The Top 18 Task Management Software & Tools You Can Use in 2024

The more your business grows, the harder it is to stay organized. Fortunately, the best task management tools help your whole team stay coordinated, even as priorities shift and new projects get added.

Good task management software makes a big difference.

Most employees (80%) spend half their work time weekly doing tasks repeatedly. In other words, a 40-hour work week includes 20 hours of rework. That’s a massive waste of time and effort caused by a simple problem — poor communication.

Team leaders feel the crunch. A whopping 46% of project leaders say that hitting deadlines is their greatest challenge.

Your software should help your team communicate better and get work done faster. Use it to plan effectively and make more money from your projects. Some tools alert you when your team risks falling behind or exceeding budget.

Project management software comes in many shapes and sizes. We rounded up this list of the best task management tools so you can find the perfect fit for your team.

What is task management software?

Task management software is a powerful tool designed to streamline and optimize the process of organizing, assigning, and tracking tasks within a team or organization. 

This software provides a centralized platform where tasks can be created, given to specific team members, and monitored throughout their lifecycle. It typically includes task creation, deadline setting, priority levels, collaboration tools, and progress tracking. 

16 best task management software tools in 2022

These 16 tools range from simple to-do list programs that help organize your day to robust workforce analytics software that provide valuable performance data.

We list their main features, app availability, and pricing to help you make the best choice for you.

1. Hubstaff

Hubstaff, with the Tasks add-on, handles task management for Agile teams.

This easy-to-use software uses automated Kanban-style workflows to keep work organized. To move tasks through the flow, one-click updates the status and assigns the appropriate team members. Work automatically goes to the right people at the right time.

Customizing your workflows using one of the built-in templates is easy, or you can start from scratch.

Individual tasks include lots of features to keep your team organized and efficient.

Each task can consist of a checklist to break down action items further and track progress, making this software particularly suitable for marketing projects. Teams focusing on SEO, content, and social media often struggle to make task management software work.

The Hubstaff Tasks add-on works well for all areas of your business, from marketing and support to software development.

Due dates help your team manage priorities. The comments section is a great place to collaborate, so you always have access to the history of the task, even if you’re newly assigned.

You can attach files to tasks or comments. There’s also a count of total time worked to see how long a project takes from start to finish.

Hubstaff Tasks add-on supports Agile Sprints, allowing you to divide your team’s workload into more manageable chunks. All Agile teams love this feature, but this is one of the most wanted features for software teams.

The sprint view shows your team what they need to work on immediately and what tasks are coming down the pipeline next.

If you or some team members prefer something more like a to-do list, the My Stuff feature allows you to create detailed to-dos to plan your day. You can add checklist items from tasks or type them in. Remember to answer Mike’s question about the budget and get milk during your lunch break.

A project timeline feature allows you to see what team members are working on at any given time. It will enable you to spot overdue tasks more efficiently and rebalance the team’s workload by reassigning tasks using the drag-and-drop interface.

The automated stand-ups feature is a game changer for remote and asynchronous teams. Get progress updates from team members and learn about any roadblocks without needing a daily meeting. You’ll save a ton of time, and it’ll help you cut down on micromanagement.

Hubstaff Tasks is an excellent tool for growing teams. It’s simple and easy to set up, and the features are robust enough to grow with you. 

Features

• Agile workflows
• Sprints and epics
• My Stuff to-dos
• Task checklists
• Automated stand-ups
• Project timelines
• Project templates

Pricing

• Free plan 
• Starter: $7 per user/month
• Grow: $9 per user/month
• Team: $12 per user/month
• Enterprise: $25 per user/month (annual pricing only)

Need more advanced features? Hubstaff also offers extra add-ons that boost its primary team management features:

• Tasks ($3 per user/month)
• Insights ($2 per user/month)
• More screenshots ($3 per user/month)
• Corporate add-on ($3 per user/month)

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2. Todoist

The idea behind Todoist is to get tasks out of your head and onto a to-do list.

Todoist simplifies this process by allowing you to manage your to-do list regardless of your device. It supports Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Freelancers, entrepreneurs, developers, and businesses of all sizes use Todoist to manage their tasks and projects.

The app’s primary task view provides all the information you might need on a task, including subtasks, comments, and due dates. There’s also a Boards view, essentially Todoist’s version of a Kanban board.

You can organize tasks as you see fit with the help of project folders, labels, and filters. There’s also a quick add feature that allows you to jot down a task or reminder quickly before you forget about it.

Managers can use Todoist to get an overview of what their team is working on through the activity stream feature. You can filter the activity stream by project or team member and save custom views to keep an eye on priority tasks or projects.

You can also use a central admin dashboard to manage team members and their user permissions.

Todoist can notify you when team members post comments or complete tasks, which helps you stay on top of everything more easily. There’s also the option of setting up reminders to get notified of upcoming tasks or due dates via email or a push notification.

One more interesting feature you can find in Todoist is Karma. It’s designed to motivate your team to complete tasks by awarding them points for each task completed and giving them additional points for maintaining daily or weekly task completion streaks.

Features

• Task priority levels
• Kanban boards
• Project templates
• File sharing
• Project activity stream
• Custom project views

Pricing

Todoist offers a free plan that’s limited to 80 projects and five people per project. There’s also a single-user Premium plan ($4/month) and a Business plan ($6 per user/month).

3. Any.Do

Any.Do combines your personal and business tasks in a single calendar view, making it a good option for those who manage both private and work tasks in one tool. It’s also handy for freelancers who need to organize their to-dos for multiple clients.

It allows you to categorize tasks into projects and visualize your workflow using Kanban boards. You can share projects and assignments with your team quickly and then use the activity stream to track task progress.

Any.Do supports one-time, recurring, and location-based reminders. You can also use the home screen widget to display to-dos and calendar events on your smartphone’s screen at all times.

There’s also a handy feature called Moment, which allows you to review your daily tasks and decide whether to work on them, reschedule, mark them as done, or delete them from your to-do list entirely.

Features

• To-do list
• Calendar
• Daily planner
• Kanban boards

Pricing

For a single user, Any.do offers a free and a Premium plan ($5.99/month). Businesses can use the Teams plan, which costs $4.99/user/month.

4. Taskque

Taskque aims to help individuals and teams manage their daily tasks.

With Taskque, you can plan and create tasks in the calendar view to organize your team’s time more effectively.

One cool feature is that you can automatically assign tasks based on team member workloads. It balances work so your employees aren’t overworked or underutilized.

The app allows you to create multiple workspaces to organize and manage different teams.

Teams can use Taskque to collaborate more easily with the Discussions feature, which allows you to discuss tasks and projects in a central location. You can also create discussion reports with a single click and review them quickly.

On the other hand, the Insights feature allows you to get a quick overview of a project’s status. You can also generate reports to review your team’s productivity and performance.

Taskque allows you to set user permissions for each team member, allowing or preventing them from viewing specific tasks and projects. This is important if you deal with sensitive information.

There are also filters team members can use to find specific tasks more easily.

Features

• Automated task assignment
• Discussion board
• Team calendar
• Custom workflows

Pricing

Taskque offers a free plan that’s limited to 10 users. The Business plan costs $5/user/month.

You can also use Taskque’s generous 60-day trial to test the software.

5. Flow

Flow supports task lists for both private and work tasks. You can sort and filter tasks by name, project, due date, team member, and priority.

The app allows you to create one-time and recurring tasks. You can add notes, tags, due dates, and files for each task. You can even create tasks via email by emailing an @getflow.com email address.

Flow gives you dedicated views to review your tasks and the task list of each team member.

The built-in workload view helps you see which team members might be overwhelmed with work and who has the bandwidth to take on more.

