Project Management Tools

Project management is both highly challenging and incredibly rewarding. Completing a major project on time, to a high standard, and within budget will bring you immense job satisfaction. You’ll gain the respect and trust of senior management and gain confidence as a competent leader.

But the day-to-day can sometimes feel like juggling spinning plates. You’ll need to keep on top of costs, deadlines, and team workflows. You’ll also need to identify project risks and draw up mitigation plans.  

There’s a range of project management tools to help make your life easier. In this article, we’ll go through the types of tools available and list some of the most commonly-used software packages out there.

Types of Project Management Tools  

There’s a wide variety of tools out there that cover all areas of project management. They’re designed to boost team productivity and increase your chances of completing on time. Get ready to learn the following tools if you want to become a Project Manager.

• Time Tracking: A time tracker allows you to effectively measure how long each task takes. This helps you identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the workflow. This is important for accurate billing, project planning, and progress.
• Collaboration: Collaboration tools are especially useful when leading large teams, combining professionals from different backgrounds, and remote-working structures. Collaborative features help local and global teams to work in tandem and include options like live updates, video conferencing, and instant messaging.
• Reporting: Company  stakeholders and senior management will need to be kept up-to-date on project progress. Reporting tools are designed to help deliver this information in an easy-to-digest format. They automatically pull data from other systems and generate reports on milestone completion, budget allocation, and workflow inefficiencies.

Top 7 Project Management Tools

Now let’s discuss some of the commonly-used tools in project management.  

1. Microsoft Project: Used by over 20 million users, Microsoft Project is available in both cloud and local formats. To run on the cloud, it costs $30 per month, per user. For a local license, it costs $1159 per user.  

2. Celoxis: Touted as the best alternative to Microsoft Project, Celoxis is an all-in-one PM tool. It helps companies plan and track their tasks, projects, portfolios, timesheets, risks, and other issues, all in one place.

Celoxis offers extensive collaboration features like a customizable free client portal. Its reporting features are some of the best on the market. The tool is intuitive and highly customizable with plenty of features like:  

• Gantt charts for visualization
• Easy resource allocation
• Advanced scheduling options
• Project tracking
• Financial management
• 360-degree real-time insights with dashboards and reports
• Quick collaboration and sharing of files, discussion and comment options for peers and clients
• Easy to customize and intuitive

3. Scoro: Scoro provides a solid structure to your workflow and streamlines processes so you don’t need multiple tools for multiple activities. Some of the top features are:  

• Real-time KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dashboard
• Create sub-tasks with deadlines
• Schedule meetings and sharing team calendar  
• Single, common platform for projects, clients, and teams
• Integration with tools like DropBox, Mailchimp, Outlook, and more

A free trial version of Scoro is available for 14 days, while premium plans are charged at $33 per user, per month.  

4. ProofHub: ProofHub is a versatile PM package used by organizations like NASA, Taco Bell, and Disney. Since ProofHub emphasizes simplicity, the integrations and task management features are streamlined, which is good for both freelancers as well as big businesses. Some of the key features of ProofHub are:

• Visualization using Gantt charts  
• Online proofing software
• Streamlined task management
• Reporting options like workload and resource reports
• Available as a mobile application for Android and iOS users.

ProofHub has two pricing plans – an essential plan that starts at $50 per month, and an ultimate control plan charged at $99 per month.

5. Asana: Asana is designed with businesses in mind, especially those with small teams and simple projects. But may not be the perfect tool for freelancers.

Some of the key features of Asana are:  

• Work breakdown and resource allocation
• Define tasks for projects and create corresponding roadmaps and timelines
• Schedule and prioritize tasks on Asana calendar
• Review milestones and team’s progress
• Project dashboards available for quick overviews
• Project update notifications  
• Gantt-type view of how multiple projects fit together
• Detailed progress reports

Asana offers three pricing options: Free, Premium, and Enterprise. Costs range from $10.99 to $24.99 per user, per month.

6. Wrike:

Some of the notable features of Wrike are:  

• Gantt charts for creating visual timelines
• Synchronize milestones and tasks with Outlook, Google, and iCalendars
• Formulate strategies into actionable plans
• Provide up-to-date and accurate information to customers

Wrike has a freemium version with limited functionality for up to 5 users. Paid plans start at $9.80 per user per month.  

How to Master These Tools and Launch Your Project Management Career

To learn these tools and level-up your PM skills, enroll in our online project management bootcamp. The course is perfect for both PM veterans looking to upskill and newcomers to the field.

We’ll teach you everything you need to deliver quality projects on time and on budget. Our team of leading experts will provide one-on-one mentoring and career coaching.

We also offer courses in product management. Read our guide on product managers vs project managers to decide which path is right for you.