What makes the best project management software for small business?
How we evaluate and test apps
Our best apps roundups are written by humans who’ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it’s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We’re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.
Despite all the hype about popular project methodologies (Scrum, Lean, Agile—you name it), there’s no real one-size-fits-all solution. Every team is different: workflows, resources, and workday demands differ greatly from one company to the next. So how did I pick the best small business project management software?
I started by ensuring that each app met some basic criteria I felt were indispensable.
Collaboration for teams and/or clients. Successful projects don’t happen in a vortex. All apps that made the list offer some level of in-app collaboration, like built-in chat or file sharing, or a trusted integration with a tool like Slack.
Integration possibilities. Your project management workflows are at the heart of your company, so all of the apps need to integrate with the other apps in your tech stack.
Customizable views. While there are a number of capable tools focused specifically on Agile and Scrum methodologies, I didn’t consider those for this list because your project management app should work for every team in your business. That means customizable views and support for multiple project management methodologies.
Project management-first apps. There are many software options that include project or task management as an add-on or ancillary feature, but for this article, I only considered apps that were primarily focused on project management.
Robust team roles and permissions. The more people you involve in a project, the more important it is to set customizable project permissions. Some people may simply need view-only access, while others need full admin rights.
In addition to those dealbreakers, I asked myself a number of questions while testing the apps:
Is there an active development team behind the software, keeping it up to date and bug-free?
Is the interface intuitive, or do you need to spend a significant amount of time reading through tutorials just to utilize basic features?
Does the app offer some flexibility so that you can create your own project management methodology, or does it try to force you into an inflexible flow?
Managing projects in a small business setting might seem simple—there are fewer people involved and fewer processes, preferences, and work styles, to navigate. But big businesses often have a dedicated project manager for marketing, another for sales, and another for product development. The small business project manager, on the other hand, oversees multiple departments and wears more hats than can comfortably fit on a human head.
It’s important to find project management software that can help you maximize output while juggling everything else on your plate. To that end, I considered more than 55 project management systems to find tools that have a feature set specifically designed to work for small businesses. After extensive testing, I narrowed it down to the seven apps below.
