17 Best Project Management Software's 2024 Guide

Project management software is crucial for helping your staff manage, plan, and organise tasks effectively. However, with many project management software programs available, choosing the right tool for your company can be overwhelming.

Incorpuk, in this guide, provides you with project management tools best suited for your company. Whether you're a team leader supervising a few employees or an individual working on a corporate assignment, we've provided solutions that will count. We provide you with tools with unique perks to help you optimize challenging processes and enrich the project management experience.

What is Project Management Software?

Project management tools are programs designed to assist teams in achieving their project goals. They make it easier for everyone to access the project timeline and important tasks and share updates and vital information about a project.

The key goals of project management tools include:

1. Streamline workflow
2. Reduce project risks
3. Boost collaboration
4. Track timelines to optimise resource and time usage
5. Document each step

What Features Should You Consider when Choosing Project Management Software?

Project managers may use free tools for smaller and less complex projects or sophisticated, enterprise-level tools when they have more extensive requirements. This softwares can be used for several functions, including time tracking or project scheduling.

Hence, there is a need to select the right feature set. To make this process easier, here are key features to look for in a project management tool into three categories:

Core functionalities

The core functionalities of project management tools include:

1. Task management: Task management features include the creation of tasks, assigning timelines, prioritizing features, and working with dependencies. It can also subdivide a large project into several sub-processes to ensure successful project management.
2. Artificial intelligence: Online project management can no longer be imagined without AI, initially considered a mere decoration. Leading tools use AI to improve analytical decision-making processes and automate business and project workflow and progression, making it an imperative element of project management tools.
3. Collaboration: With projects becoming increasingly collaborative, it is crucial to have software that boasts an excellent collaboration function to convene a team at the shared platform for work sharing and communication. It is advisable to incorporate some of these team members in testing the products before making a final decision.
4. Planning and scheduling: Adequate planning and scheduling are essential for easily monitoring tasks at different levels. Core features include checklists, subtasks, time tracking, schedules, budgeting, workload distributions, and the possibility of creating and linking milestones.
5. Knowledge management: Some features to expect from the best project management tools include flexibility in creating, organising, and distributing documents. From project briefs, SOPs, templates, and wikis that are searchable, editable, and sharable can transform project success.

Advanced Features

The advanced features that you must take into consideration to take care of your project complexities include:

1. Resource management: Project managers must allocate and reallocate resources according to their projects' requirements. Some features they need include managing file sharing and collaboration, talents, budgets, and time and goals tracking.
2. Automation: Automation features minimize manual work, giving project managers more time to handle vital tasks by smoothening automated updates and reducing manual work.
3. Reporting and analytics: Data-driven analytics and reports are crucial for measuring project performance. Real-time dashboards monitor costs, time control, and earned value to keep projects in check.
4. Customization: Project management software must also support the customisation of the basic processes, such as dashboards, workflows, and project views, to match your team's preference.

Additional Considerations

When looking for a project management tool, you may look for additional considerations such as:

1. Integrations: Integration of the tools is important for working without switching between many interfaces. Ensure that the project management software can interconnect with other programs, applications, and systems, such as accounting software or CRM. You must verify if these integrations are inbuilt or will be supported by an additional tool.
2. Ease of use: Even though you are 'tech-savvy' and are quite familiar with project management software, your counterparts may not be. Ensure your preferred tools are easy to use and navigate to enhance usage.
3. Data security and privacy: 70% of global consumers have privacy concerns; therefore, the platform must offer optimal security alongside the flexibility of owning and controlling your data.
4. Scalability: you require a tool that will expand its functionality with the growth of your project and its intricacy. Determine or analyse the versatility of the software in terms of horizontal and vertical in case of expansion for new features and greater value.
5. Pricing: when deciding between a subscription model and a licence fee type of deal, do not just look at the cost. Review the overhead expenses, such as the initial cost and the frequency, as well as the cost of the additional features and accessories in relation to the number of people on your team.

Best Project Management Software

Asana

Asana is one of the best and most popular project management tools currently in the market. In addition to project management, it is a collaboration tool that enables the team to monitor tasks. This means that the respective team members can easily identify who is on the team and what they are supposed to do, and the possibility of the team members giving feedback to one another is high. Managers get an overall picture of load distribution. Thus, the tasks can be delegated more efficiently. What we have at Asana is a comprehensive application that eliminates the need for spreadsheets, emails, and other applications.

