The Best Workflow Management Software: Top 10 Compared for 2024

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The best workflow management software helps teams stay unified and on track with all tasks at hand, with the aim of improving productivity and reducing mistakes. It can also be used to schedule or automate tasks, improve team collaboration, manage the overall workload of employees, and evaluate the progress made.

In this article, we’ll go over some workflow management fundamentals and review and compare the market’s best workflow management software — from their best features, pricing, and the top praises and drawbacks of each one to help you pinpoint the best one for your next project.

The 10 Best Workflow Management Tools in 2024

There are a ton of different workflow management tools out there, and knowing which one is right for your business or individual needs is tricky. To help you, we’ve handpicked the best options and ranked them below with reasoning for why they’ve made it on our list:

1. Monday — $9/month — Overall, the best workflow management solution thanks to its excellent templates, phenomenal customization, and ease of use
2. ClickUp — $7/month — The best free workflow tool as it allows up to 20 users on the free plan, as well as a generous amount of file storage
3. Wrike — $9.80/month — A powerful workflow management solution that’s great for team collaboration as it includes excellent shared docs
4. Smartsheet — $7/month — The top spreadsheet-style project planning tool with a familiar and highly customizable layout that’s great for Excel lovers
5. Teamwork — $5.99/month — Budget-friendly workflow management tool that offers a strong feature-to-price ratio
6. Zoho Projects — $4/month — A popular tool as it’s cheap and it can integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Zoho network
7. Quire — $7.65/month — A budget and reliable workflow tool that offers a clean and intuitive interface, ideal for beginners
8. Awork — $10/month — Simple-to-use workflow management tool with great customer care and ample custom templates for managing work your way
9. ProWorkflow — $18/month — Useful workflow management software with excellent time-tracking features, perfect for HR departments
10. Resource Guru — $4.16/month — One of the cheapest solutions for remote workforces, and it includes billing, invoicing, and vacation management

What is Workflow Management Software?

Simply put, Workflow management software lets you assign, group, and manage tasks that need to be carried out in order to achieve a bigger objective. The word “management” in the phrase simply denotes the existence of a person or entity in charge of the overall strategy.

Workflow management software offers adaptable features to enhance your business’ productivity. With it, you can detect duplicated jobs, automate work processes, find potential areas for improvement, and achieve new levels of efficiency — all thanks to its capacity to develop and optimize workflow in the best possible way.

The Benefits of Effective Project Workflow Management

Using reliable workflow management software can greatly improve your team’s overall output, reducing the risk of error, as well as speeding up the completion of tasks. We’ve compiled a list of some of the key benefits you can expect when using a project workflow management tool:

Reduce the Risk of Errors

There’s no way to operate completely error-free, however, you can improve your proactive error detection and correction skills. With project management software, you’re likely to detect the problem before it happens, and if they do occur, pinpoint exactly what went wrong to avoid such mistakes in the future.

Improve Overall Productivity

Teams can spend less time sending emails and updating information on different platforms because all operations are automated in one centralized location. Employees aren’t required to wait around for permissions to come through. Instead, they can follow the development in the workflow system and remain informed.

Balance Multiple Tasks

With the best project workflow management tools, everything is under one roof, whether you want to onboard several employees, manage IT needs, conduct internal surveys, request marketing content, or authorize trip reimbursements.

Instead of using numerous project boards, chat programs, and emails, requests are neatly arranged in one workflow system in accordance with various processes. Within the same tab, you can move between a purchase request and a request for trip reimbursement — no delays or confusion.

Increased Transparency

Managers feel more comfortable assigning ownership of work when the responsibilities of each job function are crystal clear with clearly defined goals and employees are aware of what needs to be done.

Shadow duties are squeezed out by workflow management, with more control over data accessibility than previously. Everything occurs in the open, and as such, administrators have the option of displaying or hiding critical information from particular teams or job responsibilities.

Better Work Culture

There are already too many emails and texts being sent out since so many businesses now employ remote workers, so using a good workflow tool aids in maintaining job organization and tracking.

The discipline of workflow management can spread throughout an organization and become ingrained in the workplace culture, allowing you to achieve your business objectives faster when everyone is on board with the concept of well-organized, simplified procedures.

The Market’s Top Workflow Solutions Reviewed

To help you make an informed decision on the best workflow management solutions, we’ve reviewed each of the 10 best options on the market. We’ll explore all the key features, functions, pricing, and much more to help you make an informed decision.

