Features: One of the most important aspects was the feature set. I wanted to include only the tools that have powerful and similar features to Wrike.

Pricing: I know, guys, many of you have to work within a tight budget, so I also took the pricing plans into account when selecting the best Wrike alternatives.

User-friendliness: Navigation and user experience are also crucial when using project management software. Therefore, I considered this as well.

My experience: As mentioned, I personally tested and tried all of these project management tools to ensure I can provide you with the most accurate recommendation. Thus, my experience with the specific tool is one of the key elements in ranking the best Wrike alternatives.

Project management tools: With Monday.com, you can organize your projects into several workspaces. Monday.com offers multiple project views to visualize your workflows from different aspects. You can use the Gantt chart, Kanban boards, calendar, and workload view. I believe this project management software is among the ones I tried, yet it provides the most view options. It is also great that it does not take too much time to load and that the new project view options are used. For teams, the workload view could be very helpful in reviewing resource allocation and project workflows. As I work alone, it is not that suggestive, but it can clearly represent how the workload is allocated in your team. Furthermore, Enterprise customers can access portfolio management features to get a holistic view of multiple projects in one place.

Task management features: During my Monday.com review, I realized how easy it is to add, assign, and manage tasks. Monday allows us to prioritize tasks, adding status, owner, timeline, and more. It is also great that you can create more columns for effecting task tracking. Furthermore, you can customize the label or create your own. After reviewing Monday.com’s task management tools, I was satisfied, but I missed one thing. I could not find the option to add recurring tasks. Although it is a small task management tool, it can be quite useful in avoiding adding recurring tasks manually.

Custom dashboards: Custom dashboards are useful for displaying the key information of all your projects in a single layout. You can apply +30 widgets and apps here so you can track project progress effectively and understand better workloads, budgets, and more. This way, you can identify bottlenecks and reach better project outcomes.

Team collaboration tools: You can start discussions in your projects, mention others, leave comments, and Monday supports file sharing as well. Furthermore, you can do the same under each task. Another useful team collaboration feature is the update feed. Using this Monday.com feature, you get notified when someone mentions or assigns a task to you. Lastly, you can share projects with your team members and change the permission level to a member, admin, or viewer.

Time tracking: If you need to export the time tracking column to Excel, you only need to click the column menu dropdown and select “Export Column Data to Excel.” With this, you can collect the time you spend on each task and report it easily.

Automation: You can manage and create custom automation with Monday.com. The automation feature is quite an intuitive and simple tool. You only need to select the criteria for when the automation should be triggered and the required action in such cases. Depending on the trigger you’ve picked, you might need to select a condition as well.

Docs: Using Monday.com, you can create and draft documents. You can either start from scratch or use a template. You can add numerous types of formats, such as text, tables, widgets, lists, and more. Furthermore, you can use Monday.com’s AI assistant to help you write and summarize the text.

Integrations: You can directly connect Monday.com with over 200 third-party apps. Furthermore, Monday.com has a Zapier integration as well, so you can access an additional 7,000 apps.

Mobile app: Monday.com provides mobile access as well if you have an iOS or Android device. The mobile version’s user interface is okay, but it still has some bugs and has fewer features compared to the web and desktop apps. Also, sometimes I experience that when you add new items to boards, they do not always sync with the desktop or web app.

Project management tools: Hive offers numerous view options for project tracking and visualization. Each view option gives you a different angle on your projects. If you click on the plus icon next to the calendar view, you can also choose from more view options. While it does not provide as many project view options as Monday.com, it has all the possibilities that a small or mid-sized business might need. You can access lists, KanBan boards, tables, Gantt charts, and more. For teams and project managers, the view option is quite useful for resource management, as you can get a quick look at your team’s workload and assign or move tasks between them.

Task management features: When creating tasks, you can assign them and add due dates, schedule time, dependencies, labels, and descriptions. Nevertheless, if you scroll down, you can access some additional task management features. With Hive, you can attach files and add comments, and it will automatically add the recorded time for each task.

App library: Hive offers some add-ons to further customize your experience and the tools you use daily. Personally, I think it is a positive thing that Hive has many add-ons that you can utilize. There are some add-ons that you can use in the free plan, but others require paid plans.

Dashboards: Utilizing the dashboards, you can bring the most important information from your workspace and projects into one place. These dashboards provide insights into your tasks and projects. It is great to customize them with widgets, filters, and external embeds. You can add bar charts, goals, notes, and more.

Team collaboration tools: You can invite your team members to your workspace and start working on projects. After you can add comments, track team members’ projects, and assign tasks. Furthermore, Hive has collaborative documents that you can edit with your team members. You can insert pictures, attachments, and tables here. The collaborative documents work across all platforms (web, desktop, and mobile). In addition, Hive has an instant messaging tool where you can discuss projects and tasks with your team members. With this feature, you can send direct and group messages as well. Finally, Hive provides an update feed where you can see if someone mentioned you, but you can also pin the notification. Overall, it is a very agile project management tool with great work management features that help team members to manage complicated projects.

