Thursday, December 31, 2020

Best Team Management Software

Team management software helps facilitate collaboration and communication in the workplace. Department heads and team leaders can use these tools to maximize productivity and ensure their entire team is on the same page.

The modern workforce has gone digital. Rather than wasting time with meetings, email chains, and phone calls, teams can communicate from a single source of truth.

Team management software can accommodate a wide range of potential use cases, from daily tasks to ongoing projects and time tracking.

Whether you’re managing a small remote team or hundreds of employees in a traditional office setting, team management software can help improve the quality of work that your team produces. These tools make life easier for management, too.

What’s the best team management software on the market today? Find out below.

The Top 7 Best Team Management Software

  1. ProofHub — Best For Keeping Teams Organized
  2. Twist — Best For Remote Teams
  3. Paymo — Best For Small Businesses and Growing Teams
  4. Chanty — Best For Team Collaboration and Communication
  5. Hubstaff — Best Features For Managers and Supervisors
  6. Clockify — Best For Time Management
  7. Toggl Plan — Best For Team Planning

After extensive research and testing, I’ve narrowed down the top seven team management tools I can recommend with conviction. The following reviews highlight the features, benefits, prices, use cases, and potential drawbacks of each software on my list.

#1 – ProofHub — Best For Keeping Teams Organized

  • All-in-one management solution for organization
  • Automatic reminders and daily schedule planning
  • Time tracking software
  • Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and more
Try it today!

ProofHub is branded as an all-in-one solution for project planning and team collaboration. It’s trusted by 85,000+ teams worldwide, including Nike, NASA, Google, Netflix, Pinterest, and Tripadvisor.

The software has everything teams need to get work done faster. It helps teams meet deadlines and stay organized from a single source of truth.

One of the main reasons why ProofHub ranks so high on my list is due to its simplicity. I love the fact that there is virtually no learning curve, so managers can deploy this tool without wasting time on training.

Some of the top features and benefits of ProofHub for team management include:

  • Daily schedule planning with automatic reminders
  • Custom roles and private tasks lists
  • “Me-view” so individuals only see what’s relevant to them
  • Team chat and discussion tools
  • Time tracking
  • Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and other project management tools

Managers love ProofHub’s ability to control who has access to what on the platform. It allows management to create custom workflows for the team as well.

Overall, it’s a centralized tool that keeps everyone organized and provides managers with a clear picture of what’s happening with the team.

There are two packages to choose from—Essential and Ultimate Control. These start at $45 and $89 per month, respectively. All plans support an unlimited number of users. So, it’s great for small and large teams alike.

Try all of ProofHub’s features for free with a 14-day trial.

#2 – Twist — Best For Remote Teams

  • Perfect for for remote and distributed teams
  • Time zone inclusive threads
  • Instant-message style communications
  • Starts at $5 per user per month
Try it today!

Twist is designed to make team communication less chaotic. The software helps facilitate collaboration without distracting people from their tasks.

One unique standout of Twist compared to other team management tools is its ability to accommodate the challenges associated with remote work.

I’ve spent most of my career managing remote teams, so I know first-hand how useful these features can be. Let’s take a closer look at what you’ll get when you sign up for Twist.

  • Remote brainstorming sessions
  • Asynchronous threads that are time zone inclusive
  • Channels to segment projects and categories
  • Team communication tools
  • No online indicators, read receipts, or monitoring
  • Notification controls

With Twist, teams can eliminate chat apps and email for internal communication. It can accommodate quick instant-message style communication as well as long-form thread-style conversations.

Twist is used by more than 230,000 people, including teams within well-known organizations like Shopify, Starbucks, and GameStop.

There’s a free version of the software for basic use, but I can’t say that I recommend it beyond an extended free trial. For just $5 per user per month, your team can have access to all of Twist’s features. It’s a tremendous value.

#3 – Paymo — Best For Small Businesses and Growing Teams

  • Great for scaling teams
  • Tasks lists, Kanban boards, and more
  • Excellent timeline tools for holistic look at projects
  • Comes with a free 15-day trial
Try it today!

Paymo is another all-in-one solution for team management. It has tools and features for resource planning, time tracking, project management, invoices, and so much more.

