Project Management Tools Tier List: 16 Apps Ranked
Everyone's team uses one of these, and everyone's team has complained about it at least once. We looked at the 16 biggest names in project management software, from Jira's ticket-heavy world to Todoist's one-person simplicity, and sorted them by how well they actually do the job: organizing work, keeping teams sane, and not costing a fortune in admin time.
This isn't a lab test. It's a read of what users, IT admins, and project leads consistently say across reviews and forums, mixed with our own take when the crowd can't agree. Disagree with where we put your favorite? That's half the fun. Rank it yourself and see if you land somewhere different.
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SS Tier: The ones everyone recommends
Asana
The default answer for a reason. Asana balances flexibility and simplicity better than almost anyone else on this list, with timeline, board, and list views that actually feel like the same product instead of bolted-on afterthoughts.
About Asana
A web and mobile work management platform used by teams to track tasks, projects, and goals. Founded by former Facebook employees.
- Founded
- 2008
- Known for
- Timeline and board views
Jira
If your team ships software, Jira is still the backbone most engineering orgs build around. It's not pretty and the configuration options can bury a new admin, but for sprint planning and backlog tracking nothing else matches its depth.
About Jira
Atlassian's issue and project tracker, originally built for software bug tracking and now a standard for agile development teams.
- Maker
- Atlassian
- Known for
- Agile sprint and backlog tracking
Linear
Built by people who clearly got tired of Jira's bloat. Linear is fast, keyboard-driven, and opinionated in a way that makes software teams fall in love with it within a week. The tradeoff is it's less useful outside engineering and product.
About Linear
A fast, keyboard-first issue tracker built for modern software and product teams, popular for its clean design and speed.
- Founded
- 2019
AA Tier: Excellent, with a caveat or two
ClickUp
Tries to do everything, and mostly pulls it off. Docs, goals, time tracking, whiteboards, it's all in there. The flip side is an interface that can feel like a control panel for a spaceship until you trim it down to what you need.
About ClickUp
An all-in-one productivity platform combining tasks, docs, goals, and chat, positioned as a replacement for multiple separate tools.
- Founded
- 2017
Monday.com
The colorful spreadsheet-on-steroids approach works especially well for marketing and ops teams who want visual boards without much training. Pricing climbs fast once you add seats and automations, which is the main complaint we kept seeing.
About Monday.com
An Israeli-founded work operating system known for its colorful, customizable boards. Publicly traded and widely used across marketing and operations teams.
- Founded
- 2012
- Headquarters
- Tel Aviv, Israel
Notion
Technically a workspace tool more than a dedicated PM app, but enough teams run their whole project tracking inside Notion that it earns its spot. The databases and templates are genuinely powerful once set up, though that setup takes real effort.
About Notion
A flexible workspace app combining notes, databases, and wikis, popular with both individuals and teams who build custom systems inside it.
- Founded
- 2013
Trello
The original simple kanban board, and still the best option if your team just needs cards moving across columns. Power-Ups add automation and integrations, but Trello's real strength is staying out of your way for small teams and personal projects.
About Trello
A simple kanban-style board tool owned by Atlassian, known for its drag-and-drop cards and ease of use.
- Founded
- 2011
- Owner
- Atlassian
BB Tier: Solid and dependable
Teamwork.com
Built with client-facing agencies in mind, and it shows in the billing and time-tracking features baked right in. Less flashy than its competitors, but reliable for shops that bill hours against project budgets.
About Teamwork.com
A project management platform built with client services and agencies in mind, featuring built-in time tracking and billing tools.
- Founded
- 2007
Airtable
Part database, part project tracker, and genuinely useful once someone on the team understands how to build the views. Teams that love spreadsheets but hate spreadsheet limitations tend to land here and stay.
About Airtable
A hybrid spreadsheet-database tool that lets teams build custom project trackers and apps without writing code.
- Founded
- 2012
Wrike
A capable enterprise tool with strong reporting and resource management, though reviewers consistently mention the interface feels busier and less intuitive than Asana or Monday.com for everyday use.
