The right project management tools bring the best out of your team. It aids the organization to better establish a hierarchy of tasks and help the members complete them with ease. But in the ocean of tools that exist for project management, finding the right one for your organization can be puzzling.
In this article, we’ll be discussing some very effective project management apps that you could use based on your requirements. Read on to find out the tool that best suits your organization.
Before you get started, we need you to know that we’ve got an expert team of digital transformers to support you, in case you need any professional assistance.
1. Trello
Trello is a project management tool that uses the popular Kanban framework. It is based on real-time communication and full transparency of work which helps project teams to visualize their entire workflow. There is a Kanban board where the work items are represented visually so that the team members can see the state of every piece of work at any time.
Features:
- It doesn’t require you to be familiar with Gantt charts or project management vocabulary since it’s highly visual and intuitive.
- Trello is a simple task management system with a “Board” assigned to each task. This board can be set for a small everyday task to a whole project. It allows the project manager to access and make changes whenever they want from their dashboard.
- Rescheduling, as well as editing the tasks and projects, can be easily done by dragging and dropping the tasks around the dashboard. It also permits them to add tags, custom fields, and priorities.
- Trello has a lot of pre-made templates which easily integrate with other apps.
- The users can customize the design, and use the “Cards” feature to save client contact information, build larger project tasks, etc. The cards can have a list of tasks that is to be completed. These tasks can be moved based on priority and files can be uploaded to this. Creating and modifying cards is possible through email. This is done by the email that was assigned during project creation.
- Depending on the project or task, you could add free Power-Ups and can upgrade them when you want more functionality. It can include features like calendar views, Google Drive integrations, file sharing, etc. One popular power-up is the “Butler” feature which lets you automate a preset group of tasks.
- With Trello, the users don’t have to use email and chat for task-based communication. Trello lets its users create unlimited task lists, comment, collaborate, and organize lists by dates or priority. Altogether, it is a tool which is easy to learn and use.
- Pricing: Other than the free variant, it has 2 more other variants with the Business variant available for $9.99/month per user.
2. ClickUp
ClickUp is the most rated project management solution. It helps you manage any type of firm, be it engineering, marketing, design or any other. This makes it easier for different departments of a company to use the same tool for project management.
Features:
- The users can access all the tasks, projects, and resources in one place using ClickUp.
- You can use docs, reminders, goals, calendars, scheduling, and even an inbox from the tool for managing projects. It has lists and kanban views, subtasks, priorities, recurring tasks, granular due dates, reporting, chrome extension, mobile app, drag and drop functionality, time tracking and multiple integrations as its basic features. And they have more advanced functionalities that cannot be found in any other best-known tools.
- It is designed in such a way that the same task can be visualized in a board view, list view or calendar view with just a single click, making it more comprehendible.
- The team can have a conversation under every task. Also, users can convert a comment into a task and assign it in the to-do section.
- It is also possible to assign a single task to more than one person and set task dependencies for them where one person can begin only after another has wrapped up the work.
- You can view the status of projects, specific tasks and how individual team members are performing through the features in ClickUp.
- Pricing: $5/month per user for the Unlimited version, they provide a Business variant other than the Free tier variant.
3. Asana
Asana is a cloud-based project management tool ideal for small teams. It helps teams to map out every single detail of projects within an organization.
Features:
- The free version of the tool allows management of up to 15 team members along with basic dashboard and search functionalities. While the premium version permits use of the complete dashboard, custom fields, advanced search & reporting functionalities. The enterprise version permits managing team members with advanced admin controls like service account and SAML.
- The user interface is simple and convenient to use. The users can arrange the task list in any way they want by grouping them into sections or columns in the list or board project.
- The users can use existing templates to add new workflows quickly, create lists of tasks for themselves or other team members. It can be used to create projects where tasks can be posted to shared boards, break larger tasks down into subtasks, and even convert a task into a project should it become too big.
- There is an activity feed on the dashboard which allows you to keep up with what your team members are up to. The members can comment under the tasks.
- Users can visualize the project timeline in a Gantt style view through the chart which the tool offers. The task due dates, assignees and progress over time will be marked in the chart, making it more comprehensible for the team members and help in scheduling adjustments easily. Also, the tool generates detailed Progress reports.
- Asana integrates with applications such as Slack, Outplanr, Google Calendar, Dropbox which helps in quick team communication, track time & to-do lists, manage activity schedules, and share files easily.
- The users can schedule and prioritize tasks on a special Asana calendar. It can also notify employees using the personalized inbox about important events.
- Pricing: Other than the free variant, it has 3 others with the Premium variant available for $9.99/month per user.
4. Wrike
Wrike is a Cloud-based, real-time work management software which works best for product development and engineering teams as well as marketing and creative teams. The tool lets you organize and prioritise all you need for completing your project in one place.
