What Are Project Management Tools?
Project management tools let you break complex projects into smaller tasks, assign them to the right people, set deadlines, and track progress in one place. They show who’s doing what and when it’s due. You can also leave comments, upload files, and keep communication clear without bouncing between emails and chats.
Agencies also use them to share updates with clients or get quick approvals, which saves time and keeps everyone aligned. Plus, you can pull reports to see how things are going and spot any issues early.
What a Project Management Tool Should Help Agencies Do:
- Manage client projects and communication in one place
- Organize, assign, and track tasks and project deadlines
- Generate reports and visual dashboards to track project progress
- Automate repetitive tasks to save time and limit mistakes
- Protect your data with secure, role-based access controls
1. Manage Client Projects and Communication in One Place
One of the biggest headaches in an agency is bouncing between tools to manage emails, spreadsheets, chats, and who knows what else.
The best project management software lets you manage all the tasks, timelines, feedback, and client communication in one place. Some solutions even have client portals, so clients can check progress or leave comments without the back-and-forth.
2. Organize, Assign, and Track Tasks and Project Deadlines
Let’s be real: without systems in place, getting work done feels impossible. A proper tool helps you break down big projects into smaller tasks, assign them to the right people, and set deadlines. You can track what’s completed, what’s late, and what’s next.
Some tools even support different views and project management methodologies (such as Kanban boards or Gantt charts) to let you visualize everything in a way that makes sense for you.
3. Generate Reports and Visual Dashboards to Track Project Progress
You want to know what’s working, what’s stuck, and how your team is performing. A project management tool should give you that visibility.
Whether it’s time tracking, resource usage, or project progress, look for tools that offer visual dashboards or downloadable reports. This makes it easy to update clients or leadership, as well as make smarter decisions based on data.
4. Automate Repetitive Tasks to Save Time and Limit Mistakes
Agencies deal with a lot of repeatable work, like setting up new projects, assigning tasks, sending reminders, or collecting approvals.
Look for a tool that can automate some of these tasks. This can save your team hours every week and reduce the chance of human error. Even something as simple as automatically moving a task to the next stage once it’s marked complete can make a difference.
5. Protect Your Data with Secure, Role-Based Controls
Since you’re working with client information, privacy and security matter a lot. You should be able to set user roles, permissions, and access levels so your clients only see their specific projects and your team only sees what’s relevant to them. This keeps sensitive data protected while still allowing for smooth collaboration and operational efficiency.
10 Best Agency Project Management Tools:
- Sitejet
- SocialBee
- Asana
- ClickUp
- Jira
- monday.com
- Productive
- Bonsai
- Synergist
- Screendragon
1. Sitejet
Sitejet Studio is a web design platform made with agencies in mind. Instead of switching between multiple tools to build websites, collect client feedback, and manage progress, Sitejet combines everything in one place. It helps your team work more efficiently, stay organized, and manage client projects with less effort.
What’s more, you get drag-and-drop templates, built-in SEO tools, a client portal, and project management features, all designed to support faster design and smoother communication.
Whether you’re working solo or managing a full creative team, it gives you the tools to stay efficient, impress clients, and scale your web design services with ease.
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Features:
- Website builder and CMS: Combines a visual drag-and-drop builder with a professional CMS, allowing agencies to design and manage sites quickly without sacrificing flexibility.
- Template and section library: Offers 140+ customizable templates and 120+ prebuilt responsive sections to speed up the design process.
- Full code access: Provides optional access to HTML, (S)CSS, and JavaScript editors for full design control when needed.
- Responsive design tools: Ensures every site looks great on all devices, with built-in tools to customize layouts for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
- Corporate identity detection: Automatically extracts brand colors from a logo and applies them across the site for consistent branding.
- Website check: Uses AI to review your site and catch common design or content issues before publishing.
- AI text generator: Creates SEO-friendly website copy instantly and embeds it directly into the page, saving time on content writing.
- Image editing tools: Includes built-in tools to crop, resize, and adjust visuals within the platform.
