Best Online Project Management Tools: Top 10 Compared for 2023

The best online project management tools allow you to visualize and streamline your workflows, enhance team communication and collaboration, track project progress, automate repetitive tasks, and execute projects within budget and according to deadlines.

The problem is that there are dozens of excellent online PM tools, and you don’t really have the time to test and compare them all. That’s why we’ve reviewed the top 10 cloud project management tools, so you see what functionalities the market’s best platforms offer and choose the one that’s best for your organization.

The 10 Best Online Project Management Tools Ranked

Here’s a curated list of the top 10 online project management solutions for 2023:

1. Monday.com — Robust project management software with 200+ customizable templates, built-in time tracking, real-time notifications, and easy workflow automations.
2. Wrike — Flexible PM tool with custom item types, dynamic request forms, and AI work creation to automatically convert your notes into descriptions, requests, and subtasks.
3. Smartsheet — Intuitive and easy-to-use platform with advanced task automations, a wide range of customizable views, and detailed activity logs.
4. ClickUp — Excellent functionality with over 15 customizable views, excellent collaboration features, smart automations, and hundreds of project templates.
5. Teamwork — Great PM tool for SMBs, with built-in time tracking and invoicing, excellent collaboration features, and personal views for every team member.
6. Zoho Projects — Best PM tool for agile teams, with native Zoho Sprint integration, issue and bug reporting, and built-in time tracking.
7. Awork — Great for workload management and time tracking, with custom dashboards for each individual team member and time budgets to compare estimates vs. actual progress.
8. Bonsai — Robust tool for client, financial, and project management, with hundreds of templates, integrated timers for every task, and flexible invoicing.
9. ProWorkflow — Minimalistic PM tool with excellent workload management functionality, permission-based access for clients and contractors, and built-in messaging.
10. Resource Guru — A simple workload management solution with drag-and-drop task scheduling, seamless calendar integration, and a built-in PTO tracker.

The Key Benefits of Online Project Management Tools for Businesses

Online project management solutions can help you streamline your business, boost team productivity, and improve your bottom line. Here are the main benefits of online project management tools:

• Improved project planning and scheduling
• Data centralization and streamlined information sharing
• Enhanced team collaboration
• Effective risk identification and mitigation
• Simplified reporting and analytics with valuable insights
• Easier budget management
• Standardized business processes
• Simplified goal-setting and KPI (Key Performance Indicators) tracking

How to Pick the Right Project Tracking Tool for Your Business

Project management tools all look fairly similar on the surface — they help you plan and organize projects, assign tasks to your team members, and keep track of project progress. However, if you dig deeper, you’ll quickly notice that two PM tools can differ greatly in terms of functionality, ease of use, and customizability.

Depending on the industry you’re in, the specific needs of your organization, and your unique workflows, certain online PM tools will be a much better fit than others. Here’s a quick breakdown of all the key factors you need to pay attention to in order to make an informed decision and ensure that you choose a PM tool that’s a good fit for your organization.

Functionality

Firstly, you need to sit down with your team and figure out what features they need from a PM tool. Most tools will cover the basics regarding project management, but you should note other functionalities like advanced automations, time tracking, invoicing, custom intake/request forms, built-in team chat, and so on.

It’s crucial to ensure that the PM tool offers everything you need to successfully execute projects and keep your team productive, but you should also be realistic regarding what features you’ll be using. For instance, most small businesses won’t need the advanced functionalities that complex PM tools offer, so you’ll want to avoid overpaying for a tool that you won’t fully use.

Ease of Use

Next, consider who in your organization will use the software and what their level of technical knowledge is. With that in mind, you should opt for a solution that your team won’t have trouble using.

While a myriad of useful features might sound great on paper, your team might be overwhelmed by all the options on the tool’s dashboard. If you disregard ease of use, you might end up having to spend a ton of money on training and fixing the mistakes that may arise from improper use of the software.

Customizability

One thing to note is that some solutions have steep learning curves and may be daunting and overwhelming due to the sheer number of customization options. That’s why it’s best to find a good balance of customization and ease of use.

