My Japanese boss often says, “Don’t waste time,” when showing his disgruntled towards his staff.
Wasting Time are words that are often spoken. Well, Time is a very expensive thing. Time cannot return.
For a project worth trillions of 3 to 5 years, losing one day means that you have increased the cost of extending the project, which value can reach hundreds to millions or more of USD.
With the extension of the project time, you will need to increase project operational costs, including the extension of labor contracts, an extension of office rental costs, an extension of warehouse rental costs, equipment, machinery, risk of price increases up front, and other unexpected costs that may occur in front of.
The project owner attempts many things to reduce the impact of the risk of additional Time in terms of project work.
This includes making a schedule as detailed and accurate as possible, recruiting people with the best skills, renting or buying tools that can increase work performance or efficiency, and carrying out efficient coordination and other efforts.
On this occasion, we will discuss the tools that can help coordinate work more easily and increase the project team’s overall work performance so that the project completion target can be achieved on Time.
What is Project Management Tool
Project management tools can improve project teams’ ability to communicate and collaborate, display activities data and activities’ running duration, and integrate work data, including communication messages between team members and integrated files (soft files) for managing overall team collaboration.
Usually, this tool also has a feature to display graphs in the form of bar charts, histogram diagrams, and additional features to manage work using the latest project management methods such as Kanban, Schrum, etc.
Another feature that is characteristic of project management tools is their ability to integrate with other software or tools as an option for the completeness of needs.
Some of the tools included in the above categories are Monday.com, Asana, JIRA, Trello, GanttPro, etc.
Of all the tools above, none of them have the same features. Each tool has advantages and disadvantages in terms of completeness of features and price. You should be able to determine which one best suits the needs of your project.
The problem is which of the several project management tools best suits your needs?
Let’s discuss them one by one:
What Are Some Project Management Tool Features?
Project management tools can include the following features:
Planning/scheduling: Project management tools allow you to plan and delegate work in one place with tasks, subtasks, folders, templates, workflows, and calendars.
Collaboration (integration): Email should not be your only form of communication — with project management tools, you can build a better way of working with your team: assign tasks, add comments, organize dashboards, and proof or approve changes.
Documentation: Avoid missing or outdated files with file management features that allow for editing, versioning, and storing files.
Evaluation: Track and assess productivity and growth through resource management and reporting.
26 Best Project Management Tools for 2022
The project management tools we recommend here start with chat apps for your office or company, project management apps for managing tasks, and communication apps for collaborating.
Here is our recommended project management software:
1. Slack
Slack, is one of the best project management tools.
Rating: 4.7/5
Notable features: built-in audio and video calls, integration with other apps
Best suited for: teams and businesses of all sizes
Slack is one of the most widely used project management tools to support communication within a company or within a team.
In addition to having an instant messaging feature, this application also allows you to set the channel of the team or project you are working on into a public channel (which can be accessed by all members) or private (accessed only by certain members).
You can also pin messages or chats on your channel to store important information in an easily accessible place.
With Slack, you can share your computer’s images, documents, and video files or Google Drive. You can also contact colleagues via audio and video calls and make presentations using the screen-sharing feature.
To optimize your workflow, the app integrates with over 2,200 apps, including Zapier, Dropbox, and Google Calendar.
Slack offers a free plan with limited features for small companies. For larger teams, premium plans start at $6.67/month per active user.
2. Monday
One of the best project management tools is Monday.com which can be accessed entirely online, allowing users to plan, organize and track projects in one place.
Rating: 4.5/5
Monday.com is a collaborative project management software, and in my opinion, this is one of its strengths of this software. So you can quickly share files, comment on existing projects, and even tag team members, especially those working on specific tasks.
Unlike many competitors, monday.com is an online project management software that can be fully customized to suit your business needs. Monday.com also provides different color coordination for all tasks, both tasks that are in progress (on progress) and elements of tasks that have been completed. This color coordination aims to give an overall picture of what has been done and what still needs to be done.