Furthermore, user-friendliness is considered one of Asana's strengths, and it helps make the onboarding process easy. Several detailed tasks can be easily swapped between team members to avoid overloading certain people. Asana also integrates perfectly with other apps such as Slack, Trello, Dropbox, and Google Drive, making the chances of compiling information highly probable.

Asana features

1. You can look up the work schedule for each team member in the shared calendar.
2. Automate interaction with the team members using the workflow builder.
3. Reporting, which also comes with the module, allows you to get real-time feedback on work progress.
4. You can use Gantt charts to help you organize project timelines.
5. Know the actual work progress through the application of Kanban boards.
6. Application of automation options that would minimise work time spent on paperwork and decrease mistakes.
7. Chart out the strategic targets of the team and evaluate its performance.
8. It also enables tracking the workload assigned to a particular employee on assorted projects so that optimum distribution of tasks can be made.

Monday

Monday is not just project management software but a Work management platform, as they call it. Monday Projects offers many useful features for project teams, CRM systems, and solutions for developers.

It is designed to help organise work, create team cooperation, and use the features to meet deadlines. Specifically for projects, the platform covers all the essentials: users can create, edit, and delegate tasks. It also has features in resource management, financial and time control, and progress reporting. You can also access multiple-project templates and customise project views to suit your preferences.

The Workloads tab also allows for an easy view of how much workload every team member has and how they handle the workload. There is also a 'My Tasks' tab for PMs to view all the work assigned to them & 'keep up' even if the environment is utterly chaotic.

Monday features

1. Map the critical path onto the Gantt chart to better understand the project's health and the activities needed to propel the project. This is good, although it's optional.
2. Timers track times the amount of time used on each task, providing information to enhance accuracy in the future schedule.
3. Automation reduces human intervention in repeated tasks through status updates and notification emails.
4. Dashboards allow no code customisation, meaning non-technical PMs can use them to share executive summaries with stakeholders and go deeper into the information during critical situations.
5. Dependencies provide a wider perspective to address bottlenecking issues or define the sources of problems.

Smartsheet

Users who like Excel but lack collaboration features will find Smartsheet ideal. It offers views, workflows, reports, and dashboards to support the planning and scheduling of your plans, resources, and schedule. It amalgamates numerous tools, eliminates barriers, and provides you with one place to work. It also focuses on security, so your projects meet all increased security and governance regulations.

Smartsheet is constantly being updated with new security and governance features. Training, support requests and certifications, and direct user access to these services are in the same interface.

Smartsheet features

1. Its collaboration features allow you to reach everyone on your team.
2. Streamline requests, billing, and ticketing in the request management module.
3. It is automated to reduce redundancies through intelligent process automation.
4. Provide integration options to minimize data collection and transit easiness.
5. Securely transfer assets with the help of the available digital asset management on the platform.
6. Enhance governance and management with configurable settings.

Nifty

Nifty contributes to being a collaboration platform that aims to centralize everything in the project and everything across the projects. It supports the omnichannel approach, as the project team gets tasks, documents, chats, and goals within one platform.

You can use the platform to track the time a task takes to finalise to streamline billing, and project managers get a list of every logged time, someone's tasks, or projects. It is possible to regenerate and export reports in a few clicks; therefore, Nifty is ideal for you if you need to review the progress or show it to the stakeholders.

Nifty features

1. Milestones: The primary tasks are in the middle, and all other tasks are connected to monitor progress.
2. Task Management: Milestones are subdivided into tasks that can be created and updated within the system. This provides instant visibility.
3. Discussion Board: Enables direct communication between the teams on the platform.
4. Document Integration: In-built document support and Google Docs are integrations that work within Nifty.
5. All Tasks Tab: Helps managers take a broad view of workload and instantly spot anything important and overdue.

ClickUp

It is a project management platform built to increase business oversight of day-to-day activities. It has tools for managing tasks, document management, an in-app chat option, and third-party application integration to centralise vital data.

Further, ClickUp has integrated virtual whiteboards to incorporate team brainstorming and has different objective management options for key performance indicators and goals.