Features:
- Wrike has an easily accessible interface containing all the necessary information divided into 3 panes. The project hierarchy, where editing and adjusting subtasks are done appears on the left pane. While all your current task lists for a project can be viewed in the middle pane and the detailed information about your tasks from the right pane.
- It is easier to create any combination of folder structures in Wrike. And you can add any task into these multiple folders or projects. While adding folders, you can attach important files and set due dates along with it. It has a live editing feature which lets you work with other team members since everyone’s changes can be seen in real-time.
- Project managers can derive insights from Wrike analytics. This feature will help you track expenses and future resource allocation effortlessly. Also, you get to see a graphical representation of your project progress from this.
- The Time & Budget Tracking feature makes it easier to plan tasks in a project and calculate its budget.
- The Forms and Requests feature lets you assign tasks and communicate information easily among the team members instead of depending on countless email threads and text notifications. And the form contains all the information one requires for a project, eliminating the need for any other follow-ups.
- It has Gantt charts that help to visualize your project schedule as well as set task dependencies to keep your team members aware of the different moving parts of a project.
- Pricing: $9.80/month per user for Professional variant, they provide one more variant other than the Free tier variant.
5. Workzone
Workzone is a cloud-hosted project management and document collaboration tool that is trusted by top brands for managing multiple projects and supporting inter-team collaborations.
Features:
- You can access all the projects from your project dashboard and can easily check their status from there. Inside each project, the users can view subtasks, due dates and the assignees involved.
- The project manager can set access to projects for different users including clients in Workzone.
- There is a comment section under every task, making team collaboration effective. The subtasks and task dependencies can be made visible to the members as well as the clients. Thus it is easier to gain control and visibility while managing the work in Workzone.
- You can gain insights from the individual performance report, reports on progress statuses for your projects, and time management reports. And these reports can be viewed in the form of a bar chart, a pie chart or as a table depending on the viewer’s convenience.
- The Gantt charts help in quickly visualizing work statuses and further assigning people to more than one task. The reports and tasks help to evenly distribute work among the team members.
- The users can create tasks, personalized to-do lists, share files easily improving the collaboration among the team members. All the member’s activity can be tracked using this tool.
- The users can build personalized templates to standardize processes and save valuable hours.
- Pricing: $34/month per user for Professional variant, and they provide 2 other plans.
6. Teamwork
Teamwork is an easy-to-use and fast online project management tool ideal for creative teams like website designers or marketing agencies.
Features:
- Users can create tasks, set priority levels on tasks, and set deadlines. This space also allows multiple users to collaborate on the planning of a project with ease.
- Users can find all files, comments, and attachments in one secure place so that nobody has to waste their time looking for information.
- The users have a unique dashboard which gives them an option to only see their most recent tasks helping in prioritizing tasks.
- A Gantt chart style view is available for visualizing the projects. The project progress can be recorded on the chart. It can be used by the members to see the milestones they achieved and the ones yet to be achieved. Also, the privacy settings can be adjusted to keep some details of the project private from the rest of the team.
- Replying to comments and notifications happen through email inside Teamwork. Thus the users can add multiple email accounts and signatures to further customize this process.
- Tracking time helps in categorizing time logs into billable and non-billable time spent on a task. This makes it easier to create billable timesheets to generate invoices for the clients as well.
- The project activity overview can be derived from the snapshots taken while the members work. Project managers can gain insights into the team’s performance through this.
- Teamwork goes well with Gmail, Dropbox and cloud drive of Hotmail.
- Pricing: $9/month per user for Pro version and 2 other packages are there.
7. ProofHub
ProofHub is a versatile project management solution which uses cloud-hosting. It is easier to manage resources and meet the deadline using this tool. It is a quite popular tool and is used by leading organizations like NASA, Disney, Taco Bell and many more.
Features:
- Creating projects, assigning tasks, collaborating with the team, keeping up with deadlines, generating insights can be done with ease in ProofHub.
- It has an easy-to-use keyboard to organize teams and projects.
- The online proofing software feature in the tool saves time during the feedback-sharing process.
- You can customize the colour scheme of your tool as well as it’s the layout.
- The members can track the time they spent on tasks, and projects easily.
- It lets you assign user roles, give access to selected parts of your tool based on the sensitivity of the project and the information under them.
- ProofHub gives room for online team discussions and chats, task delegation and assignments, reporting and tracking project history, and secure file storage.
- Although customization options are less, Gantt charts are available in the tool to provide a better picture of the projects.
- It has a wide range of integrations. The user can sync calendars with iCal, Google Calendar, Outlook, and other external calendar apps.
- You can avail the French, German and Spanish version of ProofHub if you want.
- ProofHub is compatible with Android, iOS, Android, and Windows.
