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The best project management software is monday, offering an intuitive, color-coded interface that is easy for beginners to get the hang of quickly. It also provides users with more advanced features, like automation builders, so you can scale your business with the platform.
There are plenty of options out there if monday isn’t for you and your business, though. Cheaper options like ClickUp might be a better fit for businesses on a strict budget, while options like Wrike and Asana offer larger third-party app libraries to turn your project management software into an all-in-one business hub.
In this guide, you’ll learn about the best project management software available in 2025, including what they can do, how much they cost, and how to choose the right one for your particular business.
Key Takeaways
- Best: Our research found that monday is the best project management software, thanks to its intuitive, customizable interface and impressive feature catalog.
- Pricing: ClickUp was the most affordable project management software, with a starting price of only $7 per month.
- Free plan: Teamwork, Asana, ClickUp, Wrike, and monday all offer free forever plans to get you started at no cost.
- How to choose: It’s important to consider your budget, team size, and organization style to make sure you find the right platform for your business.
Best Project Management Software: At A Glance
We’ve looked at the interface, infrastructure, standout features, user experience, pricing and plan tiers of top project management tools to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each platform.
Below, you’ll find our list of the best project management tools. Click each provider to be taken straight to their review section.
- monday.com – Best overall
- Teamwork – Best for small teams
- Asana – Best for visualizing data
- ClickUp – Best for complex projects
- Wrike – Best for integrations
You will also find a few other noteworthy mentions in the comparison table below. Learn more about each provider—just click the links below to visit their websites and/or compare deals amongst providers as well.
Price From All prices listed as per user, per month (billed annually) | Score The overall score obtained from our most recent round of project management software user testing. | Best For | Pros | Cons | ||||
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Best Overall | Best for Small Teams | Best for Visualizing Data | Best for Complex Projects | Best For Integrations | Best For Basic Project Management | Best For Spreadsheet Lovers | Best Value For Money | Cheapest Starter Plan |
4.7 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.0 |
Overall & Easiest to Use | Building automation | Displaying Project Data | Task Management & Collaboration | Integrations | Customer Support | Great Security & Customer Support Options | Value for Money | Cheapest first paid plan and great security features |
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Visit monday.com | Compare Deals | Compare Deals | Compare Deals | Visit Wrike | Compare Deals | Visit Smartsheet | Compare Deals | Visit Zoho |
Test Summary
I’ve tested 9 major project management providers and, although it’s pretty close, monday.com edges out Teamwork to secure top spot. It’s by far the easiest to use, as well as the most suitable for standard project management.
Crucially, monday.com isn’t as cluttered as Wrike, Smartsheet, or Jira, and it has first-class customer support options – I got stuck during one of my platform tests, and within minutes, monday.com’s customer service team walked me through the problem using the live chat function.
However, although monday.com was the easiest to use, Teamwork definitely impressed me. It’s very similar to Asana in its structure but some of the advanced features are easier to get to grips with. It’s a great option if you want speedy, “classic” project management software.
ClickUp on the other hand, with its powerful task management tools and useful “Chat” view, will be the best choice for businesses wanting a central hub for day-to-day work management.

Note: All the images used in this article were taken during Tech.co’s project management user testing series. For more information on how we test project management tools, as well as other products, visit our product research page.
1. monday.com – Best Overall Project Management Software
- Starting price: $9 per user, per month
- Free plan: Yes
One of the better known platforms on the list, monday provides a flexible project management tool that’s incredibly easy to get to grips with thanks to a drag-and-drop functionality, editable columns, and a simple, board-based default layout.
In fact, monday was one of the easiest to use project management tools across our research, with only ClickUp providing a more intuitive interface. However, thanks to the more available and responsive customer support options, monday was able to secure the top spot as the best project management software.
Check out our monday review to learn more

Pros
- Highly customizable platform
- Custom fields feature available on all plans (including the free plan)
- Rule-based automation can be used to complete simple tasks, like archiving items
Cons
- Free plan has 2-person user limit
- Limited third party integrations
- Higher tiers required for basic features
monday.com key features and user experience
monday.com’s simple, modern interface makes it a much easier-to-use software tool than many of its competitors – some of our testing team found both Jira and ClickUp a little overwhelming compared to monday.com due to their raft of features.
“I think the user experience is very intuitive. I just guessed where I thought things would be and they ended up being there, which was great.” – Stephanie Lennox, Tech.co ease of use testing participant.
You’ll be able to master monday.com quickly, even if you’re an inexperienced beginner. If you do need some help though, monday.com offers live chat and email support across all tiers, as well as live chat support.
When I was using monday.com, I found that the information in my main table wasn’t automatically saved in the Gantt chart view when I switched between them. This was because I hadn’t selected the information I wanted to include in my Gantt chart, so I used this as an opportunity to test the software’s live chat function and ask for help.