ClickUp features

1. Utilise the feature of task management to subdivide projects into workable tasks.
2. Convey team ideas using the visual solution of a whiteboard to turn the ideas into shape.
3. Link documents to a task so that none of the information appears to be lost in the system.
4. Use the in-platform chat to enable efficient team communication in real time.
5. Use the Goals' module to create and monitor quantitative goals that can be achieved.
6. Constantly analyse and control day-to-day work with the help of custom dashboards.

Hive

It's a project management tool that displays all tasks and projects on a centralised Hive dashboard. Hive features include public and private projects; there is a draft mode where you can create changes without involving the team. For example, if you are rewriting a project description, then the system won't frequently update your colleagues.

Hive also offers six layout modes, which can be changed at any time to give the interface a unique interface based on their preference. For instance, the Gantt view displays a project timeline to ease visualization.

This solution is all-in-one software that would fit marketing, agencies, and creative departments. Special features include an artificial intelligence writing assistant and a feature that displays the current activity in the workspace in real time. Although some of these features are not critical, they can make the process more entertaining.

Hive features

1. Hive enables you to track the management of goals and accomplishments using projects' updates and status notifications.
2. There are two options for tracking time spent on a task: record it as you work through the tasks or enter it manually after completing the assignment.
3. Reviewing tasks is as simple as markup tools: approval invites and uploads documents, videos, and images, all within the necessarily created tasks.
4. Editable project templates can be created for future use, which is common for a particular project, especially for teams developing custom software.
5. Analytics dashboards give a top-level view of the overall project status, the team's performance, and accomplished work.

Wrike

Wrike was developed for efficient and effective project management and task structure. It has a clear, intuitive workspace and various options for task management depending on the processes. The labelling of functions reduces the user base's learning curve.

Alongside offering one of the most comprehensive project management software, Wrike boasts a robust security offering to safeguard your information. These are features such as 2FA and SSO, besides encryption key management and CASB integration, to name but a few.

Wrike features

1. Real-time dashboard management offers an eagle-eye view of tasks, project status, and team performance.
2. Improve collaboration using the various views of a task.
3. Maximize resource efficiency with the help of the platform project resource planning module.
4. Save time by making it respond to its rich capabilities to automate processes within a business.
5. Increase efficiency with its integration of automated process access.
6. Simplify workflows with the platform's help of over 400 integration capabilities.

Notion

Notion is a free project management tool offering many useful features for a team. Its best features are task management, knowledge management, and team collaboration. Users can build databases, calendars, and Kanban boards. It's easy to manage tasks and share and display thoughts in real-time using the interface and templates.

Beyond its capabilities, Notion's main strength is its versatility, making it ideal for personal or daily task tracking and large and long-term collaborative projects. Its modular system enables users to construct and customise work environments based on their projects' requirements. This includes planning schedules, archiving materials, and sharing ideas. Notion can also easily import and integrate with other applications, adding value as a central hub.

Notion Features

1. Notion pages are fully customizable; you can directly drag and drop blocks to your preferred layout anytime.
2. Collapsible elements like arrows are very useful when presenting a large amount of data: it is enough to expand them only when necessary.
3. Notion tables are also effective for project management and work perfectly fine when adding new columns. Moreover, selected data can be filtered using options like due date, status, priority, etc.
4. Multiple views, such as the timeline, calendar, and board, let you plan projects and visualise interactions between tasks.

Trello

Trello appeals to those who fancy handling their projects using Kanban Boards. It simplifies the demanding tasks into manageable boards that make the workflow simple. The interactive Kanban Board lets you update projects and change task status easily by moving cards on 'To Do,' 'Backlog,' 'In Progress,' and 'Done' statuses.

The approach allows easy progress tracking, identifying challenges, and recognising resource constraints. Also, some power-ups extend Trello with professional project management tools and options without cluttering the design with too many options.

Custom fields provide customisation and labels you use to prioritise tasks.   Nevertheless, Trello also has its drawbacks. For instance, it's simple; it does not offer custom statuses or goal-tracking tools that could be especially beneficial for managing rather complex projects.

Trello features

1. The layout, reminiscent of a Kanban board, is a quick and easy way to establish a bird' s-eye view of the project.
2. Visualize the project's workflow using Boards, Lists, and Cards.
3. Organise project data like projects' due dates and the attachments, etc., in a centralised place
4. Adapt Trello cards to meet certain company requirements through custom fields.
5. Set automated rules for setting various automated workflows through nifty AI.

Planview AdaptiveWork

Planview AdaptiveWork is a project portfolio management tool that helps businesses automate and manage tasks, control risks, and improve results. Having been in the industry for more than 30 years, it offers a full spectrum of project management, planning, team, and financial management services.

Moreover, due to its global operations, Planview has its own Information Risk Management (IRM) team, which guarantees high cybersecurity and risk management levels. This comprises supervising penetration testing, security threat research, global security practice, security incident handling, and audit management.

Planview AdaptiveWork features

1. Access real-time information on resources and ongoing projects.
2. Reduce the time spent on monotonous work and increase efficiency at the workplace through automation.
3. Stay informed with status go-getter smart notifications.
4. Explore a list of pre-built templates to fast-track projects or create templates from scratch.
5. Created tailored workflows according to organization preset.
6. Develop customer account profiles to manage customer affairs further most effectively.

Airtable

This stylish and modern tool accompaniment blends Excel and Google Sheets aspects with Web-based Database capabilities. It is like an advanced table with features to keep records of stock reference lists, or it acts as a simple CRM tool.

Airtable is a friendly, modern interface of a modern database management tool that doesn't conform to SQL or other code-style interfaces.

If you have a history of using Microsoft Excel as your project management tool, you should consider using Airtable. Nonetheless, projects should not mainly be handled by spreadsheets.

Airtable features

1. Easily integrated with Salesforce, Box, and Google Calendar to import data
2. Interface Designer tool to construct and share tailored interfaces.
3. Customizable templates that allow data to be entered into the specified Airtable base.
4. Applications for software development to design complex reporting systems
5. Automation improved by function in JavaScript

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a central workplace for work management, tracking, and appraisal of organizational projects. There are no complicated features, and its simplicity makes the app effective in helping administrators and members switch between the boards and cards to execute tasks in different parts of the projects.

It is part of the Microsoft 365 framework. It offers similar applications; therefore, little time will be spent on a transition. Furthermore, it is neatly incorporated into the other Microsoft programs that individuals might already be using.

Microsoft Project Features

1. Simulation of project portfolios to analyse the best possible strategies for each undertaking.
2. Optimise reporting and analytics to enhance how decisions are made with data.
3. Reporting is not a problem when using Power BI.
4. Catalyze the decision-making concerning project proposal evaluations through the review module.
5. The efficacy of project work is improved by creating different project views.

Zoho

Zoho Projects is another efficient project management software. Its issue tracker helps you organize your documents, collaborate with your team, and effortlessly solve problems.

It adds a synced set of tools to ensure the project is well managed. It has a friendly user interphase that enables teams to work, both large and small, to plan, schedule, and monitor their progress. Zoho Projects' outstanding features include Gantt charts, a time tracker, and custom workflows to ensure everything is well organised. Also, integration with other applications in the Zoho application suite and third parties contributes to its adaptability and suggests it as a versatile option for various projects.

Zoho features

1. Full-featured task tracking with custom fields
2. Gantt chart view used in scheduling the project
3. Tracking of time spent on a particular project and the approval of the time sheet.
4. Detailed analysis with the additional option of customizing the report.
5. Integrated document management systems

MeisterTask

It is the most effective performance tracking and bug reporting, project, and task management software designed for project managers, managers, and anyone who tracks WIP. It is often much easier to sort tasks in a Kanban-style project board than MeisterTask offers. You can set limited tasks to avoid overload, include comments and tags, modify the appearance of your boards, and invite others to join. On top of this, the beautiful and intuitive user interface helps users set tasks, assign people, work on projects, and track developments.

Furthermore, this software has an education plan under which a user can get a discount for being an educational or non-profit establishment. This means the institution can take advantage of the features offered for a lesser amount than the standard.

MeisterTask Features

1. Use cross-team task relations and tags to enable easy collaboration between teams.
2. Beat deadlines with the help of timelines, notification settings, and personalised dashboards.
3. Make your search faster with the help of filters and smart search options.
4. Control the working time with the help of the built-in options for time tracking.
5. Get actionable project data through analytics and reporting.

