Project management software is a term covering many types of software, including estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to deal with the complexity of large projects.
Project management apps are essentially meant to save you time and get on top of all activities going on in your business or projects. However it can be quite time consuming to implement and it requires some effort to use tools like these consistently. If you have a team who works with you remotely, then online PM Apps are ideal and may dramatically increase collaboration and efficiency. If you are a freelancer however, you will have to spend some time getting it all set up and as well for teaching your clients how to use and interact with the application you choose. First of all let’s start by explaining what my criteria for a project management application are. The application needs to have a sleek and smooth interface that is easy for the user to navigate and use especially for freelancers. The application must have a reasonable price tag, or be offered free. To make it in the list of the best the application needs to run fast and allow you to quickly do all your tasks. For this article I have prepared a roundup of some really great project management applications that I think is worth your time to try and investigate.
Advertisement
1. Podio Online Project management

Using Podio for online project management, everyone involved is always on the same page. Keep team and project discussions in one centralized place where all relevant files and information is created and securely stored. Use the unique Podio App Builder to fully customize your project management apps to fit your work flows – no technical skills needed! Get out of your inbox. Work the way you want with Podio as your web-based project management software.
With Podio managing projects is easy and intuitive. Simply set up your project alone or together in your team within minutes. Stay on top of deliverables and deadlines with the built-in task manager, and use Podio reporting and the intelligent calendar to easily keep track of milestones, meetings, budgets and work progress.
2. Attask
AtTask increases workplace harmony by enfranchising workers and informing executives. The company’s social Work Management software gives people at all levels of the organization tools to help them better understand and organize their work. Going social facilitates deeper worker buy-in, and delivers executives conversational insights into the work environment. Over 1,000 organizations of all sizes, including Apple, Cisco, GE, KeyBank, HBO, Johnson & Johnson, Newsweek, Nike, and Toyota have turned to AtTask to manage work of all levels of complexity. Its on-demand work management solution is available in 7 languages.
3. Planbox
Planbox is an Agile Project Management Tool that goes beyond software development. A tool for all business functions to get a total grasp on projects. Fuel commitment with an easy-to-use agile product management tool to keep track of tasks, items and overall project progress.
4. ManyMoon
Manymoon is a social productivity tool that makes it simple to get work done online:
- Anything – you can use Manymoon for whatever you need to accomplish: launching a new product, planning an event or building a house.
- Anyone – Manymoon is simple enough for anyone to use since there’s no training or setup required.
- Anywhere – Manymoon can be used with people inside and outside of your organization. And since it’s online all you’ll need is an internet connection to get working!
5. Freedcamp
Freedcamp offers one of the cleanest interfaces and smoothest interactions (only competitors in that area goes to ApolloHQ who also have a very visually pleasing interface and very good interactions smoothness). The application offers the regular tools like To-Do’s, Discussions, Milestones, Files, Time Tracking, and Invoices. Where it really stands out is its Basecamp Import and the Meebo Chat bar which enables you to chat with all your existing messengers with your colleagues who may use Gtalk, ICQ, Facebook Chat, and many more.
6. ApolloHQ
Apollo is project and contact management done right. Using Apollo, you will realize that it’s built to help you get things done, quickly and efficiently. With Apollo, you will always know where your projects, your contacts and your life are at and you will feel on top of everything — regardless of how hectic your schedule is.
7. BasecampHQ
Basecamp is the oldest and most trustworthy in this list. They have been around for a long time and have proven to maintain their application as simple as possible. Some find this quite annoying as they want a lot more functionality out of the system, others find it pleasing as it never gets too complicated. I will remain impartial to this, but will say that I think there are ways to add more features without burdening the users. The application has a very primitive design, same argument stays. So if you are ready to spend a whopping $20-$150 a month for a project management application this should be your first choice.
8. GoPlanApp
Goplan lets you keep track of your projects and collaborate with your colleagues securely through an intuitive user interface.
9. Huddle
With Huddle, you can manage people, projects and information inside and outside of your company, securely. It is available online, on mobile devices, on the desktop, via Microsoft Office applications, major business social networks and in multiple languages.
10. Teamly
Teamly is a new kind of productivity tool that helps you and your staff move beyond your mile-long to-do lists and focus on the truly important stuff, your top 5 priorities for the day, week and month.
11. TeamWorkPM
Teamwork Project Manager is an easy-to-use online teamwork & project management software application that helps managers, staff and clients work together more productively online.
