Best Team Project Management Tools List
Here’s a shortlist of the best team project management tools:
-
monday.comBest for Gantt charts
- Wrike
Best tool for marketing teams
- Teamwork
Best free team management tool plan
- ProjectManager
Best team project management tool for time tracking
- Mavenlink by Kantata
Best team tool for managing professional services
- Clickup
Best enterprise team project management tool
- Meistertask
Best for Kanban boards
- Paymo
Best for remote teams
- Hive
Best for agencies
- Smartsheet
Best for portfolio management
Below you’ll find an overview of each of the 10 best team project management tools, with screenshots, feature overviews, and pricing.
Team project management is all about collaboration and communication. However, this can be challenging to achieve in an increasingly remote or mixed work environment. Team project management software can ease pain points by providing a unified work environment.
In this article, I’ll compare some of the best team project management tools and create a trustworthy list of apps designed to foster teamwork, meet due dates, and knock out tough tasks.
I’ll also dive into what makes each PM tool special so that you can match them up to your unique needs and find something that compliments your team’s workflow.
Team Project Management Tools Comparison Criteria
Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Team project management requires a UX that updates in real-time, is customizable based on user needs, and streamlines communication processes. Team members should be able to spot and utilize collaboration features easily, even for complex projects. Features like drag-and-drop interface, custom fields, and interactive board view are a plus.
- Usability: Project teams need to be up and running fast, so the PM tool should be incredibly user-friendly with a help desk team that is ready to assist at all times. Does the tool also have tutorials, webinars, whitepapers, a community forum, and other self-help features?
- Integrations: Teamwork rarely relies on a sole tool so the PM software in question should integrate easily with other popular programs, like Slack, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Jira, Asana, and more.
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Are there multiple pricing tiers for easy scalability as your team grows? Does the price come with a version for all platforms: iOS, Mac, Android, PC, and all common internet browsers?
Team Project Management Tools Key Features
- Workflow automation – automate common and repeating tasks and processes
- Task lists with dependencies – easily gauge what order tasks need to happen to prevent bottle-necking
- Project planning templates – variety of project templates made available to quick-start new projects
- Workspace customization – your team’s work is supported by the flexibility to make each dashboard and flow most useful to your needs
- Unlimited projects – supporting all of your projects without needing to cull them because of plan limitations
- Time management – track time and access team timesheets right in the app
- Agile functionality – supports agile work for fast iteration and improvement
The Digital Project Manager is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site — learn more about how we aim to stay transparent.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Team Project Management Tools
Here’s a brief description of each of the tools on my list showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.
monday.com
Best for Gantt charts
monday.com is a super user-friendly team project management tool with features for marketing campaigns, CRM and sales, HR and recruitment, workflow automation, calendars and timelines, (including Gantt charts), and a ton of third-party integrations. Their Gantt charts (all their timelines and charts, actually) are so easy to use that non-tech members of your team can figure it out—drag and drop organization, minimal menuing for basic functions, and colorful UI.
monday.com costs from $6/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.
Pros
- Very easy to invite others, share timelines, and assign tasks
- Simple organization by dragging and dropping tasks
- Excellent collaborative features
Cons
- No bottleneck identification or assistance
- Automations are not fully customizable
- Best features locked to Standard or Pro versions
Wrike
Best tool for marketing teams
Wrike is a powerful and customizable team project management tool that is best for teams with between five and an unlimited number of members. Wrike includes tools to configure custom workflows, dashboards, reports, and request forms, as well as collaboration tools such as real-time updates, mentions, and live editing capabilities.
Wrike enables users to switch between Kanban boards, interactive drag-and-drop Gantt charts, and traditional workload views so each team member can choose the way of working that suits them best. Wrike also features powerful automation with custom request forms that auto-assign tasks, push notifications, and deadline tracking.
Wrike has an easy-to-use interface with navigation between distinct spaces, folders, and tasks. The tool also has a dedicated help center with interactive training, videos, a ‘Getting Started’ guide, and a thriving community. Users also have access to a variety of templates for common organizational processes.
Wrike includes over 400 pre-built native integrations, including integrations with the most popular file management software from Microsoft, Slack, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
Pricing starts at $9.80/user/month. There are four different price points, including a free version and plans which offer the ability to invite free external collaborators to a paid account.
