Top 7 Project Management Tools for Startups in 2023

Project management tools are essential and useful for businesses of all types and sizes. Especially for startups, managing projects of any size is not a very easy task because they usually need to handle hundreds or thousands of tasks almost every week and they need to make sure that the process goes as smoothly as possible. Introducing project management tools into your workspace management brings efficiency and flexibility in delivering projects and in achieving your goals. Project management tools can make any project manager’s job easier in different ways. 

There are different project management tools for businesses, companies, and startups that would help you with tasks and projects and that wouldn’t cost you a fortune. They however offer plenty of valuable features, user interface, and functionality to make your tasks easier. Below is a compiled list of the best project management tools including to improve your workflow;

PM Tools for Startups

Trello

Trello

It was created in 2011 by Fog CreekSoftwaree, which was spun out to form the basis of a separate company in Newyork in 2014 and sold to Atlassian in January 2017.  It’s a tool that keeps you connected to all the members of your team in your business/organization. It’s a web-based, kanban style, list-making application used to manage projects, organize tasks and build team collaboration-all in one place.

Its features include;

  • In-line editing
  • Easy, drag-and-drop editing
  • Integrations features
  • Butter feature
  • Card feature
  • File attachment
  • Easy upload (local devices, dropbox, google drive)
  • Progress meter checklist
  • Trello boards
  • Activity logs
  • individual/group task assignments
  • SSL data encryption
  • Voting options.

Pros

Cons

  • Uses responsive web design
  • The interface is easy to understand
  • It follows the kanban system
  • It works on every platform, whether it’s on the computer or phone- it’s mobile friendly
  • A board for a project with listed items on one page
  • It has limited views
  • It gets clumsy as projects grow
  • It misses some robust agile features
  • You cannot review iterations
  • No Gantt (Project Barchart)

Pricing-Trello has a free plan and 3 paid plans;

  • Standard plan ($5 per user, per month)
  • Premium plan ($10 per user, per month)
  • Enterprise plan ($17.50 per user, per month).

Proofhub

Proofhub

It’s a versatile project management tool founded in 2011 by Sandeep Kashyap. It’s an online project management tool used by over 1000 or more team members globally including Netflix, Disney, and many more. It provides a centralized tool for teams to manage the entire lifecycle of a project. It comes with an all-in-one powerful feature to eliminate the need of depending on different tools to run your project. The tool provides an automotive interface and a short learning curve. It’s efficient for startups, projects, and team collaboration.

Its features include;

  • Handy reporting
  • Gantt chart
  • Workflow and boards
  • File transfer
  • Third-party integrations
  • Team member roles
  • Project templates
  • Drag & drop scheduling
  • Platform basis
  • Chat 
  • Timesheet 
  • Time-tracking software

Pros

Cons

  • It helps with organizing your project in a user-friendly way
  • Balance of features and simplicity
  • It’s a useful tool used for discussing vital materials
  • It lacks budgeting tools
  • It loads projects slowly sometimes
  • Request forms in the system are only editable using HTML code

Pricing– ProofHub doesn’t offer a free plan but has 2 pricing plans

  • Essential at $45 monthly
  • Ultimate control at $89 monthly.

Asana

Asana

It’s a workplace management tool that breaks down projects into tasks and sets clear goals for team members. It was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein. It was launched in April 2012. It’s a web and mobile work management clash board designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. It also streamlines communication across companies and teams. It also has integration with hundreds of other apps that businesses use like google drive and outlook. 

Its features include; 

  • Prioritization 
  • Custom card  
  • Activity feeds
  • Email integration 
  • Individual task lists
  • Focus mode
  • Multiple project views
  • Tracking 
  • Project creation
  • Project permission

Pros

Cons

  • Managing tasks is organized and efficient
  • Its user interface leads to a better user experience
  • It brings other project management apps like slack, google drive into integration
  • It lacks time tracking
  • Its task assignment features are cloudy
  • It only allows one person per task. You cannot assign multiple people to the same task

Pricing– Free trial is available. It has 2 pricing plan

              Edition- $13.49 monthly (premium)

              $30.49 (business)

Jira

It’s used to plan, track and manage your agile and software development projects. It was founded in 2002 as a proprietary issue-tracking product by Atlassian that allows bug tracking. It supports all agile technologies such as scrum, and kanban, and is also a powerful project management tool with the use of many built-in features offered. It’s popular in the agile world due to its well-managed workflow mapping and issue-tracking ability.

