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With so many different remote project management software available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate effectively from any location but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different PM tools with remote teams on a variety of projects, with my picks of the best remote project management tools.

What Are Remote Project Management Tools?

Remote project management tools are software that facilitate the management of projects by teams working from different locations. These tools enable planning, execution, monitoring, and communication for projects, accommodating the needs of remote or distributed teams. They offer features like task assignment, progress tracking, file sharing, and online collaboration, all accessible over the internet.

The benefits of using remote project management tools include improved collaboration among team members who are geographically dispersed, enhanced productivity by streamlining processes, and providing flexibility in work locations. They offer real-time updates on project progress, efficient resource management, centralized documentation, and scalability for different project sizes. Additionally, these tools ensure data security for sensitive project information in a remote working environment.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Remote Project Management Tools

Here’s a brief description of each of the remote project management tools on my list showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.

Best remote PM tool for 3rd-party integrations

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $8/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.8/5

monday.com is a colorful, user-friendly, jack-of-all-trades remote workspace tool for modern teams. Plan, track, and deliver projects using hundreds of visual and customizable templates. View data on a map, calendar, timeline, kanban board, and more. Automate repetitive administrative tasks, like creating new lead entries according to incoming emails.

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 and cons

Pros:

  • Excellent collaborative features
  • Simple organization by dragging and dropping tasks
  • Very easy to invite others, share timelines, and assign tasks

Cons:

  • Best features locked to Standard or Pro versions
  • Automations are not fully customizable
  • No bottleneck identification or assistance

Best remote project planning software with collaboration features

  • 10-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $4/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.2/5

Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management solution that can support distributed and remote teams. The software is capable of supporting multiple projects and has a secure online storage space that serves as a centralized database for all relevant project information.

Ready-made templates can speed up project planning, helping to ensure no details are missed. Users can create multiple tasks and subtasks, and distribute them among different team members. Dependencies can be identified and managed, and users can automate key processes and reminders.

The software is also equipped with collaboration tools that support remote project management. Team members can comment on tasks, chat, share files, and notify each other of completed tasks. The platform's reporting data gives detailed insights into productivity and project performance.

Zoho Projects is completely free for up to three users. Paid plans start at $5 per user/month with the Premium package.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Migrate from another software provider
  • Free for up to 2 projects and up to 3 users
  • Collaboration features support virtual teamwork

Cons:

  • Minimal support documentation
  • Takes time to get familiar with the large feature set

Best for Agile and Scrum teams

  • Free plan available
  • From $8.50/user/month
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Rating: 4.3/5

Shortcut is a comprehensive project management tool designed to improve collaboration and organize workflows between product and engineering teams. It integrates planning and development processes through features such as Kanban boards, roadmaps, and reporting tools, allowing teams to track progress, measure efficiency, and align work with organizational goals. 

Shortcut offers tools for teams utilizing Agile, Scrum, or Kanban methodologies. Its Kanban-style interface fosters improved team collaboration and efficient project management, which is essential for remote teams. Other notable features include project backlog and sprint planning for effective task organization and prioritization, as well as workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, allowing you to concentrate on development. 

The platform also offers capabilities for stories, epics, and milestones to enhance transparency, organization, and communication, which are vital for remote project management success.

Integrations include Slack, GitHub, GitLab, Figma, Codestream, Bitbucket, Notion, Loom, Dailybot, Plecto, LinearB, Lambda Test, Testlodge, Google Calendar, Miro, Productboard, Sentry, FireHydrant, and Vanta.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Good team collaboration features
  • Supports agile project management
  • Ability to customize workflows

Cons:

  • Advanced custom fields limited to higher-tier plans
  • Can't track time without integrations

Best for team scheduling, capacity planning, & requesting work

  • 14-day free trial + free demo available
  • From $7/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.2/5

Hub Planner is an all-in-one remote project management and scheduling software designed to help businesses manage their teams and projects more efficiently. Its comprehensive features include resource allocation and tracking, advanced scheduling, time tracking, collaboration tools, and customizability, making it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes. Hub Planner stands out for its comprehensive resource management and scheduling features, user-friendly interface, and excellent customer support. I also appreciated the platform's ability to track and allocate resources effectively and visualize project progress through its Gantt chart feature. The platform's flexibility and customizability, as well as its integration with other software tools, are also highly praised.

Hub Planner costs from $7/resource/month (billed annually) and offers a 14-day free trial.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Time tracking and collaboration features
  • Customizable with custom fields, templates, and reports
  • Comprehensive resource management system

Cons:

  • Learning curve for some users
  • Limited mobile app capabilities

Best collaborative whiteboard for hybrid teams

  • 30-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $8/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.8/5

Miro provides an online whiteboard designed for the unique dynamics of hybrid teams. It is designed to integrate product planning, execution, and teamwork, and is supported by over 1,000 templates ranging from Kanban boards to Gantt charts.

