Quick answer: Our top pick is Wrike, followed by Asana and Hive. All 5 are compared below on price, strengths and the key trade-off of each, so you can match one to your needs.
Every pick is here for a concrete reason, spelled out below. This guide rounds up the 5 tools we'd actually recommend for this job, with what each does best, what it costs, and who should pick it.
Each pick was judged on the job in this guide rather than a generic scorecard, weighing results, price and ramp-up time. Pricing is taken from public plans at the time of writing.
Free Personal plan (up to 10-15 seats); Starter from ~$10.99/user/mo; Advanced ~$24.99/user/mo; Enterprise and Enterprise+ custom (billed annually; monthly billing higher).
Free Deliver plan (limited seats); Deliver from ~$10.99/user/mo; Grow ~$19.99/user/mo; Scale ~$54.99/user/mo; Enterprise custom (billed annually).
Agencies and client services
The picks, ranked
1. Wrike work management
Enterprise-grade work management with custom workflows, request forms, proofing and resource management, popular with marketing, agency and professional-services teams. It stands out for marketing and creative teams without a heavy setup cost.
Why it's on this list: Enterprise work management with proofing and resource planning aimed squarely at marketing and creative teams. Aimed squarely at marketing, creative and professional-services teams needing proofing, request forms and capacity planning.
Standout features:
Interactive Gantt charts, Kanban boards, calendars and table/spreadsheet views
Request/intake forms that auto-route work into projects
Standout strength: Free plan and a clear ladder up to enterprise/PPM features.
Worth knowing: Lineup as of Jan 2026 is Free, Team, Business, Pinnacle, Apex.
Pricing: Free plan; Team from ~$10/user/mo; Business ~$25/user/mo; Enterprise and Pinnacle custom (billed annually).
Polished, widely adopted work-management platform with strong task tracking, timelines, portfolios and a deep automation/AI layer for cross-functional teams. A strong default when cross-functional teams is the priority.
Why it's on this list: A broad, refined work-management platform that scales from a free personal board to enterprise portfolios. Built for cross-functional marketing/ops teams scaling from free to enterprise who want polish and many views.
Standout features:
Native time tracking on Advanced and above
Task, subtask and project management with List, Board, Calendar, Timeline (Gantt) and Gantt-style views
Standout strength: Polished, mature UX with one of the widest view sets in the category.
Worth knowing: Free Personal plan now caps at 2 paid users for accounts created after 12 Nov 2025 (older accounts keep up to 10 seats).
Pricing: Free Personal plan (up to 10-15 seats); Starter from ~$10.99/user/mo; Advanced ~$24.99/user/mo; Enterprise and Enterprise+ custom (billed annually; monthly billing higher).
Flexible project and work management with multiple project views, native chat, time tracking and a growing AI assistant, aimed at collaborative teams. Best suited to teams that care most about collaborative cross-team work.
Why it's on this list: Project management that bundles native chat and an AI assistant alongside Gantt, Kanban and calendar views. A natural fit for collaborative cross-functional teams wanting PM plus built-in chat in one workspace.
Standout features:
Multiple project views: Gantt/timeline, Kanban, calendar and table
Native team chat and collaborative notes
Standout strength: Free plan for up to 10 members with unlimited tasks.
Worth knowing: AI assistant 'Buzz' answers using actual workspace data.
Pricing: Free plan; Starter from ~$5/user/mo; Teams ~$12/user/mo; Enterprise custom (billed annually; verify current tiers).
All-in-one project management combining tasks, milestones, docs, chat and time tracking in one workspace, with a strong free tier for small teams. Picked here for how cleanly it handles small to mid-size teams.
Why it's on this list: An all-in-one workspace tying tasks to milestones, with docs and chat, plus unlimited members on free. Made for small-to-mid teams wanting one milestone-driven workspace for tasks, docs and chat.
Standout features:
Built-in docs, discussions and team chat
Time tracking and workload reporting
Standout strength: Unlimited team members even on the free plan.
Worth knowing: Free plan allows unlimited team members but only 2 active projects and 100 MB storage.
Pricing: Free plan; Starter from ~$7/member/mo; Pro ~$10/member/mo; Business ~$16/member/mo; Enterprise custom (billed annually).
Project management built specifically for client services and agencies, with built-in time tracking, billing, budgets and profitability reporting. Best suited to teams that care most about agencies and client services.
Why it's on this list: Project management built specifically for client work, with time, billing and profitability baked in. Built for agencies and client-services teams that bill time and need profitability/retainer tracking.
Standout features:
Proofing and approvals for deliverables
Project management with List, Board (Kanban), Gantt, Table and Calendar views
Standout strength: Strong reporting on margins and retainers.
Worth knowing: SOC 2 compliant with US or EU data hosting options.
Pricing: Free Deliver plan (limited seats); Deliver from ~$10.99/user/mo; Grow ~$19.99/user/mo; Scale ~$54.99/user/mo; Enterprise custom (billed annually).
If you're optimising for budget, start at the lower-priced options and only move up when you hit a real limit. If output quality or team features matter more than price, the top picks above will save you time. When two options look close, try both free tiers on one real task before committing — the right fit is usually obvious within an hour.
FAQ
What is the best option in this list?
Wrike is our default recommendation here; that said, a lower pick can be the smarter buy if its strengths map more closely to your job.
Are there free options?
Yes — Wrike, Hive and Nifty offer a free plan or tier, so you can validate fit before paying. Check each entry's pricing line above.
How were these tools chosen?
Each pick is judged on fit for the specific job in this guide — its real strengths, pricing and who it suits — using features and facts drawn from independent reviews and the vendors' own documentation, cited in Sources below.
How often is this guide updated?
We revisit pricing and rankings regularly as vendors change plans and ship features.
Sources
The features, strengths and facts cited for each pick above are drawn from these independent reviews and vendor pages: