Best Project Management Software for Client Services Teams

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

Best for: Client services teams that bill by the hour

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Billable time tracking is built in from the Basics plan; retainers, time budgets, and invoicing arrive on Accelerate

Cons: Timesheets and workload planning need the Accelerate plan at $24.99; the free plan caps at 5 users and 5 projects

Teamwork was built for teams that deliver work for clients and charge for it. Projects carry client records, task lists, milestones, and time logs in one place, so an account manager can see what was promised, what is done, and what has been billed without opening a second system. The Basics plan covers project delivery and billable time tracking, which is enough for a small client services team that tracks hours against a fixed fee or a retainer.

The step up to Accelerate is where the money side gets serious. It adds timesheets, workload planning, retainers and time budgets, smart intake forms, and invoices raised from logged time. That combination suits teams of 10 to 50 people who run several client accounts at once and need to know whether each account is making money. The trade-off is the seat minimum: Basics needs 3 seats and Accelerate needs 5, and the Optimise and Enterprise tiers are quoted rather than published.

Website: https://asana.com/

Best for: Timelines, portfolios, and cross-team coordination

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timeline and Gantt views are clear and easy to share with clients; unlimited free guests keep clients in the loop without extra seats

Cons: Portfolios, goals, and workload need the Advanced plan at $24.99; native time tracking is not on the Starter plan

Asana is a strong fit when client work is spread across several internal teams and someone has to keep the whole picture straight. The Starter plan adds timeline and Gantt views, dashboards, unlimited automations, forms, and custom fields, which covers most of what a client services team needs to plan, assign, and report on work. Unlimited free guests mean clients can view progress on their own projects without taking a licence.

The gap is on the commercial side. Starter has no native time tracking and no portfolios, so a team that manages many client accounts will feel the pull toward Advanced at $24.99 per user a month. That plan adds portfolios, goals, workload within a portfolio, approvals and proofing, and native time tracking. For a team that mainly needs clean delivery and client visibility, Starter is enough, and the Personal plan is free for up to 2 users.

Website: https://monday.com/

Best for: Visual boards and client status reporting

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Boards are visual and easy for clients to read at a glance; the Standard plan adds timeline, Gantt, and calendar views

Cons: Basic has no automations or integrations at all; subscription plans start at 3 seats and are sold in seat buckets

monday.com suits client services teams that want a board for every account and a status column that anyone can read. The Basic plan at $9 per seat a month gives unlimited items, docs, and a 5 GB storage allowance, which is enough for simple tracking. Standard at $12 adds the timeline and Gantt views, guest access, and 250 automation and integration actions a month, which is the level most client teams actually need.

The pricing structure needs care. Seats are sold in buckets of 3, 5, 10, and more, so a team of 4 pays for 5 seats. Time tracking only arrives on Pro at $19 per seat a month, along with private boards and 25,000 automation actions. If your team bills by the hour, that pushes the real cost up, and you should compare it with Teamwork or Productive before committing to a year.

Website: https://clickup.com/

Best for: All-in-one workspaces on a tight budget

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free Forever plan is generous for very small teams; Core adds unlimited storage, custom fields, and 1,000 automations a month

Cons: The interface packs in many features, which slows new users down; Business at $17 is the first plan with guest seats and advanced reporting

ClickUp gives client services teams a single workspace for tasks, docs, goals, time tracking, and chat, which removes the need for several separate tools. The Core plan at $9 per user a month billed annually includes unlimited storage, custom fields, goals, and 1,000 automation actions a month, plus a monthly allowance of AI credits. The free plan covers the basics for a tiny team, with 100 MB of storage and 100 automation actions a month.

The cost to watch is the Business plan at $17 per user a month, which adds 10,000 automations, guest seats, advanced reporting, Google SSO, and private docs. Client-facing reporting and guest access matter a lot in client services, so many teams end up on Business rather than Core. Even so, $17 is lower than the mid-tier price of Asana or Wrike, and the feature count per dollar is high.