Miro's features facilitate project management through the visualization of tasks, allowing for a detailed view of sprints, status, epics, and team capacities. Teams can accurately estimate task sizes and adjust sprints based on collective capacity, considering factors like availability and workload. Additionally, the Dependencies App aids in identifying and managing the interconnections between tasks, helping to prevent bottlenecks. With integrations across a suite of tools, Miro acts as a cohesive environment for teams to plan, track, and collaborate on projects, ensuring smooth workflow and alignment across all project facets.

Miro has integrations with a whole suite of tools, including Zoom, Figma, Asana, Confluence, monday.com Microsoft Teams, Jira, Slack, Google Drive, Box, Airtable, Notion, Azure, and Webex. Some integrations are limited to paid plans only.

Miro is free to use for unlimited members with up to 3 editable boards. Paid plans start at $8/user/month (billed annually).

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Built-in communication features for streamlined collaboration
  • Intuitive and easy setup
  • Free forever plan available

Cons:

  • Free version does not allow high-quality export to pdf
  • Zooming can be jumpy on larger projects
  • Visitor/guest accounts locked to paid plans only

Best for building custom project workflows

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $24/user/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Kintone is a web-based project management tool used by teams at Volvo Trucks North America, Japan Airlines, Shiseido, and over 23,000 organizations worldwide. Their unique approach to project and task management lets you build a wide variety of customizable “apps” either from scratch, using templates or from your existing spreadsheets, for data management, business processes, and workflows. Kintone apps can be customized for project management, sales CRM, customer databases, expense reports, shared to-do lists, equipment management, product feedback, and much more.

Kintone lets you build online project management apps by dragging and dropping elements that you want to see onto the page: rich text fields, date fields, drop-down menus, number fields with built-in calculations, spaces for attachments, user or group selection menus, related data from other apps, tables, and more.

Once you’ve built the app you want, you can use it to more easily manage whatever data and tasks you and your team need to track. And with custom notifications and reminders as well as detailed permissions settings, your online project management solution can look and work however you want it to.

What makes Kintone particularly great for online project management are the features to filter and prioritize tasks by data field or team member to generate custom reports or dashboard views, as well as the ability to automate reminders and handoffs between team members for multi-step workflows. Because Kintone is a cloud-based platform, users can also view, edit, and update workflows from a desktop web browser or the platform’s mobile app.

There are so many ways to customize Kintone it can be hard to know where to start. Read the starter blog “What Can You Build with Kintone?” or watch Creating an App from Scratch for a quick look at how the drag-and-drop builder works.

Kintone lets you expand its capabilities with both free native plugins built by the Kintone team as well as integrations with other tools like Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Tableau, Dropbox, Salesforce, HubSpot, Eventbrite, WordPress, QuickBooks, MailChimp, and many more through a paid plan with Zapier or via API integrations.

Kintone costs $24/user/month with a minimum requirement of 5 users. They offer a 30-day free trial (no credit card required) and discounted prices for nonprofits and educators. Kintone’s team also offers a free custom app build as part of the free trial process.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Good price point for what you get
  • Endlessly flexible and customizable
  • Ease of use and adaptability

Cons:

  • Deeper search functionality welcomed
  • Takes time to set up your own apps

Best for large companies and enterprises

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $10.99/user/month (min 3 users, billed annually)
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Rating: 4.4/5

Teamwork contains all the project management essentials that you need in a collaborative remote team: the ability to create tasks and projects, upload and share files, and add comments to tasks. Use Gantt charts, board views, portfolio management tools, time tracking, reporting dashboards, and workload management tools. Access readily available project health status updates for all remote employees.

Teamwork costs from $10/user/month and offers a free version for up to 5 users.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easily track comments and feedback from clients
  • Easy and comprehensive report building
  • Excellent time tracking feature

Cons:

  • Can be difficult to move/adjust milestones
  • Doesn't sync with QuickBooks
  • More integrations with popular CRMs would be welcome

Best for customizable personal workspaces

  • Free plan available
  • From $4/user/month
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Rating: 4.3/5

GoodDay is a work management platform remote teams can use for project and product management. GoodDay comes with a productivity suite that includes personal work scheduling (My Work), group and private chats, meetings management, project & personal events, built-in documents & wiki, and unlimited file storage.

GoodDay's Action Required tracker alerts members of new tasks assigned to them, alerts members they choose to collaborate with, and is visible on each member's personal schedule and workspace.

Each workspace comes with customizable views, an adjustable user interface, customizable fields, and task types as well as project templates, priorities, and workflows.

GoodDay integrates with hundreds of apps such as Google Drive, Google Calendar, Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Gitlab, Excel, Jira, Trello, and many others, accessible via native integration. More integrations are available through Zapier and GoodDay API.

