Want to jump straight to the answer? The best project management software for most people is Zoho Projects or monday CRM.

Project management software is the difference between a team that crushes all of its objectives—and one that doesn’t really get anything done. Some solutions are intended for large teams with complex projects, others are ideal for small teams and simple projects, and the rest fall somewhere in between.

No matter what type of projects you’re managing, this guide will help you find the best project management software for your needs.

The Top 9 Best Project Management Software

  • Zoho Projects – Best overall project management software
  • 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

Below, you’ll find reviews of all our recommendations so you can get a sense of what each one can do. You’ll also find a short guide to help you think through key considerations as you compare options.

But nothing really beats actually test driving project management software. Do you like working in the interface? What about your team?

Our reviews will help you zero in on a few top contenders. From there, you should sign up for a free trial and take your shortlist of products for a spin to decide which one is perfect for you.

Zoho Projects — The Best Overall Project Management Software

Zoho Projects logo.

Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management solution.

Their first on our list for their intuitive interface, and powerful set of tools to help you manage any project.

Zoho dashboard.

From simple to complex projects, this tool has everything you need to manage various workflows. You can even automate some routine tasks to save time.

Use the drag-and-drop interface as a visual way to set up new automations and deploy projects. Collaborate on the go using the Zoho Projects mobile app.

Another reason to like Zoho Projects is its timesheet module. You can easily track both billable and non-billable hours for tasks.

They also integrate with popular apps you’re already using like Slack, Zapier, G Suite, Dropbox, and other apps in the Zoho suite.

Zoho Projects is affordable, with pricing based on the number of people on your team.

Zoho pricing page.

Your plan will also affect things like how much storage you get, the number of templates you can use, and the extent to which you can track dependencies.

For simple projects or smaller teams, the Premium plan is more than enough. The Enterprise plan includes a lot of features, such as teams, custom user groups, and inter-project dependencies that are very helpful at scale.

Zoho Projects does offer a free forever plan for up to three users and two projects, which is fine for individual use or a one-off task.

The free plan is a good way to figure out if you like the interface, but you can test-drive one of the paid plans risk-free. Sign up for Zoho Projects and get a 10-day free trial; no credit card required.

monday CRM — Best for customizing your project workflow

monday CRM

monday CRM is one of the most popular project management tools, is used by over 180,000 teams, and is trusted by companies like Adobe, Coca-Cola, Walmart, NBC, and more. 

With an intuitive dashboard and customizable color-coded columns, it is easy to visualize your project’s progress at any point. It also features a drag-and-drop interface for tasks, making it one of the more straightforward project management tools.

monday CRM has multiple board views, a great mobile app, built-in time tracking, and maybe most importantly, customizable workflows. It features more than 200 pre-built templates for various workflows you can customize or you can create your own from scratch.

Collaboration and automation are critical for project management software, and monday CRM keeps that in mind. It is easy to add automation to any workflow without needing to know any code or HTML, plus the platform has a wide range of integrations with tools you already use.

monday CRM has five tiers of pricing, starting with a free forever plan for individuals such as freelancers or solopreneurs. The free forever plan includes two seats, up to three boards, 8 column types, and the mobile app.

The paid tiers include: 

  • Basic – $9 a seat per month billed annually
  • Standard – $12 a seat per month billed annually
  • Pro – $19 a seat per month billed annually
  • Enterprise – Contact their sales team

As you can see, pricing is per seat, so your team size is not a mitigating factor when looking at plans and pricing. It all comes down to features. 

With Basic, you get unlimited free viewers, unlimited items, 5 GB of storage, priority customer support, and a one-board dashboard. 

In Standard, you get additional views such as Timeline, Calendar, and Gantt, 250 automations per month, 250 integrations per month, and a five-board dashboard.

Pro is the premium tier with private boards, chart views, time tracking, formula and dependency columns, 25,000 each per month of automations and integrations, and a ten-board dashboard.

To get enterprise-grade security and governance, along with advanced reporting and analytics, premium support, and other functionalities, monday CRM will need to create a customized quote for your organization.

Test monday CRM with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, or try the free forever plan today to see if it is the right project management tool for your business.

