Project Management Software: Which One is Best for Your Digital Agency?

According to Techopedia, the main purpose of project management software is to “facilitate the planning and tracking of project components, stakeholders and resources.” Project management software is also there to help you streamline, and potentially even automate, some of your processes. Before looking into getting a project management tool for your marketing or digital agency, it’s important to first think about a few things:

• What business goals are you trying to achieve?
• Have you thought about both short-term and long-term levers for success?
• Do you have the time, resources, and plan to implement a new program?
• What features matter the most to you?

Some of those questions are easily solved. For example, you could hire a professional virtual assistant or project manager with experience in project management software to implement it for your company. Scaling and growing your business requires time and investment, and there’s no shame in asking for help if you need it.

However, before you even get to this step, you’ll need to decide which of the many project management software options will work best for you and your business. Here’s a brief overview of some of the most-used programs, with an overall ranking based on two areas: key features and cost.

Recommendations will be given on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being it’s good software for a very specific use case, and 5 is overall highly recommended. For consistency, only the free programs are going to be compared.

Asana

Asana’s focus is on building project plans, coordinating tasks, and hitting deadlines. Their solutions support this overarching theme.

Features

• List, board, and calendar views – these are the core ways to view the information you pull into Asana. Lists are centralized to-do lists, boards let you organize the items in your list by status (e.g. completed, waiting on client, etc.), and calendar views allow you to view your items on a calendar to better understand your overarching workload visually.
• Unlimited tasks and projects – tasks are individualized items on your to-do list, and projects can be shared at the list or board level.
• Unlimited storage – this is a great feature to ensure you can continue to manage all your work on the platform without worrying about running out of room.

Cost

This program is free for individuals or teams who are just getting started with project management. Packages with additional features are available for $10.99 or $24.99 per user per month.

Rating

Asana gets a 5/5. You get a lot with their free package, which is especially helpful for small business owners. They also have a helpful website with lots of resources on how to best utilize their tool, which would make it easy to get it up and running.

ClickUp

The ClickUp team wants you to see their product as a one-stop shop for all your needs. They support everything from tasks, docs, chat, goals, and more.

Features

• Collaborative docs – docs go beyond just a sharable file. You can use the docs functionality to create an internal wiki, and even nest pages within different topics so your documents stay organized. You can also connect your docs directly into your workflows.
• Whiteboards – the virtual whiteboard feature allows you to collaborate and brainstorm with the same flexibility you’d have if you were working with whiteboards in person.
• Email – an email add-on is available so you can create tasks and add them directly to your workflow.

Cost

The basic level is free, but it is recommended for personal use only. That being said you can have an unlimited number of members associated with the account. Their other options are still cost-effective though, ranging from only $5 to $19 per user per month.

Rating

ClickUp gets a 4/5. There are a lot of decent features available in the free basic level, but if you want further insights through dashboards or unlimited storage, you’ll have to pay for a package.

Notion

Notion seems to pride itself on being customizable to allow you to best plan, track, and complete your work in one place.

Features

• Unlimited blocks – Blocks are any piece of content you add to the page, such as a to-do list or a paragraph. You can use as many of these as you need with their free plan.
• Drag and drop – Customize your page by dragging and dropping different features to make a workflow that suits your team’s unique needs.
• Real-time updates – The content you manage in Notion will update across all platforms – both web and app – in real-time so you can keep track of your business wherever you are.

Cost

The basic level is free, but it is recommended for personal use only. The recommended team package is $8 per user per month.

Rating

Notion gets a 3/5. There aren’t a lot of features available, even in the package you pay for. To make the most of this tool, you may want to consider hiring a virtual assistant to help you set up and manage this tool.

Trello

Trello has different boards for different projects. This board approach to project management allows you to keep track of tasks, especially when there’s collaboration involved.

Features

• 10 boards per workspace – while your number of boards is limited, you get an unlimited amount of “Power-Ups,” or integrations, with each board.
• Unlimited cards – in other words, you have an unlimited number of tasks you can add to your boards.
• Automations – automations are included in every plan and allow you to save time by automating tasks. For example, every time you move a card, it could automatically add a teammate to the task.

Cost

The basic level is free, for individuals and teams. Packages with additional offerings range from only $5 to $17.50 per user per month.

Rating

Trello gets a 5/5. So much content is available with their free plan, and not many other companies offer automations without an additional cost.

JIRA

JIRA is your classic Kanban-style project management system, where you can check the status of each individual task at any time.

Features

• Customized workflows – Since each team works differently, you can have customized statuses for each part of the project. Is a task ‘in progress’? Move it into that column. Is the task being blocked because you’re waiting for marketing approval? Move it to the ‘On hold’ column.
• Roadmaps – The roadmap tool allows you to create big picture plans for your team and see how your projects are tracking against these goals.
• Backlog – There is a dedicated space to keep upcoming to-do list items that haven’t been prioritized yet or aren’t ready to be actioned on at this time.

Cost

The basic level is free for up to 10 users. Packages with additional offerings range from around $7.50 to $14.50 per user per month.

Rating

JIRA gets a 3/5 because it seems to have a more specific use case. It would likely be best suited to teams who work in sprints or product development.

Airtable

Airtable is all about creating connections through apps that connect your data, workflow, and teams to create a single source of truth.

Features

• Click-to-add apps – There are over 50 apps that help make your workflow easier and more productive. Apps range from Loom for video recording, to Pexels, which gives you access to free stock photos.
• Revision history – This feature allows you to go back and see what changes were made and when. This is especially helpful if you have to backtrack on a project at all because you’re able to restore a past version without starting from scratch.
• View options – You have multiple options for how to view your work such as grid, calendar, form, Kanban, and gallery views.

Cost

The basic level is free for up to 5 users. Packages with additional offerings are available for a free trial, but the actual prices are not listed on their website.

Rating

Airtable gets a 4/5 only because the free plan comes with just one app. The largest selling point of Airtable seems to be its apps, so it would be nice to have some additional access to explore those with the free version.

Final Thoughts

There are so many free options to help get your marketing or digital agency started in better organizing and optimizing the workflows on your team and in your business. Be sure to consider how each tool would help your unique business scale. If you’re still feeling unsure of which one to implement or where to start, remember you can always take the money you save from paying for an expensive solution and hire someone like a virtual assistant or virtual project manager to help you find and implement the right project management tool.