Fit Projects: https://projects.fitsmallbusiness.com/projects/edit/6427
Article Title: X Best Task Management Software To Improve Your Productivity
Article Type: Buyer’s Guide
About: This should be a buyer's guide. For each task management software, there
should be information on pricing, features, ease of use, pros and cons, reviews, and
who it's best for.
PKW: Best task management software/16
2nd KW: Task management software/45 ← can’t avoid this being higher as it’s embedded in
PKW
Can mention: project task management software /5
Data Research Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZK6RU3T05qnHHf_NdBD7OTV_o6zbMiNDI_0ohEdo
3UI/edit#gid=0
KW Research spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1louFlfLxXsUvcRNc27UswxMWp29rh6et4iNSa4pG1k/edit#gid=783201657
Partner: Monday.com
9 Best Task Management Software Tools for 2020
Task management software goes beyond simple to-do lists. They allow you to collect notes and
files in one convenient application, share and collaborate with others, and set deadlines and
task dependencies. Some of the best task management tools have free plans, and others cost
more than $48 monthly per user.
Top 9 Task Management Software
Task
Management
Software
Best For
Asana
(Best Overall) Software development firms managing agile and scrum
projects
Monday
Growing companies (with >four employees) wanting simple customizable
software that will grow with them
Trello
HR staff tracking everyday tasks with regular patterns, like onboarding and
event planning
Nifty
Marketing creative teams sharing task documents and deliverables
Wrike
Service and consulting firms that bill clients for project work
Todoist
Blue-collar management teams preferring easy to use color-coded software
Quire
Startups that need free easy-to-use software with templates and basic tools
Insightly
B2B sales teams wanting to track clients, tasks, and revenue
Clarizen
Project managers needing enterprise-level management that includes
budgeting
How We Evaluated the Best Task Management Software
The best task management software is sometimes chosen as much for personal preference and
style as it is for features and use cases. Some people prefer ticking off lists, while others find
greater productivity in a Kanban board. Therefore, when evaluating, we considered flexibility,
ease of use within its own style, and how intuitive users found the software.
Regardless of style, we found the following items important to all users:
●
●
Price: We searched for affordable tools for small businesses. Some of the options offer
free plans while others provide a free trial. Plans range from $0-$48 monthly per user.
Ease of use: We chose task management software that had user-friendly interfaces,
tutorials, and support. Plus, all have iOS and Android apps for managers on the go.
●
●
●
●
●
●
Customer reviews: We considered the best task management software based on our
experience and reviews from actual users rather than marketing hype.
Project management: The software we reviewed goes beyond simple to-do lists, with
tools that support a larger project management framework, such as Agile or Scrum.
Document storage: Most of the best task management software lets you attach or link
documents, so everyone can find the files they need fast.
Reports: Most of the best task management software includes visual data like charts,
standard reports, customization options, and data exports.
Integrations: We looked for software that can interface with productivity tools like Slack
and Google apps or that have a native API tool or access to Zapier.
Other: Some of these tools include helpful features like timesheets and customer billing
support in addition to basic task management functions like task, due date, and
description.
We chose Asana as the best overall project task management software. It’s easy to use while
offering rich features for task, time, and resource management. Plus, it lets you share
information and collaborate even outside your team.
Asana: Best Overall Task Management Software for Small
Businesses
Asana is the best task management program for agile and scrum-focused businesses wanting
to improve productivity, because it offers flexible views, task assignments, deadlines, and
excellent workflow management function. The company is working toward automating resource
planning and improving its interface to help people focus on the most important tasks at the
moment.
Asana Pricing
Asana’s plans run from free to $25 monthly per user—average for this type of software.
However, you do not pay for guest users, so you can have clients and people outside your team
view and contribute to your project tasks. In addition to the free plan with limited features, you
can get a free trial of the higher-tier versions. It also offers an Enterprise plan for larger firms.
Asana’s Small Business Pricing Tiers
Features
Basic
Premium
Business
Pricing
Free
$10.99/month per user
$24.99/month per user
✅
✅
✅
Up to 15
teammates
✅
✅
Advanced
Search/Reporting
✅
✅
Custom Fields &
Templates
✅
✅
Board, List &
Calendar Views
Collaboration
Forms
✅
Workload Review
✅
Asana Features
Asana is much more than a simple task management tool. It’s a full-blown project management
software. Its free plan works perfectly as task management software if you don’t require more
advanced project management features or customization, allowing you to collaborate on your
tasks with up to 15 others.
Asana’s Workload feature lets you see and adjust tasks among teammates
Standout Feature: Workload
When tasks are not well-distributed, some employees get burned out while others get bored.