Time tracking: Among the add-ons, you can find Hive’s timesheet and time tracking features as well. The time tracking is easy to use, and you can use filters. For example, you can just filter on the time spent on one specific project.

Inbox: After you integrate Hive with your email provider, you can access your emails inside Hive. You only need to click on the Mail tab on the left, and you can see all your emails.

Automation: Setting up automation is quite easy, and it is similar to other project management tools. You only need to select the criteria for when the automation should be triggered and the required action in such cases.

AI tools: First, Hive has an AI assistant called Buzz built into the software. It helps you to answer questions, create projects, automate workflows, and more. Besides just providing answers, it can also create widgets and dashboards, so it is a valuable feature overall. Secondly, you can use Hive’s AI feature in the notes as well to create content faster. Besides generating text, you can also use it to generate an image.

Integrations: Hive offers some direct integrations with Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, and more. However, you can connect Hive to over 7,000 third-party apps using its Zapier integration.

Mobile app: Hive offers a mobile version for iOS and Android devices. The mobile apps are synced with the desktop version and allow you to create and track tasks and projects, but you can also use the communication tools. Personally, I used the iOS version and had no issues with it.

Project management tools: This work management tool offers numerous view options for managing projects and workflows. It has Gantt charts, Kanban boards, a timeline, and a dashboard view, so you can easily monitor project progress and identify bottlenecks. What I particularly enjoyed is the tools you can use to display, sort, filter, and group information. They really went into the details to create custom databases and manage them with the highest efficiency. Such capabilities make SmartSuite an ideal solution to not only manage your projects but also company-wide databases.

Task management features: With SmartSuite, you can add due dates, assignees, project status, task priorities, and many other parameters for your tasks. You can add custom fields to your tasks so you can customize them in-depth. For example, you can insert time-tracking logs, formulas, addresses, and many others for each task. Overall, it has all the task management capabilities that a small business might need.

Team collaboration tools: Using SmartSuite, multiple team members can view and edit the projects at the same time. Also, you can see other team members where they work exactly at the table or records. I appreciated the option to send a link to any page, record, or report as an email attachment. If you open the member directory, you can invite team members and add teams. This team collaboration feature gives you an overview of who is online and some basic data about their role, interests, skills, locations, and skills, and you can reach out no matter where they are working.

Automation: With SmartSuite, you can smoothly automate repetitive tasks. It follows the “when and then” logic, and you can add further conditions. You can create automation for events like creating or updating records, submitting forms, and more. Thanks to SmartSuite’s email integration with Outlook and Gmail, you can set up workflow automation for events when you receive an email.

Time tracking: You can insert time tracking logs to each field where you want. SmartSuite offers basic time tracking tools, but they are sufficient to keep track of how you spend your team on projects.

Permission and roles: SmartSuite has two levels of permissions. Role-based access determines the maximum permission level that can be assigned to you or your team members. You can find this in the settings menu under your workspace information. However, you can also provide people with guest access so they can view the records that you assigned to them. The number of guest accesses depends on the subscription. Furthermore, you can add solution permissions for your team members. With this type of permission, you can control who can view, create, modify, or delete records in your solutions (i.e., projects).

Integrations: SmartSuite offers some native integrations, so you can connect this work management tool with Google Drive, Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Hubspot, and more. In addition, you can connect SmartSuite with Zapier, which allows you to access an additional +7,000 third-party apps.

Mobile app: SmartSuite offers a mobile version for iOS and Android users. During my SmartSuite review, I used the iOS version. Similar to many other project management tools, I also encountered a few bugs here. For instance, it does not save the fields or records.

Project management tools: Teamwork.com allows you to use a project template, but you can start it from scratch. It offers numerous templates designed for agencies and different teams. When it comes to project view options, Teamwork.com offers the essential ones. You can use Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and list views to track and visualize your projects. Also, utilizing the project dashboards helps you get a solid understanding of the tasks, their stages, and non-billable and billable hours, and ultimately shows the key project data. In addition to the dashboards, the milestones feature is also a valuable tool. It is a target date representing a point of progress or a goal within your project.

Task management features: I loved that you can add tasks from everywhere, no matter which project view you use. With Teamwork.com, you can add or assign tasks with one click. When creating a task, you can add dependencies, priorities, stages, and due dates. While all these are obvious, and you can add such parameters with every project management app, you can also select followers with Teamwork.com.

Client management software: Teamwork.com is a special project management app that focuses on client work. Besides projects, you can also add clients. The client view is a centralized place where you can access all your clients’ projects and keep track of high-level client data. For each client, you can assign more projects with different budgets and project owners. With Teamwork.com, you can add client users. Basically, it is a limited-permission license for your clients. When adding client users, you can provide your client with visibility into your work and create trackable work that you will invoice your client for later. The client users can leave comments, attach files, edit project items, and reply to messages.

