10 Best Project Management Software: Get Ahead in 2024

monday.com strikes the perfect balance between ease-of-use and functionality. It offers 14 different ways to view your work (without counting third-party apps and function-specific views), over 200 high-quality templates, and everything from time-tracking to automation, to advanced file-sharing.

Project management tools like this can be intimidating – especially if they have a lot of features. But monday.com avoids this problem with a vast collection of learning resources and a user-friendly interface that simplifies navigation. Put simply: Everything is exactly where you’d expect it to be.

The only real con is that monday.com changes constantly (like, almost yearly), so you might need to put in a little extra effort to re-learn the ropes every so often. On the other hand, this means you won’t have to worry about using outdated software.

monday.com has a 14-day free trial1, so you can try out all its Pro features before committing to a paid plan.

ClickUp is a flexible project management platform that you can tailor to fit your needs. From custom views to automations, you can get very specific when organizing your projects and tasks. You can also experiment with layouts and colors to customize the look of your workspace.

Thanks to features such as Whiteboards, your team can collectively brainstorm and execute ideas in one place1. ClickUp’s built-in chat, document, and time-tracking tools are designed to centralize your workflow – and all of them are available on the free plan.

The downside? The sheer number of features and customization options you get may be overwhelming, especially if you’re just learning the ropes. Still, if you’re ready to invest some time and effort, ClickUp is one of the most powerful, versatile, and affordable project management solutions on the market.

Having spent months testing all kinds of project management software, I can tell you that Smartsheet is one of the most feature-packed tools on the market. Is it user-friendly? Well, it takes a while to learn, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes incredibly easy to use and navigate.

If you deal with lots of information, Smartsheet has the tools to help you organize everything1. You can create reports with info from any document, add time-stamped proofs on video files, automatically enter the answers from a form into a spreadsheet, and much more.

The app leans a little too hard into the accountant-chic look with grey buttons and sharp corners. Also, a built-in time tracker and chat feature would’ve been nice. Still, there’s no denying that Smartsheet is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to project management.

Jira is almost synonymous with software and IT projects, and for good reason. It’s designed for Agile teams to create a project and have a single source of truth1 for its documentation, and it’s packed with features that support this goal. On top of the standard project management features you’d expect, you can integrate your code repository to see what members of your team are responsible for.

You’ll also be able to streamline your workflow by breaking up your project into separate spaces. While this might sound counterintuitive to your productivity, it fits perfectly with the Agile methodology. For example, instead of getting distracted by incoming bug reports, you can save those in a separate project to address in a future sprint.

Jira has a lot to offer teams of different sizes, too. It’s great for small teams and individuals thanks to its generous free plan. You won’t get some of the most advanced features (like full user access control), but you’ll get more than enough to keep your project running. For teams larger than 10 people, Jira’s paid plans offer fantastic value – and you’ll even get discounted per-user rates if you have over 100 users.

HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, not a project management one, which is why it doesn’t rank higher on my list. You can still set up tasks, generate automatic workflows, and create custom dashboards. It’s just that those aren’t the app’s primary goals.

What is the primary goal of HubSpot? Well, HubSpot allows you to manage sales and marketing processes. With HubSpot, you can strengthen client relationships, keep track of finances, and improve visitor engagement on your website.

You can’t access quite as many project management features like different timeline views or baseline creation. But if you need a CRM tool and a project management tool built into one, then HubSpot could offer the best of both worlds at the price of a single app1.

Teamwork doesn’t have quite as many features as some of the other tools on this list. But this might be a good thing. If you don’t have a lot of experience using project management tools, Teamwork is a great place to start. 

That’s not to say that it lacks anything crucial. It took me less than 20 minutes to set up a project1 with a custom dashboard, Gantt view, and time logs. The task follower feature is a standout, as it keeps team members updated on the progress of a task, even if they have no assigned actions.

Whether or not you plan on using Teamwork in the long run, I say it’s still a great place to learn about project management tools. And who knows? Maybe you’ll fall in love with it. There’s certainly a lot to love.

Zoho Projects is especially great for communication in a medium-sized team. You can get in touch with your team through the built-in chat, forums, pages, and comments for specific tasks. Each option has its own unique use.

The result is software that facilitates smooth and open communication between team members1. And that’s without considering the integrations with the rest of Zoho’s ecosystem, which turns Projects into a one-stop hub for all your productivity needs.

Awkward feature placement and a steep learning curve keep Zoho Projects from being truly amazing. Still, if efficient communication is your top priority, or you’re already a user of Zoho’s productivity apps, Zoho Projects should definitely be on your radar.

Striven is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software with modules for project management, finance, inventory, CRM, and human resources. Despite being only a subset of Striven’s robust suite of tools, its project management features are surprisingly wide-ranging. You get task and time tracking, Gantt charts, project templates, and multiple ways to collaborate with your team.

Striven’s clean and intuitive interface makes it easy to assign work, log hours, or create reports to monitor your progress. Also, thanks to the built-in document storage, you can easily find and share files.

The wide scope of use doesn’t come cheap, however – especially if you only need project management functionality. Still, if you’re looking for an all-in-one software hub to streamline all your business operations1, you can’t do much better than Striven.

As you probably guessed by the name, Gantt charts are TeamGantt’s strong point. TeamGantt is one of the simplest apps for creating Gantt charts. Every feature is drag-and-drop, which makes adding dependencies, subtasks, and milestones effortless.

Pair that with 21 good-to-go templates and a beautiful interface, and you get an incredibly user-friendly tool for creating Gantt charts in minutes1.

TeamGantt simply doesn’t offer the advanced functionalities that larger projects might require. Even for minor projects, the options for team collaboration, file sharing, and resource tracking are limited.

Still, TeamGantt is an excellent choice if you need a good-looking Gantt chart and you need it now.

With most project management tools designed to support team productivity, Bonsai stands out by focusing exclusively on freelancers and small agencies. Freelancers in particular will appreciate Bonsai’s pre-built, lawyer-vetted contract templates1 and contract builder that make setting up your next project a breeze.

All contracts get stored in the built-in CRM tool, which means no more hunting through endless files to find your legal documents. Plus, every time you create a new project, Bonsai will automatically generate invoices for you that you can send with a single click. All of this is wrapped up in an easy-to-use, intuitive interface that genuinely impressed me when I was testing this software.

Unfortunately, Bonsai’s project management tools are quite limited compared to many of the other tools on this list, and you’ll struggle to collaborate with colleagues through this tool alone. It’s not a great fit for corporate teams or more detailed projects. However, if you’re a freelancer or a small agency, Bonsai’s workflow automation features will work wonders for optimizing your workflow.