Asana’s Workload feature not only lets you see who owned which tasks but lets you assign
values to the task—points or hours—so that you can see at a glance who has too much or too
little to do. You can easily drag and drop tasks to reassign or reschedule them.
Project & Task Management Tools
Asana’s strong project management tools make it excellent for any department or the whole
company. The Kanban boards, deadline, and excellent collaboration tools make it suitable for
Agile work systems, and the real-time progress charts are shareable with others. The in-app
editing tools are a plus, and the integration with Adobe Cloud is especially useful for creative
teams.
Mobile Apps
Asana’s mobile app is bright, easy to use, and works with iOS and Android. You can add tasks,
view your tasks, create projects, add due dates, and comment on tasks. Also, Asana’s web
version is mobile optimized so that you can have access to all the software functions even when
you’re offsite.
Charts & Reports
Timelines are Asana’s Gantt chart. You can create them from a CSV file, which is a handy
feature. Asana has progress bars and line graphs that chart progress, and you can share these
and the timeline with stakeholders. Asana lets you build reports based on searches and save
searches for easy updating. You can also create reports with integrations.
Software Integrations
With over 100 integrations, Asana offers a lot of flexibility and connectivity to the software that
your company needs to succeed. Work with Adobe Cloud, Salesforce, Slack, Google, Okta and
more. You can also integrate with file sharing, time tracking, form, and communications
programs. Asana offers Zapier and its native API for custom integrations.
What Asana is Missing
Users criticized the mobile app for not having a due-date notification, and that support uses a
contact form. Also, the free version doesn’t include document storage, and you can’t assign one
task to more than one person. If you are looking for something more customizable to manage
your tasks, consider Monday.com.
What Users Think About Asana
In our Asana user reviews, and on other third-party websites, users praised the software for
making task management easier. In fact, Asana has the highest user rating of the software we
reviewed: 4.7 out of 5 stars. Users found the interface overall intuitive but with the ability to meet
the needs of their teams. They also appreciated the reporting features. As one user said, Asana
is “intelligible, fast, and modern.”
How to Sign Up for Asana
Asana is an excellent software for task management across any business and industry,
especially for those who use an Agile approach or need to adjust workloads. It offers a free 30day trial as well as a free version for up to 15 users. Try Asana for yourself.
<Visit Asana>
Monday.com: Best Task Management Software for Growing
Businesses
Monday.com’s templates and customizability make it a great task management choice for
growing businesses across all kinds of functional teams—from HR to operations. Its bright and
clean interface shows all the information you need to stay on top of your work. Monday.com has
a lot of depth and plans to increase integration capability in 2020, making it good for startups
and those scaling up quickly.
Monday.com Pricing
Monday.com has an unusual pricing scheme, as it varies not only by plan but by the number of
users (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc.) within each plan. This determines how cost effective it is for
various sized firms, because for example, a wedding planner with one user would pay the same
as a wedding planner with five employees using the system. Overall, we found the per-user
educational institutions.price to be competitive past four users, and Monday.com offers
discounts for nonprofits.
Monday.com Pricing Tiers for 1-5 Users
Features
Basic
Standard
Pro
Enterprise
Pricing
$39/month
$49/month
$79/month
Varies
Unlimited
viewers &
boards
✅
✅
✅
✅
Customizable
automated
alerts
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
Forms
customization
Chart views
File storage
5 GB
50 GB
Unlimited
Unlimited
Activity log
1 week
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Shareable
boards
4 guests billed
as 1 user
Unlimited
Unlimited
Integrations
250
actions/month
25,000
actions/month
100,000
actions/month
Monday.com Features
What makes Monday.com great for businesses that are growing is that it can be used for any
task or project and is completely configurable—complete with automations and notifications.
You download a template for your tasks, such as new hire onboarding or building a house, and
tailor all your views. Your entire organization can use it for tasks, not just project managers.
Monday.com takes busy work out of your day by automating tasks and notifications
Monday.com Standout Feature: Automations
Nothing gets in the way of productivity more than having to complete and track repetitive tasks
like notifying someone about an assignment change or updating notes when a document review
is done or an activity is completed. Monday.com offers a fantastic library of programmable
automations to take the busy work out of your day. Plus, they plan to enhance this feature in
2020 with more customizations.
Project & Task Management Tools
Monday.com’s management tools are geared toward ease of use and smooth communication.
You can add data fields right from the taskbar—no extra windows or pop-ups. Monday.com
offers 20 customizable fields (twice what Asana offers) that can be displayed or hidden as
needed so you can focus on the information that matters. You can add documents and images
and comment on them with an in-document chat feature. There are Kanban and timeline views
as well as dashboards to track progress.
