Workload management tools are vital for every team. Let me give you a short example of why the ideal workload management tool could be a valuable asset for your team.
Imagine that you are about to embark on a 150-day journey from Spain to the US using a big sailing ship. Before setting sail, you have two options: buy a device that will keep you updated with every important aspect of the ship, or choose not to use any device at all.
The device will provide real-time information about the ship’s status, including its speed, location, and any issues that may arise during the voyage. It can also alert you immediately if the engine has a problem, giving you the peace of mind that you are in control and can take action promptly if necessary.
On the other hand, if you choose not to use any device at all, you may save money, but you risk encountering significant problems during the journey, such as engine failure, without even noticing them. When you become aware of such issues, it may be too late to fix them, and the consequences could be catastrophic.
It is not hard to guess which one you would choose. You would probably buy the most reliable tool to track every essential part of your ship.
The same principle applies to project and workload management. Investing in reliable project management software will help you monitor progress and identify any issues that may arise during the project cycle while balancing your team’s workload.
Without further stories, let’s embark on a journey and see what “device” you can choose to reach the US without being eaten by sharks.
| Price | Key Features | ||
| ClickUp | The best overall workload management tool | Free plan: Available Team plan: $7/month per user Business plan: $12/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing | – Numerous visualization options – Outstanding collaboration features – AI-driven features |
| Wrike | Best workload management tool for teams who need advanced analytics features | Free plan: Available Team plan: $9.8/month per user Business plan: $24.8/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing Pinnacle plan: Contact for pricing | – Workload charts to manage capacity, set priorities, etc – Advanced analytics – AI features |
| nTask | A simple and cost-effective solution for small teams | Free forever plan: Available Premium plan: $3/month per user Business plan: $8/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing | – Resource allocation, work capacity, and budget tracker features – Access to Gantt chart or Kanban board to visualize projects – Timesheet features |
| Teamwork.com | Best for agencies and consultants to manage workload and optimize client work in one place | Free plan: Available Deliver plan: €9.99/month per user Grow plan: €19.99/month per user Scale plan: Contact for pricing | – You can visualize and manage teammates’ capacity – Allow to invite clients to projects – Many collaboration features |
| Monday.com | An ideal workload management tool for bigger teams | Free plan: Available Basic plan: €9/month per user Standard plan: €12/month per user Pro plan: €19/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing | – Visualizes team and individual capacity – Built-in time tracking – Offers automation for many processes |
| Hive | Best for teams to organize projects, tasks, files, and forms in a single platform | Free plan: Available Starter plan:$5/month per user Teams plan: $12/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing | – Provides an overview of team capacity – Integrates time tracking, planned workload, and timesheet submission into one platform – AI features |
| Asana | A simple but pricey solution for teams of all size | Free plan: Available Starter plan: €10.99/month per user Advanced plan: €24.99/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing | – Visualize current and future workload – Time tracking and analytics feature – Has automation solutions |
| Trello | A budget-friendly option for workload management | Free plan: Available Standard plan: $5/month per user Premium plan: $10/month per user Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing | – Wide range of view options to manage workload – Offers many templates to accelerate project planning – Can automate repetitive workflows |
What is a workload management tool?
A workload management tool is essentially project management software that helps you in many areas, from workload forecasting and performance measurement to task management and time tracking. Now, let’s focus solely on the workload management aspect of these project management tools.
Workload management tools serve as a central hub for your team, allowing you to see team capacity, tasks, deadlines, and project progress simultaneously. They help you monitor the team’s workload, maximize productivity, minimize bottlenecks, and make resource allocation smooth and fair.
How do you choose a workload management tool?
- Features: Workload management tools have many features, from resource management to advanced reporting. Consider your requirements and project management processes and opt for the workload management tool that features your team can utilize. Why fancy features if your team does not use them, right?
- Team size: Besides having different features, the different workload management tools were designed for different needs. Some are excellent for larger teams, while others suit small teams well.
- User-friendly interface: An easy-to-navigate workload management tool can save your team a lot of time and nerve. Choose a tool that is well-balanced in terms of features and user-friendly interface and navigation.
- Integrations: Most of the workload management tools listed below have a wide range of integration options. Consider your current tool stack and move forward with a project management tool that integrates with your existing toolkit.
- Pricing: Workload management tools have various pricing options and plans depending on the features, team size, and integrations. Before making a decision, consider your budget and the tool’s value to your team. Some tools offer free plans or trials, while others require a subscription or one-time fee.
- Reviews: Reviews can help you make an informed decision and avoid potential issues down the line. I collected ratings from the most popular sites to ensure you can find the best workload management tool. I also added pros and cons from my own experience and reviews to each project management tool to avoid any negative surprises.
Best workload management tools
Here are the eight best workload management tools for 2024, ranked and reviewed based on features, pricing, reviews, pros, and cons.
ClickUp
The best overall workload management tool
Key features
- ClickUp’s unique personalization options allow you to visualize workloads and easily see who is overbooked.
- There are several pre-built and customizable templates where you can see your team and individual workloads.
- ClickUp has over 15 visualization possibilities, from Gantt charts to calendar views.
