Project management software is often the difference between a team that crushes its objectives and one that struggles to ship. Some platforms are built for large teams and complex, multi-phase work; others are perfect for small teams and lightweight projects—many sit somewhere in between.
No matter what you’re managing, this guide will help you quickly narrow the field and choose the best project management software for your situation.
Below, you’ll find reviews of our top recommendations so you can see what each tool excels at. You’ll also get a concise buyer’s guide to help you compare the details that actually matter.
But nothing beats test-driving software with your own workflow. Do you enjoy the interface? Does your team pick it up quickly?
Use our reviews to zero in on a few top contenders. Then sign up for free trials and put your shortlist to work in a real project to see which one fits best. Let’s dive in…
The Best Project Management Software in 2025
- Zoho Projects — Best overall project management software for most teams
- monday CRM — Best for customizing your project workflow end-to-end
- Wrike — Best for marketing and creative teams
- Teamwork.com — Best for remote teams and agencies
- Trello — Best free project management software
- TeamGantt — Best project management software for beginners
- Favro — Best for small teams doing it all
- Celoxis — Best for enterprises and large businesses
- LiquidPlanner — Best for complex projects
Zoho Projects — The Best Overall Project Management Software
Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management platform with a clean UI, solid automations, and strong value.
It’s first on our list for its intuitive interface and powerful toolset that scales from simple to complex work. Create tasks, subtasks, and dependencies, track time, manage issues, and visualize schedules in views like Gantt and Kanban.
Automate routine work with drag-and-drop blueprints, set SLAs, and keep everything moving with recurring tasks and rule-based notifications. The mobile apps make it easy to collaborate on the go.
Zoho’s timesheets make tracking billable and non-billable hours straightforward. Managers get real-time workload and budget visibility; stakeholders get clear reports and dashboards.
Integrations include Slack, Zapier, Google Workspace, Dropbox, Microsoft 365, and the broader Zoho suite—so it slots into most stacks without fuss.
Pricing is transparent and team-friendly, and plans scale by features like storage, templates, and dependency control. There’s a free plan (up to five users and three projects) that’s great for testing the interface or running very small initiatives.
For most small to mid-sized teams, the Premium tier covers everything you need. For larger organizations, Enterprise adds portfolio-level features like custom user groups, advanced permissions, and inter-project dependencies.
You can try any paid tier with a short free trial—no credit card required—so there’s little risk in seeing how it fits your workflow.
monday CRM — Best for customizing your project workflow
monday CRM is used by thousands of teams at companies like Adobe, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and NBC. Despite the name, it’s excellent for project work—thanks to flexible boards, custom fields, and no-code automations.
Color-coded columns and multiple views (table, Kanban, timeline, calendar, Gantt) make status crystal clear. Drag-and-drop task management keeps day-to-day work simple, while dashboards roll up progress for leads and execs.
Highlights include built-in time tracking, rich templates (200+), customizable workflows, and a strong mobile app. Add automations in minutes and connect tools you already use to reduce context switching.
Pricing is per seat. The free plan suits individuals; paid tiers unlock advanced views, automations, integrations, and private boards. Choose the tier based on features required rather than team size.
- Basic — essentials for small teams that need unlimited items and viewers
- Standard — adds Timeline/Calendar/Gantt views and monthly automation/integration quotas
- Pro — private boards, dependencies, time tracking, advanced formulas, and larger quotas
- Enterprise — enterprise-grade security, governance, and advanced analytics
You can trial paid plans free (no card needed) or start with the free tier and upgrade as your workflows mature.
Wrike — The Best for Marketing and Creative Teams
Wrike is a favorite for marketing and creative ops. You get real-time project health, cross-team visibility, and templates for everything from campaign management to content production.
Proofing and approvals speed up creative review. Request forms capture briefs consistently. Spaces and custom fields keep teams aligned while preserving the context each department needs.
Wrike offers a free plan for simple work. Paid tiers add more advanced resource management, reporting, and add-ons so you can tailor the platform to your team’s complexity rather than paying for features you won’t use.