Monday.coms Mobile Apps
Monday.com offers apps for iOS and Android. The mobile apps are relatively new and don’t yet
have the complete flexibility of the desktop system. However, those who have the app installed
and working find it intuitive and useful.
Monday.com Charts & Reports
Reports are not available in Monday.com, but you can create charts and download them as
images, CSV, or SVG to create reports. Monday.com offers pie, bar, line and Gantt charts.
Charts are customizable to let you see project progress, team member workloads, and more.
Software Integrations
Monday.com offers over 20 integrations with other software apps, including Salesforce,
MailChimp, Google Apps, GitHub, and more. Further, its 2020 roadmap includes multiple
integrations with software in the areas of finance, marketing, design, and customer relationship
management (CRM).
What Monday.com is Missing
While Monday.com has a lot of flexibility, the company still seems to be working out some of the
bugs in the phone app. Further, it does not have a free platform nor an affordable tier for
solopreneurs or small firms with only one to three users. It also lacks standard reports and does
not provide for subtasks within tasks.
What Users Think About Monday.com
Monday.com’s online reviews vary widely from 3 to 5 out of 5 stars, although most of the lower
reviews refer to the mobile app. Our Monday.com business reviewers find the price is too high
for the features, particularly when they have just a handful of users. Most others praise its
intuitive format, especially in the phone app. Overall, users appreciated how well it let them take
control of their processes and teamwork.
How to Sign Up for Monday.com
Monday.com continues to build upon its software, with plans for more custom automations,
integrations, and improvements to its mobile apps. It’s a great project task management
software for growing businesses that want customizable workflows that are easy to use across
all staff and teams. Sign up for your free 14-day trial.
<Visit Monday.com>
Trello: Best Task Management Software for HR Teams
While HR tasks are by no means easy, they often follow a regular pattern. Trello’s simple, cardbased task management software works well to help visualize and track project flows. In
addition, its email task creator makes it great when working with people outside your team, like
candidates and new hires. It also offers over 100 add-ons to power productivity.
Trello Pricing
Trello has a free plan with its most useful features, but with limits on how often you can use
them. Paid plans start at $9.99 per user per month (paid annually) and offer more features and
uses, plus team collaboration, automation, and security functions.
Trello Pricing & Features Comparison
Free
Business Class
Enterprise
Price per user
$0
$9.99/month
(annual plan)
✅
✅
✅
50 commands/month
1000
commands/month
per team
6000 max
Unlimited
✅
✅
Unlimited
Unlimited
✅
✅
250MB
250MB
Unlimited Boards,
Cards, Lists
Automations
Email notifications
Power Ups
(Calendars, custom
fields, notifications)
1 per board
User Permissions,
Google Apps Signon
Storage for file
attachments
$20.83/month
(annual plan)
10MB
Trello Features
Trello is designed using Kanban style tools that are as easy to use as playing solitaire online.
Each card holds data attachments. Cards include checklists and you can add people, tags and
links. It’s great to use when more than one person needs to help with an activity, such as when
you bring a new hire into your company and IT needs to set up their workstation.
Trello’s Standout Feature: Email Task Creation
HR deals with many types of people, from the CEO who wants you to evaluate new software to
the applicant you may never see again. Email may be the easiest means of communication.
With Trello, you can convert emails into task cards simply by sending an email to your Trello
board. The subject becomes the card title, while the body of the text sets the description. You
can even add attachments, labels, and team member assignments all via email.
Project & Task Management Tools
Trello’s card-based system for project and task management lets you visualize your to-do list
and add subtasks as well. Each card holds the information about the task, from activity notes to
doc links. People can comment on cards and call out others with @mention. However, unlike
Asana, it does not offer editing capabilities for documents or images unless you link the docs
from elsewhere, such as Google Suite. You can add additional project features via “Power-Ups.”
Trello Mobile Apps
Trello’s mobile apps for iOS and Android let you create boards, lists, and cards. You can set up
tasks with labels and update due dates. You can also mark tasks complete as you finish them,
such as when your new hire has completed and signed their payroll forms.
Charts & Reports
Trello lacks charts and reports. It has a work-around for timelines, and some of its integrations
can help you track progress. Overall however, if you need extensive reporting features, consider
other task management programs with standard reporting options, like Asana.
Trello Software Integrations
Integrations (called “Power Ups”) are the key to Trello’s versatility. You can interface Trello with
over a hundred apps for just about anything: other project management software, Agile tools,
calendars, file management tools, newsletter tools, praise and feedback tools, CRM, and sales
software.
What Trello is Missing
As noted above, Trello is limited in advanced project management capabilities like charts and
reports. However, it’s great for simple repetitive tasks and for teams to have shared visibility. It’s
not as configurable as Monday.com, but the biggest complaint was that the mobile app
sometimes does not save information or times out.