- Dynamic content creation: Enables easy setup and management of blogs, product listings, and other content types using dynamic content blocks.
- E-commerce integration: Adds a full-featured store with product, cart, and checkout pages using Ecwid integration, making it ideal for selling online.
- App integrations: Offers integrations with tools like Google Fonts, Google Maps, Google Analytics, and others to add more functionality.
- Website import tool: Allows you to pull text, images, and other content from an existing website with one click.
- SEO tools: Provides page-level SEO settings, automatic image compression, code minimization, and lazy loading to improve site speed and rankings.
- Website analytics: Tracks site performance and allows integrations with external analytics tools for deeper insights.
- Unlimited pages: Supports websites of any size, allowing you to create and manage unlimited pages for your clients.
Pros:
- Helpful, responsive, and friendly support team
- All-in-one approach, with key features like white-labeling, client portals, and project management that make it great for non-technical users
- Cost-effective compared to competitors while still offering a powerful feature set
Cons:
- A slight learning curve for those unfamiliar with website structure
Pricing:
Paid plans start at $19/month, but you can also test their free 14-day trial before fully committing.
2. SocialBee
It’s 2025, so chances are you’re already using social media to market your business and connect with clients. But how are you managing your content creation, team collaboration, publishing, and performance tracking? If you’re still juggling multiple tools and platforms, it’s time for a better way.
SocialBee is a powerful project management tool for all your social media tasks: create, schedule, publish, and analyze your content, all from a single dashboard. It eliminates repetitive tasks, saving you hours every week. Agencies can invite team members and clients, organize work into separate workspaces, leave notes, and approve posts for seamless collaboration.
Beyond performance tracking, SocialBee also lets you generate professional PDF reports in seconds to share with your entire team or external clients.
One of SocialBee’s standout features is its AI-powered tools. You can generate a complete social media strategy in minutes and create captions and images effortlessly without writer’s block.
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Features:
- Supported platforms: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, TikTok, YouTube, and Bluesky.
- Universal Posting: Plan content for any social platform, even if it’s not natively supported—such as Facebook Groups, Reddit, WhatsApp, Telegram, Mastodon, Quora, and more.
- Built-in design tools: Create visually engaging posts using the Canva integration, and curate visuals for your posts using Unsplash and GIPHY.
AI Post Generator: Instantly generate captions and images tailored to your brand. - Copilot, your social media assistant: Let AI help you craft a complete social media strategy by recommending which platforms to post on, when to post, how often, giving you post ideas, and even generating ready-to-share content.
- Content categorization: Organize your posts into categories (folders) dedicated to the topics and types of content you usually share for a well-balanced mix.
- Platform-specific tailoring: Customize posts for each platform’s format and audience (manually or with the help of AI).
- Smart hashtag generator: Generate relevant hashtags based on your captions or images.
- Content recycling: Reuse evergreen posts or set expiration dates for time-sensitive content.
- Calendar scheduling: Plan your posts visually with a drag-and-drop calendar.
- Team collaboration: Manage multiple workspaces and collaborate with your team and clients effortlessly.
- Analytics: Track account growth and post performance over time.
- Engagement management: Respond to comments, mentions, and DMs directly from SocialBee.
Pros:
- An all-in-one social media tool
- Supports your favorite social media channels
- Amazing value for money
- Reliable social media monitoring
- Best for agencies running multiple client accounts
- Outstanding customer support
Cons:
- A slight learning curve at the beginning
Pricing:
Paid plans start at $29/month, but you can also check out their free 14-day trial to test the platform’s features.
3. Asana
Asana is a work management tool that lets you create projects, assign tasks, set deadlines, and see exactly who’s doing what and when.
It’s super handy if you’re managing a lot at once or working with a team. Everything’s in one place, so you’re not digging through email chains or random notes to stay on top of things.
Asana also comes with helpful tools like project timelines, automations, and workload tracking to keep things running smoothly. Plus, it connects with Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, and more, so it can easily fit into how you already work.
