Best Project Management Software for Small Teams in 2023 | Top 11 Reviewed

With the best project management software for small teams, you can create customizable dashboards and manage all your teams, projects, and tasks visually and easily, as well as ensure projects are kept on schedule and budget.

From the popular Monday.com to ClickUp, Bonsai, Trello, and others, in this post, we review the market’s best project management software for small teams to help you find the one best suited to your needs and budget. Ready? Let’s dive right in.

Best Project Management Software for Small Teams | Top 11 List

There’s no doubt that there are ample options for small-team project management software. With that said, Monday.com’s features, pricing, ease of use, and customization capabilities make it a clear top pick; here’s how it stacks up against rivals:

1. Monday.com — Best project management software for small teams for 2023
2. ClickUp — Best project management app for small remote teams
3. Teamwork — Best project management software for client account management
4. Asana — Best free project management solution for Mac and PC
5. Wrike — Project management platform with impressive reporting features
6. Bonsai — Solid PM tool for freelancers and small teams
7. TeamGantt — Best project management app for small teams with Gantt charts
8. Trello — Top easy-to-use kanban boards-based PM platform
9. Paymo — Best project management software for small teams with multiple projects
10. nTask — Best cheap project management solution for small teams
11. Nifty — Top simple project management tool for small teams

Choosing the best project management software for small teams isn’t easy. If you manage a small team, you need an easy-to-use, flexible, and cost-effective solution.

This way, it won’t slow down your team or break your budget but will help them reach their full potential and improve your success rates. We’ve factored these and a few more aspects in to rank the best project management software for small teams.

Best Project Management Software for Small Teams | Reviewed

Now that you’re familiar with our top picks, it’s time we delve a little deeper. Below, we’ll explore each of our top solutions in more depth to help you find the one best suited to your business.

From each one’s special features, pricing, and pros and cons, here’s all you need to know about these tools.

1. Monday.com — Overall, the Best Project Management Software for Small Teams in 2023

Monday.com is a user-friendly yet feature-packed project management software that tackles all small business needs. It covers multiple organizational areas, and it’s used by some of the most well-known companies in the world, like Hulu, Uber, Unilever, and Adobe.

Special Features:

• Variety of pricing plans — Monday.com offers five pricing plans, including a free entry-level one. The plans are designed to cater to your needs as your business develops and grows over time.
• Useful integration possibilities — This project manager tool supports numerous integration that can improve your business’s functionality. Dropbox, Slack, Google Drive, Jira, and Typeform are only apps you can use in connection to Monday.com.
• Great knowledge base — Monday.com offers an extensive and comprehensible knowledge base to all its users. Your new employees should find this feature a great helping hand when learning how the platform works.
• Customizable dashboards — This project management solution allows you to build dashboards and track progress according to your needs. It will ensure all your team members are on the same page regarding where you stand and what your next step should be.
• High-quality interface — Monday.com is engineered to be easy to use, even if your prior experience with project management software is limited. It’s well-structured, colorful, and elegant. 

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Basic plan — $8/user/month
• Standard plan — $10/user/month 
• Pro plan — $16/user/month 
• Enterprise plan — Price available on contact 

2. ClickUp — Best Project Management App for Small Remote Teams

ClickUp is an excellent choice of PM software if you’re managing a remote team. It’s one of the project management apps with the most numerous and unique features on the market.

Special features:

• Built-in screen recording — Clickup’s integrated screen recording tool is one of its best assets. It allows you to embed recordings into chat and helps your remote team stay up to date with the latest developments in a few clicks. 
• Easy document integration tools — This platform allows you to embed Google Docs and MS Excel sheets into your project space. This way, ClickUp gives your employees easy access to data and facilitates efficient and effective collaboration.
• Numerous add-on widgets — ClickUp allows you to design your dashboard by adding multitudes of widgets and features to streamline your workflow and communication. 

Pricing:

• Free plan 
• Unlimited plan — $5/user/month 
• Business plan — $12/user/month
• Business Plus plan — $19/user/month 
• Enterprise — Price available on contact

3. Teamwork — Best Project Management Platform for Managing Client Accounts

Last but not least on our top project management software list is Teamwork. If you’re looking for a PM app that facilitates collaboration and client accounts management, Teamwork might be your match.

Special features:

• Unlimited client accounts — Teamwork allows you to tailor clients’ access to your project planning and work progress and improve your collaborative relationship. Via Teamwork, your clients add comments and tasks or just view your work, depending on how much access you give them.
• Integrated billing tool — This PM software makes billing and invoicing clients easy with its integrated billing app. It can create bills based on a flat fee you’ve set or an hourly rate you can calculate with the help of Teamwork’s time-tracking tool.
• Webhook feature — Teamwork’s webhook feature allows you to create automation with external online services and use it for different purposes, from messaging to tracking workflow. 

Pricing: 

• Free forever plan
• Deliver plan — $10/user/month
• Grow plan — $18/user/month
• Scale plan — Price available on contact 

4. Asana — Best Free Project Management Software for Small Teams

Close second to Monday.com, Asana is an excellent small team top project management software. One of its best features, a highly functional free plan, outshines much of Asana’s competition.

