10 Best Task Management Software Reviewed for 2023

Project and task management software works as much more than a to-do list, and it’s become a necessity for almost all businesses that have to work with project deadlines. Software management packages can help you track progress, map out the scope of projects, delegate subtasks, and much more. However, picking the right software for your business can be challenging due to the wide variety of options that are available today.

In this article, you’ll find our selection of the best task management software programs for this year, based on their features, pricing, and integration options, among other key factors. We’ll also help you to pick the one that’s best for you and to make an informed decision. Read on to discover why Monday.com placed first as the best project task management software solution for this year.

The Best Software for Task Management Ranked

Here’s our list of the top 10 task-managing apps this year, to help guide your search:

1. Monday.com – Best task management software for SMBs with detailed project tracking, CRM, and app integrations. Highly scalable with a free forever plan.
   
2. Wrike – AI-powered platform makes it easy to automate tasks, assign roles, and manage projects across large organizations. Outstanding project budgeting feature on the paid plan.
3. Smartsheet – Spreadsheet-based task management software with workflow automation, project templates, and integrations with Outlook, Slack, MS Office, and more. For SMBs with complex organizational needs.
4. ClickUp – Value-packed, free project management software offering collaboration features, a real-time whiteboard, customizable tasks, and an integrated email function.
5. Teamwork – Superb time management software. Track billable hours, task progress, project health, and resource allocation in great detail.
   
6. Resource Guru – Affordable workload management app with a capacity planning tool, vacation tracking, team calendar, and other features.
   
7. WorkOtter – Simplified task management app with project and portfolio management tools, custom workflows, and advanced tracking. Lets external partners connect and receive updates on projects.
   
8. ProWorkflow – Ideal for project managers in mid-to-large teams. Oversee all projects via visual dashboards and tracking, create a searchable database, and protect project data with 128-bit encryption and daily backups.
   
9. Zoho Projects – Budget-friendly option for freelancers and startups. Features in-depth task creation, resource utilization, interactive Gannt charts, and task dependencies to keep you organized.
10. Asana – Feature-rich collaboration and task management software with workload boards, timeline tracking, and a Kanban-style dashboard. Generous free plan with unlimited tasks.
    

Top 10 Task Management Software Reviews

Let’s dive into the details of each piece of software on our list to help you pick the one that’s best suited for your business.

1. Monday.com – Overall, the Best Task Management Software

Monday.com is an excellent piece of project and task management software for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) thanks to its intuitive interface and scalable workflow solutions. Besides task management, Monday.com also offers advanced tools for customer relationship management (CRM) and software development.

Monday.com is a versatile platform and is ideal for teams that need a customizable and flexible project management tool, thanks to its conversation panels, knowledge base, live webinars, and other features that set it apart from the competition.

This task management software for teams allows you to plan and execute your projects and includes detailed reports and project tracking mechanics. You can track various metrics such as project velocity, burn rate, and project budget, and the software’s reports system will help you identify project risks and issues.

Key Features

• Software Integrations – Integrate your existing tools into your workflow management to increase the software’s functionality and your team’s productivity.
• Gantt Charts – Monday.com features an exceptionally easy-to-use Gantt chart view that ensures you’re meeting deadlines successfully. It also provides a comprehensive overview of your project’s timelines, dependencies, and task ownership.
• Dependencies – An invaluable feature for large projects that provides a clear overview of dependencies, allowing your team to complete tasks on time and that helps you to avoid delays and mistakes.

Pricing

Monday.com’s free forever plan is ideal for freelancers or teams of two, and it allows you to create a campaign, manage your projects, track your leads, and more. You are limited to one dashboard and 500MB of storage, but that should be enough for tackling one project at a time for small teams.

Its Basic, Standard, and Pro plans offer 5GB, 20GB, and 100GB of storage, respectively, and allow for various integrations, viewer-only access, and priority support, among other helpful features. To purchase a premium plan, you must pay for at least three seats. You can also check out our full review for Monday.com for more details.

2. Wrike – Project Manager With AI-Powered Work Intelligence Features

Wrike is a robust task management software tool for teams that can serve businesses ranging from solo workers to massive enterprises. It has a free plan for unlimited users, and its paid plans are generous with advanced customizable features.

