10 Best Project Management Software With Client Portals

monday.com’s client management portal mixes Kanban boards and Gantt charts with a simple CRM to make team collaboration easy.

The portal takes some of monday.com’s most recognizable features—boards, reminders, due date notifications—and combines them into a shareable workspace. Once you invite a client in, they can @mention your team members, give feedback, and approve tasks so a project can progress to the next phase.

Much like Slack, the portal’s communication feature shows conversations in a thread, like this:

You can embed links in messages and, as each message is given a stamp showing when it was sent/read, it's easy to see if a client has received your messages in real-time.

It's up to you how you manage the portal's layout. You can share project roadmaps or build simple Kanban boards and pipelines so your client can visualize how a project is progressing. As you can split projects into separate tasks—where you can attach notes and links—clients can also have access to these to give feedback or ask questions (if you permit them!)

The most helpful part about sharing project information like this is that your client is constantly kept in the loop. They can see due dates for tasks and milestones, which sets an expectation for when they can expect work to be completed. Instead of emailing you and asking when a task will be finished or when a project will be delivered—they can just log into the portal.

Unlike some other tools on the list, monday.com doesn't have inbuilt features like invoicing or ticketing, but with their list of integrations, you'll likely be able to add tools from your existing tech stack. Some notable integrations include Dropbox, Excel, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Integromat, Slack, Trello. If your tool isn't on the list, Zapier also integrates with monday.com.

monday.com costs from $8/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.

Wrike is a project management software with client portals that’s trusted by over 2.3 million customers worldwide and suitable for any size team. Wrike’s features are available to external clients at no extra cost, ensuring stakeholders, clients, vendors and contractors all have access to the same information throughout the project management process. Wrike enables managers and clients to communicate directly without relying on constant back-and-forth emails with a single digital hub that features customizable dashboards, reports, and request forms to suit their needs.

Wrike offers highly functional client portals that will make communicating with clients more efficient. Instead of chasing clients for approvals, use Wrike’s customizable request forms to streamline project intake and ensure nothing gets lost in an overloaded inbox. Optimize project planning with one-click Gantt charts, and adjust your dashboard, task list, and workflow to suit your working style. Wrike also features integrations with customer management solutions and sales lead tools, employee capacity monitoring, and onboarding templates.

With a simple user interface, Wrike helps project managers engage with clients and improve communication — without the need for in-person training. Real-time commenting and instant @mentions mean stakeholders are kept in the loop at all times. While Wrike is very user-friendly, you can also avail of the dedicated help center with interactive training, videos, a ‘getting started’ guide, and a thriving community.

Wrike integrates with 400+ apps, including the most popular applications from Microsoft, Slack, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software like Salesforce and Marketo. Check the app directory to see all the apps Wrike works with.

Start free with Wrike, no matter how big your team is. Or, try a free 14-day trial of Wrike’s more advanced features and customization. Paid plans start at $9.80/user/month.

Celoxis has a refreshing one-price-fits-all approach to project management software whereby their cloud-based or on-premise plan encompass all of their offerings without having to wade through a slew of confusing pricing packages. With this, you will have access to client portals at no additional cost, which helps with filtering, reporting, charting, and sharing your data.

You can easily give your clients access so that they can login to view reports shared with them, engage in online discussions, share files and even participate in business workflows like bug tracking, change requests, and item approvals. You can share reports and dashboards with clients that can include tabular, pie charts, bar charts and many other views of reports. To share it with a client, select the client in the 'visible to clients field' in the add/edit report form. If you pick the 'all' option, the report will be shared with all clients. Easy as that. You can also control which project tabs are visible to clients in a similar way.

Every client account can be configured to have the following privileges: 1) Allow client to view task information, excluding financial information. This determines whether clients can view task details. Financial fields (including custom fields) are never shown to the clients. 2) Allow client to view details of progress update on tasks. This determines whether clients can view updates and comments on the task. 3) Allow client to do progress update on tasks. This determines whether clients can add comments on a task.

One thing to note: If you share reports with your client, then the above privileges override the data shared in reports. For example, if you share a task list report to a client that does not have the 'allow client to view task information, excluding financial information' privilege, then that client will see an empty report.

