Project management tools keep a team’s work in one place: tasks with an owner and a due date, shown as a list, board, calendar or timeline, with files and comments on each task. Paid plans usually add timeline or Gantt views, guest access and, in some tools, time tracking. The tools differ in three ways: per-user or flat pricing, which plan unlocks the views and time tracking you need, and whether anything connects the work to money.
This guide is for any team choosing a general project management app, from marketing to operations. If you run an agency or another client-service business and need approved hours, invoices and project profitability, read our agency project management software guide instead; it compares 14 tools built for client work.
"},{"heading":"Project management software compared at a glance","html":"Nine general project management tools and PLYNTUM, from each vendor’s own pricing page on 23 October 2026 (Asana, ClickUp and Teamwork.com again on 24 October 2026, Basecamp on 25 October 2026). Prices are list prices a month before tax, written as annual / monthly billing. “Not stated” means the pricing page is silent, not that the feature is missing. Tools are listed alphabetically, not ranked; PLYNTUM, our product, is last.
| Tool | Free plan | Entry paid plan (annual / monthly billing) | Board, timeline, Gantt | Native time tracking from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asana | Up to 2 users | Starter: $10.99 / $13.49 per user | Board: all plans; timeline, Gantt: Starter | Advanced |
| Basecamp | 1 project, 3 people | Freelancer: $29 a month flat, up to 5 users; billed monthly (annual billing listed only on Pro Unlimited) | Card Tables (kanban); timeline, Gantt: not stated | Pro Plus ($99) |
| ClickUp | Unlimited members, 60 MB | Core: $9 / $12 per user | Board: all plans; Gantt: Core; timeline: Business | Core (trial on Free) |
| monday.com | 2 seats, 3 boards | Basic: €9 / €12 per seat, minimum 3; shown in euros only | Kanban: all plans; timeline, Gantt: Standard | Pro |
| Notion | 10 guests, 5 MB uploads | Plus: $10 / $12 per seat | Board and timeline exist; plan not stated | Not stated |
| Smartsheet | None (30-day trial) | Pro: $9 / $12 per member, 1–10 members | Board, Gantt: Pro; timeline: Business | Add-on description only |
| Teamwork.com | 5 users, 5 projects | Basics: $9.99 / $13.99 per user, minimum 3 | Board, Gantt: Free | Logging and billable time: Free; timesheets: Accelerate |
| Trello | 10 collaborators, 10 boards | Standard: $5 / $6 per user | Boards: all plans; timeline: Premium | Not stated |
| Wrike | Unlimited users | Team: $10 per user, annual; monthly not stated; 2–15 users | Kanban: Free; Gantt: Team | Business |
| PLYNTUM (our product) | None (7-day Launch trial) | Launch: $44 / $55 per workspace, 5 members | List, board, calendar, week, timeline: all plans | All plans, manual; approval: Core |
Trello, Notion, Wrike and Smartsheet state US dollars; Asana, ClickUp, Basecamp and Teamwork.com show only the $ sign. monday.com showed euros from our location and sets prices by billing country, so its figures stay in euros, unconverted.
"},{"heading":"The nine tools, one by one","html":"In the same alphabetical order, with what each pricing page leaves out.
Asana aims Starter at small teams and professionals tracking project progress and deadlines. Native time tracking needs Advanced ($24.99 / $30.49); a Timesheets & Budgets add-on has no published price. Not stated: timesheet approval, invoicing, project profitability; a branded client portal is a separate product, Asana Client Management.
Pricing: asana.com/pricing. See also Asana alternatives.
Basecamp charges a flat price per package, not per user, and says it is priced for start-ups, freelancers and small businesses. Freelancer ($29, 5 users, 3 projects) lacks time tracking; Pro Plus ($99, 15 users) has it. These are monthly prices: the pricing page lists annual billing only on Pro Unlimited, $199 a month billed annually or $329 monthly, with no user cap. Its features page lists The Lineup, a timeline of projects (both checked 25 October 2026). Not stated: Gantt views, invoicing, budgets.
Pricing: basecamp.com/pricing.
ClickUp’s page names no target team; it suits teams that want to start free with unlimited members and get Gantt and time tracking on the first paid plan. Yearly prices are shown as discounts ($9 from $12 on Core, $17 from $25 on Business). Timesheets start on Business, their approval on Enterprise and Max. Not stated: invoicing, budgets, profitability.
Pricing: clickup.com/pricing. See also ClickUp alternatives.
monday.com offers its Work Management plans to every team and calls the free plan ideal for freelancers and individual professionals. In euros, as shown to us, Standard is €12 / €14 per seat and Pro €19 / €24. Not stated for Work Management: timesheet approval, invoicing, budgets. Quotes and invoices sit in a separate product, monday CRM.
