Best 5 Zoho Project Alternative Tools for Project Management: Best Project Management Platforms in 2024
This comprehensive guide features five Zoho Projects alternatives. Read on to learn about their unique features, benefits and suitability to your team's needs.
Written by Beatrice Manuel (Writer)
Reviewed by Valentina Bravo (Editor)
Facts checked by Jasna Mishevska (Lead Fact-Checking Editor)
Last Updated: 2024-03-17T13:23:26+00:00
All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.
Key Takeaways: Zoho Projects Alternatives
- When choosing an alternative, it’s important to keep your team’s specific needs and preferences in mind.
- Our top picks for best Zoho Project alternatives are monday.com, Asana and ClickUp.
- ClickUp is a recommended free alternative to Zoho Projects, offering a range of features for task management, collaboration and reporting.
Zoho Projects is a widely used project management software suite with various collaboration and progress-tracking features. However, due to its complexity and toolset, it may not be suitable for your business or project. Fortunately, there are several alternative tools available that offer similar, or even better, feature sets.
To assist you in finding a suitable Zoho Projects alternative, we have researched and reviewed five popular tools on the market. Our guide compares their strengths, weaknesses, pricing, functionality and user experience. Considering these factors, you can choose the best project management software for your team’s needs.
Whether you’re looking for simplicity, advanced features or cost-effectiveness, there are alternatives to Zoho Projects that can help you manage your projects more effectively. Each tool offers unique benefits, and by exploring our guide, you can find the most suitable option to enhance your project management workflow.
Top Zoho Projects Alternatives
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5$9.80 / month(All Plans)
What Makes the Best Zoho Projects Alternative?
Whether you’re looking for a simple and intuitive tool, a powerful and customizable tool or a tool that integrates well with other apps, we’ve got you covered. Here are the five best Zoho Projects alternative tools for project management.
Top Suggestions: Best 5 Alternatives for Zoho Projects
- monday.com — The most user-friendly and visually-appealing tool
- Asana — Highly versatile and flexible project management platform
- ClickUp — The most feature-rich and affordable tool
- Trello — Simple yet powerful kanban project management tool
- Wrike — Scalable, secure and best for task management
When exploring alternatives to Zoho Projects, we considered these crucial features to assess their viability.
Comprehensive task management functionalities are a must, as they help with task creation, assignment, tracking, and setting priorities and deadlines. This also plays a significant role in collaboration, as features like comments and attachments enable your team to work together in real time and facilitate smooth collaboration among team members and clients.
Efficient time-tracking capabilities are also vital, enabling you to do a manual or automatic search of time spent on tasks and projects. Keep an eye out for seamless file-sharing options, allowing for easy upload, sharing, previewing and editing of files within the tool. Some software choices also offer integrations with popular file storage apps like Google Drive and Dropbox.
Lastly, a suitable project management alternative should offer robust reporting tools that enable the generation of customizable reports and dashboards. These reporting tools can help provide insights into task and project performance, helping you track the overall progress of your team based on various metrics and filters.
The 5 Best Zoho Projects Alternatives for Project Management
With an understanding of the criteria for selecting the best Zoho Projects alternatives and how these software options meet those requirements, we’ll now explore each one in detail to provide a better sense of what each one offers.
1. monday.com
More details about monday.com:
- Pricing: Starts at $9 per month (one-year plan)
- Free plan: Yes, 2 users max
- Provider website: monday.com
Pros:
- Highly user-friendly
- Feature packed
- Versatile utility
Cons:
- Free plan lacks features
- Weak security in lower plans
monday.com is a leading project management platform that stands out for its user-friendly interface and customizable workflows. It offers a visual and intuitive platform that allows teams to collaborate effectively and track project progress in real time. The tool’s biggest selling point is its flexibility, allowing users to design project management workflows that align with their needs and processes.
monday.com excels in providing clear visibility into project timelines and resource planning. Its Gantt chart view allows users to visualize project schedules, task dependencies and critical paths. It also has a dedicated milestone feature. Additionally, monday.com integrates with various popular tools and platforms, enabling seamless collaboration and data exchange across different applications.
Collaborate Effectively
One of the standout benefits of monday.com is its collaboration features. You can invite anyone to join any of your projects, whether the invitees are internal or external to your organization. You can also share your projects via a public link or embed them on your website.
The platform has a direct way to can chat with your team members, mention them in comments and send them updates via email or mobile notifications. You can also use monday.com to create forms, surveys, polls, quizzes and interactive feedback sessions to collect post-project feedback from your stakeholders.
For those just starting their business journey, monday.com offers a free plan with certain limitations for up to two users that includes access to a maximum of 1,000 tasks. To take full advantage of monday.com’s integrations and capabilities, consider exploring its 14-day free trial. Upgrading to a paid plan starts from $9 per month, billed annually.
You can refer to our comprehensive monday.com review for a more in-depth understanding of the tool’s offerings.
- Maximum users: 2
- Minimum users: 3
- Minimum users: 3
More plans
- Minimum users: 3
- Enterprise-level features.
