Finding a project management platform can be simple.
Just head over to Google, type in “top project management software” and voila! You can find dozens of tools.
But here’s the problem: Anyone can find software, but only a few find the right one.
One of the biggest problems is that many project managers don’t understand what makes a good PM platform.
But don’t worry, we’ll tell you.
In this guide, you’ll find 5 proven digital workspaces and some helpful criteria to choose the best one.
Let’s start with the most crucial question of them all…
How do you choose the right project management system?
With software evolving so fast these days, spotting the right one can become a daunting task.
So how do you go about software tool selection?
Actually, there’s a simple 3-step process we recommend.
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Step 1: Make a list of the features you need
Picking the right project management tool is like buying a new car.
When comparing cars, you consider different elements. Maybe your family size, how you’ll use the car (i.e. take children to school, travel, business, etc.), and your budget.
Also, you set priorities.
For example, frequent travelers may be willing to spend more for extra luggage-carrying space. Others might sacrifice some space for a nice exterior design. And an Uber driver might prefer a gas-saving compact car over a powerful engine.
When picking a specific PM software, you face a similar scenario. But instead of dealing with a family, car features, and engines, you deal with team members, goals, and deadlines.
Before even you consider a specific software, think about your particular situation. What are you trying to get done? How large is your project team? What’s your budget? Then, create a list of all the features you need based on that information.
To help you out, some of the most-used features for a project management software tool are: task management, project tracking, collaboration, time-tracking, resource management, and budget management.
Additionally, other helpful features are:
- Reporting: Status reporting is the top activity undertaken by most PMOs, so make sure your software offers this function.
- Dashboards: To oversee the health of your projects at a glance.
- Project planning: To schedule recurring tasks and allocate resources effectively.
- Project scheduling: To set dependencies and deadlines and make sure everyone knows what to do (and when).
- Process automations: To “delegate” tedious processes and operations to AI and focus on actual work.
These aren’t the only features you should consider, of course. But they include some of the most essential.
Step 2: Ask your team what they need
Following the example above, buying a car without asking for your spouse’s opinion wouldn’t be wise.
The same way, when selecting your PM software, you shouldn’t ignore your team.
Different members at the organization may use the software for their own reporting and tracking purposes. So the platform you pick must be capable of organization-wide use.
Any Work OS must be adaptable to your own methodologies and processes. If a platform tries to force any specific method into your organization, it’s probably not that good.Also, ask your team members for a list of all the tools they currently use and might need to integrate with your new software.
This will save you tons of headaches later.
Step 3: Plan for future growth
When buying a car, you can’t tell the future.
Life happens and you can’t predict whether your current needs will be the same in a few months. Maybe you have a new baby and need extra car space. Or you lose your job and don’t need to travel anymore. Who knows?
But your business is different.
You expect it to grow.
And you might use your new project platform for some time. So it must be robust enough to grow with you. If your business expands, the platform should handle that growth.
You want to think strategically.
Even if you don’t need some features right now, you may need them in the future.
The top project management software in 2023
Now that you’ve walked through our 3-step process and have a good idea of what you need, it’s time to compare different platforms.
To make your life easier, we did the research for you and selected five of the top project management software out there.
Take a look through them and see which one is the right fit for your business.
1. staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud is a cloud-based project management platform that helps you track anything (literally).
Over 100,000 businesses use it to manage everything from marketing campaigns to product development, and even complex construction ventures. You name it, we help do it.
No matter if your team is 3 people or 3,000, we’ve got your back.
Honestly, there’s so much you can do: filter through data, see the breakdown of information, and get highlights across departments.
The best part?
We’re fully customizable.
With over 30 building blocks you can move around at will, we adapt to any type of workflow and process, regardless of your industry.
How we can help:
- Turn data into actions: Make your data accessible to anyone and increase transparency across your organization.
- Seamless integrations: Integrate with more than 40 of your favorite services.
- Process automations: Take all that wasted time on manual processes and let your team focus on the important stuff.
- Simple team collaboration: No email chains, group text, or waiting on approval.
- Dashboards: Get key insights and metrics for multiple boards all in one place and visualize the information most useful to you.
- Simple task management: Assign tasks, set dependencies, and measure project progress with ease.
- Diverse data visualizations: Including Gantt chart, kanban board, map, calendar, and more.
Also, we give you access to over 200 premade templates for any use case.
For example, our free project planning template can help you design a solid plan with speed. The best part is that you can customize it to fit your specific needs.
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s plans
We use a “per-user” pricing structure and offer four paid plans.
Here’s a quick breakdown of each one of them:
- Basic: Get enough features to tackle small projects efficiently.
- Standard: Visualize, manage, and track any type of project with confidence
- Pro: Design and manage complex projects and business operations with advanced features and functionalities
- Enterprise: Get access to enterprise-level features to handle even the most audacious of projects.
To get a full description of what we offer, make sure to read our pricing page.
2. Wrike
Wrike is a cloud-based project management app designed to simplify communication between teammates.
It provides the flexibility and collaborative tools to deliver timely projects. Also, you can use dashboards to monitor the volume of projects you’re working on and easily spot new requests that come in.
In short, Wrike is a simple system with a few nice features — like visual analytics, time tracking, and more — which can be helpful when managing projects for a remote team.
Wrike’s plans
Wrike offers 1 free plan and 3 paid ones.
Let’s quickly break them down:
- Professional: Get access to basic project planning and collaboration features suitable for a small creative team
- Business: Get access to customization and better reporting
- Enterprise: A full-scale solution with advanced security and controls
3. Airtable
Airtable is a task management app that merges spreadsheets, datastores, and templates to help organizations structure their workflow.
You can showcase your tasks in different views, drag and drop multiple columns, and choose from different templates.
Airtable’s plans
Airtable offers 1 free plan and 3 paid ones.
- Plus: Get access to basic features to manage any kind of project
- Pro: Get access to full collaboration functionalities
- Enterprise: For large teams and organizations managing multiple projects
4. Paymo
Paymo is a time tracking and productivity app suitable for small businesses. You can manage tasks, create timesheets, send invoices, and get paid on time.
It might be a good fit for service-based teams that need to manage clients and handle simple projects. That said, it’s not a full-scale project management tool per se.
If you’re looking to tackle a complex project, you may find Paymo too basic.
Paymo’s pricing
Paymo offers 2 paid plans:
- Small office: A small suite of project management tools for small and medium-sized organizations.
- Business: All-in-one project management solution for large businesses.
5. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-like collaboration tool suitable for managing and tracking diverse types of work, including projects, business operations, events, and tasks.
It helps organizations align people with technology and centralize most of their information all under one roof.
With Smartsheet, you can capture data, automate workflows, and visualize information in multiple dashboards.
Smartsheet’s pricing
Smartsheet’s plans get split into 4 categories:
- Individual: Get access to basic features to manage your personal projects and collaborate with coworkers.
- Business: Get access to advanced visibility features, workflows, and metrics.
- Enterprise: Enterprise-level solution for teams that need more advanced functionalities.
- Premier: Includes all the features of the enterprise plan plus some extra options.
Conclusion
So there you have it.
A list of 5 project management platforms that really work, and a 3-step process for choosing the right one.
Hopefully, now you’re able to decide with more confidence.
With staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s free project planning template, you can plan your next project with ease. Try it out and discover how we can help improve your project management and save you time.
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