If all you want is to compare tools, our comparison table gives a quick overview of all the key details you need to compare, such as the starting price, any free versions, compatibility, and what it’s best for.

1. Monday – Overall, the Best Workflow Solution in 2024

Monday is the best workflow solution, as this project management tool can be used by businesses across various industries. With it, you can streamline management to put a stronger emphasis on structure and transparency as it simplifies complicated workflow procedures.

You can set tasks on a board on Monday and then add the steps necessary to complete the assignment; plus, it’s incredibly adaptable and simple to use. It’s also simple to import data from spreadsheets and other workflow management programs, which saves a ton of time.

Additionally, the company’s workflow management software provides a number of workflow views, including a list, map, kanban board, or Gantt chart view to view your task and project progress. The data that workflow managers need to track can then be seen by visualizing these workflows in customizable dashboards.

Some other useful features you can expect to find include workflow templates, automation, data visualization, sophisticated task board customization, management of task status, assignees, due dates, and hours spent. These are all common with the best workflow management tools, but Monday truly excels here.

What particularly sets Monday apart from its workflow management rivals is the ability to add on extras like an industry-leading CRM platform or tools for marketing and HR departments to improve productivity. This means you can run your business to its full potential, all through the Monday platform.

Pricing

Monday offers a good range of plans for companies of all sizes, but you have to pay per seat, which can be costly for smaller teams or startups.

However, there’s an excellent free plan that offers an excellent alternative to smaller teams, as it gives you access to the full set of features but limits you to 1-2 users. We still think it’s a great way to test the service out before subscribing to a premium plan.

2. ClickUp – One of the Best Free Workflow Management Options

ClickUp has business workflow management woven into every feature, created from the ground up to excel at fostering team efficiency and cooperation. It’s a productivity centre that offers functions typically only found in various different products.

The workflow management software combines planning with tracking, communication with documentation, and even introduces the newest AI text-generation tools to the environment.

Customizable templates, Mind Maps, and workflow management features reduce repetitive chores. These are the three elements of ClickUp that project managers will value most, as it allows your team to focus on their work with complete efficiency.

Furthermore, there’s a huge library of workflow templates you can pre-select to save vital time instead of having to create them from scratch. With these, you can build your own custom workflows that best suit your business needs.

There are also some excellent collaboration tools that allow teams to work on shared documents, assign tasks, and leave important feedback or comments to allow for a seamless working experience.

In terms of unique offerings, one feature we also really enjoyed was ClickUp’s Everything view, which makes it easy to find anything you’re looking for by offering a bird’s eye view of all tasks, projects, and assignments. You can search for specific items within this view filter to save time.

Pricing

ClickUp offers a decent free plan that allows you to get to grips with the service, although it’s aimed at a maximum of 2 users. With the free plan, you get 100Mb of storage, Kanban view, and an array of collaborative tools.

For access to the more premium features such as Advanced Automations, Workflow Management, and Mind Maps, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the business plans:

3. Wrike – Great Workflow Software for Team Collaboration

Wrike is an easy-to-use workflow management tool that supports teams of five or more users and provides an infinite user base. Managers can customize workflows, dashboards, reports, and request forms using the program.

The extensive workflow system that Wrike offers its users enables teams to work seamlessly across enterprises. With numerous pre-made templates for all different kinds of jobs, you can get detailed views of progress and priorities using Gantt charts and Kanban boards.

And as you’d expect from a popular tool like Wrike, it also offers automation tools like push alerts, deadline tracking, and custom request forms that automatically assign tasks — a must-have for an efficient workflow.

Furthermore, through KPI reports, managers have access to insightful data for efficient resource management and allocation. Depending on the type of team or organization—such as marketing teams and professional service teams—the workflow management software also provides a choice of various solutions.

Perhaps the standout feature is the AI Work Intelligence which allows for a tailored app experience, while other notable functions include team and user workload management tools, account-wide work plans, shareable dashboards, and interactive workflow views.

Plus, you can use the Cross-tagging feature to help you avoid file clutter by allowing you to access projects and folders from other locations without having to duplicate them. Additionally, Wrike connects with hundreds of apps to maintain current workflows, and since it’s cloud-based, data access is always possible.

Pricing

As is common practice with the best workflow management software, Wrike offers a reliable free plan for up to two users. With it, you get access to the board and table views, as well as a rare addition to free project management solutions — time tracking.

If you need more features, storage, and users, you can upgrade to one of the many business plans, which start from $9.80/month and include automation features, Gantt charts, and much more.

4. Smartsheet – Top Spreadsheet-style Workflow Tool

Smartsheet is a workflow management tool that allows users to arrange tasks, manage schedules, and create efficient processes. The design is based on the much loved (or hated) Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet and offers a huge variety of customizations and integrations.

For managers who are currently using Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel for workflows and want an improved experience, it’s a popular and highly flexible workflow management software option.

Smartsheet’s ability to automate calculations—even those involving many sheets—is one of its strongest features. Workflow managers may now collect data from many processes and workspaces without having to create intricate calculations thanks to automation.

This workflow tool’s reporting capabilities are powerful, with editable summary reports that can be easily exported to Excel or Sheets. Workflow managers can keep track of significant milestones thanks to the Critical Path feature, which emphasizes all tasks that have a direct impact on a project’s completion deadline.

Custom spreadsheet import, process automation, data visualization, personalized branding, and workflow automation with formula calculations are among the features that make Smartsheet truly stand out, but perhaps the most interesting function is the Excel-style layout.

For those familiar with and well-informed on all things Excel, there’s a satisfying feeling with viewing all your projects and tasks in a spreadsheet-style format, and what makes Smartsheet the best is that it’s highly customizable and allows project managers to tune the sheet however they wish, unlike traditional tools.

Pricing

With Smartsheet, you get four different plans to choose from, including a generous free plan that allows you to create multiple projects and features up to 5 dashboards. You can even integrate it with some of your current tech lineups with apps like Slack and Teams.

That aside, there are 3 paid plans, with prices starting from as little as $7/month, each giving you access to more projects, templates, features, and users.

5. Teamwork – Affordable Workflow Management Software

Teamwork is a popular option renowned for being one of the best project management tools, as it provides teams with a simple interface and all the tools they require, greatly reducing the hassles associated with managing projects and all their milestones and assignments.

It incorporates billing and invoicing, making it perfect for organizations that handle client business most frequently. In fact, it also lets you monitor employee time and workload, recognize when deadlines are slipping, and send invoices to clients for billable hours.

In its board view, Teamwork offers Kanban boards — which involve placing cards on a board with a row of vertical columns — with Teamwork, you can customize these columns to track the data valuable to you, from the task, assignee, due date, time spent on a task, etc.

Although you can represent anything with the columns, many people choose to name them with a process, such as To Do, Doing, and Done. The status of each task is visible to anybody with access to the board.

Your project dashboards are filled with information as you and your team add projects and related information to Teamwork. Each dashboard includes a number of graphs and info boxes that provide updates on the status of your projects.

Plus, it displays to team administrators how many projects have tasks that are due soon, how many tasks are currently allocated to various team members, how much time the team has recently spent working on tasks, and how many of those hours are billable.

Only information relevant to them, such as impending tasks and milestones, time logged, and active tasks allocated to them, is visible to those without admin capabilities.

Pricing

Teamwork has a large range of affordable plans, including an excellent free forever tier, which includes some useful integrations with the likes of Slack and Teams, but it limits the number of users, features, and storage you can access.

Thankfully, there are 4 other plans you can pick from, with prices starting from just $5.99/month, and each planned tailored to seamlessly grow alongside your business:

6. Zoho Projects – One of the Most Popular Workflow Tools

Zoho Projects is an excellent workflow automation tool trusted by thousands of businesses. The software has sophisticated capabilities, including Gantt charts and the capacity to simultaneously record billing time for several projects.

Also, Zoho Projects comes with an outstanding selection of communication options, such as live chat boxes, forum pages, and interaction with Zoho Meeting.

Another strength of Zoho Projects is its ability to foster team communication. For instant messaging, the platform has an integrated chat window, and paying users can upload files for streamlined collaboration. In order to preserve information as staff changes, you can also establish forums for specific projects.

What’s truly a standout feature is the integration with the rest of the Zoho ecosystem, which includes an excellent CRM, a helpdesk solution, mail tools, and so much more. This kind of functionality means you can run your whole business on the Zoho network and get the best out of each product.

And as a reputable name in the project management field, Zoho also fosters keeping up to date with intuitive, user-friendly mobile apps, and there’s built-in time tracking which is always a bonus considering that with many, this would require integration.

Pricing

A generous free plan allows you to trial the service, albeit with limited features and users, without paying a penny. It’s great for startups or small businesses with 2-3 users max and allows you to create 2 projects and 3 plans.

For more premium features, you can upgrade to one of two highly affordable feature-rich plans, with a Premium subscription costing just $4/month, making Zoho easily one of the cheapest workflow management tools and one that offers phenomenal value for money.