Wrike — The Best for Marketing and Creative Teams

Wrike logo.

Wrike is an incredibly popular project management solution for marketing teams—and for good reason.

More than 20,000 businesses use Wrike for project management. It’s trusted by large organizations like Verizon and Airbnb.

Wrike gives you real-time reports and statuses for all of your teams’ projects. Easily enable and centralize your communication hub for everyone collaborating on a project.

This software is perfect for marketers and creative teams. Wrike has specific project management tools for campaign management where teams can collaborate on tasks, track progress, and review the results of each campaign.

Wrike also has project management templates designed for content creation. This pre-set workflow process includes everything from a creative brief to final delivery and reporting.

Wrike pricing page.

Wrike has a free forever plan for simple projects. But most of you will benefit from the Team or Business plans, starting at $9.80 and $24.80 per user per month, respectively.

Once you select your base plan, you can add-on premium features depending on what types of projects you’ll be using Wrike to manage. It’s kind of a bummer that not every feature is all-inclusive. But it’s nice that you can pick and choose whatever you need.

You can try any of Wrike’s paid plans free for 14 days.

Teamwork.com — The Best for Remote Teams and Agencies

Teamwork logo.

Teamwork.com is trusted by household names like Spotify, Disney, Panasonic, and PayPal.

That’s because they make it easy for businesses with remote workers to collaborate on projects. It’s easy for everyone to communicate, stay connected, and have clear visibility over the progress of a project, no matter where people are located.

This software management tool has built-in chat, simple project boards, and custom templates. Teamwork.com allows you to balance your team’s workloads by viewing everyone’s real-time capacity at a glance.

Here’s a quick overview of the plans and pricing for Teamwork.com project management software:

Teamwork.com pricing page.

With a free forever plan for small teams and paid plans starting at just $8.99 per month, Teamwork.com is an affordable solution.

In addition to the free forever plan, you can try any Teamwork.com paid solution free for 30 days.

Trello — The Best Free Project Management Software

Trello logo.

Trello is one of the most popular project management software out there.

In fact, millions of users trust them to manage various projects. For small teams and simple projects, the free project management software from Trello will be perfect for accommodating your needs.

Trello leverages Kanban-style boards for work, side projects, and long term goals. You can even use it for managing individual projects, like organizing a family vacation.

Trello shines in terms of simplicity, which is one of the reasons why we use it to manage team tasks on my websites. Everything is organized with boards, cards, and lists.

Trello team task cards demo screen.

Each card represents a task or small project. Those tasks can be assigned to specific team members for collaboration. Cards have subtasks that can be managed and completed in real-time to show progress towards completion. Assigning due dates, uploading files, and adding comments on a Trello card is about as simple as it gets.

You can move cards to different lists such as “in progress” or “complete” so everyone can see the status of a task at a glance. Trello has an exceptional mobile app for project management as well.

In most instances, Trello is better for simple projects. If you’re managing complex projects with large teams, you’ll run into some restrictions with this platform.

The best part of Trello? It’s free. Every user gets up to 10 boards and unlimited cards at no cost.

However, if you’re thinking about using Trello for your company, we recommend going with the paid plans that start at $5 per month per user. This gives you access to advanced features like app integrations, calendar view, map view, advanced users, automations, and more.

Have your team give Trello a try today.

TeamGantt — The Best Project Management Software for Beginners

TeamGantt logo.

Gantt charts are more than one hundred years old. At the time, these revolutionary charts changed the way that tasks were performed. They are the foundation for many project management solutions.

As the name implies, TeamGantt is a project management software that leverages Gantt charts.

So for those of you who are just getting started and learning about project management, TeamGantt is a top option to consider.

TeamGantt workflow demo page.

More than one million users across the world trust TeamGantt for project management.

TeamGantt has a free forever plan for up to three users managing a single project. Paid plans start at $24 per month per manager.

For those of you looking for basic Gantt charts, we’d definitely recommend TeamGantt. If you have a complex project, TeamGantt will have restrictions. They do have an advanced plans with time tracking and hourly estimates, but they don’t go much deeper than that.

Try a paid TeamGantt plan for free with a 30-day trial.