The software has been used to manage over 2 million projects from 100,000+ businesses worldwide.

Paymo has an extensive feature list to accommodate team members and team leaders alike. Some of the noteworthy highlights of this platform include:

  • Task lists, Kanban boards, and advanced task management
  • Desktop, mobile, and automatic time tracking
  • Team scheduling
  • Employee and project timelines
  • Real-time monitoring
  • Real-time task commenting
  • File management with unlimited storage space

Team leaders can also use Paymo for financial management, like expense tracking, budgeting, estimates vs. actuals, and more.

I like Paymo because it can accommodate the needs of smaller teams at an affordable price. The Small Office plan starts at just $9.95 per user per month. As your team scales and your needs become more advanced, you can upgrade to the Business plan for $15.79 per month.

Try Paymo for free with a 15-day trial.

#4 – Chanty — Best For Team Collaboration and Communication

  • Free team messaging tool
  • Great for development teams
  • Easy to share snippets and blocks of code
  • Starts with a free plan
Try it today!

Chanty isn’t the most well-known name on the market today, but it’s a powerful and cost-effective alternative to other team communion tools.

If you’re looking for a free team messaging tool, Chanty is second to none.

Chanty is becoming a popular choice for development teams. The software makes it easy to share blocks of code directly within the platform so that colleagues can open code snippets without having to leave the chat app.

For teams using another messaging platform, Chanty will import your data from tools like Slack, Flock, and Atlassian.

Some of the other top features and benefits of Chanty include:

  • Unlimited public and private conversations
  • Unlimited search history
  • Unlimited one-to-one audio calls
  • Unlimited voice messages
  • Built-in task management

All of these are available on the free plan for up to 10 team members. For features like group audio calls, video calls, and screen sharing, upgrade to the Business plan for just $3 per month per user.

Sign up for the free plan to try out Chanty or book a demo of the Business plan to get started.

#5 – Hubstaff — Best Features For Managers and Supervisors

  • Great for managers
  • Time tracking, productivity monitoring, and reporting tools
  • More than 40 integrations with common software
  • Starts at $7 per user per month
Try it today!

Lots of team management software emphasizes team collaboration. But Hubstaff is unique in the way that it empowers managers to do their jobs better.

More than 40,000 businesses trust the software across a wide range of industries. It’s especially useful for companies with field service workers and remote employees.

Hubstaff gives managers useful insights and tools to keep their teams productive without constant check-ins. Some of the top features of the software include:

  • Time tracking
  • Productivity monitoring
  • Detailed reporting
  • GPS tracking for managing fleet workers
  • Online timesheets
  • Automated payroll
  • 40+ integrations

The software makes it easy for managers to identify which workers are struggling and need help. It also provides detailed analytics on how much time individuals and departments are spending on certain tasks. These reports can be tied directly to the budgets for particular projects.

There are three different plans to choose from:

  • Basic: $7 per user per month
  • Premium: $10 per user per month
  • Enterprise: $20 per user per month

Hubstaff has a free plan, but it only supports a single user, which isn’t a viable option for team management. I’d recommend the Premium plan, at a minimum. This package provides the best value, and it’s only a few dollars more than the Basic version.

Try Hubstaff for free with a 14-day trial.

#6 – Clockify — Best For Time Management

  • Great time management and tracking tool
  • Allows for hour logging for your employees
  • Categorize time spent by project
  • Free for unlimited users
Try it today!

Clockify is a team management tool designed for one specific use case—time tracking. This simple time tracking and timesheet app makes it easy for teams to track hours for multiple tasks and projects.

The software is trusted by millions of users, including teams within big organizations like Amazon, Uber, Google, IBM, American Express, Nike, and Cisco.

Clockify can be used as a desktop app, mobile app, or web application. It’s a great way to improve project profitability, and it gives managers a clearer picture of what their team is working on.

Noteworthy features and highlights of Clockify include:

  • Time tracking with a timer
  • Hour logging with a timesheet
  • Categorize time by project
  • Custom reports with visual time breakdowns
  • Team activity tracking
  • Calendar view with team timeline
  • Team attendance tracking

Clockify integrates with third-party tools like Trello, Asana, Salesforce, Zendesk, G Suite, and more.

