The best project management software: You should know these 7 tools

Goodbye complex workflows, hello smooth project planning!

Project management software connects your team and is the central basis for your collaboration. This means less stress, more efficiency and finally room for fun when working together.

In this article, we'll introduce you to the 7 best project management tools that will take your teamwork to the next level.

Get an overview of the functions, the respective support options and - of course - real customer reviews. So, let's find out which tool is perfect for your team! 🚀

[.no-toc]What is a project management software?[.no-toc]

Imagine you and your team have a personal assistant that makes your day-to-day work easier: that's exactly what project management software does. It's a central tool that allows you to keep an eye on your projects and plan and manage them flexibly.

From time recording and resource planning to communication with the team - everything runs via software. You can easily keep track of all tasks and deadlines and ensure that every project goal is achieved on time. Whether you work as a small or large team, the right project management software makes collaboration easy, efficient and successful.

We have taken a close look at the PM Softwares

What are the criteria for good project management software?

✅ Features, that make teamwork easier

Those who work in teams need project management software that makes collaboration smooth. In addition to easy-to-coordinate project management, the tool should also offer simple time recording as well as team and resource planning. The ability to invite external partners to projects rounds off the package

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✅ Easy, intuitive use

A project management tool should make teamwork easier and be as accessible as possible for everyone. When choosing your new project software, you should therefore make sure that it offers a simple and intuitive user interface. That way, your team can work with it quickly.

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✅ Friendly and helpful support

To ensure that questions and problems are resolved quickly, your project management software should offer good and personalised customer service. Ideally, there should also be a community where users can exchange information with each other.

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✅ Data remains secure and protected

Data protection is essential when choosing good software for your projects. Your sensitive data should always be well protected.

awork – the #1 among the PM-Tools

Main location: Hamburg, Germany

Pricing: starting 8€/month

awork is a really smart work management tool that helps teams to organise projects successfully.

With a clear focus on intuitive use and an inviting UI design, it combines project management, team planning and time tracking in one tool. Sharing projects with external parties is also possible with the frontrunner among PM tools. 🤝

The Tool that is the leader in the ‘Project Management’ category and ranked 5th in the top 100 tools

🟢 Project management

awork offers everything you need for modern project management and even more:

• The centrepiece, the projects, can be clearly mapped with task lists, tasks, subtasks and checklists. Users can choose between the list view, Kanban or the project timeline.
• Thanks to smart filter logic, a configurable dashboard and timelines, multiple projects can be easily monitored and processed.
• Coordination with the team takes place directly at project or task level. This means that no information is lost.
• Project templates can be used to start projects more efficiently. Automations are also popular with awork to make everyday work easier and to map classic workflows.
• Helpful integrations such as calendar or billing tools expand the functionality of awork.

🟢 Team planning

awork enables intuitive capacity planning for teams.

• Thans to the calender integration, project and task planning can be displayed precisely down to the daily and weekly level of individual users.
• The awork planner makes even the organisation of complex projects with many members simple and clear. It takes into account projects, tasks, calender entries, holidays and other absences as well as individual working hours. This enables realistic and precise planning.

🟢 Time recording

Time recording is seamlessly integrated into project and task management.

• awork offers several options for recording times: the quick timer, drag-and-drop in the calendar view or the conversion of calendar appointments into recorded times.
• Extensive options for time evaluation facilitate overview and analysis.

🟢 External collaboration

With awork Connect, collaborating with external partners is child's play.

• Projects can be shared with external people free of charge, giving them access to shared projects. This enables efficient collaboration with external agencies, clients or freelancers, without limit.

🟢 Ease of use

The intuitive and inviting design is very popular in awork.

• The software provides a good overview at all times and enables targeted work processes.
• New users can find their way around awork quickly and easily.

🟢 Support

awork's customer support is personal, competent and responds quickly in German or English.

• Live chat, e-mail, telephone, live demos, webinars, video tutorials and an extensive help centre are available.
• On average, support responds within 2-3 minutes.
• With the ‘Team on Board Guarantee’, a 6-week onboarding phase is offered to ensure the best possible start for the team.
• In the awork community, users can exchange ideas, ask questions, find solutions or offer their help.

🟢 Data protection

awork is GDPR-compliant, developed in Hamburg and hosted on ISO 27001-certified Microsoft servers in Germany.

• The settings of roles and rights in awork offer an optimal tool for internal data protection.

