Today, we will understand what is a project management application and how it can help your organization. Also, we will have a look at a few of the best project management apps available.
Project Management Tools Definition: Businesses work on multiple projects at the same time. They form teams of personnel and assign them to experienced leaders who take the responsibility of ensuring the success of the project and timely completion. This takes a lot of work to be completed in a well-organized manner and within their designated time frames. A project planning app helps manage business projects in one common platform. It ensures visibility of the progress of each project in one integrated system.
Watch this video to learn about the top project management tools in 2023.
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Be it budget management, ensuring the team members’ collaboration, or managing the involved resources, all factors are equally important when running a project. Assigning a task to members, reviewing the status of the work assigned, keeping track of the timeline, ensuring the ease of communication, and allowing the managers and leaders to make sure the tasks are completed in a timely manner. Let's take a look at some of the best project management app features.
Best Project Management App Features
The best project management app is aimed at improving the efficiency and productivity of the team members, thus improving the overall project quality.
Before choosing the project management software for your organization, here are a few features that an ideal project management app should provide:
- It should let the team leaders hold discussions over the application’s platform and direct messages both privately and collectively to the members.
- It should be able to send a notification to the members over SMS or email so that they don’t have to log in to the tool to check all the updates.
- It should facilitate the storage of documents in a central database that should be accessible to all the members. Also, the documents could be password protected so that privacy of the documents can be ensured.
- A mobile app should be provided so that team members working remotely can access the project management system with ease and at their convenience.
- Visualizations help to see the progress of multiple projects running together. Visualizations in the form of Gantt Charts are useful in showing the timelines. They could be included in the app to enable efficient reporting.
Learning the Use of a Project Management Tool
An organization always looks out for hiring people with proven leadership skills. A project management professional can help any business use the latest available technologies to achieve an increase in the productivity of the team members, which results in the completion of projects within the stipulated time period. This gives you an edge as you would have a basic knowledge of project handling, project cost estimation, engineering economics and leadership skills. This is why one must consider pursuing a project management course.
Related learning: What are the Benefits of Project Management?
Advantages of Using a Project Management Application:
- The Best Project Management tool helps establish a hierarchy of the execution steps that have to be followed. It helps the team members to complete the tasks sequentially and on time.
- Once all the tasks are assigned, the project management tool can be used to monitor the progress of each individual task.
- One of the best features of the project management apps is the project management tools documentation. A central document storage system makes it easier to share files and folders with all the team members.
- A calendar can be integrated into the project management tool so that this can be used to keep track of the deadlines of each individual task, and the entire project as a whole, and also schedule meetings.
- The flow of work improves as this app provides a common platform for all the team members to collaborate. This ensures teamwork, thereby increasing productivity and ensuring the success of each project.
Top 25 Project Management Apps in 2024
Asana: A versatile project management tool that allows teams to track the progress of their projects with tasks, subtasks, and milestones. It supports various workflows and integrates with many other tools like Slack and Google Drive.
Trello: A visual project management application based on the Kanban methodology. It uses boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks and is particularly useful for small teams managing straightforward workflows.
Monday.com: Known for its customizable workflows, Monday.com facilitates project planning and tracking with a wide array of templates and automation features. It's suitable for teams of all sizes across various industries.
Smartsheet: An application that combines elements of project management with a spreadsheet-like interface. It is ideal for managing larger projects that require detailed timelines and budget tracking.
Basecamp: A straightforward tool that helps teams manage projects and communicate more effectively. It combines several tools into one, including to-do lists, file sharing, message boards, and schedules.
ClickUp: Offers a single platform to manage all aspects of a project, from tasks to docs, goals, and even an email. It's known for its flexibility and custom views like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and calendars.
Wrike: A robust project management tool designed for medium to large teams that need to track multiple projects at once. It includes time tracking, load balancing, and document collaboration.
Jira: Best suited for software development teams that follow agile methodologies. Jira supports scrum, Kanban, and integrates well with code development environments.
Microsoft Project: A complex tool that provides detailed project planning capabilities including resource allocation, project timelines, and financials. It's best suited for experienced project managers in larger organizations.
Notion: Combines notes, tasks, and databases in a single tool, allowing for unique ways to organize project documentation and workflows. It is highly flexible and customizable.
Teamwork: Designed specifically for client-serving businesses, it allows for project planning, team collaboration, and includes features like invoicing and client billing.
Zoho Projects: Part of the Zoho suite, this tool offers good integration with other Zoho apps and provides features for bug tracking, time tracking, and extensive project reporting.
Airtable: A blend of a database and spreadsheet that works well for managing complex information-driven projects. It's highly customizable and includes different views like Grid, Calendar, Kanban, and Gallery.
ProofHub: Provides teams with tools for planning, collaboration, organization, and delivering projects on time. Includes proofing tools to streamline the review process.
Workfront: An enterprise-level tool that offers extensive customization of workflows, robust reporting capabilities, and integration with major enterprise tools like Salesforce and Adobe.
Podio: Flexible enough to manage any project and automate various workflows through its task management and workflow capabilities, supported by a wide range of integrations.
TeamGantt: Simplifies task management and project planning with Gantt charts. It's particularly effective for visualizing project timelines and dependencies.
