The 10 best agile project management software for 2023

ClickUp

ClickUp is a robust project management platform, offering a wide range of solutions for all teams, regardless of project management method. For agile teams, ClickUp offers many tools such as sprint workflow automation, which enables teams to automate sprint assignments based on workload.

SEE: Agile project management methodologies 2022 (TechRepublic)

Another feature is simplified bug and issue tracking, allowing teams to capture bugs, turn them into tasks and assign team members to each one. ClickUp also comes with a wide range of customizable reports as well as dashboards. Teams can add widgets to their dashboards for sprints, cycle time, burndown and more ( Figure A ).

Figure A

A standout feature of ClickUp is the project management templates teams can use to get started quickly. Simply create an account, select a template such as Agile Management or Bug and Issue Tracking and start managing projects.

Pros

• East of use and onboarding
• Robust management capabilities for configuring UX, integrations and workflows
• Tasks are viewable in easily understandable, intuitive layouts
• Daily update emails of tasks due
• Easy time-tracking features
• Variety of plans for different team sizes and budgets

Cons

• Costly for larger teams
• No way to integrate Gmail’s inbox into the system
• Different views are not connected.

Pricing

ClickUp starts with a free-forever tier that includes an agile project management software must-have: storage. ClickUp offers 100MB storage and unlimited tasks starting at the free tier. The $5 per member/month Unlimited plan billed annually comes with unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards and Gantt charts, among other features. The $12 per member/month Business plan adds unlimited teams, Google SSO and advanced features. The Business Plus tier at the $19 per member/month level includes team sharing, subtasks in multiple lists and increased automations and API, among other features. For the Enterprise level, which includes a host of premium services, contact the vendor’s sales team for specifics.

monday work management

monday work management is an agile project management software and work management tool by monday.com. Inside monday work management is the specific product, monday projects, built solely for project management. This software offers several agile-specific project management tools such as real-time reporting, sprint planning, Gantt charts and bug tracking ( Figure B ).

Figure B

A key differentiator between monday work management and other agile tools is the ability to completely customize the platform to fit your specific needs. Whether you use scrum, kanban or a hybrid framework, monday work management is built to work with you, not against you.

Pros

• Highly scalable with many view options
• Time tracking is built in
• Integrates with numerous apps
• Integrated with team communications tools

Cons

• Limited features for entry price. Features like private projects, up to 10 combined boards, and chart views (ability to view board data in pie, bar or line graphs) are only in higher price tiers
• Difficult to track time and expenses
• Cluttered user interface, and sub-tasks are not intuitive to locate.

Pricing

monday work management’s free tier for up to two seats includes over 200 templates, unlimited docs and up to three boards. At the basic tier at $8 per seat, per month, users get unlimited free viewers, 5GB of storage and a dashboard based on one board. The standard tier for $10/seat/month users can create timeline, Gantt and calendar views, 250 automations per month and 250 integration actions per month. The Pro level at $16/seat/month includes private boards and docs, chart view and 25,000 automation and integration actions per month. The enterprise tier, with custom pricing, includes features like enterprise-scale automations and integrations and advanced reporting and analytics.

VivifyScrum

VivifyScrum was built specifically for agile teams, and it’s perfect for teams that want agile-focused tools without all the fluff found in other project management solutions. The platform is a web-based tool that’s easily accessible from any browser.

SEE: Scrum agile project management: A cheat sheet 2022 (TechRepublic)

VivifyScrum works using boards, including scrum and kanban. Using the scrum board, teams can set sprint goals and create tasks associated with each goal. Using the kanban board, teams can organize projects by development stage ( Figure C ).

Figure C

Other features found inside VivifyScrum include reports, invoicing, team management, time management and simplified project management. Users can take advantage of VivifyScrum EDU, a free scrum training with any paid account.

Pros

• Easy to start using the project management tool
• Intuitive UX and kanbans
• Ability to add comments, links and documents to tasks
• Reasonable pricing makes it ideal for small businesses looking for versatile features

Cons

• While visually pleasing, UI but can be difficult to navigate
• Lack of integration with calendars
• Some time-tracker limitations (e.g., integration with Firefox)
• No Gantt planning

Pricing

VivifyScrum offers a 7-day trial. Starting at $96/year for teams of up to 10 members, VivifyScrum gives you unlimited organizations and boards. The standard package is $4.80 per user/month for between 11 and 50 team members, which drops to $4 per user/month for teams with between 51 and 100 members. The features include unlimited organizations boards, tasks and access to all features.

