Who runs the world? If you ask me, it’s project management software (sorry Beyonce). In my twelve-odd years in the writing world as both a freelancer and full-time employee, I’ve had to master my fair share of project management solutions — they really make a workplace, well, work.
That said, I know the tummyache-inducing anxiety of a switch to a new platform all too well. To spare you some of the trauma of picking out a new system, I (with a little help from our research team) did a deep dive into the ten highest scoring products on our project management leaderboard.
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ClickUp
Best Overall, Customizations, Dashboards and Reporting+ 3 more
Best OverallBest for CustomizationsBest for Dashboards and ReportingBest for Mobile CapabilitiesBest for Platform SecurityBest for Task Management -
Wrike
Best Overall, Platform Features, Platform Security+ 2 more
Best OverallBest for Platform FeaturesBest for Platform SecurityBest for Project Planning and SchedulingBest for Time Tracking and Management
I spent a minimum of two weeks researching each product, including thorough hands-on testing. For each product test, after familiarizing myself with the interface via the Help Center (and YouTube), I built a dummy project to try out standard features in action. I also scoured review sites and reached out to individual users to get a sense of how real people feel about these solutions.
Best Project Management Software
Select up to 5 products from the list below to compare
| Product | Analyst Score SelectHub's Analyst Rating is based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Project Management Software,
user reviews, and our own crowd-sourced data from our free software selection platform.
Scores are used to determine the top features and are periodically updated via ongoing selection projects
and user activity within our platform.
| Awards | Top Features | User Sentiment Score
The percentage of users who would recommend this product based on user
reviews collected from popular reviews sites.
| Start Price | Free Trial | Company Size |
|---|
| ClickUp | Best Overall | Customizations, Dashboards and Reporting, Platform Security | 93%Excellent |
$7 Per User, Monthly
| Yes (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Wrike | Best Overall | Platform Features, Platform Security, Time Tracking and Management | 85%Great |
$9.80 Per User, Monthly
| 14 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| monday.com | Best for Mobile Capabilities | Integrations and Extensibility, Platform Features, Platform Security | 91%Excellent |
$9 Per User, Monthly
| 14 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Zoho Projects | Best for Customizations | Customizations, Integrations and Extensibility, Task Management | 87%Great |
$4 Per User, Monthly
| 15 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Asana | None | Integrations and Extensibility, Task Management, Team Collaboration | 88%Great |
$10.99 Per User, Monthly
| 30 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Airtable | Best for Platform Security | Integrations and Extensibility, Platform Security, Project Tracking | 92%Excellent |
$20 Per Seat, Monthly
| 14 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Smartsheet | Best for Mobile Capabilities | Mobile Capabilities, Platform Features, Project Tracking | 88%Great |
$9 Per User, Monthly
| Yes (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Teamwork | None | Task Management, Team Collaboration, Time Tracking and Management | 89%Great |
$10 Per User, Monthly
| 30 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| Jira | None | Customizations, Dashboards and Reporting, Platform Security | 87%Great |
$8.60 Per User, Monthly
| 7-14 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
| |
| ProofHub | Best for Dashboards and Reporting | Customizations, Dashboards and Reporting, Team Collaboration | 92%Excellent |
$45 Monthly
| 14 Days (Request for Free) |
Small
Medium
Large
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Bottom line: ClickUp is worth a close look if you want one platform to handle it all — projects, docs, goals, time tracking, and team communication without stitching together extra tools.
No matter what size business you have or what industry you're in, ClickUp is a good fit. The customization depth means your team can build workflows that actually fit how you work. In my testing, I found it adaptable across everything from agile sprints to content pipelines.
Getting the most out of it takes real commitment, though. I spent hours in tutorials before the backend clicked. And without someone dedicated to the setup, the workspace can get cluttered quickly.
For teams that mix developers and non-technical roles, it also connects natively with GitHub and GitLab — a solid fit if you need both sides working in the same system.
- Multiple project views – You can switch between 15+ views including Kanban, Gantt, calendar, and chat to track work the way your team actually thinks.
- Sprint management – Set sprint dates, assign points, and auto-move unfinished tasks to the next sprint so nothing falls through the cracks.
- In-card time tracking – Multiple team members can log time directly on a task, with tags per entry to keep project billing and estimates accurate.
