The best project management software does only one thing for business owners: it keeps them sane and helps them focus on productivity. It automatically handles the collaborations with different partners, tracks the progress of multiple projects, and manages the budgets of different tasks so you, as an owner, don’t have to keep everything in your head. If you aren’t using one, you are likely forced to work with disconnected tools—scrolling through Slack threads, wrestling with spreadsheets, and digging through emails. These practices are often the cause of timelines slipping and scope creep setting in.
GanttPRO
As an enterprise, if you are wishing to automate repetitive tasks in your business or need to connect workflows across different tools, this platform is likely your best bet for doing so. It’s almost like a lifesaver for all operations, tech, and marketing teams there are, because it cuts down on frequent check-ins from members and manual updates—projects just get the breathing room to move forward with way less friction and hassle.
What makes the platform GanttPRO stand out is the flexible board structure and visual automation builder it features. Even new users have reported finding it surprisingly easy to design and update processes as you need them. You can visualize deadlines whichever way you prefer—Gantt-style, Kanban board, or a simple list. It also handles workload management to balance assignments across projects and includes automatic cost calculations for effective resource management. The interface is very intuitive and interactive, so navigating the software doesn’t feel like homework.
The platform connects different tools effortlessly with Slack, Google Drive, Jira Cloud, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, MS Project, and Excel. It is incredibly easy to create different automations without coding, and the focus on collaboration is huge. Although it is important to keep in mind that dashboard color options are limited, and some views occasionally struggle to auto-update.
Microsoft Project
Microsoft’s answer to project management is MS Project. It uses simple visual task boards to let users manage agile projects using Scrum, Kanban, or custom workflows. You aren’t locked into one style, either—you can choose between waterfall, agile, or hybrid methodologies.
For those already deeply familiar with the Microsoft ecosystem (let’s be honest, almost every company is), this software is a no-brainer. Most offices run their daily operations using these tools, and there are plenty of online tutorials to close any knowledge gaps. However, even though it is an industry standard, it isn’t necessarily perfect, as with the case of every product in the world. The most noticeable issue is that it isn’t easy to run on iOS, so if your team relies on Apple devices, you might want to look at Microsoft Projects alternatives.
MS Project actually does come with a couple of handy features, believe it or not; “Team Planner” view provides a drag-and-drop interface for adjusting resource assignments, and it integrates flawlessly with Power BI for real-time analytics. As expected, it connects with the whole family: Skype, Excel, Teams, Outlook, and more. While the templates are helpful and it plays nice with other Microsoft apps, the customization is practically non-existent, the learning curve is steep, and collaboration tools are limited.
Wrike
Operation teams for enterprises, managing large-scale, complex tasks for enterprises that need advanced control over their project information and additional requests will most likely get the most out of Wrike. It is a strong fit for businesses in marketing and tech. Whether you are in professional services, constantly updating and changing priorities, or multiple workstreams, the real-time reporting and customizable workflows in the platform will allow you to track projects as they grow and allocate resources accordingly. So you don’t waste time and money.
Wrike offers various advanced features and multiple capable resource management tools that are extremely good at taking in and managing large projects specifically. The custom workflow builder and dynamic request forms featured in the platform are one of the best features across the board, among all platforms. And allow users to easily process tasks that fit complex, multi-team environments very easily. You can log hours for accurate time tracking, sync together schedules for different projects with external calendars, and even set role-based access to keep data secure, which is of utmost importance. It can even maintain a full history of project files across the project’s entire life cycle through the amazing feature, document versioning.
The platform features several integrations, including Slack, MS Teams, Google Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud, Salesforce, Zoom, Tableau, Jira, Dropbox, and HubSpot. The onboarding is excellent, and AI features come at no extra cost. However, be aware that integrations cost extra regardless of the tier of your plan, and two-factor authentication is locked behind the enterprise tier, which can be an inconvenience to many companies.
Productive
Productive is mainly designed for businesses and enterprises to help them manage client work, budgets, and projects all in one place without any friction. Creative, as well as marketing teams that need to handle multiple clients—and are in need of real-time insights into profitability—can benefit the most from this platform. By bringing together different tools and required functionality features, Productive helps using financial tools, time tracking, and project management in one platform, and it also helps businesses keep budgets under control.
