The Best Project Management Software

The right project management software is key if as soon as your company reaches any level of scale past a 1 person operation.

From effective team collaboration to scheduling to keep your tasks organized and on track, the best project management software can help you meet your goals. 

In this guide, I review and rank the best project management software, so that you have the ease of just picking one of the top 3, whichever is ideal for your particular needs and budget.

1. Notion

With Notion, you can capture thoughts, manage projects and handle your business. It gives you a clean open surface where you can plan your projects. Additionally, Notion is a customizable and scalable platform that handles your growing requirements effortlessly.

Notion Features

Here are some exclusive features of Notion:

Workflow Builder: Notion enables workflow customization without any constraints and allows you to define every single metric. Moreover, you can build multiple workflows for a project and utilize them depending on the current status. With Workflow builder, you can automate the recurring tasks and spend time on rewarding issues.

Digital Workspace: Notion offers a digital, scalable workspace that connects you with your work and team. It provides a flexible and configurable workstation that can be modified to fit your work requirement. With Notion, you can use built-in collaborative tools to work intuitively and transparently.

Team wiki: With Notion’s team wiki, you can set up a centralized repository; of information that your business can refer to swiftly. It is configurable and offers pre-made templates to assist you. Additionally, the team wiki can be integrated: with third-party databases through Notion’s built-in compatibility.

Digital Office: Notion ensures you can digitize your business processes and work collaboratively towards the company’s success. It enables you to swiftly distribute the work among team members and track their hours to maintain transparency. With Notion, you will get all the requisite tools; to empower your business and reach your true potential.

Integrations: With Notion, you can rebrand your applications and get contextual details from other platforms. It offers integration with Jira, Slack and GitHub to centralize your project management. Additionally, you can automate tasks within other tools through Notion’s workflows and maintain consistency. Notion’s API supports custom integrations, allowing developers to build public integrations.

Notion Pricing

Notion offers 4 Pricing options that cater specific business requirements depending on your size and niche.

The “Personal” plan is priced at $0 and offers synchronization across devices. Additionally, you can create unlimited pages or blocks.

The “Personal Pro” plan is priced at $4/month upon annual billing and offers a 30 Day version history. Additionally, you can invite unlimited guest accounts.

The “Team” plan is priced at $8/month upon annual billing and offers a collaborative workspace. Additionally, you can invite unlimited team members and set sharing permissions.

The “Enterprise” plan has a customizable pricing option. It offers SAML SSO, user provisioning and a dedicated success manager.

2. Basecamp

Basecamp is a highly effective project management software that allows users to collaborate and track project status whether working closely or remotely. You can access all interactions and project data within a single platform and transform the way you pursue tasks.

Basecamp Features

Here are some exclusive features of Basecamp:

Scalability: Unlike most project management tools, Basecamp does not charge organizations based on the number of users, helping you control costs while your business scales. So as your business requirements increase, Basecamp will start becoming more cost-effective for your operations.

Campfire: Campfire is the team chat feature offered by Basecamp; that connects you with your colleagues and team members. You can conversate, share documents or send links to reports in a two-way communication channel.

Automatic Check-ins: Basecamp allows users to create automatic check-in schedules to get regular task updates from their employees or subordinates. Basecamp will ask the inputted question on the set periods and organize the responses so you can go through them easily.

Client access: With Basecamp, you can add clients into relevant workspaces so they can oversee the progress. You can decide what is visible to your clients by setting a task status as “Team only” or “Client view”. If you accidentally share an ongoing project or a private file, you can simply switch the task status to keep it from the clients.

Scheduling: You can design milestones and integrate them into the calendar. So you don’t miss out on crucial deadlines or events. Moreover, Basecamp allows you to personalize the notifications. So you are not bombarded with work mails or reminders outside your work hours.

Cascading Notifications: Basecamp identifies which device you are using currently and sends project notifications on that device. If you’re on a laptop or a desktop, you’ll not get updates on your mobile and vice versa. It streamlines your work updates and helps you stay organized.

