Best Project Management Software for Manufacturing

Website: https://monday.com

Best for: Visual production boards and timelines

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Flexible boards and views; strong automations

Cons: No BOM or inventory features; time tracking needs Standard

monday.com fits a plant that plans production on a visual board. Each order gets a row, columns track quantity, due date, work centre and status, and the timeline view shows the week ahead across all orders. Automations move an order to the next stage when the previous one finishes, and dashboards roll up open orders, late jobs and workload by operator. Guest access lets a customer or supplier view their own order without a full seat.

The Basic plan costs $9 per seat per month on annual billing and covers unlimited boards and docs, but it caps automations at 250 actions a month and leaves time tracking to Standard at $12 per seat per month. There is no bill of materials or inventory tracking, so a plant that needs component levels must pair monday.com with a separate inventory tool or spreadsheet. The free plan covers up to 2 seats, and priced plans need at least 3 seats.

Website: https://www.smartsheet.com

Best for: Production schedules and inventory lists

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

Free plan: No

Pros: Grid, Gantt, card and calendar views; familiar spreadsheet feel

Cons: No free plan; no native BOM or MRP features

Smartsheet feels like a spreadsheet with project management built in, which suits production planners who already live in grids. A production schedule can hold order numbers, quantities, start dates, due dates and work centres in rows, with dependencies linking each step to the next, and the Gantt view shows the whole plan at a glance. Forms collect work requests from the shop floor, and reports roll up late orders across plants without manual copying.

The Pro plan costs $9 per member per month on annual billing for 1 to 10 members, or $12 billed monthly, and Business costs $19 per member per month. There is no free plan, only a 30 day trial, so a plant should use the trial with a real schedule. Smartsheet has no native bill of materials or MRP, so it covers planning and tracking but not material planning, and a plant that needs stock levels should look at Katana or MRPeasy instead.

Website: https://www.wrike.com

Best for: Approvals and work requests from the floor

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Strong approval workflows; request forms capture briefs

Cons: Time tracking needs the Pinnacle plan; Team plan caps at 15 users

Wrike suits a plant where work arrives as requests and needs a formal approval before it starts, such as engineering change orders or custom jobs. Request forms capture the specification, approvals route the job to the right manager, and blueprints repeat the same process for each new order. The proofing tools let reviewers mark up drawings and specs inside the task, and the audit trail shows who approved what and when, which matters for quality records.

The Team plan costs $10 per user per month on annual billing for 2 to 15 users, with Gantt charts, automations and 2 GB of storage per user. Time tracking only arrives on the Pinnacle plan, the top tier, so a plant that logs hours per job needs the highest plan or a separate timer. The free plan covers basic task management with unlimited viewers, which is a fair way to test the approval flow before committing to a priced plan.

Website: https://asana.com

Best for: Structured production runs and templates

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Clear task ownership; large template library

Cons: Native time tracking needs the Advanced plan; no inventory features

Asana fits a plant that runs repeatable production processes, such as a weekly run with the same 30 steps from raw material to packed goods. Templates carry the process, rules move tasks between stages, and the timeline view shows how one late step pushes the delivery date. Portfolios group projects by product line or customer, so a production manager can check every live order in one place, and status updates keep sales informed without a meeting per order.

The Starter plan costs $10.99 per user per month on annual billing and adds timeline, dashboard and form features to the free Personal plan, which covers up to 2 users. Native time tracking and proofing need the Advanced plan at $24.99 per user per month, which is a real jump. Asana has no inventory or BOM features, so it covers the schedule and the tasks, while material levels stay in another system.

Website: https://clickup.com

Best for: One workspace for tasks, docs and goals

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Many views and built in docs; generous free plan

Cons: The interface can feel crowded; free plan storage caps at 100 MB

ClickUp packs tasks, docs, whiteboards and goals into one workspace, which suits a plant that wants the production plan, the quality notes and the shift handover in the same place. A production order can hold the work instruction in a doc, the tasks on a board and the timeline on a Gantt chart, while custom fields track order number, customer, quantity and work centre. The dashboard can show overdue jobs, workload by operator and open quality issues across all lines at once.