Jira

Jira by Atlassian is a leading project management tool that provides agile tools for software development teams using frameworks such as scrum and kanban as well as mixed methods.

For scrum sprint planning, Jira has built-in tools such as version management and story points to help teams stay on track. Jira also simplifies the daily scrum meeting by providing instant access to progress reports via custom dashboards; these reports include everything from burndown charts to sprint reports ( Figure D ).

Figure D

For teams using kanban, features include swimlanes, work in progress limits and a built-in kanban board, among other tools.

Pros

• Great for large, enterprise-level operations
• Effective kanban and agile development
• Easy to track growth and backlogs
• High versatility for a variety of use cases and teams

Cons

• Difficult to customize
• Can’t assign task to multiple people at a time
• Difficult to integrate Jira Service Management with CRM and other tools

Pricing

Its free-forever tier for 10 users includes scrum and kanban, apps and integrations. Jira’s standard tier at an estimated $7.75 per user/month allows 35,000 users. For the Premium level at an estimated per user/month $15.25, users get advanced roadmaps and dependency management and multi-project automation. At the Enterprise and custom pricing level, the features include an unlimited number of sites as well as Atlassian Access (SSO, SCIM, Active Directly Sync).

Asana

Asana is a powerhouse project management tool commonly utilized by teams using the kanban framework. Asana offers a built-in kanban board view for quick setup, as well as additional board types.

The platform also enables teams to complete a wide range of other agile-specific tasks such as:

• Tracking bugs and issues within software
• Creating and managing detailed sprint plans
• Managing product launches
• Streamlining the stakeholder feedback gathering process

Another key feature found inside Asana is the ability to automate workflows. For example, when using a kanban board, teams can set triggers to move cards, eliminating tedious manual tasks ( Figure E )

Figure E

Pros

• Easy to use
• User-friendly dashboards
• Real-time communications functionality
• Asana integrates with many other project management apps such as Google Drive, Microsoft Teams and Slack

Cons

• Can’t assign multiple people to the same task
• No time-tracking feature
• Requires some experience with PM software
• Too many features for task options
• Only allows one user per task at any given time

Pricing

Asana’s free plan offers unlimited tasks, projects and file storage, plus active collaboration with up to 15 teammates, integration with time-tracking apps and 100 free integrations. For the Premium level at $10.99 per user/month, billed annually, you get unlimited dashboards, the new Workflow Builder, unlimited reporting, unlimited free guests, task templates and more. At the $24.99 per user/month Business tier, you can create portfolios, goals, workloads, a custom rules builder and advanced integrations with Salesforce, Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau and Power BI.

Azure Boards

Microsoft’s Azure Boards is one of the tools in the Microsoft DevOps suite for, you guessed it, developers. Specifically, Azure Boards is best for teams who need to manage complex software projects ( Figure F ).

Figure F

Azure Boards provides support for agile frameworks, including scrum and kanban. Inside, users find features such as customizable dashboards and real-time reporting. Users of Azure Boards can track anything and everything agile, including issues, bugs and story points. Azure Boards features simple, drag-and-drop functionality for fast project updates.

Pros

• Ideal for Microsoft projects
• Very clear and intuitive UI
• Large set of connectors/integrations/extensions
• Very flexible and supports all kind of deployment
• Pipelines feature allows deployment on premises to the cloud
• Sprint boards, code repositories, etc. can be managed from a single application.

Cons

• Poor deployment automation feature
• Options are sometimes difficult to find.
• Doesn’t easily support non-Microsoft and open-source ecosystems

Pricing

Azure DevOps are free for the first five users and then $6 per user per month for the basic plan. With it, you get Azure Boards, Pipelines, unlimited private Git repositories, Azure Artifacts (which enables developers to share their code efficiently and manage all their packages from one place) and 2GB free per organization.

The company also offers a Basic + Test plan, which includes testing capability. If you will be doing exploratory testing or user acceptance testing, this would be the right tier for you.

Axosoft

Axosoft was built specifically for software development teams using the agile method. The platform provides complete support for every step in the agile project management process.

For example, teams can begin by planning sprints using the Axosoft Release Planner. They can then track their progress using the built-in kanban board and reports focusing on burndown, cycle time, projected ship date and more ( Figure G ).

Figure G

In addition to these tools, Axosoft provides help desk functionality for user support, which is unique compared to the other tools on this list. Teams can receive support tickets and respond from right inside the platform.

