Best Project Management Software for Animation Studios

Website: https://www.ftrack.com

Best for: production tracking and review for VFX and animation

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: Free trial (length not stated)

Pros: built for production tracking; review and approval built in

Cons: no published prices; plans are separate per product workspace

ftrack is built for creative production. Studio tracks shots, assets, tasks and versions across a production, and Review lets supervisors and clients watch playlists, leave frame-accurate notes and approve work without chasing files over email. That pairing is what a general task tool cannot match: the shot, its versions and its approval status live in one place.

Pricing is tailored per business, and the pricing page shows no figures, so ftrack is quote only. Free trials of Review, Studio and Cinesync are available with no credit card required, and clients can join reviews for free. Both Review and Studio plans come with 250 GB of storage. Monthly and annual plans are available, though the Enterprise plan is annual only.

The limits to weigh are that each ftrack product has its own workspace, so Review and Studio do not share one, and that pricing needs a sales conversation. A small studio should also check the storage cap, since 250 GB fills fast with review media.

Website: https://www.cg-wire.com

Best for: free shot tracking for 2D animation

Starting price: $0 (free, open source)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: free and open source; built for animation production

Cons: self-hosting needs technical setup; support comes from the vendor as a service

Kitsu is an open-source production tracker from CGWire, built with animation production in mind. It schedules tasks, assigns them to artists, tracks shot and asset status, builds breakdown lists of which assets belong to which shot, and runs a review engine with playlists so supervisors can watch shots in sequence and give feedback.

Kitsu is free as open-source software, which makes it the cheapest specialist option in this list by a wide margin. There is no per-user price and no license fee, though a studio needs to host it, and CGWire offers support services around it. The review engine, production reports and activity feed are part of the package.

The trade-off is that free software still costs time: someone has to install, host and maintain it, and the studio needs the technical skill to do that. For a 2D animation studio with a technical lead and a tight budget, Kitsu gives production tracking that would otherwise cost a sales conversation and a monthly bill.

Website: https://www.autodesk.com

Best for: shot tracking for film, TV and games

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: Free trial (length not stated)

Pros: deep shot and asset tracking; used across film, TV and games

Cons: price not published in readable form on the vendor page; subscription per named user

Flow Production Tracking, formerly ShotGrid, is Autodesk production management and review toolset for VFX, animation and games teams. It tracks deadlines, manages staff and budgets, and reviews work, with scheduling features that weigh trade-offs and produce resource-balanced schedules. It is used across the film, TV and games industries by producers, supervisors, pipeline developers and artists.

Pricing is subscription based, with annual, monthly and 3-year options, but the vendor page does not show the figures in readable form, so we treat it as quote only. A free trial is available, and a subscription can be installed on up to three computers, though only the named user can use it on one computer at a time.

The limits are that the price is not published, so budgeting needs a quote or a trial, and that the subscription is per named user, which adds up across a large crew. It is also a deep tool, so a small studio should expect setup time.

Website: https://monday.com

Best for: visual boards for studio pipelines

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: flexible boards and timeline views; workload view on Pro

Cons: 3-seat minimum on priced plans; Basic has no automation actions

monday.com fits animation studios that want a visual pipeline: storyboard, layout, animation, lighting, compositing. Each stage becomes a board, shots move across it, and the timeline view shows the whole production at a glance. A producer can see which shots are waiting on review and which artists are free next week, and the visual style makes status easy to read in a daily standup.

Basic is $9 per seat per month on annual billing, Standard is $12 and Pro is $19, while monthly billing costs $12, $14 and $24. There is a free plan for up to 2 seats, and a 14-day free trial of Pro. Pro adds time tracking, private boards, advanced dashboards and 25,000 automation and integration actions per month. Priced plans start at 3 seats and use seat buckets, so a 6-person team may buy 10 seats, and Basic includes no automation actions.

Website: https://clickup.com

Best for: tasks, docs and Gantt in one place

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: generous free plan; Gantt charts on Core

Cons: guest seats are limited on priced plans; review and approval need workarounds

ClickUp holds tasks, docs, goals, chat and time tracking in one workspace, which suits studios that need production notes next to the tasks they describe. A team can keep style guides, shot lists and client feedback in the same place as the work, and the Gantt view shows how a delay in layout pushes later stages. That breadth is the appeal, and also the risk, because a team has to choose which features it will actually use.

The Free Forever plan is $0, then Core is $9 per user per month billed yearly, Business is $17, and Enterprise is on a custom quote. Core adds custom fields, unlimited storage, unlimited Gantt charts and 1,000 automations a month. Business adds resource management, timesheets, advanced dashboards, webhooks and 10,000 automations a month. Guest seats are capped on priced plans, and review and approval are not built in the way they are in ftrack or Kitsu, so a studio has to build that workflow itself.