- ClickUp Docs can create and share documents with real-time editing and nested pages.
- It has many collaboration features like tagging teammates, real-time chat, and more.
- ClickUp’s AI feature allows you to ask questions and get answers regarding documents, tasks, and projects.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Team plan: $7/month per user
- Business plan: $12/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- An intuitive and highly flexible workload management tool.
- It offers plenty of visualization options, making it easier to assign tasks to your teammates.
- Encourages teamwork through features such as comments, mentions, and real-time editing.
- The calendar view is useful for task scheduling.
- Quickly create projects and tasks with ease.
- Helpful customer support.
- Integrates seamlessly with many third-party apps.
Cons
- The storage available on the free plan is limited to 100MB.
- For new users, the learning curve can be steep and challenging.
Reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9400+ reviews)
- ProductHunt: 4.5/5 (950+ reviews)
Wrike
Best workload management tool for teams who need advanced analytics features
Key features
- You can use Wrike’s workload charts to manage your team members’ capacity, set priorities, and plan work and resource allocation.
- Wrike has the most advanced analytics features.
- Utilizing the resource management features, Wrike can assist in budgeting, time tracking, and workload management.
- It has a highly customizable dashboard where you can see the progress of different projects.
- You can categorize all the workflows using the cross-tagging feature across tasks, subtasks, folders, milestones, phases, and projects.
- Wrike has building forms that include checkboxes, dropdowns, priority, due dates, etc, so you can make requests quickly.
- Wrike’s AI feature helps identify historical patterns and recurring issues, providing an overview of the project’s risk factors.
- Using Wrike AI’s feature can extract key action items from unstructured texts.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Team plan: $9.8/month per user
- Business plan: $24.8/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
- Pinnacle plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- You can get a clear overview of your team’s workload and assign tasks accordingly.
- Effortless collaboration with other team members with comments, mentions, and approval functions.
- You can effectively track workload, budget, and time spent on a project.
- The personalized dashboard allows you to overview the tasks and workloads.
- Wrike has advanced AI features.
- The customer service is top-notch.
- Integration possibility with more than 400 apps.
Cons
- Access to more advanced features is exclusively available to those who opt for higher-tier paid plans.
- The beginner-friendliness of the user interface could be improved.
Reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (3600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (2500+ reviews)
nTask
A simple and cost-effective solution for small teams
Key features
- Using nTask, you can access resource allocation, work capacity, and budget tracker.
- You can easily organize tasks by creating to-do lists, where you can also assign tasks and set deadlines.
- nTask allows you to easily visualize projects using Gantt chart or Kanban boards.
- Its timesheet feature helps you track and report the actual time spent on projects and specific tasks.
- nTask fosters collaboration by providing chat, roles, and file storage features.
Pricing
- Free forever plan: Available
- Premium plan: $3/month per user
- Business plan: $8/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- A simple solution for workload management and time tracking.
- It has an intuitive user interface.
- With its affordable pricing, it offers excellent value for money.
- You can use the free version for up to five team members.
Cons
- Some users reported poor customer service.
- The free version does not include the Kanban feature.
Reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (10+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.2/5 (100+ reviews)
Hive
Best for teams to organize projects, tasks, files, and forms in a single platform
Key features
- Hive provides you with an overview of your team’s capacity.
- You can set goals and visualize project progress in the dashboard.
- It integrates time tracking, planned workload, and timesheet submission into one project management solution.
- You can utilize Hive’s chat function to connect and collaborate with teammates.
- Its AI feature uses artificial intelligence to assist you in writing blog posts, emails, project plans, notes, and other documents.
- Hive provides a single platform for your files, approvals, and templates.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Starter plan:$5/month per user
- Teams plan: $12/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- It is a simple-to-use platform that tracks progress and workload.
- It has flexible and customizable layout options.
- Collaboration features work well.
- The planning of each project is much faster due to the project templates compared to other project management tools.
- Outstanding customer service.
Cons
- The solid feature set may seem overwhelming to new users.
- There are small bugs.
Reviews
- G2: 4.6/5 (500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (190+ reviews)
Teamwork
Best for agencies and consultants to manage workload and optimize client work in one place
Key features
- Within Teamwork.com, you can utilize the Workload Planner to visualize and manage teammates’ capacity.
- The Resource Scheduler feature helps you to allocate resources properly to maximize your team’s productivity.
- It allows you to customize your workflows using Gantt charts or board views.
- Besides managing your projects and team, you can also include clients.
- Its time management feature helps you track progress and provides a clear view of how your team spends their time.
- You can chat, mention teammates on comments within tasks, and easily share documents with them.
- Teamwork.com supports wide range of integrations.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Deliver plan: €9.99/month per user
- Grow plan: €19.99/month per user
- Scale plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- It has plenty of features to support your project management workflows.
- Teamwork.com is a great workload management tool for teams facing client works.
- Collaboration features can help to keep your team aligned and focused.
- The customer support team is responsive.
Cons
- The learning curve may be a little bit long for new users.
- The analytics and reporting features could be more detailed.
Reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (1100+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (850+ reviews)
Monday.com
An ideal workload management tool for bigger teams
Key features
- The Project Overview feature provides information and visualization regarding the individual and team capacity.
- It has a built-in time tracking tool to add to each project and related tasks.
- You can assign tasks, add comments, and edit files with your team.
- Monday.com has advanced analytics and reporting features.
- It provides many integration options with other tools.
- Monday.com can automate many processes, from project and task management to requests and approvals.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Basic plan: €9/month per user
- Standard plan: €12/month per user
- Pro plan: €19/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- Monday.com can automate numerous workflows of a larger organization.
- It handles complex projects well, as you can add milestones, notifications, dates, attachments, stakeholders, and more to ensure completion.
- You can customize it in many ways.
- Users reported great customer support service.
- It supports many integrations.
Cons
- The platform may be difficult for the average user to navigate.
- Sometimes, it works slowly.
- The pricing might be high for smaller teams.
Reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (10000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4600+ reviews)
Asana
A simple but pricey solution for teams of all size
Key features
- Asana can visualize current and future workload to ensure nobody is overwhelmed or underworked.
- You can just click on each team member to see a detailed view of their tasks.
- It’s time tracking feature help teams to measure how much time they are spending on each task.
- The analytic feature provides insights regarding project performance, costs, tasks and workload.
- You can automate repetitive tasks with setting rules.
- Asana supports numerous integrations with other tools.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Starter plan: €10.99/month per user
- Advanced plan: €24.99/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- It’s an easy-to-learn tool with a user-friendly interface.
- Many visualization options.
- Simplifies collaboration in many teams, as its features can replace emails, spreadsheets, etc.
- They constantly improve the platform.
- The free version includes a relatively lot of features.
Cons
- You can not assign a task to multiple users.
- The paid plans are pricey.
Reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (9800+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (12000+ reviews)
Trello
A budget-friendly option for workload management
Key features
- Trello’s view options (Board, Timeline, Table, Calendar, Dashboard, Map, and Workspace) help you to manage workloads and prevent bottlenecks.
- It is a powerful no-code platform where you can set rules and add commands to automate workflows.
- Using Trello, you can access many templates to accelerate project planning.
- You can share files and add comments under the projects.
- The wide range of integrations allows to integrates Trello with popular tools.
Pricing
- Free plan: Available
- Standard plan: $5/month per user
- Premium plan: $10/month per user
- Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing
Pros and cons
Pros
- An easy-to-use platform for workload management.
- The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to manage multiple tasks and projects.
- Reasonable pricing.
- Trello supports numerous integrations.
- Collaboration among team members is effortless.
Cons
- It is not ideal for larger projects.
- There are limited features in the free and standard plans.
Reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (13000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (23000+ reviews)
Summary
Workload management tools can be incredibly helpful for teams in many ways.
Firstly, they allow teams to manage their time and resources better, ensuring everyone works efficiently and effectively. You can improve efficiency further by choosing a workload management tool with many collaboration features. It can help ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget while making teamwork smoother.
Secondly, workload management tools can help teams better allocate tasks and responsibilities. Allocating resources and tasks in a balanced way increases the chances of successfully completing the projects and reduces the risk of burnout.
Additionally, these tools can help teams identify potential bottlenecks or areas of concern, allowing them to proactively address issues before they become major problems.
In a nutshell, workload management tools can be a great way for teams to improve productivity, collaboration, and overall performance.
I hope this guide helped you with the best workload management tool that fits you best.
Frequently asked questions
How do you track staff workload?
There are more ways to track staff workload, depending on the type of work, preferences, and the tools available. Here are some common methods:
- Manual tracking: In some cases, managers may simply ask staff to report on their workload and progress. They can perform such manual tracking through daily or weekly check-ins. While I believe face-to-face discussions are essential for addressing questions and feedback, tracking progress is time-consuming if you rely only on this method.
- Spreadsheets: Some organizations still use spreadsheets to track workload and time. They create a table listing all the tasks and assigning them to different employees. Once somebody completes the work, they update the spreadsheets and add the spent time on the project. Although it is better than nothing, tracking time and workload with a spreadsheet is inaccurate, requires additional time from your teammates, and does not provide you with analytics.
- Time tracking software: Tools like Reclaim AI allow staff to track the time spent on various tasks. They can also generate reports and provide analytics showing how much time each employee spends on different tasks and how productive they are.
- Project management software: Most project management tools have built-in time-tracking features. For example, ClickUp’s feature helps you easily track progress or time, set estimates, add notes, and view time reports from anywhere.
What is the best way to manage the workload?
The best way to utilize workload management software is to help you identify projects and tasks where someone is overburdened. Without using workload management tools, you must intuitively manage capacity or manually track projects.
How do I pick the right workload management tool for my team?
Consider the following aspects when selecting a workload management tool for your team:
- Features
- Time size
- User-friendly interface
- Integrations
- Pricing
- Reviews
Is project management software ideal for managing workload, or should I use other tools?
Applying a project management tool is the best way to manage workload. Such tools have the most advanced features for workload management. They also have numerous project management features to organize tasks and ensure a fair workload distribution.
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.