Favro – The Best for Small Teams Doing It All

Favro logo.

Just because your operation is small, it doesn’t mean you can’t be ambitious.

Favro is the project management software made for small teams whose agility is their greatest strength.

Favro home page.

This platform provides a clean interface on both its desktop and mobile apps, providing easy access to boards and cards for planning and execution.

Within those boards and cards, it’s easy to share files, chart progress, assign tasks, and organize workflow. Action items can be given an estimated time-to-complete and priority status, plus they can be voted on by team members if there’s any ambiguity on what should be taken care of next.

And everything, from changes to your roadmap to writing up proposals together, happens on the platform in real time. No version confusion and no more worries that updates haven’t been pushed to the appropriate team members.

You can even tailor boards and roadmaps in Favro to the style your team is most comfortable with. Choose from Kanban-style, sheets, timeline, or a simple card list.

One of the keys to Favro’s usefulness is the ease of which work can be transferred and needs can be communicated between discrete boards. So, even if your team is spread across siloed departments or far-flung locales, collaboration between everyone is a cinch.

Favro also doesn’t skimp on automation features and integrations. It’s easy to build trigger events and automated portions of your workflow, which is only accentuated by Favro’s ability to integrate with the tools you’re already using, like Google’s suite of tools, Slack, Dropbox, and even GitHub and GitLab.

The pricing for Favro is much more favorable to smaller teams. Hence why, with its powerful capability, we’ve marked it as the best for small teams with ambitious members who may be wearing many hats.

Favro’s plans scale to the number of users on the platform and split into three tiers:

Lite

  • Limited to 5 collections (Favro’s term for workspaces)
  • Unlimited boards and backlogs
  • iOS and Android app
  • Google and GitHub OAuth

Standard

  • Unlimited collections, private collections, boards, and backlogs
  • Unlimited storage
  • Unlimited apps and integrations
  • Reports
  • Guest accounts
  • 1,000 API calls/hour
  • iOS and Android app
  • Google and GitHub OAuth

Enterprise

  • Everything in Standard, plus:
  • Enterprise-level support (24-hour assistance on weekdays)
  • Enhanced collection management
  • 10,000 API calls/hour
  • Timesheet reporting
  • SAML single sign-on
  • SCIM user provisioning
  • DPA and GDPR support

Here’s a look at what those tiers would cost a team of five when paying annually:

Favro pricing page.

The next step up is at 10 users, which simply doubles the price, followed by new pricing thresholds at 25 users, 50 users, 100 users, then 100+. Paying annually saves 15% versus month-to-month billing.

If your small team knows it can take on the world, give Favro a 14-day free test drive today.

Celoxis — The Best for Enterprises and Large Businesses

Celoxis logo.

Celoxis is another top option for managing complex projects. But this software is not for everyone. Celoxis is an all-in-one project management software geared towards enterprises and large organizations.

In fact, it’s trusted by companies like Adobe, LG, Tesla, Lufthansa, and Rolex.

Celoxis helps you manage your teams based on skills, availability, and demand. You’ll get real-time revenue estimates as well as automated costs for every project.

Celoxis monthly cost breakup screen.

This software also makes it easy for you to share files and collaborate with both team members and clients. It even has a fully customizable client portal that you can take advantage of.

Celoxis is a bit more expensive than some of the other options on our list, but it’s actually more affordable than other enterprise-grade software solutions on the market today.

The cloud-based solution starts at $25 per month per user (with a five-user minimum). You can save some money if you commit to an annual, two-year, or three-year contract.

Celoxis pricing page.

Alternatively, you can install Celoxis directly on your servers for a custom price. This option is also a five-user minimum, but it’s just a one-time charge as opposed to an ongoing subscription.

Celoxis really stands out in terms of the reports and data that it provides. You can easily send visual reports to your CEO or other decision-makers for specific projects.

Try Celoxis free for 30 days by taking advantage of a free trial.

LiquidPlanner — The Best for Complex Projects

LiquidPlanner logo.

LiquidPlanner is a top solution for engineering teams, software teams, IT teams, and professional services.

Notice that all those teams typically require a wide array of tools to finish projects. That’s because LiquidPlanner is made for managing complex projects at scale with lots of contributors.