Scalability

A project management tool is a long-term investment, so you should think beyond your organization’s present needs. If you’re planning on growing and expanding your business in the future, it’s vital to be able to easily add new users to your account without having to change your subscription plan.

Thankfully, most modern PM solutions have adopted a per-user pricing model, so adding new team members to the platform shouldn’t be an issue, regardless of which of the best project management apps from our list you end up choosing.

Pricing

While the pricing of online project management tools might seem straightforward, it’s crucial to pay attention to what features you’ll have access to on different pricing plans. So, it’s best to schedule a consultation call with the sales team of the particular solution you’re interested in to clearly communicate your needs and go over the details before you commit to a specific pricing plan.

Another thing worth mentioning regarding the pricing of PM tools is that while annual billing ends up being more cost-effective in the long run, it practically forces vendor lock-in since you’re paying the full price upfront. So, although this offers the most affordable means of getting started, you want to ensure that you’re happy committing to it.

Integration Capabilities

Another factor you can’t afford to overlook is the PM tool’s integration with your existing software stack. The main purpose of project management software is to streamline your work and increase productivity, so it would defeat the purpose if your entire team had to tab back and forth between dozens of apps to get their work done.

The best PM software solutions should easily integrate with your business email, cloud storage, communication and productivity apps, and other tools you’re using in day-to-day business.

Reviews of the Top Online Project Management Solutions

Now that you know what to look for in a solution for project management online, here are in-depth reviews of the 10 best online PM tools on the market.

1. Monday.com — Robust Project Management Tool With 200+ Customizable Templates

Monday.com is a robust work management software that helps you streamline project and portfolio management, efficiently manage your resources, and track project progress with ease.

The main appeal of Monday.com comes from its flexibility. There are over 200 templates to choose from in Monday’s library, and you can fully customize them to fit your unique workflows and the specific needs of your organization.

With Monday.com, you can easily visualize your workflows and keep track of project progress using Table, Timeline, and Kanban views, as well as Gantt charts. You’ll be able to easily add owners to tasks, set priorities, see what everyone’s working on thanks to color-coded statuses, and attach pertinent project files to specific tasks.

You can also leverage Monday to build a critical path and see all task dependencies, so you can optimize your company’s resource allocation. The tool even lets you track time on individual tasks and projects, letting you accurately gauge your team’s productivity and facilitating future project planning and scheduling.

You can also leverage simple automations to minimize manual admin work and save valuable time. As a robust project management tool, Monday lets you automate everything from task assignments and due date reminders to review and approval requests.

To top it all off, Monday.com seamlessly integrates with your existing software stack. With just a few clicks from your Monday dashboard, you can integrate all your essential tools like Slack, Zoom, Outlook, Gmail, Google Drive, and dozens more.

For more, check out our in-depth Monday.com review for all the nitty-gritty details, including a full guide on getting started.

2. Wrike — Flexible PM Tool With Custom Item Types and Dynamic Request Forms

Wrike is a flexible project management platform that enables businesses to create and fully configure their teams’ workspaces, structure and organize work across all projects, and greatly facilitate collaboration between team members and departments.

The best thing about Wrike is that it allows you to create an unlimited number of items, including projects, folders, tasks, and subtasks. What’s more, you can create custom item types tailored to your organization’s processes and workflows and configure them with icons and descriptions.

Wrike also simplifies your intake process thanks to the platform’s dynamic request forms. This allows you to collate all requests from both external and internal sources in one place, allowing you to standardize processes and delivery and improve efficiency.

You can create custom client intake forms from scratch to include pertinent questions, in-depth information, type of work, due dates, and any related files. Furthermore, you can create custom rules for areas of responsibility and prioritization to ensure new requests get assigned to the right owner automatically, saving a ton of valuable time.

Wrike also gives you dozens of pre-built templates to get your projects off the ground. These cover everything from project management and business operations to marketing and professional services.

Another super useful feature of Write is the AI work creation, which lets you leverage the power of artificial intelligence to automate tasks. For example, it’ll convert work notes and bullet points into descriptions, notes, and even request forms. The AI can also recommend task prioritization according to your team’s workload and deliver valuable insights that help you detect risks, remove bottlenecks, and use your resources optimally.