Pros
- Ease of use and setup
- Holistic, comprehensive task modeling
- Variety of project views meet different user needs
Cons
- Best features limited to Business plan
- The commenting system needs to be more prominent
Teamwork
Best free team management tool plan
Teamwork is a team project management tool used by the likes of Disney, Netflix, PayPal, and Spotify. Teams can create tasks and projects, upload files, and add comments to collaborate easily and remotely. Managers will benefit from their workload capacity features to help organize and schedule the team’s day, week, and month in advance. Their free plan is quite generous and offers space for 5 users and 2 projects; plus, it comes with 100MB storage.
Teamwork costs from $10/user/month and offers a free version for up to 5 users.
Pros
- Excellent time tracking features
- Easy and comprehensive report building
- Easily track comments and feedback from clients
Cons
- Billing and invoicing limited to paid plans
- Doesn’t sync with QuickBooks
- Can be difficult to move/adjust milestones
ProjectManager
Best team project management tool for time tracking
ProjectManager is a management and teamwork tool with an approach to workflow that blends both Agile and Waterfall frameworks for high flexibility. Users can choose what style of working they like best, be it Gantt charts, task lists, Kanban boards, or a hybrid system. They have a particularly robust time tracking system that updates in real time and offers a multitude of tags, groups, and labels by which to sort each entry with hyper specific detail.
ProjectManager costs from $15/user/month and offers a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Good for costing and construction work monitoring
- Easy to use project scheduling
- Fits well into an Agile framework
Cons
- No way to track and update partially complete tasks
- No way to sort Agile Boards by project, only by task
- Most reports require a manual clean-up
Mavenlink by Kantata
Best team tool for managing professional services
Mavenlink is award-winning software for professional services organizations, though their broad workflow and collaboration feature sets are appropriate for any industry setting. With Mavenlink, users can manage workload and assignments, provide ROG charts for project status, bring teams together with built-in messaging, and empower advanced accounting and BI. Professional service teams will improve their client satisfaction tools in particular.
Mavenlink costs from $19/user/month and offers a 10-day free trial as well as a free demo.
Pros
- Good for resource planning and project accounting
- Ability to search all client communication within a single space
- Easy to track time, develop timelines, and break projects down into tasks
Cons
- Can’t automatically repeat budgets or resource allocations
- Some data syncing lag
- Task and Gantt data columns aren’t fully customizable
Clickup
Best enterprise team project management tool
Clickup is a PM team management tool with modules for tasks, documents, and goals on either browser or mobile apps. Clickup is great for enterprise for two reasons.
One, their enterprise-oriented feature set, including streamlined workflows, goal and OKR setting, and workload visibility. Two, they have two plans, free and unlimited, the second of which has an excellent pricing scheme that won’t gouge you just because you need enterprise-level support.
ClickUp costs from $5/user/month and offers a free version with limited features.
Pros
- Easy to switch between unrelated project plans
- Huge number of customization options
- Impressive organization: create folders, sub-groups, and sub-tasks
Cons
- Steep learning curve due to the number of features
- Tricky to email with attachments, files sometimes unopenable
- More third-party integrations would be welcome
Meistertask
Best for Kanban boards
Meistertask is a user-friendly, feature-rich team PM tool that was named an Editor’s Choice in the Apple App store and maintains a high 4.7/5 score on Google Play. They have task relationship charting, action automation, checklists and recurring tasks, time tracking, and custom fields for data entry. Their Kanban board is straightforward to set up and very easy to maintain with easy drag-and-drop cards and simple point-and-click commands.
MeisterTask costs from $8.25/user/month and offers a free version for up to 3 projects.
Pros
- Intuitive and user-friendly UI
- Very easy to manage several projects at the same time
- Access to unlimited project boards
Cons
- Timeline and custom fields are restricted to Business accounts
- File attachments limited to 200 MB per file
- After loading a file into a task it cannot be downloaded immediately
Paymo
Best for remote teams
Paymo is a team project management software with features for planning and scheduling, communication and messaging, resource allocation, timesheets and time tracking, and feedback reports. Remote teams will particularly benefit from their global Meta Kanban Board for joint task planning as well as transparent performance reporting using customizable and comprehensive metrics. Paymo also has a reliable app for iOS and Android smart devices.
Paymo costs from $9.95/user/month and offers a 15-day free trial.
Pros
- Time tracking easily runs in the background with little interference
- Organizes jobs intuitively and can easily archive jobs
- Easy to share content with external stakeholders
Cons
- Large learning curve compared to others
- Project table layout categories challenging to edit
- Budgets from projects to tasks can be difficult to calculate
Hive
Best for agencies
Hive is a collaborative team project management tool with modules for project management, operations, education, and startups. They offer a flexible approach to task management using Kanban boards, Gantt charts, or tables. Hive also boasts an in-app proofing and approvals system. Agencies can lean on their tailored approach to client retention using campaign planning software, robust satisfaction and performance metrics, and proposal planning.
