Whether you run a small team or command an entire corporate, a work management system is crucial in the success of any project you tackle. Without it, everyone involved in the process will find it difficult to stay focused or keep things on track.

While it sounds like a hassle to make changes, a disorganized workspace causes your work to take longer to complete. Not to mention your output quality will be affected. Fortunately, many apps exist that helps you become more productive and achieve your goals.

Before hopping on the seven best management apps out there, it’s best to understand the importance of how they work first. 

What Is a Work Management Tool?

As the name implies, a management tool helps companies, organizations, teams, and individuals to streamline their workflow and complete projects faster. It comes in different forms, from basic spreadsheets to highly functional applications with various features.

What Makes a Good Management Tool?

Like most programs, not all software is created equal. Some perform better at certain aspects, while a select few dominate every category. Others are so bad they can even break your workflow.

That being said, here are several characteristics of a good management tool besides organization:

• Visualization – turns data into colorful graphs and charts that your team can view, easily remember, and understand as a whole.

• Prioritization – highlights the more important tasks to keep on track and complete entire processes as soon as possible.

• Easy-To-Use – allows you to immediately plan, set up, and prioritize tasks without giving you a headache.

• Customization – you should be able to organize tasks in a way that works for teams or boost an individual’s productivity. 

• Flexibility – the ability to adapt to your team or business’s ever-changing needs to help you keep up with the competition.

• Collaboration – enables your team members to work on similar goals and share insights to improve efficiency. 

• Accessible Customer Support – In the end, a tool is still a machine that is prone to breakdowns. A responsive support team helps you get back to work ASAP when a problem arises.  

Of course, different apps rock various features that give them an edge over one another. But for the most part, these are the seven key components you should look for.

Alright! Now that you know what to expect, it’s time to explore the best software that can help improve your workflow and increase productivity. 

Typically, this can get a bit confusing, thanks to thousands of tools available in the market. Don’t worry, though. We went the extra mile to do the research and filter out the bad ones. All you have to do is choose your best pick among the seven tools in this list.

Best Task Management Tools for Teams and Businesses

1. Dashup 

Haven’t heard the name before? No surprise since Dashup is one of the newest contenders in the market. But don’t let its age fool you. While still in an early stage, it offers one thing you can’t find in most task managers: the power to create.

You see, other apps only provide you a system with predetermined features to work on. It might seem convenient at first until you encounter the need for specific functionalities. You’ll eventually find yourself having to make compromises on the partial or final output. This can either delay or even break your project.

But you don’t have to stress about such things with Dashup. On the surface, it combines valuable features from popular apps while constantly adding innovations of its own. More specifically, this platform enables you to build a tool without coding experience. It grants you the freedom to install, remove, and customize functionalities.

How does it work? Add a task or feature by drag and dropping fields and labelling them. Let your ideas run wild to create the ultimate tool. With Dashup, you can develop a software that handles basic tasks like time tracking, note-taking, or progress reports. And once you master it, you can even create an enterprise-grade system that integrates effective solutions to your managerial problems. 

Best Features

• Seamless Automation: It helps reduce your workspace clutter by streamlining workflow through bulk emailing, invoice reminders, event planning, scheduling, onboarding, and more.

• Forms Creation: It easily lets you create inquiry forms, data forms, checkboxes, or add an autofill feature to communicate effectively with your audience.

• Simple Visuals: The platform’s user-friendly interface caters to beginners, while its neat design helps eliminate distractions that might affect team performance.

• VOIP Suite: You can enjoy better collaboration with an improved communications system that features an automatic dialer, recorder, call routing, conversation reports, etc.

• Shared/Private Access: You can control how much an individual sees into the project. Choose to share big updates to everyone or send sensitive project information to select team members.

• Exclusive Build-up: You can hire Dashup’s highly responsive team to create an app that functions in the way you envision it.

• Numerous Third-Party Integrations: Integrations with useful platforms like Cloud, Gmail, Google Sheets, and Zapier so you can utilize all the functionalities you need in one workspace.

What makes Dashup special is that it goes beyond functioning as a task manager. It lets you manage more extensive processes like lead pipeline, accounting, hiring and onboarding, communications, marketing, administrative tasks, etc.

