If you are a part of a startup like us, you already know the difficulties of how to get things done on time. Where the project management softwar...

If you are a part of a startup like us, you already know the difficulties of how to get things done on time. Where the project management software comes in with the handful solution.

Budget is always the primary concern for us due to lack of resources. And so, we had to find out the best project management tools to meet and greet our work done within time.

Nowadays, in the ocean of the internet, there is a ton of task management software. If you dive in to find out the suitable one, then it will take a lot of your time.

To make things easier, here we brought out the best-suited project management software for startups as well as for enterprise businesses.

In this article, we will discuss the 10 Best Project Management Software for startups that you should try for your startup.

Read also: 10 Best Team Collaboration Software Tools

What is Project Management Methodology?

As a project manager, before picking a project management software, choosing a project management methodologies is one of the first decisions you need to make. Because your selection of methodology defines how you work and communicate with your team members.

What methodology you choose entirely depends on how you prefer to work with your team. Different project management methodologies have their own way of work also differ from project types.

let's get to know about some project management methodologies,

Waterfall methodology is the oldest methodology but still of use for simple projects with clear and fixed requirements. It divides your work into discrete stages but the problem is if you find any error or want to change something then you have to start the project from the beginning.

Agile methodology comes to fix the failure of the Waterfall method for managing complex projects. It is entirely the opposite of Waterfall as there are no fixed stages to focus on the requirement. The agile methodology gives you flexibility from every aspect of your project work.

Hybrid methodology is the combination of Waterfall and Agile. Thus the best part of Waterfall and Agile makes the structure of Hybrid methodology. For fixed-budget projects, Hybrid offers greater flexibility.

Kanban is a concept that was developed on the production line of Toyota factories in 1940. It is a visual working method of workflow processes. There is no set of rules in it. All it is, 'To-Do, Doing, and Done.'

Scrum and Kanban are both kinds of the same as their base is Agile methodology. It is best suited for a small team with a lot of experience. Scrum allows you to set priorities according to your capabilities while doing any intricate project.

What is Project Management Software?

To start a project with project management software, it is required to know what project management software is? In short, it is a managing tool for systematizing and regulating the budget and time for a particular project that increases efficiency. The best thing is that it keeps your team organized and on schedule. 

Many small and medium-sized businesses are now using online project management software as this type of software is mostly based on cloud-based technology. However, many preferred WordPress project management plugins also. 

However, It has become an essential tool with advanced reporting, alerts and notifies, task management, collaboration, and communication between team members, document sharing, and most importantly, a project plan.

Why Project Management Software Is Important for Your Startup?

It is often challenging to deliver a project on time within budget and deadline except for proper documentation. Moreover, a team must write down all the information to keep them all organized as they can't merely rely on human memory always.

When your team needs to become serious about managing projects, the best solution is to use online project management software. There is a common saying that; do not overdo it, rather than improve the way of work. A web-based project management software is that improved way of work.

Since the growth of a startup mainly depends on its efficiency, where project management software is undoubtedly important to them for maximizing the working output! Indeed it's a cure if considered. Also, If a project is managed adequately with project management software, it puts a positive impact on the overall working process as well as team mentality.

Research says that due to poor task management, 122$ million is wasted for every $1 billion invested in the US. Don't you think if these are taken care of with a project management tool, the investment can be worth it as before?

Here I am providing some of the core reasons why project management software is vital for a startup,

  • Precisely defines the plan of the project before the project begins..
  • Help to maintain proper scheduling.
  • Creates a base for teamwork.
  • Ensure the efficient use of resources.
  • Budget management.

And many more…

There are several open-source project management software in the market to choose from based on your business requirements. Most of them are paid through free project management software is also available.

Despite all this, no project management software offers one complete solution. Yet, every team has different workflows, resources, team members, demands that differ from one startup to the next.

Then, which one is for you?

Before seeing the details let's check the information table at a glance,

Rating from: https://www.getapp.com/project-management-planning-software/

Trello

At now, Trello is the most widely used online project management software in the market, with more than 1.1 million active users. The best thing is that Trello offers completely free plans for the newcomer also custom plans (depending on the number of users) with a minimum rate. 

Trello is so straightforward that you didn't require any learning curve like the others. With the kanban board feature, it makes the workflow visualization immensely easy for you. You can also track the work progress as well as the quick drag and drop ability of the task.

For a startup, Trello is a golden shot as it offers the most suitable plans with most of their exclusive features. Therefore, unlimited users and unlimited board is a big deal for any startup.

Key Features of Trello

  • Completely free platform.
  • Customization option for task cart with additional action.
  • Easy drag and drop approach.
  • Provide calendar view.
  • Commenting option with the task.
  • Quick checklist management task.
  • Provides reminders with email notification.