Trix: Basecamp offers a no-code text editor consistent with all devices. You can create content, write HTML codes for your website or drag in files and images from the database to simplify text editing tasks.

Colorcoding: With colorcoding, you can highlight valuable; documents, images or files to make them easily identifiable. It eliminates the need to scour through the entire database or project lifecycle to locate a relevant record.

Basecamp Pricing

Basecamp offers 2 Pricing options for users looking to incorporate efficient project management software into their personal life or business.

The “Basecamp Personal” provides 1GB storage and allows you; to add up to 20 users. You can manage 3 Projects simultaneously with this plan. It’s a free subscription plan and is perfect for students of small-scale businesses.

The “Basecamp Business” provides you complete access to all available functionalities of Basecamp; You can add unlimited users without paying any extra amount. It is priced; at $99/month.

3. Jira

Jira allows you to manage agile in scrum teams, organize your project tasks, capture and record software bugs and simplify your overall business operations. It’s primarily used: to amplify the employee’s productivity and efficiency by providing them with all relevant tools within a single platform.

Jira Features

Here are some exclusive features of Jira:

Scrum Boards: Jira offers a scrum framework that enables your project teams to breakdown complex projects into simple tasks and creates a collaborative environment. It unifies your software teams and allows the project managers to stay on top of every delivery. Scrum boards offer an iterative and visual representation of your projects during the developmental stage and are accessible by everyone within your team.

Roadmaps: Jira Roadmaps help your business teams to efficiently plan the next step in a project by outlining a complete structure. You can get a clear projection of all initiatives within a single section and plan work according to your team’s capacity. Moreover, you can predict outcomes based on your actions and create several versions of a roadmap to select the best possible route.

Agile Reporting: Jira provides real-time reporting tools and insights into your ongoing operations, enabling your software teams to make better decisions. You can get a sprint report, burndown chart and velocity chart to help your scrum teams in delivering projects faster. Jira’s Agile Reporting optimizes your business flow for better performance and continuous delivery.

Open DevOps: Jira provides your developers with the freedom to choose the best tool for a job with its Open DevOps. It’s a toolchain for the whole development cycle where you can mix and match tools according to your requirements. Moreover, DevOps offers a development panel and deployments tab along with a drag and drop automation tool that truly transforms your developer’s capabilities to work on new ventures.

Automation: Jira allows you to create exciting automation that handles repetitive tasks and allows your employees to focus on urgent assignments. It ensures your teams can use automation and workflows to boost productivity and detect issues swiftly.

Jira Pricing

Jira offers 4 Pricing options for its cloud-based solution and a unique subscription for businesses looking for a dedicated data centre.

The “free” plan is priced at $0 and allows you to add up to 10 Users. “Free” subscription offers scrum and kanban boards, agile reporting and single project automation, making it perfect for small teams.

The “Standard” plan is priced at $7.50/user/month and allows you to create project roles along with the basic features available in the free plan.

The “Premium” plan is priced at $14.50/user/month and allows users to create multi-project automation along with advanced Roadmaps.

The “Enterprise” plan is only available for businesses with at least 801 Users. It is billed annually based on the number of users and unlocks all features of Jira.

The “Data centre” solution provides you with complete control of your Jira environment. It is priced: at $42000/year for 500 users.

4. Airtable

Airtable provides your organization flexibility to work. It fastens your workflows and maintains a constant flow of information. So everyone within the organization is aware of the project demands. Additionally, it allows users to personalize the interface as they see fit and allows them to work more efficiently.

Airtable Features

Here are some exclusive features of Airtable:

Custom Interfaces: Airtable offers a unique way to collaborate and work with its custom interfaces. It provides an interface designer that enables you to turn the information stored in your Airtable base into custom interactive interfaces. Within an organization, every employee has unique requirements depending upon profile and project needs. So a common interface is not always the most efficient way of carrying out the work. With custom interfaces, your employees can choose what their Airtable base looks like and simplify collaboration by surfacing the relevant data.

