Having to handle too much information is a problem for any project manager. Efficient control of what the employees are working on is crucial for on-time project delivery: an unclear process impairs discipline and productivity, jeopardizing deadlines and agreed delivery dates.
There are thousands of project management tools on the market. In this article, we focus on simple project management software that offers a chaos-free and effortless approach to work.
The Best Simple Project Management Software
1. actiTIME
Key features:
- Time tracking
- Task management
- Billing and invoicing
- Insightful reports
actiTIME is a time and project management tool designed for businesses. Create custom project scopes, assign tasks, and specify estimates and deadlines. Get your team to track their working hours across tasks and projects using the online timesheet interface, browser extension, or mobile app, and allow actiTIME to turn this data into project management insights.
The idea is simple: build a project scope – specify rates, deadlines, and estimates – assign tasks – collect time tracking data – review performance. actiTIME can calculate project time and costs, analyze employee productivity, compare estimates with tracked hours, and more.
Choose between online and on-premises software or use the mobile app if you work away from the desk. All your data will be safely stored in case you go offline and synced as soon as you connect to the Internet. actiTIME integrates with 2,000+ software, so you don’t have to worry about capturing hours in your industry software and different tools. Try actiTIME for free with a 30-day trial (no credit card required).
actiTIME helps us in data analysis and international reporting
actiTIME is pretty easy and understandable even for a layman. The app requires no big technical know-how. Simple user interfaces and stylish reporting became vital factors in making a decision on the application. It helps us a lot in data analysis, client billing, and international reporting. There has been a tremendously positive impact on the process since we’ve been using the product!
2. ClickUp
Key features:
- Workflow management
- Task planning
- Templates
- Progress monitoring
ClickUp is simple project management software that allows you to efficiently organize work on projects. The tool offers convenient prioritization, filtering, search, sorting, and different views to manage your tasks with more ease. If you work on similar or repeating tasks, you’ll enjoy the recurring tasks feature. Create templates for projects, tasks, and lists to save time on the software setup.
ClickUp provides comprehensive dashboards for managers to review individual and team performance, and manage tasks and projects.
3. Hitask
Key features:
- Team collaboration
- Task management
- Notifications
- Progress tracking
Hitask is a customizable project management tool with an easy team onboarding process. It allows creating tasks by sending emails to a Hitask account and setting up several reminders per task to prevent employees from missing deadlines. Plus, it helps managers to understand performance progress and dynamics by running reports.
Hitask integrates with Outlook calendar and with Google Calendar, allowing you to synchronize events and tasks. It also supports data export in Excel and other popular formats for data processing in other software.
4. TeamGantt
Key features:
- Progress tracking
- Task management
- Scheduling
- Team collaboration
TeamGantt is simple project planning software with functionality for reviewing results and estimating time for both current and future tasks. The tool offers a few customizable data views. You can use them to conveniently represent tasks in daily mode, in calendar view, as a plain list, or in a Gantt chart. This speeds up monitoring and helps reduce steps required for smooth work process management.
5. ProjectLibre
Key features:
- Project and resource planning
- Cost management
- Gantt charts
ProjectLibre is simple project management software and one of the leading alternatives to Microsoft Project. It supports MS Project file formats and provides Linux, Windows, and macOS support. Besides, it has a free open-source version, as well as a paid and more advanced one. It is translated into dozens of languages and is used worldwide by companies of different sizes.
ProjectLibre allows you to organize projects conveniently and keep all necessary information in one place. It helps managers review project progress on Gantt charts, plan resources for future work steps, create workflow diagrams and find optimal workflow procedures, and manage project costs.
6. RationalPlan
Key features:
- Resource planning
- Budget management
- Team collaboration
- Progress monitoring
RationalPlan is a powerful project management tool that is built according to PMBOK guidelines. It helps managers create project plans, allocate resources, stay updated on the progress, manage project costs and budgets, and much more. The tool features visual planning and tracking project tasks with Gantt charts and provides team collaboration functionality. This way, RationalPlan enables active and efficient project communication and ensures clear and transparent work progress.
7. Taiga
Key features:
- Project planning
- Reports
- Bug and issue tracking
- Scrum and Kanban boards
The creators of this simple, functional, and beautiful tool admit that before they created Taiga, they had tried many other project management tools but found them clumsy, unintuitive, and ugly to look at. That’s why they went ahead and created a tool that they dreamt of. The result is this powerful, intuitive, and elegant solution. And – it’s open-source, so you can download and use it for free.
If you keep projects in other tools, that’s no problem. The multiplatform import feature allows you to upload your data from major project management tools into Taiga and manage them there.
8. ProProfs Project
Key features:
- Work planning
- Time tracking
- Team collaboration
ProProfs Project is an online project management tool that helps businesses streamline their workflows. By creating and assigning tasks to responsible team members, setting deadlines for them, and tracking progress using ProProfs Project, you can easily stay on track and ensure that everything is completed on schedule and budget.
In addition, the tool also provides some features for team collaboration. With its help, employees can communicate with each other, share files and documents and work on projects together more efficiently.
9. Celoxis
Key features:
- Work planning
- Progress tracking
- Accounting
- Portfolio management
Celoxis is designed to help project managers keep track of tasks, deadlines, and resources in the most effective way. It can be used for both simple projects, like planning a corporate party, and more complex ones, like developing a new product.
