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If you’re looking for a product that can do it all for a low price, Zoho Projects is for you.

We did the research and found the best project management software out there, so you can stop searching for a solution and get back to work. We looked at how easy the platforms were to learn, costs, customer reviews, and the types of projects the programs handle best.

If your work life is a string of Slack messages, emails, and errant Google Docs, your team may need project management software. These websites and apps help you ensure no part of a project goes astray, in one tidy interface. They’re particularly useful if your team works in different parts of the world, or you have a ton of rapidly changing projects with multiple stakeholders.

Each project management system has its own quirks, but they all promise to streamline your work, so your team can stay focused and on-task. And imagine how much more productive you’ll be when you aren’t getting pinged with notifications from ten different applications.

We did the research and found the best project management software out there, so you can stop searching for a solution and get back to work. We looked at how easy the platforms were to learn, costs, customer reviews, and the types of projects the programs handle best.

Best For Customer-Facing Brands Image: LiquidPlanner The Good Strong reporting • Issue tracking • Integrations • Flexibility Strong reporting • Issue tracking • Integrations • Flexibility The Bad No free program • Not the easiest software to understand No free program • Not the easiest software to understand The Bottom Line Great for a large company that needs reporting and customer service. Great for a large company that needs reporting and customer service. Price: No free plan, begins at $45/month for 5 users See Details LiquidPlanner Best for large companies that have a customer service arm. If your organization needs to have a strong way of managing customer relations, LiquidPlanner is a stellar option. It tracks issues you or your customers are having so you can collect and act on their questions. There’s also a dynamic reporting system built in, and you can integrate with Zapier as well as cloud storage programs. And the platform is flexible for your needs: if you assign a task to a person, the program automatically takes that into account when estimating timing for deliverables. You can try any of their tiers for free for two weeks, but there is no indefinite free tier. Of all the software we reviewed, it’s not the easiest to understand. So a large corporation that can bake in lots of training would be the best group to use it effectively.



Best for Spreadsheet Enthusiasts Image: Smartsheet The Good Endlessly customizable and powerful software • Free trial Endlessly customizable and powerful software • Free trial The Bad Has a significant learning curve Has a significant learning curve The Bottom Line A great option for those who loved to dig in on Excel and Google Sheets. A great option for those who loved to dig in on Excel and Google Sheets. Price: Begins at $19/person/month for individuals, $32/person/month for teams, plus Enterprise and Enterprise Premiere plans for larger teams. Those prices are upon request from the company. You can also do a 30-day free trial. See Details Smartsheet Perfect for the excel power user, you can customize the sheets on SmartSheet to your heart’s content. If you loved getting into all the nooks and crannies of what an Excel sheet could do for you, you’ll enjoy using SmartSheet. You can customize their spreadsheets to fit any type of team or process. But along with this comes a steep learning curve, and it’s not as user-friendly as say, Trello. If you’re a larger company that already worked a lot in Excel, you’d be the target user. There’s a 30-day free trial that has user and data limits. Prices begin at $19 per person per month for individuals, $32 per person per month for teams, plus Enterprise and Enterprise Premiere plans for larger teams. (Note that prices are upon request from the company.)



Best Bang For Your Buck Image: zoho projects The Good Many integrations • Reporting • You don’t have to pay more to add users Many integrations • Reporting • You don’t have to pay more to add users The Bad Free plan lacks features Free plan lacks features The Bottom Line Offers many features for a low price. Offers many features for a low price. Price: Has a free plan and paid plans starting at $20/month See Details Zoho Projects If you’re looking for a product that can do it all for a low price, Zoho Projects is for you. Zoho Projects gives you a ton of different features at a shockingly low price. You can organize projects based on the Kanban, or card-based, method. Need to make Gantt charts, do complex reporting, integrate it with all your apps like Zoho’s CRM? You can do it all starting at $20 a month. There is a free plan, but you can only have one project and upload 10 mb of data. If $20 is feeling steep to you, you can start a free 10-day trial and see if you like using it. Many companies will charge more for adding more users, but their $20 per month is a flat fee. Other cool features include built-in chat functions and time tracking.