Pricing: monday.com/pricing. See also monday.com alternatives.
Notion calls itself one tool to run your company: pages and databases in one workspace, where a database can show as a board or a timeline. It suits teams that want project lists next to their pages. Business is $20 / $24 per seat. Not stated: which plan includes the board and timeline views, time tracking, timesheets, invoicing, budgets.
Pricing: notion.com/pricing.
Smartsheet aims Business ($19 / $24 per member, from 3 members) at companies that need to align people, projects and programs. Time tracking appears only in the description of the Resource Management add-on, which has no published price. Not stated: timesheet approval, invoicing, budgets.
Pricing: smartsheet.com/pricing.
Teamwork.com is built for client work; Optimize is aimed at services businesses managing resources, budgets and profitability. It is the closest of the nine to PLYNTUM and the only one listing client invoicing: basic invoices from logged time on Accelerate ($24.99 / $29.99); timesheet approval, financial budgets and profit by project or client on Optimize, priced on request. Basics needs at least 3 users and Accelerate at least 5.
Pricing: teamwork.com/pricing.
Trello runs on boards, lists and cards on every plan, though its pages never use the word kanban. It suits small teams that want a simple board and a free start. Premium ($10 / $12.50) adds calendar, timeline, table, dashboard and map views; from Standard, guests can join single boards. Not stated: time tracking, timesheets, invoicing, budgets.
Pricing: trello.com/pricing. See also Trello alternatives.
Wrike presents Business as a customizable platform to manage workflows and Pinnacle as built for complex workflows; it suits teams that need Gantt on the first paid plan. Business ($25 per user, 5–200 users) is annual only; Pinnacle, with budgeting, and Apex are priced on request. Prices apply to purchases from 21 January 2026. Not stated: invoicing, timesheet approval.
Pricing: wrike.com/pricing.
"},{"heading":"How to choose project management software","html":"Five questions cut nine tools to two or three.
Free plans range from 2 people on Asana and monday.com to unlimited members on ClickUp and Wrike. Paid plans add seat rules: monday.com starts at 3 seats, Wrike Team stops at 15 users, Smartsheet Pro at 10 members, and Basecamp packages cap users at 5, 10 or 15 (Pro Unlimited has no cap). PLYNTUM plans include 5, 10, 25 or 50 members.
Every tool here has a board; if that is your main view, see what a kanban board is. Timeline and Gantt views are what separate the plans, so check in the table which plan unlocks them; only Teamwork.com puts Gantt on its free plan.
Native time tracking usually sits in a middle tier, such as Asana Advanced, monday.com Pro or Wrike Business. Timesheet approval is stated only by ClickUp (Enterprise and Max) and Teamwork.com (Optimize), and client invoicing only by Teamwork.com, from Accelerate. If you invoice clients for your team’s hours, this question matters more than any view.
Eight of the nine charge per user; Basecamp charges per package, with a user cap and, below Pro Unlimited, monthly prices, and PLYNTUM per workspace, members included. The table is arithmetic on list prices, per month on annual billing, before tax; it is not a quote.
| Tool | 5 users, entry paid plan | 10 users, entry paid plan | 10 users, first plan with native time tracking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asana | $54.95 (Starter) | $109.90 | $249.90 (Advanced) |
| Basecamp | $29 (Freelancer, monthly price) | $79 (Pro, monthly price) | $99 (Pro Plus, monthly price) |
| ClickUp | $45 (Core) | $90 | $90 (Core) |
| monday.com | Not checked | €90 (Basic), as shown | €190 (Pro), as shown |
| Notion | $50 (Plus) | $100 | Not stated |
| Smartsheet | $45 (Pro) | $90 | Not stated |
| Teamwork.com | $49.95 (Basics) | $99.90 | $99.90 (Basics) |
| Trello | $25 (Standard) | $50 | Not stated |
| Wrike | $50 (Team) | $100 | $250 (Business) |
| PLYNTUM | $44 (Launch) | $120 (Core) | $120 (Core) |
Free plans change this: 5 people pay nothing on ClickUp, Trello, Wrike and Teamwork.com if the limits fit, and 10 people on ClickUp, Trello and Wrike. Per-user prices rise with each hire, while flat prices move in steps: at the 11th member a PLYNTUM workspace moves from Core to Scale, $360 a month billed annually.
Asana allows unlimited free guests from Starter, Notion 10 on Free and unlimited from Plus, Smartsheet free guests from Business; monday.com bills 4 guests as one seat from Standard, Wrike needs a paid limited seat for external users, and Basecamp counts clients as users. Teamwork.com invites client users from Basics. PLYNTUM gives each client a portal from Core: a private link to their projects, invoices, payments and balance, with no account needed.