You can trial any paid plan free for two weeks to validate fit before rolling it out more broadly.
Teamwork.com — The Best for Remote Teams and Agencies
Teamwork.com is trusted by brands like Spotify, Disney, Panasonic, and PayPal for a reason: it’s built around client work. Remote teams get integrated chat, task boards, and customizable templates, plus time tracking, workload management, and invoicing that agencies actually need.
Balance capacity with real-time workload views, keep clients in the loop with permissions and portals, and centralize communications so nothing gets lost in email threads.
There’s a free plan for very small teams and affordable paid tiers that unlock more advanced resource planning, automations, and reporting.
You can try any paid plan free for 30 days—ample time to run a live project and confirm it fits your processes and client expectations.
Trello — The Best Free Project Management Software
Trello popularized Kanban boards for the masses. It’s fantastic for simple projects, team task tracking, and personal organization.
Boards, lists, and cards make it obvious what’s in progress and what’s done. Assign owners, set due dates, attach files, add checklists, and discuss work in context. Butler automations reduce repetitive moves, and Power-Ups let you add features like calendar and timeline views.
The free plan includes unlimited cards and up to 10 boards per Workspace. Note that Free Workspaces are limited to 10 collaborators. For growing teams, paid plans add advanced views, admin controls, and deeper integrations at a budget-friendly per-user price.
Bottom line: if your work is straightforward, Trello’s clarity and speed are hard to beat. For complex, multi-team projects, pick a tool with more structure.
Give Trello a try today and see how quickly your team adopts it.
TeamGantt — The Best Project Management Software for Beginners
Gantt charts have guided project timelines for more than a century. TeamGantt makes them approachable for newcomers with drag-and-drop scheduling, dependencies, baselines, and simple progress tracking.
It’s ideal when you need crystal-clear timelines without heavyweight project administration. The interface is friendly, collaboration is straightforward, and onboarding is quick.
There’s a free plan for one manager working on a single project with up to 40 tasks. Paid tiers add more projects, time tracking, hourly estimates, and portfolio views. If your work becomes highly cross-functional, you may eventually want a platform with deeper resource management.
Try a paid TeamGantt plan free for 30 days to see if it clicks with your team.
Favro – The Best for Small Teams Doing It All
Ambitious small teams love Favro for its speed and flexibility. Collections (workspaces), boards, and roadmaps make it easy to plan, execute, and adapt without bogging down in admin.
Inside boards and cards, collaborate in real time, set priorities, estimate effort, and keep everyone aligned. Choose the view that fits your style—Kanban, sheets, timeline, or a simple list—and move work between boards without friction.
Automations and integrations (Google Workspace, Slack, Dropbox, GitHub/GitLab, and more) help keep your stack connected and your process lean.
Pricing scales cleanly with your team size, with three tiers that add storage, integrations, reporting, and enterprise controls as you grow.
Lite
- Up to five collections (workspaces), unlimited boards/backlogs
- Mobile apps, Google/GitHub OAuth
Standard
- Unlimited collections (including private), boards, backlogs, and storage
- Unlimited apps/integrations, guest accounts, reports
- 1,000 API calls/hour, mobile apps, Google/GitHub OAuth
Enterprise
- Everything in Standard plus SSO (SAML), SCIM, DPA/GDPR support
- Higher API limits, enhanced collection management, priority support
- Timesheet reporting and advanced admin controls
Annual billing reduces the per-user cost. If your small team wears many hats, take Favro for a 14-day test drive.
Celoxis — The Best for Enterprises and Large Businesses
Celoxis is an all-in-one platform built for organizations that need portfolio-level visibility, robust resource planning, and rock-solid reporting—without hiring a consultant to implement it.
Manage capacity by skill, visualize demand, and forecast revenue and costs in real time. Collaborate with internal teams and external clients, complete with a customizable client portal to streamline sharing and approvals.
