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Today’s range of cloud project management software solutions allows organizations of all sizes to leverage enterprise-grade project management features, including streamlined project workflows, enhanced collaboration tools, real-time project data access from anywhere, and generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
I evaluated the top products on the market to see how they compared pricing, features, integrations, and customer support. Here are my picks for the top cloud project management solutions for 2026:
Asana: Best for support, collaboration, and reporting
Jira: Best for software teams and customizable dashboards
monday.com: Best for pre-made templates and customizability
Smartsheet: Best for industry-specific applications
TeamGantt: Best for visualizing workloads and team availability
YouTrack: Best for extensive customization and collaborative tools
Zoho Projects: Best for time-tracking and resource management
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Advanced checklists allow for more granular task tracking
Automations via Butler, Trello’s AI help bot
Help site
Community help
Email support
$5/user/month
Asana: Best for support, collaboration, and reporting
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 4/5
Additional Features: 4/5
Integrations: 5/5
Support: 4/5
Vendor Profile: 3/5
Product Design: 5/5
As a “born-in-the-cloud” offering, Asana was one of the first to break the mold of traditional desktop project management software applications like Microsoft Project. To this day, the leading cloud-based project management platform is a favorite among large and small teams alike.
Asana may be focused on delivering an intuitive, user-friendly mobile/cloud-first interface, but under its hood is a powerful and comprehensive feature set for effectively managing tasks, projects, and collaborations that rival most desktop-only project management solutions. Recently, Asana has developed tighter third-party integrations with leading CRMs like Salesforce and Hubspot, and even competing project management tools like Jira.
Visit AsanaAsana’s dashboard uses charts to display incomplete tasks.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Allows for streamlined integrations with existing workflows and processes
Not an intuitive tool for non-project management professionals
Variety of third-party integrations
Limitations in task assignment capabilities/options
Comprehensive toolset—from project planning, task delegation, and project status monitoring to real-time communication/collaboration features
Numerous extraneous features and options make for a cluttered user experience
Pricing
$24.99 per user, per month
Free tier available
Features
Lets users view tasks individually and within overarching project schedules
Comes with a wide range of pre-built project templates
Integrates with other office and business productivity tools/platforms like Google Workspace, Slack, and Salesforce
Product design
Asana’s reporting dashboard allows users to track project performance and offers a big-picture view of organizational KPIs. Customizable widgets let users add different kinds of charts to visualize existing project data, and the KPI business dashboard displays key performance metrics in table and graph formats.
Why I picked it
Asana’s product development is based on its user-centric design and data-driven insights. The dashboard’s design focuses on user experience, making it easier to navigate for any kind of projects and portfolio management. Asana stands out because of its combined efficiency, collaboration, and innovation, making the project management process faster and easier.
Jira: Best for software teams and customizable dashboards
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 4/5
Additional Features: 4/5
Integrations: 5/5
Support: 4/5
Vendor Profile: 5/5
Product Design: 5/5
Like Trello and YouTrack, Jira is primarily geared toward software project management. However, the leading project management platform has also gained a following outside of software circles. The solution features a customizable workflow, a multi-faceted issue-tracking system, and other features that help to streamline the management of complex projects.
Visit JiraJira’s new dashboard of project management shows individual tasks and who they’re assigned to organized in cards.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Ideal for managing application development projects
Some organizations may find the solution too specific for software teams
Strong task and activity tracking features
The user interface can be confusing for some users
Pricing
Standard: Starts at $7.91 per user, per month
Premium: Starts at $14.54 per user, per month
Enterprise: Custom annual pricing
Free tier available
Features
Integrates seamlessly with popular code versioning tools like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket
Support for Agile software development and modern software engineering practices like Scrum and Kanban is fully available
Backlog grooming/management, sprint planning, and release tracking are available on top of standard task and project tracking features
Product design
Jira’s dashboard is extensively customizable, as it comes with various tools that track many elements of agile methods within the dashboard. It has widgets for sprint health, burndown charts, and high-priority issues and provides a complete overview of project status and progress.