Its features include;

  • Reports & insight 
  • Project flexibility 
  • Custom branding
  • Road maps
  • Scrum & kanban support
  • Project & issue tracking
  • Sprint planning
  •  Backlog prioritization
  • API
  • Accounting integration 

Pros

Cons

  • It has excellent integration with Atlassian products, very easy to use.
  • Jira users can create any type of issue by tailoring the workflow to meet the specific needs of the company.
  • It supports the roadmap requirement.
  • Powerful agile reporting.
  • Error notification can be aggravating at times.
  • Uploading a photo larger than 10MB causes problems.
  • It confuses User-interface.
  • No native collaboration tools.

Pricing-  Free trial for 10 users

  • Standard- $7.50 per user (average)- $75 a month
  • Premium – $14.50 per user – $145 a month
  • Enterprise- Billed Annually.

Monday.com

Monday.com

It’s an operating work system that powers teams to run projects and workflow. It was founded in 2014 and launched in July 2019 by Eran Zinman, Roman. It’s a highly intuitive cloud-based platform that relies on simple visual layouts to help users improve their workflow easily. It also allows users to create their applications and work management software.

Its features include;

  • Data visualization
  • Collaboration
  • Easy communication
  • User interface
  • Customer support
  •  Automation
  • Integrations
  • Multiple project views

Pros

Cons

  • Teams can easily communicate and invite guests to view boards and timelines.
  • Great tracking features.
  • Authentic project organization and management.
  • Difficult to track time and expenses.
  • Integration problems.
  • The dashboard does not have an equivalent view on the mobile app and users agree that the mobile app needs to be a lot better.

    Pricing-  Monday.com offers a free plan with limited features. 

  • Basic at $18 per month
  • Standard at $30 per month
  • Pro at $66 per month.

Clickup

Clickup

It’s a project management platform with customization tailored to each project and team. It was founded in 2017 by Zeb Evans alongside Alex Yurkowsio. The tool helps you figure out who’s active and bring all the tasks to one place. It emphasizes views, statuses, features, and processes to give the best user experience.

Its features include; 

  • Social media integration
  • Built-in email templates
  • APIs/Integration
  • Task management
  • Task creation.

Pros

Cons

  • It is cost-effective.
  • Full-featured free version.
  • It continually provides new features, improvements, and enhancements based on what its customers need.
  • The dashboard view is systematic and methodical.
  • There are many options for customization.
  • Dashboards can’t be exported.

Pricing – Free trial is available.

  • $4 per user
  • $9.60 per user
  • $15.20 per user

 Contact sales for Clickup Enterprise.

Wrike

Wrike

It’s designed to minimize the time spent on repetitive tasks. An American project management application service provider founded in 2006 by Andrew Filev. The platform has a hierarchy of projects, tasks, and subtasks that enable users to segregate their bigger projects into smaller tasks and subtasks that are more tracked and managed easily. It’s completely distinct with its reporting. Detailed reports show project performance and team productivity that help extricate and affect project management.

Its features include;

  • Visual timeline
  • Seamless communication
  • Collaborative editing
  • Budget management
  • Integration tools
  • Workload management
  • Email integration
  • Time-tracking 
  • Document & content management
  • Workflow capability.

Pros

Cons

  • Reports are well-detailed.
  • It’s very suitable for all business sizes.
  • Task tabs allow for team discussion.
  • Good search engine.
  • Limited chat options.
  • Steeper learning curve.
  • Difficulty in onboarding.
  • The user interface is complex.

Pricing-  Free basic plan is available for unlimited users.

  • Professional -$9.80 per user/month
  • Business -$24.80 per user/month (billed annually)
  • Enterprise -$45 per user/month
  • Pinnacle -$60 per user/month.

CONCLUSION

With these listed project management tools at your reach, you can boost your business productivity. Understanding your business’s needs and implementing one of these management tools will help you in the execution of your projects to achieve success.