The price offered is also very attractive because it depends on the number of users in one account. Another good news is that Monday.com also provides a 14-day free trial for those who are curious and want to try it before deciding to subscribe.
3. Zoom
Zoom is one of the best project meeting apps.
Rating: 4.6/5
Important features: screen sharing, chat on call
Best suited for: teams of all sizes
Zoom is a video conferencing platform that is really on the rise. This application provides several collaboration tools, such as meetings, telephones, webinars, and video conferencing.
The platform guarantees user privacy with a code added to the meeting. A waiting room feature also allows meeting organizers to receive participants when the session starts.
The free plan limits call to 100 participants for 40 minutes. To increase the duration and list of participants, you will need to upgrade to the premium plan, starting at $149.90/year.
4. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is one of the best project meeting apps.
Rating: 4.4/5
Key features: real-time collaboration
Best suited for small and medium businesses
Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration app that lets you make video calls, chat, and edit files together, all from one place.
With the free package of this application, you can make video calls for 60 minutes with a maximum of 100 participants. In addition, Microsoft Teams also offers meeting scheduling, background change, and screen sharing for presentations.
Microsoft Teams provides 10 GB of storage space for teams and 2 GB per chat.
You will need to upgrade to a premium plan to record meetings and increase storage space. Pricing for this plan starts at $5/month per user.
5. TypeTalk
Typetalk is the best project meeting app.
Notable features: integration with Nulab apps.
Best suited for small and medium-sized teams.
TypeTalk is a team chat app that integrates with other productivity apps from the Nulab network.
This application can be used in conjunction with Cacoo, a cloud-based diagramming application, and Backlog, a project management application. So you can get Cacoo and Backlog notifications, discuss Cacoo diagrams, and create Backlog issues in TypeTalk.
In addition, TypeTalk offers an open API and Webhook for automation and integration with other software. However, you need to do advanced customization for the function to work.
The free version of this project management app limits the number of users to 10, with 1 GB of storage space. The premium version starts at $10/month for five users and offers 50 GB of storage space.
This app is available for Android and iOS mobile devices and Windows & Mac computers.
6. Flock
Rating: 4.5/5
Important features: collaboration and public messaging channel.
Best suited for small and medium teams.
Flock is an online chat application and team collaboration tool that provides unlimited 1:1 private and group chat messages.
In addition, the app allows your team to create up to 10 public messaging channels.
Flock also has a video conferencing feature built-in, but if you’re on the free plan, it’s only available for 1:1 calls.
You will need to purchase the premium plan if your team has more than 20 members or needs more collaboration features. Flock Pro is available for $4.50/month per user.
7. Trello
Trello is the best project management app.
Rating: 4.5/5.
Important features: User-friendly UI, task automation.
Best suited for: visual project management.
As a project management application and collaboration tool, Trello is one of the best solutions. The system itself is based on a list of task cards placed aboard. Its drag-and-drop feature makes managing tasks easier.
You can invite coworkers to access the board via their username or email or by providing an invite link. There are several options for setting board access permissions – private, team, organization, and public. You can also change the Trello board background and color.
Trello cards can be assigned to team members, labeled, and have checklists, deadlines, and attachments. Even cooler, you can also add power-ups or add-ons, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack, and others.
With the free version of Trello, project managers can create up to 10 boards and automate 50 processes per month.
You can purchase the premium plan for $10/month per user to access additional tools. Trello also offers mobile apps for iOS and Android.
8. DashClicks
DashClicks’ Projects app is by far the best white-label project management app.
Rating: 4.6/5
Notable Features: Automated project creation and onboarding documentation.
Best suited for agencies.
DashClicks’ Projects app is a best-in-class digital marketing project management software that allows for easy, automated project creation. The white label project management app lets you seamlessly manage your projects, customers, teams, and more.
You can view analytics associated with all of your client’s marketing campaigns within a single dashboard. You can also view, manage, and edit your client’s website.
Apart from this, the software allows you to easily upload and manage files for your client’s projects, and view form invite submissions completed by your clients.
