Despite being one of the less well-known project management software solutions out there, Wrike is as commendable as providers like Monday. In this Wrike review, we cover pros and cons, top features, pricing, and how it compares to top rivals to help you decide if it’s the best choice for your specific needs.
Wrike Pricing
Discounting their free plan, Wrike project management software starts at just $9.80 per month, with ample options for scaling needs. Here’s how the plans compare:
Free | Team | Business | Enterprise | Pinnacle | |
Starting Price | Free | $9.80 | $24.80 | Custom | Custom |
User Limit | 5 | 25 | 200 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Version | Free plan | 14-day trial | 14-day trial | 14-day trial | 14-day trial |
Task/Project Limit | Limited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Time Tracking | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Project Views | Multiple — Gantt charts, bar graphs, lists | Multiple — Gantt charts, bar graphs, lists | Multiple — Gantt charts, bar graphs, lists | Multiple — Gantt charts, bar graphs, lists | Multiple — Gantt charts, bar graphs, lists |
Automation | ❌ | 50 | 200 | 1,000 | 1,500 |
Custom Fields | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Approvals | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Templates | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Security | Permissions and encryption add-ons | Permissions and encryption add-ons | User, folder, and project permissions and encryption add-ons | 2FA and password policies | 2FA and password policies |
Integrations | 400+ including Excel | 400+ including Skyvia | 400+ including Gmail | 400+ including Salesforce | 400+ including Teams |
Wrike Features
From a host of charts, graphs, and lists for optimal project management to an AI assistant that’s a cut above other providers, Wrike delivers several stand-out features. Here’s what we found most noteworthy during our Wrike review:
Analytics
The analytics space is currently a $57 million-dollar industry, and Wrike doesn’t disappoint when it comes to providing the latest in analytics functionality.
The platform truly stands out with its beautiful visual dashboards that allow you to track active, overdue and completed tasks alongside team member responsibilities and project due dates.
In fact, you even get advanced analytics, where you can track your benchmarks in configurable analytics and create custom reports based on your KPIs. Plus, your dashboards are shareable.
When it comes to reporting, we also loved Wrike’s interactive widgets that you can use to visualize key data. The widgets are super easy to use — just drag and drop them wherever you need.
With so many reporting and analytics features on offer — users who are new to project management software may find the steeper learning curve here overwhelming.
However, for teams with plenty of project management and software experience behind them, Wrike’s advanced analytics and reporting features are a huge plus.
Multi Views
Wrike gives you several ways to view your data, too. You get color-coded charts, bar graphs, and lists to help you easily conceptualize all your data from a single dashboard.
Like other providers like Smartsheet and ClickUp, you can use Wrike to create interactive timelines using their Gantt Charts for total visibility into our project timelines, teams, and dates.
During our Wrike review, we found it was easy to jump between different views, from Gantt charts to tables, you just need to hit the relevant tab in the top left corner.
Automations
Like many other great project management tools, Wrike offers several automation features. You can use Wrike’s rule-based automations to automate workflows to help keep your team on track.
In addition, you can also automate status transitions, reminders, messaging, integrations, and loads more. We were particularly impressed with how easy these automations were to set up.
You can automate Slack instant messages to inform colleagues of the next step in a workflow once a task has been completed, for example – one of the many opportunities to eliminate mundane manual tasks.
AI Tools
9 out of 10 leaders believe that AI will give their company a competitive advantage, and many project management tools — from Monday to ClickUp now offer AI tools.
Luckily, Wrike’s AI solution doesn’t disappoint, either. Wrike’s Work Intelligence AI is an amazing tool that you can use to streamline your workflows, create content, and brainstorm ideas.
In particular, we like how you can create smarter workflows by using Wrike’s AI to make suggestions based on past activities, for example, but where it really shines is in its analytic capabilities.
Wrike AI uses machine learning to analyze your data and help you identify any potential issues or risks. This makes it a notable strength among AI assistants in this category.
Wrike Integrations
Wrike offers over 400 pre-built integrations (that’s double the integrations tools like Monday offers). Integrations include Power BI, Google Sheets, Skyvia, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams.
To connect your tools, you can use Wrike’s API or Wrike Integrate to connect both on-premise and cloud-based apps to Wrike, automate workflows, and add custom automations.
Wrike Integrate allows you to connect as many apps as you need and configure them based on your needs.
Wrike Customer Reviews
Wrike has favorable reviews across trusted review sites. Over 3,000 reviewers give it a 4.2 rating on G2, with many praising its visual dashboard and how responsive the team is to feedback.
You’ll also find ample love for Wrike’s AI tool’s functionality and the freedom on offer with the many integration options – where users have zero limits on how many tools they integrate with.
Overall, there’s a lot more to love than there is not to like about Wrike, but as with any of the best project management apps, it’s not perfect. The biggest potential flaw is the learning curve.
New users note that it’s not the easiest to navigate, and while we didn’t find it hard to navigate during our Wrike review, it was as simple as the Monday interface, for example.