Celoxis integrates with over 400 third-party apps like Google Drive, MS Excel, JIRA, QuickBooks Online, Salesforce, Evernote, Slack, Zendesk, G Suite, Trello, Harvest, MailChimp, and more through a paid account with Zapier.

Celoxis costs from $25/user/month with a 5 user minimum and offers a free 30-day trial.

ClickUp is a cloud-based project management and collaboration software with the ability to set up a client portal to share information and communicate directly with your clients. It's a flexible system for organizations of all sizes and industries, capable of facilitating task management and allocation, communications, project status monitoring, and team collaboration. It is an all-in-one platform that effectively combines all the functionalities of multiple workflow and organizational management systems into a unified solution.

Using ClickUp, you can communicate deadlines, progress update and more easily. You can create a client space in your system, with individual folders for each client you have. From there, you can use lists to track the different services you provide to each client. ClickUp includes tools to make folders or lists private, or viewable by certain users only. To share items with your clients, invite them to your folder as a Guest, or allow them to use the email task creation feature, which lets them email tasks that get added directly to your 'to do' list, including due dates, as needed.

Another helpful feature if you're managing lots of clients is the ability to create a client folder as a template. You can then re-use this folder quickly, whenever you have a new client sign up. This will save your teams a lot of time, rather than having to re-create your folder structure from scratch again and again.

ClickUp also integrates natively with many platforms, including Dropbox, GitHub, GitLab, HubSpot, Intercom, Loom, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, and many others.

ClickUp is completely free for personal use. For small teams, pricing starts at $9/user/month with the Unlimited plan. An Enterprise option is also available for larger teams, with quote-based pricing. Interested parties can visit the vendor’s website for more details about the subscription plans and pricing.

Zoho Projects is a web-based project management software that helps teams organize and track project progress, and collaborate and communicate effectively. Its robust platform offers various features to help teams manage complex projects and streamline workflows. Users can create tasks, assign them to team members, set deadlines, and track progress in real-time. Tasks can be organized into different categories, such as milestones or subtasks, to provide a clear picture of the project's progress. The platform also allows users to set task dependencies and prioritize them to ensure critical tasks are completed on time.

Users can create secure client portals that will enable clients to view project progress, timelines, and other relevant information. Clients can also communicate with the project team through the portal, which can help streamline communication and ensure everyone is on the same page. You can also customize your client portal to fit their branding and style, including their logos, colors, and preferred fonts, creating a more cohesive and professional experience for your clients. The platform offers collaboration tools that enable team members to communicate effectively. Users can share files, comment on tasks, and hold discussions in real-time.

Other useful features include the ability to log the time spent on tasks, which is then used to generate accurate project reports and invoices. This feature enables managers to monitor team productivity and identify areas for improvement. In addition, their comprehensive reporting system also provides insights into project performance. Users can generate reports on various aspects of the project, including task progress, time tracking, and team performance. These reports can be customized to fit your specific needs and exported to various formats such as Excel, PDF, or CSV.

Zoho Projects integrates with other Zoho apps, commonly used apps by Google (Google Calendar, Drive, Sheets, etc.), and Microsoft (Calendar, Excel, Office 365, OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint), and other third-party apps such as Basecamp, Jira, Slack, Zendesk, and Zapier.

Zoho Projects costs from $5/user/month for tracking unlimited projects. A freemium plan with limited features, as well as a 10-day free trial, are also available.

It’s set up so clients can try and solve problems themselves before submitting a ticket. The search bar scours the knowledge base and forums, and answers are automatically suggested using the inbuilt algorithm.

The portal has a tool to build out the knowledge base yourself that's simple to use—add a title, your text, and some tags, and hit publish. You can also add metadata to articles, giving them a chance to show up in search engine results. Once the article is up, Freshdesk tracks it to see if customers are reading it and its performance.

If your client still doesn't get the answer they're looking for, they can submit a ticket. If they do, each ticket is kept in a database where clients can check its status, and they'll get a notification if you act on it.

What’s really cool about Freshdesk’s portal is its branding options. You can add a custom domain (like support.yourcompany.com), change the color palette, and even add multiple languages to make it easier for clients to communicate with you.

