12 Best Project Management Software for Small Teams

Many growing teams struggle to juggle an ever-expanding list of projects. The best project management software for small teams helps you move on from robust spreadsheets and organize all your projects in one place.

With these tools, you can streamline workflows, improve communication, and budget your resources with the right project management app.

From freelancers to Fortune 500 companies, teams of all sizes need help managing their tasks and to-do lists. Inexpensive project management tools can help you automate task management processes without breaking the bank.

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Criteria for selecting the best project management solutions for small businesses

What makes a good project management software for a small business? To answer that question, there are several factors to consider.

For some teams, it might be the cheapest option. For others, it’s the one that enables the most seamless file sharing. It could even come down to the available integrations.  

At Hubstaff, we like to think of ourselves as experts on project management software. If you’re still not sure what your team needs from a project management tool, we can help. 

We’ve selected the most important features and criteria and used that to create this list of project management options. Here’s what we came up with:

• Price: Pricing matters when choosing a project management software — especially for a small team. Often, paid plans will charge per seat. Each team member utilizing the platform will need a seat.
• Free trial: If your software isn’t free, ensure it has a free version or trial. You can try premium features before committing to a paid plan.
• Scalability: Premium plans often have more advanced features like unlimited projects, users, and storage. These might not be necessary for your small team now, but the ability to scale the platform is essential as your team grows. 
• User experience: Functionality is crucial when picking your project management software. Your team will resist using the tool if it has a steep learning curve. We’ve included some user reviews to get you started on your UI research. 
• Integrations: Integrating with platforms like Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, Jira, or Basecamp can save time and help automate your workflows. Tools like Zapier can help you integrate your most-used platforms with your project management software.
• Customization: An agile, customizable workspace enables teams to create a project management system that works for them. 
• Templates: Custom and reusable project templates can save your team time and automate the process of setting up a new project. 
• Collaboration: You’ll need collaboration features to help with file sharing, updates, permissions, and project planning. 

12 top project management software for small teams

Let’s look at our top picks for project management software. Keep the criteria listed above in mind, but also take note of any other features that could help your team.

1. Hubstaff Tasks

Pricing

• Free Plan: Hubstaff Tasks is free for up to 5 users
• Premium Plan: $5 per user/month for unlimited users 

Key features

Hubstaff Tasks is a project management software with time tracking, managing projects, and collaborating on tasks. 

Kanban or Gantt-style boards can maximize your project planning. Or, try a Timeline view to visualize the order of tasks in a project. Use this information to ensure tasks and projects are on track. 

You can also plot out your project Roadmaps and empower your team to tackle shared goals. With Roadmaps, your team can visualize the project’s trajectory and understand the scope of their Tasks.

Organize projects by grouping smaller Tasks into Epics. Then, create automated task dependencies and relationships. You’ll be able to prioritize Tasks and identify roadblocks easier.

Use Hubstaff Tasks as a Scrum tool by breaking your team’s work into Agile Sprints. This way, you’ll ensure your team’s Sprints are on track with automated daily and weekly Stand-ups. You can also set up notifications to remind them to fill out their Stand-ups. 

You can also track time from your timesheet to Tasks and Epics for accurate reporting and invoicing. This data can help you optimize future workloads. 

Customize Hubstaff Tasks project templates to work for your team and track your progress individually with personal to-do lists built into your Tasks dashboard.

The user-friendly, intuitive app offers a simple interface that requires little to no training. 

Capterra user reviews

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2. Asana

Pricing

• Basic Plan: Free forever
• Premium Plan: $13.49 per user/month
• Business Plan: $30.49 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: Contact the Asana sales team

Key features

Use Asana’s project management tool as a workflow builder. You can build out automated processes and organize your team’s projects. 

You can also create a Gantt timeline or Kanban board to visualize and track your projects. Then, add your team’s work to a shared calendar to optimize workloads and track progress.

Asana allows you to view real-time insights and progress for any project. You can also submit and manage work requests in one place to keep projects on track.

Use Asana’s project automation to streamline operations, reduce human error, and automate routine tasks. Develop strategic goals and track the status in one place. Then, use these goals to keep team members motivated and on track.

Access your work across all devices, even on the go, with Asana’s desktop and mobile applications.

