PM Tools

 

We maintain a database at ProjExc containing around 200 PM tools. These tools vary greatly in capability, complexity and price. They range from simple web-apps, through mobile apps, to hosted enterprise tools and self-hosted server based tools. They vary from personal productivity and collaboration tools through enterprise project management (EPM) tools to fully fledged portfolio management and business automation tools.

To help you find what you are looking for, we’ve created a directory here containing many of the tools on that database. We’ve used some broad brushes to categorise some of the better known tools:

  • productivity (including some popular collaboration tools), 

  • agile focused tools, 

  • fully fledged PPM tools (often considered as "all-in-one"), and 

  • specialist niche tools.

Please Note: there is constant change in this space, with new tools coming to market, tools being retired and a stream of acquisitions/consolidations. We are always refreshing the database. If you have a specific need or question do get in touch.

Understand Your Needs

We strongly recommend that you use tools that will support the way that you manage your projects. All too often we encounter people who have been seduced by an exciting new tool only to find (after making a big commitment) that they then have to significantly and negatively change the way that they work to be able to use the tool. For professional, independently guided recommendations, shortlisting and procurement support specifically for your organisation please contact our consultants at ProjExc.

Independence

While we are happy to list and link to many of the tools in our database, we make no recommendation of suitability for you and or your organisation. We are careful to remain vendor independent and receive no incentive for including them in the lists.  

What Do You Use?

We are really interested to hear what you use to help manage your projects and what makes them so great for you. Why not take our simple poll or drop us a line.

 

Productivity Tools

There is a growing plethora of productivity tools which can help individuals and teams keep on top of project tasks and priorities, with varying levels of sophistication (complexity).

A subset (collaboration) was established by the market leader, 37 Signals’ Basecamp has over the last decade become much more crowded.  Particularly in this space there is an increasing trend towards mobile project management tools, as evidenced by the abundance of iOS and Android applications available.

The PM Advisor Directory for productivity tools includes:

5pm Web
A. Ace Project, Action Item Manager, Action Method, AjaxWorkSpace, ApolloHQ, Asana
B. Basecamp, Binfire, Bitrix24
C. ClientSpot Extreme, ClickUp, Collabtive, ComindWork, Conceptboard, Confluence, CopperProject, CreativeProOffice
D. DeskAway, Drafts
F. Feng Office, Fleep, Flock, FreedCamp, Function Point
G. GlassCubes, GoodNotes, GoToMeeting
H. Hive, Hyperoffice
I. Inclusionware, Intervals
M. Monday, MS Teams
N. Nutcache
O. OnStage
P. Paymo, Planzone, ProjectBubble, ProjectSpace, ProofHub, ProWorkFlow
Q. Quire
R. Redbooth, Redmine, Remember The Milk, Ryver
S. Skype, Slenke, Springloops
T. TeamWork PM, Things
W. Webex, Webplanner, Workflowy, Wrike
Z. Zoom

PPM Tools

These all-in-one tools provide a variety of functions on top of basic collaboration. The PPM title makes reference to their project and portfolio management capabilities. They are normally adopted by organisations with maturing PM capabilities. This category of tools is predominantly web-based, SaaS type solutions, but a number can also be installed on your own servers, or even as client software although this model is becoming increasingly rare.

The PM Advisor Directory for PPM tools includes:

]project-open[, 2-plan
C. Clarity, Clarizen, Celoxis, Central Desktop, Concerto
D. Daptiv, Deltek
E. EasyProjects
G. Genius Inside
H. HotProject, Hydra Solutions
I. iPlanware
M. Mavenlink
P. P2Ware, Planio, PlanningForce, PowerProject, PPO, Primavera, ProCore, Project, Project.net, ProjectManager.com, ProjectTurf
S. Sciforma
T. TrackerOffice, TrackerSuite
W. WorkZone
Z. Zilicus, Zoho

Specialist Tools

This is a category for tools which have deep specific functionality in a variety of areas. Those areas include risk management, gantt preparation, mindmapping and more.  This is a rapidly growing marketplace, and so if you know of a great tool, or indeed want to tell us about your tool, please do so and if we’re impressed we’ll happily add it to the list.

The PM Advisor Directory for specialist tools includes:

10,000ft, @ risk
A. Actitime, AllChange, AMS Realtime, Artemis, Assembla
B. BluePrintHQ, Bridge24
C. Claromentis
D. Decision Edge, Dotproject
E. Elapseit, Entry, EPMLive, eResource Scheduler
F. Financial Force, Float, FlowDock, Forecast.app, Function Point, FuntionFox,
G. Gantter, Ganttic, GANTTproject, Geckoboard
I. Innate, Intervals, iPlanner, IRIS, iThoughts, JournyX, JumpChart, jxproject
K. Kanban Tool, KPI
L. Liquid Planner
M. Method123, MindGenius, MindManager, mindmeister
O. OneDesk, OneHub
P. PB Works, Podio, PowerSteering, Profess, Project Footage, Project Insight, Project Partner, Project Tools, Projector PSA, ProjectOrpsa,
R. Replicon, Resource Guru, Rocket Chat, Runn
S. Sanebox, SimPro, SmartCore, SmartSheet, Solo, SyncD
T. TaskJuggler, TeamDesk, TeamGantt, TimeControl, TimeDoctor, Toggl Plan, Tomsplanner, TracProject
U. Upland
V. Vogsy
W. Work etc, Workfront

Agile Tools

There are a host of tools available to support Agile Development. These vary greatly from Jira plug-ins to Kanban boards and beyond.

If project execution in your organisation is not ‘all in’ on agile then caution is needed to ensure that your chosen tool can adapt to your hybrid way of working.

The PM Advisor Directory for agile tools includes:

A. Active Collab, Acunote, Agile Manager, Agilo, airfocus, Assembla, Axosoft, Azure DevOps, Atlassian (Jira/Confluence/Trello)
B. BrixHQ
C. Clickup
E. EasyProject, Extreme Planner
G. GetsmartQ, Github Project Management, Gravity
I. Icescrum
K. Kanbanize, Kunagi
L. Leankit
N. nifty, Nostromo
P. Pivotal Tracker, Planbox, PrincipalProductboard, Proggio
R. RallyDev
S. Scrumdesk, ServiceNow, SpiraTeam, SprintGround
T. Taiga, TargetProcess, TinyPM
V. Version One
Z. Zen Tao