It has inbuilt integrations like Freshdesk for Slack, Freshdesk Kanban, and Freshsuccess and other integrations with tools like MailChimp, Salesforce, Hubspot, Xero, and PayPal. It even has its own mobile app (iOS and Android), so you can stay on top of your messaging from anywhere.

Freshdesk’s Blossom Plan starts at $15/agent/month and includes ticketing and knowledge base.

The year 2000 called, and it wants its interface design back.

But what it lacks in a clean, modern interface, it more than makes up for in its security chops. The tool's 'data rooms' are set up with security measures like role-based permissions, session timeouts, audit trails, and two-factor authentication.

Long story short—you don't have to worry about prying eyes in your client files because it's a very secure portal.

When you add files to the portal, you can share them with a client and set permissions (like viewer, collaborator, or administrator), which is perfect for feedback, approval, and task management. The inbuilt watermark tool can automatically mark any documents and protect them with your logo, and you can change up the portal's colors and branding to suit your own.

Here’s the only sticking point about OneHub—its integration list is short. Very short. It only mentions that Microsoft Office and Gsuite tools are on the list, so keep that in mind when deciding if this is the right portal for you and your team.

OneHub’s Standard Plan starts at $15/user/month, but doesn’t include white-labelling or two-factor authentication.

You can tag projects to make them instantly recognizable, label tasks for internal use only, and add timelines to everything your team is working on.

What’s cool about the EasyProject client portal is it doubles as a project management tool. You can add an estimated timeframe to see how long you are spending on each task and even set deadlines for deliverables. It even has a time tracking feature, so you can track everything in real-time.

This is particularly useful when you are charging clients per hour or have them on a retainer, as they can log into the portal and see how your team is using their time and makes it easier to justify billing when invoice time comes around.

You can also assign feedback and approval tasks to clients to make sure they sign off on anything before you move forward.

If you want feedback on a draft, just tag the client and ask them to add their thoughts. When they’re done, EasyProjects will automatically notify you so you can jump in and see what the client has added to the document. The whole process makes client projects more collaborative.

The plus side is that all of your client files are kept securely in one place. They can be accessed by everyone on your team instead of getting lost in an email thread.

EasyProjects also integrates with a bunch of tools, including Salesforce, Adobe, Office 365 Outlook, MS Project, Zendesk, JIRA, and InvoiceBerry. If you need more, EasyProjects has a RESTful API to hook up any other apps in your tech stack.

EasyProjects' Team plan starts at $24/user/month, but you must contact them directly to get Enterprise pricing.  

Coordinate is a collaborative project management software purpose-built for running client projects. It helps you seamlessly execute client-facing projects collaboratively with your clients. How?

Externally, clients can access a white-labeled portal without needing to create an account or learn any software. In this portal, they can see the tasks that are assigned to them, and have the option to view the entire plan.

Internally, customizable and reusable templates help you operationalize your best practices, and deploy new projects with a click. Structured tasks, role-based assignments, relative dates, and automated notifications keep everyone aligned, maintain project velocity, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Threaded chats and secure file sharing maintain organization without effort and eliminate the need for emails and Slack.

Finally, dashboards with custom fields can match internal workflows to track key metrics across your entire project portfolio, letting you easily monitor the status of each project, measure expenditures or ROI, and achieve scale.

Coordinate integrates into all the other systems you use — such as for CRM or development tracking — via Zapier and a Webhook+REST API, in order to streamline your workflows and prevent double data entry.

Coordinate offers a free forever plan to get you started. Advanced plans start at $35 per user per month.

I'm (kind of) cheating by putting this tool on the list, but the truth is Client Portal for WordPress isn't really a Project Management Software at all.

The portal itself is a web-based tool that lives inside your WordPress site but acts like a wiki. Instead of sending clients to a separate portal, you embed the client portal onto your website and add/remove “modules” when you need to, and clients can access them at any time.

If they want to submit a ticket, view an invoice, or download a file you’ve just uploaded for them—they just log in.

It’s also perfect for switching your business hours off. Inside the portal, you can adjust your availability hours, so all your clients know when you'll be responsive. Perfect for stopping those weekend calls or out-of-hours texts.

A single-site license costs $199/year.