GoodDay costs from $4/user/month.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Shallow learning curve
  • Real collaboration transparency with Action Required

Cons:

  • Custom Reports available to Enterprise users only
  • No offline access
  • Some native integrations require paid plan

Best tool for online, remote task management

  • Free trial available
  • From $8.25/user/month (billed annually) + free plan available
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Rating: 4.6/5

MeisterTask allows remote teams to organize and manage tasks in a beautifully designed, customizable environment that adapts to individual user needs. Kanban-style project boards allow teams to create streamlined, automated workflows no matter where they are physically located in the world. Their app is available for Android and iOS, as well.

MeisterTask costs from $8.25/user/month and offers a free version for up to 3 projects.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Access to unlimited project boards
  • Very easy to manage several projects at the same time
  • Intuitive and user-friendly UI

Cons:

  • After loading a file into a task it cannot be downloaded immediately
  • File attachments limited to 200 MB per file
  • Timeline and custom fields are restricted to Business accounts

Best project management in an all-in-one work platform

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $29/user/month (billed annually, min 5 seats)
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Rating: 4.1/5

Ravetree is an all-in-one, cloud-based work management platform that includes project management, time tracking, budgeting, resource management, file management, and contact management capabilities. As for the software's project management features, teams can outline their projects, assign tasks, and track their progress through a calendar, spreadsheet, or Kanban board. Employees are notified about their upcoming deadlines, and can track how they spend their time using the software.

Remote teams will benefit from the fact that so many parts of their operations are combined in this platform. In addition to project management, they can set up request forms for internal or external use and create client portals to keep customers updated on project progress. Time off requests and resource utilization can be managed through the software, and project budgets and expenses can be tracked as well. A file management system is also included, helping remote workers keep track of their shared documents and collaborate more easily from afar.

Plans start from $29/user/month, and a 7-day free trial is available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • 7-day free trial available
  • Customized onboarding
  • Video and chat support

Cons:

  • Limited customization options
  • Broad functionality comes with learning curve

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Summary Of The Best Remote Project Management Tools

Tools Price
monday.com From $8/user/month (billed annually)
Zoho Projects From $4/user/month (billed annually)
Shortcut From $8.50/user/month
Hub Planner From $7/user/month (billed annually)
Miro From $8/user/month (billed annually)
Kintone From $24/user/month
Teamwork.com From $10.99/user/month (min 3 users, billed annually)
GoodDay From $4/user/month
MeisterTask From $8.25/user/month (billed annually) + free plan available
Ravetree From $29/user/month (billed annually, min 5 seats)
Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

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Selection Criteria For The Best Remote Project Management Tools

First, I selected the most popular remote project management tools based on user reviews and ratings. Then, I narrowed down the list using my experience and project management and remote work needs. Next, I weighed the tools against each other based on their key features. Finally, I chose the top tools and defined my evaluation criteria:

Core Functionality

As a baseline, I looked for online project management tools that allow you to outline your project plan, break down projects into tasks, and then track your outputs against your project timeline.

Key Features

Beyond the basic functionality outlined above, here are some key project management features I looked for in my research:

  • Roadmap tools: The ability to outline a project or product roadmap, that may comprise multiple projects contributing to a greater goal.
  • Task management: Specific tools to outline and break down tasks. This may include task dependencies, due dates, assignees, to-do lists or checklists, etc.
  • Collaboration tools: File sharing, video calling, screen sharing, live chat, shared docs, and other tools to help your project team work together. Real-time as well as asynchronous collaboration features are appreciated, particularly when team members work in different time zones.
  • Workflow management: The ability to establish, streamline, and automate your workflows. This could mean how you set up your product board, creating automated notifications, auto-fill custom fields, etc.
  • Reporting and analytics: Dashboards to monitor project progress and team productivity. This helps with future project planning and management, too.

Usability

How user-friendly a platform is can make a world of difference. Especially for remote teams trying to get their work done together, from afar. I look at the overall usability of a platform as well as whether it comes as a project management app for mobile devices (Android or iOS). This allows for on-the-go access and more flexibility for teams working separately. I also look for additional usability factors like custom onboarding and priority support.

Integrations

Remote work requires that all your tools communicate as much as possible. From collaboration tools to time tracking to task management and productivity tools. Does the remote project software integrate with other popular apps in these categories and beyond, including but not limited to Slack, Jira, Zoom or Skype, DropBox, Google Drive, Microsoft apps, Proofhub, and other popular remote work tools? Does it connect with your CRM systems?

Pricing

Cost is always an important factor when you’re implementing a new tool. Depending how you’ll use your project management software, you may need a higher-tier plan that provides advanced features, or unlimited users. That said, many free plans are available that are suitable for small businesses, small teams, and startups. I’ve noted the pricing information and free plan or free trials available for each tool in my overviews.

remote project management tools logos list

What's Next?

How do you navigate different projects and teams remotely? We have a list of 12 remote PM best practices that you will find useful. You can also read about people data and how to use it to build high-performance teams.

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Ben Aston
By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. I'm a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut!