15 Best Work Management Tools (Free & Paid)

Alisha Shibli
Alisha Shibli
November 11, 2023

TL;DR: Tettra is an essential work management tool for company docs and processes. Others are Asana, Coda, and Quip.

What are work management tools & software?

Work management software is a type of software that helps businesses and organizations to plan, track, and manage tasks, projects, and workflows more efficiently. You can call it the superhero of productivity tools! This software is a lifesaver for teams, helping them to plan, track, and manage tasks, projects, and workflows, keeping them organized and on track.

Most work management software comes with useful features such as task management tools, project planning, team collaboration, time management, Gantt charts, customizable dashboards, reporting, and analytics. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows all your work secrets and can help you be more efficient.

Below, you’ll find some of the top work management and related tools to help you do more each day.  

1. Tettra

Use it for: Knowledge management software

Tettra is the best knowledge management tool in 2023.

As a cloud-based software, Tettra has a simple, user-friendly UI and integrates with Slack, Google Drive, MS Teams, and more. It also has a powerful context-driven search feature that lets you find any information in seconds.

One of Tettra’s standout features is its ability to use machine learning algorithms to recognize and tag information accurately. It keeps the knowledge base organized and up-to-date and helps users quickly find the necessary information.

Best Features

  • Get instant answers with AI, auto-generated directly from your docs in Tettra
  • Answer team questions directly from your chat tool, using Slack or MS Teams.
  • One of the earliest Slack apps
  • Create more context around processes than what you can do in task management software
  • Verify, ask for updates from subject matter experts, and have a single source of truth

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2. Asana

Use it for: Project management software

Asana has an extensive feature set to create, organize, track, and communicate different tasks. The task management platform allows you to add notes, links, attachments, due dates, and other details on every task to keep various projects organized. You can delegate tasks to each other within the team, and your project members can tag one another in the task’s comments box and communicate changes. 

Asana’s primary goals are practical cooperation and communication. It integrates well with most third-party programs, tools, and apps, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, and numerous IT, sales, and calendar applications.

Best Features

  • Allows you to organize multiple projects, outline tasks, and create an interactive to-do list for your team.
  • Offers a clean and straightforward user interface making it easy to learn and use.
  • Offers multiple views, which allows you to see a task list, bulletin board, Gantt chart-style timeline, and calendar.

Reviews

“What we liked about using Asana was the ease of use and flexibility it offers in terms of tool customization. The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate. One of the challenges we faced when using Asana was the number of notifications we received.” – G2

3. ClickUp

Use it for: Project management software

ClickUp is a simple and intuitive project management platform and a great organization app used by small and large businesses. It includes an intuitive user interface (UI) that is simple to use and shows a hierarchy of several project views according to priority. This allows for coordinating and managing team initiatives. You can make your docs stand out with excellent headers, tables, color highlights, lists, bullets, code blocks, markups, and more.

Best Features

  • Designed to be an all-in-one solution.
  • Easy-to-use interface.
  • Easily integrates with various third-party apps and programs.

Reviews

“ClickUp has been of great help in providing documents and tracking proper time on each task, and also keeping the data documented securely so we can review it later at any point in time.” – TrustRadius

4. Paymo

Use it for: Work management

Paymo is a project and work management software for small-medium businesses and freelancers. It includes project planning, resource scheduling, team collaboration, time tracking, and project accounting, all under one roof, making remote work easy.

You can create projects, add tasks with multiple assignees, and save them as a template for later use. It also offers four different task views: List, Table, Board, Calendar, and Gantt Chart.

With Paymo, you can use various tools to track your productivity. This includes a built-in timer, desktop and mobile apps, and precise timesheets that offer insights into how you’re using your time.

Best Features

  • User-friendly interface that makes the platform easy to use.
  • Option to track expenses in the mobile application.
  • Makes time-tracking easy and efficient.

Reviews

“Having tried many different project management platforms, the Paymo system of tasks and notifications is, whilst not perfect, the best combination of time tracking, team notifying, and resource sharing that we have used.” – G2

5. Trello

Use it for: Team project management software

Trello boasts a sleek and user-friendly interface that employs Kanban boards to help you manage your tasks and projects. You can establish workflows and effortlessly rearrange tasks by simply dragging and dropping cards. Trello facilitates seamless collaboration and enables you to integrate your projects with other apps. Regardless of the size of your business, Trello is a suitable choice if you have projects that require management across or within teams.