3. Smartsheet — Intuitive and Easy to Use Platform, With Advanced Task Automations

Smartsheet is an intuitive, modern project management platform that merges the utility of Airtable and Google Sheets to provide you with a comprehensive view of all projects and tasks in a single tab.

The platform offers an array of customizable views, dashboards, workflows, and reports, so you can easily tailor it according to the needs of your organization and the types of projects you’re executing.

Everything in Smartsheet is color-coded and automatically sorted by task owners, so you’ll always know what everyone is working on at a glance. You’ll also be able to assign priorities, see the status of every task, and follow specific tasks to receive real-time notifications of status changes.

Smartsheet also facilitates team communication and collaboration by letting users attach relevant files and leave comments on tasks, as well as submit review requests and receive approval for their deliverables.

What’s more, Smartsheet features a detailed activity log, so you’ll be able to see exactly what changes were made to the spreadsheet, when, and by whom. You can sort the activity log by type of action, date range, or collaborator to quickly see the project progress and accurately gauge the productivity of individual team members.

Another crucial feature that most Project Managers and Ops Directors will appreciate is advanced task automation. Instead of simple if/then statements, you can connect specific triggers with entire workflows, configure the automations with specific conditions, set up real-time alerts, and send push notifications to relevant team members on Slack or via email.

With all that said, Smartsheet truly shines when it comes to managing marketing, content, and creative projects. The platform makes it super easy to review deliverables, leave comments and suggestions, submit revised work, approve the final versions, and track the performance of individual content pieces.

4. ClickUp — Excellent Functionality With Over 15 Highly Customizable Views 

ClickUp is a highly customizable online project management platform with over 15 unique views, so it’s a great fit for teams of all sizes, regardless of the industry. You can leverage over 35+ ClickApps, dozens of templates, task automations, and custom fields to create your own ideal project management tool in no time.

With ClickUp, you can create a visual hierarchy of all ongoing and future projects with ease. The platform lets you group teams and departments into dedicated Spaces, neatly organize projects into folders, and leverage lists to create tasks, subtasks, and checklists.

This ensures that everyone in the organization has easy access to all the relevant information without being overwhelmed by dozens of entries that don’t pertain to their work.

At the same time, ClickUp features an Everything View that provides you with a birds-eye view of all tasks, projects, and documents, regardless of where they are in the visual hierarchy, so you can find what you’re looking for in seconds.

What’s unique about ClickUp is the fact that it lets you create fully customizable docs that can serve as sprint trackers for agile teams, knowledge bases, process documents, or instructions for specific projects or tasks.

The built-in docs feature has great formatting capabilities, so you can embed tables, create bullet lists, insert images and graphs, leave relevant links, tag team members in comments, and more. You’ll also be able to share the docs with anyone in your organization with a single click.

Beyond streamlining project management, ClickUp also lets your team seamlessly collaborate on anything from ideation to execution. You can use the whiteboards for brainstorming, leave comments on specific tasks, request changes and provide suggestions on deliverables, plus send emails straight from the Task View.

What’s more, ClickUp has a built-in chat functionality, with chats tied to individual Spaces, so you won’t have to tab-and-forth between your project management tool and your communications platform, which saves a ton of valuable time and facilitates asynchronous remote work.

5. Teamwork — Superb PM Tool for SMBs, With Built-in Time Tracking and Invoicing

Teamwork is a great fit for smaller businesses and companies that work with freelancers and contractors. It comes with built-in time tracking and invoicing, so you can easily track billable hours and ensure everyone is paid the correct amount on time.

Compared to other PM solutions on our list, Teamwork excels at resource and workload management. It provides you with a clear view of every team member’s day-to-day capacity, so you can distribute the workload accordingly, reassign and re-prioritize tasks, avoid bottlenecks, and accurately forecast future projects.

What’s more, every team member has their own personal view, so there’s no room for misunderstanding or confusion regarding what everyone should work on and what their task priorities are.

Teamwork lets you easily break down the work into individual tasks and subtasks, create custom fields, track time spent on each task, and attach important files.

Your team can easily collaborate on tasks with messages, proofs, and comments, and you can leverage tags to group specific tasks into categories and use filters to quickly find the information you’re looking for.