Cloud pricing is competitive for the feature set and starts with a small user minimum. Larger organizations can also deploy on-premises for a one-time license if that’s required for compliance or security.
Where Celoxis stands out is reporting—portfolio dashboards, visual reports, and executive summaries are easy to generate and share. You can try it free for 14 days to validate fit across departments.
LiquidPlanner — The Best for Complex Projects
LiquidPlanner excels when uncertainty is high and priorities shift often—think engineering, software, IT, and professional services.
Plan with ranged estimates (best-case/worst-case), model risk, and let predictive scheduling auto-recalculate timelines as priorities and resources change. See task progress, budget burn, and risks at a glance—then share the right view with the right stakeholders.
Mobile apps, time tracking, advanced analytics, API access, and unlimited internal dashboards come standard on higher tiers. If you only need to manage simple content calendars or one-off tasks, choose a lighter tool; LiquidPlanner is built for complexity.
Paid plans are tiered by capability, and you can start with a free trial to make sure the predictive approach matches how your team estimates work.
How to Find the Best Project Management Software For Your Business
With so many options, focus on the few factors that change outcomes: project complexity, team size, ease of use, features that support your process, and price.
This is the methodology we use to choose winners. There’s no single “best for everyone” platform—match the tool to your work.
Project Complexity
Your most important consideration is what you’ll use it for. Basic tools don’t always have the resource management, dependency control, or reporting you need to run complex initiatives.
Conversely, if you’re managing a simple content calendar or a short, one-off project, heavyweight platforms add friction you don’t need.
Trello and TeamGantt are great for straightforward work and small teams. For advanced needs, LiquidPlanner and Celoxis shine. Zoho Projects sits in the middle with a strong balance of power and simplicity.
Team Size
How many people will collaborate—and across how many projects? Small groups can often start on free tiers. As you add people and parallel projects, capacity planning and role-based permissions become essential.
The best tools surface real-time capacity so you can allocate work without burning anyone out. Some platforms require a small user minimum on paid plans—factor that into your budget.
If you work with clients, look for client-facing features like guest access, shared dashboards, and invoice-ready time tracking (Teamwork.com is strong here).
Ease of Use
Adoption wins. From setup to onboarding to daily task updates, your tool should reduce friction—not add it. Everyone on our list offers a free tier or trial; run a live project for a week and see how quickly your team leans in.
Prioritize clear navigation, helpful defaults, mobile apps, and a simple way to automate repetitive work without writing code.
Features
Don’t chase feature lists—align capabilities to your workflow. Common needs include multiple views (list, Kanban, timeline/Gantt), document/file sharing, comments, search, and permissions. Advanced teams may require resource management, time tracking, budgeting, approvals, proofing, automations, and robust reporting.
Integrations matter, too. Connecting your PM tool to chat, docs, storage, code repos, and CRM reduces context switching and keeps everything in sync.
Price
Project management pricing is typically per user, with monthly or annual billing. Free plans are common for basic needs. Paid tiers range widely depending on features, support, and security requirements.
Some providers sell add-ons so you only pay for advanced modules you’ll actually use (Wrike is a good example). Map features to outcomes, then choose the least-expensive plan that covers those needs—project software doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective.
Conclusion
Bottom line: Zoho Projects is the best overall pick for most teams—it’s affordable, approachable, and powerful enough to grow with you.
That said, the “right” tool depends on your work. Wrike is excellent for creative ops, Teamwork.com for agencies and remote collaboration, Trello for simple projects, and LiquidPlanner or Celoxis for complex, multi-team initiatives.
Here’s the full shortlist to help you decide:
The Best Project Management Software in 2025
- Zoho Projects — Best overall project management software for most teams
- monday CRM — Best for customizing your project workflow
- Wrike — Best for marketing and creative teams
- Teamwork.com — Best for remote teams and agencies
- Trello — Best free project management software
- TeamGantt — Best project management software for beginners
- Favro — Best for small teams doing it all
- Celoxis — Best for enterprises and large businesses
- LiquidPlanner — Best for complex projects