- Goals and targets – You can set goal trackers by number, monetary value, or true/false conditions and monitor progress across multiple projects from one place.
- Integrated documents – Docs live inside your projects and tasks, so your team can write, tag, and reference content without switching to an outside tool.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: Wrike is a strong fit if your team manages complex, distributed projects and needs serious resource planning and workflow control. If budget is tight or you need something quick to spin up, there are better-suited options.
I tested the Pinnacle plan and came away impressed. This is a tool built for teams that have outgrown simpler platforms. The depth of customization and structured workflows give mid-sized to enterprise teams a lot to work with across any project type.
Wrike is particularly well-suited for creative and marketing operations. The proofing tool connects directly with Adobe Creative Cloud and you can automate approval workflows across any project item. I also liked that the custom request forms let you handle intake without adding extra tools to the mix.
If you're on an Enterprise or Pinnacle plan, Wrike Lock gives you full control over your own encryption keys. That level of control is a clear benefit if your org has strict data governance or compliance requirements.
- Multiple project views – You can switch between Gantt, Kanban, timeline, list and spreadsheet views, plus drag and drop tasks to adjust dates and dependencies.
- Resource workload planning – The Resources view gives your team a visual layout of workload by assignee so you can rebalance effort before schedules slip.
- Custom report builder – Choose your report type, data source, filters and layout to get a picture of where things stand, like active tasks by assignee and weekly project status.
- Email task management – Wrike connects with Gmail, Apple Mail and Outlook so you can create and manage tasks directly from your inbox without switching tools.
- Individual OKR tracking – You can set personal OKRs and monitor them on a dedicated dashboard.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: monday.com is a strong fit if you want a project management tool your whole team can actually use without a steep ramp-up.
It works well for small to mid-sized teams across a wide range of industries — marketing, construction, nonprofits, you name it. I found the onboarding smooth and the interface forgiving, which matters when you're moving away from spreadsheets and email chains.
monday connects with Slack, Google and other common tools, so it should slot into most existing stacks without adding friction.
Before you commit, consider whether time tracking and custom notifications are must-haves — and whether the cost of a higher-tier plan is worth it.
- Multiple views – Switch between Kanban, Gantt, calendar and custom views so different team members can track work their own way.
- No-code automation builder – Build trigger-based automations using templates or from scratch, with conditions and actions controlled by dropdowns.
- Custom dashboards – Monitor workload, timelines and task progress using widgets you configure and arrange yourself.
- Task management – Organize tasks into custom groups with personalized status fields, assignees and due dates all in one place.
- Workflow builder – Map out processes using trigger blocks, if/else branches and delay steps to handle more complex sequences.
Cons
Bottom line: Zoho Projects is a strong pick if you're managing complex projects on a tight budget — especially if your team already runs on the Zoho ecosystem.
For me, the biggest advantage is the price. It's cheaper than most other big-name project management tools and genuinely accessible for teams that want serious PM capabilities without a steep per-seat cost. That's a win for smaller teams and growing orgs.
For Zoho One users, Zoho Projects is a natural fit. I'd tested Zoho's CRM before, and that familiarity made navigating Projects noticeably easier. For existing Zoho users, the hardest part of adoption is already done — the tools, the interface and the logic are ones you already know.
But while Zoho is accessible, this isn't a plug-and-play solution. Budget time for setup and make sure you have someone technical to help configure more complex aspects like automations.
- Project reporting – Over 50 out-of-the-box dashboards and charts cover everything from Gantt views to daily team workload.
- Task dependencies – Link tasks and set milestones so your team always knows what comes next and what's blocking progress.
- Time and billing – Timesheets capture hours as billable or non-billable and you can convert them to client invoices in a few steps.
- Team communication – Built-in chat rooms, forums and project feeds give your team a central place to discuss work without switching tools.
- Issue tracking – Import issues in bulk, assign them for review and track them across filtered views so nothing slips through.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: Asana is a strong fit if you need a flexible platform you can shape around your workflow and are willing to invest in a paid plan to get the most out of it.
I tested it across a range of scenarios and it held up well. The workflow builder in particular was one of the more intuitive I've used, making it easy to set up custom rules without touching any code. And since Asana is built for teams of all sizes across industries like retail, government, financial services and nonprofits, it's hard to find a use case it can't handle.