Pros

• Robust scrum and project and sprint tracking
• Easy to create projects backlogs
• Flexibility and simplicity
• Ease of data exploiting to Excel and other formats
• Easy to implement email and create groups and users

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Crowded interface
• Difficult to filter columns

Pricing

Axosoft offers a 14-day trial. Axosoft, at around $21 per user/month at all levels, starts at $105 per month for five users. It lets you do unlimited work items, as well as group, filter and summarize by project type. For that price,  you can also track status and workflow per item; build unlimited workflow templates; perform hierarchical project tracking with endless levels of subprojects; set unique field templates for each project; and access full scrum and kanban features. You can also create unlimited field templates, custom workflows, fields and security roles; create live reports and more.

Planview Leankit

AgilePlace by Planview is a great solution for teams using the kanban framework; the solution provides flexible kanban boards for both agile and lean teams. Other capabilities with AgilePlace include the ability to visualize real-time work status, set WIP limits, plan projects and much more ( Figure H ).

Figure H

For agile teams that miss the traditional sticky notes on a whiteboard experience, AgilePlace features Instant Coffee, a collaboration tool that uses virtual sticky notes.

Pros

• Easy to create assignable kanban cards in dashboard
• Good pre-build templates for things like resource allocation, planning and budget management
• Ease of remote scheduling and workforce management
• Elegant UX and graphical workflow

Cons

• Upgrades are sometimes implemented without users’ knowledge.
• Not clear how to subscribe through email to message boards or greeting cards

Pricing

AgilePlace offers a 30-day free trial. Planview AgilePlace pricing starts at $20 per user/month billed annually. It includes unlimited boards, access to the board template library and custom board templates, and the ability to duplicate boards. It also includes multiple features for work structuring and planning, integration of work across the organization, tracking, analysis and reporting, active collaboration, security and integration with other systems.

Wrike

Wrike is a work management platform that features standard project management tools such as automation, time tracking and reporting; the platform also delivers more agile-specific tools such as interactive Gantt charts and kanban boards.

Wrike’s Agile Teamwork template enables agile teams to hit the ground running as soon as they implement the platform. This template delivers simplified sprint management, progress tracking and bug tracking as soon as it is activated; however, this doesn’t stop agile teams from customizing the template further to fit their exact needs ( Figure I ).

Figure I

Other templates found inside Wrike include a Kanban Project template and a Sprint Planning template.

Pros

• Robust customization for projects
• Numerous app integrations
• Good collaboration and task tracking
• Great forms functionality

Cons

• Limited filtering options
• Few customization options for UI
• Onboarding is more difficult
• Non intuitive, hard-to-follow email notifications

Pricing

After a free tier with basic features for board and tables, as well as project and task management and apps, Wrike offers a Team plan for $9.80 per user/month with unlimited projects, tasks and subtasks, custom fields and forms. It also allows for 20 collaborators, Gantt charts, 2GB storage per user, and automations, among other features. At the Business tier, Wrike includes folder structure and nested projects, project blueprints, unlimited dashboards and reports, 5GB storage per user, 200 automation actions per user per month and more. Wrike also offers two custom-priced tiers for large teams.

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a flexible and scalable project management platform, providing solutions for virtually any industry. The platform offers a completely customizable interface and enables teams to manage all projects, regardless of complexity. This flexibility alone makes it an excellent choice for agile teams with rapidly changing needs. According to Gartner , Smartsheet is the number one project portfolio management software worldwide.

Smartsheet includes a wide range of project management features, including the ability to use Gantt charts to visualize projects. The software also offers automation to streamline processes, real-time reports for project visibility and third-party integrations for eliminating silos ( Figure J ).

Figure J

Pros

• Highly customizable
• Powerful analytics and reporting
• Vigorous data protection
• 100s of prebuilt templates

Cons

• Spreadsheet interface can be challenging.
• Lacks built-in time-tracking and resource management

Pricing

Smartsheet offers a 30-day free trial. Smartsheet’s Pro tier at $7 per user/month billed annually includes unlimited sheets and viewers, up to 10 editors, Gantt chart, grid, card and calendar views, dashboards reports, forms and 20GB of attachment storage. It also offers 250 automations per month plus integrations with Microsoft 365 Teams, Google Workspace, Slack Box and Dropbox.

At the Business tier for $25 per user/month, you can have unlimited editors, publish sheets, reports and dashboards, license management and 1TB of attachment storage among other features.

Smartsheet’s custom-priced Enterprise tier includes features like DocuSign integration, domain validation and unlimited attachment storage.