7 Best Project Management Software Tools for Small Teams

Choosing the right project management software for your small business or startup can feel like a nightmare because the stakes are so high: This piece of software will be central to your business operations, and if you make a wrong choice early in the game, it can take a lot of work, money, and employee buy-in to make the switch to another platform later on.

The good news is that many of today’s top tools come with free plans so you can do your due diligence and know what you’re getting yourself into before you commit.

Additionally, today’s best project management software for small teams and individuals is built to scale as your organization grows, so you can rest easy that your software can meet your business’ evolving needs.

What are the best project management tools for small teams?

Choosing project management software is a lot like picking an ice cream flavor – it’s highly subjective. But regardless of your personal preferences, there are a few key things you should look for in a good project management tool: a robust and feature-rich platform, solid customer support, and an established base of satisfied users.

These are the main criteria we used for this list. So with that in mind, here are our favorite project management tools and apps for individuals, small businesses, startups, and small teams:

ClickUp – best for advanced project and task management
Notion – best for advanced note taking and database management
Nifty – best for creating project milestones
Hive – best for fast-moving small teams
Monday.com – best all-in-one project management, CRM, and sales pipeline tool
Paymo – best for project management plus invoicing
Wrike – best for advanced customization and granular data organization
Asana – best for ease of use and minimalistic design

ClickUp

Pricing: ClickUp has a free-forever plan with unlimited tasks and 100 MB of storage. It has paid plans starting at just $5 per team member per month.

Use cases: project managers, sales, marketing, engineering, product, finance, HR, design, IT

ClickUp is a project management software and real-time collaboration tool in one. The software is highly customizable compared to some other project management tools for small teams: It can be used to manage simple projects for individuals or startups, and scaled up to manage more complex projects as your organization grows.

We also recommend ClickUp as one of the best project management software for interior designers.

Features

Save time with automated workflows, recurring tasks, and task templates
Create docs and visual whiteboards and easily attach them to tasks
Collaborate in real time with the chat feature (replaces Slack)
Assign and track tasks
Break complex projects into tasks and subtasks
Bulk edit tasks
Add custom fields
Add comments and action items to tasks
Organize and view projects in many different ways
Get a high-level overview in the reporting dashboard
Set and track measurable goals
Integrates with over 1000 tools
Excellent 24-hour support
Secure and private

Notion

Pricing: Plans start from $8 per month. Notion offers a free trial for teams.

Use cases: project managers, product, design, engineering

Notion is a project management tool for teams of all sizes. Where it really shines is its advanced docs and wiki capabilities, making it a great tool for creating SOPs and training documentation.

If you’re looking for an advanced note taking, database, and tables app, Notion is what you’re after. (If you’re looking for advanced project and task management, ClickUp is a better fit out of the box, as Notion’s task management features are more basic, and the tool may require more “hacking” to use it for project management.)

Features

Create wikis for SOPs, training docs, etc.
Create and collaborate on beautiful docs such as meeting notes
View projects by status or in timeline, Kanban, or calendar format
Assign, prioritize, and track tasks and subtasks
See task dependencies – i.e., when one unfinished task is blocking another and causing a bottleneck
Integrates with Slack, GitHub, Jira, and more
Create templates for team processes such as bug reports, PRDs, etc.

Nifty

Pricing: Subscriptions start at just $5 per month. A free plan (max two projects and 100 MB) is available. Nifty has a free no-credit-card 14-day trial.

Use cases: sales, marketing, product, engineering, client management, IT

Nifty is a project management software with live chat functionality. Users report they love the ability to create project milestones, a feature that is lacking in a lot of project management software for small teams. This feature makes it easy to visualize big-picture goals.

One downside of Nifty vs. ClickUp is that the task hierarchy doesn’t go as deep – for example, you can’t do much else with subtasks other than check them off a list. That said, Nifty has a legion of fans who prefer it as a ClickUp alternative, so it’s a matter of preference.

Features

Organize and visualize project milestones and tasks in Timeline (Gantt chart), Kanban, List, Swimlane, and Calendar view
Collaborate in real time with chat and one-click video calls
Work directly in Google Docs without leaving the Nifty platform
Create wikis, notes, and docs
Get progress reporting across all team activities
Save time with if/then workflow automations
Integrate with Slack, Google Drive and Calendar, Microsoft Suite, GitHub, Zoom, and more

Hive

Pricing: Plans start at $12 per user per month. There is also a free-forever plan for light project management needs for small teams. Get started with a no-credit-card 14-day free trial.

Use cases: marketing, education, design, creative, events, business operations, agencies, nonprofit, startup, remote work

Hive is a project and task management platform with time tracking and hybrid team collaboration features. With its clean and friendly user experience, the software helps fast-moving teams of all sizes to be more productive.

Hive offers a suite of advanced automation features, making it an ideal toolset for high-performing teams and fast-paced work environments.

Features

Delegate and manage complex projects with simple workflows
Save time with advanced automation features and project templates for recurring work
Manage your team with time sheets and time tracking
Collaborate with clients
Easily view team members’ workloads
Control team member permissions
Get an overview of project statuses and your team’s schedule
Customizable dashboard and project analytics
Proof and annotate documents and videos
View projects in Gantt, Kanban, table, calendar, and portfolio view
Set goals and track progress
Manage meetings with Notes and Hangouts
Built-in AI writing assistant
Integrate with 1000+ tools

Monday.com

Pricing: Plans start from $8 per seat per month. There is a free plan for up to two seats. A free trial is available, no credit card needed.

