The Best Task Management Software: Top 10 for Individuals and Teams in 2024

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In a fast-paced business world where businesses like yours are drowning in tasks, good task management software is what you need. There are a lot of options out there, so it can be tough to know which is the best task management software solution for your business.

In this article, our team of experts has delved into the top 10 best task management software tools for different businesses. We’ll discuss their features, pricing, and who they’re best suited for. So whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise looking for the perfect task management tool, we’ve got you covered.

The Top 10 Best Task Management Tools in 2024

Here’s our shortlist of the market’s best task management software solutions, with a quick outline of why they’ve made it on our top 10:

1. Monday – Overall, the best task management solution for 2024 thanks to its customizable workflows and remote team collaboration functions.
2. ClickUp – The best centralized platform for task management with extensive internal and external integration features
3. Wrike – Best for teams involving multiple decision-makers with advanced task and resource management functions.
4. Smartsheet — A feature-rich free spreadsheet-style project tracking solution with powerful built-in automation capabilities.
5. Teamwork – A top pick for agencies and large teams that need extensive task delegation because of its advanced resource allocation functionality.
6. Zoho Projects – Excellent tool for visualizing project timelines, potential complications, and task dependencies with Gantt charts.
7. Quire – Best suited for entrepreneurs and small teams with flexible features like nested task structuring and flawless integration with popular business tools.
8. Awork – A good option for teams with heavy workflows as it boasts extensive collaboration and integrated time-tracking.
9. ProWorkflow – A popular option for teams looking for a one-size-fits-all solution with versatile functions like time tracking and budgeting.
10. Resource Guru – Best for startups looking for a flexible task management solution with features that help manage team availability and scheduling.

What is Task Management Software?

In a nutshell, task management software helps you manage, track, and prioritize your tasks and projects. Whether you’re a student juggling assignments, a professional managing work tasks, or a team collaborating on projects, they offer a centralized platform for you to stay organized and enhance your productivity.

Do I Need Task Tracking Software?

They have a range of features, from advanced automation to tracking and forecasting task progress. All these come together to reduce stress and take the burden off of your shoulders. Here are the key things that the best task management software can do for you:

Enhanced Efficiency

For teams, task management software works as a centralized hub where tasks are assigned and tracked. You can create tasks, set due dates, and track progress alongside potential bottlenecks.

This ensures that everyone is aware of their responsibilities, which creates a system of accountability as you can easily see who’s working on what, improving transparency and eliminating any confusion.

Task management software can also enhance the productivity of users who manage their task lists using the software. It does this by providing structure, organization, and efficient time management. It empowers you to take control of your tasks, set clear goals, and optimize your daily routine.

Customization

Nobody works in exactly the same way. The best task management software allows for customization, where you can create task categories, labels, and tags that make sense for your specific projects and workflow. This ensures that the software adapts to you, not the other way around.

Customization is a game-changer for improving work efficiency and collaboration. It simplifies task tracking, enhances communication, and empowers both individuals and teams to work smarter. This lets you ensure deadlines are met, priorities are clear, and progress is visible.

Budgeting

Whether you’re a business or a user looking to use task management software for personal use, effective budgeting and resource allocation are essential, and the good news is that the best task management tools often have this built-in or integrate with budget tracking tools.

This enables teams or individuals to allocate financial resources to specific tasks or projects. By setting budget limits, tracking expenses, and monitoring costs within the software, teams can maintain financial discipline while achieving project milestones.

As for individual users, budgeting features can help allocate time and resources efficiently, preventing burnout and ensuring that both personal and financial goals are realistically managed.

Automation

By automating routine processes, you not only save valuable time but also reduce the risk of human errors and unnecessary delays. This enables you to focus on important activities and ensures that your work progresses without issues.

Incorporating automation into task management software is like having a digital assistant that handles mundane routine tasks, like notifying someone who’s just been assigned a project, freeing you to concentrate on strategic and creative aspects of your work.

Data-Driven Insights and Analytics

Task management software solutions equip teams and individuals with valuable insights and analytics. By analyzing task completion rates, project timelines, and individual contributions, you gain a deeper understanding of your productivity patterns.

These data-driven insights allow you to make informed decisions, identify areas for improvement, and refine your work processes based on precise data. Whether you’re managing a team’s performance or optimizing your personal workflow, analytics serve as a compass, guiding you toward greater efficiency.

Visual Progress Tracking

Seeing progress is motivating. Task management software often comes with visual tools like progress bars or status updates. As tasks move from “To-Do” to “In Progress” to “Completed,” you get a clear picture of how much work has been done and what is left.

