Best Project Management Software for Advertising Agencies

Website: https://asana.com/

Best for: Campaign timelines and portfolio views

Starting price: $10.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Personal plan free for up to 10 teammates; portfolios roll up all clients

Cons: Advanced approvals and controls need higher tiers; no native invoicing

Asana fits agencies that run many campaigns in parallel. Each client becomes a portfolio, each campaign a project, and each deliverable a task with an owner, a due date and dependencies, so an account lead sees every client at a glance. Timeline view shows where campaigns overlap and where the team is stretched, and status updates keep clients informed without extra meetings. The Starter plan costs $10.99 per user per month on annual billing, and the Personal plan is free for up to 10 teammates. The limits show up in finance. Asana has no native invoicing, so hours tracked in Asana still need a separate tool to become client invoices, and advanced approvals and admin controls sit on higher tiers. Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Adobe Creative Cloud and more than 200 other tools, which covers the creative stack most agencies use. For an agency that mainly needs clear campaign structure and visibility, Asana is a strong default.

Website: https://monday.com/

Best for: Visual boards and client dashboards

Starting price: $9 per seat/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan for up to 2 seats; boards suit creative and account teams

Cons: Three seat minimum on subscription plans; time tracking needs higher tiers

monday.com is a visual work platform that suits agencies where account managers, creatives and media buyers share one view. Boards show each client campaign as a row with status, owner, budget and deadline, and dashboards roll the boards up for leadership and client reporting. Automations move a task to the next stage when a status changes, which cuts manual follow up on approvals. The Basic plan costs $9 per seat per month on annual billing, and the free plan covers up to 2 seats. Every subscription plan has a 3 seat minimum, so a small agency still pays for three seats. Time tracking, formulas and most integrations sit on Standard and Pro, so the entry price does not buy the full agency set. monday.com works best when the agency wants a visual, flexible board that non technical staff can use without training, and it pairs well with a separate finance tool for invoicing and profitability reporting.

Website: https://clickup.com/

Best for: Custom views, docs and task tracking in one place

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free Forever plan with generous limits; custom fields for client and campaign

Cons: Feature depth can overwhelm new teams; approvals need higher tiers

ClickUp packs tasks, docs, goals, time tracking and dashboards into one workspace, which suits agencies that want fewer subscriptions. A team can track a campaign in list and Gantt views, keep the creative brief in a doc, log hours against tasks, and report progress in a dashboard, all without leaving the app. Custom fields capture client, campaign type, channel and budget, so reports slice the work the way an account lead needs. The Core plan costs $9 per user per month on annual billing, Business is $17, and the Free Forever plan is generous. The breadth is also the drawback. New teams can feel overwhelmed by the number of views, settings and automations, and a clear template is needed before rollout. Timesheet approvals and advanced permissions sit on higher tiers, and there is no native invoicing, so finance still needs another tool. Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and GitHub, and the API supports custom reporting for agencies that need client data in a warehouse.

Website: https://www.wrike.com/

Best for: Approvals, proofing and structured campaigns

Starting price: $10 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan with unlimited users; approvals and proofing built in

Cons: Business plan at $25 needed for full reporting; setup takes time

Wrike is built around structured work with approvals, which fits agencies where creative must pass review before it goes to the client. Request forms collect new briefs from account teams, approvals route creative to the right reviewer with a recorded decision, and proofing lets reviewers comment directly on images and video. The Team plan costs $10 per user per month on annual billing, Business is $25, and the free plan covers unlimited users with basic project views. Full reporting, resource management and advanced automation sit on Business, so an agency that needs portfolio dashboards pays two and a half times the entry price. Setup also takes time: the structure that makes Wrike strong needs templates and rules before it feels natural. Wrike includes time tracking and integrations with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce and Adobe tools, which covers the review and approval flow that agencies run every day.