Wrike’s communication tools, automation features, and templates make it the ideal choice for large organizations, where it can serve the different needs of IT, marketing, creative, and product management teams. It is easy to use and intuitive, making it ideal for teams taking on new members and for driving collaboration between departments – as well as providing a personal task management software solution.

Key Features

• Budgeting – Wrike offers an outstanding budgeting feature with its Pinnacle paid plan, making this element of project management easy to handle.
• Role Assignment – With Wrike, you can assign different roles to your team members, stakeholders, and freelancers, including Limited, Full, Editor, and Read-Only.
• Dependencies – This feature allows your team members to complete tasks in a set order, which you can manage via Wrike’s Gantt chart view. Although the Gantt chart isn’t available on the free package, users can still use the Table view to set dependencies.

Pricing

Wrike’s free plan lacks various important features, such as the Gantt chart view, guest access permissions, and file proofing, all of which are unlocked with its paid plans.

Its Team plan is a good starting point for smaller teams of 2 to 25 people, and it has helpful features on offer such as dashboards, automation, custom workflows, and more. However, you’ll need one of its more expensive plans to get the most out of Wrike and its work management tools – making it an ideal choice for large teams.

3. Smartsheet – Leading Spreadsheet-Based Project Task Management Software

Smartsheet is ideal for SMBs with advanced organizational needs as it has outstanding team communication tools and can provide deep insights into your organization’s working patterns and productivity. This platform allows your team to plan projects, automate workflows, collaborate, and access real-time reports, among other features.

This award-winning task management software, used by over 80% of Fortune 500 companies, allows for excellent cross-team communication – and it provides a wide range of customization options to suit your organization. This means that your workers will have an easier time finding relevant information, leading to increased productivity and enhanced employee performance.

Key Features

• Workflow Automation – This core feature cuts down on repetitive, manual processes and ensures that delays and data entry errors do not stall tasks.
• Project Templates – Starting a project on an empty sheet sounds daunting, but Smartsheet helps you kickstart your projects with its impressive range of templates, which you can work on and customize.
• Numerous Integrations – Smartsheet’s wide range of integrations can place it at the center of your workplace tech stack – making it one of the best time management tools available. Smartsheet can connect with Outlook, Slack, and Microsoft Office, among other tools, helping your whole team to save time when tackling projects.

Pricing 

Smartsheet offers a solid free plan for up to two users with 100 automations per month, along with dashboards and reports, as well as Gantt charts and Grid, Calendar, and Card views.

Its Pro plan is ideal for small business teams of up to 10 users and provides a platform to initiate, execute, and manage work in real-time. Mid-size and large organizations will benefit from its Business and Enterprise plans, with more advanced features to hand, such as proofing and document building, as well as on-demand training and professional support.

4. ClickUp – Exceptionally Well-Priced Project Management Tool

ClickUp has one of the best free forever plans for small groups and affordable premium plans for SMBs and organizations with multiple teams working together. Its free forever plan offers a suite of features but limits your use of them – though it remains one of the best free task management software solutions out there.

ClickUp’s Agile project dashboards, which allow teams to collaborate on backlogs, sprints, roadmaps, and more, set it apart from the competition. They also allow you to streamline bug and issue tracking and offer Agile project templates to help your team members make full use of the product from the get-go.

ClickUp’s real-time reporting features can help you improve your resource management and allow you to keep track of progress and set goals for your projects. Your team members can sort tasks by priority and receive notifications on task updates in real time, improving your team’s coordination and reducing confusion in large departments.

Key Features

• Collaboration – ClickUp has well-designed collaboration features, including a chat feature that helps teams to stay up to date with project developments. It also has a real-time visual canvas called Whiteboard, which users can use to visualize their ideas and share them with the rest of the team.
• ClickApps – The ClickApps toolset allows you to send emails without leaving ClickUp, to seamlessly shift between connected tasks, and to automate repetitive tasks, among other things.
• Task Customization – Your team members can customize tasks by editing priority settings or creating custom fields. This feature allows you to format text, and add comments and task descriptions, for example.