What I found most useful day-to-day was the email task creation — forward an email to your project address and it shows up as a task, with the subject as the task name and the body as the description. You can also plug into dozens of apps via open API, so it should slot into whatever stack you're already running without much hassle.
That said, tasks and subtasks have some clunky edges. You can't assign separate due dates to subtasks with dependencies, and applying a template to an existing task requires creating a new one and merging them.
- Portfolio tracking – You can add tasks to multiple projects and group initiatives into a portfolio to track progress across all of them at once.
- Workload view – The workload view lets you drag and drop tasks between team members and assign effort values to keep assignments balanced.
- Dashboards and reports – Dashboards track overdue tasks and task status in one place, and you can spin up custom charts using an AI tool.
- Sprint planning – A sprint template, timeline view, custom fields and configurable start and finish dates are all available in one place to set up sprint cycles quickly.
- Task milestones – Convert any task into a milestone to mark key project phases and give your team a clear view of critical deadlines.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: Airtable sits somewhere between a spreadsheet and a database — which makes it more powerful than most PM tools, but also a different kind of commitment. If you're ready to build your setup from the ground up, that's a real advantage. If you're not, it'll feel like a lot of work for uncertain payoff.
It goes well beyond standard project tracking. Content pipelines, product roadmaps and custom apps are all on the table. That flexibility is the main draw, but I leaned on tutorial videos more than once just to get the basics configured.
When it comes to connecting the rest of your tools, the marketplace has 50+ pre-built apps, and the Zapier integration opens up 1,000+ more. I did notice native Gantt features aren't included, which matters if dependency tracking is central to how your team works.
The flexibility that makes Airtable powerful can also become its own problem. The more you build out, the easier it is for things to get messy if nobody owns the structure. Plan to invest real time upfront setting things up properly, or you'll spend it later untangling the fallout.
- AI app builder – Describe your project needs and Airtable generates a working app with statuses, workflows and a dashboard ready to customize.
- Bases and tables – Organize projects in database-style bases, each supporting multiple tables you can configure for content calendars, roadmaps, event plans and more.
- Blocks – Add functionality to any base using a WYSIWYG editor to build interactive interfaces like timelines, charts, pivot tables and page designers.
- Multiple view types – Switch between grid, Kanban, roadmap and gallery views to see your project data in whatever format works best.
- Custom field types – Build tables using rich fields like attachments, linked records and dropdowns so every project has the info you need.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: Smartsheet is a natural next step if your team has outgrown Excel and wants more structure, automation and visibility without starting from scratch.
I found the grid interface easy to pick up, and flipping between views without rebuilding your data keeps things flexible as project needs change. If your team already lives in spreadsheets, that familiarity makes adoption a lot smoother.
Smartsheet is a particularly good if your team regularly brings in outside parties — clients, contractors, vendors — since you can loop them in on specific tasks or sheets without a complicated account setup on their end.
The main tradeoffs come down to your tech stack and budget. Connecting it to tools like your CRM takes real setup effort, and advanced features come at extra cost. Worth thinking through before you commit.
- No-code automations – Build custom workflows using a trigger, condition and action format, or start from a template to automate alerts, approvals and row changes.
- Multiple project views – You can visualize the same project data as a Kanban board, Gantt chart, card view or calendar without duplicating your setup.
- Custom dashboards – Build a single view of all your projects using chart and report widgets so you don't have to dig through individual sheets for info.
- Document proofing – Files support pin comments, box annotations or arrow markups so feedback stays attached to the work, not buried in email.
- Risk and project tracking – Use built-in risk register and KPI formula templates to flag project health issues and forecast impact before they affect your timeline.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: Teamwork is a solid pick if you're juggling multiple projects and want time tracking, collaboration and planning in one place instead of bouncing between separate tools. If your team is small or your budget is tight, it might be more than you need.
I tested Teamwork's Grow plan and came away impressed. Templates were a highlight — you can pull from the library or build from scratch. And I loved how all your customizations live in one Settings tab so you're not hunting around for them.
Teamwork really shines when projects get complex — the structure helps teams stay on top of moving parts. That said, getting set up takes time, so build in a learning period.
With 45+ native integrations with popular tools like Slack, Dropbox and Zendesk, plus Zapier support, Teamwork should slot into most existing stacks without much trouble.