[.b-important-block]Anyone who values usability and perfectly thought-out processes is in the right place with awork.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: awork[$tag]

Monday.com

Main location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Pricing: starting 8€/month

monday.com Work OS is a customisable no-code/low-code platform that helps teams in any industry to manage work processes. The platform offers numerous customisation options and integrations that can be designed according to your plan.

🟢 Project management

With monday.com, teams from any industry can control the planning and management of work processes in project management.

• Tasks, status, deadlines, project progress and time recording are summarised in the project overview. A person responsible is also added for each project. The calendar or Gantt view can be used to keep track of the project as required.
• The project management functions are very flexible and versatile, but can be customised directly to your own workflow. However, familiarisation takes a little more time due to the wide range of functions.

🟢 Team planning

To create a team plan, resources are assigned to all tasks in monday.com.

• These resources can then be filled with employees.
• Free capacities can be viewed on the basis of assigned tasks.

🟢 Time recording

Time recording in monday.com is not initially integrated into project management.

• To record times, the corresponding settings must be set up separately.
• If time recording is integrated, team members can track their hours on the respective tasks.

🔴 External collaboration

Targeted collaboration with external teams is not possible in monday.com.

• Alternatively, guests can be added who can be invited to shareable boards.
• Up to 3 guests can be added free of charge. As soon as more users are required, the price plan will be adjusted.

🟡 Ease of use

monday.com has many functionalities and setting options.

• The large number of selection options helps to customise the workflow to your own way of working, but also requires a lot of initial training time.
• As a result, the user-friendliness of monday.com is only average in the project management software category in the OMR Review comparison.

🟡 Support

Users can find help in the Help Centre.

• There is also a community where users can exchange ideas.
• Problems are solved with live chat and e-mail support.
• Telephone support is only offered for billing questions.

🟡 Data protection

The project management software does not have a server location in the EU, but fulfils the GDPR.

[.b-important-block]Suitable for all those who want to display projects in tables and attach less importance to smooth integration between different feature areas.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: monday.com[$tag]

[.b-button-primary] Compare monday and awork in detail! [.b-button-primary]

Asana

Main location: San Francisco, USA

Pricing: starting10,99€/month

Asana is a modern project management tool that aims to simplify teamwork and coordination. At its core, it is a software solution designed to help teams organise, track and manage their work.

🟢 Project management

The Asana tool offers classic functions such as task lists, boards and Gantt charts.

• Projects can be managed effectively with timelines, a calendar and reports.
• Asana places a special focus on task management. This means that individual tasks can also be part of several projects.
• There is a dashboard for each project, which can be flexibly customised. The focus is then on a single project; there is no multi-project overview.

🟢 Team planning

Although it is not one of Asana's core features, capacity planning is offered.

• The workload of individual team members can be tracked and work requests prioritised.
• However, there is no way to link team planning with the calendar and schedule tasks directly.

🟢 Time recording

Time tracking is not one of the basic functions of Asana

• If you want time recording in your project management, you have to book a higher price plan.
• The times can then be recorded directly via the timer integrated in a task or manually.
• In addition, the time required can be estimated and reports created based on the recorded times.

🔴 External collaboration

Targeted collaboration with external teams is not possible with Asana.

• Guests can be added.
• Guests only have limited access to the workspace and only see what has been explicitly shared with them.

🟡 Ease of use

With Asana, teams get a comprehensive tool that offers many features and options.

• This means that the software can fulfil many different use cases, but these must first be tailored to the respective team.
• This makes familiarisation more complex overall and takes a while.
• On OMR Reviews, user-friendliness is not rated above the category average.

🟡 Support

Support at Asana is available to paying customers via email or chat; there is no telephone support.

• In OMR reviews, support is rated below category average.

🟡 Data protection

The project management software Asana operates globally and stores data in data centres worldwide.

• With the most expensive Enterprise plan, there is the option of hosting data in an EU data centre in Frankfurt am Main. This makes the use of Asana GDPR-compliant.

[.b-important-block]Anyone who values classic project portfolio management should take a look at Asana.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: Asana[$tag]

[.b-button-primary] Compare Asana and awork in detail! [.b-button-primary]

ClickUp

Main location: San Diego, USA

Pricing: starting 0€/month

ClickUp is a project management platform that aims to reduce inefficiencies. It offers versatile views and customisation options to improve productivity and collaboration in teams.

🟢 Project management

ClickUp describes itself as an all-in-one platform for projects.