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Features:
- Multiple project views: See your work however it makes the most sense, whether as a list, calendar, timeline, Kanban board, or Gantt chart.
- Workload and resource management: Check how busy your team is, shift tasks around easily, and plan ahead with features like workload, capacity planning, and resource tracking.
- Goals and reporting: Connect everyday work to big-picture goals. Use dashboards and real-time reporting to keep your team focused and measure progress across departments.
- Automation and workflows: Use rules, templates, forms, and bundles to automate repetitive tasks and create workflows that basically run themselves.
- Asana AI: Let AI organize projects, track goals, and suggest what to focus on next. Asana’s AI tools help teams move faster and make smarter decisions.
- Time tracking: See how much time is spent on each task so you can budget better and improve planning.
- Inbox and my tasks: Stay up to date with personalized task lists and a smart inbox that only shows you the updates you actually care about.
- Integrations: Connect with your favorite tools like Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Jira, Tableau, and more.
- Admin controls and security: Easily manage teams, control access, and keep your data safe with enterprise-grade security features and admin tools.
- Guest access: Work securely with clients, freelancers, or partners by inviting them as guests with limited permissions.
Pros:
- Easy-to-navigate platform with personalized views and color-coded projects
- Real-time messaging, file sharing, alerts, and visibility into task ownership
- Great option for individuals or small teams who want access to robust project management tools without the cost
Cons:
- You can’t assign a task to multiple team members, which may be limiting in certain workflows
- Smaller teams or basic projects might find the tool’s many features distracting
Pricing:
Paid plans begin at €13.49/month, but Asana offers a free version for teams with less than 10 members.
4. ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management app that lets you manage tasks, chat with your team, write docs, track time, and even set reminders, all in one place. It’s super helpful if you’re tired of bouncing between different tools to get your work done.
What’s really nice is how flexible it is. You can set it up however you like, whether you prefer working with lists, boards, calendars, or Gantt charts. And if you’re into automation or want a little help staying on top of things, it even has AI features to speed up your workflow.
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Features:
- Hierarchy structure: Organize work using ClickUp’s scalable hierarchy with Spaces, Folders, and Lists, making it easy to manage anything from personal tasks to enterprise-level projects.
- Multiple project views: Offers 15+ view options, including List, Board, Calendar, Gantt, Timeline, Mind Map, Whiteboard, Workload, and more to suit any workflow style.
- Automations: Lets you automate repetitive processes with over 50 actions, triggers, and conditions to save time and reduce manual work.
- Real-time collaboration tools: Allows teams to create, edit, and collaborate on documents directly in ClickUp, with version control and task linking.
- Dashboards: Combines widgets to visualize KPIs, task progress, sprint status, and time-tracking data in one customizable view.
- Goal tracking and milestones: Helps teams set, track, and measure progress toward objectives, with dedicated goal folders and milestone markers.
- Workload management: Visualizes team capacity with Workload and Box views, helping to balance assignments and prevent burnout.
- Integrations: Connects with over 1,000 tools, including Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Jira, Salesforce, and more.
- Permissions and guest access: Offers advanced permissions, sharing controls, and secure guest access for clients, contractors, or partners.
- Admin controls and security: Provides enterprise-level security features, admin dashboards, audit logs, and user management tools for full control.
Pros:
- Flexible setup with customizable dashboards, statuses, labels, and task views to match any team’s workflow
- Clean and intuitive layout, making it easy to organize and track tasks and projects effectively
- Allows users to log time directly on tasks, which is helpful for managing billable hours and tracking overall productivity
Cons:
- Limited mobile app functionality, which can be frustrating when working on the go
- Support is only available via email or chat.
Pricing:
Paid plans start at $10/user/month, with a free plan for individual users.
5. Jira
Jira is a project management tool built with software teams in mind. It’s a great option if you’re working in sprints, managing bugs, or just need a clear way to see what everyone’s working on and what’s coming up next.
