How to Compare Project Management Tools

Choosing the right project management tool can be a real challenge — the market is vast and hard to navigate.

While simple projects may require nothing more than a Kanban board where you can create lists, share files, and assign comments, more complex projects often call for a tool that offers robust planning and reporting features, granular access controls, subtasks, task dependency functionality, and project portfolios.

And if you’re running multiple projects simultaneously, you need an efficient way to track progress in real time and manage workload across teams to keep everything on schedule.

What you need to keep in mind is that companies with the right tool can effortlessly deliver outstanding results on time and within budget. So it’s worth taking the time to compare tools and choose the one that best fits your needs.

To help you do just that, we’ve outlined the most important criteria to consider when comparing project management software.

What to Look for When Choosing a Project Management Tool

Before diving deeper into any project management tool, first ask yourself: is there anything that fundamentally rules it out? Some hurdles are so basic that they disqualify a tool from the start. Watch out for these points:

• Is the tool offered as SaaS in the cloud?
• Can the software be self-hosted (on premise)?
• Is the service fully GDPR-compliant?
• Does it seriously support agile project management?
• Does it seriously support classic project management?

These characteristics are typically treated as knockout criteria — and they can significantly narrow down the number of suitable products. That’s why we’ve placed them at the top of our criteria list.

Before diving deeper into any project management tool, first ask yourself: is there anything that fundamentally rules it out? Some hurdles are so basic that they disqualify a tool from the start. Watch out for these points:

• Is the tool offered as SaaS in the cloud?
• Can the software be self-hosted (on premise)?
• Is the service fully GDPR-compliant?
• Does it seriously support agile project management?
• Does it seriously support classic project management?

These characteristics are typically treated as knockout criteria — and they can significantly narrow down the number of suitable products. That’s why we’ve placed them at the top of our criteria list.

Hosting

For small businesses and startups, a SaaS solution is highly scalable and allows them to minimize upfront costs while optimizing collaboration in remote work environments.

Mid-sized and large enterprises, however, may prefer an on-premise solution that gives them full control over data storage and more customization options.

PM Methodology

Whether you use a classic, agile, or hybrid methodology, the project management software you choose must support it. Otherwise, you’ll end up wasting valuable time and resources trying to switch to a different solution down the line. For agile teams in particular, it’s worth looking at agile project management tools that map Scrum and Kanban optimally.

Feature Set

The desired feature set is an important selection criterion — and this is often where the devil is in the details. Does the system have powerful task management? Does it support Gantt charts, Kanban boards, resource planning, and efficient time tracking? A large feature set isn’t always necessary and can come with an unnecessarily complex user interface.

Ease of Use

Some project management tools are more user-friendly and intuitive than others. There are tools that cover basic functionality and have a shorter learning curve — these are better suited to smaller teams working on simple projects with straightforward workflows.

At the same time, more advanced project management solutions — those that allow larger organizations to manage and track the progress of multiple complex projects — require more time for users to get familiar with all the features.

Collaboration Features

This category includes communication features, comments, @mentions, shared dashboards, wikis, and document management. Some of these features are already covered in many organizations by standard software packages and shouldn’t need to be duplicated in the project management tool.

Task Management

Depending on the nature of the projects you’re working on, you may need to organize your tasks hierarchically, resulting in one or more levels of subtasks. That’s why it’s important to choose a tool that lets you properly organize and manage your tasks.

In addition, a comprehensive project management tool lets you visualize task dependencies, which helps you stay on schedule and minimize bottlenecks, set up recurring tasks, and track time spent on each task.

Third-Party Integrations

Seamless third-party integrations are essential for organizations that already rely on a range of different tools for file sharing, team communication and collaboration, security, marketing, and sales.

Resource Management

A good project management tool includes a resource management feature that lets you intelligently manage resources across tasks to avoid overloads or potential conflicts stemming from missing resources.

Reporting & Analytics

Most comprehensive project management systems include reporting features — either built in or via an add-on — though the scope varies. This feature gives you a clear overview of your projects’ progress and highlights negative trends that may call for corrective action.

The best tools allow you to create customizable report templates that can then be exported in various formats, including PDF, Excel, Word, and HTML.

Task and Project Visualizations

The best project management software gives you a comprehensive overview of individual task progress and workload distribution through features such as customizable project dashboards/portfolios, intuitive timeline, board, calendar, and card views, as well as interactive Gantt charts and burndown charts.

Depending on your planning and scheduling requirements, these features can help you boost your team’s productivity, optimize task prioritization, and identify bottlenecks more quickly.

Access Controls

While data security should be a priority for organizations of all sizes, large enterprises need granular access controls that allow them to effectively manage data access across teams, projects, and tasks.

This functionality — typically found in mature project management software — lets you define specific role-based user permission levels and editing rights to keep sensitive information secure.

Value for Money

Last but not least, implementing a project management tool in your organization represents a significant financial investment. Most programs on the market offer a free version with limited functionality.

If you’re a small business or startup, that can be a good starting point. Mid-sized and large enterprises, however, will need to opt for a paid plan to access the advanced features they require.