The 11 best project management software tools, compared

Your marketing team has been begging for a calendar view, but the engineers need an agile board, and you’re overwhelmed by ops requests buried in Slack threads, email chains, and one old sticky note. If you’re choosing project management software your whole team will use, it needs to solve every team’s pain points.

We compared 10 project management software platforms based on how they operate, what they cost, what their AI features do, and what limitations they have.

Asana wrote this guide. We last reviewed every tool in October 2026 and held Asana to the same criteria as the rest, including the areas where another type of tool does better.

What counts as project management software

Project management software is a digital tool that helps teams organize, track, and complete work on a single centralized platform. It replaces scattered spreadsheets and emails with a shared workspace where teams can collaborate, assign tasks, set deadlines, and monitor progress in real time.

Project management software typically includes features like an API for custom integrations, as well as:

• Task management: Create, assign, and track individual tasks.

• Project timelines: Visualize schedules with Gantt charts or calendars.

• Team collaboration: Share files, comments, and updates in one place.

• Reporting dashboards: Monitor progress and identify blockers.

• Workflow automation: Reduce manual work with automated processes.

How we compared these tools

In order to narrow down the list, we included software that has at least the following features:

• Team-level project planning and tracking

• Multi-user collaboration on projects

• Reporting visible to project managers

• Availability in the US as of the evaluation date

To keep this list focused, we excluded single-user apps and platforms that are exclusively focused on automation.

We also evaluated each tool against the same criteria. For project management, we focused on:

• Planning and views: Whether the tool offers the list, board, timeline and calendar views your team plans in, without re-entering work to switch between them

• Collaboration: How clearly it shows who owns each task, what’s due and what’s blocked, across people and across teams

• Reporting and portfolio roll-up: Whether managers can see status across several projects in one place, rather than rebuilding it in a spreadsheet every week

• Automation: Which routine handoffs and updates the tool runs on its own, and which plan you need for them

• AI: What the AI actually does in your workflow, what data it can reach, whether a person approves its actions, and whether it’s included, capped, or charged extra

• Integrations: Whether the software connects natively to your existing tech stack or if you’ll need custom workarounds

• Administration and security: The permissions, SSO and compliance controls IT will ask about, and how much ongoing admin the tool needs

• Adoption effort: How quickly a team that didn’t choose the tool can start using it

• Total cost: The combined per-seat price of the plan that includes the features you want, including AI and add-ons

To come to our recommendations, we checked vendor documentation and published pricing, then reviewed the claims against third-party reviews. Instead of a ranked list, we came to conclusions about who each platform is and is not best for. A focused team of 50 won’t love the same platform as a team of 150 people with multiple cross-functional projects.

The 11 tools at a glance

Here's a shortlist of the best use cases and what sets each tool apart.

What each platform’s AI does, and whether you pay extra

Some project management software includes AI features within plans, while others have individual AI add-on plans. Many give you a metered limit and offer more tokens for a fee if you go over it. It can be difficult to get a sense of what using a platform’s AI will actually cost, so we’ve provided example token costs where possible. Here’s the breakdown of AI capabilities.

Features to look for in your project management tool

Every project management system has different features, but make sure your platform has at least these basics.

The 11 best project management tools, compared

1. Asana: best for cross-functional teams that need to connect daily work to strategic milestones

Visibility can be the stickiest part of cross-functional work because accountability dies without it. Asana is a work-management platform that gives every task an owner, due date, and a connection to strategic priorities.

• Where it's strong: List, board, timeline and calendar views switch planning styles without re-entering data. Portfolios and Goals (Advanced) roll multiple projects into one status view. Agencies can create branded client portals and manage their clients, with related projects, all in one place.

• Where it falls short: Reviewers on G2 sometimes struggle to use subtasks in the way they need, and some note that if you’re not careful, it’s easy for the volume of information and notifications to become overwhelming.

• Best for: Cross-functional teams that need to connect daily work to strategic milestones. 56% of Asana’s reviews on G2 come from the small business category. Ease of use and task management are the top-mentioned strengths across 13,000+ ratings.