While it started out as a bug-tracking tool, it’s grown into something way more flexible. You can set it up to fit how you already work, whether that’s agile, DevOps, or something else entirely.
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Features:
- Project planning: Helps teams structure work, set goals, assign tasks, and plan timelines to keep everyone on the same page from the start.
- Project boards: Lets teams track progress visually with Kanban-style boards that show what’s in progress, what’s done, and what’s up next.
- Task management: Houses all task-related info, including updates, related issues, and app integrations, for better visibility and context.
- Dependency management: Helps spot and manage task dependencies so teams can prevent blockers before they happen.
- Shared release dates: Keeps product and launch teams aligned by updating everyone when timelines shift.
- Integrations: Works with tools like Slack, Figma, GitHub, and over 3,000 others via the Atlassian Marketplace.
- Workflows and automation: Offers no-code automation to handle repetitive actions like task routing or approvals.
- Reporting and dashboards: Includes built-in reports and real-time dashboards to help teams make informed decisions and stay on target.
- Deployment insights: Tracks go-to-market readiness with metrics like deployment frequency and cycle times.
- Atlassian Intelligence (AI): Use AI to help generate tasks, optimize workflows, and improve collaboration with smart suggestions.
- Customization and security: Offers flexible configurations, custom fields, permissions, and enterprise-grade privacy and compliance features.
Pros:
- Teams can design workflows that match their exact processes, whether they follow Agile, Scrum, or another methodology
- Makes it easy to prioritize and manage issues with detailed tracking features like comments, attachments, and custom fields
- Connects with a wide range of third-party tools, including version control systems, CI/CD platforms, and team communication apps, enhancing team collaboration.
Cons:
- Can become expensive for small businesses or startups, especially when factoring in add-ons and plug-ins
- Too much customization can lead to overly complex workflows
Pricing:
Paid plans start at $7.53 per user/month, with a free version for teams smaller than 10 members.
6. monday.com
If you’ve ever wished your team’s work was easier to manage, monday.com offers a flexible platform where you can plan projects, assign tasks, track progress, and keep everything (and everyone) in one place.
What’s nice is that you don’t need any tech skills. You just drag and drop things around to fit your workflow. And with AI built in, it can even take care of the repetitive stuff for you, like updating statuses or sending reminders.
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Features:
- Email sequences: Automates follow-ups and lead nurturing with customizable email flows and task reminders to keep deals moving.
- AI-assisted email writing: Speeds up communication with AI-generated email drafts, customizable templates, and advanced HTML editing.
- Email and activity tracking: Tracks opens, clicks, and replies, so you can monitor engagement and stay informed on every interaction.
- Custom dashboards: Provides real-time insights into pipelines, team performance, and sales progress through visual, customizable dashboards.
- Team goals and performance tracking: Monitors individual and team quotas, completed activities, and overall progress toward targets.
- Duplicate detection and merge: Alerts you to duplicate contacts or accounts and helps merge them to keep your database clean.
- Lead capture: Collects leads via website forms, manual entry, or integrations with your existing tools for a seamless process.
- Contact management: Centralizes all contact data and email history, so you can easily access and update client info from anywhere.
- App integrations: Connects with 100+ tools like Aircall, DocuSign, PandaDoc, HubSpot, Outlook, Gmail, and more to manage the full sales cycle without switching tabs.
Pros:
- Offers multiple display themes, color coding, personalized columns, and conditional formatting to adapt the platform to your creative workflows
- Users have access to 24/7 support, live webinars, a knowledge base, and an in-depth learning center
- Includes tagging, commenting, notifications, and status indicators to help teams stay aligned
Cons:
- Per-seat pricing can get expensive for larger teams, and understanding plan differences may be tricky
- Views like charts, maps, calendars, and timelines are restricted to higher-tier plans, limiting visibility for Basic and Standard users
- The mobile version doesn’t offer the same functionality as the desktop platform
Pricing:
Paid plans start at €12/seat/month, but it’s free for 2 seats/month.