This process of visual project management encourages you and your team to stay on track and celebrate small wins along the way.

Reviews of the Best Task Management Apps

In this section, we break down the top 10 best task management software options for 2024. We’ve examined each one closely to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.

Whether you’re a small business, a big company, or just looking to use a task manager for personal use, our reviews will help you pick the best one for your needs.

1. Monday – Overall, the Best Task Management Software for 2024

Monday is a very popular option for large teams and professionals across a myriad of industries owing to its extensive collaboration features. In fact, our team uses Monday daily for task and project management.

We’ve found that the software has an extremely strong focus on visual collaboration, with over 200 professional templates to help teams visualize their workflows.

Monday also offers an array of customizable add-ons and integrations with other popular productivity tools, allowing for a custom, hyper-personalized user experience.

Monday allows you to create custom workflows to fit the specific needs of your team, allowing a lot of flexibility in how you choose to manage your tasks. For example, if you’re part of a team that’s working on a complex project, you might want to create a workflow that includes multiple steps and dependencies.

This way, you can track the progress of the project and ensure that all the tasks are completed in a timely manner. It also allows you to create custom reports to track the progress of tasks, allowing you to identify potential roadblocks and areas for improvement.

Unlike most project management tools, Monday’s free plan is loaded with features. You get unlimited docs, over 200 templates, and iOS and Android apps. However, it does lack some features that are only available in the Basic and Standard plans, such as custom workflows and integrations with other apps.

For more on Monday.com, we highly recommend that you read our full Monday.com review.

Pricing

Monday gives you an excellent range with its plans and functionality. Here are all the pricing options available:

The free plan, albeit great for individuals, lacks features like advanced reporting and native time-tracking, which is why the Basic and Standard plans are so popular.

2. ClickUp – The Most Flexible Task Management Platform With Ample Integrations

ClickUp offers versatile and user-friendly project management software with a wide range of features to help teams of all sizes stay organized and productive.

In our testing, we also liked how customizable ClickUp is, allowing you to create custom workspaces and tasks. You can also add custom fields, tags, and filters, as with Monday.com. This makes it a great choice for teams that need a lot of flexibility in how they manage their projects.

That said, ClickUp goes beyond all others in terms of how many visual project views it offers. It boasts over 15, offering ample flexibility you won’t find elsewhere, allowing your team to find the view that works best for them to efficiently manage their tasks.

In comparison, many of ClickUp’s competitors only offer a handful of views, which is often enough, but it can be limiting for some. These views include a list, box, Gantt board, and even a calendar view, allowing you to customize your workflows to meet your specific needs.

ClickUp also has a unique in-app video recording feature that’s helpful for teams that need to collaborate on projects or share information visually. With it, you can record videos on your screen or via your webcam and even annotate said videos with text, images, and links.

Plus, it’s worth noting that the project management software offers extensive support through ClickUp API documents. It also offers ClickUp University, which contains webinars for help with anything regarding the software, which is great given that ClickUp has a slightly higher learning curve than, say, Monday.com.

Pricing

ClickUp offers multiple plans to suit teams and individuals with varying needs. Here are the pricing options available:

3. Wrike – The Best Task Manager for Big Projects Involving Multiple People

Wrike offers a range of tools for teams and individuals working on major projects that might require advanced planning, resource, and task allocation. These features include custom workflows, reporting, collaboration, and extensive integration.

With these, Wrike can help you track progress, identify potential bottlenecks, and make informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. In our testing of Wrike, the standouts were undoubtedly the native time tracking and resource booking capabilities.

These two features combined allow for the effective use of resources in an organized and efficient manner, reducing wasted time, personnel, and other resources spent on any given project, ensuring your objectives are met with as little friction as possible.

Wrike’s Work Intelligence suite is also worthy of mentioning, as it’s a unique feature that isn’t offered by many other project management tools. It uses AI to automate the creation and management of tasks and subtasks, which can help to enhance productivity and collaboration.

For example, ClickUp has AI features on the paid plan, but they’re limited to task suggestions and time tracking. Overall, in our experience with Wrike, there’s a lot on offer, and it’s extremely easy to use and find what you’re looking for, as all documents and discussions related to a task are stored in a centralized location.

Pricing

Wrike offers multiple pricing plans and has a free version as well. The cost of scaling is relatively low and features steadily increase as you upgrade. Here are your options:

While the free version has almost all essential task management features, advanced reporting, collaboration, security, and even more automations get unlocked upon upgrading.

4.  Smartsheet — The Best Free Spreadsheet-Style Project Planning Tool

Smartsheet is an amazing task management software solution with an array of features that are designed to help users manage projects using a spreadsheet-like interface. It comes with multiple pre-built templates and visual view options like Gantt, Grid, Card, and Calendar.