• G2 Rating: 4.4 | 14,024 Reviews

• Choose something else if: Teams that want to build fully custom internal software apps or databases.

• How it uses AI: All of Asana’s AI features are built into the main platform. AI Teammates can serve as writers, analysts, work intake specialists, and project managers. Asana Dash pulls your incoming communications, meetings, and project priorities into one dashboard.

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Starter is $10.99

  • Advanced $24.99

    • Needed for Portfolios, Goals, and resource management

  • AI Teammates, Dash, and AI Studio are included at both.

• How it bills AI: AI is included with plan tiers and metered using monthly credits. AI Studio Plus and Pro are paid add-ons on top. 

Feature and pricing information from: https://asana.com/pricing

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

2. Monday.com: best for teams where each department needs its own workflow

If your teams are married to fundamentally different ways of working, monday.com lets them build their preferred setups themselves. It’s a visual, column-based platform that non-technical teams can customize.

• Where it's strong: The drag-and-drop interface gives teams control over how their work is tracked. A large template library makes it easy to set up and customize quickly. 

• Where it falls short: Some reviewers on G2 note that monday.com has limited API and MCP options and that the platform can be a little unintuitive at times.

• Best for: Non-technical teams that prioritize visual management and need deep customization. Departments that need a high degree of autonomy.

• G2 Rating: 4.7 | 19,335 reviews

•  Choose something else if: You need consistent executive reporting across many teams, or goals that roll up from the work beneath them.

• How it uses AI: monday.com has multiple built-in AI features. Sidekick is a conversational assistant, Magic generates workflows from plain-language prompts, and Agent Builder creates no-code agents. Agents work inside one board at a time.

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • The free plan is capped at 2 seats.

  • Basic is $9

  • Standard is $12 

  • Pro is $19 

• How it bills AI: AI features are metered, with different amounts of credits consumed for different tasks. Basic AI calls, like chatbot responses, cost 8 credits.

  • Basic: 1,000 credits per month

  • Standard: 2,000 credits per month

  • Pro: 3,000 credits per month

Feature and pricing information from: https://monday.com/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

3. ClickUp: best for consolidating several tools and low entry

Small teams tend to build collections of inexpensive tools that do a single thing. ClickUp puts tasks, docs, chat, whiteboards, and AI in one app. It’s built for teams that want one unified tool but many different functions.

• Where it's strong: You get a lot for the seat price. Time tracking, docs, whiteboards, chat, and screen recording are included from the $7 Unlimited plan. With unlimited storage, you can choose when to upgrade based on features, not volume.

• Where it falls short: AI features require a separate subscription, which is an additional fee per user per month that adds up quickly. Some reviewers note that all the features can be overwhelming, and it’s difficult to learn.

• Best for: Small and midsize teams that want to replace several tools. 

• G2 Rating: 4.6 | 14,871 reviews

• Choose something else if: You need predictable AI costs or consistent reporting across a large organization without dedicated admin oversight.

• How it uses AI: ClickUp Brain answers questions, drafts content, and searches across the workspace. Super Agents can perform actions like coding, design, writing, and automatically manage project priorities.

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Unlimited is $7

  • Business is $12 

• How it bills AI: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Brain adds $9 with 1,500 credits per month

  • Everything AI adds $28 with 5,000 credits per month

  • Additional credits cost $10 per 10,000

Feature and pricing information from: https://clickup.com/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

4. Jira: best for software teams running sprints

 Jira has been the default for agile engineering work for two decades, and it sits at the center of Atlassian’s wider product suite. It’s also a broader project management tool that multiple teams can use.

• Where it's strong: Jira is built for how engineers work, with agile reporting (velocity, burndown, and cumulative flow charts) built in. Teams already using Confluence or Bitbucket get links between tickets, docs, and code without extra setup.

• Where it falls short: Reviewers on G2 note that non-technical users may find the platform overwhelming, and more complex than necessary for simple tasks.