The Kanban board view in monday.com makes it easy to view and move tasks. Image: Tech.co’s testing process
Impressively, monday.com’s support team sent me a video recording showing me where I was going wrong, shortly after I reported I was having difficulties. It took just minutes to resolve the issue.
There are some downsides though. You might miss some third-party integrations. Both Wrike and Asana have a larger library of apps that they connect to. What’s more, you’ll need at least the Standard plan to integrate with any software at all.
Who is monday.com for?
- Small and medium-sized businesses – monday has a lot of flexible pricing plans, and its free plan makes it very accessible to smaller teams on a budget.
- First-time users – With an easy to use interface and responsive customer support, beginners will be able to get the hang of it quickly.
- Businesses with few other platforms – monday doesn’t offer a large third-party app store compared to other options, so businesses that don’t rely on too many other platforms will be right at home.
What's new with monday?
In a July 2025 update, monday added a new feature called monday magic, which allows users to “describe your workflow in a prompt and get a ready-to-use monday.com solution — no setup, no developers, just instant results that grow with your team.”
monday pricing
For pricing, monday offers three different paid plans that you can choose from, as well as a free forever plan and an enterprise plan with customized pricing for each business. Here’s how much each paid plan costs:
- Basic – $9 per user, per month
- Standard – $12 per user, per month
- Pro – $19 per user, per month
For a more in-depth look at these plans, check out the table below, which matches up each plan on price and features.
Check out our monday pricing guide to learn more
Price (annually) The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually | Users | Projects/Boards | Number of automations | Gantt Chart | Resource management | Time Tracking | ||
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2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
3 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
None | None | 250 actions/month | 25,000 actions/month | 25,000 actions/month | ||||
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2. Teamwork – Best for Small Teams
- Starting price: $10.99 per user, per month
- Free plan: Yes
Teamwork offers a great service and, like monday.com, is particularly strong when it comes to ease of use and security, with two-factor authentication available on all plans aside from its free plan.
Teamwork is pretty good value for money, with robust features and plans that can compete with the likes of Wrike and Asana. What’s more, it has a range of easily accessible tools, meaning that it’s great for task management and workflow creation.
With the wide array of features available on the modestly priced first plan (just $10.99 per user, per month), Teamwork is a great option for small teams that don’t need to keep up with dozens of colleagues.

Pros
- Lots of collaboration tools
- Kanban-style boards and Gantt charts available
- Affordable pricing and solid free option
- Great security options
Cons
- Limited built-in integrations
- Data visualization isn't the easiest
Teamwork key features and user experience
Managing complex tasks is where you’ll find Teamwork particularly useful, regardless of the plan you choose. Task dependencies and sub-tasks are available on plans and will bring some clarity to the most complicated tasks present in your project, while Gantt charts, calendars, and Kanban boards can be used to track project progress.
I (along with others in our testing group) was really impressed by how easy it was to access different features and views in Teamwork. It’s very intuitive, at least compared to a program like Jira.

Users can quickly add team members within Teamwork, using the invitation form. Image: Tech.co’s testing process
During testing, we found it easy to manage budgets – which can be assigned to projects on all plans and to individual tasks on the higher tiers. With other providers, adding budgets is strangely difficult. What’s more, Teamwork also integrates with finance platforms like Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Blinksale, and Harvest.
For 2025, Teamwork now offers some sort of automation capability on all of its plans, including its free plan. There’s a total of 10 categories of automation overall. Personally, I love the automation builder. There were so many good examples for inspiration, but actually just building one yourself by following the instructions, which is what I ended up doing, was pretty straightforward.
Who is Teamwork for?
- Businesses on a budget – Teamwork offers a surprising number of features on its free plan and starting paid plan, so will be an excellent option if you’re on a strict budget.
- Simple, tradition project management – Teamwork isn’t ideal for data-intensive or highly complex projects, but it’s traditional interface is great for small scale operations.
- Client or sales-focused teams – Teamwork built-in billing and invoicing features that can help manage client and sales-focused businesses.
What's new with Teamwork?
In a July 2025 update, Teamwork added a new AI summarization feature that “gives a real-time snapshot of your team’s capacity,” allowing users to “instantly see who’s overbooked, underutilized, or missing assignments, making it easier to balance workloads and plan ahead with confidence.”
Teamwork pricing
Teamwork offers two different pricing plans, as well as a free forever plan and two enterprise-level plans with custom pricing. Here’s how much each plan costs:
- Deliver – $10.99 per user, per month
- Grow – $19.99 per user, per month
- Scale – Custom
To see how all these pricing plans compare, check out the table below that outlines some of the features and highlights the free and enterprise-level plans as well.
Check out our Teamwork pricing guide to learn more
Price (annually) The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually | Users | Projects/Boards | Storage | Number of automations | Kanban Board | Gantt Chart | Custom Chart Builder | Resource management | Time Tracking | ||
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5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
2 | 300 | 600 | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
100 MB | 100 GB | 250 GB | 500 GB | 500GB | |||||||
100/month | 5,000/month | 20,000/month | 50,000/month | 50,000/month | |||||||
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3. Asana – Best for Visualizing Data
- Starting price: $10.99 per user, per month
- Free plan: Yes
Asana is easy to navigate and includes some great features, such as customizable task fields, task dependencies, and a timeline view. Like Teamwork, our testing group was particularly impressed by how easy and useful Asana’s automation builder was – a stark contrast to ClickUp’s, which we found a little clunky.
If you’re working on a data-intensive project, Asana’s clean interface will make it easy to view everything that’s going on. However, it’s by no means the cheapest platform on the market, with more expensive plans than ClickUp, monday.com, Zoho Projects, and Jira.
Check out our Asana review to learn more