Multi-source Sync: Airtable allows you to aggregate; multiple sources within its interface. So you can effortlessly switch between information channels. With Multi-source sync, you can import crucial workflows and project details from a different database. You can create a standard review process or universal statuses for your design team regardless of the asset source.

Page Designer: Airtable offers a page designer that allows you to create a custom layout and display every record in your Airtable interface. You can build catalogues and invoices efficiently by preparing your base according to your specific requirements. It makes a unique record for each individual campaign, making it easily accessible for your teams, reducing the downtime between scouring for relevant slides and printing out the data.

Button Fields: Airtable’s Button Fields allow you to build clear calls to action in your workflows. It can assist you in launching a web page and integrates with your basic apps. So you can contact a client or view project statuses with just a single click of a button. You can set buttons to open drafts for any piece of content in a table by simply creating a button field.

Automations: Airtable’s automation allows you to centralize your workflows and increase the processing speed. With automation, you can create custom rules that run automatically according to set triggers and the corresponding actions. It’s highly beneficial to end the repetitive tasks and helps your employees focus on more rewarding issues. So they can quickly complete the project.

Airtable Pricing

Airtable offers 4 Pricing options for users depending upon their unique requirements.

The “Free” plan is free to use and offers individual freelancers or small businesses adequate tools to carry out their projects efficiently.

The “Plus” plan is priced at $12/seat/month and offers custom branded forms plus automatic table syncing.

The “Pro” plan is priced at $24/seat/month and offers 7 Sync integrations plus Gantt and Timeline views. You also get table editing permissions and can build your custom interface.

The “Enterprise” plan offers all functionalities of the Airtable and is best for large functional organizations. You can contact the sales team to get a price quotation for this package.

5. Asana

All important projects involve groups of people coming together to achieve a shared goal. Asana is a tracking and project management software that allows teams to collaborate on tasks and track progress. It simplifies communication and data sharing, allowing you; to stay up-to-date with the latest project requirements.

Asana features

Here are some exclusive features of Asana:

• Workflow builder: Asana provides visual tools to efficiently create workflows that simplify your execution and management tasks, helping your teams stay connected from initiation to completion. With the workflow builder, you can systemize; the information intake and capture ideas more easily.
• Workload management: With Asana’s coherent workload management, you can ensure your teams are not overwhelmed by the tasks and can easily schedule their work. Project managers can get a clear overview of what’s happening inside the workspace to promote balance.
• Resource Allocation: It allows you to reassign high-priority tasks to more suited employees with just a few clicks. You can easily analyze the current progression and send the relevant details to the assigned personnel for a seamless transition.
• Views and Reporting: Asana provided real-time analytics and insights through AI-powered reporting tools that assist you in setting realistic objectives for your teams. You can specify the criteria and generate reports to see progress across projects.
• Project Synchronization: It enables users to see contextual information regarding the same task across different project teams without duplications. So project managers can assess the employee’s work performance.
• Data security enhancement: Asana allows you to export data to a dedicated server for your business, boosting network security. Users can easily delete or reset their current workspaces to start anew effortlessly.
• Mobile accessibility: Asana is accessible from iOS and Android devices to help you stay on top of project management anytime, anywhere. You can update task status, check schedules and have conversations with your teams.
• Robust rest API: Asana supports seamless integration with several reporting tools and allows automation; to quickly execute tasks across other platforms. You can connect GitHub, Harvest and Slack to track project status or view any recent code edits.

Asana Pricing

Asana offers 3 Pricing options for users to serve their unique project management requirements.

The “Basic” plan is for individuals or businesses looking to get started with Asana and understand its core function. It’s a free subscription plan that provides rudimentary features of Asana.

The “Premium” plan provides access to Asana’s “Workflow Builder” and lets users create multiple timelines within the interface to manage and reassign overlapping tasks. It is priced; at $10.99/user/month upon annual billing.