Best For Gantt Stans Image: GanttPRO The Good Simple way to view and interact with Gantt charts Simple way to view and interact with Gantt charts The Bad Few integrations • No reporting, billing, or timing tools Few integrations • No reporting, billing, or timing tools The Bottom Line Great for people who are comfortable with Gantt charts and want to use them more. Great for people who are comfortable with Gantt charts and want to use them more. Price: Free 15-day trial, prices vary per groups of people. For example, for a team of 5 people, the price is $474. See Details GanttPRO A bare-bones app that focuses on Gantt charts. If you already work with Gantt charts, GanttPRO will be a fun and functional way to do project management. If you don’t know what Gantt charts are, here’s a primer: the charts help project managers see all their tasks on a timeline. You can see when tasks are due and how much time they’ll take to complete. GanttPRO puts those charts as the main view when you log in, so you can get all that information in one place. You can get a free 15-day trial. Then, pricing is dependent on the size of the group using it, ranging from around $180-$1062 a year, with 25GB of storage. There’s no reporting, billing, or timing tools, so that’s a drawback. There are few integrations as well, when compared to other companies. But it’s a great option if you love Gantt charts.



Best For Excel Fans Image: Airtable The Good Incredibly simple • Attractively designed • Great collaboration support Incredibly simple • Attractively designed • Great collaboration support The Bad A few kinks with formatting and linking databases A few kinks with formatting and linking databases The Bottom Line Perfect for people new to project management software. Perfect for people new to project management software. Price: There’s a free plan with 2GB of data, otherwise the Plus plan is $12/user/month See Details Airtable A beautiful interface with tons of features for newbie project managers and pros alike.

Airtable can best be described as “Like Excel, but prettier.” If you know how to title, organize, and enter data into a basic Excel spreadsheet, you will find Airtable easy to use. Try one of their provided templates, like “event planning” or “advertising campaign,” or create your own project with a host of attractive colors. But where Airtable shines is its collaborative nature. You can invite collaborators to your databases and chat with them on each step of the project. Supervisors can assign tasks, plus they can “watch” their coworkers’ projects and get notified on their progress in real time. And you can view the projects in a calendar mode, a Kanban mode, or a gallery. And if you’re not up to speed on all its features, the application provides tons of tutorials. If you’re a stickler about how certain items look in Excel, you’ll find that some design features are missing, namely that text does not wrap in an attractive way. You’ll often find yourself having to click on your database entries to expand them and then view everything. But what’s important is Airtable appears to be listening: when customers repeatedly asked for the ability to export reports into charts and graphs, they added the feature for paid subscribers. Speaking of paying, there is a free version of Airtable that gives you 2GB of data. The Plus account gives you unlimited databases, with 5000 records per database. You get 5GB of storage and six months of revision history. The Pro plan is $24 per user per month with 50,000 records and 20GB of space.

Best Simple Software Image: Teamwork Projects The Good Has a free account • Intuitive design • Integrated calendar Has a free account • Intuitive design • Integrated calendar The Bad Gantt charts don’t look great • Can’t mark up PDFs/images well Gantt charts don’t look great • Can’t mark up PDFs/images well The Bottom Line One of the most intuitive project management programs we’ve seen, with a good free option if your team can’t spend on software. One of the most intuitive project management programs we’ve seen, with a good free option if your team can’t spend on software. Price: Free account gives you a 30-day premium trial. Once you’re on their free plan, you will be able to work with five people, two projects, and 100MB of data. Multiple price tiers, and features increase when moving up tiers. The Pro plan begins at $56.25 per month for five users, and the Premium begins at $93.75 for five users. See Details Teamwork Projects One of the most intuitive project management programs we’ve seen, with a good free option if your team can’t spend on software. If your company needs software that’s easy to understand and just works , Teamwork Projects is a great option. It’s an incredibly intuitive platform, and it’s simple to get a project up and running within minutes. A visually pleasing application that also has an array of features, you can customize the look and feel of the platform, receive tons of data that tells you about how team members are managing their time, billing, expense, and time tracking, and much more. If you’re used to using Gantt charts or Kanban style project management, Teamwork Projects has those options as well. And you can integrate the app with Zapier, BOX, and more. There’s a great free plan that gives you five people, two projects, and 100MB of data. You can’t use integrations, but for a small team you may be able to get away with a free plan. The Pro plan begins at $56.25 per month for five users with 100GB of storage with up to 50 people and 300 projects. Premium begins at $93.75 for five users, and can go up to 100 people, 600 projects, and 250GB of storage, with added integrations.



Source: Mashable

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