What Users Think About Trello
What Trello does, it does well. The Trello user reviews on our site complemented its
uncomplicated user-friendly interface. The card system is a hit for managing tasks. One user
said it was especially useful in recruiting to organize leads, applications, interviews, and
acceptances. Interestingly, some users disliked it for the same reason others loved it: the cardstyle organization was too simplistic.
How to Sign Up for Trello
Signing up for Trello is easy. Simply go to the website and register. Once you do, it immediately
takes you to your account and leads you through creating your first board. A great way to test it
out is to create a free personal board, such as planning your next vacation, to see how intuitive
it is. Sign up with Trello today for free.
Visit Trello
Nifty: Best Task Management Software for Marketing Teams
Nifty is a great option for marketing creatives to keep track of their tasks because of its excellent
collaboration features and time-tracking tools. They can have projects for clients with tasks for
vendors and team members like graphic designers and copy editors. The Kanban-style interface
and roadmap features provide easy ways to visualize progress. However, it lacks reports and
charts like Trello does.
Nifty Pricing
Nifty offers an excellent set of collaboration and task management tools for businesses of any
size. There is a free account for up to three users, while the paid accounts run $8 or $12 and up
per user per month. The free plan works fine for solopreneurs and freelancers. It’s not until you
need more collaborators or vendor and client access that you’d need to upgrade. The Enterprise
plan for larger firms adds customizations and advanced security.
Nifty Pricing Tiers
Free
Standard
Premium
Enterprise
Price
$0
$8/month per
user
$12/month per
user
Contact for
pricing
# Users
3
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Active Projects
2
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Guests
0
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Team Chat
✅
✅
✅
✅
Kanban, Project &
Team views,
Roadmap
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
15GB
50GB
Time & Budget
tracking
Storage per user
1GB
5GB
Nifty Features
Nifty gives you a visually rich task management tool with easy-to-understand navigation and
threads. It offers file sharing and collaboration features as well as a roadmap view where you
can monitor milestones and deadlines. And if you upgrade to the Premium plan or higher, you’ll
also have built-in time and budget tracking features, which are useful for job costing.
Hold discussions, create and edit documents, and track tasks with Nifty
Nifty’s Standout Feature: Docs
Perfect for taking meeting notes and working through a group document, Nifty’s doc function
offers a clean, collaborative document creation tool so you can create and keep business
requirements, project notes, and creative copy within your project. It’s a great tool for working as
a team on shared pieces of marketing content.
Project & Task Management Tools
Nifty has all the major task management tools most teams need. Its Kanban-style board holds
projects and activities, in which you can set deadlines, add tags, and save notes. You can
assign tasks to team members. If you upgrade to the Premium plan, you can tie the timetracking function to content fields so billing is easier.
Mobile Apps
Nifty’s mobile app works for iOS and Android. It offers an overview screen for projects and
milestones. It also includes the collaboration tools, including a chat and discussion section, plus
a document function for collaborating or taking notes. Even while on mobile or at an offsite client
meeting, you’ll be able to view the roadmap with milestones and deadlines.
Nifty Charts & Reports
Software Integrations
Nifty offers access to over a thousand integrations through Zapier. Other task management
programs like Monday.com and Trello also employ Zapier as well as their own integrations. You
can also integrate Nifty with Google docs and other project management software like Asana
and Basecamp (to import projects and tasks).
What Nifty is Missing
Aside from time tracking and milestones, Nifty does not offer charts or reports. You may be able
to find an integration for these functions, but if you need those tools for your marketing projects,
consider some of the top marketing project management software instead. In addition to the
charts and a native API, Nifty does not have automations as Monday.com does. It does allow for
automatic email notifications, such as when a task changes. However, those are the only
workflow options this software has.
What Users Think About Nifty
Reviewers on third-party review sites rate Nifty inconsistently. Some award it only 3.5 stars,
while others rate it 5 out of 5. A few reviewers commented that the software was buggy, making
it hard to register and perform tasks. It did, however, receive high marks for ease of use and the
roadmap feature. We’ll be doing our own review soon.
How to Sign Up for Nifty
As with all task management software, it’s easy to sign up for a Nifty plan online. If you have
questions or are interested in the customizable Enterprise solution, you can contact Nifty for its
pricing page. There is a free trial for a 14-days, or you can use Nifty free if you have three or
fewer on your team. Sign up for your free account.
Visit Nifty
Wrike: Best Task Management Software for Consulting Firms
Consulting firms depend on keeping good relationships with customers. Clients need
reassurance that you are on track with their deliverables. Attorneys or freelancers may need
clients to comment on requirements and documents to make sure everyone is on the same
page. Wrike’s reports and collaboration tools make this easier, and vendors, as well as your
customers, can get free access as guest collaborators.
