If you need to manage complex work projects, spreadsheets alone probably won’t cut it.
You likely need dedicated project management software.
For a few reasons:
- Spreadsheets can quickly become overwhelming and difficult to navigate when they’re filled with complex project info (dozens of tasks, for instance).
- Spreadsheets aren’t very fun to use. Most people hate spending time in black and whites spreadsheets. On top of that, many professionals don’t know how to use them fully.
- Spreadsheets require a lot of manual maintenance and updating.
These are a few of the reasons that many companies choose to use project management software.
Good project management software:
- Will store and organize project data.
- Is easy for anyone on your team to use.
- Provides more functionality than a spreadsheet, like notifications when tasks are completed, filters, labels, and project attachments.
- Makes it easier to access and update project info.
And more.
In this article, we cover the best project management softwares in 2022. You’ll get a head-to-head comparison of these apps and an inside look at the softwares’ appearance and functionality.
We cover 7 project management softwares:
- Motion
- Monday
- Asana
- ClickUp
- Smartsheet
- Trello
- Basecamp
Let’s get started.
Motion (Best project management software for team productivity and innovation)
On this list of project management softwares, Motion stands apart. It’s the only project management software on the list that uses artificial intelligence and automation to individual create plans for users’ days.
As with most project management softwares, once you add a project in Motion, you can organize and maintain the entire project. You can add tasks and subtasks, assignees, labels, attachments, notes, comments.
But then the real magic happens. Motion builds a work schedule for each person on your team, prioritizing work by what’s most urgent and important. If a user’s schedule changes — let’s say an urgent meeting or task pops up — Motion will rebuild their schedule.
With Motion’s AI task prioritization, users won’t need to wonder what they should work on next. Important work won’t slip through the cracks. And users won’t incorrectly prioritize work.
Related: Why Traditional Time Blocking Methods Don’t Work
It also alleviates the stress of worrying if you’re forgetting about important work, as Motion will place most important work on your schedule first and will alert you of missed deadlines and deadlines you’re at risk of missing.
On top of that, Motion will also block time on your team’s calendars to do work, and it will even schedule meetings, replacing scheduling tools like Calendly.
One way Motion really stands apart from other project management softwares is its focus on increasing team productivity with features like:
- Blocking time on users’ calendars to do tasks
- Scheduling more back-to-back meetings, so users aren’t constantly interrupted from work by meetings scattered throughout the day.
- Prioritizing users’ work by what’s most urgent and important.
- Rebuilding users’ daily to-do list and schedule when their plans shift.
- Keeping track of employees’ total work and meeting hours, so teams can quickly see if an employee has too many tasks assigned to them or too many meetings.
Teams have found that Motion actually helps them finish work 2 hours faster each day.
Related: The To-Do List Is Dead. There’s a Better Way to Plan Your Day and It Can Triple Your Productivity
Strengths and weaknesses
Motion’s strength lies in increasing productivity and removing much of the manual work that goes with most project management software by automatically building users’ schedules and time blocking on their calendars.
Motion’s weakness is that it doesn’t have many integrations with other softwares. However, it integrates with Zapier, which allows users to connect most apps to the platform.
Features
Motion includes these features (and more):
- To-do lists
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Recurring tasks
- Estimated task duration
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task auto scheduling
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Deadline types — soft deadline, hard deadline, no deadline
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Meeting scheduling
- AI schedule builder
- AI time blocking
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Guest users and collaborators
- Mobile app
A sneak peek of the project management software
To see Motion in action and learn more, check out this tutorial video:
Monday (highly customizable project management software with numerous features and products)
Monday, often referred to as Monday.com, is a project management software with a robust feature set.
Teams can manage their projects and work in Monday.com, using Monday’s project management boards. Users can also see their own work by visiting the “My Work” tab.
Monday.com is a step up from using spreadsheets for project management, as it’s easier to use for most people and more visually appealing than a spreadsheet.
Strengths and weaknesses
Monday.com offers many different ways to view work projects — including table views, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and a timeline view. It’s also highly customizable, which can be great for very large teams with complex work structures. The company also offers a sales CRM product.
As far as weaknesses, Monday.com is a bit confusing and overwhelming to get started with, and you must manually update your deadlines, tasks, and projects. It doesn’t offer AI schedule building, time blocking, or calendar management, like Motion does.