Beyond this, Teamwork provides a vast library of project templates to choose from and allows you to create your own templates in seconds based on your most frequent tasks. For example, you’ll be able to turn entire projects and task lists into templates with a single click, saving valuable time for all future projects.

Another interesting aspect of Teamwork is the integrated help desk software, which lets you communicate with your customers/clients directly from the dashboard, sparing you the headache of long email threads and drastically improving your response time and customer service.

6. Zoho Projects — Best PM Tool for Agile Teams

Zoho Projects is another fully customizable project management platform, letting you configure anything from the tool’s theme to project layouts and individual tasks according to your organization’s processes and workflows.

The platform is ideal for agile teams since it natively integrates with Zoho Sprints and lets you easily handle hybrid projects, adapt to changes on the fly, list issues and bugs, and automatically log work.

Zoho Projects also lets you identify critical paths, set up task dependencies, create task reminders, and set up automated rescheduling for recurring tasks to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that projects get delivered on time.

Another area in which Zoho Projects truly shines is team collaboration. The platform features an interactive feed that provides you with updates on key tasks and activities across the organization. Your team can also post comments on the feed, tag individual team members, add attachments, and help resolve bottlenecks as they arise.

Additionally, Zoho Projects features a built-in chat where every user can communicate with other team members. You can also create group chats for specific projects, departments, or tasks and initiate private chats with anyone on the team.

As part of the Zoho product suite, this task management software also enables you to track time spent on every task, create accurate timesheets, and convert them into invoices with ease, thanks to Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice integration.

7. Awork — Great for Workload Management and Time Tracking

Awork is a nifty project management tool with an accent on resource allocation, workload management, and task organization. It features a smart planner that updates in real-time and takes projects, tasks, leave, and scheduled meetings from your personal calendar into account when calculating the workload.

In addition to enabling you to see exactly what everyone’s working on and what their capacity looks like, Awork also helps you compare estimates with actual work progress with the Time Budgets feature.

By automatically tracking the time spent on each task, Awork allows you to accurately gauge each individual team member’s productivity, minimize idling, and prevent your team from getting overworked and burned out. This also enables you to better plan future projects and allocate your resources optimally, according to real-world data.

When it comes to creating and assigning tasks in Awork, you’ll have full freedom thanks to custom fields, so you’ll be able to easily define even the smallest detail of every task and subtask. Additionally, you can set up recurring tasks and even automatically turn emails — such as meeting recaps with action items — into tasks by forwarding them to the Awork platform.

Another reason to choose Awork is the fact that it lets you create custom individual dashboards for every member of your team. This way, you can easily see what everyone is working on, which task they’ve completed, whether they’ve encountered any roadblocks, and how productive they are overall.

8. Bonsai — Robust Tool for Client, Financial, and Project Management

Bonsai is an all-in-one platform that lets you manage your projects online — it lets you handle client, finance, and project management with ease. It facilitates planning, scheduling, invoicing, time tracking, and team collaboration, so it’s a great option for companies looking to streamline all areas of their business and improve their bottom line.

With Bonsai, you can create custom client forms, proposals, and contracts in minutes, so you’ll spend less time on admin tasks and more on delivering outstanding projects. The tool also helps ensure you’re paid for the work you put in, thanks to smart, flexible invoicing, automatic reminders, and flexible payment options for your clients.

In terms of project management, Bonsai lets you leverage task templates to define every stage of the project, create tasks in seconds, and easily assign them to the right collaborators. The tasks in Bonsai feature integrated times, ensuring you never miss billable hours.

The tool also lets you organize projects into folders, so you can have quick and easy access to all relevant documents, timesheets, payments, and tasks. Plus, you can invite contractors, freelancers, and clients to the platform as free collaborators.

Clients will even have access to their own portal, where they can monitor the progress of their projects and provide feedback or request changes directly on the platform, which avoids back-and-forth emails.

9. ProWorkflow — Minimalistic PM Tool With Excellent Workload Management Functionality

ProWorkflow is a minimalistic project management tool that enables you to improve organization, streamline collaboration, and boost your team’s productivity. It offers a variety of project views and allows every collaborator to see all project-related tasks, notes, issues, and files in one place.

