Best Rated Project Management Software

Website: https://asana.com/

Best for: Cross-functional teams running structured projects

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Timeline and Gantt views on the entry plan; unlimited free guests on Starter

Cons: Free Personal plan caps at 2 users; time tracking and portfolios need Advanced at $24.99

Asana organises work as tasks inside projects that roll up into portfolios and goals, and its Work Graph model lets one task live in several projects without duplication. Starter at $10.99 per user per month billed annually adds timeline and Gantt views, dashboards, forms, custom fields and unlimited automations, which covers most team workflows without configuration. The interface is consistent enough that new starters can follow a project on day one, and the free Personal plan gives a genuine way to try it before committing.

The catch is the tier jump. Several features small teams assume are standard, including native time tracking, portfolios and workload, only appear on Advanced at $24.99 per user per month billed annually, more than double the Starter price. The free plan now caps at two users, so a team of three has no free option at all. Price the tier you will end up on, not the one you sign up for, and check the seat rules before you buy.

Website: https://monday.com/

Best for: Visual teams that manage work on boards

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Boards are easy to build and read; unlimited free viewers on Basic

Cons: Basic has no automations or timeline view; plans start at a 3-seat minimum

monday.com builds work around boards, and the board is the reason teams choose it. Columns, statuses and colour coding make the state of a project readable at a glance, and Basic at $9 per seat per month billed annually removes the free plan item limit and adds unlimited free viewers. The free plan covers up to two seats, so a pair of founders can run a real board before spending anything. Integrations with common tools are straightforward to set up from the board itself.

The limits that matter sit on Basic. It has no automation or integration actions, no timeline or Gantt view and no guest access, so most teams that come to monday.com for scheduling will outgrow it quickly. Standard at $12 per seat per month adds the timeline view, guests and 250 automation actions a month, and that is the tier most growing teams land on. Note the 3-seat minimum: a team of one or two cannot buy a single seat.

Website: https://clickup.com/

Best for: Teams that want one tool for tasks, docs and goals

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free Forever plan covers unlimited members; goals, docs and chat in one place

Cons: Whole workspace bills per user, so every member becomes a billed seat; Business rose to $17

ClickUp tries to replace several tools at once, with tasks, docs, whiteboards, goals and chat inside one workspace. Core at $9 per user per month billed annually adds unlimited storage, custom fields, Gantt charts and 1,000 automation actions a month, and the Free Forever plan covers unlimited members, which no other tool in this list matches. For a team that wants one login for everything, ClickUp covers more ground at the entry price than any rival here.

The 2026 pricing change matters. Core replaced the old Unlimited tier and the price rose from $7 to $9, while Business rose from $12 to $17 per user per month billed annually, though it now includes Brain AI with premium models. ClickUp also bills the whole workspace, so you cannot upgrade just yourself: every member becomes a billed seat. The breadth is real, but a team that only needs task lists may find the interface heavier than Trello or Basecamp.

Website: https://trello.com/

Best for: Small teams that want simple boards fast

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Cheapest entry price in this list; free plan is permanent, not a trial

Cons: Free plan caps at 10 boards and 10 collaborators; timeline and dashboard views need Premium

Trello is the simplest tool in this list, and that is its strength. Work lives on cards on boards, and a new team can be running in an afternoon with no training and no configuration. Standard at $5 per user per month billed annually removes the free plan caps, adds unlimited boards, custom fields, AI features and 1,000 automation runs a month. The free plan is permanent rather than time-limited, with unlimited cards, unlimited Power-Ups per board and 250 automation runs a month.

The limits arrive when work gets complex. The free plan stops at 10 boards and 10 collaborators per workspace, and boards turn view-only once a free workspace passes the collaborator cap. Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views sit on Premium at $10 per user per month billed annually, so reporting and planning cost double the entry price. Trello suits teams that value speed over depth, and it shows its limits on larger programmes.