• ClickUp scores above all with a very wide range of functions and many options for customisation.
• With Kanban boards, Gantt charts and much more, ClickUp offers various views for managing projects and tasks.

🟡 Team planning

Classic capacity planning cannot be mapped directly in ClickUp.

• It is possible to track and display workloads via the use of templates, but this does not provide a good overview.

🟢 Time recording

Although time recording is available in ClickUp, it must be activated separately for each workspace.

• The tool also offers a wealth of time recording functions, such as time tracking via a Chrome extension.

🟡 External collaboration

With guest logic, users become observers, but not project members.

• External guests can see the workspace and the tasks, but cannot actively work on the project.
• Depending on the scope of the chargeable plan, this option is available to a limited number of guests who have been assigned the corresponding rights.

🔴 Ease of use

Due to the wide range of functions, ClickUp appears rather complicated and somewhat overloaded at first glance.

• As a result, onboarding for the tool may take longer.
• Immediate, intuitive use is difficult.

🔴 Support

ClickUp does not offer personalised support.

• Users can find standardised support from the help centre and chatbots
• The help centre is currently mainly available in English, but a German translation is being worked on.

🟡 Data protection

ClickUp fulfils many requirements of the GDPR.

• But the tool still stores the data of European users on servers worldwide.

[.b-important-block]The jack-of-all-trades: For all those who obsessively want to combine all functions in one tool and are prepared to make compromises in the user experience.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: ClickUp[$tag]

[.b-button-primary] Compare ClickUp and awork in detail! [.b-button-primary]

Notion

Main location: San Francisco, USA

Pricing: starting 8€/month

Notion claims to be an ‘all-in-one workspace’ for notes, tasks, wikis and databases and is suitable for many areas such as product, engineering, HR, design, sales and marketing. It serves not only as a note-taking program, but also as a comprehensive organisation tool.

🟢 Project management

Project management in Notion is almost infinitely configurable.

• Projects can be viewed on timelines with task dependencies as well as in table and calendar form. For each view, users can choose which information should be displayed in the overview.
• Tasks, subtasks, statuses, due dates and responsible persons are added to the respective sections and thus form the project plan in Notion.
• These areas must be created either manually by the users or using predefined tool templates, which also involve an administrative effort.

🔴 Team planning

There is no classic team planning function in Notion.

• Users can access templates that resemble an Excel spreadsheet and enter working times for tasks there. An option, but not a clear feature of the project management software.

🔴 Time recording

Time recording is also not a core function of Notion.

• It is also possible here to access user-generated templates, some of which are free, some of which are expensive.
• These templates are also based on the logic of an Excel spreadsheet and roughly fulfil the purpose of time recording, but the tool reaches its limits with more complex project planning.

🟢 External collaboration

In Notion, areas can be shared with external guests, who can then view or edit them.

• Depending on the workspace, there are limits to the number of free guests.

🔴 Ease of use

The ‘all-in-one’ tool makes user-friendliness difficult due to its infinite editing options.

• According to customer feedback, the number of setting options, views and shortcuts leads to rather cumbersome handling.

🔴 Support

There is no chat or telephone support.

• Notion offers a help centre, webinars and a community to solve problems.

🔴 Data protection

Notion is GDPR-compliant, but does not have a German server.

[.b-important-block]For all those who find a note-based approach exciting and have the necessary tech skills to put together their own project views.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: Notion[$tag]

Trello

Main location: New York City, USA

Pricing: starting 5€/month

Trello is a tool that allows individuals or small teams in particular to organize and manage their projects visually.

🟢 Project management

The heart of Trello is project planning in the Kanban board.

• Users create the columns required for project planning, integrate tags if necessary and can define deadlines and responsibilities.
• Trello is not a real project management system with numerous integrated functions.
• However, it is sufficient for starting out in the management of smaller projects or teams with only 1-3 people.

🔴 Team planning

There is no classic capacity planning in Trello.

• Although it is possible to filter by user within boards, an overview of free or blocked capacities is not visible.

🟡 Time recording

No time recording is directly integrated within Trello.

• However, users have the option of integrating a so-called “power-up”, which enables the recording of times. However, this setting must be made individually by each user.

🟢 External collaboration

In the Enterprise plans, Trello users can be added to a board.

• External guests also need their own license to be able to view the workspaces.

🟢 Ease of use

Thanks to the focus on the Kanban view, Trello is very intuitive in its basic use.

