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10 Best Task Management Software Of 2024

Staff Reviewer
Staff Reviewer

Reviewed

Updated: Apr 4, 2024, 10:33pm

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Task management software is a necessity in almost any business that requires project completion on time. It can also help with mapping out the scope of a project. There are many apps out there, so finding the right solution can be difficult. Forbes Advisor compiled this list of the best task management software on the market today to help you narrow down your search.

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The Best 10 Task Management Software of 2024

  • monday.com: Best overall
  • ClickUp: Best for budget-conscious businesses
  • Airtable: Best for visual representation of tasks
  • Teamwork.com: Best for managing remote teams
  • Todoist: Best for simple task management
  • Asana: Best for managing large teams
  • Basecamp: Best for flat-fee pricing
  • Wrike: Best for customizing an app for specific teams
  • Trello: Best for beginners and new businesses
  • Smartsheet: Best for spreadsheet users

Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

To find the best task management software for small businesses, we considered more than 25 of the leading providers in the space and narrowed it down to the top 11, which we then evaluated across five key categories and 18 different metrics. Our ratings consider factors such as transparent pricing, employee self-sufficiency, compatibility with third-party integrations, access to customer support and ratings. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.


Best Overall Task Management Software

monday.com

monday.com
4.7
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free; $8 per user, per month

Views

Five

Client access

Yes

monday.com
Learn More Arrow

On monday.com's Website

Free; $8 per user, per month

Five

Yes

Editor's Take

Task management giant monday.com offers one of the most scalable and intuitive automated workflow solutions around. It’s a team collaboration tool that can help you track your own tasks, as well as team tasks, depending on the plan you choose. All plans include the popular Kanban view, but paid plans get access to timeline, calendar and map views.

Pricing:

There’s a forever-free plan that gives you access to more than 200 templates for boards to help with lead capture, campaign planning and project management, to name a few. You’re limited to 500MB of file storage, but you can create an unlimited number of documents. You only get one board per dashboard, but that should be enough for a freelancer or a very small team. The only confusing thing is that monday.com’s chart shows the free plan is available for two seats, while in another area on the site it shows up to five seats.

Alternatively, you could choose from four different monday.com paid plans, starting at $24 per month (paid on an annual basis) for three seats. The Basic plan ups storage to 5GB, gets you priority support and unlocks viewer-only access. Upgrade to the Standard or Pro plan to get 20GB or 100GB of storage, respectively. It’s at these levels that monday.com allows integrations and automations, but limits how many actions your team can use (an action is a trigger followed by an action; “if this, then that”).

*Pricing is billed annually; three-seat minimum ($8 per additional seat per month)

Learn more: Read our full monday.com review.

Who should use it: Whether you’re a solopreneur or an enterprise, monday.com is an easy-to-use task management tool for any size team that needs to track any business-related tasks.

Pros & Cons
  • Free-forever plan
  • Intuitive interface
  • Unlimited docs on all plans
  • Five plans for scalability
  • Custom dashboards
  • Expensive; minimum of three users for low-priced paid plan
  • Time tracking locked behind high-tier plan
  • Limited storage

Best for Budget-Conscious Businesses

ClickUp

ClickUp
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$7 per user, per month*

*Paid annually

Views

16

Client access

Yes

ClickUp
Learn More Arrow

On ClickUp's Website

$7 per user, per month*

*Paid annually

16

Yes

Editor's Take

There’s a lot to like about ClickUp; it has almost any feature you could possibly want from task management software and it’s affordable. It has one of the most generous forever-free plans that doesn’t limit your users. If you decide you need more features or fewer limitations, you can upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at $7 per seat, per month (paid annually).

Pricing:

The free ClickUp plan does limit you to five spaces,100 lists per space and 100MB of file storage, so it can work for a single person or a small team. You’ll also be able to use real-time chat in the app and you can create up to 100 custom fields, which are both features helpful for task management.

ClickUp’s standard views are list, board and calendar; Gantt, timeline and workload views are limited to 100 uses. The only downside to “uses” is that once you go through them, there’s no reset and you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan to keep using some features.

Paid plans range from $7 to $12 per user, per month (paid annually) and most limitations are removed at this point. You’ll get unlimited spaces, storage, views and subtasks. Subtasks are smaller tasks nested under a larger task, which offers more organization than many of the best task management software. There are so many features ClickUp offers that it’s not possible to go over them all in this mini review. With that said, part of the downfall of ClickUp is that it can be overwhelming for a new user. It’s great to have so many tools and features and customization options, but it can be overwhelming, even if ClickUp itself is easy to use.