Wrike Pricing
Wrike’s pricing runs from a free plan with limited features and up to five users, to $25 per user
per month—a bit higher in cost than tools like Trello. It offers Marketing and Enterprise plans
with additional Wrike products. What’s great for consulting firms is that guest collaborators can
use the software free of charge. That’s perfect for when you need clients to be part of the
process. The three plans best for small business are shown below:
Wrike Pricing & Features Comparison
Features
Professional
Business
$0/month
$9.80/user per month
$24.80/user per
month
# of Users
5
5, 10, 15
5-200
Multiple views: Board,
Task, Spreadsheet
✅
✅
✅
Collaboration Tools &
Shareable Dashboard
✅
✅
Advanced integrations
✅
✅
Pricing
Free
Real-time reports &
Pre-built templates
✅
Request forms
✅
Time tracking
✅
Storage space
2 Gb
Video uploads/month
From 5 Gb
From 50 Gb
15 GB
15 GB
Wrike Features
Wrike has more features than simple task management software, such as reports, templates,
client request forms, and time tracking. It also supports newer as well as traditional project
management reporting views. As such, it may be a bit much for those looking to manage their
personal tasks. It’s better suited to organizations that have many contributors—i.e., vendors,
freelancers, clients—providing feedback and updates.
Wrike’s Standout Feature: Forms
Service and consulting firms will love Wrike’s forms feature. You can create a request form to
put on your website that can feed directly into Wrike, creating a task with subtasks, deadlines,
notes, sample images or documents, and more.
Project & Task Management Tools
Wrike offers customizable templates and multiple views so you can get the information you
need. The timeline view works like a Gantt chart and is shareable so your clients can see where
you are on their project. It also has some excellent collaboration tools, including the ability to
comment directly on images.
Mobile Apps
Wrike has a fully functional mobile application that allows you to view and assign tasks,
comment and critique, and even adjust timelines as needed. The tablet app allows for more
details than the phone app. User reviews of the app are overwhelmingly positive.
Charts & Reports
Clients like reports, especially for billing and seeing progress in long-term projects. Wrike lets
you create custom reports or use the templates feature to create standard reports in seconds.
You can also make charts and graphs about any project, folder or tag, and add them to your
dashboard.
Software Integrations
With over 30 integrations, Wrike is among the best task management software for businesses
that want to interface it with their other business software programs. It connects to document
storage apps, collaboration software, and CRM software like Salesforce. If you need something
different, its API allows you to interface Wrike with over 400 cloud and on-premise apps.
What Wrike is Missing
With so many features, it’s notable that social media tools are not among them. Other programs,
like Monday.com, have templates for social media planning. Wrike is also not as simple as
Trello or as visually engaging as Monday.com.
What Users Think About Wrike
Users who chimed in on our Wrike review and elsewhere spoke highly of Wrike. They give it 4
to 5 out of 5 stars, about the same as Asana and Monday.com. Most found it easy to use and
appreciated the robust functionality.
How to Sign Up for Wrike
Wrike offers a free trial and a free version with limited features for up to five users. If you have
questions, there’s a chat feature you can use to ask for help. Visit the website to sign up for a
free 15-day trial. Sign up for your free Wrike account.
Visit Wrike
Todoist: Best Task Management Software for Blue-collar Teams
Sometimes, all a team needs is a simple task management software program that lets you
create tasks, make assignments, and set deadlines. Todoist suffices, and it’s super affordable.
Todoist makes it easy for any non-tech user with its natural language tools and user-friendly
interface. Plus, it allows you to load files and comment on them as well. It’s an excellent app for
blue-collar work, family management, and personal use.
Todoist Pricing
With plans starting at $3 per month, Todoist is one of the lowest-cost task management
software, but still offers a strong set of basic tools. Nonprofits can get a 50% discount on the
Business Plan, while educational institutions get 70% off. If your work team has fewer than five
people, Todoist remains free.
Todoist Pricing and Features
Free
Premium
Business
Price
(paid annually)
$0
$3/month per user
$5/month per user
Number of Projects
80
300
500
People per Project
5
25
50
Comments & File
uploads
✅
✅
Reminders &
Calendar Sync
✅
✅
Add Tasks via Email
✅
✅
Role-based Security
✅
Todoist Features
Todoist is a more basic task management software that’s easy to launch and use with little
training required. It doesn’t include the rich configuration options like Monday.com has or the
depth of project management features of Asana, but that’s its charm. It’s easy. Your employees
don’t have to be digital natives to figure it out and start using it.