Best of all? Clockify is free forever for an unlimited number of users. They do offer some paid plans for businesses that want advanced features. These start at $9.99 per month.

#7 – Toggl Plan — Best For Team Planning

  • Great project planning and time tracking solution
  • Manage employee workloads easily
  • Drag-and-drop scheduling
  • Free 14-day trial
Try it today!

As the name implies, Toggl Plan is a project planning solution. It’s an easy way to provide teams with a visual overview of who is doing what and plan for what’s coming up next.

It helps supervisors manage workloads and keep projects on track.

The software is used by 4,000+ businesses worldwide, including Spotify, The New York Times, Stripe, Netflix, and Airbnb.

Toggl Plan has a unique team planning feature that shows a complete overview of everyone’s current and upcoming schedule. This includes everything from daily tasks to ongoing projects and vacation time.

Other features of Toggl Plan for team planning include:

  • Drag-and-drop schedule editor
  • Simple sharing features
  • Checklists for tasks and projects
  • Color coding based on activity
  • Team and individual milestones
  • File upload
  • Team comments and mentions

Overall, Toggl Plan is straightforward. It’s used by creative teams, product teams, development teams, marketing teams, and more.

The software is free for up to five users with limited features. There are two paid plans to choose from—Standard and Business. These start at $8 and $13.35 per user per month, respectively.

Try Toggl Plan for free with a 14-day trial.

How to Find the Best Team Management Software For You

With so many solutions to choose from in the team management category, finding the right software for you and your business can be challenging. That’s why I want to explain how I picked the ones featured in this guide.

You can follow the same methodology I used to narrow down the best software for your business. Just weigh these evaluation factors according to your personal needs.

Software Type and Use Case

Team management is a broad term. These tools can come as all-in-one project management solutions or standalone tools for a specific use case. For example, you can get team management software for just team chat and messaging. Other solutions are designed specifically for time tracking.

For larger teams that want to accomplish everything within a single platform, all-in-one solutions are the best option. These will help you manage tasks, projects, time, communication, scheduling, and more, from a single software, saving you from having to bounce from one tool to another.

Remote Collaboration

Managing a remote team isn’t quite the same as managing a team in-person. So, if you have a team working remotely or collaborating from different locations, make sure the software you choose can accommodate those challenges.

For example, the best remote team management solutions have built-in features to accommodate users working in different time zones. They provide team chat and team brainstorming tools as well.

Team Scheduling and Time Tracking

Managing daily schedules for each team member can be a challenge, especially at scale. Look for a solution that keeps your team on task while providing everyone with a complete overview of daily, weekly, and monthly schedules.

Time tracking and scheduling go hand-in-hand. This feature is especially useful for teams working on multiple projects simultaneously.

Team Leader Tools

Managers and supervisors need software that shows a holistic overview of their entire team. This helps them with resource management, project planning, and allocation.

Team leaders can significantly benefit from detailed reports and analytics. Reporting shows how individuals within a team spend their time. Are they working productively? What projects are they working on? Will projects and tasks be completed on time? How is the team’s productivity impacting the budget?

Many team management solutions focus on collaboration but don’t forget to inquire about the supervisor tools.

Process Tracking and Task Management

Process tracking and task management are crucial for teams working on projects. Both of these can be found in all-in-one project management solutions. Look for features like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and other project management tools to meet these needs.

But not every team needs to have these features. If you just want a basic team chat app, then process tracking and task management won’t be necessary.

Conclusion

What’s the best team management software? Generally speaking, there is no “best for everyone” solution. The right software for me and my business might not be the best option for you and yours.

That’s why my list includes something for everyone.

I recommend ProofHub as an all-in-one tool for keeping teams organized. Twist is my top pick for remote teams, and Paymo will accommodate smaller teams.

Chanty is the best team management software for collaboration and communication. Team leaders and supervisors will benefit the most from Hubstaff. I recommend Clockify for time management and Toggl Plan for team planning.

Regardless of your team size or needs, you can use this guide to find the best team management software for your unique situation.



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