Learn more: Read our full ClickUp review.

*Pricing is billed annually

Who should use it:

ClickUp’s free and low-priced plans are great for managing your own work, but it’s a better task management tool for midsized businesses that need a budget-friendly task management tool.

Pros & Cons
  • Free-forever plan available
  • Internal chat messaging
  • Unlimited users on all plans
  • Time tracking on all plans
  • Client views for some plans
  • Highly customizable dashboards and task templates
  • Overwhelming number of features and customization options
  • Some views are limited by plan
  • Automations limited per month on all plans
  • Most security features on high-priced plans

Best for Visual Representation of Tasks

Airtable

Airtable
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$10 monthly per user*

Views

Seven

Client access

Yes

Airtable
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Read Forbes' Review

$10 monthly per user*

Seven

Yes

Editor's Take

Airtable is likely so easy to use because it’s similar to spreadsheets you’ve probably used before, such as Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Airtable is far more flexible and powerful though, and it offers an intuitive interface designer (with drag-and-drop elements) that creates a more visual representation of tasks and projects.

This task management software lets you essentially build custom project apps for your team with images, graphs, tasks and charts that you can assign to specific team members. Team members can comment back and forth on each interactive app for effective internal communication.

Pricing:

Although Airtable is one of the pricier options on this list—$10 to $20 per user, per month (if billed annually)—it offers a feature-packed forever-free version. The free version lets you create an unlimited number of databases, but it limits you to five users on one plan. The other limitations are in the number of records per base and per table (1,200 for each). You can add attachments, including images and videos, but only up to 2GB worth. And you won’t get the Gantt chart or timeline views on the free plan. Airtable does allow you to integrate other software, including Salesforce, Outlook and Hootsuite, but you can only perform 100 automations per month at this level.

If you upgrade to a paid plan, you’ll increase your storage to 5GB on the Plus plan and 20GB on the Pro plan. You’ll also get more automations per month (5,000 for Plus users, 50,000 for Pro users) and more customization options. You’ll also be able to invite external users to view an Airtable project via a shareable link, though guests can’t edit, mark up anything or communicate through the program.

*Pricing is billed annually

Learn more: Read our full Airtable review.

Who should use it:

Airtable is best used by creative and collaborative teams looking for a more visual task management solution that’s still easy to use.

Pros & Cons
  • Forever-free plan
  • Hundreds of templates
  • User-created templates available
  • Easy to use
  • Forms for data collection
  • No client markup
  • Pricey option compared to some on this list

Best for Managing Remote Teams

Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com
4.5
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$5.99 monthly per user*

Views

Five

Client access

Yes

Teamwork.com
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Read Forbes' Review

$5.99 monthly per user*

Five

Yes

Editor's Take

Technically, any of the best task management software can be used to manage teams remotely, but Teamwork.com offers tools that specifically cater to remote teams. For example, there’s native time tracking on all plans—even the free one—so you can be sure all your billable hours are right where you need them in your task management app. There’s also real-time collaboration in task cards for multiple users.

Pricing:

The free plan is available for up to five users, but it’s a bit limiting. You can create up to two projects with tasks and subtasks, but you only get up to 100MB of storage. Teamwork.com only allows one integration—Zapier, which you can use to create automations. You can’t add clients or set custom fields, and there’s no billing or invoicing feature at this level.

Paid plans are reasonable at $5.99 to $17.99 per person, per month, and there’s a three-user minimum, which means you’re looking at just a little less than $20 per month at minimum (paid annually upfront). Even the entry-level paid plan has significant limitations, including no ability to track change history and no project-level tags.

*Pricing is billed annually.

Learn more: Read our full Teamwork.com review.

Who should use it:

One of the best reasons to use a free or paid plan from Teamwork.com is the time-tracking feature. You’ll be able to calculate billable and non-billable hours for each user, which can help with future quotes (and for billing clients).