Todoist’s natural language interface makes it easy to set recurring deadlines
Todoist’s Standout Feature: Natural Language Interface
While many project task management software have menus for setting dates and recurring
deadlines, Todoist uses natural language. Set deadlines like “every Monday” or “every 15th of
the month at 2 pm.” It offers abbreviations and variations as well: “ev” for every or “yearly”
instead of every year.
Project & Task Management Tools
Todoist is a simple, list-based task management software program, offering basic project
management tools. In addition to setting deadlines and team assignments, you can add files,
comment on tasks, and view productivity. However, its list-based interface does not make it
good for Agile and Kanban work management systems as Monday.com or Asana do.
Mobile Apps
Todoist’s mobile app earned a 2019 Editor’s Best Choice Award from Google. It’s one of the few
task management apps we’ve seen described as “fun” and “motivating.” The to-do-list format,
task streaks, and karma points are what makes it more likely that blue-collar and non-techie
workers will embrace it.
Charts & Reports
Todoist does not offer a reporting function. It has some progress charts in its Productivity view,
where you can see how doing against your daily and weekly goals, plus details on what projects
you’ve worked. It also tracks and awards Karma points for productivity.
Software Integrations
Todoist integrates with Microsoft Outlook, and Google allows you to set tasks via email and
access your Todoist lists right from your existing office tools. It also integrates with over 60 other
programs, including Slack, Webex, and TrackingTime. If you have Google Home, you can add
and check in on tasks and more via Google Assistant.
What Todoist is Missing
Todoist’s strength is in helping people keep track of tasks. Therefore, it lacks advanced
collaboration features, time tracking and billing, and reporting. Some of these can be added via
integrations.
What Users Think About Todoist
Users who left a Todoist review as well as rated it on third-party review sites praised the
simplicity of Todoist. They enjoy the list format and the natural language interface. Complaints
usually concerned slow syncing of task deadlines and completions. Also, people wanted a free
trial to try the Premium features before purchasing.
How to Sign Up for Todoist
Todoist lacks a free trial, and its free account is extremely limited. However, you can sign up for
just one month for only $4 as a way to give it a try. If your team enjoys lists and needs a simple,
user-friendly way to keep on top of tasks and projects, Todoist is an affordable intuitive option.
Sign up for a free account.
Visit Todoist
Quire: Best Task Management Software for Start-ups
Free software is always helpful, especially for start-ups that are watching every penny. Quire
offers one of the best free task management software solutions because of its solid feature set,
simplicity, and useful integrations. It gives you many ways to organize tasks as well as projects,
plus adds features like commenting, deadlines, progress charts and more.
Quire Pricing: Free Until Mid-2020
According to the website, Quire is concentrating on creating a great product rather than deciding
on a pricing scheme. Therefore, you can get a Quire account for free, with up to 35
organizations, 80 products, and 30 members. Further, whatever tools and features you are
using once Quire sets its pricing will continue to be free. It’s a reward for your loyalty.
Quire Features
Despite being free, Quire stacks up very well against other software on our list. Similar to the
paid plans of its competitors like Asana, Wrike, and Trello, Quire offers the following:
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Tasks, subtasks, deadlines, and assignees
Kanban boards and Gantt-style charts
File uploads
Calendar and other integrations
Reminders and notifications
You can add details and have discussions on tasks and subtasks with Quire
Quire’s Standout Feature: Chrome Extension
If you or your teammates spend most of your time on the Web, then Quire’s Chrome extension
could be just the ticket for improving productivity. You can use Quire from any webpage in
Chrome, giving you access to projects and receiving notifications on updates. In fact, you can
turn notifications on and off and set how often you want to receive them.
Quire’s Project & Task Management Tools
For a free task management software, Quire offers an impressive set of project management
tools. Kanban boards and smart folders help you stay organized and track progress. Like
Monday.com, Quire gives you preset project templates. You can also import tasks from other
project management software and use batch operations to set assignments and tags to multiple
tasks at once.
Mobile Apps
Quire’s mobile app has all the features of the desktop task management software. One nice
addition is the ability to upload photos from your phone so that inspiration you drew on a napkin
at lunch isn’t forgotten.
Quire’s Charts & Reports
The Overview tab of a project gives you pie graphs and line charts so you can see progress
visually. You can sort data by tasks or members. It does not have reports, per se, but you can
export the information to CSV and JSON files to create your own.
Quire’s Software Integrations
In addition to the Chrome extension, Quire integrates with Google Drive, Slack, and GitHub. It
also works with Siri to let you manage tasks vocally.