7. Productive
If you’re running an agency, consultancy, or any professional services business, Productive can make your life easier. It puts projects, budgets, time tracking, invoicing, and team planning under one roof.
What’s more, the platform gives you real-time visibility into your operations so you know exactly how your projects are performing, where your team’s time is going, and how profitable you really are.
Whether you’re forecasting revenue, managing resources, or just trying to stay on top of tasks, Productive helps you run a smoother, more efficient business.
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Features:
- All-in-one platform: Productive brings together your projects, time tracking, budgeting, invoicing, and resource planning in one clean workspace.
- Real-time profitability tracking: You can see how profitable your projects are as you go. Costs, revenue, and margins update live, so you’re never in the dark.
- Project and resource planning: It helps you assign the right people to the right projects at the right time. If priorities shift (and they always do), you can quickly adjust workloads to keep things moving.
- Forecasting tools: Productive lets you plan ahead by forecasting revenue, utilization, and even cash flow. Basically, you’ll have a better idea of what’s coming down the road and can prep for it with confidence.
- Built-in automations: Automate repetitive tasks like reminders, approvals, and project updates to save time and cut back on manual work.
- Custom reporting: You get detailed, purpose-built reports for things like billable utilization, client profitability, time entries, and more. No more guessing or patching together data manually.
- Seamless integrations: It connects with tools you’re probably already using, like Xero, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Google Calendar, and more, to keep everything in sync.
Pros:
- Their support team is fast, helpful, and invested in improving the user experience based on feedback
- Users appreciate the advanced reporting tools and customizable dashboards that make it easy to stay on top of their performance.
Cons:
- The UI could be inconsistent or unintuitive at times, making it harder for users to find what they need
- The built-in CRM was described as basic by some users, and others wanted more flexibility in custom views, task handling, and sales-related features.
Pricing:
Paid plans start at $11/month/user.
8. Bonsai
Bonsai is a unified agency project management tool, simplifying project, client, resource, and financial management.
It’s especially great if you run an agency or consulting business because it brings all your operations together, so you’re not constantly switching tabs or trying to make sense of scattered data.
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Features:
- Client CRM: Centralizes all client data, deals, proposals, contracts, and communication, streamlining lead management and client workflows.
- Proposals and contracts: Allows users to create branded proposals, send them for approval, and instantly convert them into legally binding contracts.
- Scheduling: Lets clients book meetings directly through Bonsai, reducing back-and-forth and syncing with your calendar.
- Task and project management: Helps teams assign, prioritize, and track tasks across projects with tools like Gantt charts, timelines, and task lists.
- Budgeting and profitability tracking: Allocate resources easily and monitor budgets in real time to help keep projects on track and ensure margins are met.
- Resource planning: Allocates your team’s time across projects for optimal utilization and to avoid bottlenecks.
- Invoicing: Creates professional invoices, automates reminders, and links directly to tracked time and billable project expenses.
- Payment processing: Accepts payments via credit card or bank deposit in over 100 currencies, with options for recurring payments and retainers.
- Client portal: Offers a branded space for clients to view project progress, access shared files, and stay updated in real time.
- Integrations: Connects seamlessly with tools like QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, Slack, Google Calendar, Zapier, and more to unify operations.
- Communication and collaboration features: Supports multiple roles (owners, project managers, team members) and offers a shared workspace for everything from tasks to time logs.
Pros:
- Helpful for service-based businesses that deal with diverse client expectations and need everything organized and centralized
- Cuts down on tab-switching and manual work by consolidating operations and automating workflows
Cons:
- Doesn’t go as deep in certain areas as more specialized tools
- If your workflow is super basic, Bonsai’s robust setup might feel like too much
Pricing:
Paid plans start at $15/user/month.
9. Synergist
If you run a busy agency and feel like everything’s a bit all over the place, Synergist is a great option. It’s an agency management platform that brings all your day-to-day operations into one place so you can stay organized, spot inefficiencies, and grow with confidence.
Whether you’re trying to track profitability, manage team capacity, or get better visibility into project progress, Synergist helps you make smart decisions backed by real data.