Pros & Cons
  • Easy to use
  • Time tracking on all plans
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Automations through Zapier on all plans
  • Expensive plans
  • Five-user minimum on paid plans
  • Integrations limited by plans

Best for Simple Task Management

Todoist

Todoist
4.5
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$4 monthly per user*

Views

Two

Client access

Yes

Todoist
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$4 monthly per user*

Two

Yes

Editor's Take

Todoist is one of the easiest task management programs to start using. It keeps the interface clean and simple, so it’s intuitive for any level of user. Create a list of tasks in projects and assign them to other users—you can even invite nonusers to view and collaborate on your projects. The views are limited to list and calendar, but you can get Gantt chart views with an integration.

Pricing:

The free plan of this task management software is generous with the features allowed (due dates, labels, integrations, templates and calendar sync, to name a few), but it’s limiting in how many ongoing projects you can have, how long activity history lives (one week) and the size of file uploads (5MB). The slight loophole with the limited project is that the limit doesn’t apply to archived projects, so if you work quickly on small projects, you could make Todoist’s free plan work for you. Want your team to work faster? Todoist includes a productivity tool with gamification to inspire workers to improve or increase productivity by awarding Karma points.

Paid plans loosen restrictions, so you can have up to 300 projects going at once and up to 100MB file uploads. You’ll also unlock reminders, so you can send out notifications to ensure collaborators stay on task. Todoist also offers automatic backups for paid users and member roles. Being able to set user permissions makes it possible to invite clients to only view projects applicable to them and not edit anything.

Learn more: Read our full Todoist review.

*Pricing is billed annually

Who should use it:

List-makers will love Todoist—its simple interface is easy to learn and use. Small teams that need simple task management that prefer list or Kanban-style views would likely do well with Todoist.

Pros & Cons
  • Forever-free plan
  • Affordable plans
  • Gamification tools
  • Easy to use
  • Lots of integrations
  • Gantt view only available via integration
  • Not a particularly powerful tool
  • Permissions only on Business plan

Best for Managing Large Teams

Asana

Asana
4.5
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$10.99 monthly per user*

Views

Six

Client access

Yes

Asana
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Read Forbes' Review

$10.99 monthly per user*

Six

Yes

Editor's Take

Asana is one of the best task management software options available and it’s a popular option for enterprises. Even small teams can make use of Asana’s free plan with its many unlimited features. For example, there are no limits on projects, tasks or storage for your account. All files are limited to 100MB each, though. You can even integrate more than 100 third-party apps to your Asana account on any plan. Asana doesn’t give you access to all possible views on the free plan, such as the timeline view, which is similar to a Gantt chart.

Pricing:

Paid plans start at $10.99 per user, per month (paid annually), which is a bit expensive compared to other leading platforms, but there’s no user minimum. The benefits of a paid plan include access to unlimited dashboards, collaboration with an unlimited number of guests (or clients) and a workflow builder, so you can create automated and recurring workflows.

Learn more: Read our full Asana review.

*Pricing is billed annually

Who should use it:

Asana’s workflow builder makes it easy for anyone to manage a large team that requires task management.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan available
  • Lots of unlimited features on all plans
  • Integrations on all plans
  • Unlimited free guests
  • No user minimum
  • Expensive plans
  • Custom branding on enterprise plan only
  • 24/7 support only available to enterprise plan users

Best for Flat-Fee Pricing

Basecamp

Basecamp
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$15 per user, per month

Views

Three

Client access

Yes

Basecamp
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Read Forbes' Review

$15 per user, per month

Three

Yes

Editor's Take

There are a lot of things to like about Basecamp, but perhaps the best feature is the pricing structure. You can use Basecamp as a freelancer for free and tolerate the minor limitations, or upgrade to $99 per month for zero restrictions. This task management software’s pricing doesn’t charge per seat, so it’s super scalable for growing businesses. The free version limits you to three projects, 20 users and 1GB of storage, plus you won’t have client access, project templates or priority support.

As far as features go, Basecamp allows you to create unlimited projects, to-do lists, message boards, direct messages, group chats, synced schedules and file storage. There are a few automations, such as check-in questions and project templates, which save a lot of time for managers. There are three views available: card, list and Basecamp’s own hill chart, which is a bit of a competitor of a Gantt chart.

Client access is a big feature in Basecamp. You control what clients can see and you can add labels to content or messages for internal users to let them know clients can see what’s there. Plus, clients can give feedback in the app, so you can keep approvals, revisions and the like in one central location. And there’s never any charge for client access.

Pricing:

There are a lot of things to like about Basecamp, but perhaps the best feature is the pricing structure for the Pro Unlimited plan. Pay $299 per month with no per-user charge. You get access to all the general task management software features that Basecamp offers, plus an increase in storage to 5TB and 24/7 priority support.