Confluence: Designed as a content collaboration tool, it works well alongside Jira for documenting projects, sharing ideas, and team collaboration.
Redbooth: Easy-to-use interface that offers video conferencing and task management in a streamlined design, suitable for quick project setup and team collaboration.
Mavenlink: Focuses on resource management, project accounting, and business intelligence, providing insights into project performance and financials.
Scoro: An all-in-one business management software that includes project management, CRM, quoting, and reporting functionalities, targeting professional service businesses.
Freedcamp: Provides a wide range of project management options including task lists, calendars, file management, and even issue tracking, suitable for both personal and professional use.
Todoist Business: A task manager that's simple but powerful, offering features like recurring tasks, reminders, and productivity visualizations, making it ideal for personal productivity and team projects.
LiquidPlanner: Uses predictive scheduling technology to help teams build project plans that automatically adapt to changes in workload and priorities.
Kanbanize: Advanced Kanban software for project management, focusing on continuous delivery and efficiency. It includes automation, analytics, and integration capabilities.
Which One’s Right for You?
With many options available, it becomes difficult choosing the best project management app for your organization. The tools available more or less have similar features, but the way these features are packed makes the difference. There are many factors like the size of the team, features of the task management software, etc., which should be considered before finalizing one project management app.
The following comparison chart enumerates the key aspects that will help you choose the best option.
Project Management App |
Platform |
Team Size |
Integrations |
Price |
Trello |
Android iOS Windows Web-based |
Suitable for all |
Jira, Google Drive, Slack, InVision, and more. |
Free Business Class: $ 9.99 per user/month Enterprise: $ 20.83 per user/month |
Wrike |
Web-based iOS Android |
Small to large businesses. |
JIRA, Adobe, GitHub, Google Drive, Dropbox, MSFT Office 365, and OneDrive. |
Free Professional: $9.80/user/month Business:$24.80/user/month Marketers: $34.60/user/month |
Teamwork PM |
Web-based Mac Windows Linux Android iOS |
Small to large. Also available for freelancers. |
MS Teams, Slack, HubSpot, SoftSync for Jira, and more. |
Free Paid version: Starts at $10/user/month |
ASANA |
iOS Android |
Suitable for all. |
MS Office, Gmail, CSV files, outlook, Slack, TimeCamp, and more. |
Premium Plan: $ 9.99 per user/month Business Plan: $19.99 per user/month Enterprise plan: Available on request |
Basecamp |
Android iOS Mac Windows Web |
Suitable for all |
HubSpot, Trello, GitHub, Asana, Wrike, GitLab, Bitbucket, and more. |
30 days free trial. A flat fee of $99/month after the free trial. Free accounts for students and educators. 10% discount for nonprofits. |
Zoho Projects |
Android iOS iPad OS |
Small to large businesses |
Microsoft Teams, MS Excel, OneDrive, and more. |
Free for up to 3 users Premium Plan: ₹350/user/month for up to 50 users Enterprise Plan: ₹700/user/month with no upper limit for users |
JIRA |
Android iOS Mac Windows Linux Web |
Suitable for all |
Slack, Zoom, GitHub, Zendesk, and more. |
A free basic plan for up to 10 users Paid Version: $7/month per user for teams of 11–100 users. A discount is available for larger teams. |
Microsoft Project Management App |
Web Windows Mac |
Suitable for large teams |
OneDrive, Outlook, Skype, OneNote, Microsoft Teams, and more. |
One-month free trial Project Plan 1: ₹720 per user/month Project Plan 3: ₹2,160 per user/month Project Plan 5: ₹3,960 per user/month |
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Conclusion
Having the right project management app is essential in achieving overall project success. Therefore, it is important that before going for any project management app, you should look for the features that you think will be most valuable for your business and make the right choice.
You can also enroll in our Post Graduate Program in Project Management course to learn new trends, emerging practices, tailoring considerations, and core competencies required of a Project Management professional. Placing a greater emphasis on strategic and business knowledge, this course will help you ace the role of the project manager in any size of organization.
Our Learners Also Asked:
1. What is the best project management app?
Each project management app offers its own benefits as mentioned above. The best project management apps currently on the market include:
- Trello
- Asana
- Click Up
- Wrike
- Paymo
- JIRA
- Basecamp
- Teamwork PM
2. Is there a project management app in Google?
No, Google doesn’t have a native project management app. However, it does have an alternative tool called the Gantt chart which can be used to create projects. You can also use Google Sheets for time tracking and project management.
3. Which is useful project management app that you could use with a team?
Here are few useful project management apps:
- Trello
- Asana
- Click Up
- Wrike
- JIRA
- Basecamp
- Teamwork PM
4. Does Google have free project management?
Google doesn’t have its now free project management app or even paid management app at this time. However, you can use Google Sheets for basic project management and it’s FREE!
5. What does Google use instead of Jira?
Google uses Google Workspace which offers a suite of apps including Docs, Sheets, Presentations, etc.
6. Is trello and JIRA same?
While both Trello and JIRA are project management apps and offer multiple tools to simplify project management, they have their differences and strengths. Trello offers only Kaban boards, which makes it easy to visualize projects, JIRA offers multiple boards such as Kanban, Scrum, and Sprint boards that make it easy for people from different fields to modify the boards for their project management needs.