"Project management tool" covers everything from a free kanban board to an enterprise system that runs a 500-person consultancy. Most "best tools" lists mix them together, which is why teams end up with something that's either too simple or far too heavy.
A better way to choose is to first decide which type of tool you need, and only then compare products.
The four types of project management tools
1. Task boards
Examples: Trello and simple kanban boards.
Cards in columns ("to do", "doing", "done"). They're fast to adopt and great for visualising flow. If you're new to the method, start with our kanban board guide.
Good for: small teams, personal work, simple processes. Falls short on: dependencies, workload, time and anything financial.
2. Work management platforms
Examples: Asana, ClickUp, monday.com, Jira (for software teams), Teamwork.com.
Tasks plus multiple views (list, board, timeline, Gantt), automations, dashboards and integrations. They're flexible enough to run almost any process.
Good for: product, marketing and operations teams coordinating lots of tasks across people. Falls short on: the business side of client work. Budgets, invoicing and profitability are usually missing or sit on top plans, and time tracking or workload views are often paid upgrades.
3. Agency and professional services platforms
Examples: Monton, Productive, Scoro, Accelo, Kantata.
Built for businesses that sell time. They connect projects with time tracking, resource planning, budgets, invoicing, CRM and profitability, so every logged hour updates the project's margin.
Good for: agencies, consultancies, studios and IT service firms. Falls short on: highly custom workflows unrelated to client work. Some of these platforms are also heavy and expensive. Monton is the lightweight end: flat price per plan, every feature on every plan, and free for up to 5 people.
4. Specialist tools
Examples: Float (resource scheduling), Harvest and Timely (time tracking), invoicing apps.
They do one job very well and are often combined with a work management platform.
Good for: fixing one specific gap in an existing setup. Falls short on: joined-up reporting, since each tool holds part of the data.
How to choose a project management tool
Answer these questions in order:
- Do we bill clients for our time? If yes, you'll want time tracking connected to projects. Look at agency platforms first.
- What's the one report we can't produce today? Common answers are "who is free next week?", "is this project over budget?" and "which client is profitable?". Choose the type that produces that report natively.
- Who will use it daily? A tool that the team avoids is worse than a spreadsheet. Run a two-week trial on a real project.
- How does pricing scale? Per-user pricing grows with every hire. Flat per-plan pricing stays the same while you're within the plan.
- Which features are on the plan we'd buy? Compare plans, not feature pages. Many tools put time tracking, workload or reporting on higher tiers.
Rule of thumb
If your team doesn't bill time, a work management platform is usually enough. If it does, start with an agency platform. Otherwise you'll end up building one out of spreadsheets.
Project management tools for agencies, compared
To compare agency platforms side by side (pricing model, free plans, minimum seats and which features each plan includes), see:
And if you're still deciding whether you need a tool at all, our project management guide covers the fundamentals.
Frequently asked questions
- What are project management tools?
- Software that helps a team plan, organise and track work: tasks, deadlines, responsibilities and progress. Some also cover time tracking, resource planning, budgets, invoicing and profitability, which matters for teams that bill clients for their time.
- What are the most used project management tools?
- For task and work management: Trello, Asana, ClickUp, monday.com, Jira and Teamwork.com. For agencies and service firms that need time, staffing and margins too: agency management platforms such as Monton, Productive and Scoro.
- Is there a free project management tool for small teams?
- Yes. Trello, Asana, ClickUp and monday.com have free plans for basic task management. If you also need time tracking, staffing and profitability, Monton is free for up to 5 people with every feature.
- Which project management tool is best for agencies?
- Agencies sell time, so they need a tool that connects tasks to hours, budgets and invoices. Agency management platforms like Monton, Productive or Scoro do that natively; general tools like Asana or ClickUp need a separate time tracker and spreadsheet for the financial side.