Overall, though, there are free resources and fantastic customer support, and really, something like ease of use varies from person to person. Nevertheless, you can try it for free, which is a big plus.
What is Wrike Good for?
Wrike stands out when it comes to delivering risk analysis via AI, though — making it a brilliant choice for businesses that deal with risk, where mistakes can lead to bigger repercussions.
As Wrike may have a steeper learning curve than some other platforms, it may not be the best fit for users new to project management solutions.
Overall, though, Wrike is easily among the best project management software solutions on the market, despite its few shortcomings. We’d recommend reading on to see how it compares to rivals for more.
Wrike vs Top Competitors
How does Wrike compare to top competitors like Awork and Monday? Let’s take a look at how it fares against the best Wrike alternatives:
Wrike | Monday | ClickUp | Smartsheet | Teamwork | Awork | |
Best For | Powerful AI capabilities | User-friendliness | Collaboration + free tools | Spreadsheet-style project management | Client collaboration | Agencies, consultants, and tech teams |
Starting Price | $8/user/month | $9/user/month | $7/user/month | $7/user/month | $5.99/user/month | $9.80/user/month |
Free Version | Free plan | Free plan + 14-day trial | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | 14-day trial |
Compatibility | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows |
Top 3 Features | AI, multi-view dashboard, unlimited integrations | AI assistant, intuitive dashboard, seamless email sync, and tracking | Time tracking, real-time reporting, whiteboards for team brainstorms | List-based project management, visual dashboard, Solution Center with add-ons and templates | Budget tracking, portfolio management, and client view | Time tracking, invite freelancers, clients, and partners, and Kanban boards |
Wrike vs Asana
While Asana is a better-known project management tool, their features don’t differ much. Both offer a host of task management views, impressive templates, and custom charts and workflows.
However, when it comes to views, Wrike takes the edge — offering Gantt charts and folder views where Asana doesn’t. Both are great for collaboration, too, but Asana’s free plan is its core USP.
Asana’s free plan is incredibly hard to beat. It allows you to onboard unlimited users and offers more functionality than most (including some basic paid plans).
Both platforms are solid options, and both have slight learning curves. Unsure? We recommend checking out the review below for a full overview of Asana before deciding.
Read More: Our Full Asana Review for 2024
Smartsheet vs Wrike
Smartsheet is another key Wrike alternative and it’s a great choice if you and your team are used to managing projects in Excel. Both offer a host of views, great automations, and 200+ templates.
With a focus on sheets, Smartsheet is super easy to customize. You can easily customize sheets based on tasks, workflows, users, and loads more. It’s not just a sheet replacement, though.
There’s a lot more that adds to its popularity. For example, unlike Wrike, which reserves features like nested projects and automations for higher-end plans, Smartsheet offers this on lower-end ones.
Recommended Read: Our Full Smartsheet Review for 2024
Wrike vs Monday
Both Wrike and Monday offer a beautiful range of visual dashboards, intelligent automations, and AI assistants that can optimize your workflow and take on the more mundane tasks.
As we mentioned above, some reviewers note a bit of a learning curve with Wrike, though. Monday, on the other hand, is super intuitive and easy to use.
However, if you’re looking for an AI assistant that can analyze your data and alert you to risks or mistakes — Wrike’s in-built AI may make the platform the best option for you.
Read More: Our In-Depth Monday Review
How We Test Project Management Tools
We’ve been an authority on all things tech for the past 13+ years, testing and reviewing products spanning verticals, including project management software, CRMs, and VoIP services, for example.
Alongside our own analyses, where we put the tool through its paces, testing its features, app interfaces, and even the support on offer, we also analyze other user reviews.
All of this combined, having tested numerous others within each vertical, allows us to offer insight into where each tool shines and where it falls a bit short, giving our readers everything they need to know to make informed decisions on the best tool for their needs.
How to Choose the Best Project Management Solution
Here’s what to weigh up when choosing project management software for your team:
Here, you need to consider if you can balance price with features. Do the products and plans you can afford give you everything you need to successfully manage your projects?
Next up, look at the features your team needs to ensure that the plan and the provider you opt for will allow your team to get the most out of their day-to-day roles. The best project management software offers multiple views, automations, and customization options.
How easy will it be to scale with the provider? Can you afford the higher tier plans, and can they offer what you need? While one solution may be the best option for your team at one point in time, it may not be the best fit for you as you grow.
Usability is everything. If your team can’t use your software, or it requires a ton of timely and expensive training and onboarding to use, then it may not be the best option for you. For this, we recommend making full use of any free versions before committing to a paid plan.
How many integrations do you get with your chosen solution? This varies from provider to provider and, often, integrations can be limited depending on your plan, too. Be sure to note what apps your business uses daily to ensure the provider you choose has them.
What kind of customer support does your platform come with? Is support delivered via email, chat, or over the phone? Is support 24/7? Another thing to factor in is the online documentation on offer.
FAQs
Are Wrike and Asana the same?
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References
- Business Analytics Software Market Statistics (Allied Market Research)
- Fueling Partner Growth and Profitability in the Era of AI (Microsoft)