When different teams and people work on a single project, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of tasks. If you want to become a project manager, you can manage your tasks and deliverables with easy-to-use project manager tools. They can help with file sharing, task assignment, project deliverables, and other core features for custom workflows.
With the right online project management tool, you can track everyone’s progress on their individual tasks. You can also assign tasks, use project templates to simplify complex projects, and keep everyone in the loop as the teams complete specific tasks. Below is a list of project manager tools that can keep your workplace in order and functional.
The 10 Best Project Manager Tools
- Asana
- Filestage
- GanttPro
- JIRA
- Monday.com
- Proprofs
- Slack
- Teamdeck
- Trello
- Whatfix
What Are Project Manager Tools?
Project manager tools are applications and software that help project managers manage their work and the people working on these tasks. These tools’ specific mechanisms may differ, but they’re similar in that they make things easier for managers who delegate tasks. They aim to make collaboration seamless and make project managers’ lives better.
Some project management tools allow the admin to create profiles with custom dashboards for every team member. They can access the tool through their profiles. Other tools will enable the admin to add people to task cards to track the status of individual projects and set deadlines for each user or team member.
These tools help companies with their project schedule, project teams, project budgets, and project timelines. These real-time collaboration tools are often integrable into Google apps like Google Calendar and Google Drive. They often include task templates, task management tools, task lists, Gantt Charts, billable hours tracking, and other essential collaboration tools.
What Are the Main Types of Project Manager Tools?
There are five types of project management tools, which include scheduling, collaboration, documentation, evaluation, and planning. These tools have both basic features and powerful features that are helpful for a project manager and their team members. A project manager tool may have custom dashboards, project planning tools, and spaces for team collaboration.
With these project management platforms, team managers can manage projects and tasks successfully, whether working with individuals or teams. Aside from task tracking, these tools are also helpful in budget tracking or expense tracking and resource allocation. To get the feel of these tools, you can take advantage of the 30-day free trial or 14-day free trial periods typically offered by their manufacturers.
Likewise, to make full use of some of the project management tools suggested in this article, you should consider learning a programming language like Python or R. If you are a newbie to programming languages, Codemurai and CodeHub are some of the best coding apps for beginners.
Scheduling
One of the most constructive features of a project management tool is that it helps you organize tasks and activities. This is necessary to make your projects successful. You can delegate and assign work to your team members in one place with project tasks, subtasks, templates, workflows, calendars, and folders.
A learning curve is required to master these tools, but they’re invaluable for project planning. Some tools have automatic scheduling and project lifecycle viewing features that ease the project manager’s burden. Others also come with email features that simplify communication within the app.
Examples of Scheduling or Planning Tools
- Asana
- MyMonday.com
Collaboration
Project management tools for collaboration are used for internal communication, letting you add user comments on tasks, assign tasks, organize dashboards, share files, approve tasks, and proof them. You can add the entire team so that in-office staff can collaborate with the remote team on ongoing projects.
Examples of Collaboration Tools
- Slack
- Trello
Documentation
When project managers or teams are working on various projects, there may be blunders that cause files to get lost. Most of the time, there’s no way to get them back. You can use project management tools with documentation to steer clear of these mistakes as they offer features like file editing, versioning, and storing. These features can save you from file mishaps.
Examples of Documentation Tools
- Filestage
- Whatfix
Evaluation
Evaluation tools are equipped with functionalities like resource management and reporting. These help project managers track and assess the growth and productivity of people working on projects. If you’re considering project management apps, pick an evaluation tool for valuable insight into your employees’ quality of work.
Examples of Evaluation Tools
- Proprofs
- Teamdeck
Planning
A planning project management tool helps you anticipate tasks in the pipeline and create a clear project plan. This allows users to strategize to improve the group output better. Knowing a task status through task checklists and task views allows you to anticipate what needs to be worked on and delegated.