Pros
- Unlimited storage
- Plenty of third-party integrations
- Incredible clean and intuitive interface
- Easy to use dashboards and chart builder
Cons
- Most key features require an Advanced plan
- Very high prices for larger teams
- No phone-based support
Asana key features and user experience
Asana offers great data visualization functions – although it’s important to note that data tools and the automation feature are only available on the provider’s paid plans.
It also has a strong app marketplace for integrations, since it offers over 400 apps, covering topics like reporting integrations, finance apps, communications tools, and much more. What’s more, you can track budgets for individual tasks on all plans, which Teamwork will only let you do on its priciest plans.
Although Asana is easy to use, it doesn’t deploy a minimalistic design like monday.com does.
“It kind of felt a little bit cramped to me because there’s a lot of data in there. I didn’t have that much space to scroll.” – Ollie Simpson, Tech.co software researcher

The Asana Advanced plan has portfolios, which can be created and modified easily with prompts to guide users through the process. Source: Tech.co testing
Who is Asana for?
- Data-driven projects – Asana’s excellent dashboard view will make it an attractive option for data-intensive project thanks to its clean, intuitive interface and straightforward automation features.
- Businesses that want to integrate – Asana offers a wide range of third party integrations through its app store, allowing businesses to create an all-in-one hub.
- Multiple teams managing concurrent projects – Asana providers users with a portfolio view that makes it particularly easy for multitasking across teams.
What's new with Asana?
In a May 2025 update, Asana announced the new Smart Workflow Gallery, which is “a suite of prebuilt, AI-powered workflows designed to help your teams get started using AI, successfully.”
Asana pricing
Like Teamwork, Asana offer two different pricing plans, as well as a free plan and two different enterprise-level plans that require you to reach out to the provider to learn how much they cost. Here’s how much the other paid plans cost:
- Starter – $10.99 per user, per month
- Advanced – $24.99 per user, per month
If you want to learn about how all these plans match up, check out the table below to see the features and prices available at each level.
Check out our Asana pricing guide to learn more
Price (annually) The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually | Users | Projects/Boards | Number of automations | Gantt Chart | Resource management | Time Tracking | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TRY IT FOR FREE | ||||||||
10 | 500 | 500 | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
N/A | 250 per month | 25,000 | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
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4. ClickUp – Best for Complex Projects
- Starting price: $7 per user, per month
- Free plan: Yes
ClickUp sees its platform as being far more than a task management dashboard. The company is leaning into the concept of a Work OS, which lets all employees organize their work around a central point rather than use multiple apps fulfilling specific, narrower functions.
This means ClickUp is packed full of features (more on this below), which helps ClickUp to fourth among our best-rated project management software tools. Because of this, you’ll likely have everything for managing big, multifaceted projects at your fingertips.
Check out our ClickUp review to learn more

Pros
- 11+ ways to view project progress and data
- Useful "Chat" view for collaboration
- Team view for organizing tasks by team member
- Cheaper than monday.com & Wrike
- Agile project management features
- Vast number of features, even on cheap plans
Cons
- Customizability can be overwhelming to new users
- Not great at compiling project feedback
- Comparatively clunky automation builder
- Slow to load on our tests
- No 24/7 live support
- Fewer integrations than competitors
ClickUp key features and user experience
ClickUp’s interface hierarchy starts with teams, and includes spaces, projects, lists, and finally, tasks. You’ll find this structure keeps different projects siloed from each other, reducing confusion while staying flexible enough to work in a range of different contexts.
I found ClickUp’s setup options really clear, and during testing, this meant I got going quite quickly compared to competitors like Smartsheet. It excelled when it came to task management and has everything you’ll need to track the progress of both your projects and the tasks within it.
Task dependencies can be used to ensure your project’s critical path is preserved, and sub-tasks are a great way of distinguishing between smaller tasks existing within larger ones.