Major Drawbacks of Trello

  • Gantt Chart view of task not available.
  • No time tracking facility for the task.

Trello: Best Free Project Management Software

Trello is completely free; however, it is best for a new startup, agencies who would like to use a single software for multiple applications. For instance, event planning, HR, and more.

Pricing

Free: Basic planning and most suitable for a small startup.
Professional: $9.00 monthly per user.
Enterprise: Customized plan. Depends on a number of users.

nTask

Although nTask is new in the online project management software market, it creates a separate way of interest with its free and time-consuming service. nTask is an overall all-in-one package for any business.

The native module of nTask is specially equipped with all the best features that your business needs. Therefore, tracking and resolving issues as well as nTask risk management strategy lets you smartly deal with your project task smoothly.

Whether, you are a freelancer, part of a startup, or running a big corporation; nTask is easily adapted to those criteria that your business has. Speaking of simplicity, nTask Gantt charts are no exception as well.

Key Features of nTask

  • Provides elaborate task management features.
  • Track your project progress built-in Gantt chart.
  • Help you to identify potential risks through nTask risk matrix.
  • Provides task complete percentage with a self-generating progress meter.
  • Gives you individual task status according to date and priority.
  • Export task details from external sources.
  • From the activity log, view task history. 

Major Drawbacks of nTask

  • It doesn't provide sub-task facility.
  • Doesn't provide real-time team chat.

nTask: All In One Package Project Management Tool

Though nTask is new in the market, yet it is suitable for a startup as well as a business corporation for it's free all-in-one tool and a wide range of features.

Pricing

Free trial: For 14 days.
Basic: Free forever.
Premium: $2.99 monthly per user if billed annually.
Business: $7.99 monthly per user if billed annually.
Enterprise: Call sales.

Teamly

Teamly is a comprehensive project management tool tailored for startups and growing teams. With a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features, Teamly empowers businesses to manage projects, tasks, and communications seamlessly.

Its advanced reporting and analytics capabilities provide valuable insights into team performance, facilitating continuous improvement.

Designed with startups in mind, Teamly offers flexible pricing options to cater to various business needs. Its core features streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, and help teams achieve their goals efficiently.

Key Features of Active Collab

  • Project and task management
  • Time tracking and reporting
  • Collaboration tools, including file sharing and team chat
  • Customizable dashboards

Major Drawbacks of Active Collab

  • No Gantt chart view
  • Limited integrations with third-party apps

Teamly: Startup-Friendly Project Management Tool

Teamly is perfect for startups seeking a powerful yet easy-to-use project management solution. Its core features and flexible pricing options make it an attractive choice for growing businesses.

Pricing

Basic: Free, with limited features suitable for small teams
Standard: $5 per user/month (billed annually)
Premium: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Active Collab

Active Collab is another powerful and flexible usability affluent online project management software in recent times. It has gained a vast reliance on numerous academic institutions and government organizations.

With plenty of helpful add-ons, it is one of the best solutions for all your projects that can help to increase internal collaboration as well. Active Collab also offers you an easy task assigned to the team member, get a detailed overview of each project most importantly issues invoices to the clients.

For any startup and business team in general, Active Collab is a perfect tool for organizing their workflow from the first day of your work. It is highly recommended.

Key Features of Active Collab

  • Provides the option to choose members to assign work, adding reminders and file share.
  • Time record for task monitoring.
  • Live update feature with feedback.
  • Organize your task with within dates and levels.
  • Track the work hour with a stopwatch.
  • Automatically sync the calendar with specific task.
  • Report generated for the finished task.

Major Drawbacks of Active Collab

  • Doesn't provide a check-in check-out feature.
  • Lengthy project tag changing process.

Active Collab: Teamwork Focused Project Management Software

Active Collab is best for small teams with less task project management. However, it is mainly designed for increasing internal collaboration with team members for any startup.

Pricing

Free: Free trial for 30 days.
Monthly Billing: $7 monthly per user.
Annual Billing: $6.25 monthly per user. 


Asana

Asana is the most commonly used free project management software in the market. The main benefit that makes Asana different from others is that you don't need to use email for managing your tasks or projects.

It is mainly an agile project management software implemented with effective agile methodologies like backlog management. You can easily collaborate with another with the hand through comments. Besides this, my task list helps you focus on more urgent tasks. 

If your agencies are in a busy schedule with simultaneous project works, then Asana is the best option for any web-based project management team. Also, check Asana Integration with Timedoctor for seamless project management.

