20 Best Creative Agency Project Management Software In 2025

Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform that helps you manage projects, automate workflows, and collaborate with your team. Its familiar spreadsheet-like interface makes it adaptable for various tasks, from simple to complex projects. 

Why I picked Smartsheet: Smartsheet offers customizable templates tailored for creative projects, allowing you to set up workflows that match your team's needs. These templates help you organize tasks, set deadlines, and assign responsibilities, ensuring everyone knows their role and timelines. This customization supports your creative process by providing a structured yet flexible framework.

Another notable feature is Smartsheet's proofing capabilities, which let your team review and approve creative assets directly within the platform. You can share files, gather feedback, and track revisions in one place, reducing the need for external tools.

Smartsheet Standout Features & Integrations

Features include content collaboration, digital asset management, customizable dashboards, file sharing, task dependencies, critical path visualization, project scheduling, time tracking, budget tracking, request management, version control, and activity logs.

Integrations include Power BI, Tableau, Adobe Creative Cloud, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, ServiceNow, Jira, Slack, Microsoft Teams, DocuSign, Zapier, and UiPath.

Scoro is a work management software that caters to professional service businesses, including creative agencies, by providing a unified platform for managing projects, finances, and resources. 

Why I picked Scoro: Scoro is an all-in-one work management tool and integrates project delivery, sales and CRM, resource planning, time tracking, and financial management into a single system. This integration is particularly beneficial for creative projects where collaboration and real-time updates are crucial.

The platform includes customizable dashboards that can help in making informed decisions based on real-time data.

Scoro Standout Features & Integrations

Features include reporting and analytics for agency operations as a whole (rather than just on a per-project basis), via which you'll get insights into progress, results, and future outlook in areas like agency performance and financials. Scoro also includes automatic retainer invoicing so your agency gets paid faster and stays profitable.

Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Exchange, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Expensify, Stripe, Jira, Slack, Asana, Dropbox, PayPal, and more.

monday.com is a work management platform that has dozens of use cases, including creative and design work.

Why I picked monday.com: Easy, visual and intuitive, monday.com is an award-winning software used by over 70,000 teams. In our evaluation criteria, I specify that we are looking for customizable workload management and collaborative feedback, which is something that this platform handles particularly well.

monday.com has a repository where you can store all files related to your projects and easily collaborate on them. Once a file is uploaded, you can annotate and comment on an asset, and keep a record of the different versions of it. Finally, the boards have the capacity to handle custom workflows where you can keep your team up to date on expectations.

monday.com Standout Features & Integrations

Features include shareable forms for project management steps like project initiation, requirements gathering, and approvals, which helps speed up these processes and make sure you're getting input from everyone involved. The tool also includes expense tracking (via a customizable template) and the ability to create content calendars for marketing and social media projects.

Integrations include DropBox, Excel, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Integromat, Slack, Trello, Pipedrive, Jira, Mailchimp, and even more through Zapier.

Productive is an all-in-one agency management software with project management, resource planning, time tracking, budgeting, and collaboration features.

Why I picked Productive: Creative agencies can use this tool to not just plan their projects, but manage their resources, budgets, and time. The software offers a comprehensive task management system that allows users to assign tasks to individual team members, keep track of progress on each task, and set deadlines. Users can also set up recurring tasks so they don’t have to worry about manually creating them each time.

Users can upload documents in the platform or link them from other cloud storage services, and connect them with specific projects or tasks. The resource management features allow teams to keep track of who is working on which tasks and assign tasks in the context of everyone's workload.

Productive Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a built-in time tracker tool that you and your team can use to log hours for each task or client project, which helps keep billing and budgeting accurate. The scheduling tool in Productive also allows you to include placeholders as you're assigning work to resources and setting due dates. This is useful if you're planning tentative work that your agency hasn't officially won yet or when project priorities aren't set in stone.

Integrations include Dropbox, Exact, Jira, Outlook, Microsoft Calendar, Slack, QuickBooks, and Xero. A Zapier integration is also available, which can unlock more integrations with a paid account.

Kantata is a SaaS product that's been designed to make project management a whole lot easier for creative agencies. It's got a clean, intuitive interface that makes it easy to get a handle on what's going on with your projects, and it's got plenty of features that are specifically designed for creative agencies.

Why I picked Kantata: First off, there's the project dashboard. It gives you a bird's eye view of all your projects, so you can see at a glance what's on track, what's behind schedule, and what needs your attention. Then there's the time tracking feature. This is a game-changer for creative agencies, where time really is money. Kantata makes it easy to track how much time you're spending on each project, so you can make sure you're billing accurately and staying profitable.

Kantata Standout Features & Integrations

Features include advanced resource management capabilities like specific workload and allocation views, and a database where you can keep track of which team members have which skills, skill gap analysis, and projected demand and profitability. These help you see who's working on what, so you can make sure everyone's pulling their weight and no one's getting overloaded.

Integrations. As part of their “API-first strategy”, they’ve built a solution that doesn’t require a third party in order to integrate with any apps. They provide an integration platform (called M-Bridge) that’s designed to simplify integration between Kantata and other business apps like CRM, HCM, and financial software. On top of the M-Bridge platform, Kantata provides several pre-built integrations with these tools: Expensify, G Suite, Xero, Salesforce, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Slack, Concur, Dynamics 365, Qualtrics, Quickbooks, and Sage Intacct.

Screendragon is a creative project management software designed to speed-up creative delivery and reduce project risks and costs. It is used and loved by in-house and agency teams at Kellogg’s, BP, The International Olympic Committee, TBWA, and McCann World Group.