You can reassign tasks using the app’s drag-and-drop interface, allowing you to rebalance your team’s workload easily.

The app supports both public and private projects. There’s also the option to duplicate projects and their tasks.

Flow gathers all crucial notifications in the Updates feed, allowing you to stay on top of everything your team is doing. The feed includes your assigned and delegated tasks, updates on tasks you follow, and any mentions in task comments.

Features

• Recurring tasks
• Project schedules
• File attachments
• Team calendar

Pricing

Flow offers a free 30-day trial. Paid plans include:

• Basic ($8/user/month)
• Plus ($12/user/month)
• Pro ($18/user/month)

6. Hitask

Hitask combines project and task management, time tracking, and document storage in a single app. It allows you to organize your team’s work into tasks, projects, and events.

You can get an overview of your team’s workload using the shared calendar. Sharing tasks and projects with specific team members or your entire team is also possible.

You can set tasks to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. Hitask also has a time tracking feature, allowing you to track your team’s time on different tasks. The app also allows you to generate reports from team members’ time entries to analyze your team’s performance.

Features

• Shared team calendar
• Time tracking
• Reports
• Team chat

Pricing

Hitask is free for up to five users. Paid plans include:

• Team Business ($5/user/month)
• Enterprise ($20/user/month)

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7. Trello

With Trello, you use Kanban boards to manage your team’s work. You can organize your projects into multiple boards or keep them all together. Teams use Trello for various purposes, including software development, onboarding, and as a CRM tool. 

Once you create a board in Trello, you can divide it into multiple columns (e.g., To-Do, Doing, and Done). The next step is to add individual tasks (cards) to columns. You can drag and drop cards across different columns or move them up and down a column. This allows you to show progress and prioritize tasks more efficiently.

Each task can contain attachments, labels, due dates, checklists, and custom fields. There’s also a search function to help you locate specific cards. Trello supports workflow automation through rule-based triggers, calendar commands, and due date commands. This allows you to automate repetitive tasks and save your team’s time.

You can also use power-ups apps extending Trello’s built-in functionality. Here are a few features you can enable using power-ups:

• A countdown for your tasks’ due date
• Daily update prompts for team members to state what they’re working on and what they’re going to do next
• Time tracking for each task
• The option to archive cards until a specific date

Features

• Kanban boards
• Workflow automation
• Task checklists
• Custom fields

Pricing

• Free plan
• Standard: $5 per user/month
• Premium: $10 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact Trello’s sales team for pricing

8. nTask

nTask supports task dependencies, project milestones, and time estimates for tasks. It also allows you to create to-do lists in the form of checklists.

You can set start and end dates for tasks and assign one or multiple team members to tasks. nTask allows you to set up task notifications and reminders to avoid missing a deadline.

The app also has features that help you schedule and prioritize tasks. You can define project risks and their likelihood to occur and associate those risks with specific tasks. This allows you to create a risk matrix to see what might prevent your team from completing a project on time.

nTask has a time tracking feature you can use to learn how much time it takes team members to complete tasks. You have the option to generate timesheets automatically using time entries.

Features

• Subtasks
• Task dependencies
• Team chat
• Time tracking

Pricing

nTask has a free plan that’s limited to five members per team. Paid plans include:

• Premium: $4/month
• Business: $12/month
• Enterprise: Contact NTask for custom pricing

9. MeisterTask

If you’re already using task management software, MeisterTask makes it very easy for you to make the switch. Its built-in importing feature simplifies the process of importing tasks and projects from popular tools like Asana and Trello.

MeisterTask supports recurring tasks and task dependencies. It allows you to filter tasks by tag, team member, due date, and status.

The app comes with a predefined Kanban-style workflow. You can create a custom one that suits your team’s needs. Plus, you can set limits for how many work-in-progress tasks your team can have — a handy feature for Kanban teams.

