The majority of project management software vendors structure their pricing between 2 to 5 tiers. This way, they ensure the most coverage for customers with various needs and financial capabilities. Those tiers often vary in terms of features and either cost a flat subscription fee ranging between $45 and $100 a month for an unlimited number of employees or have a per-employee-per-month pricing model, which could cost anywhere between $5 and $40 per employee per month. 

Do be aware that in all cases, additional fees may still apply for on-demand services such as product setup, training, customization, dedicated account management, and cancellation. Such services may not be included in your monthly subscription. Consult your chosen project management software vendor on the exact breakdown of all their fees, both recurring and non-recurring.

Another thing to watch out for is whether or not your selected vendor has a minimum price commitment. Vendors with a minimum price commitment won’t let you subscribe to certain plans (usually their best-value plans) unless your total monthly or annual spending exceeds a certain amount. 

For more information and to learn about our software pricing best practices, check out our ebook on getting the best pricing in HR tech.

• Project planning: Project management software allows you to plan out and visualize all the ins and outs of your project. This includes all the different resources you need, the estimated time and budget, and most importantly, the number and type of people who will work on the project and bring it to life. Depending on the software, you might also be able to share access to the project plan(s) with different stakeholders, both within and outside of the company. 
• Task and subtask management: Once you have a plan for your project, you can go ahead and break that plan into tasks and subtasks that you can assign to your team members. Your software should also allow you to order tasks in terms of importance, and—if someone on your team is away for any reason—reassign their tasks to other individuals with the capacity to take them on.
• Dependency management: In project management, it is very common to have tasks that are connected to one another. For example, task C is contingent on the completion of task A. Since cases like that can be difficult to manage, it is only fair to have a system in place that will help you visualize all task dependencies and clearly lay out their developmental stages for collaborators to access and understand what needs to be handled first.
• Project timelines and milestones: Another feature of project management software is the ability to create comprehensive timelines, complete with milestones and time estimates for each milestone. Several project management systems actually have built-in Gantt charts that you can customize, color-code, and access on the go.
• Project progress tracking: With the help of project management software, managers can easily track the progress their team members are making in their individual assignments. Seeing progress from a single interface and in real time enables managers to immediately make informed decisions to boost performance (e.g. identify if certain employees could use some help in accomplishing their tasks, or if they have too much on their plate, reassign a portion of their work to other team members).
• Customizable workflows: One size never fits all in project management, which is why most software tools in this space allow you to customize workflows and continuously finetune them to boost your team’s productivity and achieve the best outcomes.
• Reminders and notifications: Project management software ensures you never miss important updates through in-app, email, and mobile push notifications. You can also customize what you get notified for and set reminders for when certain deadlines are approaching or when certain milestones are completed.
• Kanban and scrum boards: Boards help you stay organized. They enable teams to visualize everything that needs to be done in sequential order, thus speeding up the process of task completion. Depending on your needs, you can get a project management system that supports either or both of the following board types: ‍
• Scrum boards: Relevant to software development, scrum boards are often divided into three columns for to-do, in progress, and done. They’re designed to give teams a real-time picture of where their sprint backlog items stand.‍
• Kanban boards: A kanban board is also made of columns and task-representing cards but is more flexible than a scrum board. The kanban method supports the continuous delivery of tasks without restricting them to sprints. Teams simply work on tasks as they come in and move them to the done column as they’re completed.‍
• Workloads and team member availability: Project management software gives you visibility into what each team member is working on so you can ensure they aren’t overworked and all tasks are properly staffed. You can also allow team members to manually update their availability and let you know if they’re able to take on additional tasks or not through the software. ‍
• Team collaboration: Project management software enables teams to seamlessly collaborate on tasks. Most solutions in this space will also have built-in discussion boards and a chat functionality so team members can communicate and share feedback in real time, regardless of whether they’re in the same office building or working remotely from different countries. ‍
• Docs and file management: Apart from real-time collaboration and communication, a good project management solution should allow you to share documents and other types of files easily and quickly with a large number of people. It should also offer extensible cloud storage so you can save all of those documents and files long term. ‍
• User administration: Projects often bring together people at different levels. These include but aren’t limited to managers, employees, freelancers, third-party vendors, and clients. As the person in charge, you may want to give all of those people access to your project but customize that access to keep certain information on a need-to-know basis. With the help of project management software, you can create user groups with different access levels. When done, all that’s left to do is just add people to the correct user group, and they’ll automatically receive the access level that comes with it. ‍
• Time tracking: Manually updating timesheets is a tedious task that’s not only time consuming but almost impossible to perform without error. The good news is that some of the top project management solutions come with a built-in time-tracking tool, ensuring that your project completion time estimates are as accurate as possible. ‍
• Third-party integrations: The majority of project management and collaboration tools offer integration options with your existing business tools, such as those for recruiting, payroll, enterprise resource planning (ERP), team communication, and more, to extend the functionality of your software, have your data synchronize automatically, and eliminate duplicated effort.‍
• Analytics and reporting: An important feature of any software product or online platform is analytics. Through accurate, real-time data, good project management software allows you to monitor how your team is performing against your pre-defined metrics, both short and long term, as well as the average time it takes them to achieve milestones or tasks. It should display this information neatly in graphs for quick reference as well as let you export the data in CSV and other formats. ‍
• Mobile access: On-the-go access is very important in project management. Nobody wants to limit themselves to laptops or desktops. Luckily, most project management solutions offer iOS and Android project management apps that managers can use to check on their team’s progress and keep track of deadlines on the go. Project collaborators can also use project management mobile apps to share updates and communicate with one another anytime, anywhere.‍
• Additional features: In addition to the above, some project management software solutions may also carry advanced modules for budgeting, invoicing, resource allocation and management, expense tracking, asset management, capacity planning, issue tracking, and risk management.

