The Best Project Management Software and Tools Compared

Are you trying to make a decision about the best project management software or collaboration software to use for your business?

We love using Basecamp for its mind-bending simplicity, but it still leaves much to imagination.

So what we did was put the most popular hosted software options under the microscope and compare must-haves and other essential features, such as mobile compatibility, price, and more.

You’ll see the complete project management software comparison in the sheet below this article. But, before that…

Here are the contenders:

Listed from most popular to least popular based on Alexa rankings:

• Zoho Projects – a wide range of applications available on top of project management including CRM, calendar, chat and a wiki. Over 3 million users.
• Basecamp –  It is the leading web-based project management tool. Not only is it popular, it is also very easy to use. Time Doctor currently has Basecamp time tracking, which allows managers to accurately track time spent on projects & other tasks, as well as monitoring individual team member’s productivity.
• Freshbooks – a very popular invoicing software solution for small business owners. Easily send invoices, track time, manage expenses, and get paid online.
• Smartsheet – project management, CRM and other features based around using online spreadsheets.
• Wrike – some unique features for teams of any size such as: customized workflows, updating tasks via email, and an interactive Gantt chart view of project plans.
• Teamwork.com – includes project tracking, contacts and calendar. We currently have a Time Doctor integration for Teamwork.com users, which allows managers to accurately track time spent on projects & other tasks, as well as monitoring individual team member’s productivity.
• Redbooth – includes a Twitter style updates feature.
• Nozbe – project management based around the David Allen “Getting Things Done” methodology.
• Active Collab – provides task management, collaboration, time tracking, reporting, and invoicing, so you can centralize most of your work in one tool.
• Harvest – focused on invoicing and time tracking, a competitor to Freshbooks.
• LiquidPlanner – ability to plan, track, schedule, and analyze an entire portfolio of projects in real-time.
• iMeet Central (formerly Central Desktop) – 425,000 users, includes real time integration between Microsoft office and the central workspace.
• Clarizen – brings together cross-company project management, configurable workflow automation, in-context collaboration and a tailored, role-based experience, all built on a secure, scalable enterprise platform.
• AceProject – a popular all around project and task management solution providing a great mix of ease of use with some higher-end functionality.
• 5pm – very colorful interface, and lots of features including time tracking, contacts and an iPhone app.
• Huddle – integrates with Microsoft Office so you can save Microsoft files directly to a shared workspace.
• Feng Office – includes solutions for project management time tracking, calendar and contacts.
• Comindwork – includes Gantt charts, and a business wiki.
• EGroupware – consists of multiple installable applications and includes a calendar app, address book, email, project management, timesheet and more.
• Deskaway – includes timesheets, calendar, contacts and a micro-blogging status update feature.
• Goplan – includes a Twitter like activity stream.
• Xtrant – is a cloud-based project platform that lets you share files, tasks and conversations in one secure online space to reduce email noise, increase accountability, and keep everyone on the same page.
• Hyperoffice – has a hosted email service and contact management.
• Visma Severa – includes CRM and invoicing.

Plus a few more hopefuls:

SwiftKanban, BeeWits, Attendance Software, TeamWork Live, Nirvana, Intervals, ProWorkflow, Teamly, Glasscubes, Copper, Workspace, Tenrox, Journyx, Clientspot, Vertabase, Celoxis, 24sevenoffice, PlanDone, Teameffect, Attask, Workzone, Proofhub, ProjectManager.com and CloudBooks

Some notes about this list

This is only about hosted SaaS online project management software.

There are dozens other open source platforms which we didn’t include in this list, especially those that are not hosted (meaning, you have to install the software yourself). TaskReports has a handy comparison chart of project management tools that you might also want to check.

We have also not included products that are more focused on CRM or products that are more of a bug tracker such as JIRA. We also excluded sites that did not have their pricing listed on their sites.

We know that the ranking of sites is not completely accurate, but it’s the best we could find. Compete or Quantcast are other alternatives for ranking sites but we decided to use Alexa.

Lastly, you may also want to check out collaboration tools you can use to manage remote teams.

And, feel free to try out our own time tracking software.