What Quire is Missing
Quire lacks a native calendar function but has said it’s on its roadmap. Also, while you can add
a file or link to it from Google Drive, we did not find editing capabilities. There is a user guide,
but it is an outdated text-and-image interface.
What Users Think About Quire
Online user reviews of Quire were overwhelmingly positive. People like the treelike interface for
visualizing tasks and subtasks. Like Trello and Monday.com, users find it simple to use and a
great way to organize and communicate among teams. In addition, Quire is quick to respond to
comments posted on review boards. We’re working to add our own review of Quire soon.
How to Sign Up for Quire
The pending announcement of paid plans in the first half of 2020 may give you pause. No one
wants to get invested in a program and discover they can’t afford it. Quire had said all projects
and features in use at the time of the price announcement will continue to be free. Start using
Quire for free now, and if you find it meets your needs, spin up those projects before the price
change is announced. SIgn up for Quire for free.
Visit Quire
Insightly: Best Task Management Software for B2B Sales Teams
While many task management software tools have templates for sales or customer relationship
management, Insightly takes it to the next level. Its task and project tools plans combine the
best features for carrying prospects through the lead funnel as well as creating projects for
when the opportunity is won. It’s really more of a CRM and therefore an affordable choice for
B2B sales teams.
Insightly Pricing
Insightly has a free bare-bones plan for managing tasks and contacts—for up to two users.
Otherwise, it is one of the most expensive task management software solutions on our list
costing between $29-$99 a month per user. That’s because it offers native tools that go well
beyond task management making it great for B2B projects. It might be possible to use Insightly
in place of both CRM and project management software, which could save you money in the
long run.
Insightly CRM Plans
Price
Plus
Professional
Enterprise
$29/month per user
$49/month per user
$99/month per user
Organize contacts,
tasks &
opportunities
✅
✅
✅
Mass email
✅
✅
✅
Timelines,
relationship linking
✅
✅
✅
✅
✅
Lead Assignments
✅
✅
Automated
workflows
✅
✅
Unlimited
Unlimited
G-Suite & Office 365
integrations
Roles & user
permissions
✅
2
Insightly Features
Insightly provides tremendous capability for keeping track of prospects in a sales pipeline,
including contact names, company details, email attachments, and multiple (configurable) data
fields. If you’re only managing a few tasks, it may be overwhelming, but if those tasks are
related to your sales funnel, it’s a great option.
Insightly’s workflow automations make task management easier
Standout Feature: Convert Opportunities Into Projects
Insightly’s tools are meant to take you through the entire sales process from opportunity to
product delivery. Thus, it makes it easy to convert successful opportunities into work projects so
you can preserve the pertinent information. This is one of its many features specific to sales and
other client-facing businesses.
Project & Task Management Tools
Like other task management software, Insightly lets you create projects and tasks, assign team
members, set deadlines, and notify parties. The game-changer for most companies, however, is
that it can do a lot of these automatically. An incoming lead can trigger a series of tasks and
assignments and even automatically complete tasks, such as sending out an acknowledgment
email. Projects can be viewed in lists or on a Kanban board.
Mobile Apps
The Insightly mobile app lets you add new contacts, access task lists and assign or complete
tasks, review opportunity notes, add memos on leads, and more. However, the app is not easy
to use as most of the other mobile task management software apps we considered, like Quire.
It’s a bit glitchy.
Charts & Reports
Insightly has built-in business intelligence features with customizable dashboards and reports. It
even allows for scheduling and emailing of regular reports. That way, you can have the quarterly
sales update run automatically and send data to the VP of Sales on time, every time.
Software Integrations
Insightly offers a REST-based API so you can incorporate other programs into the system.
However, it offers few native integrations, including:
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Microsoft 365 & Outlook
Google Apps & G Suite & Gmail
Xero
QuickBooks
MailChimp
Slack
What Insightly is Missing
For all its many features, Insightly nonetheless lacks integrated time tracking and billing
software common to some CRMs. This may not be an issue for sales teams task management
but could affect other departments that use Insightly to support client-facing tasks. In addition,
setting up and using Insightly is not super-intuitive.
What Users Think About Insightly
People who commented on our Insightly review and elsewhere thought of it more as a CRM
program than a task management software program. That said, they were pleased with its
capabilities. Many noted that it is not as user-friendly as other CRM software programs for task
management and projects. Still, others found it complex with too many steps required.
How to Sign Up for Insightly
Insightly is a solid task management choice for sales teams because of its robust CRM features.
You can request a demo of Insightly or ask about its free barebones plan for contacts, sales,
and projects for up to two users. Sign up for a free trial of Insightly today.
