Best Project Management Software for Mid-Size Companies

Website: https://monday.com

Best for: Cross-department boards and dashboards

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Flexible boards and dashboards; easy to roll out team by team

Cons: Advanced automations sit on higher tiers; costs rise fast with many seats

monday.com lets each department build its own boards while executives watch a dashboard that rolls everything up. Marketing, operations and product teams can use different templates, yet the portfolio view shows status, budget and risk in one place. Timeline and workload views show who is free and who is overloaded across the company. Files, comments and approvals live on each item, so the history of a decision stays with the work.

The Basic plan costs $9 per user each month on annual billing, and the free plan covers up to two seats. Timeline views, automations and deeper reporting need the Standard or Pro tiers, so a company should price the Pro tier before deciding. For firms that want a visual tool that many teams can adopt quickly, monday.com is a strong fit.

Website: https://clickup.com

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

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Docs, tasks, whiteboards and goals in one place; generous free plan

Cons: Many options to configure at first; reporting needs a higher tier

ClickUp combines tasks, documents, whiteboards and goals, so a company can keep a project plan, a spec and a task list in one workspace. Spaces and folders give each department its own area, while dashboards roll status up for managers. Custom fields track budget, priority and owner, and templates for common project types cut setup time. Time tracking is built in, which helps teams that bill hours or track effort.

The free plan is generous, with unlimited tasks and members, and the Core plan costs $9 per user each month on annual billing. The main drawback is setup time. ClickUp offers many settings, and a company should spend time building templates and a clear folder structure before rolling it out. Once set up, it replaces several separate tools.

Website: https://asana.com

Best for: Portfolios and workload across teams

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Clean portfolios and workload views; strong templates

Cons: No built-in budgeting; proofing needs the higher tier

Asana suits a company that runs many projects and needs to see capacity across departments. Portfolios group projects by team, initiative or executive sponsor, and workload views show each person hours across all active work. Timeline view maps the phases of a project, and dependencies flag when a late input pushes a delivery date. Templates for a standard project cut setup time for repeat work.

The Starter plan costs $10.99 per user each month on annual billing and adds timeline, dashboard and workflow features. The free Personal plan works for a small team. Asana does not include budgeting, so finance teams often pair it with a separate tool. Proofing tools sit on the Advanced tier, which raises the cost for firms that need formal sign-off inside the tool.

Website: https://wrike.com

Best for: Approvals and structured workflows

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Strong Gantt charts and approval flows; good admin controls

Cons: Setup takes time and training; basic plan lacks time tracking

Wrike fits companies that want formal structure around projects and approvals. A project moves through stages with clear owners, and approval requests go to the right manager with the relevant files attached. Gantt charts show how workstreams overlap, and proofing tools let reviewers mark up documents and images. That matters when a deliverable must pass legal or brand review before release.

The Team plan costs $9.80 per user each month on annual billing and adds Gantt charts, dashboards and shared calendars. The free plan covers up to five users with basic task boards. Wrike takes longer to set up than Trello or Notion, and time tracking is not in the Team plan, so companies that track effort need a higher tier or a separate tool. For larger firms with formal processes, the structure is worth the learning curve.

Website: https://smartsheet.com

Best for: Gantt schedules and dashboards

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

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: Spreadsheet style with strong Gantt charts; good dashboards

Cons: No free plan, only a 30-day trial; interface feels corporate

Smartsheet suits companies that plan projects like phased programs. Its spreadsheet grid will feel familiar to anyone who tracks budgets in Excel, and the Gantt view turns those rows into a timeline with dependencies. A program manager can map phases across weeks, then share a dashboard with executives that shows progress without exposing the full detail. Automated alerts warn when a milestone slips.

The Pro plan costs $9 per user each month on annual billing, and there is no free plan, only a 30-day trial. The interface is less visual than monday.com, and it takes some setup to build a good project template. For companies that run complex, multi-phase programs with many dependencies, the scheduling strength and the familiar grid make it a solid pick.