Best Features

  • Easily indicate task progress with drag-and-drop functionality.
  • Offer real-time feedback through comments within tasks.
  • Highlight individual tasks using cards within boards.

Reviews

“We use Trello to help us keep track of all our current, future, and past projects. Each person has their own account, and we share boards, assign jobs, comment, and leave feedback as needed. It has been very helpful to keep us updated and everyone on task.” – TrustRadius

6. Notion

Use it for: Productivity software & knowledge sharing

Notion was first released in 2016 as a note-taking app. Given its ability to interact with several other productivity tools, it has since gained a lot of popularity among teams. Notion serves as an all-in-one workspace that allows for information organization, idea sharing, and process streamlining for you and your team.

Several use cases, including project management, note-taking, task tracking, personal or team wikis, CRM, document management, and knowledge bases, benefit significantly from the functionality of Notion. The platform’s search feature lets you find the information you need quickly and helps your team stay on track.

Best Features

  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Works well with other productivity tools
  • Suitable for both small and large teams

Reviews

“Notion AI is not only powerful, but easy to use. The interface that pops up when you engage with notion AI provides a good introduction in how to plug the tool into your workflow. However, there’s a lack of continuity. I often have to refine my requests of Notion AI, and that’s hard to do without deleting what you’ve already created.” – G2

7. Confluence

Use it for: Knowledge management software

Confluence is a collaboration tool created by Atlassian in 2004. It enables teams to produce, organize, and exchange information in one place. Confluence has tools for creating and sharing pages, blogs, and files, and is mainly used for knowledge management

Teams can collect data for projects using real-time editing and commenting features. It also connects with other Atlassian products, like Jira, to provide even more powerful project management and documentation features.

Best Features

  • Easily integrates with other Atlassian products
  • Allows for real-time editing and commenting
  • Makes it easy to organize content with labels, spaces, and pages

Reviews

“We use Confluence as our main source of documentation. We use it from creating documents that contain tables of data. We use it for creating design documentation. We use it for creating operational documentation. It has good search capabilities and it’s easy to create simple to use navigation.” – TrustRadius

8. Airtable

Use it for: Database software

Airtable’s two key goals are data organization and teamwork, making it the perfect relationship database and task management application. Data is organized and structured using a spreadsheet format; teams can monitor workflow, automate procedures, create connections, and link records from different tables. Using this application, you can assign tasks, establish a priority level, and control due dates.

Best Features

  • Offers actionable views such as Timeline, Kanban, Gantt, Calendar, and Grid View
  • Single to multi-sequence workflow automation
  • Robust API and built-in support for popular apps

Reviews

“I like that my planbook and information is available on my phone and desktop. It stays organized as I jump from class to class and topic to topic. It helps keep both outcomes and assignments organized. However, sometimes setting up the connections between the different tables takes a lot of time for me to figure out how I want them together.” – G2

9. Monday

Use it for: Task management software

Monday intends to assist businesses in streamlining their operations, boosting output, and enhancing teamwork and communication. Work management, marketing, sales CRM, dev, and projects are the five tools that make up this platform, all designed to help users manage their projects from beginning to end.

Monday.com is one of the most comprehensive, all-encompassing task management tools and collaboration solutions available in the market. Its main objective is to improve team collaboration, organization, and project communication.

Best Features

  • Unlimited boards and docs in the free plan
  • Customizable workflows to easily track projects
  • Use Gantt charts to plan, track and manage tasks

Reviews

“Dashboard allows quick and easy updates. Helps keep prospects list active. Makes it easier to manage the pipeline, and provides a quick status for each entry.” – TrustRadius

10. Smartsheet

Use it for: Project management software

Smartsheet is a work management software for businesses and organizations. The platform aids teams in the large-scale planning, execution, and reporting of tasks and projects. To help project managers and their teams in tracking and managing projects, the platform includes a spreadsheet interface and view. Smartsheet offers project management through different views, including Gantt, Calendar, Kanban, and more. It is a wonderful choice for big projects since it allows for easy internal and external collaboration.

