Best Project Software for Hardware Engineering Teams

Website: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Best for: Sprint planning and issue tracking at scale

Starting price: $9.70 per user/month (monthly billing, first 100 users)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free for up to 10 users; advanced planning on Premium

Cons: Monthly billing is graduated by seat band; Enterprise is annual only and quote only

Jira is the default issue tracker for hardware teams that run sprints alongside their mechanical and electrical work. Issues can carry a type, priority, component, and fix version, so a firmware bug, a board revision, and a test failure can all live in one backlog with the same workflow. Standard at $9.70 per user a month on monthly billing covers the first 100 users and adds team-managed projects, 250 GB of storage, and audit logs. Premium at $19.60 adds advanced planning, capacity management, and 99.9 percent uptime, which matters when a program runs across sites.

The free plan covers up to 10 users, which suits a small hardware team or a single product group. The catch is the seat-band billing: monthly prices change as the team crosses band boundaries, so a growing team should model the cost at its expected headcount rather than at the entry rate.

Website: https://linear.app

Best for: Fast issue tracking for firmware teams

Starting price: $8 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Unlimited issues on Standard; Git integrations built in

Cons: Free plan caps at 250 issues; advanced admin features need Plus

Linear fits hardware teams whose firmware and software work moves fast and whose engineers hate slow tools. Issues are created with keyboard shortcuts, cycles replace sprints, and Git integrations link pull requests to the issues they close, so the trail from a firmware fix to a test build stays visible. Standard at $8 per user a month includes unlimited issues, cycles, and integrations, which is the lowest entry price on this list for a serious issue tracker.

The free plan caps at 250 issues, which a busy firmware team can burn through in a month, so most teams will pay for Standard. Advanced admin features, such as SAML single sign-on and private teams, need the Plus plan. Linear is narrow by design: it tracks issues well and leaves program planning, budgets, and resource management to other tools, so a hardware program that needs those views should pair it with a broader planner.

Website: https://www.wrike.com

Best for: Approvals and resource management at scale

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Request forms route work into projects; approvals built into workflows

Cons: Team plan caps at 15 users; request forms and approvals need Business

Wrike fits hardware programs with a formal approval chain: a design review that needs a lead sign-off, a prototype build that needs a budget check, or a test plan that needs a quality review before it runs. Request forms let anyone submit work into a project, and approvals keep the sign-off inside the workflow instead of in email. Team at $10 per user a month covers up to 15 users with task management, shared calendars, and 2 GB of storage per user, which suits a mid-size hardware group.

Business at $25 per user a month adds approvals, resource management, custom workflows, and 5 GB per user, and it raises the cap to 200 users. The Team cap of 15 users is a real limit for a growing engineering group, and the approval features that make Wrike stand out sit on Business, not Team. The free plan works for a tiny team, but it lacks the Gantt views and integrations that a hardware program needs.

Website: https://asana.com

Best for: Prototype planning and supplier coordination

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timeline and Gantt on Starter; unlimited free guests

Cons: Portfolios and goals need Advanced; no native time tracking on Starter

Asana fits hardware teams that run many small projects at once: a prototype build, a test campaign, a supplier qualification, and a certification effort can each live as a project with its own tasks, dates, and owners. Starter at $10.99 per user a month includes timeline and Gantt views, forms, custom fields, dashboards, and unlimited automations, so a test request form can feed straight into a project. Unlimited free guests matter here, because suppliers, contractors, and test labs can comment and complete tasks without a priced seat.

The Personal plan is free for up to 2 users, which covers a solo engineer and one colleague. Advanced at $24.99 per user a month adds portfolios, goals, workload, approvals, and native time tracking, which is where an engineering manager sees every program in one portfolio and checks capacity across them. The main gap on Starter is reporting depth: dashboards exist, but cross-project workload and goals stay behind the Advanced paywall.

