What Tools do you use to Manage Software Projects?

List of software project management tools for every requirement.

Managing a project involves a lot of moving parts. Planning and organization have to include managing deadlines, handling files & resources, keeping the entire team moving forward in sync, and ensuring smooth collaboration through it all.

Multi-faceted role? You bet. Do they need dynamic support? Yes.

To aid project managers in their role in engendering productivity and collaboration, there are a number of tools available. Some of these offer all-around project management features, while others are aimed at particular aspects of the process like team collaboration, tracking time, issue and bug tracking, and task management.

One advantage with project management tools is they serve as a central repository which becomes the main point of reference for the project. These tools allow real-time communication between team members and the ability to store documents in the cloud or server, which makes them accessible to everyone at any time. They provide tracking and analytics that help plan the project roadmap in the short and long term. Being able to convert bugs and issues into actionable tasks cut down the effort for developers and designers, as well as QA reviewers, to share feedback on projects. Task updates make it easier to stay updated with the project and eliminates the need to send a separate email to every collaborator informing them of the status.

Here we look at some of the top project management tools that can help modern project managers stay on top of their tasks and get their team over the line in good time.

General Project Management

Basecamp

• All-round project management capabilities; dedicated HQ to manage teams and projects from
• Manage projects between multiple users from one platform
• Collaborate and message team members directly from Basecamp
• Prompt real-time notifications for the status change of tasks
• To-do lists, file sharing, milestones, and commenting — all in one
• Pricing: $99/month; 10% off for non-profits and charities; Free for teachers and students

Alternatives

• Scoro. Manage project KPIs, sort through billable and non-billable work, use the integrated CRM. Pricing: Scoro offers three plans — Plus($22), Premium($33), Ultimate($55), with capabilities such as FTP server integration and budgeting available with the Ultimate plan.
• Zoho Projects. Milestones, task lists, and tasks to organize projects and the option to integrate with Zoho’s CRM and other products. Pricing: Free for 1 project and 10MB storage; Express($25/month for 20 projects), Premium($50/month for 50 projects), and Enterprise($80/month for unlimited projects) plans available. For more information, you can check out this review of Zoho projects, and some of its alternatives.
• Wrike. Structure folders and files to mirror your project’s organization. Store different versions of files and edit them in-app without saving to your computer. Pricing: Free up to 5 users; Paid plans include Professional($9.80 per user per month), Business($24.80 per user per month) and one for Marketers ($34.60 per user per month); Custom pricing for Enterprise plan
• Liquid Planner. Track best-case and worst-case scenarios to accurately estimate project schedules. Visually manage resources and workload on team members. Pricing: Small teams — $9.99 per user/month; Professional — $39 per user/month; Enterprise — $69 per user/month.
• Teamwork Projects. Organize projects, tasks, milestones, messages, and files. Track time and handle billing. Pricing: Small office plan — $69/month for 50 projects; Professional plan — $169/month for 150 projects; Business plan — $269/month for 300 projects.
• Redbooth. Prioritize tasks, emails, and meetings. Create to-do lists. Track what task is assigned to what team member. Create a visual timeline for your project. Convert emails into tasks. Pricing: Free — up to 10 users, 5 workspaces and 2GB of file storage; Pro — $6.25/user/month, unlimited workspaces, 5GB storage, pro integrations(Evernote, Cisco, etc.); Business — $18.75/user/month, unlimited workspace, 50GB storage, business reporting, priority support.
• ProjectManager.com. Cloud-based software for Windows of Mac – No download necessary. Intuitive interface without a steep learning curve. Create project plans with multiple views, such as Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and more. Manage a portfolio of projects & team workload. Effortlessly create timesheets to streamline payroll. Track your team’s logged hours. Generate reports with the click of a button. Create real-time, customizable dashboards where you can view real-time data. $15/user per month

If you are looking for more options, check this list of Project Management Tools

Task Management

Asana

• Track tasks across teams and projects
• Convert conversations into actionable tasks
• Choose from various sample templates
• Communicate in-app; moderate your inbox to receive only important updates
• Add attachments to tasks, set due dates, and vote for tasks
• Free for up to 15 users. Pricing: Premium starts at $9.99 per member/month; custom pricing for Enterprise

Alternatives

• BamBam. Provides flexibility for managers, developers, testers, and clients. Customize workflows. Time tracking. Newsfeeds and wikis. Set permissions for different team members. Pricing: $10/month — 1–3 users; $35/month — 4–5 users; $70/month — 6–10 users; $140/month — 11–20 users; custom for 20+ users.
• Hitask. Organize and document tasks and projects. Store documents. Email tasks. Set tasks as repeating tasks. Progress reports. Multi-lingual. Export data as an Excel sheet or in other data formats. Pricing: Free — for up to 5 users; Business — $4.98/user/month, real-time Calendar sync, selective sharing; Enterprise — $12.98/user/month, 24/7 support, single sign-on integration.
• DropTask. Visual task management. Map out the workflow in Kanban-style boards. Manage schedule using the built-in calendar. Set reminders, upload files, send messages. Time management. Pricing: Free for the basic plan; Business — $8.25/month, includes advanced features and integrations.
• Hubstaff Tasks. Manage projects from start to finish with Kanban boards and task cards, Assign tasks, set deadlines, and see who’s doing what, Collaborate with team members and communicate from inside tasks, Track your progress accurately with task checklists, Complete tasks with efficiency with Agile Sprints, Create custom workflows and move projects forward — with just one click, Pricing: Free for up to 5 users; starts at $4/user/month

Bug and Issue Tracking System

JIRA

• Bug and issue-tracking software
• Plan roadmaps and customize workflow
• Option to choose between Scrum boards, Kanban boards, and agile reporting
• Self-hosted or cloud option
• It can be used as part of Atlassian’s suite of software development tools like Bitbucket, Confluence, and HipChat.
• Pricing: For cloud — $10/month up to 10 users and $7 per user/month from 11–100 users. Self-hosted server starts at $10(10 users) and data center $12,000/year(500 users).