Budgeting tool: This feature helps you in numerous ways, such as monitoring the project costs, tracking profit margin, and having a good understanding of your projects from a financial perspective. You can select the billable rate for each project and easily track the cost, billable hours, and overall profit. This project budgeting tool offers an effective solution to measure performance.

Team collaboration tools: You can assign tasks, add owners to projects, and easily invite your team members to your workspace. However, Teamwork.com offers many more tools for seamless collaboration. The Teamwork Chat offers an excellent solution to keep team members informed, attach files, create channels, and ultimately have real-time project discussions. I especially value the fact that you can create tasks from your Teamwork Chat channels.

Automation: Teamwork.com offers many templates for automation. You can easily filter those based on priority, tags, progress, and more. However, if you did not find the one you need, you can also create custom workflow automation. They are useful to minimize the repetitive tasks in your workflows.

Time tracking: When using the timer, you only need to select the project, task, and whether it is billable or not. Once you are done, you will see the timer on the left button of your page. However, you can move it around and pause and stop the time tracking with a click.

Proofs: You can bring your clients directly into a proof to review, provide feedback, and approve. It allows you to attach files, give due dates, and assign a project and task. Also, you can invite your team members to review the materials before client approval.

Resource management: This project management app has fantastic workload management features to optimize resource allocation. With the resource management features, you will know exactly who is available, when, and for how much. This way, you can have a full picture of the team’s capacity. Teamwork.com provides more view options like schedule, workload, portfolio, or chart to get a clear understanding of the available capacity and manage resources effectively, even at the stage of project planning.

Integrations: You can directly connect Teamwork.com with many third-party apps. In addition, Teamwork.com has a Zapier integration as well, so you can access an additional 7,000 apps.

Mobile app: Teamwork.com has a mobile version that is available for Android and iPhone users as well. This way, you can manage projects and access your tasks from your mobile devices. Personally, I used the iOS version and experienced some bugs when filtering on tasks.

Project management tools: ClickUp has many view options for your projects. Just click on the “+ View” icon, and you will see numerous other view options like list, Kanban board, calendar, or Gantt chart views. Each view has its advantages. For example, when using the list view, you can filter on status, assignees, priorities, tasks, due dates, or task types. Or, with a Gantt chart, you can filter on periods. Moreover, if you click on the customize tab, you can further personalize your views and choose from layout options, filters, permissions, and more. I know that resource management tools are critical for many of you managing teams. To access the relevant metrics, you can select the workload, box, and team views. With these views, you can get a quick understanding of who has free capacity and who is overcommitted.

Task management features: No matter if you are in your projects or space, you can create new tasks with a click. If you click on the add task on the right side, you can add a new task. ClickUp offers multiple task management tools. When creating a task, you can add descriptions and sub-tasks and select priority levels, assignees, due dates, tags, task dependencies, and reminders. After you create a task, there are other options that you can use for efficient task management. ClickUp allows you to attach files, write comments, add relationships, and more.

Team collaboration tools: In addition to assigning tasks and sharing projects and workspaces with others, ClickUp has some powerful collaboration tools for teams. One of my favorite collaboration tools is the whiteboard, which is particularly useful for remote teams. ClickUp allows you to drag and drop all parts of the elements and move them around. ClickUp offers a chat feature as well to enhance team communication. It helps to centralize their communication, project management, task management, and other workflows into one single place. Moreover, it has a feature called Docs, which offers a great way to take notes and create company wikis, knowledge bases, and more. So, it works like a note-taking app and information management tool.

Time tracking: ClickUp has some simple time-tracking tools to track how much time you spend on your tasks. You can record your time from your desktop, mobile, or web browser as well. Using time tracking with the timesheet tool, you can get some insights about your time management and that of your team members. It is also cool that you can filter on specific projects and workflows and build customized reports.

Automation: ClickUp uses “when” and “then” logic when creating automation. You can create automation for actions related to task management, communication, dates, and more. It is a helpful feature for automating routine tasks.

AI tools: If paying an additional fee, you can access its AI feature called ClickUp Brain. You can ask questions about your projects, tasks, and documents, and it will give you answers pretty fast. Moreover, there are many other use cases on how you can implement ClickUp Brain into your daily workflows. It can help you to automatically transcribe meetings recorded by ClickUp, check your spelling, and accelerate other workflows like creating tables or content.

Integrations: ClickUp is quite massive in terms of third-party integrations. Thanks to its Zapier integration, you can connect ClickUp with over 7,000 third-party apps, including Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Calendar.

Mobile app: ClickUp has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices as well. I liked the design of the mobile app, and it was great to access my projects and tasks from my phone. While ClickUp’s development team constantly updates the mobile app, it still has bugs and is slow sometimes. Also, numerous features are not available when using the mobile version.