Each team member has a personal board in MeisterTask (called Agenda) where they can pin tasks from any project and organize the board how they like. This helps your employees manage their work more efficiently.

MeisterTask supports workflow automation. You can automate tasks such as:

• Assigning tasks to specific team members
• Adding checklists to tasks
• Updating task status and due date

Features

• Task automation
• Time tracking
• Kanban boards
• Custom fields

Pricing

• Basic: free for single users
• Pro: $14.50 per user/month
• Business: $29 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact MeisterTask for custom pricing

10. Toodledo

Toodledo is a set of tools designed to simplify task management and help teams get more done. It supports subtasks and recurring tasks. You can set these to repeat daily, weekly, or monthly. Toodledo allows you to set up tasks to reschedule automatically, even if they’re not completed.

Each task has a priority. Sort tasks by these priorities or filter based on the due date or assignee. Toodledo allows you to organize tasks and notes into folders to track different projects. Folders can be private or public. This feature is essential for teams that deal with sensitive information or licensing requirements.

Toodledo supports location-based reminders. Simply mark the location where you need to complete a specific task, and you’ll get an alert reminding you as soon as you arrive.

Features

• Location-based task reminders
• Subtasks
• Recurring tasks
• Team calendar

Pricing

• Free plan
• Standard: $4.99 per user/month
• Plus: $7.99 per user/month
• Business: Contact Toodledo for pricing

11. Asana

Started by two former Facebook engineers, Asana is a tool that grew out of the founders’ frustration with how much time they spent searching for information, sending emails, and attending meetings.

They built Asana to help teams spend more time on tasks that move tasks and projects forward. Asana has task management features like task dependencies, due dates, and attachments. However, it also boasts many features that help teams manage their workload more efficiently.

Asana supports workflow automation and has over 70 pre-built automation rules to save your team time. You can create your own custom rules if those don’t fit.

The Portfolio feature allows you to monitor all your team’s initiatives remotely. You can use it to get an overview of the progress of all your projects. There’s also the option of sharing the Portfolio link with stakeholders.

Asana also has a useful proofing feature. You can add feedback to team members’ deliverables and then turn this feedback into a task automatically. Leave feedback and access your tasks on the go from the mobile app.

Features

• Task automations
• Multiple project views
• Milestones
• Project timeline and portfolio

Pricing

• Personal plan: Free
• Starter: $10.99
• Advanced: $24.99
• Enterprise: Contact Asana for pricing

12. TeamWork

TeamWork is simple to use yet packed with powerful features. It shows you an overview of each team member’s capacity and helps you understand who’s underutilized or overwhelmed. If your priorities or deadlines shift, easily reassign work using the drag-and-drop interface.

There’s also a project portfolio feature that gives you a birds-eye view of all your projects and allows you to identify bottlenecks more quickly.

TeamWork supports task and project templates and milestones. Team members can create project-specific notebooks. They can share notes and other information on a project or keep track of their work with notebooks. There’s an in-app messaging system to discuss tasks and projects.

TeamWork has personalized report dashboards that show key project metrics and the project’s activity timeline. These are useful for analyzing team performance and providing project updates to stakeholders and clients.

The app includes a team calendar where you can track your team’s deadlines, meetings, and holidays in one place. Use it to keep everyone on the same page and help your team members plan their week.

Features

• Task list templates
• Milestones
• Team calendar
• Kanban boards
• Project portfolio
• Gantt chart

Pricing

• Starter: $8.99 per user/month
• Deliver: $13.99 per user/month
• Grow: $25.99 per user/month

13. Basecamp

Basecamp calls itself an “all-in-one toolkit for working remotely.” It almost lives up to that.

You can create and assign tasks, set due dates, add notes, and comment on tasks. The app includes a shared calendar for essential tasks and project dates.

Basecamp’s Activity view gives you an overview of everything going on with your team’s tasks and projects. Among other things, you can use it to see overdue tasks, deadlines, and upcoming milestones.