Hosting an interactive discussion using ClickUp’s online whiteboard. Source: Tech.co testing
ClickUp’s Template Center – which includes a vast range of templates for different industries and businesses – makes it a standout service for workflow creation.
The provider is also great for collaboration, as it provides an advanced online whiteboard and a useful document editing function. There’s even an AI assistant which costs $7 per month per user, and it’s available on all of ClickUp’s paid plans.
ClickUp also offers good data visualization tools, with a chart builder included on all plans. The service proved capable of handling the demands of complex projects during testing.

Building a simple automation was very easy for us in ClickUp. Source: Tech.co testing
Who is ClickUp for?
- Businesses that want one platform – ClickUp is the most feature-rich program we’ve tested and will be a good fit for any team that wants an app or platform to centralize all of their day-to-day operations around.
- Collaborative teams – ClickUp has lots of useful, native collaboration tools and a myriad of project views for interacting with coworkers.
- Beginners – ClickUp features a helpful setup process, so those just starting out will get all the help they need with all the features and functionalities.
What's new with ClickUp?
In a July 2025 update, ClickUp added new AI image generation capabilities to the platform, allowing users to “instantly create high-quality visuals right in ClickUp with GPT-4o-powered image generation.”
ClickUp pricing
We’re starting to see a trend here! ClickUp pricing is similar to Teamwork and Asana in that it offers two paid plans, as well as a free plan and an enterprise-level plan with custom pricing. Here’s how the paid plans compare:
- Unlimited – $7 per user, per month
- Business – $12 per user, per month
Learn more about each plan available from ClickUp in the table below, comparing everything from support and features to price and functionality.
Check out our ClickUp pricing guide to learn more
Price (annually) The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually | Users | Projects/Boards | Number of automations | Gantt Chart | Resource management | Time Tracking | ||
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TRY IT FOR FREE | BEST FOR SMALL TEAMS | |||||||
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||
5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||
100/month | 1,000/month | 10,000/month | 250,000 automations/month | |||||
60 uses per project | | | | |||||
60 uses per project | 100 uses per project | | | |||||
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5. Wrike – Best for Integrations
- Starting price: $10 per user, per month
- Free plan: Yes
Wrike has an outstanding selection of third-party apps, so if you’re wedded to the apps you currently use, you’re more likely to find Wrike seamlessly fits into your existing tech stack than the likes of ClickUp.
Large businesses in particular will enjoy the fact that it integrates with big names like Tableau, Quickbooks, Teams, Zoom, Slack, RingCentral, Salesforce, HubSpot, Oracle, Xero, MailChimp, Sage, LinkedIn, and many more. Wrike also has two enterprise-focused plans to choose from, whereas most providers offer one.
Check out our Wrike vs Asana guide to learn more

Pros
- No-nonsense, robust feature catalog
- Lots of customizability
- Strong task management and data tools
- Huge integrations library
Cons
- Not entirely easy to use
- Difficult to use automation builder
- Not the best for collaboration
Wrike key features and user experience
Features in Wrike’s plans include task dependencies, Gantt charts, customizable calendars, and a Document Editor that tracks edit histories. Plus, at higher-paying tiers, a time-tracking feature. This is perfect for managing the complex, multi-stage tasks usually present in projects being delivered by big teams or companies.
It might not be quite as versatile as some of the other software on this list, but it’s straightforward and won’t take you too long to get to grips with, even if your goals are complex.
For example, Wrike users can use the spreadsheet-style view called a ‘Table” to make project amendments easily. Users just have to update the spreadsheet and won’t need to dive into different menus to reallocate tasks or make timeframe changes.