Screendragon’s user interface is easy-to-use and allows users to custom-brand the interface. It covers all aspects of creative project management with features for SOW creation, creative briefs, project management, visual proofing, file sharing, review and approval workflows, resource management and forecasting, and financial tracking. Advanced customization is available in the form of granular user permissions, powerful custom forms, templates, personalized dashboards, workflow management rules, and more.

Creative teams can visualize and manage tasks through interactive Gantt charts, Kanban boards, or list views. Screendragon’s integrated budget module makes it super easy to create estimates and track expenses for the lifecycle of the creative project. Another great feature for creative leaders is the capacity view, which offers a 360-degree view of both current and upcoming resource capacity.

Screendragon also has powerful features to help streamline creative production workflows including version control, advanced routing capabilities, ability to automate approvals, and more. It is the creative project management platform of choice for many in-house agencies with additional functionality to cater to their growing needs around increasing productivity and reducing costs.

Screendragon has an open API, enabling custom integrations with any solution. It offers native integrations with leading ERP systems such as SAP and PeopleSoft and can integrate with thousands of apps through Zapier like Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Office 365, and Microsoft Dynamics.

Screendragon starts from $20/user/month with a one-off implementation fee, and a free demo is available.

Resource Guru is an employee management software for agencies that has time, project, and resource management in a single platform.

Why I picked Resource Guru: In addition to building project plans, the software also has resource management features like an employee directory with information like skill sets, location, and availability. Within the platform, you can set up custom schedules for each of your team members, assign projects and tasks, and track their progress. Schedules and capacity planning inform how projects are scheduled and managed.

Everything is managed in a single calendar, helping create a high-level picture of how work will get done, by who, when, and with what tools. The software can also produce forecasts for employee capacities and resource utilization.

Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations

Features include wait lists for team members (new work is added to this list when team members are overcapacity), which helps you keep track of upcoming work even if it can't be started yet. The tool also allows you to manage equipment availability and capacity alongside the human resources working on your projects, which keeps all resourcing information in one place.

Integrations include Apple Calendar, Calendly, Google Calendar, and Outlook Calendar. A paid Zapier account can be used to configure additional integrations.

Bonsai Agency Software is a full-scale solution designed to enhance the operations of creative teams. It's a robust platform that simplifies project tracking, client management, and financial oversight. Aimed at agencies within the creative industry, Bonsai helps users maintain a clear focus on their creative work while efficiently managing the administrative aspects of their projects. 

Why I Picked Bonsai:  What sets Bonsai apart from its competitors is its deep customization specifically tailored for creative workflows. It provides an intuitive interface that supports not only project management but also aids in automating repetitive tasks such as invoicing and contract management. Unique features include a suite of templates specifically designed for creative proposals and contracts, integrated time tracking directly linked to specific tasks and projects, and a powerful budget planning and expense tracking system that caters to the nuanced needs of small and mid-size agencies. 

Bonsai offers advanced insights and analytics on team profitability based on total logged time, billable hours, and cost rates per project or per client. This feature allows users to uncover hidden costs and opportunities and improve their business’s efficiency and profitability. Bonsai also allows users to assign projects and tasks to their team or contractors, prioritize their week, and see exactly how projects progress. The ability to analyze team effectiveness helps your agency refine your resource management and improve success rates by completing projects on time and on budget. 

Bonsai Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a client CRM, which means you don't have to switch between account management and project management tools. The tool also offers a client portal, which allows clients to view project progress, approve deliverables, and communicate directly within the platform.

Integrations include Gmail, Google Calendar, Zapier, Slack, QuickBooks Online, Calendly, ClickUp, Trello, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Xero, HubSpot, and more.

Accelo is a cloud-based platform designed to help your team manage projects, client relationships, and business processes all in one place. 

Why I picked Accelo: For creative project management, Accelo offers task boards that help you break down complex projects into manageable tasks and assign them to team members. The project dashboards give you real-time insights into timelines, allowing your team to adjust priorities and resources as needed.

With Accelo’s client communication tracking, you’ll always have context for creative revisions or feedback, so nothing gets missed when collaborating with clients. The platform’s time-tracking feature also ensures you can log every minute, which is particularly helpful when you’re working on detailed designs or projects that require constant iterations.

Accelo Standout Features & Integrations

Features include the ability to create, set, and track service-level agreements (plus a template for the agreement itself) and automated retainer management capabilities, both of which make your ability to manage and work with clients much easier. This also includes features like automatic invoices and renewal reminders.

Integrations include Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Exchange & Microsoft Outlook, Xero, QuickBooks Online, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Zapier, Stripe, PayPal, Jira, Continuum, Zendesk, Microsoft Power BI, Expensify, Gusto, HubSpot Partner Portal, Practice Ignition, Google Analytics, and others.

Hub Planner software is a resource management tool that helps organizations schedule and allocate personnel, track time, and manage project workflows more efficiently.

Why I Picked Hub Planner: Hub Planner can be used for creative agency project management by providing tools to help manage and schedule resources, track project progress, and collaborate with team members. With the ability to allocate team members to specific projects and tasks, you can ensure resources are being used efficiently and that workloads are balanced across the team.

The software's intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to schedule projects and tasks, while its advanced reporting and forecasting tools help you monitor project budgets and timelines. With features such as time tracking and custom reporting, Hub Planner lets your creative agency measure project performance and identify areas for improvement, as well as deliver projects on time, within budget, and to the highest possible standard.

Hub Planner Standout Features & Integrations

Features include the ability to plan and adjust project schedules to accommodate paid time off (PTO) for team members, as well as resource management features like the ability to request resources from other teams and capacity planning that takes into account not only availability but also the skills of available team members.

Integrations include DIY options via their Hub Planner API and webhook. Or, open an account with Zapier for more options (may incur an additional cost).