The free plan offers unlimited projects and 2 team member seats. Priced plans start from $97/month.
9. GanttPro
GanttPro is one of the best project management software solutions based on Gantt charts.
Rating: 4.7/5.
It allows you to plan and manage projects online, visualize processes, create and assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and see the percentage of individual tasks completed within the expected deadline.
You can share the Gantt chart you’ve created with your team and clients, granting special users permission to view or edit it.
In GanttPRO, you can switch to a table view where each task is presented as a card in the relevant column. The Gantt chart tool allows you to choose the most convenient way to work on your project.
In GanttPRO project management software, it is easy to reallocate team members according to their workload and keep them motivated by assigning meaningful tasks.
10. Asana
Asana is the best project management app.
Rating: 4.4/5.
Important features: automation and display options.
Best suited for project collaboration.
Asana is one of the most widely used project management applications for collaboration and collaboration. This tool comes in a visually appealing interface and is available in a premium but free version. There is also a drag-and-drop feature to make your work easier.
To visualize the progress of projects and teams, you can choose from six options: board, list, timeline, progress, forms, and calendar, which help sort data quickly and identify potential issues.
With Asana, you can create automated rules to optimize your company’s task management processes. You can also create standard checklists, for example for employee orientation and event planning.
The free plan does not limit the number of projects, but members are limited to 15 people. If you have more employees, you should purchase a premium plan starting at $10.99/month per user.
11. Wrike
Wrike is one of the best project management apps.
Rating: 4.2/5.
Notable features: cloud storage integration.
Best suited for real-time collaboration.
Wrike is a project management application that provides Kanban board views and real-time activity updates.
The board provided by this application allows you to use drag-and-drop to simplify the task management process. Wrike also uses cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, ensuring your data is always kept safe.
The free version allows up to 5 users and comes with 2 GB of storage space. To collaborate with more employees and access more tools, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan, starting at $9.80/month per user.
12. JIRA
JIRA is one of the best software project management apps.
Rating: 4.3/5.
JIRA is still the best choice if you are looking for a powerful standalone project management solution, especially for software development.
This well-known project management tool developed by Atlassian contains various features to help you manage projects easily.
Initially, Jira was created for programmers to manage software projects, but since then, it has grown into an organizational tool that optimizes productivity & workflow for every unit in the company.
JIRA is a highly customizable centralized project management system. Each project goes to a central database, and each project goes through a specific workflow. These workflows or workflows will help control the state of the project along with the rules involved in transitioning from one state to another.
According to a 2017 Gartner report, JIRA is one of the best project management tools available. The unit said, “As a leader, you should consider using JIRA as a solution to operate conventional projects and agile software development projects (also known as Agile).
- The Agile methodology is built within JIRA. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a framework for developing software that works according to the following four principles:
- Personal input & interaction on processes & tools.
- The software works better than overview documents.
- Collaborating with clients is more valuable than negotiating contracts.
- Responding to change is more critical than going according to plan.
13. Airtable
Rating: 4.7/5
Important features: User-friendly UI
Best suited for: database management
Airtable is an online database platform designed to create and store data using an easy-to-use interface.
This platform allows you to create and manage information about your employees, inventory, product database, and more.
In addition, you can easily link data and sort it as you wish, and then present it in the calendar, Kanban, gallery, or spreadsheet view grid models.
Airtable’s free plan lets you store an unlimited number of databases, with 2 GB of file storage space and 1,200 records per database. The premium plan price starts at $10/month per user.
14. Zapier
Rating: 4.7/5
Important features: easy to use, compatible with other software/applications
Best suited for process automation.
Zapier lets you automate repetitive tasks between two or more apps without relying on coding or hiring a developer.
It is very easy to create an automated process called a Zap. Just specify what event will trigger the process and what task should be done next.
For example, when you receive an email that includes an additional attachment, Zapier will automatically download the file to your Dropbox account. You can also integrate it with Trello or Slack.
This productivity app’s free plan lets you create 5 single-step Zaps, with a limit of 100 tasks per month. Now, what is meant by single-step is when one workflow will interact with a maximum of two applications.
