The 10 Best Workflow Management Software in 2024 Compared

More and more companies are implementing the best workflow management software in 2024 to streamline document workflows, coordinate tasks between teams, or automate workflow processes — and with many free workflow management tools available, there’s no reason to fall behind this trend.

I’ve extensively tested and reviewed workflow management systems over the last few months, and I’ve compiled this list of the top ten providers. I focused on factors like pricing, free plans, automations, and third-party integrations to help you find your ideal solution.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. The 10 Best Project Management Workflow Software Ranked
2. The 10 Best Workflow Automation Tools for Businesses
3. The 10 Best Workflow Management Tools Reviewed
4. What is Workflow Management Software?
5. The Benefits of a Workflow Management Tool
6. How to Choose the Best Workflow Solution 
7. Workflow Software FAQs
8. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. The 10 Best Project Management Workflow Software Ranked
2. The 10 Best Workflow Automation Tools for Businesses
3. The 10 Best Workflow Management Tools Reviewed
Show Full Guide
4. What is Workflow Management Software?
5. The Benefits of a Workflow Management Tool
6. How to Choose the Best Workflow Solution 
7. Workflow Software FAQs
8. References

The 10 Best Workflow Automation Tools for Businesses

The 10 Best Workflow Management Tools Reviewed

When it comes to the right workflow automation software for your business operations, the best tools let you optimize workflows, streamline processes, create automation templates, and more.

To help you select the best workflow automation software for your organization, I’ve reviewed the top solutions based on factors such as ease of use, feature set, value for money, and support.

1. Monday.com — Best Workflow Automation Software Overall

Monday Work Management offers an all-in-one workflow management software system, integrating CRM, sales, and work management. In particular, it focuses on streamlining processes, setting goals and strategies, and navigating projects.

Monday’s main selling point is that it lets you optimize workflows, helping you automate repetitive tasks and streamline operations.

Monday provides both pre-built templates and a platform to support automated workflows and customize them to your specific needs.

Every aspect of your workflow can be entered into Monday, with no coding knowledge needed, thanks to a drag-and-drop interface that’ll let you set up basic workflow automation within minutes.

Support provided by Monday.com includes self-help articles, online forums, 24/7 support for paying customers, and regular webinars to assist users in learning how to automate workflows and maximize their use of the software. It also offers a wide range of integrations with popular third-party apps, and you won’t be surprised to learn that Monday also tops my list of the best project management software available.

Monday offers a range of pricing options to cater to different needs. The Free plan is perfect for individuals and includes up to two seats, three boards, templates, unlimited docs, and basic mobile apps. The lowest paid plan is $9/user/month with a minimum of three users.

Read More: Our Full Monday Review

2. ClickUp — Best Workflow Management Software for Small Businesses

ClickUp offers a wide range of features to help you efficiently plan, track, and collaborate on projects.

The platform stands out for its rich feature set, versatility, and features for individuals and small teams due to its generous free plan, which includes unlimited tasks.

ClickUp’s core workflow management tool encompasses task management, time management, and collaboration tools. Users can choose from various project tracking views, such as list, board, calendar, or Gantt views, and build custom workflows with different colors, themes, and descriptions.

Time management capabilities include creating schedules, organizing calendars, managing capacity, and tracking time. It’s also easy to facilitate collaboration across departments with features like commenting on tasks and documents, real-time chat, and file sharing.

An unusual feature is ClickUp’s in-app video recording, which is available on all plans. This allows your team members to send screen recordings as messages, eliminating the need for lengthy email chains or in-person meetings and enabling clear instructions for upcoming tasks.

ClickUp’s free plan includes numerous valuable features, such as collaborative documents, whiteboards, Kanban boards, unlimited tasks, and sprint management. Its paid plans enhance customization options and are geared toward larger teams or teams working in collaboration.

Read More: Our Full ClickUp Review

3. Wrike — Best Workflow Automation Software with Unlimited Free Projects

Wrike is a versatile and collaborative workflow automation software, suitable for businesses of all sizes. Its user-friendly dashboard and enterprise-grade tools make it easy to manage both one-time projects and ongoing tasks.

The software offers various views, including Kanban, Calendar, and Table, allowing users to choose the most suitable visualization for their projects. It also provides customization options with custom workflows specifically tailored for marketing and creative teams and professional services.

Wrike stands out with its Work Intelligence suite, powered by machine learning. This suite enables proactive project risk management, automatic task creation, streamlined collaboration, digital asset management, and efficient communication through automated response suggestions.

It also integrates with over 400 productivity apps and tools, expanding its capabilities and allowing users to connect their working technology stack.

Wrike supports unlimited projects and subtasks in its free account. While Wrike’s pricing starts at $9.80 per user per month with a two-user minimum, its comprehensive features and ability to support both project management and collaborative work make it a valuable investment. Wrike also supports multiple languages.