ActiveCollab

If minimalistic design, Kanban boards, and a clear user interface appeal to you, ActiveCollab is your solution. A detailed solution enhances the project's coordination process: it provides tools for assignment organizing, effective team communication, and client collaboration.

You can split a project into definite tasks with flexible start-up dates and deadlines to submit the completed task, work with the assigned team members, or, when needed, invite clients to track progress.

With ActiveCollab, you can also create a list or Kanban view of the tasks; it has a stopwatch for time tracking and an integrated app for file sharing and chat.

ActiveCollab features

1. Time tracking features with the option of an interactive Gantt chart
2. In-app communication and collaboration features include the sharing of files.
3. Task dependencies and subsequent automated rescheduling.
4. Prioritization is needed to track the budget and monitor project expenses.

Teamly

This uniquely designed collaborative platform is ideal for remote work, offering features that foster teamwork and productivity. It includes a user-friendly interface and features for handling tasks, tracking progress, and enhancing communication within a team located virtually anywhere.

It provides real-time chat; workflow shared as a Kanban board workflow, screen sharing, screen capturing, and time monitoring and tracking for employees. It also ensures smooth work collaboration, enhances productivity and provides feedback on team performance.

Teamly features

1. Supports real-time communication with staff through the chat feature
2. Tracks employee productivity with its time tracking and reporting feature
3. Set concise and measurable goals for tasks and projects
4. Kanban boards help you control tasks and manage workflows effectively.
5. Captures project information with audio recording and screen capture video
6. Generates reports on team performance and project progress

Basecamp

Basecamp is a software well known for supporting project management and team communications, making it easy for the teams to coordinate.

However, one disadvantage of using Basecamp is that it is not very flexible and customizable compared with other successful project management tools. Basecamp is fairly easy to use, which is good, but due to its rigid structure, it may be difficult at times to try to mould it to fit the requirements of a certain project or team.

If you need a simple project management tool that allows your team members to communicate in real-time, Basecamp could be a good option.

Basecamp Features

1. The project management timeline is where you can examine everything from the beginning to the end.
2. The Hey! Menu makes notifications even more manageable through one menu.
3. Hill Charts, where progress can be made up or down at a given time.
4. Chats and messaging system
5. Start with an automatic poll for the team to check in.

How to Choose the Ideal Project Management Software for Your Project

The project management tool you. 'll choose depends on various factors such as:

1. Think about the project

When dealing with projects, one is easily motivated to work on them because it will take less time. However, this approach often goes wrong, and the outcome is disappointing for project managers and the stakeholders involved.

However, thinking and approaching your project or focus area slowly and steadily is better.

1. What are your primary objectives and plans?
2. What instrument are you currently using?
3. What are loopholes in your current workflow?
4. What would you like in a PM tool?

2. Ask your team

However, for your project management tool to be helpful, ensure the team is involved in the selection process. Question them about tools they are comfortable using, what they like about the present process, and what they would alter. This way, they will present a set of solutions you are more likely to use in your daily practice.

3. Do research

After determining your project type and the team you need, consider what type of PM tool you should look for. Emphasize your priorities and disregard the price issue—sometimes the decisive option appears expensive initially but could save money in improving the business's workflows and using digital automation services.

4. Take advantage of free trials.

Free licences have become the norm; most companies provide either a trial version with full functionality for a limited period or a limited version of the software indefinitely. Always evaluate all the finalist solutions before you can make the final decision. Remember that even identical tools often perform differently, so take at least an hour or two to ensure you pick the most ideal.

5. Ask vendors

Staying away from company reps can put your project on a backward track. Though some could be aggressive, the rest are knowledgeable and can share ideas and advice. Think of questions and use them to consult to obtain professional recommendations and make a decision.

Final Thought

Selecting the right project management software is vital for enhancing workplace collaboration, streamlining workflows, and optimising project outcomes. With many tools in the market, it's essential to research and pick one that suits your team and project needs.

When picking PM software, consider key factors that will enhance your project experiences, like task management, customisation, and AI. you should also weigh factors like user-friendly pricing and scalability. Kindly contact one of our Incorpuk experts here if you have any questions about the best project management tools for you.