"},{"heading":"Where PLYNTUM fits: projects connected to time, invoices and profitability","html":"PLYNTUM is our product: business management software for agencies and service companies, in English and Georgian. It suits teams that sell their time and want each project to show the hours logged, the invoices sent and what it earned; it is one option here, not a replacement for the nine tools.
PLYNTUM is built around client work. If any of these describes your team, one of the nine tools above will serve you better.
We read each vendor’s pricing page on 23 October 2026 (Asana, ClickUp and Teamwork.com again on 24 October 2026, Basecamp on 25 October 2026), annual and monthly prices and comparison tables row by row; links are under each tool above. Where a page was silent, we opened one official page: Wrike’s comparison table, Notion’s help page on views and Asana’s Client Management page. No review sites, sign-ups or sales calls. Pages were read from one location, so prices may differ by region. PLYNTUM’s figures come from our own price list.
Prices change; check the vendor’s page before you buy, and tell us at info@plyntum.com if a figure here is out of date.
"},{"heading":"Sources","html":"Every vendor fact on this page was read on the vendor’s own page on 23 October 2026; Asana, ClickUp and Teamwork.com prices were read again on 24 October 2026, and Basecamp’s on 25 October 2026. Prices change; check the vendor before you buy.
"},{"heading":"Related pages","html":""}]},"updated":"2026-10-27","keyFacts":[["Tools compared","Nine general project management tools (Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, monday.com, Notion, Smartsheet, Teamwork.com, Trello, Wrike) plus PLYNTUM, listed alphabetically and not ranked."],["Who this guide is for","Any team choosing a general project management app; agencies that need invoicing and profitability should use the agency management software guide."],["Sources","Each vendor’s own pricing page, checked on 23 October 2026 (Asana, ClickUp and Teamwork.com again on 24 October 2026); “not stated” means the page is silent, not that the feature is missing."],["Entry paid price","Per user a month on annual billing: from $5 (Trello Standard) to $10.99 (Asana Starter); monday.com Basic €9 per seat, shown in euros only; Basecamp $29 flat for 5 users, a monthly price."],["Free plans","Eight of the nine tools have one; Smartsheet offers a 30-day trial instead. PLYNTUM has no free plan; its 7-day trial runs on Launch."],["PLYNTUM for 5 and 10 people","Per workspace: Launch $55 a month for 5 members ($44 billed annually), Core $150 for 10 ($120); views and manual time tracking on every plan, timesheet approval and profitability from Core."]],"faq":[["What is the best project management software?","No single tool is best for every team; the right one depends on team size, the views you need and how you want to pay. On prices checked on 23 October 2026, Trello, ClickUp and Wrike have free plans for ten people, Asana and monday.com keep timelines for paid plans, and Teamwork.com is the only one of nine general tools that lists client invoicing."],["What are project management tools?","Software that keeps a team’s tasks, owners, deadlines, files and comments in one place and shows them as a list, board, calendar or timeline. Paid plans usually add timeline or Gantt views, guest access and, in some tools, time tracking. Teams that bill clients for their time also need approved hours, invoices and profitability, which most general tools do not state."],["Which project management tools have a free plan?","Eight of the nine in this guide: Asana and monday.com for up to 2 people, Basecamp for one project and 3 people, Teamwork.com for 5 users, Trello for 10 collaborators, and ClickUp and Wrike for unlimited members. Notion’s free plan limits blocks once 2 or more members join. Smartsheet offers a 30-day trial instead, and PLYNTUM a 7-day trial on Launch."],["Which project management app includes time tracking?","Teamwork.com logs time on its free plan and ClickUp from Core. Asana needs Advanced, monday.com Pro, Wrike Business and Basecamp Pro Plus. Trello and Notion do not state time tracking on their pricing pages, and Smartsheet mentions it only for a paid add-on. PLYNTUM has a manual timer and timesheets on every plan, with weekly manager approval from Core."],["How much does project management software cost for 10 people?","Per month on annual billing, entry paid plans: Trello $50, ClickUp and Smartsheet $90, Teamwork.com $99.90, Notion and Wrike $100, Asana $109.90, Basecamp Pro $79 a month (its pricing page lists annual billing only on Pro Unlimited), monday.com €90 as shown in euros, and PLYNTUM Core $120 per workspace. On several tools, native time tracking needs a higher plan."],["Is a general project management tool enough for an agency?","For planning, often yes. For money, usually not: of the nine tools here only Teamwork.com lists client invoicing, and timesheet approval appears only on ClickUp’s Enterprise and Max plans and Teamwork.com’s Optimize. Agencies that need approved hours, invoices and profitability should read our agency management software guide, which compares 14 tools built for client work."]]}