2. Asana
More details about Asana:
- Pricing: Starts at $10.99 per month (one-year plan)
- Free plan: Yes, 15 users max
- Provider website: asana.com
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Reporting feature is great
- Has advanced tools
Cons:
- Paid plans are expensive
- Plan progression is poor
Asana is a top contender among the best Zoho Projects alternatives for business management, offering a powerful project and portfolio management solution with a unique focus on workflow automation. Additionally, its user-friendly interface makes it easy for teams to collaborate and manage projects efficiently.
With custom project templates and the ability to set due dates, priorities and task dependencies, Asana provides a comprehensive solution for effective project planning and execution. Asana seamlessly integrates with various applications such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack and more, allowing teams to connect and centralize their work across multiple platforms.
Automate Tasks Efficiently
One standout feature that sets Asana apart is its robust automation capabilities. Asana allows users to create custom workflows and automate repetitive tasks, saving time and increasing efficiency.
Its intuitive visual interface lets users quickly set up rules and triggers to automatically assign tasks, send notifications, update statuses and more. This automation feature streamlines project workflows and helps teams stay organized and productive. You can even set up automations for project budget management with the help of this powerful tool.
Keep in mind though that the custom rule builder is only available for Asana Business and Enterprise customers.
Asana offers a free plan with unlimited projects and tasks for up to 15 users. You can try any of its paid plans for free for 30 days. Paid plans start from $10.99 per user per month billed annually, and include more features and support as you climb up tiers.
For an in-depth review, refer to our guide on Asana. We also have a comprehensive Zoho Projects vs Asana comparison.
- Up to 10 users
- Price is per user. unlimited users, expanded features
- Price is per user. unlimited users, even more features
- Custom pricing, advanced security features
3. ClickUp
More details about ClickUp:
- Pricing: Starts at $7 per month (one-year plan)
- Free plan: Yes, limited features and integrations
- Provider website: clickup.com
Pros:
- Among the best free plans
- Loaded with features
- Paid plans are affordable
Cons:
- Uninspiring user interface
- Steep learning curve
ClickUp is a versatile project management tool that can adapt to any workflow. Whether you want to use a list, board, calendar, timeline or Gantt chart view, ClickUp lets you easily switch between them. ClickUp also lets you create custom fields, statuses, priorities and more.
ClickUp integrates with over 1,000 apps, including Gmail, Slack, Zoom and Google Drive. You can easily sync your data across different platforms and tools, and automate your workflows with triggers and actions. You can also use ClickUp’s native chat and video call features to communicate with your team members and clients.
Manage Better With Multiple Views
One of the best features of ClickUp is that it offers multiple views for your tasks, available on the paid plan. You can switch between over 15 views to see your tasks differently, including list, board, calendar, timeline, Gantt chart, mind map, form, and more. You can customize each view with filters, sorting options and grouping options.
ClickUp offers a generous free plan that lets you manage unlimited tasks and projects with up to 100MB of storage. You can upgrade to a paid plan, starting at $7 per user per month billed annually, to access more features and integrations. ClickUp offers a 100% money-back guarantee, removing the risk associated with a paid plan.
Check out our full ClickUp review or Zoho Projects vs ClickUp to learn more.
- Basic functionality with some limitations
- All prices per user
- All prices per user
4. Trello
More details about Trello:
- Pricing: Starts at $5 per month (one-year plan)
- Free plan: Yes, 10 boards max
- Provider website: trello.com
Pros:
- Great for new users
- Huge range of templates
- Solid kanban boards
Cons:
- Poor paid plans
- Heavily reliant on integrations
Trello is a simple and intuitive project management tool employing kanban boards to organize tasks. You can create cards for each task and drag and drop them across columns to indicate their status. You can also add labels, due dates, attachments, checklists and comments to each card.
Trello is excellent for small teams and for managing tasks and simple projects that don’t require too much complexity or detail. You can use Trello’s power-ups to add extra functionality to your boards, such as a calendar view, voting, automation and more. Trello integrates with many popular apps and tools, like Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, Zapier and more.
Choose From Hundreds Of Templates
One of the standout benefits of Trello is its extensive inbuilt template library that lets you choose from hundreds of ready-made boards for different purposes and industries. Whether you want to plan a wedding, launch a product, run a marketing campaign or manage a personal project, you can find a template that suits your needs. You can also browse Trello’s inspiration page to see how other users use Trello for their projects.
Trello has a free version that lets you create up to 10 boards with unlimited cards and members. If you need more boards and power-ups, you can upgrade to one of its paid plans, starting at $5 per user per month billed annually. Trello provides special discounts for non-profit organizations and educational institutions, meaning that these sectors can enjoy its services at a cheaper price.
We have a detailed review on Trello and Trello vs Zoho Projects comparison which you can check for more details.