If you need multi-step integration and more Zaps or additional monthly tasks, try the premium plan starting at $19.99/month.
15. ClickUp
ClickUp is the best productivity app.
Rating: 4.7/5.
Important features: Easy import feature.
Best suited for: Progress and productivity monitoring.
ClickUp is a complete project management application. The software offers more than 100 project management features, such as task and time management, team collaboration, and reporting.
The UI is very intuitive, and you can reorder tasks by drag-and-dropping items according to their priority.
If you’re already using other productivity apps like Wrike, Trello, Asana, or even Microsoft Excel, you can easily import your tasks into ClickUp.
ClickUp’s free plan limits many of its built-in tools to 100 uses.
You must use the paid version to access all project management features and increase usage limits, starting at $5/month per user.
16. Redbooth
Redbooth is the best productivity app.
Rating: 4.4/5.
Important features: Gantt chart with drag-and-drop functionality.
Best suited for: improving workflow.
Redbooth is a collaboration app for communicating with team members and organizing and visualizing tasks in one place.
The Kanban board feature provides an intuitive UI, so you can easily organize, tag, and assign tasks to employees.
Plus, you can sort tasks quickly, save time, and use better communication flows with coworkers.
The Gantt chart feature provided by Redbooth will help you create and visualize a timeline.
You can also create task dependencies in the premium version of Redbooth to know which tasks to prioritize to avoid bottlenecks.
The free version provides 2 GB of storage space and two users. However, the other features are also quite limited.
To access additional features and use Redbooth for larger projects, you will need to purchase one of the premium versions, priced at $9/month per user.
17. Miro
Miro is the best productivity app.
Rating: 4.7/5.
Key features: real-time collaboration.
Best suited for: brainstorming and planning.
Miro is an online whiteboard app for developing ideas and creating business strategies with your team.
All team members can write, draw, and edit one online whiteboard at the same time. This app lets you see what your coworkers are doing and communicate with them via chat and comments.
The free version of Miro offers three editable boards, allows an unlimited number of users, and core integration with apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Dropbox.
To use even more features, you can try the premium plans which are available starting at $8/month per user.
18. Filestage
Filestage is the best productivity app.
Rating: 4.8/5.
Important features: compatibility with multiple file types.
Best suited for: reviewing projects.
Filestage is an online project management tool for collaboration, which lets you share files and invite others to review them.
This project management application can be used for document, design, audio, and video files. You just need to send them your work link.
Plus, your coworkers can leave comments anywhere in a file, so you can clearly see what needs to be addressed. In fact, your co-workers or collaborators don’t even need to be logged in.
If you need a platform that allows clients to review and provide feedback on your files without the hassle, Filestage is the right choice among the many project management tools available.
Filestage is available starting at $89/month for up to 10 team members.
19. Loops
Loop is the best collaboration tool.
Rating: 4.6/5.
Key features: shared inbox, email tasks.
Best suited for customer service.
Loop is a collaboration tool for email. Applications included in this project management tool address email chain issues that may occur in large teams by providing a shared inbox.
Shared inboxes allow everyone to see incoming emails and reply to them in a coordinated manner. Your team members don’t need to forward or copy messages.
This project management app is especially useful for teams that handle customer email. With this app, all team members can view messages and assign colleagues to handle them right away.
Loop offers a 14-day free trial if you sign up for the premium plan, starting at $10/month per user.
20. Dropbox
Dropbox is the best collaboration tool.
Rating: 4.5/5.
Important features: file preview, link sharing.
Best suited for: file sharing with employees and clients.
Dropbox is a file-sharing platform that lets you access your documents online from any device.
To share a file, simply send the URL link to which the file has been prepared. Recipients don’t have to have a Dropbox account to access files shared with them. So it’s much easier to send documents to your team members or clients so they can review them.
In addition, Dropbox also offers previews for more than 175 file types, so users don’t need software or add-ons to view and leave comments.