Use cases: project management, software development, marketing, sales, creative, design, HR, operations, product development, IT

Monday.com Work OS is an award-winning project and task management tool with sales and CRM functionality built in. Depending on what kind of team you want to manage (e.g., marketing, development, sales, etc.), Monday has customized tools and features for that specific use case.

Features

Customize and automate workflows with “building blocks”
Consolidate your tech stack with contact and lead management and sales pipeline features
View all your work and connect departments from a centralized dashboard
Collaborate organization wide
View projects in table, timeline, Kanban, chart, and dashboard view
Agile workflows, scrum and Kanban, bug tracking, and sprint dashboards for product and development teams
Marketing features include content calendar and digital asset management
24/7 support
Visualize milestones and dependencies
Integrates with top tools
Collect and manage requests with forms
Collaborate with docs

Paymo

Pricing: Subscription pricing starts at $4.95 for one user. A free plan with limited tasks and clients is available. Paymo offers a 15-day no-credit-card free trial.

Use cases: marketing, creative, web design and development, universities, remote work, business consultants

Paymo is a project management tool for small teams that need time tracking and invoicing capabilities. Using the platform, you can track your team’s time from anywhere: browser, desktop, phone, or tablet. Timesheets can be shared with clients and turned into invoices. Paymo also includes expense tracking, profitability tracking, and the ability to accept online payments from your clients.

Features

Track billable hours, send invoices, and receive payments
Track expenses, profitability, and employee performance
Task management views include Kanban, to-do list, spreadsheet, and calendar
Assign, prioritize, and automate projects
Break complex projects into subtasks
Get a high-level view of all your work with Gantt charts
Manage your team’s availability and time off with a team scheduler
Create custom workflows, project templates, and milestones
Automate time tracking – Paymo can detect what activity you’re working on at your computer
Collaborate with your team and clients with comments, discussions, file sharing, and document proofing
Integrates with Xero, QuickBooks Online, Zapier, Slack, and many more apps

Wrike

Pricing: Plans start from $9.80 per user per month. A free no-credit-card trial is available.

Use cases: professional services, marketing, project management, creative, design, cross departmental, business operations, product management, IT, consulting, Agile software development, engineering

Wrike is an all-in-one project management and collaboration tool. The software lets you organize and customize data on a more granular level than many other project management tools for small teams. For this reason, be prepared for a bit of a learning curve when getting set up with Wrike.

Features

Track billable hours
Collaborate, assign tasks, and define deliverables in real time
Multiple task management methodologies, including Agile and waterfall
Eliminate silos with fully visible workflows
Monitor team progress in real time and identify bottlenecks
Switch between multiple views, including Gantt, Kanban, and timeline
Plan, customize, prioritize, track, and automate tasks, milestones, projects, and workflows
Cross tagging across multiple work streams and departments
Over 400 integrations, including Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Dropbox
Enterprise-grade security
Document proofing and automated approval process
View project progress and dependencies with Gantt charts
Advanced resource management software lets you set priorities, improve team performance, and meet targets

Asana

Pricing: Plans start at $10.99 per user per month. A free-forever plan is available for individuals and small teams just getting started.

Use cases: marketing, sales, operations, product, IT, creative, design, project management, remote work, Agile management

Asana is one of the most intuitive project management platforms for small teams. It’s easy to get started with the platform using a prebuilt template based on the type of team you want to manage (marketing, product, operations, etc.).

You can use it to manage simple projects or connect complex projects across various teams, departments, and functions in your small business. As your team and business grows, Asana is built to scale along with them.

Features

Manage complex projects across teams
Automate workflows and tasks like assigning work and setting due dates
Choose from list, timeline, calendar, Gantt, and board views
Real-time reporting
200+ integrations, including SharePoint, Zapier, and Office 365
Create and track marketing campaigns
Build roadmaps and plan sprints
Manage work requests with forms
Set goals and track progress
See team member workloads

Try Asana for free, no credit card required.

What is the best free project management software for small teams?

The following project management tools offer free plans:

ClickUp
Nifty
Hive
Monday.com
Paymo
Asana
Trello

How do you project manage a small team?

The following tips can make project managing a small team easier:

Break complex projects into milestones, assign them to team members, and estimate the timeline for each milestone (be sure to build in a reasonable buffer).

Use visual tools such as Gantt timelines to manage project schedules, set priorities, automate workflows, view workloads and dependencies, and track your goals. Most of today’s top project management tools have a Gantt timeline feature that is updated in real time.

Put strong systems in place for real-time communication and status updates. Many project management tools have doc sharing, commenting, live chat, and video call features to facilitate team collaboration.

Ensure your systems and processes documentation is readily accessible to everyone on your team. Some project management software, such as Notion, doubles as SOP software.

Can project management software be used in small projects?

Yes, today’s project and task management software is designed to help teams as small as one or two people to plan, execute, and track projects more efficiently and at a lower cost.

What is the best way to track team tasks?

The easiest way to track your team’s tasks is to use a simple project management software for small teams. There are multiple ways you can structure a project inside the software – for example, Gantt timeline, Kanban board, table, calendar, and checklist.

What is the simplest task manager?

Trello and Asana are two of the easiest-to-use task management apps for small teams and individuals.

Wrapping up

To choose the best project management tool for your small team, first determine the features that you absolutely must have – for example, the ability to create project milestones or edit subtasks.

Next, create a shortlist of two to four tools with those features, and sign up for a free trial one by one. Complete a small test project with each tool, and ask your team for their feedback.

It might take some trial and error to get it right, but this is a tool that is going to be central to your business, so your efforts will pay off in the end.

7 Best Project Management Software Tools for Small Teams