Website: https://www.teamwork.com/

Best for: Client delivery with time tracking and budgets

Starting price: $9.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan for up to 5 users; time tracking and budgets included

Cons: Interface feels dated next to rivals; advanced reporting needs Accelerate

Teamwork is a project platform built for client services, with tasks, milestones, time tracking, budgets and client views in one place. An agency can run each client as a project, track hours against tasks, watch budget burn against the retainer, and give clients a view of progress without exposing internal detail. The Basics plan costs $9.99 per user per month on annual billing, Accelerate is $24.99, and the free plan covers up to 5 users with basic projects and tasks. The interface feels dated next to Asana or monday.com, and advanced reporting, resource scheduling and profitability views sit on Accelerate, so the entry price buys a simpler tool than the marketing suggests. Teamwork has no native invoicing, so hours still move to a finance tool for billing. Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, HubSpot and QuickBooks, which covers the common stack for a mid size agency that bills by the hour or by retainer.

Website: https://www.scoro.com/

Best for: Budgets, utilization and agency finance

Starting price: $29 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Projects, budgets and resourcing in one system; strong utilization reports

Cons: Highest entry price here; 5 user minimum and no free plan

Scoro combines project management, time tracking, budgets, resourcing and invoicing, which suits agencies that sell delivery by the hour or by project. The Projects and Resources combination costs $29 per user per month on annual billing, with a 5 user minimum, and a Time billing option starts at $17. Utilization reports show who is over or under booked across clients, which helps an agency lead balance the team and protect margins on fixed fee work. The entry price is the highest on this list, and there is no free plan, only a 14 day trial, so a team of five pays $145 a month at minimum. Scoro is built for professional services rather than pure creative work, so a small creative studio may find the finance features heavier than it needs. For an agency that wants the link between projects, budgets, utilization and invoices in one system, Scoro is the most complete option here.

Website: https://productive.io/

Best for: Agency budgets, resourcing and profitability

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Lowest entry price for agency finance features; profitability by client and project

Cons: Three seat minimum; Professional at $24 needed for deeper reporting

Productive is built for agencies, with project budgets, resourcing, time tracking and profitability reports in one system. The Essential plan costs $9 per user per month on annual billing, or $10 month to month, with a 3 seat minimum, and Professional is $24. A team can see the margin on each client and each project, track budget burn against the plan, and schedule people across campaigns without double booking. The 14 day trial covers the full feature set. There is no free plan, only the trial, and deeper reporting and resource planning sit on Professional, so a growing agency pays more than the entry price once it needs those views. Productive is less known than Asana or monday.com, so the integration list is smaller, though it covers the common tools. For an agency that cares most about knowing whether each client makes money, Productive gives that answer at the lowest entry price on this list.

Website: https://basecamp.com/

Best for: Simple flat price project management

Starting price: $15 per user/month (billed monthly)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan for 1 project with up to 20 users; flat Pro Unlimited at $299 a month

Cons: Fewer views and less reporting than rivals; no native time tracking depth

Basecamp is the simplest tool here, and that is the point. Each project gets message boards, to dos, schedules, files and group chat in one place, with no setup and no learning curve. The Plus plan costs $15 per user per month billed monthly, and Pro Unlimited costs $299 a month flat on annual billing, no matter how many people join, which makes budgeting easy for a growing agency. The free plan covers 1 project with up to 20 users. The trade off is depth. Basecamp has fewer views, less reporting and no native time tracking depth than the other tools here, so an agency that needs utilization reports or budget tracking will outgrow it. It also has no Gantt view on the entry plan and limited automation. For a small agency that wants clients and the team in one simple place, with one predictable price, Basecamp is the easiest tool to adopt and the hardest to get wrong.

Monthly cost by team size

Prices use annual billing except Basecamp Plus, which is billed monthly at $15 per user. monday.com bills a 3 seat minimum, Productive bills a 3 seat minimum and Scoro bills a 5 user minimum. Basecamp Pro Unlimited at $299 a month flat becomes cheaper than Plus once the team passes 20 people, which is worth checking for a growing agency.