There were a lot of views for our team to choose from with Wrike. Source: Tech.co testing
Who is Wrike for?
- Medium-sized to large businesses – Wrike offers a huge range of integrations with other applications, so if you have multiple teams all running different apps, Wrike will work great.
- Businesses with security needs – Wrike offers enterprise-grade security across all plans, even the free one, so you can keep customer and employee data secure.
- Businesses with plenty of capital – While Wrike does have a free plan, it’s the least functionality of all the others on this list, so a paid plan will definitely be the way to go.
What's new with Wrike?
In a July 2025 update, Wrike added a new AI Highlights tool , which is “a powerful new feature that provides a real-time overview of your dashboard with AI-generated highlights and insightful data points.”
Wrike pricing
And we’ve got another one, with Wrike pricing offers two different paid plans, a free plan, and two enterprise-level plans that you’ll have to contact the sales team to learn how much you’ll actually pay. Here’s how they compare on price:
- Team – $10 per user, per month
- Business – $25 per user, per month
The table below will outline some of the differences between the Wrike pricing plans, including how much they cost and what they can do.
Check out our Wrike pricing guide to learn more
Price (annually) The amount you'll pay per month, when billed annually | Users | Projects/Boards | Number of automations | Gantt Chart | Resource management | Time Tracking | ||
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TRY FREE | ||||||||
Unlimited | 2 – 15 | 5-200 | 5-Unlimited | 5-Unlimited | ||||
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||
N/A | 50 automations/user/month | 200 automations/user/month | 1000 automations/user/month | 1500 automations/user/month | ||||
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How to Choose Project Management Software for Your Business
Choosing a new software to install at your business can be daunting. The added costs, training, and the over-arching feeling of dreaded “change” is enough to induce sweat on the spot. Fortunately, we can help you make the right decision when it comes to project management software, to ensure a certain return on your investment and happier, more efficient staff.
Below, we’ll go over some criteria you should consider when it comes to choosing the right project management software for your business. Once you’ve chosen, you might want to take a glance at our general project management tips, too.
- Company size – The right project management software for your business will not only have tools for now, but will also be able to scale to how big you want your company to get.
- Budget – Cost is always a factor. Luckily, most project management tools have multiple plans, including free options, that should fit your particular needs.
- Organizational style – Some providers lean on tools like Kanban boards, while others focus on simple calendar features. Make sure you know which one you want before you commit.
- Security needs – If you deal with a lot of customer and employee data, you’ll want to be sure your project management software offers robust security protocols.
- Integrations – If you want to turn your platform into an all-in-one hub, check to see how large the third-party app library is for integrating with other software.
Check out our project management trends guide to learn more
At Tech.co we don’t write about products and services without conducting thorough research, and hands-on testing where applicable. While this process can be time-consuming, it’s time well spent if it means we’re providing better, more useful information for your business.
When it comes to project management software, test out each project management software first-hand, guided by an in-house research framework consisting of six core assessment areas that break down into a range of smaller subcategories. This framework is based on the factors companies and project managers have told us are important to their every day usage. The six criteria are:
- Ease of Use: After getting five to six participants to test each project management software for an hour, we assessed how easy it was to set up a project with the platforms, how clear their interface was, and how easy they were to navigate.
- Pricing: We look at all plan costs. Providers offering lots of features for lower costs will have better pricing scores than those that lock them away on higher-tier plans.
- Customer Support: We assess the ways you can contact your project management software provider if something goes wrong. Providers offering 24/7 live support, as well as phone-based support and onboarding assistance, get the best scores.
- Security: For this area, we assess the security options offered by each provider. This includes user-level security features like 2-factor authentication as well as more administrative security measures like user permissions and IP restrictions.
- Integrations: We assess the quantity – and the quality – of the applications each project management software provider integrates with.
- Functionality: This part of our research involves assessing the full feature set that each product provides. We look at 4 function-based sub-categories as part of this, including task management, project & workflow creation, data visualization, and collaboration.
It’s important to note that not all of these criteria hold equal weight in our testing methodology. This is best practice, and based on what businesses have told us is essential, compared to what’s simply “nice to have”. Because of their central importance to project management, how easy each tool is to use, how much it costs, features for project & workflow creation, and task management had more of an impact on the overall than other criteria.
Verdict: What Is the Best Project Management Software?
All things considered, monday.com is the best project management software tool we’ve tested. You’ll find it easier to use than the other tools featured in this list, thanks to a tidy interface and a quick setup process that requires minimal menu-diving. There are also lots of customer support options available, including 24/7 live support and a live chat function.
monday.com’s five plans have something for everyone – solo users will find the free tier more than sufficient, while small businesses will appreciate how easy it is to track the progress of projects thanks to the task management and data display tools on offer. As a general-use project management tool that isn’t geared to a specific industry like Jira is, monday.com can be applied across industries and sectors.
However, you’ll find Teamwork highly capable when it comes to tracking budgets, and the software also performed well on our ease of use tests.
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