The Best Project Management Software for 2024 Reviewed

The best project management software is a personal matter that depends on your specific needs and budget. That said, we’ve compiled this guide of the market’s best project management tools for various needs and budgets, including free project management software, to help you find the right solution for your needs.

Best Project Management Software 2024

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Best Project Management Software 2024
2. The Best Project Management Tools Compared
3. What is Project Management Software?
4. Key Features of the Top Project Management Solutions
5. The Key Benefits of Project Management Software
6. What is the Best Free Project Management Software?
7. What Project Management System is Easiest to Use?
8. How to Choose the Best Project Management Software
9. FAQs
10. References

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Table of Contents

1. Best Project Management Software 2024
2. The Best Project Management Tools Compared
3. What is Project Management Software?
Show Full Guide
4. Key Features of the Top Project Management Solutions
5. The Key Benefits of Project Management Software
6. What is the Best Free Project Management Software?
7. What Project Management System is Easiest to Use?
8. How to Choose the Best Project Management Software
9. FAQs
10. References

Smartsheet — Best for Grid-Based Collaboration

With Smartsheet, you can set up Gantt charts and dashboards. You can also break down tasks into subtasks and track progress across timelines. If you want to collaborate with teammates on certain projects, you can easily tag them in the comments or on any cell where your task sits.

Teams managing projects with multiple parts will find Smartsheet versatile and highly scalable. It has data analysis tools that let you perform calculations with formulas and visualize the data with charts and graphs. These can, in turn, help teams arrive at data-driven decisions.

If you have established business systems, you can also automate routine tasks within Smartsheet. This saves time and improves efficiency, especially across growing teams handling complex projects.

Moreover, this online project management software stands out for its deep integration capabilities with enterprise tools like Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and Jira, making it a seamless addition to existing business ecosystems.

Read our full Smartsheet review for more.

ClickUp — Best All-in-One Solution

ClickUp stands out for its remarkable customization options, allowing you to tailor the platform to fit your workflow perfectly. Whether you prefer organizing tasks in lists, boards, calendars, or Gantt charts, ClickUp has you covered.

The platform is also known for its “Spaces”, which enables users to separate different areas of work within the same workspace, ensuring that projects remain organized and focused. Within each Space, you can set up Kanban, Gantt, and Calendar views.

You may also opt for the simple list view, or use the mind maps feature for brainstorming, and then add the Chat view to discuss tasks with a team member. Aside from this, ClickUp offers real-time editing, commenting, and document embedding, which means you can always stay in sync on a project without leaving the platform.

If you still choose to link other productivity tools with it, you can do so with over 1,000 apps, including Slack, GitHub, and Google Drive. This extensive integration further enhances its versatility, making it a central hub for all project-related activities.

Learn more with our full ClickUp review.

Visor — Best for Real-time Visual Collaboration

Fans of interactive whiteboards, drawing mind maps, and annotating find Visor appealing. Imagine having an online meeting and taking these collaborative notes in real-time, and then screen sharing for any additional info to help a project move forward.

Hence, Visor is ideal for both marketing and design teams. Marketing teams, for example, can brainstorm the next campaign ideas with visual ease. Design teams, on the other hand, can discuss design concepts, share prototypes, and compare mockups.

That said, FigJam would be a close competitor, especially when a project is design-heavy, as it’s more design-centric and has design workflows and component libraries, whereas Visor caters to a broader user base and provides file management for all other types of files.

Any other team across several disciplines can benefit from using Visor, especially when they create and edit plenty of files and would love to comment directly on those files within Visor. Moreover, Visor provides task management functions like Smartsheet and ClickUp.

Project.co — Best Freemium Option

You can explore Project.co’s clean and intuitive interface easily without the technical expertise Smartsheet often requires. This makes it a great option for teams that prioritize user-friendliness to streamline task handling and don’t require overly complex functionalities.