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Features:
- CRM and pipeline tracking: Manage unlimited clients, leads, and suppliers. Track comms, assign custom fields, and view sales pipelines with built-in dashboards and reports.
- Estimating and quoting: Create quotes based on time, materials, or fixed fees. Use project templates, add markups, and track revisions, all while monitoring potential revenue with pipeline forecasting tools.
- Project planning and tracking: Break projects into phases and stages, track budgets vs. actuals, and use Gantt charts or lists to visualize progress. Add dependencies, milestones, and downloadable client-facing plans.
- Task and workflow management: Create unlimited tasks, assign priorities, add checklists, and track time at task level. Visualize workloads using customizable Kanban boards and automate task follow-ups with alerts and reminders.
- Resource scheduling and capacity management: Ace finance management based on availability or project needs, manage freelancer bookings, and avoid overbooking with drag-and-drop calendars. Forecast capacity by person, team, or project.
- Purchasing and cost tracking: Create purchase orders, apply markups, manage approval workflows, and reconcile invoices. Link purchases to jobs and suppliers while syncing with your accounting software.
- Invoicing and revenue management: Generate invoices from quotes, actuals, or billing schedules. Manage multi-job invoicing, recurring payments, and revenue forecasting with approval workflows and custom invoice templates.
- Integrations: Connect Synergist with tools like Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, Dropbox, OneDrive, Slack, MS Teams, and Google Drive. Optional CRM integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce are also available.
- Reporting and dashboards: Access real-time dashboards for sales, finance, capacity, and utilization. Create custom reports, schedule them via email, and export project data or visualizations in just a few clicks.
Pros:
- The support team for being quick, helpful, and knowledgeable.
- Adaptable to specific workflows and can scale as business needs grow.
Cons:
- Small bugs, outdated UI elements, or pop-ups can interfere with navigation, though an updated design is in progress.
- Some users feel the CRM module lacks depth, especially for new business categorization and pipeline tracking
Pricing:
Paid plans start at £21/month.
10. Screendragon
Screendragon is an agency management software designed specifically for marketing teams, in-house agencies, and creative agencies. It brings projects, workflows, resources, and reporting into one easy-to-use space.
With built-in AI, Screendragon helps you automate repetitive tasks, balance workloads, and make smarter decisions faster. Regardless of your business’s size, Screendragon gives you the visibility and control to keep things moving without burning out your team.
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Features:
- Scope & estimate builder: Create accurate project scopes and client estimates using automated rate cards and cost calculation tools.
- Project tracking: Keep tabs on every stage of your project, from kickoff to delivery, with real-time updates and progress tracking.
- Creative proofing & review: Streamline content approvals with built-in proofing tools, version control, and automated feedback workflows.
- Resource management & forecasting: Assign the right project team members to the right work with capacity heatmaps, drag-and-drop schedules, and staff plan syncing.
- Budget management: Compare estimated, planned, and actual costs in real time to stay on top of project profitability.
- Visual interface: Use Gantt charts, task lists, and timeline views to plan, assign, and monitor every creative project without the complexity of traditional PM tools.
- Real-time dashboards & reporting: Get instant visibility into team workloads, project health, and financials with dynamic dashboards and calendar views.
- Client portal: Give clients secure access to project updates, files, and approvals without cluttering inboxes.
- Agency-specific modules: Manage freelancers, onboarding, time off, training, and more through dedicated tools tailored to agency workflows.
- Powerful integrations: Connect Screendragon to Google Drive, Trello, Office365, Slack, MS Dynamics, and more for seamless workflows.
Pros:
- The Screendragon team is helpful, hands-on, and responsive, both during and after implementation.
- It’s very useful if you’re running an advertising agency.
- Users appreciate the visibility they have across all project activity
Cons:
- Occasional delays in platform response, especially when navigating larger areas
- Because of how much it can do, teams have a hard time discovering helpful features until a specific need arises
Pricing:
Paid plans start from 20 /user/ month.
