10 Best Hive Competitors and Alternatives: Reviewed in 2025
Best Hive Alternative Shortlist
Have a quick glance at the tools I review in this article.
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If Hive isn’t meeting your team’s needs, it might be time to explore other options. Maybe you’ve outgrown Hive’s features, or perhaps you’ve hit roadblocks with its usability or pricing. Whatever the reason, finding the right project management software can make a big difference in how your team collaborates and delivers results.
In this article, I’ll share the best alternatives to Hive, covering options that cater to a variety of team sizes, industries, and workflows. Each tool has its strengths, and I’ve done the research to help you weigh your options.
Here, you can thoroughly examine your options and determine which solution will be the right fit for you and your team’s goals.
What Are Hive Alternatives?
Hive alternatives are project management and team collaboration software options. They provide functionalities similar to Hive, with variations in features, user interfaces, and pricing strategies. These tools are used for organizing tasks, managing projects, and facilitating communication among team members.
The benefits and uses of Hive alternatives include offering diverse customization options to fit specific project and team needs, providing a range of features suitable for different types of projects, and often presenting more cost-effective solutions. They improve team collaboration, are scalable to match business growth, and typically offer extensive integration capabilities with other business tools.
About Hive
Hive is one of the young project management tools on the market. It was founded in 2015 by co-founders John Furneaux and Eric Typaldos.
The tool is part project management and part AI. It brings together features like task management automation, custom workflows, templates, messaging, and collaboration under one roof.
This project management platform has dashboards to help you navigate tasks, reporting, and communications.
First, these dashboards are modern, colorful and easy to navigate with drag-and-drop items like task cards and reporting widgets. Then, portfolio dashboards can provide metrics into what your team is doing and how the big picture projects are coming together. Finally, personal dashboards can track individual productivity levels and workflow patterns.
Hive’s automated workflow processes help you alleviate the administrative burden of basic tagging and communication tasks. Even newbies can easily follow the conversational pattern for setting up custom workflows and automating routine processes. This can support accurate dashboard metrics, as it relies less on manual input that is prone to error.
In addition, you’ll have access to flexible project views like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, portfolios, tables, calendar views, and summary views. A flexible toolset covers everything you need to digitize your workspace, including customizable forms, project templates, proofing and approval systems, and automations.
Hive offers over a dozen native third-party integrations with tools like Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, JIRA, and Salesforce. Additionally, you can unlock more connections with a paid plan through Zapier (costs extra).
Hive starts at $18/user/month on a monthly plan and offers a 14-day free trial.
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Smartsheet
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.4 -
Wrike
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.2 -
monday.com
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6
10 Best Hive Alternatives Compared
To clarify which Hive alternative suits your project teams best, I’m going through the pros and cons, trial info, pricing, and expert opinion for 10 options you need to consider. I’m comparing each alternative to Hive so you can pick two or three apps that are worth a trial run.
Why Wrike is a great Hive alternative
Hive wasn’t created with a specific kind of team in mind so their pricing and offering are relatively general compared to alternative project management software. On the other hand, Wrike lets you choose between two advanced add-on solutions for agile marketing and creative teams. These come with specific features, like Wrike Publish, an extension for Adobe Creative Cloud, and multiple tailored templates for your specific workspace. All of these are organized under one pricing plan compared to Hive where you have to add them to your base cost. Wrike also comes with a free subscription option you can use with unlimited users.
Why monday.com is a great Hive alternative
Sure, Hive does come with basic integrations, but you’ll want to try monday.com if you’re looking for industry-specific ones. PagerDuty, JotForm, Clearbit, Mailchimp, and Shopify are just some of the native add-ons you’ll get with monday.com as your project management software that you can’t access with Hive.
Why ClickUp is a great Hive alternative
ClickUp essentially has the same features as Hive under a slightly different workspace design, with ClickUp being more customizable and colorful. What makes ClickUp a better choice is the cheaper and less complicated pricing. With Hive, you have to pay for extra modules like timesheets or resource management, leading to costs adding up. ClickUp, on the other hand, has simpler pricing that reunites multiple of their functionalities. Not to mention ClickUp provides a great free plan with unlimited users whereas Hive doesn’t offer a free subscription at all.
Best Hive alternative for robust resource management tools
Why Resource Guru is a great Hive alternative
Resource Guru emerges as a compelling alternative to Hive for its robust calendar and resource management tools enable efficient planning and visibility. This ensures teams can optimize their workload and avoid overbooking. With features like leave management and insightful reporting, Resource Guru facilitates a more organized and productive work environment, making it a practical choice for teams seeking a straightforward yet effective project management solution.
Best Hive alternative for robust financial management
Why Bonsai is a great Hive alternative
While both platforms share similarities in project management and task automation, Bonsai excels with its extensive financial tools, offering features such as invoicing, financial reporting, and budgeting. Bonsai's invoicing system allows users to create professional invoices quickly, supporting recurring invoices and automatic reminders. Its financial reporting capabilities also provide detailed insights into business performance. Additionally, Bonsai includes budgeting tools and expense tracking for better oversight of overall project and financial health.