Best Features

  • API allows users to develop their own programs and tools
  • Save time by automating repetitive tasks and processes
  • Flexible views and dashboards to suit your needs

Reviews

“Streamlined usability – intuitive and easy to use, so you can spend less time figuring out how to use it and more time getting work done. Dynamic flexibility – offers a wide range of customization options and flexible workflows. However, steep learning curve – while Smartsheet offers a lot of powerful features and functionality, some users may find it challenging to learn how to use them.” – G2

11. Quip

Use it for: Knowledge sharing software in Salesforce

Quip is an online collaboration platform created to help teams work together more easily, allowing for real-time document editing and easy information sharing. Moreover, Quip is connected with Salesforce, enabling even tighter communication between the two programs. Quip provides several functionalities, such as document collaboration, real-time editing, and simple sharing choices, to aid teams in working together productively.

Best Features

  • Real-time document editing
  • Document collaboration across teams
  • Integration with Salesforce

Reviews

“It’s a very good and easy-to-use tool when it comes to brainstorming with the team and keeping your ideas in one place. It has the ability to easily create and share various file formats such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. and then collaborate on them with the team.” – TrustRadius

 11. Coda

Use it for: Productivity software

Coda consolidates your work, communication, and data into a single intuitive platform, eliminating the needless switching between documents, spreadsheets, and specialized workflow programs. It has all of the powerful wiki features, including tables, buttons, and ready-to-use templates, allowing your document to expand and change to meet the demands of your team.

Best Features

  • Offers customizable views that suit everyone
  • Easily pull the latest Jira tickets or push updates to Slack
  • Makes collaboration seamless across teams

Reviews

“The search for a perfect project management tool ended with Coda for us. The versatility and usability of Coda allowed us to unify data and follow the status of the work and led us to better team management.” – G2

12. Todoist

Use it for: Task Management & Simplified Workflows

Todoist has emerged as a straightforward and efficient task management tool that caters to both individuals and teams. Known for its uncluttered interface and traditional to-do list approach, Todoist offers a smooth experience for tracking tasks and managing daily workloads.

It has recently broadened its horizon to support small business operations and teamwork functionalities, making it a versatile choice for various professional settings.

Best Features:

  • Set up recurring deadlines for ongoing projects.
  • Organize tasks with subtasks for detailed structuring.
  • Assign priorities to tasks to focus on what matters most.
  • Stay connected with mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

While Todoist excels in personal task management, its capabilities in team-based task assignments are still evolving – currently, it doesn’t support assigning multiple collaborators to a single task, promoting a more solo approach to handling tasks.

For those looking for team-centric features, exploring alternatives to Todoist might be worthwhile.

Reviews:

“Extremely easy to use for all levels of technological understanding. I use Todoist several times a day and we have integrated this across our whole team. We’ve experienced far less chance of tasks being lost or forgotten and people stay accountable because of the notifications received upon completion. Our communication within the team has improved significantly and everyone seems to be managing their time better.” – G2

13. TaskQue

Use it for: Resource Management & Automated Task Distribution

TaskQue distinguishes itself as a sophisticated task management system, offering more than just the basics of a to-do list application. It’s particularly effective for managing resources and ensuring tasks are smoothly assigned to the next available member of a team, optimizing productivity.

This tool is ideal for teams whose members share similar skill sets and work on comparable tasks, as TaskQue’s targeted assignment system cuts through the clutter to focus work where it’s needed most.

Best Features:

  • Automatic task assignment streamlines workflow and reduces manual sorting.
  • Built-in discussions foster communication directly related to task objectives.
  • A calendar view helps with visual scheduling and deadline management.
  • A robust enhancement to traditional to-do list apps.
  • Workflow management features to support task progression from inception to completion.

However, users may find the range of third-party integrations limited, and the lack of time tracking features means that TaskQue may not suit all project requirements.

Reviews:

“It is a quite comfortable application for a better fluidity of work more dynamic technology allowing team members and managers to collaborate and organize greater productivity and faster results. It has a nice and simple appearance for any user and company can be installed from the Tablet or iPad without problems and open Slack to communicate with team members, drag PDf, Word, Excel, PowerPoint files and send them to our colleagues.” – G2

14. Clockify

Use it for: Time Management & Task Organization

Clockify extends beyond its well-known time tracking functionality to provide a comprehensive solution for task management. It’s designed to accommodate everyone, from solo freelancers to teams and businesses of various scales.

With Clockify, organizing tasks, to-dos, and projects becomes efficient and straightforward. Its free task timer is an invaluable feature for monitoring the time spent on tasks, which is particularly useful for calculating billable hours for you and your team.

Best Features:

  • Classify time spent on different tasks for detailed time entries.
  • Assign tasks with estimated completion times to team members.
  • Manage tasks with options to edit, complete, or remove them as needed.
  • Use the Calendar view for a visual representation of tasks and time logs.
  • Enjoy compatibility with over 80 diverse project management and productivity applications.

It’s worth noting that Clockify’s broad suite of time tracking and invoicing capabilities may seem extensive for users who are interested in a straightforward task management tool.

Reviews:

“Clockify provides effective time tracking, streamlined project management, accurate timesheets, productivity insights, seamless connection with other products, flexibility, and both free and premium plans. It is a useful tool for people and teams wanting to increase productivity and time management because of these benefits.” – G2

15. Basecamp

Use it for: Team Collaboration & Project Communication

Basecamp stands out in the realm of task management software with its primary focus on enhancing team collaboration and streamlining communication. It’s designed to keep teams in sync, project conversations transparent, and collective work organized.

However, Basecamp takes a one-size-fits-all approach, which might not suit those looking for highly customizable task statuses. Knowing what tasks have been approved or are in progress isn’t as clear-cut as some would prefer.

Best Features:

  • Campfires & Pings for instant, real-time communication within teams.
  • Straightforward task management for clarity and simplicity.
  • Automatic check-in questions to keep everyone engaged and informed

Reviews:

“The ability to create your workgroups for the variety of teams I am on is a great feature. I love that you can communicate with team members efficiently and reliably. The activity log quickly lets you see at a glance the interactions and work that has been assigned, worked on, and completed. So helpful when it comes to working and communicating with your team efficiently.” – G2

How to choose work management software? 

Effective project management is critical to achieving success in any business or organization. The right work management software can optimize your team’s productivity and streamline workflow. First, identify the problems you’re facing with your projects to find the best fit.

While many work management software options are available, it’s essential to try out different solutions to find the one that works best for your team. And keep in mind that sometimes, less is more. Powerful features may seem tempting, but that complexity often slows down teams and creates unnecessary confusion.

 Consider this – If your teams frequently miss deadlines, implementing work management software could help. It can simplify the process of setting up and sending recurring reminders about upcoming deadlines, ultimately increasing productivity and helping your team stay on track.

When choosing a work management tool, consider your team’s size and budget. Some tools offer free plans for smaller teams, allowing you to test the software before investing in a paid plan as your team and business grow.

Knowledge management processes

How does knowledge management and work management blend together? 

Knowledge management is closely related to work management because it’s crucial to improving an organization’s efficiency and productivity.

Knowledge management can help organizations improve their overall business performance by identifying gaps between current processes and desired outcomes, especially around sharing best practices and processes. 

Knowledge management helps to create and maintain a culture of continuous improvement by enabling employees to quickly and easily share their knowledge and experiences.

It allows for the development of best practices, the sharing of ideas, and the creation of processes that can be reused and built upon. Additionally, it supports collaboration across teams, departments, and organizations.

The core purpose of knowledge management is to provide value to an organization in terms of increased productivity, better decision-making, improved customer service, and enhanced employee satisfaction. Organizations can easily capture, store, and share information by leveraging technology to streamline processes and improve efficiency.

How Tettra Helps with Knowledge Management

Tettra offers a full suite of tools for sharing knowledge. With Tettra, you’ll get:

  • Q&A workflow to capture questions
  • Knowledge base to document answers
  • Knowledge management features to keep content up to date.
  • Integrations with chat tools to make sure your team actually uses Tettra

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