Until recently, most businesses operated based on a traditional structure, with employees reporting to work from 8 to 5.

But now, many businesses have begun experimenting with remote work, with people all around the globe working on different aspects of the business. This allows managers to access the best talent without geographical limitations.

If you hire a remote team, you’ll need to find the best project management software to make sure everyone is on track and projects are moving along as planned. 

What Are Project Management Tools? 

Project management tools are programs that teams install on their computers in order to stay connected. Most of these tools facilitate collaboration by letting members share files, send instant messages, or assign tasks to one another. Some of them also help track time or progress on a given project. 

Project management tools come with different features. As a business owner, you first need to decide what your needs are for project management. That way, you can easily skim through your choices and find the one that best suits your needs. 

Project Management Software for Your Business 

Here are some of the best project management software to help you work efficiently with your teams: 

1. Asana 

Price: Free for a maximum of 15 members; $8.33 per user per month for Premium version 

Asana lets you work anytime, anywhere and still manage the work, projects, and tasks that your team members are working on. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Easy to use layout: The simple layout makes it easy even for beginners to use. 
• Task Assignment: Easily break down a project into specific tasks and assign them to your team members. Once you finish a task, you can mark it as completed and cross it off your to-do list. 
• Grouping Tasks into Projects: You can make a timeline for a project by grouping tasks into one project. 
• Team Viewing: Easily check on each team member’s progress and also review milestones. 
• Project update notification: You can also opt to get notified about any updates to a project

2. Basecamp

Price: $99/month for unlimited users (FREE for teachers and students)

One of the first project management programs, Basecamp’s modern design resembles a social media network, making it a favorite among many project management teams. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Projects function: This allows you to manage the work of multiple users. 
• Message boards: The message boards allow you to discuss projects and ideas, and collaborate within the app. 
• Project performance reporting: You can easily see where someone is on a project. 
• Separate client dashboard: If you need to update a client on where you are, you can use the separate dashboard specifically designed for showing to clients. 
• Notifications: Know immediately when someone messages you on Basecamp through email and desktop notifications. 

3. Monday.com

Price: $14/month for the first two users

Monday.com offers one platform for all your project management needs.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Fully customizable: Monday.com allows you to customize your workflow based on your needs.
• Cloud-based storage: The cloud-based project management tool lets managers be transparent with their teams.
• User-friendly: Monday.com’s drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy for anyone to learn how to use the platform.
• Time-tracking feature: Monday.com also includes a time-tracking feature to make it easier to check the hours that your team has put in.

4. Scoro

Price: From $26 per user per month 

Scoro boasts all the features you may need to manage projects, including project folders and tasks, team collaboration, contact management, a system for quotes, and even billing and reporting tools. 

Key Features and benefits: 

• One-page project management: Scoro keeps everything you need on one page, which can save you time looking for important info. 
• Distinguishing between billable and non-billable work: You can easily see which jobs are billable and non-billable, which allows you to issue an invoice quickly. 
• Budget creation: You can make budgets for projects and see how the actual costs fare against the proposed budget.
• Configurable statuses: You can easily indicate whether a project is still a work in progress or if it has been completed, as well as tag it by department, type, etc. 
• Planner for assigning tasks and scheduling work: You can easily see your entire team’s workload, deadlines, potential overcommitments, and availability in their schedules.
• Shared team calendar: The shared calendar makes it easy to schedule meetings and link events to projects and customers. 
• Financial papers automation: You can automate recurring invoicing as well as set reminders for late invoices. 
• Multi-currency rates: If your business hires remote workers from around the world, you can set custom currencies with Scoro.

5. Podio 

Price: From $24 per user per month 

Named by PC Mag as the Best Online Collaboration Software in 2016, Podio lets your teams work in sync through processes, content, and conversations structured together in one tool. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Task Assignment: You can easily assign tasks to team members, attach large and encrypted files, as well as have team discussions
• Automated systems: You can automate your sale pipelines, budget tracking, workflows, and other routinary tasks; 
• Visual dashboards: Podio’s visual dashboards give you a quick overview of the company;
• Workflow programming: You can set conditions such as if-this-then-that for workflows, such as instructing the app to create a task automatically when a given item is created. 