12. 5pmweb
This reminds me of phyton. The interface is so bold and in your face that i am a little worried to break something. The demo page took 4 minutes to load, and after a few refreshes it actually started working… so that wasn’t a great third experience with app. But where this app really meets the rest is its pricing sheet which is no smaller than that of Basecamp or other competitors. Overall this may be the choice for you (if you like Python).
13. Central Desktop
Central Desktop delivers a cloud-based social collaboration platform that revolutionizes how people connect and share information to drive profitable business results. Businesses of all sizes use Central Desktop’s complete online collaboration solution to manage projects and documents in the cloud with colleagues, customers and partners. The main benefit of this application is the vast amount of features it has, so if you are looking to get a bunch of features into one application without a choice of having them or not this may be a great choice.
14. Wrike
Wrike’s patent-pending Intelligent Email Engine, thousands of teams have been able to merge their email communications into their planning process. With Wrike’s unique Flexible Structures at their hands, managers can easily coordinate every tiny detail of their projects. Thanks to Wrike’s handy Dynamic Timeline, managers have a real-time, clear picture of multiple projects.
15. Projectpier
ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, PHP application for managing tasks, projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. It must be downloaded and installed on your own web server. ProjectPier will help your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done Its function is similar to commercial groupware/project management products, but allows the freedom and scalability of self-hosting.
16. Assembla
Assembla offers the whole package: repositories, ticketing, collaboration and management tools. Assembla’s repositories, stored in Amazon EBS, keep your code safe, while allowing specified users to view and edit it in a secure fashion. Tickets, which can be posted and assigned to team members within seconds, help users accomplish tasks more quickly and efficiently.
17. Doodle
A scheduling tool that has been created to help reclaim time and put an end to the endless back and forth communication that has become normal when scheduling a meeting. It is so simple and yet very powerful.
Registration isn’t required to use the basic free service (Branded and Premium versions also exist and offer more flexibility), so getting started is quick and easy. To schedule an event, you just select some dates and times and let the participants specify what works best for them. With a quick look, you’ll see everyone’s availability and be able to make a final decision that satisfies the entire group.
“Doodle is used worldwide by more than three million people per month, and features like Outlook and Facebook integration help all of these users in their quest to gain victory over meetings.”
18. Basecamp
Basecamp is the world’s leading project collaboration tool, with thousands of very satisfied web developer customers. Write communal and personal “to do” lists, store and share files (up to 75GB) effectively between team members, write on your group’s message boards, add milestones to keep track of what’s due and who’s responsible, and track your own and others’ time.
19. Desk away
DeskAway, is a web-based project collaboration software that provides teams a central location to easily organize, manage and track their projects & work. DeskAway is carefully hand-crafted by a small team of developers and designers. Each feature is custom-made to give you the ease of use and power to help you grow your business.

















{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article, very solid list of applications.
Thanks Angel!
@Dustin–Thats wonderful roundup there…These application will help many as me..Thanks for sharing.
Indeed a nice list of popular apps ! Projects management tools are really hot apps within the SaaS / Cloud ecosystem and you can now find specific tools matching exactly your needs. We recently prepared a full review of Zoho Projects that you can find here http://www.getapp.com/evaluation-center/zoho-projects-independent-analyst-review We’ll prepare more reviews in the coming days on Mavenlink, @task etc,..
Thanks Manuel I will check it out.
Excellent solutions on this list! If you are looking for an online project management solution for networked collaboration then I would like to add LumoFlow (www.lumoflow.com) to the list.
It’s one of the leading solutions for online project management in Europe and used by thousands of organizations worldwide.
Cheers,
Bart
Thanks for the tip Bart
Thanks for the list, very useful
you are welcome
Solid list, though, I must agree, there are definitely some additions that could be made to Basecamp without affecting the user experience.
WORKetc, a business management app I use, has managed to combine detailed project management features with CRM and Billing – all while keeping the interface intuitive and simple to use. I actually prefer it to Basecamp when it comes to simplicity, all the while WORKetc can do four times as much when it comes to business management and projects.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with WORKetc. I will check it out for sure.
Basecamp and BasecampHQ is the same app.
And for some apps you simply copied their marketing stuff from the site and for some you are too opinionated, like for 5pm. Go one way or another.
