The best project man­age­ment apps

Project man­age­ment used to consist mainly of black­boards, sticky notes, project folders, and a load of office clutter. The internet has made sig­nif­i­cant changes to many aspects of work life, and project man­age­ment is no exception. These days, you can choose from a number of programs that simplify project work and workplace com­mu­ni­ca­tion, making every­thing tidier and easier. Most SaaS/PaaS-based internet platforms can be accessed and used from almost any device, which makes it much easier to work together in the office or from a distance.

Many project man­age­ment apps combine features from social networks with planning tools and project threads to cover the biggest number of tasks possible. The planning, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, personal chats, calendars, appoints, messages, surveys, emails, etc, often all take place entirely on the one platform. Most apps are suitable for large op­er­a­tions as well as smaller teams or even self-employed in­di­vid­u­als who want to organize them­selves better, as project planners, for example. While some providers prefer to keep their platforms tidy, other de­vel­op­ers would rather find in­no­v­a­tive solutions for day-to-day work.

Because project man­age­ment apps come in so many diverse forms, it’s often difficult to find the ap­pro­pri­ate platform for you and your team. There are also vari­a­tions in price: most offer a free version but these are usually limited to a certain period of time or have re­strict­ed func­tion­al­i­ty. So generally speaking, if you want to set up a project man­age­ment platform for your workplace, you should be ready to pay for it. Here, we’ll present five of the best apps for project planning.

The large selection of apps for Slack is partly re­spon­si­ble for the platform’s pop­u­lar­i­ty. Adding other project man­age­ment apps like Asana and Trello (which we’ll also talk about later) is helpful if you want to com­mu­ni­cate with your col­leagues via Slack but would rather run the actual project man­age­ment on another platform.

For teams that primarily just need a chat platform, Slack is also an excellent choice. In terms of range and func­tion­al­i­ty for work­groups and project teams, the apps that will be presented here later may be more suitable. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion on the other tools, however, doesn’t run as smoothly and elegantly as it does on Slack. Even the free version can be great for larger teams as well (up to 10 apps and backups of up to 10,000 messages), while other apps sometimes require payment for providing larger func­tion­al­i­ty or even being useful at all. So if you’re looking for a free com­mu­ni­ca­tion platform for your team, you’re in good hands with Slack.

Thanks to mobile apps (Android and iOS), you can also access Slack from out of the office, even if it’s a bit more cluttered and loses some func­tion­al­i­ty as a result of the smaller format. It works the same as other project man­age­ment platforms: mobile apps are meant to be used for support when out of the office and not relied on as primary software. Most project man­age­ment apps are clearly optimized for web browsers on a PC.

There are different packages available for the software: the “Standard” version of Slack is available for around 6 dollars per user/per month. In addition to unlimited apps, you also get the video con­fer­ence function, among others. The “Plus” version costs about twice as much, offers higher com­pli­ance, better data pro­tec­tion, and guar­an­teed service. Slack En­ter­prise Grid is aimed at large customers and makes Slack into a powerful workspace platform. Here, the price has to be ne­go­ti­at­ed directly with Slack.

The phi­los­o­phy of Asana is communal, open work. By default, all team members can edit all in­for­ma­tion and content in the projects and tasks. Of course, clear rules should be set for doing so, as user freedom can always lead to errors such as data loss due to poor com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The tool is ideal for less hi­er­ar­chi­cal teams that work openly with one another. Tra­di­tion­al work circles with clearly defined power struc­tures are poorly served by Asana.

In addition to its main web-based tool, Asana also offers apps for Android and iOS, though they’re rel­a­tive­ly rudi­men­ta­ry. With the mobile app, you can create and edit tasks, receive new personal messages, attach files, and gain access to your personal inbox. Without a doubt, though, Asana is optimized for browsers on the computer. Here, more ex­pe­ri­enced users of the tool can navigate with multiple keyboard shortcuts to work even more ef­fi­cient­ly with Asana.

The in­te­gra­tion of external tools is also com­mend­able. Various different micro-tools can be quickly and easily activated by Asana, including popular cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox, developer tools like GitHub, CMS like WordPress, and many others.

In regard to data pro­tec­tion, Asana is con­sid­ered secure. Regular server backups are intended to prevent data loss, and server hardware should be of the highest level. Ad­di­tion­al firewalls also improve user security. The same goes for Asana and for most SaaS/PaaS apps: with your cre­den­tials, unau­tho­rized people can easily gain access from anywhere. The user remains the main person re­spon­si­ble for their own data security and that of the company.

The free version of Asana can only ac­com­mo­date up to 15 team members and offers all of the basic functions. For around 6-10 dollars per user each month, this limit can be elim­i­nat­ed and lots of features such as dash­boards and the search function have their functions sig­nif­i­cant­ly increased. There’s one more version for large customers as well that comes with personal support and more data control. The price for this version must be ne­go­ti­at­ed directly with Asana.    

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, you can only activate a single power-up in the free version of Trello. This dra­mat­i­cal­ly limits the web tool’s range of functions. To be free of this limit, an upgrade to “Trello Business Class” for around 10 dollars per user and month is necessary. This version also boasts increased security for your data and an improved overview if you’re a member of multiple boards.

From the team page, you gain access to all important functions and a per­son­al­ized, scrol­lable daily feed that sum­ma­rizes the most important news and daily tasks for the team. The functions include chat rooms, designed for fast com­mu­ni­ca­tion, forums for sharing more extensive content, to-do lists and a calendar for struc­tured work, a media center, and automatic check-ins. Project pages are prac­ti­cal­ly identical to team pages.

Via the above nav­i­ga­tion list, you can send short messages to members (“Pings”). Like with social networks, you also have a no­ti­fi­ca­tions button (“Hey!”) that can be set up in­di­vid­u­al­ly, for example, if you want to de­ac­ti­vate no­ti­fi­ca­tions during your free time. “Activity” clearly sum­ma­rizes all past ac­tiv­i­ties in Basecamp within a timeline. This is the best way to see what happened during your absence.

Basecamp can only be tested for one month for free. It costs around 100 dollars per months or 1000 dollars per year (for an entire team). This model is very simple: you simply activate Basecamp and can create as many projects and teams as you want. You can also in­cor­po­rate any number of members into your Basecamp.

Com­pre­hen­sive chat functions and quick com­mu­ni­ca­tion between in­di­vid­ual people is sorely missing from Wrike. In its current form, the app is well suited for project man­age­ment, but an im­prove­ment in the com­mu­ni­ca­tion structure would help round out the program as a whole.

There are mobile apps available for Wrike (Android and iOS) that cover all of the important functions but are more difficult to handle than the main web tool. The same goes here as for the others: mobile apps should only be used as a sup­ple­ment, not primarily.

Wrike is only available for a 14-day free trial. It’s doubtful that this is enough time to fully test out the tool. The price of Wrike depends on team size: a team of up to 15 employees can use the app for around 350 dollars per month; a team with 15 to 50 employees, however, has to buy the more expensive business version. The cost for an operation with 30 people runs around 740 dollars per month. Companies with 50 employees or more need the complete en­ter­prise version, whose costs must be ne­go­ti­at­ed directly with Wrike.

In com­par­i­son with its com­pe­ti­tion, Wrike is an expensive platform for small teams as well as medium-sized op­er­a­tions. Smaller teams with up to 10 people can find cheaper apps with the com­pe­ti­tion that are also less complex. After all, many of Wrike’s features, such as analysis tools and workflow man­age­ment, only really become important with companies of a certain size.