Project-specific message boards allow team members to post ideas, announcements, and progress updates. The app offers an interesting alternative to Gantt charts called Hill Charts. The main idea behind Hill Charts is that all work is divided into an uphill phase (figuring things out) and a downhill phase (execution).

Hill Charts help you visualize this process better to understand your project’s status and potential bottlenecks.

Features

• To-do list
• Message board
• Team schedule
• Group chat
• Automatic check-ins

Pricing

• Basecamp: $15 per user/month
• Basecamp Pro: $299/month, billed annually for unlimited users

14. Wrike

Wrike is designed for Agile teams. It’s highly customizable and supports custom dashboards, workflows, and entire workspaces.

Thanks to Wrike’s automation features, you can use it to streamline your team’s processes. The app uses AI to predict project risks and create smart automation for your team.

Wrike has extensive proofing capabilities. It allows your team to get feedback on their deliverables quickly. This shortens your team’s feedback loop.

The proofing feature supports visual markup and version control. You can even set up automated approval workflows. If you need to, you can invite external reviewers (e.g., clients) to provide feedback on deliverables.

Wrike also offers add-ons that you can use to extend its capabilities:

• Wrike Analyze: Allows you to run advanced reports and create analytics dashboards.
• Wrike Resource: Provides visibility into your team’s workload and allows you to reallocate resources more effectively.
• Wrike Integrate: Gives you the ability to use app integrations and create custom automations.

Features

• Customizable dashboards and workflows
• Reports
• Project risk prediction
• Gantt charts
• Kanban boards
• Visual proofing

Pricing

• Free
• Team: $9.80 per user/month
• Business: $24.80 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact Wrike for enterprise pricing

15. Monday.com

Using Monday.com can help teams streamline work and enhance productivity. Monday.com is easy to use and simple to set up with a clean interface. 

Monday.com offers advanced task management and customizable workflows that simplify workload management. Managers can easily assign tasks, set due dates, tag team members, and update project progress. 

The platform’s impressive collaborative features include discussion threads, tagging, file sharing, and more. With customizable boards, teams can adapt the platform to fit their unique workflows and project structures. 

Its integration capabilities with various apps and services make it a flexible solution for teams using multiple tools. Overall, Monday.com stands out for its adaptability, collaboration features, and automation capabilities, making it a valuable asset for effective task management.

Key features

• Task management
• Collaboration tools
• Visual project boards
• Integrations

Pricing 

• Free plan
• Basic: $12 per user/month
• Standard: $14 per user/month
• Pro: $24 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact Monday.com for pricing

16. ClickUp

ClickUp guarantees to save you one day for every week you use it. Use it to set and track goals, objectives, and targets.

If you’re into to-do lists, Clickup has a checklist feature that will work great for you. It also supports Sprints, making it an excellent tool for Agile teams. Other valuable features include task checklists, time estimates for tasks and projects, and custom project views.

ClickUp has a workload chart showing what team members are working on and which tasks they’ve completed. It’s a quick overview of your team’s activity.

The screenshot and screen recording features can help you understand how your team works. Use this feature to build more trust in your team. 

Features

• Task dependencies
• Checklist templates
• Recurring checklists
• Workload chart
• Automation
• Reminders

Pricing

• Free plan: ClickUp offers a free plan with limited features. 
• Unlimited: $10 per user/month
• Business: $19 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact ClickUp for pricing

17. Jira

Jira is a robust project management tool, especially for Agile project management. Jira is a task management solution that can handle multiple projects simultaneously. 

With powerful task management abilities and seamless integration with Agile methodologies, Jira is the best tool for Agile workload management. 

The tool’s advanced issue-tracking capabilities enable teams to efficiently manage tasks, bugs, and feature requests. With features like Kanban and Scrum boards, Jira visualizes work progress, enhancing transparency and collaboration among team members.