As you’re researching and comparing different project management software products, we always recommend that you schedule demo sessions with the top vendors on your list to make sure their solution covers your needs. Here are a few questions you can ask when you get in touch with those vendors: 

• Can you show me what employees see through their accounts?
• Does your software leverage any artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning for process automation?
• Is your software easy to implement, and would I be able to set it up myself?
• What business apps does your product integrate with?
• What metrics have you used to prove the effectiveness of your software?
• What data protection laws is your software compliant with? 
• How much does your product cost for my team size?
• How will the current pricing change as our team grows or shrinks?
• Will you assign my business a dedicated account manager?
• Can you walk me through your Customer Support SLAs?
• Do you have a help center with articles and other documentation for self-service?

The shift to cloud computing has impacted many software types, including project management software. The majority of products in this space are cloud based, delivered through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) infrastructure. Getting started with cloud-based software is fairly easy. Once you’ve selected a vendor that meets your requirements and purchased a subscription, you can create an account and start configuring it right away (e.g. import your employee data, invite your employees to sign up, and start creating projects). 

Though not many, there are some project management software solutions that are self-hosted (on-premise). Self-hosted solutions generally take longer to set up in comparison to their cloud-based counterparts. Depending on your chosen vendor, you may need to consult them regarding their product’s compatibility with your current company hardware. You may even be able to have them send a representative to install the product on your behalf, which is always recommended for you to get up and running with the system as quickly as possible.

Note: Most of the software vendors we’ve listed in this guide provide step-by-step video tutorials and help docs that assist customers in implementing the product. For more information, you can reach out to your assigned account manager or a customer support representative.

What is project management?‍

Project management entails the application of processes, skills, experience, and resources to achieve specific objectives within specific constraints, mainly time and budget. 

What is PMO?‍

A project management office (PMO) is a group or department that’s responsible for defining and maintaining project management best practices within an organization. They ensure projects are executed to the highest standards on time and within their allocated budget.