Alternatives

• zipBoard. Ready out of the box, no server or setup required. Unlike JIRA, zipBoard a visual bug tracking and collaboration tool, which provides context with tasks and issues. Works for URLs or images, and even SCORM content. Manage tasks from one screen and via all project activity with the option to communicate with your team in-app. No limit on users. Option to convert feedback into actionable tasks via a custom shareable URL. Simple enough for managers, developers, designers, and end-users. Pricing: 1 project free forever; Starter plan — $29/month for 5 projects; Team plan — $59/month for 20 projects. Custom pricing for the enterprise.
• 16Bugs. Color-coded scheme for different information like comments, updates, etc. Track issues from a central dashboard. Organize issues in categories. Attach files with bugs. Pricing: 1 project free; Basic — $8/month for 3 projects; Big — $15/month for 5 projects; Huge — $25/month for 10 projects; Plus — $49/month for 25 projects; Premium — $99/month for 100 projects.
• Redmine. Open-source. Supports multiple projects. Flexible access control based on user roles. Gantt chart and calendar are available. Create a wiki for every project. Log bugs via email. Pricing: Free.

Collaboration

Trello

• Everything is arranged inside flexible Kanban boards
• Each board has cards and each card can have a range of information, such as audio, video, and lists
• Add comments and attachments to cards
• Option to add power-ups such as giving voting provision on cards and integrating with other tools like Slack
• All cards and lists are indexed a so be searched through to make it easier to find tasks.
• Pricing: Free version allows unlimited collaborators but only one power upper board and attachments up to 10MB. Business-class starts at $9.99/user per month and Enterprise goes up to $20.83/user per month.

Alternatives

• Cage. Dedicated space to organize files and actionable tasks and the option to annotate on files to provide a better context. Store videos, audio, images, PDFs, PSDs, and Ai files; over 150+ file formats supported. Pricing: Plans for Cage start at $25/month for up to 2 team members and 25GB storage, and go up to $500/month for unlimited team members and 1TB of storage.
• activeCollab. Manage tasks as per your workflow, track and budget time, and generate invoices. Create and edit notes collaboratively. Pricing depends on the number of team members: Starting at $25/month for 5 users, $49/month for 15 users, and so on till $299/month for unlimited users.
• Podio. Review tasks and related conversations in one place with context. Customize structure to suit your workflow. Pricing: Basic($9/month), Plus($14) — with automated workflows, Premium($24/month) — with visual reports and interactive dashboards. Custom quote for enterprise plan.

Roadmaps

Aha!

• Build a strategy and visual roadmap that ties in with higher-level goals
• Define and prioritize projects
• Identify dependencies visually
• Team members can share concepts, ideas, feedback, etc.
• Customize navigation, flow, layouts
• Pricing: Premium — $59 per user/month, Enterprise — $99 per user/month, Enterprise+ — $149 annual only. Discounted pricing for startups.

Alternatives

• ProdPad. Helps build lean roadmaps where feedback can be collected quickly and ideas can be validated. Set priorities. Publish multiple versions of a roadmap to control audience access. Manage product backlog as ‘idea dots’ on an impact vs effort to identify what to build next. Pricing: Standard($119/month); Premium($349/month); Unlimited($2899/month)
• Roadmunk. Ability to pull data from JIRA and build a roadmap in minutes. Mix and match between different views. Collaborate directly on the roadmap. Option to visualize roadmap either as a product timeline or as cards in a swimlane view. Pricing: Starter — $25/user/month; Business — $65/user/month; Professional — $129/user/month.
• Craft. Add a visual design to product roadmaps and mark stories on them directly. Split steps and activities for different releases. Specify major releases, milestones, and initiatives. Specify priorities of bugs, tasks, and improvements. Pricing: Lite — free, 1 product, 1 user; Team — $69/month, 2 products, 5 users; Grow — $169/month, 4 products, 20 users; Pro — $389/month, 10 products, 50 users. Custom pricing for Enterprise.

Gantt charts

TeamGantt

• Create collaborative Gantt charts
• Upload documents
• Have conversations related to tasks
• See the tasks assigned to each team members and the number of tasks assigned for each day
• Pricing: Free — 1 project, 3 users; Standard ($7.90 per user/month)— unlimited projects, custom templates, project history, minimum of 5 users; Advanced($12.45 per user/month) — unlimited projects, time tracking, hourly estimation, minimum of 5 users.

Alternatives

• Smartsheet. It offers collaboration and file sharing. Customize the Gantt chart to highlight tasks and status with different colors. Integrates with a number of apps. Invite an unlimited number of free collaborators who can edit and participate but not create sheets. Pricing: Individual — $14 per user/month; Team — $15 per user/month; Business — $25 per user/month. Custom pricing for Enterprise
• Gantt. Different workspace for personal and team projects. Resource management and cost estimation. Add comments and attachments. Export Gantt charts in XLSX, PNG, PDF or iCal format. Pricing: Essential — $15/month, 1 user, 3 active projects, 1GB storage; Team — $39/month (5 users, 5GB storage), $65/month (15 users, 15 GB storage), $89/month (25 users, 25 GB storage). Custom pricing for the enterprise.
• Celoxis. Available as a web-based SaaS tool or as on-site deployment. Manage multiple projects and inter-project dependency. Task worksheet mode allows multiple in-line edits in one go. Pricing: SaaS — $25 per user/month with 2GB/user/month of shared disk space; On-premise — $450 per/month, major & minor upgrades, free support for 1st year.