Special features:

• Fantastic free plan — Asana offers an unparalleled free plan suitable for many small-team businesses’ needs. It includes up to 15 team members, unlimited projects, and great time-tracking applications.
• Flexibility — This project management tool provides a considerable amount of freedom for project and task organization. You can customize to-do list styles and add subtasks, descriptions, tags, assignees, due dates, and so forth.
• 30-day free trial — Asana has a month-long free trial that can help you make the right final decision about using this software solution.
• Numerous integrations — This software integrates with MS Office 365, Cloud, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Gmail, Adobe Creative Cloud, Clockwise, Slack, and many others. 

Pricing: 

• Basic plan for free
• Premium plan — $10.99/user/month
• Business plan — $24.99/user/month

5. Wrike — Project Management Solution With Impressive Reporting Features

Wrike is another globally popular software solution with over 2 million users worldwide. It boasts several fantastic features, including innovative reporting tools that can help you create customizable reports from multiple projects and monitor your progress hassle-free.

It’s also one of the best IT project management software in the market and fantastic software for all project management needs.

Special features:

• Customizable reports — This project management tool allows users to customize reports according to their needs. Its reporting tools will keep up with data changes across all your projects and tasks and ensure that you, your team, and your collaborators are abreast of the progress.
• Native email integration — Wrike has a unique built-in email integration feature to make your business management easier. You can connect Wrike to your inbox within your profile quickly.
• Personalized dashboard — Wrike’s dashboards give easy access to your workspaces and inbox. They also highlight your most relevant daily and weekly tasks, add widgets, snooze notifications, and much more.
• Handy schedule tool — This software offers a customizable schedule tool that lets you group or divides employees depending on their tasks and adjusts your timeline accordingly.

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Professional plan — $9.80/user/month
• Business plan — $24.80/user/month 
• Enterprise plan — Price available on contact

6. Bonsai — Solid PM Tool for Freelancers and Small Teams

Bonsai is a popular solution for small teams, not just for a simple project and task tracking, but for accounting and tax automation, time tracking, and CRM — all this is on offer with one tool, which means you don’t need to worry about any integrations.

On the whole, Bonsai offers freelancers and small businesses the perfect all-in-one solution for phenomenal value for money to help you and your team stay organized, deliver projects on time, and keep on top of your financials.

Special features:

• Task tracking — Create folders for clients, projects, and tasks, onboard others to collaborate, add comments to tasks, and create reusable task templates
• Time tracking — Bonsai lets you track every minute spent on a task or project, automatically (or manually) add the time to timesheets, and add comments to entries
• Accounting and tax — Automatically track income and expenses, get detailed reports, and tax estimates + track tax deductions, send invoices, and offer clients global payment options
• CRM — Add (and automatically tag) leads and clients, add notes to each contact, and track their position in your workflow + organize all your clients, payments, documents, and projects in one place

Pricing:

• 14-day free trial
• Starter plan — $17/month
• Professional plan — $32/month
• Business plan — $52/month

The above is for annual billing, and monthly subscriptions start at $24/month.

7. TeamGantt — Project Management Platform With the Best Gantt Chart Offer

Gantt charts have become one of this industry’s favorite project management tools. TeamGantt centers around these charts, allowing you to use and integrate them with other project management tools for low costs.

Special features:

• Affordable Gantt charts — TeamGantt, as you’d expect from their name, boasts the best Gantt charts on the market for their price. They’re easy to use, full of useful features, customizable, and saveable.
• Mobile-friendly — TeamGantt offers a mobile application compatible with both iOS and Android devices. So its users can stay in touch with their teams and up to date with their work while on the go.
• Fantastic communication tools — This software solution has tools like a shared team calendar, file sharing, and chat inbox to facilitate your team members’ communication and help them collaborate more effectively.
• Great customer support — Users can contact TeamGantt’s customer support agents via email, chat, and phone. Plus, they can rely on a fairly extensive knowledge base and comprehensive tutorials for help. 

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Standard plan — 19.90/user/month
• Advanced plan — 24.45/user/month 

8. Trello — Top Easy-to-Use Kanban Board-Based Project Management Software

Trello is a highly functional and user-friendly software that has become one of the best small business project management software. As such, it occupies the golden middle spot on our top 2023 project management software list. 

Special features:

• Intuitive interface — Trello’s user-friendly Kanban boards and famous drag-and-drop interface make this software one industry’s favorites. The boards can be customized — you can add categories, data fields, and unlimited cards — but they still feature enough negative space to provide a good overview.
• Plenty of integration possibilities — This software solution integrates with over 200 applications and tools, from Google Drive and Dropbox to Slack and Salesforce.
• Solid free plan — Trello’s free plan is one of the best you’ll find out there. It includes unlimited users, several boards, Power-Ups, 250 workspace command runs per month, and more. 

Pricing: 

• Free plan 
• Standard plan — $5/user/month 
• Premium plan — $10/user/month 
• Enterprise plan — $17.50/user/month 

9. Paymo —  Best Software Solution for Multiple Client Projects Management

Paymo is another software popular among small businesses and freelancers due to its functionality. It allows its users to manage projects, track time, create invoices, and bill clients, all from a single platform.

Special features:

• Automatic time-tracking tool — Paymo has a built-in time-tracking tool that tracks time spent on each project. The software uses that information and automatically creates comprehensive invoices for clients.
• Billing-centric system — This software groups projects per client and allows you to set a separate billing system for each of them. You can set an hourly rate by using the time tracking tool or a flat fee.
• Multiple workspace views — Paymo allows its users to choose how they’ll view their work. They can use Gantt charts, Kanban boards, as well as table, list, or calendar view styles.

Pricing:

• Free plan 
• Starter plan — $4.95/user/month
• Small office plan — $9.95/user/month 
• Business plan — $20.79/user/month 

10. nTask — Best Cheap Project Management Software for Small Teams

nTask might suit you the best if you’re on a budget and looking for a project management platform. This software includes a straightforward interface, a solid lineup of features, and several projects and task view styles for a low price.

Special features:

• Agile methodology — nTask uses Agile, a productivity-driven approach to organization. Its users have scheduling, milestone tracking, issue tracking, budgeting, and other helpful tools at their disposal.
• Time tracking tool — This project management platform includes a time tracker for free. The tool is integrated, like in Wrike, so you won’t have to spend time adding it on. It can be extremely handy when working remotely.
• Versatile task and project view possibilities — nTask allows you to view projects and tasks in several ways — from the unique grid and gallery views to the popular Gantt charts and Kanban boards. 

Pricing:

• Basic plan for free 
• Premium plan — $3/user/month
• Business plan — $8/user/month
• Enterprise plan — Price available on contact

11. Nifty — Best Simple Project Management Tool for Small Teams

Nifty is a relatively new project management platform that prides itself on its simplicity and ease of use. Rather than being packed with features, Nifty offers a smaller number of essential tools designed for smaller-scale businesses.

Special features:

• Project import — Nifty allows users to import projects and tasks from other project management tools. So, you won’t waste time or data during these data re-entry processes if you switch to Nifty.
• Portfolio management — Nifty has a project portfolio tool that allows users to organize their projects based on departments, managers, locations, and so on. The streamlined project dashboard will give everyone a view of projects’ current statuses and improve your team’s efficiency.
• Discussions section — This project management app has a Discussions section that stores all conversations and comments about a project in one place. This way, your team members won’t have to spend time switching between apps or looking for past comments when working on a project. 

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Starter plan — $39/month
• Pro plan — $79/month 
• Business plan — $124/month
• Unlimited plan — $399/month 

How to Choose a Project Management Software for Small Teams | Factors to Consider

Project management tools make your business run smoother and help your team become more efficient. However, that’s only possible if the PM software you use suits your business’s needs, size, and line of work.

Since project management software comes in all shapes and forms, this set of criteria will help ensure you make the best decision for your team. Here’s what you should consider:

Ease of Use

One of the first aspects you should consider when choosing PM software is its interface. Complex platforms that require extensive training will burden your employees and take time off work.

Since you lead a small team, this can have very detrimental effects on your business over time. So, you should strive to find software with an intuitive interface that’s easy to use regularly and doesn’t require hours of learning.

Flexibility

The second aspect you should consider is the flexibility of the PM platform you’re planning to use. Flexible software will include numerous useful features and customizable tools to cover many requirements different businesses have.

For example, it’ll offer different project management frameworks, several project views, various ready-to-use templates, and so on. Choosing a flexible platform means you can personalize tools to fit your priorities and use features your business and your team find the most helpful. 

Scalability

Scalability goes hand in hand with the previous criterion we’ve discussed. Scalable PM tools offer a few pricing plans with an increasing number of advanced features to support your business’s growth and development over time.

It might not seem important to choose a project management software with numerous advanced features like now when your business is still small. Nevertheless, you might find tools like in-app time tracking, unlimited guest access, or multi-level permissions indispensable as your business scales over time.

Automation

Small teams tend to be much busier and more resource-limited than bigger ones. There’s little room for wasting time on mechanical and repetitive tasks, and your choice of a PM app should reflect that.

Make sure your project management software supports various automation to handle tasks like data updating and duplicating. In turn, your team can focus on more intellectually-demanding tasks, and you’ll save a lot of time, energy, and money along the way.

Tool Integration

Besides automation, your business can significantly benefit from using a PM tool that supports numerous integrations. Synchronizing and coordinating project information across multiple platforms will keep your clients in the know and make your team more productive.

We suggest you make a list of apps your team uses daily and then compare it to the apps the PM platform you’re considering supports.

Security

The PM platform’s security is as important as its functionality. Your data and information should be kept safe around the clock.

Look at how your PM app hosts software online and what security protocols it’s using. Read former and current users’ feedback to ensure you’ve chosen the best option for your business.

Pricing

If you manage a small-team business, pricing plays a significant role in your PM app’s deciding process. The software solution you choose should be fully functional and cover all your needs but not break your budget.

Thankfully, most PM platforms offer several pricing plans, including a free one. Remember to take a good look at what each plan includes to decide on the one that makes the most sense for your business.

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