• Best for: Engineering and technical teams, especially those already on Atlassian tools.

• G2 Rating: 4.3 | 8,022 reviews

• Choose something else if: Marketing, operations, or other non-technical teams need to plan and run their own work in the same tool.

• How it uses AI: Atlassian’s AI, Rovo, summarizes issues and drafts content. Agents in Jira can be assigned work like a teammate, and teams can build agents. Admins can audit agent activity and control what they can access.

• Pricing: Per seat per month. Different numbers of seats and annual billing can change prices.

  • The free plan covers up to 10 users

  • Standard is $9.70 for up to 100 seats with 25 credits per month

  • Premium is $19.60 for up to 100 seats with 70 credits per month

• How it bills AI: AI is included from Standard with no separate per-seat charge. Using Basic Intelligence, each billable event costs 10 credits.

Feature and pricing information from: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

5. Trello: best for small teams that want simple visual tracking

Trello is a visual task board from Atlassian. Work is organized into boards, lists and cards, and teams move cards across columns as work progresses. It has a clean, easy to use interface, but the simplicity can hold teams back as they grow.

• Where it's strong: Trello is the fastest tool on this list to adopt. It’s as intuitive as a cork board. A small team can start tracking work quickly with no administrative burden.

• Where it falls short: The simplicity runs out as projects grow, with one G2 reviewer noting that Trello is “good for small teams, not growing teams.” 

• Best for: Small teams and simple workflows that need visual tracking with almost no setup.

• G2 Rating: 4.4 | 14,063 reviews 

• Choose something else if: Your projects have dependencies, your teams are deeply cross-functional, or leadership needs unified status reporting.

• How it uses AI: Trello’s AI can summarize task descriptions and comments, as well as generate checklists and manage due dates. You can also have the AI create entire boards.

• Pricing: Per seat per month. Different numbers of seats and annual billing can change prices.

  • Standard is $5

  • Premium is $10

  • Enterprise starts at $17.50 with a 50-seat minimum. 

• How it bills AI: AI is included in all paid plans.

Feature and pricing information from: https://trello.com/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

6. Smartsheet: best for spreadsheet-driven PMOs

Teams working their own ways is great for small companies, but what if you need centralized budget governance? Smartsheet is designed to be used by centralized PMO and finance teams to track budgets, schedules, and resources. It’s built on spreadsheets and many features cross over from Excel.

• Where it's strong: Spreadsheet users will find all the complexity and power they need in a platform designed for collaboration. Column formulas and cross-sheet references let a PMO roll individual sheets up into portfolio reports and dashboards. Add-ons such as Control Center and Data Shuttle handle governance and data imports without needing integrations.

• Where it falls short: This is true enterprise software that requires training to use. Some reviewers on G2 find Smartsheet difficult to learn, and lean on other software to replace functions that aren’t customizable enough.

• Best for: PMO and finance teams that want a governed, spreadsheet-based system and have the budget and admin time to build it. 

• G2 Rating: 4.4 | 22,768 reviews

• Choose something else if: You need approachable software for teams that don’t regularly use spreadsheets. It may also be out of scope if you don’t require dedicated organizational governance for multiple teams.

• How it uses AI: Smart Assist answers questions and builds formulas and reports inside sheets. Smartsheet also connects to outside AI assistants through an MCP server. Some G2 reviewers mention that the AI features are lagging behind other platforms.

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • There’s no free plan but there is a 30-day free trial

  • Pro is $9

  • Business is $19

• How it bills AI: Smart Assist and Smart Columns are included on every paid plan. AI formula generation and AI data analysis require Enterprise.

Feature and pricing information from: https://www.smartsheet.com/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

7. Notion: best for teams that want docs and trackers in one place

Notion acts like a wiki. Starting from block-based documents, it can hold all the context teams need in a living database. You can view boards in multiple formats like calendars, Kanban, and Gantt. For active workflow management, it features forms, data syncing, and team spaces.

• Where it's strong: Documentation is where Notion shines. Flexible databases let teams build almost any tracker without code. Everything in a project, from meeting notes to product specs stay connected because docs and databases share one structure. 