The software is flexible and easy to use, and it offers a variety of features that can help make any project run more smoothly. For example, Celoxis can be used to create a timeline for a project, assign tasks to team members, and monitor work progress. In addition, it integrates with plenty of other business applications, making it easy to share information and coordinate workflows. Overall, thanks to Celoxis, managers and their teams can make any project process much more efficient and fruitful.
10. GanttPRO
Key features:
- Project planning
- Cost estimation
- Gantt charts
- Notifications
GanttPRO is one of the best online project management tools that support work planning and progress tracking via interactive Gantt charts. Using this software, you can add comments and attachments to project tasks, export your charts in different formats, and get notified of the latest changes. Team management, cost estimation, and resource planning are also included in the functionality of this tool.
In GanttPRO, you can connect tasks with each other and review their influence on the project in general. The Critical Path feature allows a project manager to see the shortest time to accomplish the project and highlight the most important tasks that require special attention.
11. Redbooth
Key features:
- Visual timelines
- Kanban board
- Task priorities
- Video meetings
Any project manager worth their salt will tell you that good organization is key to a successful project. But what happens when you’re dealing with a team of remote workers? You can’t just pop over to their desk and ask how that report is coming along. That’s where Redbooth comes in.
Redbooth is a simple project management software that enables users to collaborate on projects in real time, regardless of location. With features like task management, file sharing, and video conferencing, Redbooth has everything you need to keep your remote team on track. So, if you’re wondering how to manage your distributed workforce in a better way, Redbooth is the answer.
12. Kissflow
Key features:
- Multiple data views
- Task management
- Team collaboration
- Reports
Kissflow is a no-code / low-code workflow management software that is designed to help you keep your projects organized and on track. It provides a central place for keeping all your project information in check and makes it easy to find what you need when you need it.
In addition, Kissflow helps you to track performance progress, ensuring that your project stays on schedule. It includes tools for collaboration and communication, making it easy to coordinate assignments with your team members. This way, Kissflow helps to streamline the project management process and improves the chances of success.
13. Nutcache
Key features:
- Workload management
- Progress management
- Invoicing
- Time tracking
If you’re looking for a way to streamline your project management, then you should definitely give Nutcache a try. This software is packed with features that will make your work processes more efficient, from tracking task progress to collaborating with team members. And best of all, Nutcache is super simple to use:
- First, create a project and invite your team members to join.
- Then, start adding tasks and assigning them to specific team members.
- You can also set deadlines and add attachments to each task.
- Once you’ve got everything organized, you can start tracking your team’s progress and ensure that everyone is on track.
You can see for yourself how easy it is to manage projects with Nutcache. But even if you run into any problems, the software’s support team won’t leave you in trouble alone and will quickly answer all your questions via live chat.
14. Paymo
Key features:
- Gantt charts
- Time tracking
- Project collaboration
- Invoices and online payments
Paymo is a popular project management software that helps businesses keep track of tasks, deadlines, and employees. It is available in both cloud-based, desktop, and mobile versions and includes such features as task lists, Gantt charts, and time tracking.
Here’s how to get the most out of project management with Paymo:
- Make a task list. Be sure to include all of the tasks that need to be completed for your project, as well as the due dates. You can also assign tasks to specific employees.
- Create a Gantt chart to visualize your project timeline. This will help you ensure that all tasks are completed on schedule.
- Track time to see how long your employees work on each task. This information can be used to optimize your project schedule.
- Get organized with folders. You can create folders to store different types of files related to your projects, such as documents, images, and videos.
By following these tips, you’ll be able to get the most out of Paymo’s functionality and improve your project management results.
15. Workzone
Key features:
- Workload management
- Gantt charts
- Automated notifications
- Centralized project dashboards
Workzone is essential software for anyone who wants to keep their projects organized and on track. Not only does it allow you to create and assign tasks, but it also gives you the ability to set deadlines and track progress. And if that isn’t enough, Workzone offers a handy mobile app so you can stay on top of your projects even when you’re on the go.
Here’s how to apply Workzone for better project results:
- Take advantage of the calendar view to stay organized. You can use it to manage events and tasks, set deadlines, and track progress.
- Make use of the notes section to jot down ideas or reminders.
- Don’t forget to share the created Workzone projects with your team so everyone can stay up-to-date on what’s going on.
- Use the centralized project dashboard to keep the planned work under control.
In these three simple steps, you’ll be able to get the most out of Workzone and keep your projects running smoothly.
Ready to Improve Productivity with Simple Project Management Tools?
Of course, this is not the full list of simple project management tools available on the market. In this article, we put focus on time-based and Gantt chart-based tools because time data provides the basis, and charts help managers visualize the project timeline and progress.
If you are not sure where to start, try actiTIME.
It gives insight into the distribution of time across tasks and projects, automatically creates easy-to-read invoices and reports, displays how much time and money projects consume, and notifies managers of approaching the set budget limits.
All you need is to set up the software, get your team to log their hours, and track team and project performance using real-time widgets, charts, and reports. And the best part: you can try actiTIME for free with a 30-day trial (no credit card required).