Basically, you’ll be getting way more than what you paid for with Dashup in terms of management. The ability to create various solutions provides every reason for it to top this list.

Pros

• Allows you to build a project management suite without writing code.
• Easy-to-use with drag & drop interface.
• You can integrate various platforms into your system.
• Can perform basic and complex automation processes.
• You get to own a tool with features your competitors can't replicate

Cons

• Could use some optimization
• Can be overwhelming at first

Want to become more productive? Start your free trial of Dashup or schedule a personal demo today!

2. Trello

Trello is a household name in almost every industry. It is a colorful work management tool that lets you plan, organize, and prioritize tasks in a fun way.

It works with one simple principle in mind: to provide complete visibility on the objectives needed to complete a project. Workspaces of different sizes, from individual freelancers to medium-sized teams use Trello to get things done.

Using Trello is pretty simple, even for beginners. You simply add cards to your project board and move it along your to-do list with simple drag and drop action. You can customize the color of each card according to priority, write descriptions, and add deadlines. More importantly, Trello’s striking visuals make it easy to track important tasks and monitor your progress.

Meanwhile, Trello’s phenomenal take on simplicity is also its largest downside. Bigger projects will require tons of cards. Managing all these can get quite hectic and confusing.

That’s why it might not be suitable for massive companies. Other than that, Trello’s straightforward approach to task management makes it superior in increasing productivity.

Best Features

• Attractive Visuals
• Kanban Board
• Butler (Trello’s Automation Bot)
• Calendar View
• Task Management
• Custom Backgrounds
•  Advanced Checklists
• Collaborative Tasks

Pros

• Color-coding cards helps maintain focus.
• Has a mobile app to keep you on track anytime, anywhere.
• Easily communicate and collaborate with other team members.
•  User-friendly even to beginners.

Cons

• Limited storage
• Becomes less effective as the project becomes bigger.
• Limited automation capability

3. Asana

Developed by former Facebook executives, Asana is bound for success right from the start.

It is a widely popular task management tool that can take on medium-sized and massive projects. When creating a project, you can choose between the traditional list layout or a Kanban board setup. Companies appreciate its flexibility and attention to detail.

While there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ when talking about task management, Asana does the job well. You can use it to break down projects into tasks with achievable deadlines and milestones. Up to 15 people can collaborate in the app.

It also comes with fundamental features like progress tracking and report analytics. More importantly, it allows integration with platforms like Zapier, Slack, or CanVa so you can tackle more complex objectives in a single workspace.

As you might have realized already, Asana isn’t for the faint of heart. It is targeted at large companies taking on ambitious projects. The number of features can be pretty overwhelming for first-time users.

Plus, you probably won’t utilize most of those if you’re working solo or with a small team. Still, Asana’s versatility is something not many tools can replicate.

Best Features

• Loads of Management Features
• Collaborative Functions
• Many Integrations
• Team Chat
• Forms
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Progress Tracker
• Meeting Organizer

Pros

• Excellent communications system for keeping members up-to-date
• Break down of major goals into subtasks to make them easier to accomplish.
• Solid bug reporting system ensures concerns are rightfully addressed

Cons

• Lack of built-in time tracking function
• UI can be overwhelming for beginners
• Limited exporting capability

4. monday.com

Hate the word ‘Monday’ because it signifies the start of the workweek? Not anymore once you get to know monday.com.

This project management tool has undergone many changes to become the reliable platform many companies use today. Its user interface will remind you a lot of Excel’s spreadsheet, yet it functions more than that. Teams can use it to delegate tasks, organize files, and collaborate to nail deadlines.

With monday.com, you can streamline your workflow using automation, plan events, initiate campaigns, and communicate with your clients effectively. The app allows you to utilize various board types to meet specific project needs. And like most management tools, it connects you with other useful platforms for integration.

As impressive as it sounds, you might find monday.com lacking when it comes to creating roadmaps, quick note-taking, and archiving of projects on hold.