• Where it falls short: Multiple reviewers note that Notion can slow down with large-scale pages or databases, and that it lacks some project management capabilities.

• Best for: Teams that want their docs, wikis and lightweight trackers in one flexible workspace and are happy to build their own setup. 

• G2 Rating: 4.6 | 13,874 reviews

• Choose something else if: You need goals, portfolios or consistent reporting across many teams without designing the system yourself.

• How it uses AI: Notion AI writes and summarizes content, searches across the workspace and connected apps, and runs agents. Custom Agents can connect to outside tools such as Slack, GitHub and HubSpot. 

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Free plan for individuals

  • Plus is $10

  • Business is $20

• How it bills AI

  • Free and Plus get only a limited trial allowance

  •  Business plan + AIO is $20 

  • Custom Agents are metered, 1,000 monthly credits cost $10

Feature and pricing information from: https://www.notion.com/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

8. Airtable: best for teams building their own record system

If you find that there’s a lot of friction between the solutions your teams need and workflow governance, Airtable might be the answer. It’s a no-code app builder that you can use to build custom AI-powered workflows and internal apps. It’s also a relational database that can act as a single source of truth for all of the customization built on top.

• Where it's strong: Airtable’s data modeling is the best on this list, enabling it to replace scattered spreadsheets with a centralized system. You can build internal workflow apps without help from an engineer. Compliance coverage is also strong.

• Where it falls short: Airtable’s customizability could be a downfall if teams aren’t prepared for it, with G2 reviewers noting that it can be overwhelming. Being able to build anything means that systems can become overly complex and difficult to scale.

• Best for: Ops and RevOps teams building custom internal tools and record systems on structured data.

• G2 Rating: 4.6 | 3,300 reviews

•  Choose something else if: You need out-of-the-box, standardized workflow coordination across teams.

• How it uses AI: AI app building is the core feature. Omni codes solutions for users from plain-language prompts. With AI agents, Airtable users can search for data and scan large datasets for issues.

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Free account includes up to 5 editors and 500 AI credits per editor, per month

  • Team is $20 and includes 15,000 AI credits per paid user each month

  • Business is $45 and includes 20,000 AI credits per paid user each month

• How it bills AI

  • Creating apps with Omni is unlimited and not metered

  • Other AI features are included and metered by credits

Feature and pricing information from: https://airtable.com/pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

9. Wrike: Best for cross-department portfolios that run on formal request intake

If you’re juggling multiple teams and need a centralized view, Wrike is designed for formalized project management. Rather than a platform for individuals to build what they need, Wrike helps you create a formalized structure where you take requests and distribute solutions. 

• Where it's strong: It’s one of the most complete tools on this list for a dedicated PM team with time tracking, budgets, proofing and approvals built in. Cross-tagging lets one task appear in several folders without a duplicate record, which helps manage cross-functional workflows and complex task dependencies.

• Where it falls short: Wrike has a very high learning curve and requires dedicated project management and systems governance in place. Advanced users on G2 note that they’re sometimes held back by customization limitations.

• Best for: PMO, creative, and marketing teams that need deep project controls and will invest in setup and training.

• G2 Rating: 4.2 | 4,544 reviews

• Choose something else if: You want fast adoption or don’t have dedicated, centralized administration. You want simple per-seat pricing without block billing and add-ons.

• How it uses AI: Wrike includes a Copilot to help users navigate the platform and AI insights to gather intelligence from raw data. Agent capabilities include task triage, scaled automatic task assignment, reporting, and compliance checks. There’s also a conversational agent builder.

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Free plan for basic features

  • Team is $10

  • Business is $25

  • The Pinnacle plan, including budgeting, is by quote

• How it bills AI

  • AI features depend on the plan and AI Elite features are metered

  • AI agents are available on the Business plan and above

Feature and pricing information from: https://www.wrike.com/price-vag/ 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

10. Adobe Workfront: best for enterprise marketing and creative operations

Adobe Workfront is an enterprise work management platform focused on the needs of creative teams. It connects campaign planning, creative production and approvals to Adobe Creative Cloud, making it a great option for large-scale marketing.