The “Business” plan is for enterprises looking to maintain scalability and handle the huge workload. It provides access to all exclusive features of Asana. “Business” plan is priced; at $24.99/user/month upon annual billing.

6. Wrike

Wrike provides an optimized solution to businesses for project management requirements. Its greatest strength is its scalable platform that grows with your business requirements. With Wrike, you can enable a collaboration platform and maintain 360⁰ visibility into all operations.

Wrike Features

Here are some exclusive features of Wrike:

Reports: Wrike offers quality reporting tools that allow you to analyze your work and stay on top of everything. It provides a high-level overview of all your current projects and enables you to identify bottlenecks and drill down to deeper task levels in order to take timely action. Wrike also provides retrospective information on your completed projects and tasks.

Wrike Calendars: Wrike Calendars helps you; keep track of what you need to work on and when. With Wrike, you can create smart calendars based on your folders or projects and filter them through several criteria. You can also create; a classic calendar and be in full control of its content.

Custom Workflows: Wrike allows you; to create unique workflows and enables your team to work in a way they find most comfortable. You can create custom statuses within each workflow to; get a reflection of what stage your tasks are in. With Wrike, it’s much simpler to report on assignments and specify; who should be an assignee once a project has reached a particular status.

Custom Field creation: For a scaling business, you have to; track all sorts of data. With Wrike, you can create custom fields in your projects and tasks and populate them with the required information. You can design specific fields for the project’s budget, marketing campaigns and sales operations, making financial management a lot easier. Moreover, Wrike automatically runs calculations for the numeric data.

Request Forms: Wrike allows Request form creation for businesses dealing with tickets or requests. It enables you; to effortlessly capture all information from a client. Once done, Wrike automatically triggers a task or project based on the available information. You can predefine this information, like assignees or locations and share it with your colleagues while also making them available externally.

User Groups: You can create user groups within Wrike based on company departments, subteams, office locations or cross-departmental teams. This way, it’s extremely simple to share something with a specific group, and you can remain in touch with every project team.

Wrike Pricing

Wrike offers 4 Pricing options plus 2 Additional subscriptions for marketing and services delivery teams.

The “Free” plan comes at zero cost and offers basic task management capabilities along with a live activity stream. It is best for new users looking to get acquainted with Wrike.

The “Professional” plan is priced at $9.8/user/month and offers interactive Gantt charts plus shareable dashboards.

The “Business” plan is priced at $24.8/user/month and allows users to create custom fields or workflows according to their requirements.

The “Enterprise” plan is only available for businesses with 5+ users and offers all features of Wrike. It is suitable for established organizations. You can contact the sales team to get a price quotation.

The additional plans for; marketing and service delivery teams can also be availed: within Wrike. You can customize the subscription and get a price quotation by contacting the sales team.

Why use Project Management Software at all?

Project management tools are designed to; maximize your focus on objectives and utilize your teams at full capacity. When your employees have the necessary tools to update their co-workers about the latest updates, it becomes easier for everyone to stay involved with the project.

Additionally, Project management tools simplify the organization management and ensure you can keep track of the latest client requirements. Your company’s functioning improves drastically, and you can analyze your finances with quality reporting tools. It increases the likelihood of your project’s success and optimizes your daily work routine.

What Project Management Software would you recommend?

In short, It’s Monday.com.

It’s a platform that simplifies communication across teams and helps hit goals faster, with team management software that maximizes productivity and empowers everyone to work smarter together. You can’t go wrong with Monday.com.

“🚀Try Monday.com For Free, It’s my favorite Project Management Software to use and recommend.” -Scott Max

Monday.com is a user-friendly project management platform that offers powerful tools to streamline complex workflows for larger companies, ensuring efficient operations and delivering impressive project outcomes. Monday.com has you covered for your: Team Projects, Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing needs.

For more details, read our Monday.com Review.

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