Visit Insightly
Clarizen: Best Task Management Software for Enterprise-Level
Businesses
Like Insightly, Clarizen is an expensive task management software because it goes beyond
tasks, deadlines, and collaboration. If offers automations, budget planning, resource
management, and time and expense tracking. It’s well suited for large corporations needing an
end-to-end solution for project and task management.
Clarizen Pricing
Clarizen is an enterprise-level task management system that gives users a 360-degree view of
projects. It goes beyond tasks and deadlines to include budget management, extensive
automations, and hundreds of custom fields. Clarizen offers an Eagle plan for executive teams
and a Go plan geared for Agile teams. Unfortunately though, you’ll have to contact Clarizen for
pricing.
Clarizen Task Management Software Plans
Enterprise
Price
Storage per Seat
Unlimited
Contact Sales
Contact Sales
1GB
Unlimited
Number of Projects,
Portfolios, Cases
Unlimited
Unlimited
✅
✅
Custom Fields
150
10,000
Custom Actions
100
500
Rules
200
400
✅
✅
Time, Resource, & Budget
Management
InterAct Email
Collaboration
Clarizen Features
Clarizen has the most complete set of project management tools of the task management
software we examined. It goes well beyond task management by allowing you to set up custom
rules and actions as well as hundreds (or even thousands) of custom data fields. Further, it
provides workforce management, resource tracking and social collaboration—all built-in.
Clarizen displays data in a graphical form giving you a full view of project health.
Clarizen’s Standout Feature: Budgeting
In business, what it takes to complete a task can be as important as completing the task itself.
Clarizen offers resource and budget tracking and controls to help you keep your project within
constraints. This information can be displayed in a red-light, green-light manner for visualization
of where your project has pinch points.
Project & Task Management Tools
Using Clarizen, you can turn requests into projects, collaborate on files, tasks, and project
activities. You can set up independent discussions for brainstorming, and store and manage
documents within the project. Clarizen makes it easy to track time and collaborate with outside
parties. It is simply a complete project management solution.
Mobile Apps
Clarizen’s mobile app lets you operate the software from a mobile device, getting access to
relevant information like task updates. You can review and update projects, set new tasks, and
submit time and expenses. However, of all the software we reviewed, Clarizen’s mobile app was
rated the lowest for ease of use.
Charts & Reports
Clarizen offers Gantt charts and productivity metrics. Its pre-built and customizable reports are
suitable for all levels of management, from team leader to CEO. Further, Clarizen’s charts and
reports are interactive and shareable. The recipient can manipulate filters to see to the exact
information they want.
Software Integrations
Clarizen offers well over a dozen apps for tasks—from JIRA integration to creating org charts. It
integrates with major business software like Salesforce and Oracle, document management
tools like Google Drive, and chat tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
What Clarizen is Missing
We did not find Kanban boards in the Enterprise and Unlimited Plans which may be a problem
for visualizing tasks as in a Scrum with stand up meetings. Clarizen favors a grid view which
shows task rows with information in the columns, spreadsheet-like. For a Kanban board, you’ll
need an additional app or upgrade to Clarizen Go, which is for Agile work management styles.
What Users Think About Clarizen
Our Clarizen user reviews and reviews on third-party software sites included mention that
customizability sets Clarizen apart from other task management software. However, that
customization and breadth of features come at the price of complexity and a steep learning
curve.
How to Sign Up for Clarizen
For pricing and questions, you’ll need to contact Clarizen’s sales team via its website. It offers a
free 30-day trial. If you have a larger firm looking for a task management solution all your teams
can use, head over to Clarizen’s website. Sign up for your free 30-day trial.
Visit Clarizen
Other Task Management Programs to Consider
If the nine task management software we reviewed above doesn’t meet your needs, you should
consider using an alternative. Some providers personalize their tools for certain industries
and/or types of users.
Here’s a list of alternative task management programs to consider:
Alternative
Best For
Centrallo
Managers & executives wanting to track administrative
tasks in a checklist
Wunderlist/Microsoft To Do
Microsoft users that want a simple, powerful built-in task
list
Taskworld
Legal, regulated, or health firms that require secure onpremise file storage
Basecamp
Remote work team collaborating on tasks and
deliverables
ActiveCollab
Businesses with hourly workers needing to track time
spent on tasks
Bottom Line
With the variety of task management software offerings, it’s easy to find a program to meet the
needs and preferences of your business, team, or even family. From simple visual to-do lists to
full-fledged CRM-plus-project-management solutions, the hard part is choosing the right one.
Consider taking advantage of the free trials.
That said, Asana’s flexibility, intuitive interface, and depth of features make it an excellent allaround choice for managing tasks and projects across any industry. It offers a free limited
version for smaller firms and a free 30-day trial of its advanced, paid plans. Sign up to use
Asana today.
<Visit Asana>