Freelancers, agencies, small businesses, and startups will find Project.co helpful for client collaboration, especially when granting limited access to specific project aspects. For example, you can restrict views on confidential information like internal notes or team discussions.

This fosters transparency and collaboration while maintaining control over sensitive data. Furthermore, Project.co allows you to manage all aspects of client projects in one place, including tracking tasks, time spent, and file sharing.

FigJam by Figma — Best for Design Professionals

If you want to know what others are working on, FigJam’s cursor chat feature shows exactly that. You can also create and share component libraries for a consistent design throughout your projects.

Moreover, FigJam’s commenting and annotation features can streamline creative approval processes and allow real-time feedback on designs. Thus, FigJam is best for design teams, UX/UI professionals, and creative agencies.

That said, product managers can also benefit from using FigJam, especially when they visualize product ideas and gather user feedback. Meanwhile, front-end developers often use FigJam to hand off designs to developers and keep communication on.

With FigJam, powerful features like sticky notes, drawing tools, and project templates allow simplified visual collaboration compared to more generic tools like Miro or Microsoft Whiteboard, which cater to a broader audience.

The Best Project Management Tools Compared

What is Project Management Software?

Project management software does just what you would expect it to—help you manage projects. The software category spans applications, tools, and platforms that help you visualize and streamline your workflow, facilitate team communication and collaboration, and optimize resource allocation.

In simple terms, project managing software provides a complete overview of your business, including all the projects, tasks, and processes. This lets you see exactly what everyone in your team is working on, monitor the status of each task, and see how much time and manpower you’re spending to complete specific projects.

Project management systems also ensure that everyone in the organization knows exactly what’s going on at any given moment with complete transparency, saving a lot of time you’d otherwise waste on meetings, lengthy email threads, and sorting out misunderstandings regarding task priorities and due dates.

Key Features of the Top Project Management Solutions

Here are the main project management features you’ll find with all the tools:

The Key Benefits of Project Management Software

Even small teams can be difficult to manage without project planning software. Without the right platform, keeping everyone on the same page, managing projects and task dependencies, having efficient team collaboration, and even making decisions are all incredibly difficult.

Businesses that don’t use project management platforms find themselves failing to meet deadlines, going over project budgets, getting complaints from stakeholders or clients, and in a never-ending cycle of fixing costly mistakes.

The top project management tools will efficiently solve these issues, saving you valuable time, helping you efficiently use your resources, and helping you forecast and plan future projects. In short, it should remove a lot of the friction from your business.

Here are the key benefits of project managing software, so you can clearly see why it’s essential to have one if you want to grow and expand your business processes.

What is the Best Free Project Management Software?

The best free project management app will really depend on your specific needs. Some, like Project.co, offer all the basics small teams would need, including some advanced features like time tracking—but you’ll miss out on resource management and in-depth reporting, for example.

Other popular free options include ClickUp and Wrike, both of which offer a free plan that doesn’t limit the number of users you can onboard. That said, free tools are quite limited, even compared to paid, cheap project management tools.

However, this all really depends on your specific needs. Always factor in the limitations of the plan and provider, and note how scalable the platform is. A cheap or free plan may suffice now, but this will probably change in the future.

What Project Management System is Easiest to Use?

Ease of use can be a personal matter, too. Some find one platform easy, whereas others would find it has a high learning curve. One good example of this is ClickUp—many find it amazing and intuitive, while others find it has a high learning curve.

Using various project management tools, we’ve found Smartsheet, Monday, and Project.co among the easiest platforms to navigate.

How to Choose the Best Project Management Software

While all the best project management solutions on our list are great for optimizing workflows, streamlining team collaboration, and facilitating project planning and execution, some tools might be a better fit for your organization than others.

This largely depends on the field of work your company is in, the types of projects you’re running, the tools you’re already using, and the unique needs of your business. Here are the key factors to consider when choosing the right project management tool for your business:

FAQs