• Where it's strong: Workfront is the best on the list for creative and marketing teams. Integration into the broader Adobe ecosystem means creative workers have everything they need in one suite. 

• Where it falls short: Workfront’s strengths are concentrated in the needs of marketing teams and creative work. It may not be an ideal solution for other teams like engineering, ops, or product development.

• Best for: Enterprise marketing and creative teams that are already standardized on Adobe Creative Cloud.

• G2 Rating: 4.1 | 1,238 

• Choose something else if: You don’t plan to use other Adobe products, or you need solutions for teams other than marketing, design, or other creative disciplines.

• How it uses AI: AI can automatically check work against brand guidelines and manage workflows. AI agent collaborators can be assigned tasks and perform work. Connect any AI tool through MCP.

• Pricing: Not published and by quote only. There are three plans, Select, Prime, and Ultimate

• How it bills AI: AI pricing is not provided, and there aren’t many details about which AI features are included in each plan.

Feature and pricing information from: https://business.adobe.com/products/workfront.html 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

11. Microsoft Planner: best for teams embedded in Microsoft business tools

Planner is part of Microsoft’s broader suite of tools, so it natively integrates with other Microsoft apps. Basic task and collaboration functions come built into Microsoft 365 subscriptions, and you can upgrade the plan for more advanced Planner features, or to include Microsoft Project for portfolios, critical path functions, and advanced dependencies.

• Where it's strong: Planner has powerful integrations with other Microsoft tools like Outlook and Teams, letting you orchestrate communications, tasks, and schedules without a lot of app switching. Users on G2 say it’s intuitive and lightweight.

• Where it falls short: Some users on G2 find Planner too simple for their needs, lacking in advanced reporting and automation functions.

• Best for: Teams looking for an intuitive way to manage multiple Microsoft tools in one place.

• G2 Rating: 4.2 | 238 reviews

• Choose something else if: You don’t use Microsoft 365 already, or you need highly customizable tools.

• How it uses AI: AI features come from the Microsoft 365 with Copilot plan. This allows you to incorporate Copilot into Planner for AI assistance with templates, task generation, progress tracking, and status reports. 

• Pricing: Per seat per month, billed annually.

  • Basic features included with Microsoft 365.

  • Planner Plan 1 is $10

  • Planner + Project is $30

• How it bills AI: The Microsoft 365 with Copilot plan is $30 per user per month, billed annually.

Feature and pricing information from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/planner/microsoft-planner-business-plans-and-pricing 

Pros and cons sourced from reviews on G2.

Why use project management software?

Project management software brings together work, teams, stakeholders, and goals in one place. It helps your teams focus on important work, reduce busywork, and connect every team member to the sources of truth they need. Effective project management keeps your teams aligned on mission-critical goals and improves accountability across the organization. 

How to choose the right project management software for your team

Finding the right software starts with understanding what your team needs. Focus on how the tool will fit into your team's current and future workflows. Some software is built for large enterprises with strict governance and defined workflows, and others for agile teams that need to remove blockers from focused work. Start by defining your current situation and what roadblocks you have.

Define your criteria

Use this table to build your criteria by writing down your situation and how a tool should fit in.

Match the criteria to your situation

Now, prepare to make tradeoffs. No single tool will hit every box for every team, so weigh your constraints and priorities. What features are tied closest to revenue, and which teams experience the most friction?

Choosing the tool your team will still be using next year

Workflow software should give each team the customization they need while supporting the governance you require. Most tools can help you keep work on track, but the right platform will help you resolve specific bottlenecks: budgeting issues, context loss between teams, or work that is disconnected from OKRs. For many businesses, that platform is Asana.

Create a campaign in Asana, and see each task, across every team and dependency, from a single view. If a handoff gets stuck, ask Asana Dash for the best next step and automate it with an agent.

FAQs about project management software