporting, etc. Tools like Slack, Microsoft Project, Harvest and Dropbox are examples of these specialist project tools. Specialized tools can be great, especially for a small team, or when working with niche requirements or few clients.

Project Management Tools Enable You To Work Smarter

However, if you’re not careful, you end up with a collection of unrelated SaaS online project software that doesn’t sync properly. You use one tool for communication, another for file sharing and yet another for task management. And you end up entering the same data into each application.

Maybe there’s a better way? Instead of using dedicated tools and manually tying them together, use a project management tool with shared-data functionality built-in. This facilitates better briefing, contextual communication and more straightforward management of project teams and clients.

What Makes A Good Project Management Tool?

In defining a good digital project management tool we’ve focussed on tools that facilitate the ‘doing’ aspect of a project. That means getting people together to create something amazing for a digital world.

So what does it take to deliver a digital project? We’ve identified five key aspects of functionality that we think makes delivering digital projects easier. You can use them to get rid of your post-its, spreadsheets, and emails, and to run your project more efficiently.

1. Task lists – Projects are made up of sub-tasks, and sub-sub-tasks, checklists and to-do’s. Being able to outline what needs to be done, by when, by who, is critical to delivering a project well.
2. Schedules – Timelines, calendars and Gantt charts help you know where tasks fit within the broader scheme of a project. This is key to being able to deliver a project on time.
3. File sharing – No one likes having to waste timing trying to dig around for random files. The ability to organize and share key project files and assets is important to deliver a project efficiently.
4. Communication – Contextual project-specific communication to hash things out quickly and chat with your team and client is vital to keep tasks on track.
5. Reporting – As project managers, it’s our job to know whether or not our project is on track. Therefore, it’s essential to know how a project’s tasks are progressing—will it be delivered on time, or not?

Loyalty Program Management Software

But You’re Missing Stuff…

Project Management Software Comparison

Yes, lots. With any project management software, you have to draw a line between what’s essential, and what’s not. In our criteria for project management tools we’ve focused on the execution of a project. That means we haven’t centred on planning, billing, or other functionality. For that reason, we’ve not focussed on the pre-project estimating, or the post-project aspects of PM software. Check out our article on the best resource scheduling tools, if you’re looking for that. That said, there are many similarities between these tools. We’ve tried to highlight functionality or features that we think make them unique.

What Do You Think?

Program Management Software System

What do you think we’re missing from this project management tools review? Have different criteria for selecting a PM tool for your agency or studio? We’d love to hear if you’ve got any suggestions, tips or thoughts on using this kind of PM software. Why not share them using the comments below?