How project management software can help you with productivity woes

If your organization needs to have a strong way of managing customer relations, LiquidPlanner is a stellar option. It tracks issues you or your customers are having so you can collect and act on their questions. There’s also a dynamic reporting system built in, and you can integrate with Zapier as well as cloud storage programs. And the platform is flexible for your needs: if you assign a task to a person, the program automatically takes that into account when estimating timing for deliverables. You can try any of their tiers for free for two weeks, but there is no indefinite free tier. Of all the software we reviewed, it’s not the easiest to understand. So a large corporation that can bake in lots of training would be the best group to use it effectively.

If you loved getting into all the nooks and crannies of what an Excel sheet could do for you, you’ll enjoy using SmartSheet. You can customize their spreadsheets to fit any type of team or process. But along with this comes a steep learning curve, and it’s not as user-friendly as say, Trello. If you’re a larger company that already worked a lot in Excel, you’d be the target user. There’s a 30-day free trial that has user and data limits. Prices begin at $19 per person per month for individuals, $32 per person per month for teams, plus Enterprise and Enterprise Premiere plans for larger teams. (Note that prices are upon request from the company.)

Zoho Projects gives you a ton of different features at a shockingly low price. You can organize projects based on the Kanban, or card-based, method. Need to make Gantt charts, do complex reporting, integrate it with all your apps like Zoho’s CRM? You can do it all starting at $20 a month. There is a free plan, but you can only have one project and upload 10 mb of data. If $20 is feeling steep to you, you can start a free 10-day trial and see if you like using it. Many companies will charge more for adding more users, but their $20 per month is a flat fee. Other cool features include built-in chat functions and time tracking.

If you already work with Gantt charts, GanttPRO will be a fun and functional way to do project management. If you don’t know what Gantt charts are, here’s a primer: the charts help project managers see all their tasks on a timeline. You can see when tasks are due and how much time they’ll take to complete. GanttPRO puts those charts as the main view when you log in, so you can get all that information in one place. You can get a free 15-day trial. Then, pricing is dependent on the size of the group using it, ranging from around $180-$1062 a year, with 25GB of storage. There’s no reporting, billing, or timing tools, so that’s a drawback. There are few integrations as well, when compared to other companies. But it’s a great option if you love Gantt charts.

Airtable can best be described as “Like Excel, but prettier.” If you know how to title, organize, and enter data into a basic Excel spreadsheet, you will find Airtable easy to use. Try one of their provided templates, like “event planning” or “advertising campaign,” or create your own project with a host of attractive colors. But where Airtable shines is its collaborative nature. You can invite collaborators to your databases and chat with them on each step of the project. Supervisors can assign tasks, plus they can “watch” their coworkers’ projects and get notified on their progress in real time. And you can view the projects in a calendar mode, a Kanban mode, or a gallery. And if you’re not up to speed on all its features, the application provides tons of tutorials. If you’re a stickler about how certain items look in Excel, you’ll find that some design features are missing, namely that text does not wrap in an attractive way. You’ll often find yourself having to click on your database entries to expand them and then view everything. But what’s important is Airtable appears to be listening: when customers repeatedly asked for the ability to export reports into charts and graphs, they added the feature for paid subscribers. Speaking of paying, there is a free version of Airtable that gives you 2GB of data. The Plus account gives you unlimited databases, with 5000 records per database. You get 5GB of storage and six months of revision history. The Pro plan is $24 per user per month with 50,000 records and 20GB of space.

If your company needs software that’s easy to understand and just works, Teamwork Projects is a great option. It’s an incredibly intuitive platform, and it’s simple to get a project up and running within minutes. A visually pleasing application that also has an array of features, you can customize the look and feel of the platform, receive tons of data that tells you about how team members are managing their time, billing, expense, and time tracking, and much more. If you’re used to using Gantt charts or Kanban style project management, Teamwork Projects has those options as well. And you can integrate the app with Zapier, BOX, and more. There’s a great free plan that gives you five people, two projects, and 100MB of data. You can’t use integrations, but for a small team you may be able to get away with a free plan. The Pro plan begins at $56.25 per month for five users with 100GB of storage with up to 50 people and 300 projects. Premium begins at $93.75 for five users, and can go up to 100 people, 600 projects, and 250GB of storage, with added integrations.

Trello is your best bet for project management with small businesses because it is inexpensive, has an easy learning curve, and its layout is super simple. It’s very visual, and easy to teach to someone who isn’t the best with computers. It’s based on the Kanban way of managing projects. Essentially, projects are placed on a digital card on vertical boards. So if you’re working with journalists, the boards may be “research phase,” “currently writing” and “to editor for approval.” The various people working on a project can comment on the cards and rearrange them as well.  If your organization is on a budget, there is a free option that gives you unlimited cards and boards, but the drawback is that you can only use one integration, like pulling your Trellos into a Google sheet, for example. The paid plan is only $9.99 a month, so that is still pretty affordable. One other caveat is that Trello lacks reporting, so if your organization is very numbers-heavy, it may not be the best for you. But overall, it’s a great option for a small business, or a less tech-heavy operation.