It also helps you organize the workload by automatically filling in team members’ time slots when you assign tasks, so you’ll clearly see everyone’s capacity and know exactly what they’re working on each day.

When assigning new work, you can classify tasks with Task Tags, add in-depth descriptions, allocate time, and even set the hourly rate for each task, which automatically gets added to the collaborator’s monthly invoice.

The tool also supports calendar integration for individual team members and automatically notifies them of upcoming meetings and due dates. Another strong suit of ProWorkflow is its built-in messaging system, so you can easily collaborate with team members, contractors, freelancers, and clients.

You can leave comments, shared notes, and feedback on individual tasks, as well as start public or private task-specific threads to ensure your team stays aligned. What’s more, you can even reply to emails directly from ProWorkflow, and your response will automatically go into the corresponding thread.

10. Resource Guru — A Simple Workload Management Solution With a Built-in PTO Tracker

Resource Guru is a user-friendly resource management software that lets you easily adapt to ever-changing project schedules and fully make use of your team’s time.

The platform features a straightforward timeline view with simple drag-and-drop functionality. It automatically tracks each team member’s daily workload and shows you their available capacity. This way, you’ll know exactly how much time they have available for new tasks each day and when they’re overbooked, so you can quickly swap the tasks around.

When adding tasks, you can use smart filters to quickly find the right collaborators for the job based on department, skill, location, or other custom fields. You’ll also be able to book collaborators for a specific timeframe and freely toggle between billable and non-billable hours.

Resource Guru also features a built-in PTO (Paid Time Off) tracker with insightful reports, so you can easily manage any type of absence and quickly redistribute the workload based on your team’s availability.

Comparison of the Best  PMS Tools for Project Tracking

Here’s a quick project management app comparison table so you can see how the best online PM tools stack up against each other:

What’s the Best Free Online Project Management Solution?

While there are platforms that offer free online project management tools, they all enforce serious limitations regarding the number of users and the features you have access to on the free plans.

The free plans are a great way to test different tools in practice before committing to a monthly or annual subscription, but they’re not a viable long-term solution in most cases. More often than not, you’ll only be able to add a handful of users on a free plan and have a limited number of boards, tasks, and files.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the free plans of the top online project management tools:

Out of the five best free PM tools above, Trello offers the best free plan since it doesn’t enforce a limit to the number of users, so you can actively have your entire team on the platform without paying a dime.

That said, keep in mind that the free plan is limited to 10 boards per Workspace, plus you won’t have access to different views (Timeline, Table, Dashboard, Calendar) and crucial features like advanced checklists, custom fields, and templates. You also won’t be able to provide permission-based access, so everyone will be able to make changes to any board.

The bottom line is — if you want a robust PM tool with full access to all of its functionalities, you’ll need to opt for a paid plan.

Conclusion | What’s the Best Online Project Management Tool to Use in 2023

There are a ton of online project management solutions, so you should have no problem finding a PM tool that perfectly aligns with the needs of your organization. Most are also quite customizable and can be adapted to your unique processes and workflows, so the primary factors you should consider are ease of use, functionality, and integration capabilities.

If you’re still on the fence after reading our reviews of the best online project management tools, we strongly recommend Monday.com as it’s robust, flexible, and incredibly easy to use.

With over 200 customizable templates, easy drag-and-drop automations, and built-in time tracking, Monday helps you execute even the most complex projects with ease.

Click the button below to create your free Monday.com account and see first-hand why hundreds of companies choose this powerful tool for their project management needs.

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Aleksandar Stevanovic

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Aleksandar Stevanovic

Alex is a Senior Software Content Writer at Techopedia. He focuses on creating reader-oriented comparison pages, reviews, research pieces, and editorials. With nearly a decade of experience, he’s written for numerous leading brands across various niches, such as The Tech Report, Bitcoincasinos.com, CEX.IO, Forbes, Business2Community, and many more. His expertise in cybersecurity has made him a popular authority on privacy tools such as VPNs, password managers, blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and antivirus software. You'll find Alex working on cars, playing guitar, and cooking fantastic food in his spare time. You can reach Alex on Twitter: @stevanovic_alex

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