The main thing separating Productive from the rest is the core vision they have of merging financial oversight with project delivery. You can forecast revenue, track project budgets, and monitor profitability in real-time without leaving the workspace and with the help of AI tools. It covers everything from sales pipeline tracking (opportunities and leads) to task management and document storage.
It already comes integrated with Jira, Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, Zapier, Sage, BambooHR, Google Calendar, Rippling, and HubSpot. The integrated reporting aspect of the platform is fantastic, and the user-friendly interface makes task management simple and hassle-free. On the downside, the initial setup can be time-consuming, and it could definitely use a few more integrations.
Celoxis
This platform is perfect for businesses that absolutely do not want to sacrifice control and visibility just to simplify project planning, because compromising on one end can also affect the other. Consulting teams, IT companies, and professional services are often finding this to be a strong fit. Celoxis has an amazing interactive Gantt chart that lets you adjust dependencies and timelines with just a few clicks, making it extremely easy to handle priorities that keep shifting due to the changing requirements of clients. The in-built workflow automation is also a major plus side of this platform.
You can do a bunch of things using Celoxix, from building a personalized dashboard to track KPIs and project health in real-time, to logging expenses and billable hours seamlessly inside each workspace. It can also easily handle incoming work with a dedicated project request tracking system.
It offers many upsides, like highly flexible real-time dashboards and includes AI forecasting and advanced analytics, which is very important for today’s businesses. However, there is no mobile application, and it may not be the correct fit for teams with fewer than five members.
Smartsheet
If your business is looking for a platform that can automatically adapt to your visualization and reporting needs, Smartsheet is a strong choice. Project managers looking to build custom dashboards that can pull in live information from multiple sources and display that is a visual, interactive manner, will find this platform very useful.
Smartsheet is very useful to capture live data available from various sources, such as forms, reports, and sheets and helps visualize that information via widgets, graphs, and charts, providing an intuitive environment for teams. This allows users to fully customize dashboards to match their needs as they arise or change. You can utilize the awesome feature, cell-level comments to track discussions right where the data lives, attach documents directly to rows or tasks, and set up automated workflows to trigger alerts for projects.
The different integrations included within the platform are MS Teams, Slack, Google Drive, OneDrive, DocuSign, Jira, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Box, and Dropbox (plus an API). It allows for great task automation and facilitates collaboration, but it lacks built-in time tracking and isn’t ideal for simpler project management needs.
Adobe Workfront
Adobe Workfront is an excellent platform that offers a flexible approach for PM teams that need to scale and standardize project delivery as much as possible. The detailed project templates and features can be reused by PMOs and enterprise managers across multiple departments.
An amazing feature in the platform is giving the user the ability to build templates with pre-set milestones, dependencies, tasks, and approval processes. This makes launching new projects with a consistent structure hassle-free. Users can build custom forms to standardize intake, handle proofing and approvals for digital assets, and use resource scheduling to balance workloads across multiple projects.
It integrates with Adobe Creative Cloud, MS Teams, Slack, Jira, Salesforce, Google Drive, Outlook, Box, Dropbox, and ServiceNow. The reports are fully customizable, and it connects with BI tools like Tableau. However, initial integrations can take a lot of time, and it lacks AI forecasting capabilities.
ClickUp
Different requirements of a business, such as Documents, goals, chat, and project management are brought together into one platform through the innovation that is ClickUp, making it a solid choice for operations teams in enterprises who have to handle multiple tools. Tech and digital teams constantly switching between connected apps, which help them centralize work, can really benefit from using this platform in their daily operations.
ClickUp brings together multiple aspects of business, like team communication, documentation, and project management, into one place. As a user, you can string together team chats while creating and sharing documents without ever needing to switch windows. It features personalized dashboards for tracking workload, built-in time tracking for reports, and visual Mind Maps for brainstorming project structures.
It automatically integrates with Slack, HubSpot, TogglTrack, Figma, Loom, Sentry, G Suite, Dropbox, Clockify, and Calendly. The latest upgrade improved performance, and it remains a cost-effective solution with helpful tutorials. Just note that AI tools come for an extra fee regardless of the plan, and the free version becomes read-only once you hit the limit.