Productivity
Top Time-Saving Tools For Businesses In 2020
The best time-saving tools that businesses need to use in 2020.
Even the most skilled and organized project managers sometimes require the assistance of project management tools.
In this blog post, we will explore the best options available and help to find a solution that caters to all your project management needs in 2024.
Work has changed dramatically in the last few years. Technology adoption has definitely accelerated, leading companies to introduce more business software in their processes.
But even before the drastic changes that 2020 brought in the workplace, business software -and project management software in particular – has shown its value.
Here’s a list of the best tools to help teams manage their projects and time in 2024.
Should You Use PM Tools in 2024?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer:
In theory, a project can be run successfully using post-its, whiteboards, and spreadsheets. But honestly, we wouldn't recommend it.
There are many benefits that inherently come with using project management software.
Project management software is built to efficiently handle and oversee projects and tasks, offering a variety of features tailored to meet those needs.
Benefits of project management software
- More order and organization of projects and tasks;
- In a hybrid or remote team setting, everyone has easy access to the project plan and can track progress effortlessly;
- Clear task assignment (to know who’s working on what);
- Attachments and related documentation can be kept all in one place inside the software;
- Usually, the cost is reasonable (but it depends);
- Insights, project recaps, and dashboards are available to monitor multiple projects.
The Best Project Management Tools To Use in 2024
Asana
Beautifully designed, Asana is fast and overall very simple to use. Asana gives managers and team members visibility on tasks, with project timelines and boards to check the progression of the projects. Tasks can be assigned to each individual, who can comment on the task to share notes and updates. The “Mentions” feature also makes it easy to notify team members of when a task has been assigned or updated. Asana also offers reporting tools, and automation features to simplify routine and repetitive tasks.
Pros: Clear task assignment and management (who does what), beautiful easy interface
Cons: Asana can feel limiting for complex projects
Best for: agencies and design teams
Price: generous free plan with basic features, paid plans that include timelines start from $10.99 per user, per month
ClickUp
ClickUp’s tagline highlights its core mission: “One app to replace them all”. In ClickUp you can organize the projects in multiple views: kanbans, lists, and boxes, making it the best tool for small and medium-sized agile teams who need to keep organized. Creating projects and assigning the tasks that make up the project is super easy. It offers many features (from task management to goal tracking, from documentation management to milestones, and more). Its many options make ClickUp a tool that can fit many different teams’ needs. One of the standout aspects of ClickUp is its versatility as an all-in-one tool. In addition to its core features, ClickUp has recently incorporated chat functionality and innovative generative AI capabilities.
Pro: versatile, feature-packed with many different views
Cons: sometimes, it can feel overwhelming and a new user may not know where to start
Best for: agile teams looking for an all-in-one platform
Price: free plan for personal use, team plans start from $7 per user, per month
Jira
Jira, a behemoth in the realm of project management tools, is purpose-built for agile development and software projects. It enables users to create both scrum and kanban boards, so teams can visualize and manage their pipelines. Although it may appear daunting at first, Jira proves to be an invaluable solution for development teams seeking to track bugs and issues, while gaining real-time visibility into task progress.
Pros: designed for scrum and agile, perfect to handle complex projects
Cons: the interface can be hard to use and to learn, and you may need one person just to be in charge of creating, updating and managing the scrum boards
Best for: software development teams
Price: generous free plan for up to 10 users, after that the pricing starts at $7.50 per user
Trello
When discussing kanban, it's impossible to overlook Trello. Trello's main feature is its kanban boards, where tasks are organized into cards that can be moved forward as the project progresses. With its simplicity and vibrant interface, Trello becomes even more powerful with automation features and add-ons, known as "Power-ups". The Trello Power-up marketplace offers a wide range of apps for any additional features you may need on your Trello board.
Its drag-and-drop functionality makes Trello intuitive and user-friendly, even for those who may not be tech-savvy.
Trello also includes its Butler automation feature to put workflows on autopilot and maximize efficiency.