If you need up to 2 GB of storage space, you can use Dropbox for free with a Dropbox Basic account. For other storage space options, the Dropbox Professional plan starts at $9.99/month.
21. Google Workspace
Google Workspace is the best collaboration tool.
Rating: 4.7/5.
Key features: integrated calendar and communication tools.
Best suited for: increasing productivity.
Google Workshop offers a comprehensive set of collaboration tools to increase the efficiency of your business workflow.
Previously, Google Workspace was G Suite, a product suite that included Gmail, Google Drive, Google Meet, Google Calendar, and more.
Collaboration tools like Google Docs, Sheets and Slides allow you and your team to work on a single document together.
The basic project management tools package is priced at $6/month per user and provides 30 GB of storage space on Google Drive and video conferencing features for up to 100 participants.
22. Samepage
Samepage is the best collaboration tool.
Rating: 4.8/5.
Key features: collaboration tools with various features.
Best suited for project management and team communication.
Samepage is a project management tool in the form of a collaboration application that integrates team communication, project management, meetings, and real-time document collaboration on one platform. So, you no longer need to use multiple apps and go back and forth between them.
This project management app also uses Kanban boards for task management. You can monitor project progress, and set tasks and deadlines so that no tasks are left behind.
With Samepage, you can create and edit meeting agendas for video conferencing. You can also manage tasks and projects in real-time with all conference participants.
The free version of Samepage comes with 2 GB of storage space and a number of important features, such as task management and document collaboration. Its premium plan, which is available at prices starting at $7.50/month per license, provides an additional 1 TB of storage.
23. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is the best collaboration tool.
Rating: 4.4/5.
Key features: spreadsheet templates, and great flexibility.
Best suited for spreadsheet-based project management.
Smartsheet is an online project management tool that makes it easy for you to plan, monitor, and report on your company’s tasks.
This productivity app lets you create Gantt charts or HR management spreadsheets to manage projects. Apart from that, you can also create Kanban boards to monitor tasks, progress, and assign team members.
To get your work started quickly, Smartsheet provides hundreds of templates designed for various industries. Then, you can also change and modify the template to better suit business needs.
Smartsheet provides a 30-day free trial. Once it expires, you’ll have to choose one of the paid versions, with prices starting at $14/month.
24. Pastel
Pastel-as-best-collaboration-tools.
Rating: 4.5/5.
Important features: easy website import feature, unlimited number of reviewers.
Best suited for client collaboration.
Pastel is an online platform that allows web designers and clients to easily collaborate with each other around web development.
Users can add their website projects, for example, a project to create a website, then copy the URL to a workspace called “canvas”. To invite coworkers or clients, simply send them an email invitation.
Once clients and collaborators open the canvas, they can leave comments or approve projects. So, the collaboration process can be more efficient without unnecessary communication.
With the free Pastel plan, you can get an unlimited canvas and guest reviewers, but only three days are left to leave comments.
Premium plans are available starting at $19/month.
25. Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is a free project management app.
Rating: 4.3/5.
Notable features: file-sharing, cross-platform availability
Best suited for: teams of 10 people.
You can use this one if you are looking for a free or free project management application.
Google Hangouts is a messaging platform and voice and video calling. You can use these project management tools easily, and this app is also available for Android, iOS, and Google Chrome.
Users can have private conversations in group chat rooms and attach files to the conversation.
The desktop version of this project management app allows video conferencing for up to 10 people. So, if you are looking for a free project management software app for small teams, Google Hangouts is one of the best options.
26. Spacetime
Spacetime is a free project management application.
Important features: premium features available for free, integration with Slack
Best suited for a remote team.
Spacetime is a productivity app designed for companies whose employees are spread across the globe.
This app brings together all your team members and displays their current time zone, saving you time when you have to find a meeting time slot that suits everyone.
Spacetime is also integrated with Slack, which will display the time zones of your team members directly in the app.
Google Calendar integration is available with the premium version of Spacetime at $24/month.
However, the premium version of Spacetime is currently available for free.