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

Best for: Structured delivery with approvals and proofing

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Gantt charts and shareable dashboards come with the Team plan; Business adds request forms, approvals, proofing, and time tracking

Cons: Team stops at 15 users, so growing teams are pushed to Business at $25; seats are sold in bundles of 5, 10, or 25

Wrike fits client services teams that run formal delivery: briefs come in through request forms, work passes through approvals, and proofs go back to the client for sign-off. The Team plan at $10 per user a month covers 2 to 15 users with Gantt charts, dashboards, calendars, and AI essentials. The free plan has unlimited users but is limited to 200 active tasks, which makes it a trial rather than a working plan.

Business at $25 per user a month is the plan that carries the client services workflow in full, with baselines, critical path, workload, time tracking, request forms, approvals, and proofing. The 15-user cap on Team is the trap: a team that grows past 15 people must move everyone to Business, more than doubling the per-seat price. Check your headcount plan for the next year before you choose.

Website: https://www.smartsheet.com/

Best for: Grid-based tracking of client projects and budgets

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

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: Sheets, Gantt, board, and calendar views in one workspace; unlimited free contributors can view, comment, and attach files

Cons: No free plan for new signups, only a 30-day trial; Pro caps at 10 members, so larger teams must move to Business at $19

Smartsheet works well for client services teams that think in spreadsheets. Projects live in grids with rows for tasks, columns for owners, dates, and budgets, and the same data can be viewed as a Gantt chart, a board, or a calendar. The Pro plan at $9 per member a month billed annually includes unlimited sheets, forms, reports, 250 automations a month, and 20 GB of storage, which covers a small team running several client accounts.

The limits are the member caps and the missing free plan. Pro stops at 10 members, and Business at $19 per member a month is needed past that, with a 3-member minimum. On the plus side, unlimited free contributors can view and comment without a licence, which keeps clients informed without extra cost. Time tracking is not native, so teams that bill hours will need an integration or a separate timer.

Website: https://productive.io/

Best for: Agency budgets, resourcing, and profitability

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

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Budgeting, resource planning, and time tracking are included from Essential; Professional adds rate cards, approvals, and advanced reports

Cons: No free plan, only a trial; the Ultimate tier is quote only, and every new account has a 3-seat minimum

Productive is built for agencies and consultancies that need to know whether each client engagement makes money. Essential at $10 per user a month billed annually includes budgeting, resource planning, project and task management, docs, time tracking, expense management, and reporting. That is a strong bundle for the price, and it is the reason small agencies pick it over a generic project tool.

Professional at $25 per user a month adds billable time and expense approvals, rate cards, recurring budgets, advanced reports, and invoicing integrations. Note that invoicing itself is handled through an integration rather than a native module, so check that your accounting tool connects cleanly. The 3-seat minimum means a solo operator pays about $30 a month, and there is no free plan, only a trial, so budget for the first year before you sign.

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

Best for: End-to-end service business management

Starting price: $29 per user/month (Projects & Resources)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Quoting, projects, resourcing, time, and invoicing run in one system; the modular setup lets you pick the combination you need

Cons: $29 per user a month is the highest starting price in this list; every plan needs at least 5 seats and there is no free plan

Scoro is the most complete option here for a client services business that wants quoting, project delivery, resource scheduling, time tracking, and invoicing in a single system. The Projects and Resources combination at $29 per user a month covers task management, project delivery, time tracking, and resource scheduling. Other combinations start at $17 for time billing and rise to $57 for the end-to-end package, all with a 5-seat minimum.

That minimum sets the floor at $145 a month, which rules Scoro out for very small teams. The depth is the payoff: utilisation reports, project profitability, and pipeline data sit next to the work itself, so managers can see which clients and which kinds of work earn the most. Teams that already run on spreadsheets for billing will find the change large, and onboarding takes longer than with the lighter tools in this list.