Smartsheet also has advanced reporting functionalities that allow you to check the progress of the project in real-time, making it easier to identify potential roadblocks beforehand and take corrective measures.

We found that one of Smartsheet’s best offerings is its valence tracking feature that allows you to automatically track discrepancies between estimates and actuals. This ensures that businesses are prioritizing and re-prioritizing as quickly as possible and allocating resources accordingly.

Smartsheet also has an exceptional automation engine that automates mundane tasks allowing teams to focus on strategic work. All tasks like sending email notifications, updating task statuses, and creating reports are automated, saving businesses a lot of time.

Unlike most other automation engines, Smartsheet’s automation is impressive due to its versatility. We could use it to automate a wide variety of tasks like setting reminders, requesting updates/approvals, and using trigger-based automation.

Pricing

Take a closer look at Smartsheet’s pricing plans, which include a free version. As you move up, you’ll find reasonable scaling costs and an array of added features. Here are your options:

5. Teamwork – Best Task Manager for Agencies and Service-Based Enterprises

Teamwork project manager’s extensive task delegation and advanced resource allocation capabilities make it a competent project management tool, especially for agencies and solopreneurs with multiple clients on the roll.

You can use these features to ensure that all tasks are assigned to the right people and are completed on time. It offers a variety of views, too, plus ample templates, and integrations, so you can find the perfect solution for your workflow.

It also makes it easy for you and your team to collaborate on projects with features like built-in chat, easy file sharing, and live commenting to stay in sync and get work done quickly without the need for integration.

Teamwork offers a comprehensive set of time tracking and payment features to help you track your time and bill your clients and contractual workers accurately. Plus, we found that you can create automations for almost anything.

From simple things like creating tasks to complex tasks like sending notifications to team members or updating tasks with information from other systems — the possibilities are endless.

Lastly, it’s also worth noting that Teamwork offers a range of add-ons like Teamwork CRM and Teamwork Chat, and if you need more functionality, it also offers a Zapier integration, which allows you to connect with over 350+ other applications, allowing for greater flexibility and control over your workflow.

Pricing

The pricing for Teamwork is very transparent, you know exactly what you’re paying for. It offers a plan that fits different needs and budgets, along with the 14-day free trial that we used, which you’ll find on all its plans. Here are the pricing tiers for Teamwork:

6. Zoho Projects — The All-in-One Integrated Project Collaboration Solution

Zoho Projects is a comprehensive task management tool that makes project planning easy and helps everything run perfectly. It lets you move things around easily and copy tasks, and we found that it works great with other Zoho apps.

The intuitive nature lets you seamlessly move from task to task without feeling overwhelmed, making it, in our opinion, one of the tools with the lowest learning curves. We also liked that Zoho has multiple visualization options that let you customize the software to your needs.

Zoho also provides a helpful tool for tracking and handling problems connected to your projects. This is commonly used to monitor issues like glitches, bugs, and errors. But it can also be used to follow the progress of resolving issues and assigning these tasks to specific team members.

More impressive is that the software includes time tracking, billing, invoicing, and even payroll features. With native time-tracking, teams can track time spent on tasks and identify areas where time can be saved, allowing them to allocate resources more efficiently.

The billing, invoicing, and payroll features help in the automation of financial processes and help ensure your employees are compensated on time. Some other tools, like ClickUp, also financial tools like this. However, we’ve found that it’s pretty rare for task management tools to offer these without add-ons or integrations.

Zoho offers these directly through its product suite, and they’re integrated with other Zoho applications, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, ultimately allowing businesses to easily manage their finances and operations from a single platform.

Pricing

Here’s a breakdown of the options available with Zoho:

7. Quire – The Best Task Manager for Students and Small Businesses

Quire is a simple software with an easy-to-use interface and unique features for small businesses or students collaborating on assignments. It allows teams to create projects, assign tasks, track progress, and collaborate with other members.

Although some have this, we and long-time Quire users have found the time tracking and cost management functionalities to be fantastic, as these make it easy for teams to set fixed budgets for projects and efficiently track expenses and time spent on tasks and projects.

Beyond this, one of the key offerings of Quire is its infinite nested task list – a unique feature that, surprisingly, not all PM tools offer, which allows you to create unlimited subtasks within a task, making it easy to break large tasks into smaller and more manageable subtasks.

Nested task lists also help in visualizing the dependencies between tasks and ensuring that everything is on track. It’s also worth noting that Quire has a dedicated feature — the Dynamic Timeline — for assigning, scheduling, and delegating tasks.