Read More: Our Full Wrike Review

4. Smartsheet — Best Workflow Automation Software with a Simple and Efficient Design

Smartsheet is one of the best workflow automation tools for those looking for a simple and efficient design. While its interface resembles a spreadsheet, it offers much more functionality and versatility than just that and allows users to tailor it to their needs, making it suitable for a wide range of projects and industries.

It’s a highly flexible and customizable platform. You can create sheets with various formatting options, such as drop-down menus, contact lists, dates, checkboxes, and symbols, making data more dynamic and accessible.

The conditional formatting tool allows for easy highlighting of important information. Smartsheet also lets you create automated workflows and supports web form input, proofing, and approvals, which enhance workflow efficiency.

However, some users may find the spreadsheet-like interface challenging to navigate, so it may not be suitable for everyone. Nevertheless, for those willing to invest time in learning the app, Smartsheet can be used for workflow management, task tracking, CRM, and online collaboration.

Smartsheet offers a range of pricing plans, including a free forever plan and affordable paid plans starting at $7 per month.

Read More: Our Full Smartsheet Review

5. Resource Guru — Best Workflow Automation Software with Resource Management at Every Level

Resource Guru is a workflow management tool that offers a range of features to help teams schedule and manage projects effectively, with an intuitive user interface. It also offers integration with other calendars, allowing teams to stay up-to-date with personal dashboards and daily scheduled emails.

The platform also provides insightful reports, allowing project managers and team leads to analyze utilization rates across projects and clients for more accurate forecasting. With real-time tracking of team availability and time off, it can help you avoid overloading team members with unrealistic workloads.

The flexibility and customization options offered by Resource Guru allow you to track tasks, allocate resources, and gain visibility into team members’ availability and roles quickly and easily.

Its drag-and-drop functionality allows for quick and seamless scheduling adjustments, ensuring that teams can adapt to changing project requirements on the fly.

Resource Guru has three different pricing plans, which are reasonably priced compared to other workflow management tool platforms on this list.

6. Teamwork — Best Cloud-Based Workflow Management Tool

Teamwork is a cloud-based project management tool that combines traditional project management with time tracking and financial functionalities, making it a powerful option for businesses, particularly those following an agency or client services model.

The process management tool caters to agencies and users can tailor their workflows and client permission settings according to their needs. The platform also offers easy-to-use workflow automation, simplifying task management and ensuring smooth progress.

Teamwork’s interface is colorful and user-friendly, offering Kanban, Gantt, and List views, allowing users to organize tasks and projects according to their preferences. The platform’s simplicity doesn’t compromise its breadth of features, though, making it suitable for both technical and non-technical users.

Additionally, the platform includes built-in time tracking, budgeting, invoicing, and expense tracking capabilities, providing a comprehensive overview of project financials.

The product offers integrations with popular tools like G-Suite, Microsoft Office, and Zapier, enhancing its versatility. The platform also provides additional products like Teamwork Chat, Teamwork Desk, and Teamwork CRM, which seamlessly integrate with the core project management tools.

Teamwork is also pretty easy to set up. Their support team offers email and live chat assistance during business hours, supplemented by a comprehensive library of tutorial videos, webinars, and knowledge-base articles. They offer a free forever plan and affordable paid plans starting at $59.99 per month.

Read More: Our Full Teamwork Review

7. Bonsai — Top Workflow Management Software For Freelancers

Bonsai is a cloud-based time-tracking solution that takes only minutes to set up and offers a straightforward user experience, making it easy for freelancers and contractors to create and send invoices to their clients.

Bonsai’s cloud-based accounting and invoicing tools are also particularly useful for helping independent workers keep their small businesses financially organized.

Bonsai’s range of tools is tailored for freelancers and contractors, including time tracking, contracts, proposals, and task tracking. Task management in Bonsai is relatively simple, allowing users to create tasks with descriptions, due dates, and assignments.

Additionally, Bonsai automates the invoicing process, generating pre-filled invoices based on client and project information. It also supports recurring invoices and integrates with payment platforms like Stripe and PayPal.

However, Bonsai’s collaboration features are limited, making it more suitable for one-person teams or coordinating with subcontractors and clients. It lacks advanced project management tools and integrations and is only available in English.

Bonsai offers three pricing plans: Starter, Professional, and Business. The Starter plan is priced at $21 per month and is ideal for freelancers and contractors just starting out.

8. Work Otter — Most Scalable Project Management Platform

WorkOtter is a cloud-based project, resource, and portfolio management software product. It supports different methodologies and best practices while allowing customization to fit the specific needs of organizations.

With interactive Gantt charts, your users can build plans and schedules, track tasks, time, budgets, costs, and risks, and gain broad visibility and control over groups of projects and programs.

The business process and project planning software also excels in portfolio management, allowing users to manage multiple projects and program groupings. It facilitates strategic planning with an interactive workflow map, filters, and a what-if analysis tool. Capacity and demand planning tools provide top-down and bottom-up visibility and financial tools to track time, expenses, and budgets and provide financial reporting.

