Tired of disorganized projects and missed deadlines?
In this guide, we’ll look at the best project management solutions you can use to supercharge your web design agency.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Table of contents
In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of using project management software and how to choose the right one for your agency.
We’ve scrutinized 100+ of the most popular project management solutions, and narrowed this list down to our top 5, to help save you time!
What Is Project Management Software And Why Is It Important?
Project management software solutions provide a tool or platform that is used to plan, organize, and manage resources to achieve specific goals and objectives.
They help teams to stay organized, meet deadlines, and deliver high-quality results.
Project management software typically includes features such as:
- Task management
- Calendars
- Time tracking
- Progress tracking
- Collaboration tools
All of these features are super-helpful for teams to:
- Create and assign tasks
- Set due dates and dependencies
- Track progress
- Communicate with each other
- Share files
Choosing the right project management tool is essential because it will allow you and your team to work more efficiently and achieve your goals faster.
Without such a tool, your projects will more likely experience delays or cost overruns.
What To Look For In Agency Project Management Software
When looking for project management software for your web design agency, there are several key features and functionalities to consider:.
Here are the 5 key points to consider extremely carefully when considering which project management solution to choose.
#1 – Balance Between Ease of Use and Functionality
A good project management product must strike the right balance between ease of use and functionality. If it’s too complex, your team may be less likely to use it – leading to inefficiencies and delays.
But this doesn’t mean it should be super simple and include ONLY the most basic features.
Functionality is essential because it provides teams with the tools and features they need to manage projects effectively. Without sufficient project management functionality, teams may struggle to track progress, meet deadlines, and deliver high-quality results.
Here is a list of functionalities that every good project management software tool should have:
- Task management: The ability to create, assign, and track tasks is essential for any project management software package. Look for one that allows you to easily create and manage tasks, set due dates, and track progress.
- Collaboration and communication: Look for a tool that allows team members to collaborate and communicate with one another easily. This includes features such as comments, mentions, and file sharing.
- User-friendly interface: A good tool should have a user-friendly interface, making it easy for team members to get started and become productive quickly.
- Reporting and analytics: The best project management tool should offer reporting and analytics, which can help you track project progress and identify areas for improvement.
#2 – Web Development-Specific Features
Web development agencies have unique workflows, and their projects have different life cycles compared to other types of businesses.
These workflows often rely on people spread across different time zones.
Source: Youteam
This is why specific tools and features are required to manage those projects effectively.
Using a project management tool that supports web development-specific workflows rather than a generic tool can help you:
- Improve collaboration
- Increase your efficiency
- Provide better client visibility
#3 – Performance and reliability
Performance and reliability are essential aspects of a good project management tool.
A good project management solution should be able to handle large amounts of data and multiple users without slowing down or crashing.
You should also NOT experience frequent downtime or errors.
Having project management software that offers performance and reliability is essential for teams to manage their projects effectively. A product that is slow or prone to errors can cause delays – making it difficult for teams to stay organized and on track.
#4 – Price
Price is an important factor to consider when choosing a project management tool, as it can significantly impact overall profits. An expensive product can eat into the budget and potentially limit the resources.
But if you go for a cheap solution, you may not have all of the necessary features and functionalities to get the job done effectively.
When evaluating different project management solutions, it’s vital to consider both:
- The upfront cost
- The long-term costs
For instance, suppose you need to use a file-sharing service and a time-tracking utility along with the project management tool.
In that case, it might be cheaper to find a solution that offers all three functionalities.
#5 – Integration
Integrating with other tools and services, such as:
- Slack
- Gmail
- Jira, etc
…can help streamline the project management process and provide teams with a more seamless workflow.
In essence, you can use your 10+ favorite apps together and create something awesome.
5 Best Project Management Software Solutions
#1: Atarim
Atarim is a project management tool designed specifically for web design and development agencies. Unlike other generic project management tools, Atarim is tailored to these businesses’ unique needs and workflows.
It offers a range of features designed to help agencies streamline their workflow, improve collaboration with clients, and increase profitability. With Atarim, teams can take control of their workflow and target the actual work swiftly and accurately by collaborating with clients in a unique, visual way, instead of wasting hours on unnecessary or unhelpful communication.
Pricing: Individual developers can use Atarim for free. Team plans start at $25/month for up to 5 team members.
The most popular features of Atarim are:
- Task management
- Time tracking
- Real-time team activity tracking
- Visual project management
- Wireframing templates
- Unlimited image-based feedback
- Auto-optimize images for web use
Atarim can also help to save money by reducing the need for multiple tools, and reducing project completion time by 75%.
The key to a successful project management solution is finding the right balance between ease of use and functionality. Atarim understands that adopting the tool is crucial for both your internal team and external clients.
That’s why Atarim has been designed to be user-friendly while still offering robust features.
One of the unique features of Atarim is its ability to allow clients to leave requests on any digital project visually, eliminating the need for them to generate tickets on another issue-tracking platform.
This feature allows for efficient and seamless collaboration between clients and the team, increasing productivity and profitability.
#2: ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management tool that offers a range of features to help teams manage and track projects of any type. It allows teams to break down projects into customized tasks, create documents, collaborate using whiteboards, and visualize progress.
Pricing: It offers a free plan with a storage limit of 100MB. Unlimited plans start at $5/month for each team member.
There are a variety of features that can help streamline the workflow and improve collaboration among team members.
These features include:
- Task management
- Calendars
- Time tracking
- Progress tracking
You will also get in-depth reports and analytics about your projects.
ClickUp allows you to generate customizable reports, track metrics, and visualize data through charts and graphs. This helps you, your team, and stakeholders make data-driven decisions and monitor project health.
In addition to all of these great features, ClickUp also offers a range of platform features, such as:
- Templates
- ClickApps
- Integrations
- Customizable views
Plus, ClickUp also provides a robust automation feature for automating those repetitive tasks that seem to take up so much of our time.
For instance, you can automate actions based on triggers, conditions, and actions, reducing manual effort and improving productivity. The automation capability can save significant time and really streamline workflows.
You will also receive solutions for specific teams such as engineering, design, and HR with ClickUp.
#3: Basecamp
Basecamp is a platform for project management, offering a centralized platform for team communication, task management, and file sharing. Its message boards and file storage tools allow team members to share information and collaborate on projects easily.
There’s really not much that Basecamp can’t do since it’s an advanced all-in-one platform.
It combines project management, team communication, file sharing, scheduling, and task management capabilities. This integration reduces the need for multiple tools and promotes a centralized and streamlined workflow.
Pricing: The basic plan costs $15/month for each user.
It includes a calendar feature that will allow users to:
- Set up events
- Create deadlines
- Add milestones
- Subscribe with Google Calendar/iCal/Outlook
You can also discuss events on your own page, and notify people when things change.
In fact, collaboration is one of our favorite features of Basecamp.
The Basecamp platform allows users to invite clients or external stakeholders to participate in projects, providing them with controlled access to specific discussions, files, and tasks. This feature streamlines client communication and promotes transparency in project management.
Basecamp also provides a scheduling feature that lets you keep track of project timelines and deadlines.
It has a clean interface, and it’s easy for both technical and non-technical team members.
#4: Trello
Trello is a productivity tool that helps teams organize and manage tasks using boards, lists, and cards. It’s simple and flexible and allows teams to customize workflows to fit their needs.
Pricing: They offer a free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $5/month for each user.
Trello offers several powerful features, including:
- Templates
- Timeline view
- Calendar view
- Integrations
- Butler automation – Trelo’s built-in no-code automation tool.
Their “kanban” boards make it easy to visualize the progress of a project, and the flexibility of these boards allows teams to customize them how they wish.
What makes Trello really powerful is its focus on collaboration and customization.
Trello emphasizes collaboration and team communication with options for:
- Assigning tasks to team members
- Leaving comments on individual cards
This fosters collaboration and keeps everyone updated on project developments.
Plus, you can tailor Trello’s boards and cards to match your needs.
For instance, you can create custom labels, set due dates, create checklists, and add attachments. This flexibility enables users to adapt Trello to various project management methodologies and workflows.
Trello also offers a wide range of third-party apps and power-ups, which allow teams to add more functionality and automation to their boards.
#5: Asana
Asana is a project management tool that helps teams plan, organize, and manage their work. It is a collaboration tool where users can coordinate tasks and share feedback, files, and status updates.
Pricing: Basic plan is available for free. The Premium plan starts at $10.99/month for each user.
Asana allows teams to easily create and assign tasks, set deadlines, dependencies, and track progress. Additionally, Asana enables team members to collaborate and communicate effectively through comments, mentions, and attachments.
It’s super-effective (and unique) for advanced reporting and project management.
For instance, Asana provides tools for:
- Creating project templates
- Setting up recurring tasks
- Establishing project goals
These features help teams streamline their workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and maintain consistency across projects.
Asana can also help you distribute your resources and workload more efficiently. These features will help you prevent overallocation or underutilization. Users can assign tasks, track progress, and visualize each team member’s workload, ensuring a fair distribution of work and optimizing productivity.
Plus, if you’re managing multiple projects, you can monitor all of them at the same time. This is super-useful for managers who need to monitor progress, allocate resources, and make decisions based on the performance of multiple projects.
Asana is used by teams from various industries and offers integrations with other tools and services.
After Action Report – Choosing The Right Agency Project Management Software For You
When choosing the project management software for your agency, it’s essential to find one that offers a workflow that suits both your business and your clients’ needs.
While most project management platforms, such as Asana or Basecamp revolve around a broad range of businesses, Atarim has been built specifically for web design and dev agencies.
Looking to manage your projects like a PRO?
Atarim offers painless project management tailored to web design and dev agencies.
One of our unique and revolutionary features is that our tool has been built on the foundation of point-and-click collaboration – allowing clients to point at what they’re referring to and then immediately leave feedback, say what needs to be changed, etc.
If your main objective is to manage web dev and design projects and maximize your profits, give Atarim a shot right now – it’s FREE.
- Integrated into the leading visual collaboration platform trusted by 13,000+ agencies (web dev, design, and beyond) worldwide.
- Supporting project delivery for 1,200,000+ of their clients and stakeholders.
- Deliver projects in weeks instead of months.