The Core plan costs $9 per user per month on annual billing and adds unlimited storage, unlimited integrations and Gantt charts to a free plan that already covers unlimited tasks and members. The interface packs many features into every screen, so new users should expect a few days of learning before it feels fast. The free plan storage cap of 100 MB means a plant that attaches large drawings will outgrow it quickly, so check file sizes before relying on the free tier.

Website: https://www.teamwork.com

Best for: Job tracking, retainers and client work

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Time tracking included on every plan; client portal

Cons: Free plan allows only 2 projects; reporting is basic on Basics

Teamwork suits a manufacturer that also does custom jobs for clients, because projects link to clients, quotes and invoices in one record. Time tracking sits on every plan, so an operator can log hours against a job without an add on, and the workload view shows who is overbooked before a new order lands. Clients can comment and approve work in a portal, which keeps feedback attached to the job instead of scattered across email.

The Basics plan costs $9.99 per user per month on annual billing and covers unlimited projects, task lists, milestones and time tracking. The free plan covers up to 5 users but only 2 projects, so it works as a trial rather than a home for an active plant. Reporting improves on the Accelerate plan at $24.99 per user per month, which is the tier a growing operation usually needs once it manages more than a handful of jobs at once.

Website: https://hive.com

Best for: Low cost planning and team scheduling

Starting price: $5 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Lowest starting price here; clean resourcing views

Cons: Timesheets and resourcing cost extra as add ons; no BOM features

Hive is the cheapest way into a proper planning workspace, with the Starter plan at $5 per user per month on annual billing and a free plan that covers up to 10 members. The layout is simple: projects, tasks, calendar and a resourcing view that shows who is free next week, which suits a small shop that plans by person and week rather than by machine and minute. Timesheets and deeper resourcing are available as add ons, so a shop can start cheap and add only the pieces it needs.

The add on model is also the main thing to watch. Timesheets and resourcing each cost $5 to $8 per user per month on top of the base plan, so a team that needs both can end up near $20 per user per month, which erases the price advantage over monday.com or ClickUp. Hive has no bill of materials or inventory features, so it covers people planning, while material planning needs another tool.

Website: https://katanamrp.com

Best for: Inventory, BOMs and production planning

Starting price: $299 per month

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Real BOMs and routings; flat price with unlimited users

Cons: Routings need a $199 a month add on; sales orders billed by usage

Katana is built for manufacturers, and it shows in the way a sales order becomes a production plan. Multi level BOMs list every component, the production scheduler shows what to make and when, and inventory levels update as materials are consumed. The free plan covers up to 30 SKUs, which lets a small maker test the system with a real product range, and the Core plan covers unlimited SKUs, users and integrations with one inventory location.

The Core plan starts at $299 a month, with unlimited users, so the bill does not move with headcount. The catch is that manufacturing routings need the Manufacturing Management add on at $199 a month, so a manufacturer that needs operation steps pays $498 a month before usage fees, and sales orders are billed by volume on top. Lot tracking needs a further $249 a month add on. Katana is the right shape for a maker that has outgrown spreadsheets, but the full cost is higher than the headline price.

Website: https://www.mrpeasy.com

Best for: Full lightweight MRP for growing manufacturers

Starting price: $49 per user/month

Free plan: No

Pros: Production planning and BOMs on every tier; transparent per user pricing

Cons: No free plan; per user costs compound as the team grows

MRPeasy is a cloud MRP built for manufacturers with 10 to 200 employees, and it covers production planning, multi level BOMs, routings, inventory with lot traceability, purchasing and shop floor control in one system. The Starter plan at $49 per user per month already includes production planning, BOM management and lot tracking, with integrations for QuickBooks, Xero and Shopify. Professional at $69 adds a B2B portal and quality control, and Enterprise at $99 adds master production scheduling, barcode scanning and multi site warehouses.

The trial runs 30 days with no card, and there is no free plan. Annual billing gives a month free, and users beyond the first 10 are billed in bundles of 10 for a flat $79 a month, which softens the cost as the team grows. The honest weakness is the per user model: 10 users on Enterprise cost $990 a month, and a 40 person rollout needs the bundle math before the budget is set. For a small manufacturer that needs real MRP, MRPeasy is the most complete option at the lowest entry price.