Pros: simple, visual, colorful, and fun to use
Cons: may be too simple if you need to handle complex projects
Best for: companies looking of a simple, visual platform focusing on team collaboration
Price: free plan available, but the best features like timelines, multiple boards, calendars, etc start at $10 per user per month
Microsoft Planner
Don't overlook Microsoft Planner, especially if your team is already using Microsoft products. This visual tool is a must when it comes to creating project plans and organizing tasks. It's important to note that MS Planner is not the same as its sibling, MS Project. According to Microsoft's own guide, Planner is ideal for light and simple project management, while Projects is better suited for more complex projects with multiple tasks and dependencies.
However, in the near future, Microsoft will probably merge the two tools together.
So, if you're looking for a user-friendly and visually appealing solution, Microsoft Planner is the way to go.
In Microsoft Planner, you can organize project tasks in Kanban boards with deadlines and labels, assigning them to the team members. And you can top all that by adding time tracking with a third-party app.
Pros: fitting in the Microsoft suite, if you already use it
Cons: definitely a learning curve there to organize the plans properly. Also, it requires a Microsoft 365 subscription
Best for: teams already using Microsoft 365 and looking for a lightweight PM tool
Price: requires Microsoft 365, there is a variety of plans for personal and business use
Monday.com
Monday is a comprehensive work management platform serving a wide variety of industries, company needs, and case scenarios. The strength of this platform is its flexibility and adaptability, as users in Monday can build their workflows easily. Its vast offering of features includes customer relationship management (CRM), customizable workflows, project management, resource management, portfolio management, and goal tracking.
It's an effective solution for companies across different industries who need to build and streamline workflows and organize them in dashboards and visually beautiful reports
Pros: customizable and flexible
Cons: requires some learning curve to get the automation to work properly
Best for: small and medium companies looking to build their own workflows
Price: free plan for individuals, team plans start from $8 per seat, per month
ProofHub
ProofHub combines project management, task tracking, time tracking, collaboration, proofing, and communication tools into a unified platform. Apart from English, ProofHub is available in German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Chinese (Taiwan), Turkish, and Polish.
Unlike other products in the SaaS B2B market, ProofHub charges a flat rate, instead of a per-user/per month fee.
Pros: simple and cost-effective
Cons: users report a lack of integration with other tools
Best for: teams and even enterprises, remote teams who need a painless approval process, like design teams
Price: Essential plan starts at $45/month
TeamGantt
Gantt charts galore! TeamGantt enables users to create visual timelines for their projects. Gantt charts are incredibly versatile and can seamlessly integrate into various workflows, making them an ideal choice for project management. The same can be said for TeamGantt, which complements the simplicity and effectiveness of Gantt charts with additional features.
Users love TeamGantt's drag-and-drop feature for easy timeline creation and task management, along with project views, project history tracking, time tracking, subtasks, dependencies, and the Planned vs actual timeline comparison.
Pros: easy drag & drop features for simple project timelines
Cons: limited customization
Best for: digital and marketing agencies, but also industries like construction and manufacturing
Price: plans start at $19 per manager, per month
Timeneye
Wait, what is a time tracking tool like Timeneye doing among the Project Management tools?
Because Timeneye, along with its smart time tracking features has always featured light project management tools. Recently, with the new Task management feature, Timeneye has joined the club of easy-to-use project management tools for easy project and task tracking.
In addition to accurately allocating tracked time to the appropriate project and phase, Timeneye provides project views to monitor the progress of the project, as well as task management capabilities that include due dates and priorities.
Lastly, it integrated with other tools like Microsoft Planner, Microsoft To Do, and Outlook Calendar, for accurate task tracking and organization across different platforms
Pros: seamlessly integrated with the Microsoft Suite
Cons: not possible to set a start and end time
Price: $7 per user, per month on a yearly plan, all features included
How to choose your next PM tool
These featured tools are just a glimpse into the vast array of possibilities available in the ever-expanding project management software market. With so many options to choose from, the opportunities for finding the perfect fit for your team's needs in 2024 are truly endless.
These questions can help make the choice easier:
- What type of projects do I have to manage?
- How many projects do I need to manage?
- Do I need lightweight project management or do I need complex hierarchies between the tasks?
- How much time do I want to spend learning to use it?
- Do I prefer a visual or a more organized approach?
- How much time do I have to train my team to use it?
- How much will the price influence my choice?
If you're unsure where to start, or if the main project management tools look intimidating, try a time tracking tool like Timeneye, that combines time tracking with light project management.