- Workflow automation – Set rules to automatically assign users, post comments or change statuses when tasks hit certain stages.
- Kanban and Scrum boards – Move tasks through configurable columns using drag-and-drop, with color coding to keep workflows organized.
- Custom KPI dashboards – You can build dashboards around the metrics you care about, from late tasks and milestones to billed versus unbilled time.
- Tags and filters – Color-coded tags for tasks, milestones and comments let you quickly narrow down what you're looking for.
- Risk register – Log potential project risks with probability, impact and mitigation notes, then export as a PDF or Excel file.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: Jira is built for agile teams that want a platform built around how they work and don't mind investing time to learn it. If your team is less technical or needs a quick setup, something like monday.com will get you moving faster.
The workflow editor stood out to me as the most intuitive I've tested — adding statuses, setting transitions and defining rules just made sense. Sprint planning was a breeze too, especially the drag-and-drop backlog. As you'd expect, Jira handles software and IT workflows particularly well, but I found it adaptable enough for other project types too.
Getting there takes work, though. I had to lean on tutorials throughout testing, and users flag the learning curve and back-end administration as ongoing pain points.
The good news: Jira should play well with your existing stack. 3,000+ integrations — including Slack, GitHub, Azure and Bitbucket — cover a wide range of dev and project tools.
- Custom reporting – Generate sprint reports, workload reports, and time tracking breakdowns to spot where your team is falling behind or overloaded.
- Workflows – Custom statuses, transitions, and validation rules let you control exactly how tasks move through your workflow per issue type.
- Custom automations – Create custom rules by combining a trigger, conditions, and actions, and get started quickly with recommended actions.
- Sprint management – Drag and drop issues into your sprint backlog, then Jira auto-routes unfinished tasks when a sprint ends.
- Issue card builder – You can add assignees, due dates, custom fields, and time tracking to issue cards, plus bulk-import from a CSV to get started fast.
Pros
Cons
Bottom line: ProofHub is a solid pick if you want simple project management that doesn't take weeks to learn. It's built for small and mid-sized teams that value simplicity over power-user depth.
I got up and running quickly — the onboarding guides you right into your first project. Where ProofHub really shines is file review and approvals (no surprise, given the name), keeping feedback in one place instead of scattered across email threads.
If your team depends on a lot of other tools, that's where the cracks start showing up. ProofHub works best if you can run everything in its hub, not when you need to connect to a bunch of external apps.
Another downside is that there's no built-in automation. You'll need third-party apps to fill that gap, which is a major weakness compared to the other products on this list.
- Task Management: Start creating tasks using the basic template during onboarding that you can modify to fit your workflow by adding subtasks, custom statuses, fields and color-coding. Assign tasks to users, track time, add timelines using start and end dates and elaborate on tasks using descriptions, comments and files. Create recurring tasks to automate due dates and reminders.
- Multiple Views: Visualize projects in the format you’re comfortable with, by toggling between the standard list view and Kanban board and filtering tasks by stages, status, assignee, label or date. Use the Gantt chart to filter based on date, find the critical path and set and show the baseline. Keep tasks, events and milestones on track using the calendar view.
- Team Collaboration: Communicate with your team using discussions and create topics, kinda like channels, that are open to all or private to certain teams or members. Share files and proofs, and get approvals without ping-pong rally emails. Chat in real time with team members using the built-in messaging tool for private and group chats and save important messages. Send announcements on the dashboard for deadlines, personal milestones and wins.
- Time Tracking: Improve time management by tracking time directly on your cards and adding an estimated time to compare actual versus projected times and make more accurate estimates in the future. Monitor team performance using timesheets with every single time entry in the Everything tab.
- Dashboard and Reports: Use the Me tab as a personalized dashboard with your agenda, shortcuts, tasks, tracked time, notes and announcements. Visualize project performance with the project report dashboard. Identify inefficiencies, resource utilization and project progress with reports about time and tasks, resources, project progress snapshots, milestones and burn-up charts. Identify projects that are not on track through ‘slipping reports.’ Use data to analyze tasks, resources utilized, time logged and project completion roadmap.