This Dynamic Timeline feature helps in both tracking the progress of a particular task and identifying potential bottlenecks in the plan of action. And it doesn’t end there either, the software also has extensive integrations with multiple popular tools like Zapier, Slack, and even Microsoft Teams.

In fact, you can even use the Google add-on to convert emails to tasks as well as sync with Google Calendar for seamless cross-platform integration.

Pricing

The pricing plans for Quire exist across four tiers, here are your options:

We found the free plan to be quite generous compared to others, especially if you’re just starting out, as it includes basic features such as nested lists, Kanban boards, and project overviews.

They also offer a variety of payment options like annual billing, monthly billing, and even pay-as-you-go billing — which is rare. This makes it easy to find a payment option that fits your budget and needs.

8. Awork – Best Task Management Software for Creative Teams

Awork is a popular choice for creative teams because it offers various unique features that are well-suited for the creative process. For starters, we found that it allows you to create projects with any structure that works for your team.

You can create and track projects with a linear workflow, a Kanban board, or a custom structure with one of Awork’s many visualization tools. For example, you can use the timeline view to see a bird’s-eye view of your projects and track the progress of individual tasks.

Awork also has extensive collaboration features that make it very easy for creative teams to collaborate on projects. You can share tasks, comments (or mentions), and files with team members. Beyond that, it also offers a chat feature that makes it easy to have real-time, centralized conversations about projects.

We especially liked how the software allows you to prioritize creative work based on deadlines, budget, and other factors, which helps to ensure that the most important work is getting done first. Another interesting feature is the project recovery function.

This allows you to recover important data you thought was lost forever — a blessing for any business that needs a reliable, safe project-tracking solution for long-term planning. To top it off, it even lets you create a custom domain name for your Awork workspace.

This is a lifesaver for branding, letting you obtain a more professional-looking URL for your workspace. Lastly, it also integrates with a variety of tools that creative teams use, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Photoshop, for easy, streamlined access to the files and tools you need.

Pricing

Unfortunately, Awork doesn’t have a free plan. Here are your options:

• Team — $12.88/month — Includes infinite projects, time-tracking features, and a mobile app
• Business — $18.73/month — Includes a workload overview, private projects feature, and a Personio integration alongside extensive phone support.
• Enterprise — $27.46/month — Includes project recovery and custom sub-domain features along with premium support.

The above is for monthly billing, but annual and bi-annually are also options.

9. ProWorkFlow – Best Holistic Task Manager With a One-Size-Fits-All Solution

ProWorkFlow is a cloud-based task management solution that helps people stay on track with a wide range of features. Even on the free plan, there are no limits on the number of projects teams can work on.

Beyond this, one of the best things about ProWorkFlow is its accessibility. It has very few limits on the number of users permitted on their plans. In fact, on higher-tier plans, there are no user limits, which makes it great for larger teams.

The integrated time-tracking feature is also very comprehensive. It allows you to generate reports using the data regarding time spent by workers on various tasks. We really liked how the Active Staff View feature gives a bird’s-eye view of the members currently online and what they’re working on.

ProWorkflow’s dashboard provides you with a visual summary of all the ongoing projects. Furthermore, the task manager has extensive collaboration features to allow for inter-departmental communication with respect to the project at hand.

This includes a built-in messaging app that allows teams to chat on the platform and share resources. ProWorkflow takes security seriously, too. Your data is encrypted when it’s sent over public networks, and it’s stored in Microsoft Azure data centers, which are known for their robust security infrastructure.

ProWorkflow also uses SAML-based authentication to ensure secure access, and it maintains an audit log for 90 days so you can track user access to files. Plus, individual user permissions to control data visibility can also be applied.

The solution is primarily integrated with Zapier but can also be integrated with several others, like Slack, and even some of the best CRM tools, like Salesforce. Beyond this, it’s available on multiple devices, from laptops to mobile phones, across a plethora of operating systems.

Pricing

ProWorkflow allows you to choose from three pricing tiers, one of them being customizable for your enterprise needs. Here are your options:

The Professional tier offers all the essential features of task management software, like various project views and basic integrations with Google. If you’re looking for advanced functionality like better reporting and analytics, greater control, and tracking features, the advanced plan is the one for you. 

10. Resource Guru – Best for Startups and Small Teams

Resource Guru is extremely user-friendly and comes with a detailed introduction tool to help you get comfortable with the platform. The 16-minute video is a walkthrough and covers everything from creating bookings, navigating your schedules, and managing leave.

The platform allows users to customize the availability and workload of all team members, which can be very beneficial for startups that have a combination of part-time, full-time, and contractual workers on board.

