Productivity in the digital age means focusing on people, projects, and tasks by having all the tools you need in one piece of project management software. Here, we look at some of the most popular task management tools so you can keep all your personal and collaborative work front and center!
The most important tools in any task management software are going to depend largely on your business and team, but some of the features you might be looking for include:
Communication tools, which can include internal and external real-time chat as well as email integration for folding in more traditional lines of contact, are the foundation of any paid or free task management tool. This also extends to video and voice calls, which are increasingly overtaking in-person meetings.
While these are heavily dominated by platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Teams, and Meet, having these tools integrated into task management software can make team communication smoother than ever. If your business handles sensitive data (or you just like your privacy) it’s also worth looking at how communication is happening and checking for the option of encrypting messages at will or integrating encryption software into task management software.
Collaboration has always been important for productivity, and much like communication has shifted online in recent years. Shared documents, whether integrated into project management software or through cloud providers, are key for program management tools. This should be in addition to file sharing, with some of the best task management software offering considerable storage even on free accounts.
In addition, task management tools should now include collaborative notes with multimedia input. What’s more, being able to split organizations into smaller teams or groups so as to keep collaboration focussed is another tool that you should be looking for when selecting your task management software.
Another integral aspect for task management software is scheduling. This can, and should, include tools such as a calendar, task trackers, notifications, and preferably milestones. Additionally, there is actual task tracking, which as the name would suggest is often at the core of the software.
This should allow you to create and manage tasks, integrate them with the other aspects of the software such as scheduling and collaboration between team members. Being able to annotate and prioritize tasks should also be considered when looking for the best task management software for you.
Spike |
Clickup |
Basecamp |
Trello |
monday.com |
Nifty |
Todoist |
Asana |
|
Calendar / Scheduling |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
To-Do List |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
Real-time chat |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
❌ |
❌ |
✅
|
❌ |
❌
|
Reminders |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅
|
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
File Sharing |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
Groups/Teams |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅ |
✅ |
❌ |
✅ |
✅
|
Collaborative Notes |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅
|
✅ |
❌
|
✅
|
Cross-Platform Compatibility |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅
|
✅ |
✅
|
✅
|
Native Email tools |
✅ |
❌ |
❌
|
❌ |
❌
|
❌
|
❌ |
❌
|
Cloud Integration |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅
|
✅ |
✅
|
✅
|
Read Receipts |
✅ |
❌
|
❌
|
❌
|
❌
|
❌ |
❌ |
❌
|
Dark Theme |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
Email Encryption |
✅ |
❌
|
❌
|
❌
|
❌ |
❌ |
❌
|
❌
|
Multimedia Messaging |
✅ |
✅ |
✅
|
❌
|
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
❌ |
Calls |
✅ |
❌
|
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
❌
|
❌
|
❌ |
Cost |
Free – $12+/month |
Free – $5+/month |
Free or $99/month |
Free – $9.99+/month |
$24+ /month |
$39+/month |
Free – $3+/month |
Free – $10.99+/month |
In a world where every company is trying to create yet another siloed app for chat, Spike does the opposite. Spike builds all of the benefits of an app like Slack or Teams right into your email Inbox. Spike takes email, turns it into a chat app, but that’s not all it does.
Spike also lets you manage
and much more. It’s a complete digital workspace inside of a single application. It’s the perfect place for freelancers and remote teams to connect with their customers and coworkers.
As many teams remain in hybrid and remote work environments, Spike is the best way to stay on track with projects, meet deadlines, and stay connected. Instead of trying to have an email app and a team chat app, Spike handles both. For those people that aren’t using Spike, they’ll get your messages like a normal email, so it’s the best of both worlds.
Clickup offers multiple views and options to structure your team’s workflow depending on your preferred style. It is a cloud-based project management tool focussed around stacking tasks in to-do lists, with statuses, alerts, and collaborative tools to get work done, whether as a single content creator or a large-scale company.
Considered one of the best free task management tools, it offers unlimited users and tasks forever. However, the free version only allows 100MB of storage as well as having other limitations such as a maximum of five workspaces.
Pros
Cons
One of the more established pieces of task management software out there, Basecamp breaks work up into separate projects.
Each of these projects contains all relevant people, discussions, documents, files, tasks, reminders, etc. It is an online project management tool, which means real-time updates across platforms and access from anywhere (that has a connection). Basecamp is mainly aimed at multi-person organizations, but they do offer a free version for personal use with very limited features.
Pros
Cons
Mimicking the sticky-notes of yesteryear, Trello allows users to create boards with multiple tasks divided into columns. It is a highly visual platform, where users can drag tasks and to-dos to create their workflow. It has various integrations for business plans with calendars, reminders, and more.
Multiple people can be added to each board or as members of a team with multiple boards as well as being assigned specific “cards,” i.e. tasks, which can contain checklists, due dates, attachments, and more.
Pros
Cons
Originally developed in 2010 as an internal management tool for Wix, it broke out as its own project management tool for the organization of tasks and teamwork.
Monday.com offers boards, timelines, and Gantt views as well as automation of repetitive tasks and the integration of external software. The core of monday.com is in its columns, which allow quick overviews of people, timelines, status, and more.
Pros
Cons
Nifty is a cloud-based project management software that includes tools such as Agile methodologies, Gantt charts, file sharing, board view, prioritization of tasks, project scheduling, and a task tracker.
There is role-based user access to shared files and documents along with real-time chat in thread discussions. Nifty allows for the allocations of individual tasks, lists of tasks, and also the option of recurring tasks, which is a requested feature of much other productivity software.