Best Project Management Software for 2023

Project management software can help businesses of all sizes run smoothly. You may find cloud-based project management tools made with you in mind, whether you're an individual or small business wanting to keep track of a few projects, a huge organization with a project portfolio to match, or everything in between. To get you started, many offer free plans with few features; almost all of these work on a monthly subscription basis. After that, there are nearly as many pricing options as feature options, but most businesses can choose a solution that fits their budget.

Project management software does planning, allocating tasks, and keeping teams organized to meet deadlines and goals quickly. Unfortunately, today's market is flooded with project management systems, making choosing the best one for your needs challenging. To help you, we've narrowed the field to the top project management solutions for 2023 based on factors including cost, functional, and customer support.

What is Project Management Software?

Project management software is a digital tool that allows teams, individuals, and small organizations to monitor projects at every level. These software programs allow users to add notes and deadlines, measure progress, and make revisions while working remotely and collaboratively on a project. Several software solutions include organizational advice, email integration, and search capabilities. Companies that use the right project management benefit by delivering projects that provide the expected results within cost and on time.

Project Management Software Features

Most projects require the fundamental characteristics of project management software to be effective. Yet, specific software options are superior for particular teams or enterprises due to additional or distinctive capabilities. Therefore, it's crucial to conduct a study to determine what unique characteristics, depending on your team's methodology, type of business, or type of project, might increase the success of your endeavor. Among the most popular project management features and tools are:

Resource management tools

You may plan, track, and document where resources—like your talent—are employed during the project's execution using resource utilization tools. By doing this, it is possible to identify availability gaps or instances where a team member is being overworked and at risk of burnout and then change resource allocation to address these issues.

Budget planning tools

Using tools for budget planning, you can upload your predetermined budget, track spending and invoices, and then compare project costs to the budgeted amount. Monitoring this variance can determine if you have a budgetary issue. Using financial forecasting tools will also assist you in staying within budget and, worse, having to abandon the project due to a lack of funding.

Task management features

Automations are among the task management elements (that eliminate redundant tasks from to-do lists). Examples include monitoring project workflows, identifying fundamental project changes, and automating billing. Boards (to depict moving tasks through their phases to completion), calendars, timeline views, scheduling, task tracking, and task prioritization are other task management tools.

Reports and charts

Digital charts are provided by project management software for planning, monitoring, and, as necessary, modifying your projects' timeframes, costs, and quality. Kanban diagrams, for instance, display tasks and their status on a timeline board. The timeline of a project, including all of its phases, tasks, and outputs, is also depicted in Gantt charts. These charts can be filled with data or fed with information to update in real-time.

Risk management features

Typical project risks include going over budget, producing work of lesser quality than anticipated, or failing to complete on schedule. However, you can balance opposing demands to complete the project as planned by using various tools found in project management software, such as critical path diagrams, checklists, scheduling tools, cost breakdowns, cost variance reports, and timetables.

Mobile app

Mobile apps make it simple for teams to track, manage, and deliver project deliverables from any location, ensuring everyone is always informed, no matter where they are. Using real-time knowledge, they can make wise judgments that keep projects progressing as planned. Also, apps provide customized material so team members know the daily responsibilities, obligations, and deadlines.

Client management tools

Several project management tools provide a variety of features for keeping your clients informed about the project's progress, involving them in its execution, and preserving your professional connection. These technologies include adding clients as users to the project management software while controlling what they can and cannot see invoicing and video conferencing facilities.

Demos and team feedback

Even though project management software has all the necessary functionality, it may not operate as well as it could if your team isn't at ease using it. As they can be tested by your team using demos, many software applications allow you to use them in actual projects. From there, you can gather input from the group to determine whether the program suits your team and its requirements.

Best Project Management Software

Here is the best project management software in 2023, based on pricing, features, customer support, and more. You’ll also find a link to the full review accompanying each overview.

Monday.com

Monday.com is a customizable platform built to adapt to your way of working. Streamline and speed up workflows with no-code automation, centralize work by integrating your favorite apps, and collaborate in the context in real time. monday.com is the intuitive project management platform that helps keep your projects and teams organized and on track so that you can reach bigger goals.

Join over 152,000 customers who plan, manage, and track projects smarter with Monday. com. It is best for many big, small, and cross-functional teams in various industries worldwide. Its intuitive interface and customization capabilities suit any project and business.