- Unlimited users, 10 boards, Unlimited power-ups, Unlimited storage
- Price is per user, Unlimited boards, Custom fields, Invite guests
- Price is per user, Several new views
- Price is per user, Advanced admin & security settings
5. Wrike
More details about Wrike:
- Pricing: Starts at $9.80 per month (one-year plan)
- Free plan: Yes, limited features
- Provider website: wrike.com
Pros:
- Generous free plan
- Robust task management
- Great security & reporting
Cons:
- Interface could be better
- Steep price rise in paid plans
Wrike is a robust project management tool offering advanced features for effective collaboration and project tracking. One aspect that sets Wrike apart from other alternatives is its powerful task management capabilities. The tool provides a comprehensive overview of functions, enabling whole teams to stay organized, prioritize work and meet project deadlines efficiently.
Another notable feature of Wrike is its advanced workload management capabilities. Offering real-time visibility into resource availability and utilization, project managers can ensure a balanced workload distribution. One more neat feature is that you can directly integrate Wrike tasks into Google Sheets in real time.
Advanced Reporting Features
One of the main advantages of Wrike over Zoho Projects is its advanced reporting features. Wrike lets you create and customize different types of reports to monitor your project performance, such as status reports, workload reports, time reports and more. You can also share your reports with stakeholders and export them to PDF or Excel.
Wrike offers a free plan with 2GB of storage space. More users and advanced features can be unlocked by upgrading to one of its paid plans, which start from $9.80 per user per month; for robust security and reporting features, you’ll have to opt for the Enterprise plan. Wrike offers a 14-day free trial on its plans.
If you like Wrike but are put off by the price jump between its paid plans, you can find more options in our best Wrike alternatives piece. You can also turn to our full Wrike review for more details to help you choose.
- Unlimited users. Basic features.
- Price is per user. Plans for 5, 10 and 15 users.
- Price is per user. No monthly option. Plans for 5 to 200 users.
- Plans for 5 to an unlimited number of users.
Honorable Mentions
While we have limited the list of the best Zoho Projects alternatives to the top five contenders, a few other notable project management services deserve a mention.
TeamGantt
TeamGantt is a web-based tool that focuses on creating and managing Gantt charts. The tool lets you create Gantt charts easily by dragging and dropping tasks, assigning resources, setting deadlines and more. You can also collaborate with other team members by adding comments, attachments and feedback.
TeamGantt could have made the list of Zoho Projects alternatives because it offers a simple and intuitive way to plan and track projects using Gantt charts, but it lacks some of the features that Zoho Projects has, such as issue tracking, invoicing, budgeting and custom fields. TeamGantt is also more expensive than Zoho Projects for larger teams and more projects. If, however, Gantt charts are what you’re focused on, these are some of the best in the game.
Jira
Jira is a cloud-based tool that specializes in Agile project management and software development. Jira lets you create and manage things like issues, bugs, tasks and stories. You can also organize your issues into sprints, backlogs, boards and workflows. Jira supports various management methodologies, like scrum, kanban and scrumban. You can also collaborate with team members by adding comments, votes, watches and mentions.
Jira could have made the list of Zoho Projects alternatives because it offers a robust and flexible solution for Agile teams and software developers. However, it didn’t due to its complex and overwhelming nature, and many don’t need all of the features and options that Jira provides. You can check out our full review of Jira for more details.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a popular project management solution that aims to simplify collaboration and communication among team members. It allows users to create projects, assign tasks, share files, chat and track progress, all from one central place. Basecamp also offers integrations with third-party tools like Gmail, Slack and Dropbox.
Basecamp’s main advantages are its user-friendly interface and intuitive design. Users can manage everything from just the main screen. It’s best suited for small teams and projects that have a communications-first approach; it’s likely not the right choice for those working on complex or large-scale projects that require more advanced features and functionality.
You can learn more about the software in our full Basecamp review.
Final Thoughts: Which Zoho Projects Alternative Is Right for You?
We have presented five top Zoho Projects alternatives that offer a range of features and benefits to suit different project management needs. From the highly customizable interface of monday.com to Wrike’s visual project management approach, each tool brings its unique strengths to the table.
Now, the question is: Which Zoho Projects alternative is the right fit for you? Consider your team’s specific needs, such as task management preferences, collaboration requirements, and reporting needs. Evaluate how each alternative aligns with those needs and choose the one that best meets your requirements.
We would love to hear your thoughts. Have you tried any of these alternatives? What has been your experience? Do you have any other recommendations? Feel free to share your comments and insights. Thank you for reading, and we wish you success in finding the perfect project management tool for your team.
FAQ: Zoho Projects Alternative
monday.com is a solid alternative to Zoho Projects. With its user-friendly interface, extensive customization options and powerful collaboration features, monday.com offers a comprehensive solution for managing projects effectively.
Zoho Projects provides robust task management capabilities, seamless collaboration among team members and integrations with other Zoho apps. It also provides comprehensive reporting and analytics features for tracking project progress and performance.
Zoho Projects is suitable for teams of all sizes and in all industries needing a project management solution to streamline workflows, enhance team collaboration and track project progress. It caters to many users, including freelancers, small businesses and large enterprises.
ClickUp is the best free alternative to Zoho Projects. With its generous free plan, ClickUp offers a range of features for task management, collaboration and reporting without posting a hefty price tag.