Website: https://asana.com

Best for: coordinating shots across departments

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timeline and Gantt views on Starter; unlimited guests

Cons: resource management needs Advanced at $24.99; no built-in review playlists

Asana organizes work into projects, tasks and portfolios, which fits a studio split into departments such as storyboard, animation, lighting and compositing. Timeline and Gantt views on Starter show how departments depend on each other, and portfolios roll many episodes into one status view. Unlimited free guests let clients and freelancers follow the work without taking a seat.

Personal is $0 for up to 2 users, Starter is $10.99 per user per month billed annually, or $13.49 monthly, Advanced is $24.99, and Enterprise is on a custom quote. Starter adds Timeline and Gantt views, reporting dashboards, unlimited automations, forms, custom fields and unlimited free guests. Advanced adds portfolios, goals, approvals and proofing, time tracking and resource management. Approvals and proofing sit on Advanced, so a studio that needs client sign-off inside the tool will pay $24.99 per user per month.

Website: https://www.teamwork.com

Best for: client work with time and budgets

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: built for client work; time tracking on every plan

Cons: capacity planning needs Accelerate at $24.99; free plan caps at 5 projects

Teamwork is built for teams that deliver client work, and that focus fits animation studios that produce commercials, explainers and branded content for clients. You can plan a project, track billable time against it, watch the budget burn down and raise an invoice from the logged hours. That closed loop is the reason agencies and consultancies choose it over general task tools.

The free plan covers up to 5 projects and 5 users, then Basics is $9.99 per user per month billed yearly, Accelerate is $24.99, and Optimize and Enterprise are on a custom quote. Basics covers up to 300 projects, unlimited templates, billable time tracking and portfolio health. Accelerate adds workload and capacity planning, time budgets and retainers, invoicing from logged time, and HubSpot and QuickBooks connections. Capacity planning lives on Accelerate, so a studio that buys Basics for crew planning will need to step up to $24.99 per user per month.

Website: https://www.notion.com

Best for: docs, wikis and production databases

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: flexible databases for shot lists; docs and wikis in one place

Cons: full AI features need Business at $20; not a dedicated tracker

Notion is a workspace for docs, wikis and databases, and animation studios often use it as the production bible: style guides, character sheets, shot lists and episode databases in one place. Its databases can track shots, assets and statuses with custom properties and filters, and the same workspace holds meeting notes, briefs and client feedback. It is a good home for the documents that surround a production.

Free is $0, Plus is $10 per member per month billed yearly, or $12 monthly, Business is $20 billed yearly, or $24 monthly, and Enterprise is on a custom quote. Plus adds unlimited blocks for teams, unlimited file uploads, 30-day page history and custom forms and sites. Business adds full Notion AI, SAML single sign-on, private teamspaces and 90-day page history. Notion is not a dedicated production tracker: it has no review playlists, no version comparison and no shot scheduling logic, so a studio has to build those views by hand.

Website: https://www.wrike.com

Best for: Gantt-driven schedules with proofing

Starting price: $9.80 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Gantt charts on Team; proofing on Business

Cons: Team caps at 25 users; resource management needs Business at $24.80

Wrike is built around Gantt charts, dependencies and dashboards, which fits animation schedules where layout, animation and compositing have to move in sequence. Request forms give producers and clients a clean way to raise work, and proofing on the Business plan lets reviewers annotate frames and approve versions. It is a good fit for studios that run several productions in parallel and need one view of all of them.

Team is $9.80 per user per month billed annually, Business is $24.80, and Enterprise and Pinnacle are on a custom quote. There is a free plan for up to 5 users, and all priced plans need annual billing. Team covers 2 to 25 users with Gantt charts, dashboards and basic automations, while Business adds time tracking, request forms, custom fields, resource management and proofing. Proofing and resource management live on Business, so a studio that buys Team for scheduling will need to step up to $24.80 per user per month.

Website: https://www.airtable.com

Best for: flexible shot and asset databases

Starting price: $20 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: database views for shots and assets; strong automations

Cons: highest entry price here at $20; per-seat billing for editors

Airtable combines a spreadsheet with a database, and animation studios use it to track shots, assets, versions and vendors in views that fit each department. A producer sees a Kanban of shot statuses, an artist sees a calendar of due dates, and a coordinator sees a grid of asset versions, all drawn from the same data. Automations can move a shot to review when its status changes, and interfaces can give clients a clean view.

Free is $0, Team is $20 per user per month billed annually, Business is $45, and Enterprise Scale is on a custom quote. Team adds more records, attachments and automations than Free, while Business adds advanced customization, data scale and admin features. Read-only collaborators are free, and only editors take a seat. At $20 per user per month, Airtable Team is the most expensive entry point in this list, and a studio with many editors will feel that quickly.