6. Workzone 

Price: $24 to $44 per month

Workzone is a bit more high-tech than beginner tools, but still simpler than MS Project. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Personalized to-do lists: Easily create to-do lists for each individual on your team 
• Tasks with subtasks: Create subtasks within the umbrella task. 
• Access permissions: You can set permissions to give only certain users access to projects, files, or tasks (this includes clients). 
• Gantt Charts: Gantt Charts allow you to see the status of different tasks quickly.

7. JIRA Core

Price: $10 per month for up to 10 users, $75 per month for 15 users, and $300 per month for 50 users 

Jira helps you plan, track, and manage your software team, allowing you to release more great software.

Key features and benefits: 

• Core Board: The JIRA Core display lets you quickly view the status of issues in your project and identify what needs to be prioritized next.
• Project milestones: You can add milestones to reach for every project in order to stay on track.
• Centralized communication: Have discussions with your team that you can easily track within JIRA. 
• Real-time reporting: JIRA Core helps you improve your team’s performance through the visual data displayed in real-time.
• Designed for software development teams: JIRA is one of the best IT project management tools. 

8. Notion

Price: $8 per user per month 

Notion markets itself as the “all-in-one workspace,” with note-taking capability, a compilation of information, and a system for organizing projects and tasks. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Personal Weekly Checklist: Having a weekly checklist helps you see at a glance all that needs to be done. 
• Note-taking capability: This added feature makes Notion a cut above other tools, as you can easily write notes within the app itself. 
• Drag and drop editor for a task board: The drag and drop features makes it easy to move tasks around. 
• File sharing: Easy file sharing makes collaboration among team members easy. 

9. Trello

Price: Free for personal use, businesses pay $9.99 per user per month 

Trello boasts of being a fun way to organize projects and plans. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Butler built-in workflow automation: Set up triggers that are rule-based to help automate tasks and due dates. 
• Simple task management: Trello features boards, lists, and cards that are very easy to use. 
• List organization: You can organize your lists by date or by priority. 
• Commenting capability: You can easily collaborate thanks to its commenting feature.

10. Active Collab

Price: Self-hosted version starts from $499, cloud version starts at $25 per month 

Active Collab can connect with more than 2,000 apps to help you automate your work and be more productive. 

Key features and benefits: 

• Time-tracking and invoicing: Active Collab lets you track billable hours in different projects, and the simplified invoicing process lets you send invoices directly from ActiveCollab.
• Timeline for planning: This helps you prioritize tasks and improve time estimates for predicting project outcomes.
• Shared team calendar: This makes collaboration easier, as you can see updates when they come up and share feedback with one another; 
• Collaborative text editing: This function makes Active Collab great for teams to collaborate, including @mentions to make communication clearer. 

What Software Do Project Managers Use?

The software that project managers use depends on the kind of activities that their teams are doing. Most often, they will need a time tracking software and a file sharing software. Some project managers want to have everything in one software to make it easier for everyone on the team, while others use multiple software.

How Do You Compare Project Management Software?

The first thing you need to understand when choosing project management software is your needs. What kind of activities will you need your team to be doing? What kind of files will you be using, or how will the workflow be moving from one person to the next? Based on your answers, you can choose the different software that meets those needs.

Then, you can compare the subscription price to the benefits that you can get from each software. If one software is more expensive than another, check what added benefits you can get and decide if you feel the added price is worth it.

Choosing the Best Project Management Software

Again, as you run your business, your specific needs will determine which project management software will work best for you. Be sure to note down what you want in terms of overseeing your teams and encouraging team communication. 

From there, you can choose which tool to try: and don’t be afraid of trial and error, sometimes it takes time for you to find the best fit for your team! 

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• Top 8 Online Time-Tracking Tools: Improve Your Process and Productivity with Accurate Time Management
• The Best Presentation Software: 8 Great Tools for Creating Striking Visuals
• 41 Marketing Automation Tools: The Best Software for Growing Your Business
• 17 Best Webinar Software Programs