Jira has many integrations, allowing users to connect seamlessly with their favorite tools and platforms.

Features

• Agile project management 
• Customizable workflows 
• Reporting 
• Integrations

Pricing 

Free plan, custom pricing available for teams.

18. Paymo

Paymo is an excellent choice for those who want a single app to manage their work, track expenses, and invoice clients.

It supports recurring tasks, task templates and budgets, and task alerts. Priority status for each task helps prioritize your team’s work. Paymo has multiple task views and filters to help you find what you want.

Use this app to create estimates, send invoices, and accept online payments. Invoices can be recurring, and the app sends automatic reminders. You can track project expenses and add those costs to your invoices.

The app features a built-in leave planner to manage employees’ time-off requests easily. It allows you to review the remaining days off for each employee, create different leave types, and set company-wide public holidays.

Features

• Task dependencies
• Task templates
• Kanban boards
• Project templates
• Milestones
• Gantt charts

Pricing

Paymo offers a free 15-day trial. Paid plans include:

• Free plan
• Starter: $9.99 per user/month
• Small Office: $15.99 per user/month
• Business: $23.99 per user/month

What to look for when choosing a tool for task management

Different teams have different needs. Just because a project management software works great for another company, that doesn’t mean it’s a great fit for you.

Even within your company, different teams need different things.

Source: Capterra

For example, your website developers will probably find it easy to work with a standard agile workflow, but your marketing team might prefer something more like a checklist.

The first time you start shopping for task management software, you might not know what to look for. That’s okay. Use this article to get a feel for the types of features and formats you can choose from.

If you’re here because you have a task management tool that’s not quite working for you, start by listing the features you’re using now that you want to keep. Then, list the problems you want to solve when you upgrade. Keep those lists handy while you read the list of options below.

To help you figure out what you want, here’s a quick list of the most useful features you’ll find in a great task management tool.

• Subtasks and task dependencies – According to the SaasList State of Project Management Report for 2020, unmet or unclear task dependencies account for 12% of project failures. The most efficient way to tackle big projects is to divide them into tasks and subtasks. Task dependencies help your team stay organized when you need to complete work in a specific order. Look for these features so you know you can create the workflows you need for every project.
• Task checklists – Checklists are simple but powerful. It’s so much easier to keep track of progress when you can see which items are done. Plus, checklists help your team do a thorough job on every task.
• Project timeline or Gantt chart – That SaasList report also reveals that 45% of team members say Gantt charts are their most used project management feature. A good tool gives you a visual timeline that helps you plan and adjust. This helps you spot roadblocks, rebalance workloads, and meet deadlines more easily.
• Time tracking – Time tracking is one of the most valuable features for task management software. When you know how long tasks take, you know exactly how much you spend on labor costs. This data helps you make more accurate estimates and fix expensive workflow issues to make more money.
• Customizable workflow – Every team has its own way of working. Look for a tool that can adapt to the way your team works and doesn’t force you to change your workflow just so you can use it.

Jot down the most important features you need to help your team operate at peak efficiency

Next steps

You’ve done your research. Now, it’s time to take action. Here’s what you need to do:

• Narrow down your choice: Pick one or two tools from the list that look like the best fit for your needs. Compare these tools to the list of features you made earlier.
• Take advantage of free trials: Most tools on our list offer a free trial. Take advantage of these trial offers to try out the tool that looks best.
• Test out all the features: Make sure to test all the features during your trial and make notes about what you like and don’t like. You can also contact support for help with onboarding to get an idea of how good their service is.
• Decide on a tool: If it’s a good fit, great. Start training your team. If not, come back to this list and try a different option. Bookmark this post so you can find it again.

Looking for a different type of software? Check out the following blog posts:

The 11 Best Project Scheduling Tools

12 of the Best Remote Work Software Options

The Best Time Tracking Apps for Windows

This post was originally published in September 2019. It was updated in March 2024.