Pros
Cons
How We Rated and Tested Products
Our ratings and reviews involve two parts:
- The analyst scores, which determine the top products
- My personal research into each product to supplement our analyst data
How the Analyst Score Works
Our team of analysts conduct in-depth research of the category market using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals and technical documentation.
Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes all the research to compute the analyst score. The score is based on how comprehensive each product’s feature set is and how much is available out of the box vs. through extra modules, integrations and other means. For project management, we scored the following feature groups:
- Customization
- Dashboards and Reporting
- Mobile Capabilities
- Platform Features
- Project Planning and Scheduling
- Project Tracking
- Task Management
- Team Collaboration
- Time Tracking and Management
We also scored these technical capabilities:
- Platform Security
- Integrations and Extensibility
We used the following scale to rate each feature and technical capability in our platform:
| Level of Support | Score | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fully Supported Out of the Box | 100 | This feature is comprehensively supported out of the box with industry-leading capabilities and is immediately available after installation, without needing any additional modules, integrations, or custom development. |
| Moderately Supported Out of the Box | 85 | This feature is moderately supported out of the box and is immediately available after installation, without needing any additional modules, integrations, or custom development. |
| Supported with Workarounds | 70 | This feature is not directly available in the software but can be accomplished using other built-in features or any other workarounds, without any additional cost. |
| Supported with Additional Modules | 60 | This feature is available through additional modules or products from the vendor at an additional cost. |
| Supported with Partner Integrations | 50 | This feature is available through additional integrations, plugins, or marketplace applications from a third-party vendor at an additional cost. |
| Supported with Custom Development | 25 | This feature is not built in, and cannot be added by purchasing additional modules or integrations, but can be custom developed using the APIs, libraries, extensions, and development framework supported by the software, with or without any additional cost. |
| Not Supported | 0 | This feature is not supported. |
My Research
Once I received the research team’s top ten picks, I got to work. As a regular social media trawler, I didn’t want to get cancelled for having a biased methodology, so I dedicated a full two weeks to each product. Thanks to the generosity of PM vendors, I got trial access for all ten products.
During every step of the testing process I kept one guiding question in mind: WWMPMD (What Would My Project Manager Do)? I also got some feedback from him directly, along with other users, on what to look for. Here are the areas I tested:
- Onboarding and Set Up: How easy is it to get things up and running? I checked if the onboarding screens let you invite users, access templates suited to your industry, customize views and set up tasks. I also noted, does the software kind of just leave you floundering in the dark? Or are there training pop-ups and an onboarding checklist?
- Customization: A template in time can save nine (times the work), but how much does it bend to your will? I looked at how easy it is to create custom workflows, fields, statuses, filters, automations and tags.
- Functionality: Project management software really isn’t project management software if it can’t help you manage tasks, collaborate with your team, plan, schedule and track projects, monitor performance and set dependencies. I made sure each solution met the bare minimum requirements.
- UX and Interface: Looks aren’t everything (well, until you’re 30-minutes deep in a tutorial video and still have no idea how to create a custom status). I checked out reviews on G2, Capterra and Software Advice and reached out to users to see what they thought about the learning curve and useability. Once I had all the information, I tested how easy it was to get to the setup screen, work the backend, and move through projects and views.
- Cost: Project management software is price elastic (mostly because substitutes are a dime a dozen). For me, a good solution should have a free version, a reasonable starting price, and shouldn’t hide essential features behind higher price tiers or add-on costs.
Jump back to the product comparison. Or learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards.
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FAQs
The price of project management software varies from solution to solution. Most project management solutions follow a subscription-based pricing model and charge per user, per month. You can compare project management costs by downloading our pricing guide.
Many project management solutions offer a freemium tier with basic features. However, not every system will have the features your business needs. For example, if you want more customizations, you might opt for ClickUp, but if you’d like more familiar formatting you may like Smartsheet. It’s best to make a list of your requirements so you can pick a free solution that matches your needs.
Affordability and usability are often top priorities for smaller businesses. Based on that criteria, monday.com, ClickUp, Asana and Zoho Projects have great functionally, don’t require too much technical expertise and won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
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Don’t have the bandwidth to try out multiple solutions through free trials and intensive demos? Narrow down your options with our free comparison report where you can see a feature-based scorecard showing how the best systems stack up against each other.
What’s one project management software feature that you absolutely can’t go without? Let us know in the comments below!
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