Capterra user reviews

3. Trello

Pricing

• Free Plan: free for your whole team
• Standard Plan: $6 per user/month 
• Premium Plan: $12.50 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: $210 annual price per user

Key features

Trello is a project management system that is simple and easy to use. Manage your team’s projects and organize tasks with Trello’s drag and drop editor and custom views. 

With Trello, teams of any size can customize their workflows and set up shared and individual projects with no-code automation. Your team can easily organize projects with task assignments, timelines, and productivity metrics.

Take your workflow automation to the next level with Butler automation to automate tasks and workflows to reduce manual work. Empower your team with a blueprint for success using free project templates from industry leaders and Trello’s community. 

Use Trello power-ups to increase your team’s productivity and link their most-used tools with Trello plugins. 

Capterra user reviews

4. Wrike

Pricing

• Free Plan
• Professional Plan: $9.80 per user/month
• Business Plan: $24.80 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: Contact the Wrike sales team 

Key features

Empower your team with Wrike’s customizable project management features. You can customize workflows, dashboards, forms, and more to meet your team’s needs.

Simple file sharing and the ability to send tasks and reports can transform Wrike into a powerful collaboration tool. Plus, you can minimize feedback for better project completion with automated approvals.

Fight internal blockages with 360° visibility across your organization. With Wrike’s task history, you can easily store and locate information from any department.

Wrike can also provide scalable features for your team’s needs as you grow. This sets you up for success and ensures you don’t have to switch platforms as you expand.

Capterra user reviews

5. monday.com

Pricing

• Individual Plan: free
• Basic Plan: $8 per seat/month (billed annually) 
• Standard Plan: $10 per seat/month (billed annually) 
• Pro Plan: $16 per seat/month (billed annually) 
• Enterprise Plan: Contact the monday.com sales team

Key features

monday.com is a popular project management platform for large and small businesses. With real-time insights and the ability to manage complex projects, decision-making becomes extremely straightforward.

Save your team time and reduce repetitive work with automation. monday.com’s automation features enable you to send emails to remind your team of due dates and receive real-time updates of your own when they finish a task.

View project milestones, checklists, and task dependencies. You can also view projects as Kanban boards or Gantt boards. 

You can also use monday.com’s docs to transform the text into workflows and collaborate on projects in real-time. Upload attachments of any file type to add context to your project. 

Try a 14-day free trial of monday.com to see if the platform works for you. 

Capterra user reviews

6. ClickUp

Pricing

• Free Plan: Free
• Unlimited Plan: $5 per user/month
• Business Plan: $12 per user/month
• Business Plus Plan: $19 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: Contact the ClickUp sales team

Key features

ClickUp is a tool that combines all of your apps in one place. 

With ClickUp, you can break tasks into more manageable project sizes and customize them for your team. Create and upload documents and attach them to your tasks effortlessly.

Set measurable targets and track goals to improve your internal workflow. View your team’s progress in real-time with ClickUp’s dashboard and reporting features.

You can effectively collaborate on projects with your team using Clickup’s real-time chat feature. Or use whiteboards to visualize your ideas and strategize visually. 

Capterra user reviews

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7. Teamwork

Pricing 

• Free Forever Plan: Free
• Deliver Plan: $12.50 per user/month
• Grow Plan: $22.50 per user/month
• Scale Plan: Contact the Teamwork sales team

Key features 

Teamwork enables you to visualize your ongoing projects in a panoramic view. You can then check their progress and prevent potential silos and issues.

It also provides resource management tools that help you to manage your team’s resources effectively. Whether it’s longer-term forecasting or day-to-day capacity planning, Teamwork has you covered. 

Teamwork time tracking allows you to efficiently track and bill time for all projects. Its automation tools will enable you to simplify manual work and spend more time on essential tasks.

Use Gantt-style or Kanban-style project views to see the scope of work that needs your attention. Then use Teamwork to access a complete view of your tasks and highlight project milestones.

Use Teamwork to create teams and subteams to automate assignments. Teamwork also includes collaboration features that allow you to send messages, files, and notebooks to team members while collaborating on a project. 

One unique feature of Teamwork is its ability to accommodate unlimited free client users. This allows you to give clients free access using Teamwork’s client user type. This way, you can loop your clients in on projects with no added cost.

Capterra user reviews

8. Microsoft Project

Pricing

• Free one-month trial
• Project Plan 1: $10 per user/month
• Project Plan 3: $30 per user/month
• Project Plan 5: $55 per user/month

Key features

Microsoft Project enables team members and managers to collaborate on projects. Pick from boards, grid views, and visual timelines to view your ongoing projects and check in on your team.