Unfortunately, there’s no free plan from Basecamp anymore. You can try it for free, but freelancers and small teams will need to pay $15 per user, per month after the trial. This plan gives you up to 500GB of storage per month, but there’s no limit on the features.

Learn more: Read our full Basecamp review.

Who should use it:

Especially for large teams, Basecamp’s fee-free pricing is attractive—you’ll never pay a per-seat cost and you’ll get every feature and no limits on projects, users or clients.

Pros & Cons
  • Flat-fee pricing for Pro Unlimited plan
  • Unlimited features
  • Includes hill charts
  • Advanced client access
  • Real-time group and direct messaging
  • No free plan
  • No Kanban or Gantt views
  • May be expensive for small teams

Best for Customizing an App for Specific Teams

Wrike

Wrike
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$9.80 per user, per month*

Views

Four

Client access

Yes

Wrike
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$9.80 per user, per month*

Four

Yes

Editor's Take

Wrike serves a variety of sizes of businesses with its five different plans, from Free to Pinnacle. If you have the budget for it, the Pinnacle plan gives you the ability to create a custom solution with advanced resource planning features for specific teams in your company. Creative, marketing, product management and IT teams have different task management needs, so you can get the right templates, automations and communication tools and make the best task management software that’s right for you.

Pricing:

The plans are generous with features, storage space and users—the free plan allows for unlimited users and 2GB of storage per account—but for specific features, you’ll have to upgrade to a high-tier plan. If you want Gantt charts, you’ll need at least the Team plan, which costs $9.80 per user, per month, and has a five-user minimum. The good news is you can opt for month-to-month, which helps if you don’t have the funds to pay upfront.

Business, Enterprise and Pinnacle plans require you to pay annually, and those plans start at $24.80 per user, per month, which may be too rich for some small business budgets. It’s at these levels that you unlock the various custom features, such as custom fields, workflows and item types. You also get real-time reports, workload charts and you can set user permissions. Wrike allows guest access and approvals in the Business plan and up, along with file proofing.

Learn more: Read our full Wrike review.

*Pricing is billed annually

Who should use it:

Wrike is best suited for larger companies with specific project, task and collaboration management needs. The customized solutions for departments are pricey but could be just what you need for the right amount of organization and automation.

Pros & Cons
  • Unlimited users on free plan
  • Highly customizable
  • Integrate email
  • Interactive Gantt charts
  • Open API available to all plans
  • Expensive plans
  • Complex system might be overwhelming
  • Most security features on Enterprise and Pinnacle plans only
  • Most customization locked behind high-tier plans

Best for Beginners and New Businesses

Trello

Trello
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$5 monthly per user*

Views

Six

Client access

Yes

Trello
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$5 monthly per user*

Six

Yes

Editor's Take

Trello is one of the simplest task management tools around. It’s easy to learn and use, whether you have experience or not, which is why we consider it one of the best task management software available. It relies heavily on the Kanban-style board with drag-and-drop cards, making it accessible to anyone.

Aside from the simple task management features and project creation, it has a visual interface, so it’s easy to see where projects are in the process. You can create lists full of cards and name those lists whatever you want, such as “in progress,” “needs approval” and “done.” Leave comments on cards, add files and create labels to make it easy to search your projects to find what you need.

Pricing:

The free plan is generous—there are no limits on users or cards for your account. You will be limited to ten boards and 10MB per file upload. Plus, you’ll only get 250 Workspace command runs each month.

Workspace command runs are Trello’s version of automations. If you need more, you have to upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at $5 per seat, per month (paid annually). On the low-tier plan, you get 1,000 automations per month across your account. It’s at this plan level you can invite guests to a single board, which is helpful for collaboration or client feedback. Your storage is increased to 250MB per file.

For views other than the visual Kanban board, you need to upgrade to the Premium plan, which includes calendar, timeline, table, dashboard and map views. All plans can set up integrations (Trello calls them Power-Ups) with more than 200 third-party apps, including Slack, Dropbox, Google Drive and Hootsuite.

Learn more: Read our full Trello review.

*Pricing is billed annually

Who should use it:

New users of project or task management software will appreciate how easy it is to learn Trello. Plus, its generous free plan makes it an ideal starting point for new small businesses.