Why Mavenlink is a great Hive alternative
If Hive is a complete team collaboration tool, Mavenlink brings the big features that make up an all-in-one work management platform. Specifically, Mavenlink provides all the financial management functionalities you won’t get with Hive. These include invoicing, expense tracking, and dedicated reports for accounts receivable.
Why Ravetree is a great Hive alternative
Hive is a platform for team collaboration and communication with project management features. When comparing features, both Ravetree and Hive offer task management, Gantt chart visualization, and project templates. However, Ravetree has resource planning and budgeting, time and expense tracking, and a range of project management frameworks, whereas Hive's strengths lie in its communication and collaboration abilities. Compared to Hive, Ravetree offers more comprehensive project management features. Additionally, it provides customizable features, allowing users to tailor their workflows and dashboards to their needs.
Best Hive alternative for no-code workflow automation
Why Pneumatic Workflow is a great Hive alternative
Pneumatic Workflow provides a visual interface where users can design and automate workflows specific to their needs. The tool allows users to define and connect various tasks and actions, such as approvals, notifications, and data transformations, to create efficient and automated workflows. Users can also set up rules and conditions to automate task assignments and track the progress of each workflow. Pneumatic Workflow aims to simplify and optimize repetitive tasks, improve collaboration, and increase productivity by providing a user-friendly platform for managing and executing workflows.
Why Rocketlane is a good Hive alternative
Many teams need to collaborate with external contractors, customers, or stakeholders as often as (or more often then) their own team members. Rocklane is designed as a project management tool for these types of situations. They prioritize guest account access, robust permissions settings, and customer onboarding in order to get users who are external to your primary team up and running as quickly as possible.
Why MeisterTask is a great Hive alternative
MeisterTask emerges as a formidable competitor to Hive in the project management software arena, particularly through its seamless integration with MindMeister, an online mind mapping tool, which allows for a fluid transition from brainstorming sessions to actionable tasks. This tool bridges the gap between ideation and task management in a way that Hive and other competitors do not directly offer. This integration is especially beneficial for teams that rely heavily on visual planning and creative processes, enabling them to visualize their projects' scope and requirements before diving into the specifics of task management.
10 Best Hive Alternative Comparison Chart
Here is a table where you can compare the tools we just covered in the overviews.
| Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Best Hive alternative for agile design and marketing teams | Freemium version available | From $10/user/month (min of 2 seats) | Website | |
| 2 | Best Hive alternative for specialized integrations | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
| 3 | Best Hive alternative for similar features at a lower cost | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $7/user/month | Website | |
| 4 | Best Hive alternative for robust resource management tools | 30-day free trial | From $4.16/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
| 5 | Best Hive alternative for robust financial management | Free trial available | From $9/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
| 6 | Best Hive alternative for invoicing functionality | Not available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
| 7 | Best Hive alternative for project resource management | 14-day free trial | From $29/user/month (billed annually, min 5 seats) | Website | |
| 8 | Best Hive alternative for no-code workflow automation | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $99/month (unlimited users) | Website | |
| 9 | Best for customer collaboration and onboarding | 14-day free trial | From $19/user/month | Website | |
| 10 | Best for integration of ideation and task management | Free trial available | From $8.25/user/month (billed annually) + free plan available | Website |
Why Might You Need a Hive Alternative?
You need to connect Hive to other tools you’re already using
Hive offers all the basic integrations. If you need industry-specific ones to really bring all tools under one hood, consider looking over the list of integrations Hive competitors provide first.
You want different features to streamline complex projects
Hive doesn’t yet come with an invoicing module. So whether you want to bill your clients or keep track of accounting data, other alternatives will help you get paid for your projects with just a couple of clicks.
You’re looking to reduce costs
Hive isn’t the most expensive solution on the market, but there are cheaper alternatives that provide the exact same features under a different user interface.
Key Features for a Viable Hive Alternative
Advanced time tracking
A time tracking module isn’t a must for project management tools but it’s a viable asset to your projects. Hive provides different time tracking options, timesheets, and real-time reporting for your team members you don’t want to miss when switching to an alternative.
An intuitive interface
Hive mimics Slack’s UI, making it extra easy for new users to get used to working in Hive. Good news is there are other project management apps with a low learning curve out there. Each has its own particularities that make it more suitable for certain users who’ve worked within a similar interface organization before.
Team collaboration
It’s difficult to find the best alternative with better collaboration features. So the teamwork solutions you’re considering need to have at least the communication options you’re using on a daily basis.
Customization options for analytics
You can access and customize over 50 interactive dashboards that make use of machine learning to provide realistic insights of your team’s activity. If you’re considering scaling up your team and projects, you’ll need reporting capabilities at a portfolio management level.