7. Quire – A Great Choice for Beginners

Quire is a centralized project management platform for team collaboration and one of the best around. Teams can exchange files, make changes in real-time, celebrate accomplishments, and work toward goals that are above their current capabilities using Quire.

It’s also the first among project management software solutions to offer a nested Kanban Board and a revolutionary nested task list with endless subtasks and subtask levels provided to let teams break down complex projects as much as what’s needed for easy management.

Teams often struggle to prioritize work because typical to-do lists are too big for them to handle. By breaking down large undertakings into smaller, more manageable segments, Quire increases productivity.

Quire can also be integrated with a number of services, including GitHub, Slack, and Zapier. Then, you can write unique scripts and combine Quire with other programs using the API provided by Quire.

One feature that we really enjoyed was Systemize Clutter, and what this basically does is it creates smart folders for cross-project organization that’ll help you address spontaneous tasks from My Tasks and declutter the complexity of your projects.

Pricing

Quire gives users the chance to try the service without spending any cash with one of the best free plans for up to 10 people and 8 projects – far more than many of the other workflow management tools on this list.

For extra features like Gantt charts, time management, and more integrations, paid plans start at just $7.65/month. These can also be tested thanks to the provider’s 30-day free trial.

8. Awork – Easy-to-Use Workflow Management Solution

Awork is a top work management tool that’s incredibly popular for teams of any size working together on projects. This is thanks to the seamless collaboration on offer and the intuitive and friendly interface that’s ideal for beginners.

With this tool, you can easily organize your team and manage project coordination in one place. It compiles all tasks and project information in one location, making it accessible from anywhere, whether in a client meeting or at home.

Furthermore, project scheduling and your team’s individual calendar are combined by Awork. By doing this, you can always keep track of your team’s workload, who is working on what, and when vacations are planned.

In the incredibly accurate workload overview, free capacity or conflicts in your projects are immediately obvious, which means fewer mistakes are made. Also, by doing this, you can decide right away who can handle urgent tasks and whether you still have time for a new project.

In terms of third-party apps, almost any workflow can be connected to Awork. For apps like Lexoffice, sevDesk, MS Teams, Slack, Google Drive, and other services, direct links are available for seamless cross-app integration. If you need more, you can go through Zapier or the free Rest API.

Pricing

As Awork is a small business, it’s no surprise to see a lack of a free option, as companies like this truly rely on the income of premium plans, but it would’ve been nice to get the option of a free trial.

Instead, there are 3 paid plans, with the cheapest setting you back $10/month per seat, which does place it on the pricier side when compared with other tools on this list.

9. ProWorkflow – Includes Excellent Time Management Features

ProWorkflow is a workflow management solution that places a strong emphasis on visibility and control. Teams get an overview of all ongoing, completed, and upcoming tasks, and they can easily manage projects with the tool’s easy drag-and-drop interface.

One-click replies, Gantt-style timeline overviews, and timesheets, plus integrated time-tracking, means there’s little left to be desired for those who opt for ProWorkflow.

Additionally, you can create reports based on the distribution of workload among your employees. This information can then be used to identify any issues with team members who are overworked.

All of ProWorkflow’s regular features, such as team messaging, time tracking, and task management, are available from any device or location thanks to the company’s dedicated mobile application. Additionally, it includes an open API, making it very effortless to link with well-known third-party business apps.

We also really like that ProWorkflow lets you have as many users as you’d want, unlike other rivals. The maximum number of users per subscription is unrestricted, and you can sign up as a single user at the lower price tier — which is also rare. Platforms like Monday.com require a minimum of 3 users on the starter plan.

Plus, there’s no cap on the number of projects you can track in ProWorkflow, regardless of the pricing tier you choose, but there is a 25 GB or 50 GB file storage cap, and you are free to track as many projects as you like in that area.

Pricing

Yet again, there is no free plan here for users to sink their teeth into, instead, you have to jump into a pretty hefty $18/month to use the service. That said, there’s little need to pay for separate tools through integration, as ProWorkflow comes equipped with all the features you’d need:

10. Resource Guru – Great for Remote Workforces

Resource Guru is a workflow management tool that assists busy teams in keeping their projects on schedule. It provides a quick, adaptable approach for both large and small businesses to schedule workers and allocate tasks for any kind of project.

It’s used by project managers and team leaders to increase staff productivity without depleting their energy. It allows them to see the entire team’s schedule on one calendar, create and update appointments quickly, and deal with scheduling issues as they arise.