Pricing

ClickUp has an outstanding free forever plan, which will be sufficient for some small businesses, freelancers, and solo workers. However, its paid plans offer a versatile range of features, such as subtasks, which make ClickUp stand out from the competition.

ClickUp’s Unlimited paid plan is a budget-friendly task management solution that allows you to grant unlimited read-only access for freelancers and guests, saving you from additional costs.

5. Teamwork – Superb Task and Time Management Software

Teamwork is one of the best time management tools, and it excels at team collaboration and risk management. This project manager ensures your team spends its billable hours where you need them, thanks to its native time tracking on all plans, including on its free plan.

Teamwork has exceptional team and task progress overview features, such as Reports – which display metrics on overall project health and the pace at which tasks are being completed against the designated deadline. Its other features, such as the Utilization tab and Project Health, offer a comprehensive view of your team’s progress, making Teamwork a highly effective piece of team and project management software.

Key Features

• Risk Entries – A feature that allows users to write up project risks and designate their probability and consequences, and document mitigation plans. This enables other team members to work on tracking and closing risks in real time.
• Workload – An outstanding resource management tool that you can use to see your team members’ availability, deadlines, and estimated task completion time. It allows you to reassign work from individuals who are over capacity, passing it on to team members who have time for additional assignments.
• Teamwork Chat – You can use this integrated instant messaging service – which has a familiar feel to Microsoft Teams and Slack – to drive team collaboration.

Pricing

Teamwork’s free plan has all the crucial project management features for a small team of up to five people, but it limits you to 100MB of storage and fewer Gantt chart features.

Its paid plans are reasonably priced, and its Starter plan significantly increases your storage to 50GB and adds plenty of useful features for time and task management.

6. Resource Guru – Cheap Project Management App

Resource Guru helps you avoid unrealistic workloads and confusion with its reliable team collaboration and schedule management tools. It allows you to manage projects, workers, and resources from one platform, for as little as $4.16/per user/per month.

Resource Guru gives your full team clarity and visibility with its calendar, which reduces issues caused by human mistakes. It provides a quick and helpful overview of your projects with details like tasks, clients, meetings, and overall progress.

Key Features 

• Resource Management – With Resource Guru, you can keep all your team members regularly updated, thanks to its customizable and fast scheduling.
• Capacity Planning – An invaluable feature that allows you to plan projects with a clear overview of your team’s availability and workload capacity.

Pricing 

Resource Guru has no free plan, but it does offer a 30-day free trial that allows you to try its services out risk-free.

Its basic paid plan, Grasshopper, offers unlimited projects and clients and includes various advanced features such as advanced clash management, vacation tracking, personalized dashboards, and more. Its more expensive plans provide in-depth reports and an approval workflow, making them ideal for larger projects and companies.

7. WorkOtter – Task Management Tool Ideal for Portfolio Management

WorkOtter is an intuitive task management app, ideal for large organizations because of its project and portfolio management tools.

This online task management tool allows you to manage complex projects with its to-do lists, tracking board, customizable reports, interactive visuals, and other helpful features. WorkOtter’s custom workflows and portfolio and project tracking features allow you to prioritize projects, create portfolio-level issues, and capture internal and external requests.

Key Features

• Finance Management – Ensure the project fits the company’s budget and finishes on target by tracking time and expenses.
• Reports and Dashboards – Users can create personalized reports and dashboards and share them with their clients, colleagues, executives, and vendors.

Pricing

WorkOtter’s free plan allows executive sponsors to connect to your project and receive email reports conveniently. This task management software platform doesn’t offer a free plan for project management, though, and it requires a 10-user minimum for its paid plans.

Unlike other project management tools, WorkOtter charges you based on your position, making it a role-based subscription model that starts at $10/per user/per month for limited team members.

8. ProWorkflow – Comprehensive Task Management for Large Teams

ProWorkflow is ideal for midsize and large businesses, and comes with intuitive project templates and productivity and time tracking tools, among a range of helpful features.

This task management software allows managers to oversee their projects via its various dashboards, which include Kanban and Gantt views. Besides project management features, ProWorkflow enables you to manage everything from your billing and headcount to your day-to-day activities.