Microsoft Project enables portfolio management so you can view and model portfolio scenarios to select the best strategy for your team. Use this tool to weigh proposals against business decisions and consider the project cost and resource restrictions.

You can use a visual roadmap for better visibility among team members. Plus, resource requests and engagements from Microsoft Project can help nail down resources and ensure team members will complete projects on time.

You can use heat maps to see how your team uses resources internally. Then, you can determine underused or overused tools to optimize productivity.

Microsoft Project also utilizes resource analytics and forecasts projected usage to predict what apps and resources your team will rely on moving forward. Reports enable you to monitor progress and pinpoint an area of weakness.

Capterra user reviews

9. Podio

Pricing

• Free Plan: Free
• Basic Plan: $9/month
• Plus Plan: $14/month 
• Premium Plan: $24/month

Key features

Podio is a project management software that gives you access to its frontend API. Podio provides wrappers for PHP, .NET, Python, and more.

You can easily share files, presentations, or status posts using Podio’s collaboration features. Then, organize and track files anywhere in Podio and discuss them with your team.

Tasks are also easy to find and revise on Podio. When a file is created, edited, or deleted, that information is visible to anyone working on the task.

Coordinate and collaborate on workflows with Podio tasks. Easily assign tasks to team members and add files or comments for clarity. Then, get a simple overview showing what work is complete.

Access important information and files from your Podio mobile application on the go. Never miss an update with its iOS and Android app.

Capterra user reviews

10. Bitrix24

Pricing

• Pricing includes all users 
• Free Plan: Free
• Basic Plan: $49/month
• Standard Plan: $99/month
• Professional Plan: $199/month

Key features

Bitrix24 is a project management tool with customization and collaboration features for your business.

Bitrix24’s feed, calendar views, and workgroups make collaboration simple. You can use Bitrix24 chats and video calls to discuss projects with team members.

View projects in Bitrix24 with a Gantt chart or Kanban board view. Then, track time to each project and automate tasks to reduce manual work.

You can also use task and project templates to improve project management. Then sync deals, contacts, quotes, invoices, and online payments with Bitrix24. 

Make company announcements and show team members appreciation. 

Capterra user reviews

11. TeamGantt

Pricing

• Free Plan: Free 
• Standard Plan: $19.90/month (for a single user) 
• Advanced Plan: $24.45/month (for a single user) 

Key features 

TeamGantt is a project management tool with a focus on customizable Gantt charts. You can easily adjust start and end times, change the order of tasks, and enhance your timelines with TeamGantt’s drag and drop editor. 

The team member availability tab allows you to manage workloads and gauge productivity. You can easily upload files to a project or task to make collaborating with internal and external stakeholders easier. 

You can simplify your visualization by adding all projects into one Gantt chart. Then use TeamGantt to track hours for a specific task or project. This is crucial for paying freelancers and invoicing clients. 

This multi-platform tool works on Mac and PC devices. Plus, with the TeamGantt mobile app, you can update your progress and add comments to a task on the go. 

Capterra user reviews

12. Zoho Projects

Pricing

• Standard Plan: $20 per user/month
• Professional Plan: $35 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: $50 per user/month
• Ultimate Plan: $65 per user/month

Key features

Use Zoho Projects to handle complicated projects by splitting them into tasks, subtasks, and milestones. Gantt and Kanban boards will help you follow the trajectory of each project. 

Start by using Zoho’s drag-and-drop project blueprint editor. Then, set the tasks’ status, assign team members, and ensure that it stays on track.  

Enable team member’s to track their hours with Zoho Project’s employee time tracking program. Use timesheets and task timers to see how team members spend their time.

Zoho Projects also offers advanced reporting features with numerous charts that enable you to plan your projects and manage your team. You’ll be able to use these reporting and insight features to gauge progress accurately. 

Zoho Project’s team collaboration features work similarly to social media communication. Keep collaboration running smoothly with comments and @ mentions. 

Capterra user reviews

Conclusion

Managing projects is simple with a powerful project management solution.

These tools can help you decrease manual work and ensure all tasks are completed on time and within budget. 

Small teams can benefit by improving their project workflow with any one of these tools. But as you make your final decision, remember that a project management platform should be scalable, affordable, and able to handle the level of team collaboration you need.

Try a free trial to see which platforms work for your team’s needs.

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