Workers can request time off and track overtime hours, all on Resource Guru.

The system seamlessly integrates into various software setups, using its open APIs and Webhooks to establish connections with a wide range of systems. Through a central dashboard, you can efficiently arrange bookings based on projects or clients and even automate personalized daily email communications.

With Resource Guru, all your team members working on a particular project can be placed on a web-based calendar where future courses of action can be planned. Furthermore, you can collaborate, assign, and schedule tasks as you go.

The software also has extensive analytics on resource utilization that help you track how your team is spending their time, both on- and off-task. This can be used to identify areas where resources are being underutilized or over-utilized.

For example, if you notice that a resource is consistently spending a lot of time on non-billable tasks, you can investigate the reason for this and take steps to improve its utilization.

Pricing

Resource Guru has one primary product offering, and it’s available in three different pricing levels, and we found the lengthy 30-day free trial that’s available on all plans to be quite generous. Here are your options:

The Grasshopper plan offers unlimited projects, clients, and users, as well as advanced features such as clash management, custom fields, and flexible user permissions. However, it doesn’t offer reports.

The standard plan, Blackbelt, includes all the features of Grasshopper plus powerful reports, approval workflow, and single sign-on. Master, the most comprehensive plan, has all the features of Blackbelt, alongside data imports and extensive phone support.

Top Project Task Management Tools Compared

To quickly summarize the reviews from this article and help you better decide, we’ve put together a table that includes information on pricing and compatibility, so you can easily compare the different options and find the best fit for your needs:

What’s the Best Free Task Management Software?

Task management software is a wonderful addition to your business or life in general. However, not everyone needs a paid subscription. Individuals or smaller teams can often do with simple products. In fact, there are a number of great free project management software options.

Free versions of paid software are often easy to use and set up, people using them don’t have to worry about recurring costs, and they’re a wonderful way to test out a product before committing to a paid version. However, they come with:

• Feature limitations
• Limit the number of users they allow, and
• Generally don’t offer as much support as the paid ones

If you do decide to start with free task management software, here’s an overview of the best free task management solutions available in the market, put together by our team of experts to help you make the best choice:

Our Other PM Software Guides That Are Worth a Read

If you’re still on the fence about which tool is best for your project and task-tracking needs, then we recommend having a look at our other guides on the matter:

• The Best Project Management Software Tools Compared
• Comparison of the Best Free Project Management Software
• A Full, In-Depth Monday.com Review
• The Best Gantt Chart Software on the Market
• The Best Workflow Management Tools Compared

How to Choose the Best Task Management Software for You

Keeping tasks organized is a key ingredient for success. For this, task management software proves to be a valuable tool that helps businesses manage projects efficiently. With plenty of choices available in the market, picking the right task management software can be quite challenging.

This section breaks down the factors you should consider when choosing the best task management software for your business:

• Scalability – Thinking about growth is crucial for any business. As your team expands, you might need more from your software. Consider the cost of upgrading before you dive in.
• Free versions — These can be a great way to see if it would be a good fit. But keep in mind that most free plans are like a trial run – they’re great to start with but won’t be a great fit as your business grows.
• Customization options – Flexibility is key when it comes to managing tasks. When picking task management software, think about how much you can customize it to fit your unique needs. The software’s ability to adapt to your specific requirements can make a big difference in how it’ll support your goals.
• User-Friendliness – Efficiency thrives in a user-friendly environment. Most software boasts an intuitive interface, allowing for effective resource allocation and task tracking. However, the ease of use can vary among platforms. Opting for software that resonates with your team’s comfort level is key.
• Reporting – Staying up-to-date with the nitty-gritty of your business operations is critical. Reporting features in task management software help you keep tabs on progress and challenges. But not all are created equal – each has its own way of handling reports.
• Customer reviews – Listening to what others have experienced gives you a sneak peek into how a task management tool actually works. To help you out, we’ve highlighted the pros and cons of each software. And since they’re free, you can test them out for yourself risk-free before committing.
• Security – With sensitive information being managed through task management software, security is the most important. Consider the software’s security measures, such as encryption protocols and user authentication processes, to ensure that your data remains protected at all times.

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

The best task management software solution for your team will depend on your specific needs and requirements. However, our top pick is Monday. It’s a powerful and flexible task management software solution that offers a wide variety of features, including Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and custom workflows.

In our testing, we’ve also found that Monday.com is easy to use and affordable, making it a great option for teams of all sizes. If you’re looking for a task management software solution that can help you get organized, collaborate effectively, and track your progress, then Monday is the perfect choice for you.

Try it today for free now and see for yourself why it’s the top pick for teams of all sizes.

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