Examples of Planning Tools
- GanttPro
- JIRA
Project Manager Tools Cheat Sheet: A Tabular List of Project Manager Tools
| Tool | Uses | Companies That Use It | Cost | Availability |
| Asana | Task scheduling | CBS, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest | $9 per user per month | Commercial |
| Filestage | Documentation | Aldinger+Wolf, Charlotte Tilbury, Unicorn Pitch | Essential: $9 per seatAdvanced: $ 19 per seat Professional: $39 per seat Enterprise: Available upon request | Closed source |
| GanttPro | Planning | XB Software Ltd., i2e Consulting, British Columbia Hydro, and Power Authority, Owlet Baby Care Inc., Unique Software Development | Individual: $15 per userTeam: $8.90 per userEnterprise: Available upon request | Commercial |
| JIRA | Planning | Zendesk, TerraCycle Inc., Lorven Technologies, London School of Business & Finance | Free: $0Standard: $7.50 per userPremium: $14.50 per user Enterprise: Available upon request | Commercial |
| Monday.com | Task scheduling | Adobe, Hulu, Unilever, Abbott | Basic: $8 per seatStandard: $10 per seat Pro: $16 per set | Commercial |
| Proprofs | Evaluation | Winegard Company,Batia Infotech, Thinkific, United Performance Metals, Inc. | Essentials: $0.50 per evaluator per month Premium: $1 per evaluator per monthBusiness+: $2 per evaluator per month | Commercial |
| Slack | Collaboration | Shopify, Udemy, Instacart, LaunchDarkly | Free: $0Pro: $6.67 per monthBusiness+: $12.50 per month | Closed source |
| Teamdeck | Evaluation | Hill-Knowlton, Stormind Games, Wunderman Thompson, NTT Data | Basic Resource:$0.9 per monthTeam Member: $3.60 per month | Commercial |
| Trello | Collaboration | BrandsEye, BankFacil, Adobe, Google, PayPal | Free: $0Standard: $5 per monthPremium: $10 per month Enterprise: Available on quote | Open source |
| Whatfix | Documentation | Lazada Group, Trotec, Universite Angers, Snapdeal, RelSci | Custom pricing quote available upon request | Closed source |
The Best Project Manager Tools, Explained
In this section, you’ll find a more in-depth examination of the different project management tools that made it to our list. These tools can help you streamline your projects and help you remain on top of your tasks. When the crucial tasks are covered, achieving the team’s collective goal and refining work output is easier than ever.
Asana
- Type: Task scheduling
- Companies That Use Asana: CBS, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest
- Asana Cost and Availability: $9 per user per month / Commercial
Asana allows you to schedule tasks, assign to-do lists to team members, set deadlines, ask for updates, and give feedback. You can add team members and attach files by using the attach feature for each task or by simply dragging and dropping files from your computer. You can create detailed project schedules with custom integration.
Asana tasks are easier to keep track of because once done, the project manager can simply click the button that says the task is complete. Then, when you go back to the main task panel, you will no longer see the completed task. Through this, you can focus more on the other undone tasks.
Filestage
- Type: Documentation
- Companies That Use FileStage: Aldinger+Wolf, Charlotte Tilbury, Unicorn Pitch
- FileStage Cost and Availability: Essential: $9 per seat, Advanced: $19 per seat, Professional: $39 per seat, Enterprise: Available upon request / Closed source
Filestage is an evaluation and approval application that relieves teams from stressful and chaotic approval processes. Through this, people’s work lives become more productive and joyful. This project planning software can help you discuss, share, and approve files all at once. You can attach files to cards to better organize them as well.
GanttPro
- Type: Planning
- Companies That Use GanttPro: XB Software Ltd., i2e Consulting, British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, Owlet Baby Care Inc., Unique Software Development
- GanttPro Cost and Availability: Individual: $15 per user, Team: $8.90 per user, Enterprise: Available upon request / Commercial
As its name suggests, this is a GanttChart software that allows you to plan, schedule, and control multiple projects at once. With this chart creation tool, you can split projects into milestones, tasks, and subtasks. You can schedule and organize tasks while also setting durations, due dates, and dependencies. It has numerous customizable features that make both tasks and assigning them easier.
JIRA
- Type: Planning
- Companies That Use JIRA: Zendesk, TerraCycle Inc., Lorven Technologies, London School of Business & Finance
- JIRA Cost and Availability: Free: $0, Standard: $7.50 per user, Premium: $14.50 per user, Enterprise: Available upon request / Commercial
This app is one of the Agile tools and business apps that allows you to create issues and user stories, distribute tasks, and plan sprints across your team. With this app, you can also discuss and prioritize your team’s work with complete visibility and in full context. Most project management bootcamps teach students about JIRA.
Monday.com
- Type: Task scheduling
- Companies That Use Monday.com: Adobe, Hulu, Unilever, Abbott
- Monday.com Cost and Availability: Basic Plan: $8 per seat, Standard: $10 per seat, Pro: $16 per seat / Commercial
Monday.com is a cloud-based project management software with scalable, versatile, and useful features. It comes with a cost-effective price tag. This has helped the project become an award-winning project management software. With the pro plan, you can access unlimited projects and custom fields for each individual task.