Pros & Cons
  • Offers free plan
  • Unlimited users on free plan
  • Easy to use
  • No limits to cards on free plan
  • No-code automation for all plans
  • Unlimited integrations available for all plans
  • Security features on high-tier plans
  • No priority support until Premium plan
  • Tracking multiple projects is difficult on low-tier plans

Best for Spreadsheet Users

Smartsheet

Smartsheet
4.1
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$7 monthly per user*

Views

Four

Client access

Yes

Smartsheet
Learn More Arrow

On Smartsheet's Website

$7 monthly per user*

Four

Yes

Editor's Take

Smartsheet offers a handful of views for all users, including Gantt, grid, card and calendar views. All plans include unlimited sheets and viewers, making it easy to create multiple projects and share them with users on your account. Smartsheet also gives every account automations for workflows but limits the low-priced plans to 250 automations per month.

Pricing:

Plans start at $7 per user, per month (paid annually). The low-priced plan (Pro) maxes out at 10 users, at which point you’ll have to upgrade to the Business plan, which costs $25 per user, per month (paid annually and has a three-user minimum).

Client and collaborator access is limited to Business and Enterprise plans, and you can do so in two different ways: invite them as editors or publish a sheet, report or dashboard as a view-only document.

Learn more: Read our full Smartsheet review.

*Pricing is billed annually

Who should use it:

Smartsheet offers similar features to other task management software, but it’s best used by those who prefer spreadsheets for projects and tasks. It’s like a more powerful, upgraded version of Microsoft Excel.

Pros & Cons
  • User-friendly
  • Comprehensive project management software
  • All plans integrate with Google Workspace, Dropbox, Slack and Microsoft 365
  • Automations allowed on all plans
  • No free plan
  • Plans have minimum user requirements
  • Security features locked behind high-priced plans

Forbes Advisor Ratings

Company Forbes Advisor Rating Starting price Views Client access LEARN MORE
monday.com 4.7 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $8 per user, per month* Five Yes Learn More On monday.com's Website
ClickUp 4.6 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $7 per user, per month* 16 Yes Learn More On ClickUp's Website
Airtable 4.6 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $10 monthly per user* Seven Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Teamwork.com 4.5 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $5.99 monthly per user* Five Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Todoist 4.5 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $4 monthly per user* Two Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Asana 4.5 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $10.99 monthly per user* Six Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Basecamp basecamp logo 4.4 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $15 per user, per month Three Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Wrike 4.2 4-removebg-preview-2 $9.80 per user, per month* Four Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Trello 4.3 4.5-removebg-preview-1 $5 monthly per user* Six Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Smartsheet 4.1 4-removebg-preview-2 $7 monthly per user* Four Yes Learn More On Smartsheet's Website

What Is Task Management Software?

At its core, task management software is a program designed to help with assigning, tracking and organizing tasks as part of a larger project. Typically, task management software also includes reporting tools, so you can analyze the life cycles of tasks to help you improve productivity. Most project management software includes tasks and some include subtasks, which help you break a more extensive project into smaller pieces of work.


How Does Task Management Software Work?

Most task management software is cloud-based, which makes it easy for all users to access projects, tasks and data from anywhere. With real-time updates, managers can quickly assess who on their team can take on tasks and see when they’re completed, and employees can see their task lists from their personal dashboards.

Task management software includes tools that help with managing tasks from start to finish. Usually, you’ll find time tracking features, tagging and filtering features and commenting features. All of these features lend to better efficiency, communication and organization of work. As tasks are completed, data is stored and used in reports to help managers see where improvements can be made in time or resource management.


How To Choose Task Management Software

Whether you’re a freelancer or an enterprise-level company, it’s important to consider how you and your teams work best. We suggest looking at how each task management tool handles collaboration, communication, views and pricing structure.

Collaboration starts with your coworkers, but it also includes outsourced help and clients. If you need to share view-only boards with clients, ensure it offers that feature at the price point you can afford. Alternatively, some task management software let you invite clients or collaborators as guests and you can set permissions for different users.

Some task management tools are nothing but boards for listing and organizing tasks for a project. Others let users leave comments, send direct messages, start group chats or integrate with popular communication tools, such as Slack. Choose one that best fits your organization’s communication requirements.

Kanban-style views are visual and very easy to use, but not everyone works best with that style of project management. If you need Gantt charts or a timeline view, be sure to consider what views each task management software offers as you whittle down your list of choices.