You can manage team members, independent contractors, tools, and meeting spaces in one location with Resource Guru. Strong filters make it quick and easy to identify the resources you need, and real-time availability tracking helps you avoid double bookings and excessive workloads.

Vacation, sick days, and other time off are easy to manage, thanks to built-in leave management capabilities. Powerful reports provide information on billable hours, utilization rates, clients, and projects, simplifying project forecasting and budgeting.

With the help of personal dashboards, calendar integrations, and daily schedule emails, team members can keep track of their allocated tasks.

Pricing

Resource Guru offers 3 plans, all of which are incredibly well-priced, which is good as it lacks a free plan. Each plan allows for the creation of unlimited projects, with the storage size being increased with each plan.

The Best Workflow Management Systems Compared

Now that we’ve dived into the nitty-gritty parts of the reviews, it’s time to have a quick glance at the key details. To help you, we’ve compiled a useful table that highlights the key aspects of each piece of software:

How to Choose the Best Workflow Tool for Your Business

The workflow management software market is awash with a ton of different providers all vying for your business – so knowing how to choose the best PM solution and what to look out for can be confusing. To assist, we’ve compiled a list of key factors you should look for when deciding which is the best tool for you.

Features

The workflow automation solution you choose becomes a crucial component of your company. Therefore, it’s crucial to consider what features you get for the price, as some features, like time tracking or certain integrations, are only available on higher-tier plans.

Some features you should look for that are crucial to a good workflow tool are collaboration tools, such as shared docs, in-app communications, and real-time annotations and mentions. Others include role-based access control, process management, KPI reports, and analytical tools.

Pricing

You should never pick your software based solely on pricing, as the cheapest isn’t likely going to cut it for you. On the other hand, the most expensive doesn’t exactly mean it’s the best choice either. Instead, look for a provider that has a good feature-to-price ratio and go from there.

Here, it also depends on several factors. Besides the number of users increasing the costs, you’ll want to make sure that the features you need are available on the plan you find doable for your budget. Some, like ClickUp, offer time tracking for free, whereas others have this in a paid plan or as an integration option.

Users

As we touched on above, it’s important to plan how many people will be using the workflow automation software. The tool might be used by everyone in the company or just a few individuals, maybe even by external parties.

All the best workflow management software solutions have a cap on the number of users you can onboard on each plan, so this is super important to consider before choosing the one for your team. This makes it as important to keep your company’s expansion and scalability in mind too.

Ease-of-Use

It’s important to automate workflows so that workers won’t have to spend a lot of time on the same task. Therefore, it’s vital that you take into account how user-friendly the workflow automation software you choose is for your personnel; otherwise, you risk making an expensive software error.

Automating mundane tasks like project alerts for when someone gets a task assigned to them, it needs to be reviewed, or it’s done; this prevents unnecessary back-and-forth and streamlines your workflow. Often, automation is limited to paid plans.

Integrations

Businesses nowadays already use tools and apps as a part of routine operations. In such a situation, it’s crucial to understand whether the new workflow management solution you purchase can be linked with the tools your business already uses.

Integration is essential in the age of automation, as all your day-to-day operations will go more smoothly if all the tools cooperate. For example, if your team uses Slack for communication, having Monday send automatic alerts to channels depending on project progress is helpful.

What’s the Best Free Workflow Management Software?

If you’re a small business or startup or perhaps new to the world of workflow management, it would be worth trying one of the free plans on offer by one of the top free project management tools on this list.

Whilst we’d always recommend signing up for a paid plan to access all the features, integrations and remove any user restrictions, they can be a good way to test the service before you buy. Here are the top options compared head-to-head:

Once you’re happy with the tool of your choice, you can sign up for a paid plan. Our top choice, Monday, offers a 30-day free trial on its paid-tier plans, and after that, you can get started for just $9/user/month.

Conclusion | What’s the Best Workflow Management Tool to Use in 2024?

The best workflow management tools ensure productivity and efficiency and help assist in eliminating task duplication. Teams can use them to streamline work processes that help them work more productively, and they can even be used to automate mundane tasks, saving you time.

All the providers on this list do this and more, as they include key project management features, as well as nifty extras like billing and time-tracking, amongst many others. Plus, they can link to your current tech lineup to help automate and streamline your work processes.

If you’re looking for the best workflow management software, we suggest trying Monday, with prices starting from just $9/month. Test the service with the generous free plan or try out the paid options with the lengthy 30-day free trial.

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