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

Best for: Mid-size teams that need governance and approvals

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Gantt charts and dashboards on the Team plan; free plan allows unlimited users

Cons: Time tracking starts on Business at $25; seats are sold in bundles, not one by one

Wrike is built for teams that need structure and control, with Gantt charts, dashboards, custom fields and request forms on the Team plan at $10 per user per month billed annually. Team covers 2 to 15 users and adds shareable dashboards, interactive Gantt charts, calendars and 50 automation actions per seat per month. The free plan allows unlimited users with basic task management, which makes it easy to pilot with a whole department before committing to a purchase.

The trade-off is cost control. Time tracking, timesheets and effort allocation start on Business at $25 per user per month billed annually, and Business plans are sold in seat bundles, so a team of six can end up paying for ten seats. Pinnacle and Apex above that are quoted by sales. Wrike fits a mid-size team that needs approvals and audit trails, but a small team may find the seat bundles and the Business jump hard to justify.

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

Best for: Teams that plan in spreadsheets and Gantt charts

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

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: Gantt, dependencies and critical path are native, not add-ons; Pro is cheap for small teams

Cons: No free plan for new signups; Pro caps at 10 members, so growing teams must move to Business at $19

Smartsheet is the closest thing to a spreadsheet that became a project platform, and the Gantt view is not an add-on: dependencies, lag time, critical path highlighting and baselines are built into how the sheet works. Pro at $9 per member per month billed annually covers 1 to 10 members with unlimited sheets, forms, reports, 250 automations a month and 20 GB of storage. Switching between grid, Gantt, card and calendar views keeps everyone looking at the same data, which suits teams that already think in rows and columns.

The cap is the story. Pro stops at 10 members, so an 11-person team must buy Business at $19 per member per month billed annually, more than double the entry price. There is no free plan for new signups since August 2024, only a 30-day trial, though unlimited free Contributors can view and comment on shared work. Smartsheet is excellent for spreadsheet-comfortable teams, but count members carefully before you commit.

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

Best for: Agencies and client-service teams

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

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Built for client work with time tracking and billing; free plan covers up to 5 users

Cons: Fewer third-party integrations than Asana or monday.com; higher tiers jump to $24.99

Teamwork is designed around client work rather than internal projects, which sets it apart in this list. Basics at $9.99 per user per month billed annually covers task lists, milestones, time tracking and invoicing hooks, so an agency can track hours against a client project and bill from the same place. The free plan covers up to five users, which is enough for a small studio to run real client work before spending anything. Templates for common agency workflows cut the setup time on repeatable engagements.

The weakness is ecosystem depth. Teamwork has fewer third-party integrations than Asana or monday.com, so a team that relies on a long list of connected tools may need workarounds. The next tier, Accelerate at $24.99 per user per month billed annually, is a steep jump for the extra reporting and capacity features. Teamwork is the right pick when client billing is the job, and a weaker pick when the work is purely internal.

Website: https://basecamp.com/

Best for: Teams that want one simple price and no per-seat creep

Starting price: $15 per user/month (billed monthly)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Flat $299 per month Pro Unlimited plan covers unlimited users; clients and contractors are free

Cons: No Gantt chart or time tracking; Plus is billed monthly, so there is no annual discount

Basecamp takes the opposite approach to every other tool here: one price, every feature, nothing held back. Plus at $15 per user per month covers unlimited projects, 500 GB of storage, message boards, to-dos, scheduling and file storage, with clients and contractors free to add on every plan. The free plan covers one project with up to 20 users and 1 GB of storage, which is enough to test the whole approach with a real team. There are no tiers to climb and no features locked behind a higher plan.

The simplicity has edges. Basecamp has no Gantt chart, no time tracking and no workload view, so a team that needs scheduling depth will outgrow it. Plus is billed monthly with no annual discount, which is unusual in this list. The flat Pro Unlimited plan at $299 per month billed annually covers unlimited users and becomes cheaper than per-seat tools once a team passes 20 people, so a 50-person team pays about $5.98 per user per month in effect.

The table uses list prices on annual billing, except Basecamp Plus, which is billed monthly. Trello is the cheapest route for 10 seats, and Basecamp Pro Unlimited only wins above 20 users.