Features
Monday.com’s project management software features include:
- To-do lists
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Recurring tasks
- Estimated task duration
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Mobile app
A sneak peek of the project management software
You can get an inside look at Monday and see how it works by watching this short video:
Asana (easy to use project management software that does everything a traditional project management software should do)
Asana is one of the largest and most established project management software companies on the market.
It’s a great project management software for large teams to collaborate on complex work.
Strengths and weaknesses
Asana makes it easy to invite and work with people outside your company on projects within Asana. The platform is also easy to use and the user interface is attractive.
Asana, as with almost all project management platforms, doesn’t have features built in to increase team productivity and requires users to manually prioritize their work and build their daily schedules.
Features
Asana’s project management software features include:
- To-do lists
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Recurring tasks
- Estimated task duration
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Mobile app
- Guest users and collaborators
A sneak peek of the project management software
Watch this 1:44-minute video to get an inside look at project management with Asana and how to get started with the project management software:
ClickUp (A modern project management software with numerous features)
ClickUp is a newer, yet popular, project management software with another great user interface.
It has more features than practically every other project management tool on the market and claims to be one tool to replace them all.
Strengths and weaknesses
ClickUp’s strengths are in its many features and gorgeous user interface.
However, because it adds features so quickly, users frequently complain they deal with bugs. It also is simply a data repository for work.
Features
ClickUp’s project management features include:
- To-do lists
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Recurring tasks
- Estimated task duration
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Mobile app
- Guest users and collaborators
A sneak peek of the project management software
Watch this video to get an inside look at project management for beginners with ClickUp.
Smartsheet (Popular project management software with dozens of templates to easily get started)
Smartsheet is an established project management software with a 30-day free trial. It offers numerous templates to make it easier to get started.
Strengths and weaknesses
As mentioned above, Smartsheet offers dozens of project templates with pre-populated info. This gives users a starting place and makes it easier to get started.
However, Smartsheet’s weakness is its user interface, which feels outdated and very similar to using a spreadsheet.
Features
Smartsheet’s project management features include:
- To-do lists
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Recurring tasks
- Estimated task duration
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Mobile app
- Guest users and collaborators
A sneak peek of the project management software
View this video to get a 2:16-minute introduction to Smartsheet:
Trello (A project management software that shows work in visually-appealing boards)
Trello is a project management software that allows you to create nice-looking boards that visually display work and projects.
On G2, Trello describes themselves as “a visual collaboration tool that creates a shared perspective for your team on any project in a fun, flexible, and rewarding way.”
Strengths and weaknesses
For visual learners and creative people, Trello stands apart as a platform focused on displaying work in visual boards.
Trello’s user interface, however, feels slightly outdated, and the software doesn’t have as many features as some project management platforms on this list.
Features
Trello’s project management features include:
- To-do lists / cards
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Recurring tasks
- Estimated task duration
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Mobile app
A sneak peek of the project management software
Check out this getting started video to get an intro into what makes Trello unique.
Basecamp (easiest to use project management software)
Basecamp is a software for teams to collaborate and manage projects. It includes to-do lists, a message board, docs and files, and more.
Strengths and weaknesses
Basecamp is easy to use and the user interface feels approachable, not overwhelming.
However, Basecamp has fewer features than many other project management softwares on the market.
Features
Trello’s features include:
- To-do lists
- Tasks
- Subtasks
- Task assignees
- Task statuses — i.e., Not started, In review, Completed
- Task and project comments
- Task and project notes and attachments
- Task reminders
- Task and project priority levels
- Projects
- Project assignees
- Labels
- Filters
- Views
- Workspaces
- Calendar view
- Calendar sync
- Team workspaces
- Team projects
- Project templates
- Mobile app
A sneak peek of the project management software
Watch this video to see a short introduction that shows how Basecamp works.
Which project management software is best?
After trying these project management softwares one after another, they all started to feel the same.
Sure, each platform has small differences. But any of these top project management softwares will likely work for your company.
With one exception, Motion is the only project management platform on this list that focuses on increasing team productivity. It’s the only software that automates work by using AI to automatically build user’s schedules and by applying productivity hacks to their days.
So, if your team is struggling with productivity, you should give Motion a try. It will organize projects and increase team productivity.