This project management tool helps you manage uncertainty with best-case and worst-case scenarios for the outcome. LiquidPlanner automatically adapts to change during a project, which is inevitable for projects with a high level of complexity.

LiquidPlanner gives you quick insight into the tasks, progress, risks, and budgets for every project that’s in progress. You’ll even be able to share the most relevant information with whoever needs to stay informed.

LiquidPlanner workflow dashboard screen.

LiquidPlanner offers an iOS and Android mobile app, time tracking, advanced analytics, API access, unlimited internal dashboards, and integrations with cloud storage services.

The Ultimate plan is $35/user per month and comes with a volume discount. Their Professional plan is just $25/user per month. The Essentials plan is just $15/user per month, and they also offer a free trial for you to test it out risk free.

If you’re looking for a project management solution for something simple, like managing website content, LiquidPlanner is not for you.

But for those of you with complex needs, you can try LiquidPlanner at no cost with a 14-day free trial; no credit card required.

How to Find the Best Project Management Software For Your Business

With so many project management solutions on the market today, it can be tough to choose the best option for your business.

This is the methodology that we used to pick the winners in this guide. Generally speaking, there is no “best for everyone” project management software. It all depends on your specific situation. We’ll break down the evaluation factors that you should be looking for in greater detail below.

Project Complexity

Your most important consideration for project management software is what exactly you’ll be using it for.

Basic project management tools won’t always have the features required to manage complex projects at scale.

On the flip side, if you’re just doing something simple like managing website content or need a tool for a one-off project, you won’t need software with tons of advanced features.

Trello and TeamGantt are both excellent choices for simple projects and smaller teams. If you need advanced features for complex projects, LiquidPlanner and Celoxis would be better for you. Zoho Projects (as our top overall pick) meets that middle ground between simple and complicated projects.

Team Size

The next thing you’ll need to look at is the size of your team. Is everyone on your team going to be working on the same project? Or will everyone be working on multiple projects simultaneously?

If you’re working on a simple project with just a few people, you might even be able to use a free project management solution. Lots of options on our list offer a free forever plan for two or three users.

Managing larger teams is obviously a greater challenge. The best project management software shows the real-time capacity of each team member at a glance. This feature allows you to properly allocate tasks, responsibilities, and resources, without overwhelming people who have a full workload.

Some project management software requires a minimum for the number of team members associated with a subscription. This usually starts around five users but varies from one platform to another.

Ease of Use

Simplicity is key when it comes to project management software.

From the initial setup to onboarding team members and managing tasks on an ongoing basis, you want to make sure that your solution actually makes your life easier. The only real way to determine how easy it is to use project management software is by trying it out.

Every option on our list offers some type of free forever plan or free trial. We strongly advise trying those out so you can get a feel for what works best for your purposes.

Features

Some project management software will offer more advanced features and tools than others. But depending on your situation, you may not need anything too fancy.

Common features that you’ll see for various project management software include storage limits, mobile apps, third-party integrations, built-in communication tools, advanced reporting, and user permissions. You’ll find some solutions with agency features, time-tracking tools, automation, and tools for managing your budget.

It’s important to figure out what tools you’ll actually need as you’re evaluating potential project management solutions.

Price

Pricing for project managing software is usually based on how many users you have on your team. Some solutions require you to pay for a minimum number of users to get started.

Plans are typically billed per month or on an annual basis.

The actual cost varies drastically, depending on your needs. Most tools have a free plan for basic needs and a handful of users. Paid plans start somewhere in the $3 to $25 per month per user range.

Some solutions, like Wrike, charge you extra for add-ons as you essentially start with a basic plan and customize it based on your needs.

With such a wide range of prices to consider, it’s important for you to choose something that fits within your budget. Project management software doesn’t need to cost a fortune.

The Top Project Management Software in Summary

Bottom line: Zoho Projects is the best overall project management software on the market today. It’s affordable and checks off all of the boxes that we look for when evaluating prospective options.

With that said, this software isn’t for everyone. There are project management solutions out there that are more suited for complex projects, large teams, small teams, remote employees, and other use-case-specific scenarios.