Website: https://teamwork.com

Best for: Client work and billable hours

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Time tracking and client billing built in; clear templates

Cons: Interface feels dated next to newer tools; reporting needs the higher tier

Teamwork was built for client service work, and that shows in how it handles projects. Each project holds tasks, milestones, files and logged time, and the billing features turn logged hours into invoices. A company can track how much time went into each client or project, which helps when a client asks for extra work. Templates for common project types speed up setup, and the workload view shows who is available.

The Basics plan costs $9.99 per user each month on annual billing, and the free plan covers up to five users and five projects. That free tier suits a team that wants to test client billing before spending. The interface is less polished than monday.com or Asana, and deeper reports need the Accelerate tier at $24.99. Still, for companies that bill clients by the hour, the built-in time and invoicing features save the cost of a second tool.

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

Best for: Software teams and agile delivery

Starting price: $7.53 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Strong agile boards and backlogs; deep Atlassian integrations

Cons: Less friendly for non-technical teams; setup needs admin effort

Jira is the standard choice for software teams inside mid-size companies. Scrum and kanban boards, backlogs, sprints and roadmaps cover agile delivery, and the tool connects with Confluence for documentation and Bitbucket for code. A product team can plan a release, track bugs and report on velocity in one place, while managers see progress across teams. The Standard plan costs $7.53 per user each month, with Premium at $13.53 adding cross-team planning and more automation.

The free plan covers up to ten users, which suits a small team. Jira is less friendly for non-technical departments, so marketing or operations teams often prefer monday.com or Asana. Admin setup also takes effort, with permissions, workflows and issue types to configure. For a company with a real software team, though, Jira is hard to beat.

Website: https://airtable.com

Best for: Department databases and views

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Powerful linked databases; many views from one data set

Cons: Higher starting price than most rivals; task management is secondary

Airtable shines when a company needs to manage structured data across departments. A firm can build a database with linked records for project, owner, budget and deadline, then filter it by team or initiative. Different views show the same data as a grid, a gallery, a kanban board or a calendar, so the project list and the staffing plan come from one source. That reduces errors when a deadline moves or a team member changes.

The Team plan costs $20 per user each month on annual billing, which is higher than most tools here, and the free plan suits a small team with a limited data set. Task management is weaker than Asana or monday.com, so many companies pair Airtable with a task tool. For firms where a shared database is the core of the work, the cost is justified by the time saved on tracking and reporting.

Website: https://notion.com

Best for: Company wikis, docs and tasks

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Pages, databases and tasks in one flexible workspace; low cost

Cons: No true Gantt chart on lower tiers; weak native time tracking

Notion works well for companies that want a shared wiki plus light project tracking. A firm can build a company hub with team pages, a knowledge base, a project database and a task board, all linked together. The project database can hold status, owner, deadline and budget, and each project page pulls from it. That flexibility suits companies that want one place for docs, notes and tasks.

The Plus plan costs $10 per user each month on annual billing and adds unlimited file uploads and more automation. The free plan is enough for a small team. Notion lacks a true Gantt chart on lower tiers and has no built-in time tracking, so companies that manage tight schedules or bill hours will need another tool. For documentation and light project work, though, few tools are as flexible.

Website: https://trello.com

Best for: Simple boards for smaller teams

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Very easy to learn; visual cards suit many workflows

Cons: Limited reporting and workload views; power features cost extra

Trello is the simplest tool on this list, and that is its strength for smaller teams inside a larger company. A board with lists for to do, doing and done gives a team a clear view of current work. Cards hold files, checklists, due dates and comments, so each task has its own record. Teams can be added to a board without learning a complex system, which speeds adoption.

The Standard plan costs $5 per user each month on annual billing and adds unlimited boards, advanced checklists and custom fields. The free plan allows up to ten collaborators per workspace. Trello lacks workload views and deep reporting, so a company running many projects will outgrow it as the main tool. For a single team or a simple workflow, it is fast and cheap.