Key Features

• Backups and Security – Your project data has a daily backup enabled with 128-bit encryption in SAS70 Type II compliant data centers, ensuring its safety. This applies to all ProWorkflow plans.
• Contacts – You can add your workers, clients, executives, and contractors to your Contacts list and attach informative notes to help you keep track of everything. This allows you to create a searchable database for your team that contains all the critical information that they will need.

Pricing

ProWorkflow doesn’t have a free plan, but it offers a 14-day free trial that you can use to try its services without risk. It also allows free access to your ProWorkflow for clients and contractors with all plans and lets you create unlimited tasks and projects. 

The Advanced paid plan contains helpful administrative features, invoicing, and quotes plugins, and comes with up to 50GB of storage per user, making it ideal for large companies.

9. Zoho Projects – Great Project and Task Management Software for Startups

Zoho Projects is a low-cost project, task, and time management app, which is ideal for startups, freelancers, and smaller teams on a budget.

It features in-depth task creation and task dependencies – with options for a start and end date – and you can assign multiple people to the same task instead of creating duplicates. Its interactive Gantt chart also informs you if your task dependencies are too lengthy for your overall project health, making Zoho Projects ideal for time management.

Key Features

• Customizable Dashboard – You can configure your dashboard to display all relevant information regarding ongoing projects, such as budgets, statuses, and task progress.
• Resource Utilization – Get a clear overview of your team members’ workload in a timeline view that displays different colors that indicate if your workers are unassigned, adequately assigned, or over-assigned.

Pricing 

Zoho Projects offers a limited free plan for up to three users and two projects, meaning that other task management tools on our list will be a better choice for free task management software.

Its Premium and Enterprise paid plans are cost-effective and offer 100GB and 120GB of storage space, respectively. These plans allow you to manage as many projects as you need, and you can try them at no cost, thanks to Zoho Project’s free 10-day trial.

10. Asana – Best Free Task Management Software

Asana offers a comprehensive free plan that lets you create unlimited tasks and projects and provides unlimited storage, with a 100MB limit per file.

This task management software for teams excels at team collaboration and project tracking, even with its free version. You can swap between Kanban-style cards, workload boards, and calendar views to analyze your project and task progress.

Key Features

• Timelines – Asana lets you visualize task dependencies and project goals straightforwardly, ensuring that everyone is up-to-date and reducing the potential for confusion in the team.
• Task Dependencies – This task management tool lets you set up relationships between tasks and set priorities, reducing the chance of failing to complete tasks on time.

Pricing 

Asana’s comprehensive free plan can serve smaller teams and freelancers long-term, thanks to its lack of restrictions and integrated advanced features.

However, for teams with more than 15 users, Asana’s Premium plan offers invaluable features for project tracking. These include timeline views, full reporting tools, and custom workflows. You can also take advantage of its 30-day free trial and try Asana today.

Top Task Tracker Apps Compared

Let’s see how the best task management software picks compare to each other based on their pricing, free plans, integrations, and usage:

What is Task Management Software?

Task management software improves your ability to identify, track, and organize different tasks that belong to a project. It helps you create to-do lists, assign tasks to team members, and take an overview of task progress and project status.

Besides giving you an in-depth view of your projects, task management tools are ideal for team collaboration and custom workflows.

Key Benefits of Using a Task Managing App

Here are some of the benefits that task-managing apps can bring to your organization, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency for your team:

Saves Time

Having a single platform that contains all the relevant project information reduces the risk of miscommunication and delays. Centralizing task tracking and setting task dependencies means your team members will always know their priorities, and they will have a clearer set of expectations. Besides saving time, centralized management also helps to boost profitability and performance, according to the Project Management Institute.

You can also track comments and conversations regarding specific tasks, quickly bringing new team members up to speed about what needs to be done, rather than briefing everyone individually.

Improves Processes

The best task management software allows you to identify bottlenecks and issues in your projects. For example, one team member might be over-assigned with complicated tasks, while another team member is unassigned. Task-managing apps can help you to identify these kinds of issues and react accordingly, improving your use of resources.

