For a small business, nothing is more important than making sure everyone on the team is on the right track.
For anyone who has ever managed a project, they are familiar with deadlines, limited resources, critical stakeholders and demanding clients. To deliver projects within the deadline and budget, teams need to pen down information, plan deadlines, and share documents and individual members of the team need to be in continuous communication with one another.
So the challenge is: how do we go about organizing people and resources – and preparing for unforeseen challenges?
The solution is to use project management software. But how do you choose the one that’s most relevant to your business?
In this article, we have compiled a list of 10 great project management tools for small businesses that should help you and your team work much more efficiently.
Best Project Management Tools for Small Business
TeamWave
Best for small to medium-sized businesses
TeamWave is designed to be more than just a project management tool. It is an all-in-one, integrated platform for CRM, Project Management & HRMS. The platform enables users to manage tasks and projects, track time, organize contacts, and generate reports for their business.
TeamWave is extremely easy to use and does not require extensive training or tutorials. Collaborate with your team, clients and even vendors. The platform also integrates with a wide range of applications such as Google Suite, Quickbooks, Dropbox, Slack, and MailChimp.
Pricing: Starts at $39 /Month. For UNLIMITED Users.
PROS
- Affordable monthly costs
- Easy to use
- Well-designed UI
- Customizable feature set
- CRM
- Numerous Integrations
CONS
- Not suitable for large businesses
Asana
Best for managing day to day business
Asana is a web and mobile-based project management platform that specializes in handling the workflow of your team by allowing team members to create tasks, set deadlines and track the progress of each task.
In Asana each task can have subtasks, followers, attachments, discussions, and tags. This platform is great if you already have a business with a growing team. With depth analytics and tracking options, you can quickly see how your team is progressing and how your budget is being spent before the completion of a project.
Pricing: Starts at $9.99/user/month
PROS
- Affordable monthly costs
- Easy to use
- Well-designed UI
- Customizable feature set
- CRM
- Numerous Integrations
CONS
- Not suitable for large businesses
LiquidPlanner
Best for rich tracking and resource management
LiquidPlanner is a project management software with a distinctive scheduling methodology that helps you see what is happening in real-time. It is a comprehensive project management tool for individuals, teams, and businesses that need to take control of their important workflows and leave nothing to chance.
LiquidPlanner offers tools for projects to remain on time and on budget with its time and expense tracking features. It also provides in-depth analytics and plans start at $45 per month depending on the number of users.
Pricing: Starts at $45 per user per month
PROS
- Excellent customer service
- Rich Tracking
- Good Resource management
- Good public reputation
CONS
- Steep learning curve
- Expensive
- Poor mobile apps
Teamwork Projects Review
Best for managing both your customers and your team
Teamwork Projects is a cloud-based project management tool that helps you to plan and manage your company’s growth and bring clarity to the chaotic pipeline. With a simple and intuitive design, optional kanban view, integrated calendar, TeamWork is truly designed to be the everyman’s project management software.
One of the main features of Teamwork Projects is its central file management system where users can access all of their files, attachments, and comments from a central location.
Pricing: Starts at $69. Unlimited users.
PROS
- Reasonable monthly cost
- Easy to use
- Varied integrations
CONS
- Buggy
- Inconsistent Customer Support
Zoho Projects
Best for communication
With rich communication features and excellent time-management tools, Zoho Projects helps you in planning projects, collaborating with employees and clients, keeping track of time, managing documents, and generating charts and reports.
In Zoho Projects, teams work on a central platform where they can keep track of progress, discuss ideas, communicate easily and stay updated. It also has smart, social-oriented features like forums, design wikis, and built-in instant messaging that help to nurture open lines of communication.
Pricing: Starts at $45 per 15 users per month
PROS
- Communication Features
- Time-management tools
- Straightforward interface
- Reasonable monthly cost
CONS
- Not ideal for large teams.
- Inconsistent Customer Support
- Poor support materials
Basecamp 3
Best for small teams
Basecamp has always been one of the best project management tools for small businesses. It offers various features such as — message boards, to-do lists, documents, use file storage, schedules, communication in group chats, direct messages, and more.
One of the main USP of Basecamp is the client portal feature which allows you to forward clients to-do’s, messages, emails, and more in one single area. It also lets you send email links to people who are not on Basecamp.
Pricing: Free plans. Paid: $99 per month/unlimited users.
PROS
- Powerful search and useful filters
- Intuitive user interface
- Reasonable monthly cost
- Risk and issue tracking
CONS
- Limited feature set
- No integrations
Wrike
Best for integrating with other apps
Wrike is an online project organizer software that provides customizable dashboards in which you can adjust to your different projects and be flexible with your software development. With Wrike’s timeline feature, you can just drag and drop the task to set dependency and visualize the workflow.
Wrike created a digital space for status updates on projects, resource allocation, and group communication. It is a robust and versatile tool designed to improve the working speed of a team or a group. It also integrates with a wide range of applications such as Google Drive, SurveyMonkey, Slack, and HubSpot.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $9.99 per user per month.
PROS
- Easy and quick setup
- Great feature set
- Varied integrations
CONS
- Poorly-designed user interface
- Inconsistent Customer Support
- Difficult to use
Trello
Best for very small businesses
If money is an issue for you, consider Trello, a free online tool that can set up a project with Kanban cards representing different tasks and different boards for different progress of the project.
Trello offers the basic collaboration tools of a project management platform. However, the lack of key advanced features such as reporting tools or billing and time tracking features are few reasons that users are seeking Trello alternative platform.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $9.99 per user per month (when paid annually)
PROS
- Easy to use
- Kanban boards
- No learning curve
CONS
- Rudimentary feature set
- Not suitable for large businesses
Proworkflow
Best for enterprise-level work management
ProWorkflow is a web-based project management software that is intuitive, versatile and extremely easy to use. It has comprehensive project management features with time tracking and hierarchical control. It enables users to manage tasks and projects, track time, organize contacts, and generate reports for their business.
One of the key characteristics of ProWorkflow is its ability to promote better communication and boost efficiency in day-to-day operations. It also offers an excellent built-in timer which is reinforced by similarly well-conceived timer and desktop widgets.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $10 per user per month (when paid annually)
PROS
- Excellent customer service
- Well-designed user interface
- Easy to use
- Open API.
CONS
- It’s not suited for companies aiming for a flat org chart.
- Limited integrations
Clarizen
Best for comprehensive project management with social engagement
Clarizen is the first tool that merged project management with social engagement. It is a comprehensive work management and project management platform that centralize the tasks, communication, and scheduling that happen around project work.
Aside from creating stories, planning sprints, tracking issues, and shipping up-to-date software, teams can also generate reports, and create their own workflows. Though Clarizen is easy to start using, it’s a bit expensive and less slick than other options.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $60 per user per month (when paid annually)
PROS
- Automated processes and workflows
- Budget tracking and expense management
- Includes chat app
- Open APIs.
CONS
- Not particularly fast, slick, or responsive.
- Very expensive
- Steep learning curve
- It’s not suited for small businesses.