Website: https://monday.com

Best for: Visual hardware programs and test tracking

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timeline and Gantt views from Standard; free viewers on priced plans

Cons: Basic has no automations or integrations; 3-seat minimum on all priced plans

monday.com suits hardware teams that think in boards and columns. A program becomes a board, with groups for mechanical, electrical, firmware, and test, and each work item moves across as a row with owner, status, and due date. Status columns and dates make the program visible at a glance, which helps when a program manager needs a quick read before a design review. Standard at $12 per seat a month adds timeline and Gantt views, guest access, and 250 automation actions a month, so reminders can go out when a test date slips.

The free plan covers up to 2 seats, which works for a tiny team testing the layout, but most hardware teams will need a priced plan. Basic at $9 per seat a month has unlimited boards and items, yet it leaves out automations and integrations, so a team that wants deadline reminders or a link to its code tool should budget for Standard. Pro at $19 adds time tracking, private boards, and 25,000 automation actions a month. The 3-seat minimum applies to every priced plan.

Website: https://clickup.com

Best for: All-in-one docs, tasks, and chat

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Docs, tasks, and chat in one workspace; unlimited storage on Core

Cons: Automation caps are low on Core; dense interface takes time to learn

ClickUp appeals to hardware teams that want one workspace instead of three tools. Docs hold test plans and design notes, tasks hold the build checklist, and chat keeps the conversation next to the work. Core at $9 per user a month includes unlimited storage, Gantt charts, custom fields, forms, and guest permissions, plus 1,000 automation actions a month per workspace. Business at $17 adds timesheets, resource management, advanced dashboards, and 10,000 automation actions, which suits teams that track engineering hours against programs.

The free plan, called Free Forever, works for a very small team, though it caps storage at 60 MB and automations at 100 actions a month. The interface packs a lot into each screen, so a team should expect a week or two of learning before the layout feels natural. ClickUp changed its plan names in 2026, so older guides that mention Unlimited at $7 describe a retired lineup; the current entry plan is Core at $9.

Website: https://www.smartsheet.com

Best for: Grid-based BOM and milestone planning

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

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: Grid layout feels like a spreadsheet; Business adds unlimited automations

Cons: No free plan for new signups; Pro caps at 10 members

Smartsheet fits hardware teams that already plan in spreadsheets and want that layout with real project features behind it. Milestones, parts, and test dates become rows with owner, status, and deadline columns, and the grid sorts and filters like a sheet while adding dependencies, reminders, and reports. Pro at $9 per member a month covers up to 10 members with Gantt views, forms, and dashboards, which suits a small hardware group. Business at $19 adds timeline views, workload tracking, and unlimited automations.

There is no free plan for new signups, only a 30-day trial, so a team cannot run on Smartsheet at no cost the way it can on Asana or monday.com. The Pro cap of 10 members also pushes a growing team onto Business sooner than expected. For teams that already track a bill of materials in a spreadsheet, though, the learning curve is short, and the reporting views give a program manager a clean summary of every milestone and test date in one place.

Website: https://www.teamwork.com

Best for: Hardware projects with billable hours

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Time tracking and invoicing built in; free plan covers up to 5 users

Cons: 3-seat minimum on Basics; advanced reporting needs Accelerate

Teamwork suits hardware teams that track hours against programs or bill clients for engineering work. Basics at $9.99 per user a month includes tasks, milestones, time tracking, and invoicing, so a team can log hours against a prototype build and turn them into a report for the client. The free plan covers up to 5 users, which is generous for a small engineering group, and the jump to Accelerate at $24.99 adds resource scheduling, project templates, and deeper reporting.

The layout is calmer than ClickUp or monday.com, with projects, tasks, and time in one place and less visual noise. That helps teams that want to start fast and keep the structure simple. The limits show up at scale: Basics has a 3-seat minimum, and the reporting that an engineering manager needs for a program review sits on Accelerate. Teams that run many concurrent programs should check whether the Basics reports cover their review formats before committing.

Run this checklist against the plan you would actually buy, not the top plan. The caps and minimums change the bill more than the headline price.