The 10 Easiest Project Management Software In 2023

monday.com is so popular that I had to bring it into this list. If I’m being honest, the platform has so many features and customization options that it was difficult to intuitively build this project. To prevent your suffering, here is my suggestion. First, stay away from the Gantt view.

What you can do: Use the main table view to build out your initial project draft, exchange the date column for the one named ‘timeline’ so you can track a date range, and make sure you click on the checkboxes when selecting dependencies (you’ll know when you see it). If you click anywhere other than the checkbox it will take you to the dependencies of another task.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Zoho project, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform, and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier.

monday.com is free for up to 2 users and paid plans start at $8/user/month.

Wrike is a work management platform that offers intuitive navigation with distinct Spaces, folders, and tasks, which you can customize however you like and collaborate in real-time while sharing workflows, calendars, and more.

Wrike offers a user-friendly experience with advanced customization capabilities, which makes it better suited for experienced PMs, as building projects can get confusing without prior experience. My recommendation is you start a project using the List view because I found it easier to lay out the tasks and subtasks there than in the Gantt view.

As I was creating my tasks, I also noticed that Wrike places the last item I created on top of the list, which is counterintuitive to how I define tasks in a project. Changing the filters did not help to solve it.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wrike offers 400+ pre-built native integrations, including integrations with the most popular file management software from Microsoft, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software from Salesforce and Marketo.

Wrike is free for up to 5 users. Paid plans cost from $9.80/user/month and come with a 14-day free trial.

Projects is Zoho’s cloud-based project management software. It is designed to help project managers create and implement project plans, keep track of workflows, and collaborate with their team. It is a key component of Zoho One, a fully integrated suite that encompasses all the products offered by Zoho.

One of Zoho Projects’ main features is task management. With Zoho’s task management solution, users can easily manage projects at any scale or complexity. The tool works by allowing users to break down projects into simple tasks, subtasks, task lists, and milestones. They can visualize their project plans and keep track of their progress more efficiently through Kanban boards and Gantt charts. This makes setting up dependencies between related tasks much easier for everyone involved, especially when trying to make sure that everyone remains on schedule.

Zoho Projects is endlessly scalable and flexible using its marketplace of tool connectors and app add-ons. Pick between hundreds of integrations, free and paid options, for customer relationship management, asset management, marketing, design, and more. You can sort add-ons by pricing, user rating, and/or functionality. Certain add-ons are limited to paid Zoho Projects plans but many are open to freemium users, like Hubspot, DocuSign, and SugarCRM.

Features include roadmapping, project management, task scheduling/tracking, customer management, prioritization, and notifications.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Integrations include Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Zendesk, and ServiceNow. Integrations via Zapier and Zoho Flow are also supported. Being part of the Zoho ecosystem allows you to connect to several of Zoho’s own services for Sales, Marketing, CRM, customer service, and others.

Zoho Projects is completely free for up to three users, while the Premium option starts at $5/user/month and offers a 10-day free trial.

GanttPro surprised me with how easy it was to understand where to click to get what I wanted. After 5 minutes of clicking around I had it. The way you can build your timeline is intuitive since it has drag-and-drop functionality and automatic timeline shifting.

Task dependencies were easy to create, task management is easy with the built-in progress bar that shows on the timeline, helps with tracking project progress, and without knowing I even had a workload sheet automatically built for me!

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

GanttPRO integrates with JIRA Cloud but does not list any other native third-party connections.

Pricing starts at $7.99 and has a 14-day trial.

ClickUp is covered in many lists throughout the internet. I guess it’s because they claim to be the productivity tool that will replace all the others you have. After trial by fire with my easiest project management software test… they passed.

Drag-and-drop in the Gantt chart, a list view that makes it easy to create tasks, subtasks, assign and set dates are among the features that help to easily learn this tool. As opposed to other top tools, ClickUp did not let the robustness of their platform crowd the simplicity of its use.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ClickUp offers native integrations with Slack, G Suite, Dropbox, and many more tools, as well as over 1,000+ integrations through Zapier.