This powerful tool also allows you to visualize your projects according to your preference. You can see them in calendar views, timeline, Gantt, and Kanban. These features aid in effective project planning because the flexible project views tailor your project progress to focus on collaboration.
Proprofs
- Type: Evaluation
- Companies That Use Proprofs: Winegard Company, Batia Infotech, Thinkific, United Performance Metals, Inc.
- Proprofs Cost and Availability: Essentials: $0.50 per evaluator per month, Premium: $1 per evaluator per month, Business+: $2 per evaluator per month / Commercial
Proprofs is a business intelligence tool. Currently, its customers are huge companies that belong to Fortune 500 like Cisco, Dell, and Sony. This powerful project management tool helps enterprise users create a business plan to evaluate employees and project progress. Everything from ecommerce sites to digital agencies can benefit from Proprofs.
This online project management software enables users to make user guides, online FAQs, activity logs, wikis, and other employee and customer documentation. All resources are aimed at the improvement of customer support, enhancement of employee knowledge access, and reduction of customer support tickets.
Slack
- Type: Collaboration
- Companies That Use Slack: Shopify, Udemy, Instacart, LaunchDarkly
- Slack Cost and Availability: Free: $0, Pro: $6.67 per month, Business+: $12.50 per month / Closed source
Slack is a seamless, highly-integrable collaboration tool that helps you collaborate with your team across different departments and work locations. With Slack, you can create other channels intended for specific tasks. In these channels, you can add unlimited users with whom you want to collaborate. You can also attach files to these channels.
Teamdeck
- Type: Evaluation
- Companies That Use Teamdeck: Hill-Knowlton, Stormind Games, Wunderman Thompson, NTT Data
- Teamdeck Cost and Availability: Basic Resource: $0.90 per month, Team Member: $3.60 per month / Commercial
Teamdeck is a time tracking and resource scheduling tool for teams to measure, plan, and streamline their workloads. This tool is insightful for managers and also an employee-friendly tool. The real-time dashboards allow you to view valuable time management information regarding every team member. It can also help with expense management and active projects.
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Trello
- Type: Collaboration
- Companies That Use Trello: BrandsEye, BankFacil, Adobe, Google, PayPal
- Trello Cost and Availability: Freemium Plan: $0, Standard: $5 per month, Premium: $10 per month, Enterprise Plan: Available on quote / Open source
With Trello, you can invite collaborators by adding boards and giving them access. Through these boards, collaborators are informed of their tasks and other deliverables. The project manager can also ask for updates by commenting on the task cards or project board. Also, the project manager can designate colors per card to highlight the urgency of each task.
When you submit your outputs, you can simply add them as attachments to action cards to share files. The business owners and other collaborators will be notified of the project status. In essence, Trello is an internal communication tool for the entire team. This is a valuable project management software tool.
Whatfix
- Type: Documentation
- Companies That Use Whatfix: Lazada Group, Trotec, Universite Angers, Snapdeal, RelSci
- Whatfix Cost and Availability: Custom pricing quote available upon request / Closed source
Whatfix is one of the workflow tools that can help with tasks like supporting, training, and onboarding in-office and remote employees to work on various enterprise software applications. Whatfix’s goals are to improve productivity, support costs, cut training, and drive adoption.
Why Project Manager Tools Are Important
Project manager tools are important because they help project managers, team members, and other stakeholders view current pipeline tasks. It also allows them to keep track of deadlines and comments from various collaborators. According to PayScale, the average salary for people with project management skills is $78,000 per year.
Project management tools are also essential for project managers because it helps them delegate and assign tasks, make follow-ups, and give feedback all in one place. Plus, since most of these tools are highly integrable, teammates can link third-party apps like emails, Google Docs, messaging tools, and more.
Project Manager Tools FAQ
If you’re using a scheduling and planning type of project management tool, they work by helping you assign and track tasks and make follow-ups. If you’re using the collaboration type of project management tool, it works by providing an avenue where you can work with other team members.
JIRA is the most commonly used project management tool because most companies work with the Agile SDLC principles. JIRA allows you to create issues and user stories, distribute tasks, and plan sprints across your team. With this app, you can also discuss and prioritize your team’s work with complete visibility and in full context.
Generally, a project manager performs roles such as planning tasks for a team, delegating these tasks to individual team members, making updates and follow-ups, giving feedback, and approving the completed tasks before submitting them to the client.
Yes, Microsoft Excel is useful in mapping out a project’s scope, managing daily tasks, and handling the team financials. However, it still hasn’t fallen into the ambit of what we can call a project management tool.
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