Trello

Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in process. All your projects, tasks, and team are organized, accounted for, and easily visible. New users instantly understand the list and card metaphor and can be working on Trello within minutes. Trello is best for teams of all sizes, creators and doers, and those who take dreams to do. Trusted by millions, Trello powers teams all around the world.

Wrike

Tackle complex projects with Wrike's award-winning project management software. Break projects into simple steps, assign tasks to team members, and visualize progress with Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and calendars. Manage resource allocation and forecasting with software that's easy to launch. Automation and AI features strip away time-consuming admin tasks so you can do your life's best work. Streamline your practices, align your team, and ensure you hit deadlines and stay on budget. Wrike is a perfect fit for Mid-sized and Enterprise companies that embrace teamwork and run multiple projects, & clients.

ClickUp

ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity platform that eliminates work silos. It's the hub where teams plan, organize, and collaborate on work using tasks, Docs, Chat, Goals, Whiteboards, and more.  Easily customized with just a few clicks, ClickUp helps teams of all types and sizes deliver work more effectively. In addition, by replacing inflexible and overlapping tools, ClickUp allows teams to save one day each week! ClickUp is best for teams that want to work smarter and more efficiently on a masterfully intuitive platform.

Airtable

Airtable is an all-in-one collaboration platform that combines the flexibility of a spreadsheet interface with rich features like file attachments, kanban card stacks, calendars, and reporting. Airtable is best for small businesses and teams within larger organizations.

Notion

Notion is the only project management software that connects your notes, projects, and wiki in one tool. As a result, tens of thousands of teams and companies worldwide use it to keep their employees informed and working together in one place. By bringing all work and knowledge together and making it highly customizable, Notion creates focus and transparency while consolidating tools, saving time, and driving more productivity for teams of all sizes. Notion is a tool for teams and companies that want better to manage knowledge, projects, documents, and collaboration. Individuals can also use the product for notes and organizing their lives.

How to Choose the Best Project Management Software

When choosing a project management software, consider the price and additional costs charged by each provider, the overall features and functionality available, reporting, integration capabilities, the balance between necessary features and feature overload, customer reviews, and customer support.

Some factors to consider when choosing inclusions for the best project management software include:

General features and functionality

You should consider the software's capacity to provide fundamental project management tools (such as Gantt charts and Kanban boards) and tailor the project management experience to your business's requirements, including via integrations or automation tools. Also, look into the platform's availability of a mobile app. 20% of a product's overall score is attributed to general features.

Cost and fees

Small businesses need to be always cost-conscious. Therefore, you should search for project management software priced at less than $8 per person monthly. Businesses that offered free versions received extra credit. Price makes up 20% of the final score.

Expert score

Any team member can learn to use good project management software with minimal tech training. The software options on this list offer tools to keep the learning curve manageable, such as pre-built templates.

Customer support

Nothing is more insightful when evaluating an option than what users of the option have to say. Therefore, always select a project management software solution with an average rating of 3.5 stars from their user communities.

Additional features

To further flesh out the scoring, look for functionality that goes above and beyond generic project management software. For example, consider tools for client access, invoicing functionality, and budget tracking.

FAQs

Furthermore, here are some of the most frequently asked questions about project management software.

How much do project management software tools cost?

Tools for project management software range from simple versions to more intricate arrangements with integrated integration and search capabilities. There are premium and free versions of software products, and some of them allow monthly paid subscriptions. Depending on how many people you have and what exact services you require, budget between $10 and $99 per month.

Why is project management important?

Since it enables you to finish projects successfully and achieve goals for both yourself and your clients, project management is crucial in business. However, even the most seasoned project manager finds it challenging to manage a multidimensional project where many people are responsible for delivering deliverables, keeping everyone organized, and ensuring the output meets expectations while under the pressure of a deadline. By using project management best practices, these difficulties are made more manageable.

What is the best project management software for small businesses?

A company's needs and budget should be considered while selecting the best project management software. Yet, because of its wide range of features, affordable price, and readily accessible free edition, Monday.com is a very well-liked project management tool among small enterprises.

Is project management software secure?

The top project management software solutions offer a variety of security settings, like other software kinds. You should look for security features like two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), documentation demonstrating regular security updates and patches, intrusion detection, tracking user activity, data encryption, and privacy protection when selecting this kind of software.