Read also: 10 Best Asana Alternative Project Management Software

Key Features of Asana

  • Provides task and sub-task management.
  • Project timeline for maintains deadline.
  • Provides Kanban support.
  • Notification with reminder.
  • Real-time project and task updates.
  • Like' tasks and activities through 'hearts'.
  • Activity feed for update workflow. 

Major Drawbacks of Asana

  • Task status option is limited.
  • No built-in meeting management.

Asana: One Man Army of Project Management Tool

If you need a project manager that can do ten men work alone, then Asana is for you. It is best for first-growing startups and agencies with a small team.

Pricing

Free: Basic feature. Up to 10 users.
Premium: For 30+ users. $9.99 monthly per user if billed annually. Otherwise $11.99. Free trial available.
Business: Everything in Premium and more. $19.99 monthly per user if billed annually. Otherwise $23.99.
Enterprise: Customized plan.

Clickup

Clickup comes with attractive options to reduce the budget-related dilemma for any business. However, money is a fact of worry for any startup as they are always looking for a great deal with limited expenditure.

A wide range of compelling features of Clickup can reduce your workload as well as increases efficiency. You can export-import any actual work also turn a comment into a task.

Clickup is free for unlimited users, but you only get 100MB of storage with it. For a fast-growing startup, they also offer a custom plan with unlimited everything.

Key Features of ClickUp

  • Online process and multi-task management.
  • Complete customizable facility.
  • Time scheduling feature.
  • Turn comments into task.
  • Supports kanban, Agile and Scrum.
  • Provides workflow automation.
  • Data import and export available. 

Major Drawbacks of ClickUp

  • Lack of task dependencies.
  • Limited reporting and integration issues.

ClickUp: True Cost Efficient Project Management Software

ClickUp is best for a small startup with low-budget integration but offers the best features. The cost is meager concerning others.

Pricing

Free: Unlimited users with 100MB storage.
Unlimited: Unlimited everything. $5 monthly per user if billed annually. Otherwise $9. Free trial available.

Nifty 

Nifty centralizes all assets of project communication, planning, and tracking with a bird's-eye view across all of your projects and team workloads. Nifty is utilized by small and large teams in the creative industry with great customer satisfaction.

With well-developed features such as cross-organizational reporting, team member workloads, custom chat software, build-n Docs & Files, project Milestones, this tool offers the project management scalability and organizational structure.

Nifty is Free for three users with two projects; however, you will get three more premium plans along with 14 days of a free trial.

Key Features of Nifty 

  • Automated project status reporting based on task completion
  • Built-in Google Docs, Sheets, and Presentations
  • Built-in time tracker to track billable work across members, tasks, and projects
  • Client collaboration
  • Task list and Kanban view
  • Project milestone tracking
  • Team Chat Messaging
  • Project Discussions
  • Desktop and mobile apps 

Major Drawbacks of Nifty

Limited third-party tool integration.

Nifty: A centralized Project Management Software

Product and creative teams that want to centralize their projects into one collaborative workspace and automate their workflows.

Pricing

Free: 3 users, 2 projects, 1 GB / user
Standard: $10 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $8 with 14 days free trial.
Premium: $15 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $12 with 14 days free trial.
Enterprise: on demand

Basecamp

Basecamp is a classic and rich-featured web-based project management software trusted by millions of users. It is mainly focused on enterprise businesses, but for the fast-growing startup, Basecamp could be a prime choice.

It combines all the project tasks and features that give the employees everything they need to collaborate and get the job done. Basecamp is also an excellent tool for remote employees. Based on your work summary, it automatically generates reports.

Instead of the various payment plan, Basecamp offers just one ultimate professional pricing plan that contains everything you need. In a word, it provides unlimited.

Key Features of Basecamp

  • Provides to do list for task management.
  • Set task priority with time.
  • File sharing and storage. 
  • Provide team discussion facility. 
  • Interactive Gantt-Chart for project management. 
  • Workflow tracking report.
  • Third-party app integration.  

Major Drawbacks of Basecamp

  • No built-in time tracking methods.
  • No customization options.

Basecamp: Best Hassle Free Project Management Tool

Basecamp is an all-in-one package for small agencies and startups that has repeatable projects with everyday users. It's undoubtedly the best choice to make.

Pricing

Free: 30 days free trial.
Professional: Unlimited everything. $99 monthly with 500GB file storage.

Teamwork

As it is named, Teamwork is the best online project management software focusing on Teamwork and collaboration. You can get the user collaboration tool with the built-in analytics tool anywhere except Teamwork.

Teamwork provides a very user-friendly and eye-catching interface design with some impressive tier of features. You can assign tasks and monitor them via mail; although, the email integration of Teamwork is quite different from others.