The list is generally sorted in a bad order. Basecamp should be on the top, due to popularity. AtTask is simply in another category due to prices. ApolloHQ – it just came out, so when putting it in line with apps like Basecamp, 5pm, etc, that have been around for years – this has to be mentioned,
Steve I appreciate your honest feedback. You seam to be on top of this topic.. let me know you are interested in writing a guest article.
But Steve is right though. I did think the article was a bit weak in these areas that Steve mentioned.
That aside, I’d like to see a round-up of all the new and recent project management apps out there. Not the well-established and well-known ones for obvious reasons.
Just wanted to mention that there is a new tool that just came out of beta a few days ago called Birdview. You can check it out at http://www.birdviewprojects.com, they also have a link to try it. Looks promising.
teambox.com is another powerful tool.
Thanks for the very useful list! We needed a project management tool and used this list to help us choose the one for us. It looks like it covers most of the apps that are worth checking out.
We sticked with Wrike for a number of reasons, especially because of the implementation of the Backlog feature and its flexible structure (http://www.wrike.com/features.jsp#manage-multiple-projects).
There is another online collaboration tool available – Manitoo. Check out at http://www.ManitooProjectManagement.com.
I would recommend checking out http://www.Gtdagenda.com for an online GTD manager.
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
Syncs with Evernote, and also comes with mobile-web version, and Android and iPhone apps.
Thanks your post is very interesting, but you forgot to mention Teambox. For project management I use Teambox app, an open source online collaboration tool that works great for managing and leading project with your employees or client. Check it out
Thanks for the tip!
I am voting for Wrike! Effective collaboration tool, simple interface, transparent information flows – it is exactly what I needed . For me, Wrike is the best choice
Thanks for your view on this. Sounds like a really cool app.
Great list of free project management tool. Thanks
Hey Guys,
Make sure you add Copper Project to the list. http://www.copperproject.com
With full gantt charting, Basecamp Import, and 10 years in the business, its a glaring omission.
Thanks!
Ben.
Great list. I would recommend you to have a look at WorkForceTrack (http://www.workforcetrackc.om). We use this because it consists of not only PM, but also CRM, HRMS, Accounting and many other business tools and has a very flexible price especially for small and mid-sized organizations
I use a free system projects-manager.com
Good list. Our marketing and R&D and accounting department use Genius Project (http://www.geniusinside.com). The software manages everything in the projet from project request to reporting and they have an invoicing module that produces invoices in a few click! You Can’t imagine the hours saved for our accountant.
Great list of PM tools.
We were looking for one that worked well with Google Apps. After having tested Manymoon, we went finally for GroupCamp Project which is really interesting: http://www.groupcamp.com/online-project-management-software
Great user management and our clients love it.
Try a free online project management system http://projects-manager.com
You can also add to the list http://vkolab.com which is an online free project management system.
Hi Dustin,
Great list. I find it particularly I terrestrial g that your background is in translation management, as I am currently looking for a web based, simple and affordable or free translation project management solution.
I wonder if you are familiar with http://www.project-open.com? A pretty powerful and sophisticated ERP / PM solution, but somewhat complex.
I’d love to know which of the apps in your list you would recommend for a small LAnguage Service Provider.
Thanks!
Hello,
Thanks for all the advice, just a quick question, and perhaps a stupid one. What’s the advantages of these software compared to MS Project that we are using at the moment?
Thanks
Erik
I can’t ever seem to settle on one. I used to be all Basecamp, but realized there were cheaper solutions out there and now have fallen for TeamLab.
I came across this PM tool,BootStrapToday at http://www.bootstraptoday.com. I have been using it since few weeks and found it very useful for high end developers. It adds intelligence to the processes and automation and integration are yet unique features. Apart from the cloud based model it is also available as In-house set up. I am planning to install one. Would you give me suggestions on installing In-house set up.
Nice round-up, Lars! Was surprised to see Flow (http://www.getflow.com) wasn’t mentioned? Might want to check it out – I think it’s the ‘prettiest’ project management tool out there.
Lars, this is a great list. I just released a site in this space that takes a different approach. It mashes up a PM system with gaming awards that turns work into a game. See it here: http://propstoyou.com. You see, I’ve used these things for 20 years — long before they arrived on the web — and the one thing that never changes is that they’re boring as watching paint dry and people never use them for long. I’m hoping to change that. Check it out!
Nice list guys, we have recently started using http://www.vkolab.com and seems like its a nice free project management tool out there which you guys should definitely look at.
Thanks.
{ 4 trackbacks }