Finally, pricing structure is a huge part of choosing the right task management tool. If you have a small team, a per-user, per-month pricing plan might work fine for your budget. Larger teams may want to consider an enterprise plan with a custom price or a flat-fee price with unlimited users allowed.

Essential Features

The best task management software includes basic features to help you build and manage tasks and projects on the whole. Make sure these features are present even in the low-priced plans:

  • Project views: It’s hard to find task management software with only one view but, often, multiple varied project views are locked behind high-tier plans. These are important for getting a granular look at the work that needs to be done or a 50,000-foot view of all the projects that are ongoing. Flexible project views are also great for ensuring everyone can work the way that’s best for them, whether they’re list makers or prefer a visual Kanban-style dashboard.
  • Subtasks: All task management software includes task management, but you may only be able to find subtask management in the best task management software. This feature allows you to break up a large task into multiple subtasks and assign them to different team members.
  • Client access: You’d be hard-pressed to find task management software without client or guest access. So many projects require approval or feedback from clients, so this feature is an almost must. More advanced task management software offers client view settings, so a client can only view, comment or edit, as you see fit.
  • Time tracking: Built-in time tracking is one of those features that’s common but not always present in task management software, which is why integrations are also important. You should be able to track billable and non-billable hours in most task management tools.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA): Most task management tools include security features to protect data and a popular one is 2FA. This feature requires users to sign on with more than a password—they have to also confirm their identity with a code via an email or SMS message.

Collaboration Tools

Task management software is made better with collaboration tools. Without ways to collaborate, you’d still rely on email, phone calls and meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page. So, as you assign tasks, reassign projects and get feedback, it’s helpful to have all of that happen in one place. Look for these tools to help you collaborate within your task management software:

  • Communication tools: In the best task management software, you’ll find comment features on tasks and built-in live chat. These features can help colleagues work together, managers get updates and employees get feedback quickly.
  • Task dependencies: The ability to draw a line from one task to another to show work that needs to be completed before another element from the project can take place is huge for collaboration and time management. It’s one-way task management software can simplify complex tasks and projects.
  • Status updates: Managers may want to choose task management software with built-in status updates. These are like broadcasts you can use to notify a team with updates on tasks or projects, which saves time and keeps everyone in the loop.
  • Real-time documents: Real collaboration between coworkers or teams may need to happen in documents themselves. One of the best ways to do this is to look for task management software that includes a proprietary document feature built into your app. It allows everyone to work simultaneously on the same document, so there’s no need to reload a browser or app to see what’s changed.

Integrations and Device Compatibility

The best task management software today is cloud-based, so you should be able to access your tasks and projects from any browser. Still, it’s important to ensure that your chosen task management software supports the devices your team and company use. Most software create mobile apps for iOS and Android, but not all. If not, make sure the browser version is optimized for mobile, at least.

It’s equally important to check the integrations available with task management software. Just because there’s a missing feature in the software you want, there may be a way to integrate another app for a complete solution for your business. You may only need to add a time tracking app to your stack or you might want to connect your CRM or accounting software, such as Salesforce or QuickBooks.

Ease of Use

Project and task management is notorious for ranging from simple to extremely complex. For larger businesses with multiple teams, there can be a lot of moving pieces with dependencies and various subtasks associated with each task. That’s why it’s vital to choose the right task management software for your team’s or company’s skill.

The easiest task management software has intuitive interfaces with drag-and-drop functionality, so you can create and move tasks around on a board or list. These are great entry-level task management software options. As your team or business grows, you may want to migrate to a more advanced task management software that includes Gantt charts and real-time reporting that’s more helpful for managers and stakeholders.

Free vs. Paid Task Management Software

Knowing when to use free vs. paid task management software comes down to the size of your business, projects and budget. Freelancers and ultra-small businesses can likely get away with the limitations of a free task management software solution. Limits are usually applied to the number of users, collaborators, tasks or projects, file size or advanced features.

As your needs grow, you may find you need to upgrade to a low- or mid-tier plan with more advanced features or fewer limitations. If you’re a manager who needs to view various reports to study a myriad of data, you might need to start off with a paid plan as these reports aren’t usually available on free plans.

Another big difference between free vs. paid task management software is how the plans handle or allow workflow automation. Some free plans may allow some automation, but you’re likely limited to a set number of actions per month and you may be surprised at how quickly those run out. Workflow builders are key to reducing the time you spend doing the most mundane parts of task management, so it could be worth it to you to start off with a paid plan anyway.