WorkOtter’s best features lie in its project management and scheduling capabilities. It provides an HTML5 Gantt chart with a drag-and-drop interface, critical path analysis, and support for different planning methodologies such as agile, Scrum, MSP, and waterfall.

Project logs help manage issues, risks, change, support, and actions, and schedules can be published for enhanced visibility with automatic alerts and email notifications.

WorkOtter also offers additional features like built-in messaging, document sharing, dashboards, charts, and reports. It supports integrations with MS Project, Jira, Excel, and ProjectLibre, enabling seamless collaboration and data exchange with other tools commonly used in project management.

But while WorkOtter is a great workflow management tool, it currently only supports English, and international currency support is lacking. It has a very basic free plan that allows you to access reports, but to get the most out of it, you’ll want to try one of the paid plans.

9. ProWorkflow — Best Workflow Management App for Easy Resource Management

ProWorkflow is an online project management platform that lets you create custom workflows and automate tasks through its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface. It serves as a centralized tool for organizing information, tracking activities, and facilitating seamless communication with stakeholders.

The platform has strong project and task management capabilities, allowing for seamless document management, team collaboration, and customizable workflows.

The software offers a single page for centralized access to important project information, including a Project Board view to manage projects and their progress. Users can easily create workflows, add tasks, attach documents, track time, set dependencies, create subtasks, and classify tasks using tags.

The Gantt view shows availability, workload, and task dependencies, while the Kanban board view offers a quick switch between different task views. The configurable user permissions ensure controlled access to tasks.

ProWorkflow allows users to manage staff, clients, and contractors as resources, with comprehensive permission settings and availability checking for efficient task assignment. It makes it easy to monitor these resources thanks to its built-in messaging, discussion forums, email integration, and notification alerts.

It’s known for its user-friendly interface, requiring minimal training for users to get started. The software also offers responsive customer support to assist users in implementing the tool effectively. Its flexibility and modern features make it suitable for diverse teams and companies.

On the downside, I found that ProWorkflow’s mobile apps have slightly limited functionality, with a cut-down contacts list. ProWorkflow offers two plans: the Professional plan and the Advanced plan. The Professional plan is priced at $18 per user per month and includes comprehensive project, task, and time management features.

10. Oracle Netsuite — Great Workflow Automation Tool for Comprehensive Employee Analytics

Oracle NetSuite is a cloud-based business management suite with strong workflow management capabilities. It offers solid customer relationship management features and broad enterprise resource planning functionality that can be easily expanded through additional cloud-based modules.

The workflow automation software provides excellent drill-down capabilities and simple reporting, making it user-friendly and intuitive.

NetSuite’s SuiteFlow Workflow Manager is a standout feature. It allows users to create customized flowcharts for their key business processes, making navigating through tasks and streamlining operations easy. Whether entering data, generating reports, or following specific workflows, the system offers flexibility and adaptability.

The platform’s hierarchical dashboards are easily navigable and provide a comprehensive overview of the system’s functionalities. The dashboards are customizable, allowing users to tailor them to their specific needs and preferences. The inclusion of portlets, or widgets, enhances your working experience by providing quick access to relevant information and data.

Oracle NetSuite also offers integrated CRM features throughout the platform. It covers contact and lead management, sales orders and fulfillments, and marketing automation.

As a workflow automation software, NetSuite can initially be overwhelming, as the UI is a little outdated. The interface contains a lot of information, and the higher the permission level, the more complex it may appear. The help system could be improved, as the natural language search capability sometimes falls short of providing accurate results.

Oracle Netsuite’s price is not advertised openly. Instead, you’ll need to contact Oracle’s sales department to discuss your specific needs. However, Oracle’s tools are generally quite expensive compared to the other providers on this list, with a starting price of $99 per month per user, before taking into account the actual workflow management software.

What is Workflow Management Software?

Workflow management software helps businesses streamline, automate, and monitor their processes. It provides a centralized platform for automated workflows and team collaboration, allowing organizations to optimize their operations and improve productivity.

With the best workflow management tools, businesses can create workflows and visual representations of their processes, defining the sequence of tasks, dependencies, and conditions. This allows for a clear understanding of the workflow and enables easy modifications as needed.

By automating tasks, the software eliminates manual and repetitive work, reducing errors and increasing efficiency. It also enables the tracking of task progress, providing real-time visibility into the status of workflows and allowing for better resource allocation and deadline management. Many of the best project management software solutions also incorporate workflow management.

The Benefits of a Workflow Management Tool

Every business can benefit from implementing a workflow management tool for several important reasons:

How to Choose the Best Workflow Solution 

There are a few factors to consider when choosing the best workflow solution for your business, as no two workflow management tools are built alike. I’ve outlined some of the major ones below.

Workflow Software FAQs