Whether you work with a small team or a large team, Teamwork is adapted to any workspace. The Gantt view always keeps you on schedule.

Key Features of Teamwork

  • Multiple tasking available with sub-task facility.
  • Provides built-in task management.
  • Easily import from excel.
  • Set priority status with reminder and notification.
  • Gantt chart for task scheduling.
  • Provides time tracking for counting time on a particular task.
  • Filter and tags for organizing task. 

Major Drawbacks of Teamwork

  • Doesn't provide an issue tracking report.
  • No import facility.

Teamwork: Usain Bolt of Project Management Software

Teamwork provides free plans for the startup, but it is the best option for experienced businesses who are mainly concerned about speed.

Pricing

Free: For 5 user with 100MB file space.
Pro: Upto 50 users. $9 monthly per user with 100GB file space.
Premium: Upto 100 users. $15 monthly per user with 250GB file space.
Enterprise: Customized plan.

Teamgantt

Teamgantt is another free project management software focussing on small businesses. It comes with the best visual tracking workflow with its unique and satisfactory chart view.

Teamwork primarily works on creating Gantt charts; therefore, the tables are highly organized and come with numerous features like progress statuses in terms of percentage. Teamwork also provides drag and drop scheduling with time-tracking task workflow.

A handy app is additionally available for the smartphone user as you access it from anywhere and anytime from Teamwork cloud storage. These increase the efficiency and workability of any startup.

Key Features of Teamgantt

  • Provides task and sub-task management.
  • Drag and drop scheduling available.
  • Planned vs actual timeline comparison.
  • Provide built-in project templates.
  • Time tracking for task workflow.
  • Sticky note for task.
  • Print project timeline PDF. 

Major Drawbacks of Teamgantt

  • Limited third-party tool integration.
  • No in-app notification.

Teamgantt: The Beginners Choice Project Management Software

Teamgantt Is the Best project management tool for the beginning level startup and business for its drag and drop simplicity.

Pricing

Free: For 3 users.
Standard Team: For 5 users. $39.50 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $49.75. Price increases with the number of users.
Advanced Team: For 5 users. $62.25 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $74.75. Price increases with the number of users.

Freedcamp

Very few project management software free version offers their extensive features; here, Freedcamp is completely different from the others. You will get every best feature of Freedcamp in the free version; hence, it has become so popular now.

Freedcamp comes with stable functionalities with ease of use facilities. Features like commercial user app, instant issue tracking with the tracker, task list, invoice management, and project templates increase its value among the users

Although Freedcamp free version offers unlimited users with the unlimited project, you also get a wide range of enterprise solutions at a very minimalistic cost.

Key Features of Freedcamp

  • Easy file share management.
  • Tracker for detecting bugs and issues.
  • Google integrated calendar.
  • Task as well as sub-task management.
  • Provide a task list.
  • Available kanban board and good-looking Gantt chart.
  • Discussion board available for centralized discussion. 

Major Drawbacks of Freedcamp

  • It doesn't provide a custom workflow.
  • No customization options for task status.

Freedcamp: Best Alternative of Trello Project Management

Freedcamp provides basic freemium for unlimited projects and users, that's why it can be a prime choice for low-budget startups after Trello.

Pricing

Free: Unlimited project and user.
Minimalist: $1.49 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $2.49 with 14 days free trial.
Freelancer: $3.49 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $4.99 with 14 days free trial.
Business: $7.49 monthly per user if billed annually otherwise $8.99 with 14 days free trial.
Enterprise: $16.99 monthly per user if billed annually with a custom feature.

 
Honorable Mention

Jira

Although Jira is mainly focused on enterprise businesses with a lot of effective features if you are daring enough to try something new for your startup then Jira can be your next project management software.

It is considered to be the number one software development tool chosen by Agile teams. Jira gives us all the right reasons to include it in our blog; thus, It allows software teams to use workflow mapping, along with multiple other Agile development functionalities.

Key Features of Jira

  • Customized Scrum boards.
  • Provides Kanban boards for identifying the progress of tasks.
  • Customizable project dashboard.
  • Road-maps for planning the project's work.
  • Powerful bug and issue tracker.
  • Customizable workflows.
  • Custom search filters to view what's important.
  • Numerous Agile reports for tracking performance.

Major Drawbacks of Jira

  • Does Not optimal for small businesses.
  • Complicated for first-time users.

Pricing

Free: Free for 7 days.
Paid Plan: Start from $10 monthly per user, which is increased with the number of users.

Conclusion

So, this is the list of best project management tools for startups. Which one do you use or decided to use from the above list? Let me know in the comment section below. Also, if you have any better options except those then be sure to share with us. We always value your needs and opinions.