Benefits of Task Management Software

If project management software is the forest, then task management software is the trees. All types of businesses can benefit from using a task management tool to keep all team members, teams and departments in one organization on the same page. Here are the biggest benefits of using task management software:

  • Centrally located: Keeping all tasks for every project in separate boards or charts, along with documents and files, makes it so much easier for team members to work and managers to know how a project is going.
  • Easy to access: Most task management software is software as a service (SaaS), so you should be able to access the data and files anywhere you have an internet connection. You’ll be able to work from a browser, an installed app on a PC or an app on your phone or tablet.
  • Multiple views: From Gantt and timeline to calendar and Kanban, task management software offers multiple views to make it accessible to use for any type of worker.
  • Increases productivity: Workflow automations can reduce the amount of repetitive work team members or managers have day-to-day or week-to-week.
  • Improves collaboration: Task management software makes it so much easier for teams to work together on the same subtasks or tasks and the project overall.
  • Easy delegation: You can reduce the number of emails and touch points with team members to assign tasks when you use task management software. Simply set up the task in your software and assign it to the appropriate team member, along with due dates and notes.
  • Break down big tasks: Some task management software makes it easy to distribute work among team members by allowing subtasks. This ensures no one is overloaded with work and projects get done faster.

What Does Task Management Software Cost?

Task management software has a range of costs depending on the plan level you need and the size of your company. The average price of task management software ranges from $9.68 per user, per month, to $18.63 per user, per month (billed annually). That average doesn’t take into account enterprise-level plans that usually require a custom quote and can be much pricier.

The best task management software offers free plans that won’t cost you a dime but features or users are limited. Alternatively, there is some task management software that have minimum user requirements. So even if the cost is low for a plan, say around $10 per user, per month, it would cost you $30 per month if there’s a three-user minimum.


Methodology

To determine the best task management software, Forbes Advisor researched the leading providers in the space and narrowed it down to the 11 top providers. We analyzed these across five primary categories for a total of 18 different metrics. The criteria were then weighted to favor features that matter most to small businesses. The best task management software had the best overall scores based on our methodology.

Here are the overarching categories we analyzed:

Pricing – 18% 

Free is always an attractive price point, but it may be too limiting for teams that need helpful features. While we ranked those with free plans a bit higher, we also took into account the starting price of each task management tool, along with user minimums.

Key Features and Functionality – 30% 

The best task management software is only as good as its functionality, allowances and workflow automations. After all, the whole point of using task management tools is to increase productivity and reduce repetitive work. We also considered the charts or views you get with each one because not everyone loves a spreadsheet or Kanban board.

Unique Features – 18%

Every task management software offers a unique set of features in addition to the standard core feature set, so we considered other inclusions to gauge versatility and usefulness for various businesses and industries. This includes budgeting, markup tools, client access and billing and invoicing.

Third-party Ratings and Reviews – 15% 

We don’t want to rank products in an echo chamber, so we look to user reviews to help uncover popular features, excellent customer support experiences and drawbacks we may overlook in our testing and research.

Expert Score – 19% 

In addition to the above criteria, we also considered our own first-hand experience with task management software. This qualitative metric includes factors such as ease of use, value for money, popularity and the quality of available feature sets.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which task management software is best?

The best task management software depends on what features you need. Forbes Advisor compared the top options, and we concluded that the best task management tools are monday.com, Airtable and ClickUp.

What is task management software used for?

Task management software is used to create, track and organize tasks and subtasks within projects. It’s used by individuals who complete tasks, managers who assign tasks and stakeholders who want to see overviews and reports on all projects and tasks.

How can I organize my tasks for free?

There are multiple free task management tools available, although they typically limit the number of users, boards, tasks or automations per account. Some of the most popular free options for task management include Trello, monday.com and ClickUp.

Is task management software secure?

There is no universal answer to this question, but most task management software employs a variety of security measures to keep your data safe. Look for security features including data encryption, two-factor authentication (2FA) and single sign-on (SSO). You can also set user permissions to allow or restrict access as needed. For medical companies, you may need to pay an additional fee for extra security to ensure Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance.

What other types of project management tools are there?

Aside from task management software and basic project management, there are also project management tools for specific industries. There’s construction project management software, such as Procore; enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, such as Oracle; and all-in-one work operating systems, such as HubSpot.


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