Offers Integrations and Cross-platform Compatibility

You don’t have to try to manage all your business processes from a single task management app, as you can integrate your existing tools – such as CRMs and accounting software, like Salesforce and QuickBooks – into your new platform.

The best task management software is cloud-based, meaning you can access your projects and tasks from any browser or device.

Improves Team Collaboration

The best task management software includes multiple communication channels to enable fast and clear messaging that outclasses emails, phone calls, and meetings, creating a healthier and more productive working environment.

In addition, workflow automations can reduce the number of repetitive chores that team members and managers are responsible for on a day-to-day basis, meaning that you and your team can focus on more demanding tasks. Team members won’t have to check in with their managers for updates at every turn, and managers can get a clear overview of task progress in real-time.

How Do I Choose a Good Task Management Software Package?

Choosing the best task management software for you and your team depends on how you work best. Some task-managing apps offer unlimited read-only viewing for executives and clients, which can be useful for teams that report to stakeholders.

Most task-managing apps offer different views, including Gantt charts, Kanban, cards, and grids, but you should consider whether accessibility or specific advanced features are most important to you.

Here are some crucial factors to consider when choosing task management software for your organization:

Features

The best project-tracking software includes versatile features that can help you manage tasks and projects. If your team consists of seasoned professionals, look for task management software with flexible views and dashboards that everyone can tailor to their needs.

Basic task management tools that allow you to manage work assignments, create to-do lists, and track billable hours should be unlimited, so be wary of apps that limit usage for essential features.

Ease of Use 

Freelancers, solo workers, and smaller teams should generally avoid overly-complicated task management software packages that require substantial training to master. It’s instead worth looking for a project manager with an intuitive interface and tools such as straightforward drag-and-drop lists.

Larger organizations should consider task management software with features such as interactive Gantt charts and real-time productivity reports, however. These may have a moderate learning curve but can offer invaluable insights into project and task progress, which will be worth the investment when working at scale.

Free vs. Paid Plans

Using a free or paid plan comes down to your team’s needs, size, and budget. Freelancers and solo workers can find much of what they need in free plans provided by various top task management tools. Larger businesses are likely to need to opt for more expensive plans, however.

If you are a manager who needs to access and analyze large quantities of data and would benefit from access to detailed reporting then you will likely need to pick at least a mid-tier plan, as free plans usually don’t offer these features.

If you are running a small team, you should also avoid free plans that come with limited storage and workflow automation features. Workflow automation reduces time spent on repetitive manual tasks and data entry, resulting in increased productivity. This makes paid plans a wise investment in the long run.

Third-Party Reviews

User reviews contain valuable information, and you should look for genuine first-hand reviews from companies similar to yours. This can help you make an informed purchase and avoid making the same mistakes as organizations that have previously criticized a task management tool. 

We’ve thoroughly examined the user reviews for each task management software product on our list and summarized our findings with our pros and cons.

Task Creation

As the most basic function of a task-managing app, task creation should be intuitive and quick, while providing all the detail you need. The best task management software also lets you create custom fields, allowing you to convey important information to your workers that they can easily understand.

Additionally, look for task management software with task dependencies that can significantly reduce confusion and miscommunication in your team. Task dependencies ensure that the right tasks are prioritized, allowing your team to work on them stress-free.

Visualization

A well-designed Gantt chart or Kanban board can simplify even the most daunting and complex projects. Having a visual representation of your progress, issues, and efforts can help your team members as they tackle an ongoing project.

A Kanban board will simplify how you view individual tasks and task progress and lets you make easy drag-and-drop changes. Gantt charts are invaluable for managers as they can provide a large amount of information at a glance, including start and end dates, task ownership, and completion percentages.

Task Management Software FAQs

Ilijia Miljkovac

Ilijia Miljkovac

Ilija Miljkovac is a Technopedia writer with 7 years of experience covering all things tech. He writes about everything from cybersecurity to ISPs, ensuring businesses and customers are educated about the latest products and services. He's written for publications such as Business2Community, TheTechReport, Comparitech, and more. When he's not maniacally hacking away at his keyboard, Ilija spends his time either hiking in nature or holed up in his apartment gaming.

All Posts by Ilijia Miljkovac