Best Features

• Diverse Board Options
• To-Do lists
• Task Planning
• Gantt Charts
• Multiple Views
• Solid Time Tracker
• Checklists

Pros

• Highly flexible with ample functions for task management
• Visuals are colorful enough yet they don’t hurt the eyes.
• Mobile app lets you get organized everywhere you go.

Cons

• Can’t assign comments to team members
• Quite pricey if you want to unlock all features

5. ProofHub

ProofHub is another popular project management platform that benefits teams of any niche and work culture.

It utilizes various features to help you stay on top of things, make wise decisions, and track your project's direction. With ProofHub’s simplistic yet highly organized structure, your team will be motivated to achieve more with less stress.

In general, the app functions like any other management tool. You can pin announcements, so your team members know what’s up, visualize data using charts, assign and prioritize tasks, and instantly obtain feedback on outputs with its excellent comment system.

Time tracking is one of the biggest challenges at work, but not with ProofHub. Besides an accurate tracker, it automatically creates detailed timesheets so you know who’s doing their part or not.

Customers don’t have much to complain about ProofHub except for occasional bugs that can disrupt workflow. Other than that, it’s a great app to streamline workflow for individual work, small projects, and medium-sized teams.

Best Features

• Custom Domain SSL
• White-Labelling
• Custom Roles
• Automation
• Gantt Charts
• Mobile App

Pros

• Flexible Pricing
• Rocks a beginner-friendly interface for the non-tech savvy
• Centralizes all your data and gives you a bird’s eye view of the entire project.

Cons

• Limited app integration
• Automation is there but it can do more work.

6. ClickUp

If you visit ClickUp’s website, the first thing to catch your eye will most likely be its motto: ‘one place for all your work.’ 

As bold as it sounds, this cloud-based management platform definitely delivers the needs of different teams. It helps you to centralize data, organize tasks, monitor changes, and ultimately increase productivity.

Clickup capitalizes on multiple view options to give you more visibility on a project. Like to keep your workspace minimal? Use list view. Want to see several data at once? Choose box view.

If you need to keep things on track, Gantt view is your friend. In addition to visual versatility, the platform also offers agile development so your team can collaborate to create solutions.

Meanwhile, Clickup should be more than enough for basic task management. Speed up your workflow using the time tracker, reminder options, task organizer, etc. However, this plethora of features poses a high learning curve, making it the app’s greatest downside. 

Best Features

• Multiple Views
• Advanced Search Filters
• Customizable Task Manager
• Automation
• Team Chat
• Assignment Tracker

Pros

• The free version has a lot of usable features although the paid one is obviously better by miles.
• Allows you to handle multiple projects at once.
• Offline mode allows you to sync changes once you go online

Cons

• Visuals are a bit bland compared to the other platforms
• The sheer number of features can be intimidating at first

7. Teamwork

Collaboration is essential to complete any given project. As John Maxwell said, ‘teamwork makes the dream work’’. And that’s where Teamwork, a widely used project management tool, comes into play.

It contains features that allow your team to effectively communicate, delegate tasks, track progress, celebrate milestones, and analyze reports.

Thanks to its intuitive interface, you will comfortably work your way around the app. You can use Teamwork to create project boards and fill them in with tasks and crucial data. You can even opt for a Kanban board view if that works best for you.

As expected, collaboration is where Teamwork truly shines. It rocks a consistent team chat feature, task assignment, and the ability to share data with outside partners through monitored access. 

Like any program, Teamwork is far from perfect. Prepare to deal with a steep learning curve, limited app integrations, and slow load times as the project gets larger. But these are compromises you might want to consider in exchange for the program’s affordability.

• Collaborative Workspace
• Permission Management
• Customizable Task Manager
• Import / Export Data
• Multiple Project Control

Pros

• Offers several useful functions like monitoring and billing
• Visually-appealing and clutter-free interface
• Great time tracking tool

Cons

• Reporting system could use some work to be more comprehensive
• The learning curve can be pretty daunting for first-time users
• Pay per user pricing makes it pretty expensive for bigger teams

Wrapping Things Up

Managing projects can be a challenge, especially when you’re constantly on the race against the clock. If you want to stay in control, a work management tool is your best friend. Now that you know which apps can help you out the most, it’s time to put them into action and crush your goals.