• Creating and editing tiles is quick and easy.
• However, the integration of power-ups can pose challenges for some users.

🟡 Support

In addition to the help center and the community, English support is also available via a form request.

🟡 Data protection

Trello is GDPR-compliant, the main server locations are in the USA.

[.b-important-block]For all those who manage projects primarily in the Kanban view and want to manage a small number of projects.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: Trello[$tag]

[.b-button-primary] Compare Trello and awork in detail! [.b-button-primary]

Jira

Main location: Sydney, Australia

Pricing: starting 0€/month

Jira is a project management and tracking tool designed specifically for software development teams. It helps teams plan, track and manage tasks to improve efficiency and collaboration.

🟢 Project management

Jira offers a complex range of functions that can be used to map a wide variety of project management requirements.

• Originally designed as a solution for IT projects, Jira is particularly suitable for complex projects.
• Getting started with Jira requires a little more familiarization time than with other tools due to the depth of functions and number of options.

🟡 Team planninng

A team planning feature is not integrated in Jira.

• If you want to plan your team's capacities precisely, you have to use the tool's paid extensions from the Marketplace.

🟡 Time recording

Jira offers a native but complex option for recording times.

• The software also offers integrations to other time recording tools, which can be purchased in the Jira Marketplace.

🟡 External collaboration

Jira offers external user groups the option of restricted access to projects.

• However, important settings must be made to ensure that not all members of this group have access to the entire workspace.
• Guests are initially free of charge with Jira, but count as an assigned license. Depending on the plan, this can lead to an increase in costs.

🔴 Ease of use

Due to the large number of options and the noticeable IT focus, Jira tends to appear more complicated than other tools.

• The large number of features, settings and interdependencies, as well as the almost limitless expansion options of the Jira Marketplace, make Jira more of a tool for users with experience.

🟡 Support

Jira offers various support channels, but these can only be used with a valid Jira account.

• There is also extensive documentation in the Help Center.
• Requests are usually created in the form of tickets and processed promptly depending on their complexity and priority.

🟡 Data protection

Jira offers its own app for GDPR compliance.

• This is necessary in order to comply with data protection regulations.

[.b-important-block]Developer teams that work with classic IT processes and are not afraid of complexity should take a look at Jira.[.b-important-block]

[$tag]👉 Project management software: Jira[$tag]

[.b-button-primary] Compare Jira and awork in detail! [.b-button-primary]

💌 Curious to find out more?

You're not sure which software suits your case best? For informations regarding tool-switches, advice on our team-on-board-guarantee and any other questions, please reach out to our team.

[.b-button-primary]Book a free meeting[.b-button-primary]

Conclusion: The best project management software

[.toc-name]Conclusion[.toc-name]

Which tool is right for your team? ‍

OMR Reviews is an independent platform for evaluating digital tools. The best tools are recognized in their Top 100 Report.

This naturally includes project management tools. The rating is based on the average rating scores and the number of reviews submitted. ‍

Not all software from this comparison made it into the top 100 and only 3 ended up in the top 20.

🔵 Trello on place 20

🔴 Asana on place 18

💜 awork i on place 1 of the project management tools🥇

In addition, awork is number 5 among all digital tools.

The combination of project management, team planning, time recording and external collaboration is ideal for digital project management and is not covered by any other tool.

Questions & Answers about project management software

Why is project management software important?

The world of work is changing - and so are the demands on teams and their projects. Project management software helps to master these changes. In a world where remote working and flexible working hours are becoming the new normal, it brings structure to the often chaotic project life. This is because teams have a central location at all times where all their projects live. No more struggling through endless email chains and confusing spreadsheets. A project management tool makes it easier than ever to keep everyone transparently up to date.

[.b-related-article]Why excel is no solution for agile projects[.b-related-article]

What advantages do project management tools offer?

Project management tools are multi-talented and make your team's day-to-day work a lot easier.

• They bring order to project management by ensuring that everyone is always up to date.
• With integrated time recording, you can keep a close eye on your times, which relieves you of manual work and simplifies billing.
• These tools also score highly when it comes to team and resource planning: You can immediately see who is working to capacity and how, and can distribute resources optimally to avoid bottlenecks.
• Another big plus point is the ease of collaboration with external stakeholders. As communication is centralized in these tools, you can easily inform external partners. In short, project management tools ensure that your projects run more smoothly, transparently and successfully.

[.b-button-primary] Curious? Try awork for free! [.b-button-primary]