Hive costs from $12/user/month and offers a 14-day free trial.
Pros
- Infinite sub-tasks available
- Task owners can turn sub-tasks into separate projects
- Add external users without paying for a seat
Cons
- Mobile app notifications are unreliable
- Comments could be made more prominent
- Have to delete all sub-actions manually after deleting a phase
Smartsheet
Best for portfolio management
Smartsheet is a robust work OS that stands out thanks to its extensive project template gallery and their dedicated portfolio management solution, called 10,000FT. They have project plans and scheduling, task tracking, program rollups, resource management, and budget tracking. 10,000FT by Smartsheet does a deep dive into resource management and portfolio planning, including allocation, dynamic reporting, and forecasting.
Smartsheet costs from $7/user/month, with a minimum of 3 users and a maximum of 25 users. They also offer a 30-day free trial.
Pros
- Customizable sheets and dashboards for different departments
- Reminders and update requests are great collaborative tools
- Quick Gantt charts with easy entry of tasks
Cons
- Power users may hit row and cell link limitations
- Changes do not autosave instantly when editing
- Might be over-engineered for simple projects
Need expert help selecting the right Project Management Software?
We’ve joined up with the software comparison platform Crozdesk.com to assist you in finding the right software. Crozdesk’s Project Management Software advisors can create a personalized shortlist of software solutions with unbiased recommendations to help you identify the solutions that best suit your business’s needs. Through our partnership you get free access to their bespoke software selection advice, removing both time and hassle from the research process.
It only takes a minute to submit your requirements and they will give you a quick call at no cost or commitment. Based on your needs you’ll receive customized software shortlists listing the best-fitting solutions from their team of software advisors (via phone or email). They can even connect you with your selected vendor choices along with community negotiated discounts. To get started, please complete the form below:
Summary Of The Best Team Project Management Tools
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  monday.com Best for Gantt charts | 14 days free trial | From $6/user/month | Visit Website |
| 2 |  Wrike Best tool for marketing teams | Freemium version Offers a free version for up to 5 users | From $9.80/user/month | Visit Website |
| 3 |  Teamwork Best free team management tool plan | Offers a free version for up to 5 users | From $10/user/month | Visit Website |
| 4 |  ProjectManager Best team project management tool for time tracking | 30 days free trial | From $15/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 |  Mavenlink by Kantata Best team tool for managing professional services | 10 days free trial and free demo | From $19/user/month | Visit Website |
| 6 |  Clickup Best enterprise team project management tool | Offers a free version with limited features | From $5/user/month | Visit Website |
| 7 |  Meistertask Best for Kanban boards | Offers a free version for up to 3 projects | From $8.25/user/month | Visit Website |
| 8 |  Paymo Best for remote teams | 15 days free trial | From $9.95/user/month | Visit Website |
| 9 |  Hive Best for agencies | 14 days free trial | From $12/user/month | Visit Website |
| 10 |  Smartsheet Best for portfolio management | 30 days free trial | From $7/user/month | Visit Website |
Other Team Project Management Tools
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list, and a bit about what they do:
- Basecamp – Best remote resource management
- Scoro – Best invoicing system
- Zoho Projects – Best for CRM
- Asana – Best visual messaging
- Trello – Best task management cards
- Airtable – Best for software development teams
- Keyedin – Best for a high number of projects
- Workzone – Best for marketing work management
- Proworkflow – Best client/stakeholder/guest portal
- EasyProjects – Best to track time remotely
- Sciforma – Best project tasks scoring system
Still looking for a tool?
You’ve read through this list and maybe you’ve found good team collaboration software for your projects (hooray!). If you’re still hunting, I’ve covered some similar types of use cases and tools in these other articles:
- Start with our list of the best overall project management tools
- Overall best project management software
- The best project management software for startups
- The best project management software for small businesses
- The best software for creative agencies
Which Project Management Tools Do You Use?
Have you tried any of these team project management systems? What project management app do you use for team collaboration? Is there a collaboration-focused project management solution that you would add to this list if you could? What do you think is the best project management software for small teams? Let us know in the comments!
For updates on our latest articles and podcasts from project management experts, sign up for the DPM newsletter.
You can also share tool recommendations and best practices with other digital PMs in our online community—get involved with our community in DPM Membership.