- Pricing: $55/month for essential Version and $99/month for Ultimate Control Version.
8. Podio
Podio is an excellent project management tool with a series of apps and tools that help teams organize and track tasks for their work.
Features:
- Assigning tasks, attaching encrypted and large files, discussing details and progress can be done with ease.
- The project budget can be tracked, and further, will help automate sales pipelines and workflows.
- The users can comment in real-time under the same dashboard where the deadlines are specified.
- It has a simple, user-friendly and customizable interface. The current projects, activity stream and calendar can be accessed from the dashboard.
- Podio has its app market which offers apps for expense tracking apps, organization apps, notes apps, templates, CRM and more.
- It also integrates with file-sharing services, customer support, and help desk tools.
- Large projects can be broken down into simple tasks and can be assigned to any team members’ to-do list.
- Since Podio is an open-source framework, developers can use the Podio API to add any custom integrations they require.
- Although not as effective as other tools, Podio also provides visual reports to get an overview of the team’s work progress.
- Pricing: $9/month for the Basic version and 2 more other plans are there.
9. Paymo
Paymo is an excellent project management tool for small to medium-sized businesses looking to simplify their business processes. Almost all departments of work, creative, marketing, web designing, business consulting team, and more can co-work under the same tool.
Features:
- Paymo uses Kanban boards to facilitate accurate planning, scheduling, and task management of projects and tasks. It provides a range of customizable templates for this.
- The users get notified about information from various other users’ systems when estimating a project.
- Real-time discussions and comments can be given under any task.
- It allows you to use various tools like Portfolio Gantt Chart or Team’s Tasks to keep track of the project.
- The time scheduler feature lets you create a visual timeline of work done by your team members.
- It tracks the time spent on each task or project by every team member. It also helps in budget management by creating an invoice based on timesheet data.
- The tool allows users to customize the time and work reports. Other than these, it takes care of the resource management part for all the projects.
- Pricing: Business plan starts at $15.16/user/month
10. Basecamp
Basecamp is an excellent tool for project management for people who are starting out in project management. It is built focusing on client-service businesses. Organizing projects, teams, and talent can be easily done with the help of its social media-like interface.
Features:
- Basecamp has full visibility and control of everything that’s happening in your organization making it easier to track progress. The whole team can use a centralized message board instead of sending email chains to update one another on tasks. These message boards can also be used for discussing new projects or ideas.
- Basecamp has a separate dashboard for showing progress to clients making it is easier to manage multiple users’ work in a project.
- It is easier to collaborate with the team using its collaboration tools. The project managers can assign and track tasks using the to-do section. It allows tagging team members easily.
- Recurring tasks can be added in the lists, and essential resources can be allocated to the team members with ease.
- The members get promptly notified about new updates through emails and desktop notification.
- There is a space to attach important files related to each project.
- The tool also has a calendar for scheduling meetings and establishing deadlines.
- Pricing: 60-day free trial and three different pricing packages are available.
11. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a time tracker software that is used by organizations to generate an invoice for clients, pay employees, facilitate reporting for team members, and more. This tool is known for its inclination towards boosting productivity.
Features:
- Hubstaff monitors the website and application activity of the team members. It also specifies the percentage of time they spend on each application or website along with all the URLs.
- Screenshot monitoring is possible through the tool. Since screenshots are taken every 10 minutes, it is easier to identify if the employees are working or are running personal errands during work hours. If the team member works on some sensitive content, there is an option to blur it without revealing the contents of the page.
- It records keystrokes in a span of every 10 minutes. It calculates how many seconds the user was inactive (no keyboard or mouse movement) and compares to how many seconds the user was using the mouse or keyboard. And this determines the activity level.
- You can set the maximum number of hours that your employees can log for an entire week.
- It tracks the location of your team members in their work hours. This is a useful feature for while managing a remote team.
- The project status of each employee done during a week can be seen.
- Accounts, salaries and finances can be easily billed using Hubstaff’s billing and invoicing features.
- Pricing: $5/user/month for the basic plan, along with 2 other plans.
12. Microsoft To-do
Microsoft To-do is a task management app that uses cloud-based technology.
Features:
- The app can be used in a smartphone, tablet and computer.
- The user can plan their daily tasks on the app. They can categorize them as important if they want.
- Anyone can assign tasks to other team members by giving access to their to-do list.
- Sub-tasks can be added under any task, called the Steps in the app.
Conclusion
Project management can be done with ease if the right tool is used. Remember that you’re using project management tools to work effectively without complicating your work. So, choose the one that offers features that you require for your organization.
If you feel confused between a couple of tools, make use of their free trial version since most of them offer a trial option. And find out what works best for you. Furthermore, feel free to connect with our expert team of digital transformers for any assistance.
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