ClickUp is free with limited storage for an unlimited number of users. Paid plans start at $5/user/month and offer a free-trial.

Paymo is a tool I’d never used before but heard about, so I was excited to give it a try. I can tell you that navigating the tool was intuitive and I was able to see how they connect project management to client management and resource allocation.

To build your project properly, start at the list view and make sure you clear the default filters that are activated in this view. Once you create your tasks and select dates, switch to the Gantt view where you can finish establishing dependencies with their drag-and-drop functionality.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Paymo integrations include Google products, Slack, Xero, and thousands of other 3rd party software through Zapier.

Paymo is free for personal use. Paid plans start at $4.95/user/month and have a 15-day trial.

Trello is the project collaboration tool of the Atlassian software portfolio. I’ve used Trello in the past and I was excited to try out their new Timeline, Calendar, and Table views as part of their premium plan. However, I was not impressed.

Every friendly bit those cards have in the Kanban view is lacking in the other three. It was hard to build the project and I ended up using the cards to build my task list. After color coding milestones, I discovered that it wasn’t visually translating to the other views! Finally, there is a lack of built-in dependency management.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Trello integrates with more than 200+ apps and tools your team depends on like Slack, Google workspace, Salesforce, Dropbox and more directly into your Trello boards. (Note: Some connections require an additional subscription fee.)

Trello has a free plan and paid ones start at $5/user/month with a 14-day trial.

Productive is an all-in-one agency management software. It has project management, resource planning, time tracking, budgeting, and collaboration tools. It's truly built to support your team in every aspect of work management.

The platform's project management capabilities are robust, yet intuitive. Its task management lets you assign team members to specific tasks, set deadlines, and track each task's progress. You can also make tasks recurring, so you won't have to re-create it manually every time.

Beyond project management, you can also use the software to manage your resources, budgets, and time. Team members can log their hours for each task or client project, helping to ensure accurate billing and budgeting. You can also upload or link documents to the system, and connect them to your projects. Workload and capacity management are built-in, helping you be sure each project is effectively staffed and no one gets overloaded.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The platform integrates with Dropbox, Exact, Google Workplace, Jira, Harvest Economic, Outlook, Microsoft Calendar, Slack, QuickBooks, and Xero. A Zapier integration is also available, which can unlock more integrations with a paid account.

Paid plans start from $9 per user per month, when billed annually. You can also test it out with a 14-day free trial.

ProjectManager at first glance is a tool which looks like MS Project, so immediately there’s a familiar feeling and intuitiveness to building the project. My learning curve steepened once I got to setting dependencies as this software does not have drag-and-drop for it.

In an attempt to give you flexibility to connect tasks, ProjectManager establishes relationships with the fields ‘assign to’ and ‘assign from’ instead of predecessor, which we are used to. My recommendation: when you link tasks, select the predecessor and use the ‘link to’ option to avoid errors.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ProjectManager integrates with MS Project, Excel, Office 365, Salesforce CRM, QuickBooks, Xero, Dropbox, Desk.com, JIRA, Hubspot, Slack, Zendesk, Evernote, OneLogin, OneDrive, and the complete Google Suite. They also have a powerful REST API to help you build against internal or external tools.

ProjectManager has a free plan for up to 3 users. Paid plans start at $11.50/user/month and have a 30-day trial.

Starting as an open source project, ActiveCollab has been in the market for over a decade. Although not one of the top contenders in productivity tools, this product checks all the boxes for this list.

After using it for a few minutes, it was clear to me that this is a friendly interface. The layout is consistent throughout the different modules, which makes it easy to find your way around it. With a list, column, and timeline view, it has all the necessary ingredients for you to bake your next project.

Intuitive score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Documentation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

They have a free plan and their paid plans start at $6.25/user/month with a 14-day free trial.