What is agile project management?‍

Agile project management (APM) is an iterative methodology to project delivery. It entails breaking projects into manageable tasks or iterations that are tackled in a meaningful order. Working in iterations enables project managers to continuously deliver value to key stakeholders throughout a project’s life cycle rather than just at the end. It also promotes continuous improvement, as project managers can easily make adjustments and incorporate stakeholder and end-user feedback with every iteration.

Why is project management important?‍

It’s important to have clear direction for any company or team undertaking to be successful. Good project management provides teams with a plan so their efforts are continuously geared toward the same goal(s). It also saves time and money, and it fosters teamwork.

What is project management software?‍

Project management software is software companies use to plan, allocate resources, and effectively execute projects. It facilitates collaboration and can also be used to communicate updates with stakeholders, both within and outside the organization.

What is a Gantt chart?‍

Named after its inventor, Henry Gantt, a Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that displays a project’s schedule. Teams use it to visualize where their tasks or events stand against a defined time period. 

What is the difference between a kanban board and a scrum board?‍

Scrum boards are relevant to software development. They’re often divided into three columns of To-Do, In Progress, and Done, and are designed to give teams a real-time picture of where their sprint backlog items stand. A kanban board is also made of columns and task-representing cards but is more flexible than a scrum board. The kanban method supports the continuous delivery of tasks without restricting them to sprints, as the scrum method does. Teams simply work on tasks as they come in and move them to the done column as they’re completed.

What is project risk management?‍

Project risk management is a process project managers go through to identify and manage potential risks that may affect their project as it progresses. Though not all project risks can be anticipated, the aim is to catch and have a solution in place for as many potential issues as possible to minimize their impact and achieve the best results possible. 

What are the features of project management software?

Project management software commonly offers features for:

• Project planning and visualization
• Task and subtask management
• Dependency management
• Timelines and milestone creation
• Project status tracking
• Workflow customization
• Reminders and notifications
• Kanban and scrum boards
• Workloads and team member availability tracking
• Team collaboration
• Docs and file management
• User administration
• Time tracking
• Analytics and reporting
  

What are the benefits of project management software?

Project management software enables teams to plan projects better, execute tasks faster, and collaborate more effectively.

What should I look for in project management software?

Besides ensuring a project management solution covers the features you need, make sure it is also easy to use, scalable, can integrate with the rest of your tech stack, and has a mobile app for on-the-go access. 

How are project management software solutions deployed?

Most project management software solutions are cloud based, meaning they are accessible through most web browsers (i.e. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge), either on your Mac or Windows desktop or on your mobile device—no installation necessary.  

What is the best project management software?

The best project management software solutions are: 

• Wrike: Best robust and versatile project management software solution
• Trello: Best free and simple-to-use project management software
• Asana: Most popular project management software
• Zoho Projects: Best comprehensive and affordable project management software
• Teamwork: Best feature-rich project management software 
• ClickUp: Best project management software for small businesses
• Smartsheet: Best customizable project management software 
• ProofHub: Best project management software with fixed pricing plans
• TeamGantt: Best project management software for advanced Gantt chart creation
• LiquidPlanner: Best project management software for intelligent project planning and scheduling
• Jira: Best project management software for software development teams
• Basecamp: Best project management software for remote teams
  

What is the best free project management software?

The best FREE project management software solutions are: 

• Wrike: Has a free version with limitations on the number of active tasks
• Trello: Has a free version with an unlimited number of users, cards, and up to 10 Trello boards 
• Asana: Has a free version that’s great for teams getting started with project management
• Zoho Projects: Has a plan that’s free of charge for up to 3 users
• Teamwork: Has a plan that’s free of charge for up to 5 users
• ClickUp: Has a free plan that comes with 100 MB storage, unlimited members, and tasks
• Basecamp: Has a free plan that’s limited to 3 projects, 20 users, and 1 GB storage space
• TeamGantt: Has a free plan that’s limited to 3 users and 1 project
• LiquidPlanner: Has a free plan that’s limited to 10 users, 3 projects, and 1 workspace‍
• Jira: Has a free plan that’s limited to 10 users