About Wrike
An enterprise-focused project management platform (Wrike) with strong reporting and resource management features, acquired by Citrix in 2021 but now part of Vista Equity Partners' portfolio following Citrix's 2022 acquisition.
- Founded
- 2006
Smartsheet
Basically Excel that grew up and learned project management. IT and operations teams who already think in rows and columns tend to adopt it fastest, while everyone else finds the grid-first design a bit cold.
About Smartsheet
A spreadsheet-style work management platform used heavily by operations and IT teams for tracking projects at scale.
- Founded
- 2005
Basecamp
Deliberately simple, with a flat pricing model that small agencies and remote teams appreciate. It won't satisfy anyone who wants Gantt charts or heavy automation, but that's by design, not an oversight.
About Basecamp
A long-running project management and team communication tool known for flat-rate pricing and a deliberately simple feature set.
- Maker
- 37signals
- Founded
- 2004
CC Tier: Works, but you'll feel the friction
Todoist
A genuinely great personal to-do list that gets stretched into team project management more than it was built for. Fine for a freelancer or a two-person team, but it runs out of road once you need dependencies or real reporting.
About Todoist
A popular personal and small-team to-do list app known for its clean design and natural language date input.
- Maker
- Doist
- Founded
- 2007
Zoho Projects
Capable and cheap, especially for teams already inside the Zoho ecosystem, but it rarely comes up as anyone's favorite. Users describe it as fine rather than loved, which is a tough place to sit in a crowded market.
About Zoho Projects
Part of the larger Zoho software suite, offering project tracking, Gantt charts, and time tracking at a budget-friendly price point.
- Maker
- Zoho Corporation
Microsoft Planner
Lightweight and fine if your company is already deep in Microsoft 365, but it feels thin next to dedicated PM tools. Most teams we saw mention it outgrow it within a few months.
About Microsoft Planner
A lightweight task management app included with Microsoft 365, aimed at simple team task tracking rather than complex projects.
- Maker
- Microsoft
DD Tier: Niche fits only
Microsoft Project
The granddaddy of Gantt charts, and still technically powerful for complex scheduling. But the learning curve, dated interface, and licensing cost make it feel like a relic next to cloud-first competitors, which is why so many longtime users have quietly moved on.
About Microsoft Project
Microsoft's long-standing project scheduling software, known for detailed Gantt charts and resource management in complex projects.
- First released
- 1984
How we ranked them
We weighed ease of setup, flexibility across team sizes and industries, depth of features (dependencies, automation, reporting), and whether the tool gets out of the way or becomes its own full-time job to maintain. We also factored in price-to-value and how steep the learning curve is for new users, since a tool nobody adopts isn't really a project management tool at all.
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Rank these yourselfFAQ
What's the best project management tool overall?
Asana gets the broadest recommendation across teams and industries, though Jira is the clear pick for software teams and Linear for fast-moving product teams.
Which project management tool is best for small teams?
Trello and Basecamp both keep things simple without a steep learning curve, making them popular with small teams and freelancers.
Is ClickUp better than Asana?
ClickUp offers more features out of the box, but Asana is generally considered easier to onboard a team onto. Which one wins depends on whether you want power or simplicity.
Why is Microsoft Project ranked so low?
It's still powerful for complex scheduling, but its dated interface and cost make it a hard sell against cloud-native tools that do most of the same job more simply.
Is Notion a real project management tool?
Not natively, but its flexible databases let teams build their own PM systems, and enough people do this successfully that it earns a spot on the list.
More rankings
Image credits
- AsanaLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- JiraLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- LinearLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- ClickUpLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- Monday.comLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- NotionLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- TrelloLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- Teamwork.comLogo: teamwork.com, © Teamwork.com · Source
- AirtableLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- WrikeLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- SmartsheetLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- BasecampLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- TodoistLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- Zoho ProjectsLogo: zoho.com, © Zoho Corporation · Source
- Microsoft PlannerLogo: Wikipedia · Source
- Microsoft ProjectLogo: Wikipedia · Source