Why I picked it
Jira’s deep connections with Confluence and Loom enable greater knowledge sharing and cross-functional connectivity, resulting in enhanced collaboration and efficiency. Companies such as Roblox have experienced considerable cost savings after merging numerous technologies into Jira, while new accessibility features use Atlassian Intelligence to automate activities and increase information clarity.
monday.com: Best for pre-made templates and customizability
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 5/5
Additional Features: 3/5
Integrations: 3/5
Support: 4/5
Vendor Profile: 2/5
Product Design: 5/5
monday is another born-in-the-cloud project management solution geared for enterprise and corporate users, with both Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) modes and a local/on-premises Windows/macOS version. The solution offers a visually appealing UI, intelligently designed dashboards, unified workflows, and collaborative spaces for planning, executing, and tracking projects.
Visit mondaymonday’s dashboard shows budget tracking and related financial information.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Lots of customizable interfaces, automation, and workflows
Time and expense tracking is difficult
Ready-made templates and assets
Users have reported issues with integrations (and a suboptimal API experience)
Pricing
Basic: $12 per seat, per month
Standard: $14 per seat, per month
Pro: $24 per seat, per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Free tier available
Features
UI allows for customizations and unique workflows/project timelines/progress indicators
Automation capabilities streamline common and repetitive tasks
Over 200 ready-made templates, no-code automation snippets, integration connectors
Product design
monday.com’s dashboard allows users to visualize project data and communicate with dashboard team members on specific task items, media, and documents. Each dashboard widget and viewing setting are customizable, letting users save their preferred default view settings. It also comes with insights and workload management to monitor team workload and identify task progress. These are presented using tailored charts to make it easier for a project manager to identify areas that need priority.
Why I picked it
monday.com is a highly customizable dashboard that adapts team members’ specific workflows by providing Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and calendar views. Its detailed reporting allows project managers to monitor progress, identify bottlenecks, and make better-informed decisions as projects progress. The company has been continuously innovating and expanding the application marketplace to cater to specific requirements for each organization.
Smartsheet: Best for industry-specific applications
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 5/5
Additional Features: 4/5
Integrations: 5/5
Support: 4/5
Vendor Profile: 3/5
Product Design: 5/5
Smartsheet is flexible, highly configurable project management software as a service (SaaS) for business users who need access via multiple devices. The solution provides task management and content collaboration tools, as well as spreadsheets and dashboards for bolstering office productivity.
Visit SmartsheetThe Smartsheet interface shows marketing campaigns, status, health, start and end date, and completion percentage.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Lots of integrations
Novice project managers may encounter a steep learning curve
Highly customizable for special use cases
Users have reported issues with real-time data updates
Pricing
Pro: $12 per member, per month
Business: $24 per member, per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Free plan available
Features
Includes specialized applications for different industries (e.g., retail barcode scanning feature to quickly track items and automatically input them into a spreadsheet)
Integrates with popular applications for streamlining project management workflows
Product design
Smartsheet dashboard’s customizable widgets let you add reports, tasks, and project and campaign overviews. You can also add media and web content to the dashboard to give a better view of existing projects. Using a heatmap to identify task status, project managers have a clear overview of the overall status of the entire project.
Why I picked it
Smartsheet effortlessly incorporates extensive project management capabilities and sophisticated communication tools, allowing teams to improve processes, remove unnecessary chores, and increase overall productivity. This platform is intended to create a more efficient and unified work environment, making it an essential tool for teams seeking peak performance and successful outcomes. Whether managing major projects or organizing basic chores, Smartsheet gives you the flexibility and control you need to handle the challenges of the modern workplace successfully.
TeamGantt: Best for visualizing workloads and team availability
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 5/5
Additional Features: 3/5
Integrations: 3/5
Support: 4/5
Vendor Profile: 3/5
Product Design: 5/5
TeamGantt is an easy-to-use project management tool that, like Wrike, centers around the Gantt chart model. The solution has a low learning curve and is ideal for small to medium-sized teams. Organizations can utilize this project management software to continuously monitor existing projects, manage portfolios, and identify specific tasks through a work breakdown structure.
Visit TeamGanttThe TeamGantt dashboard shows an appointment-setting calendar with additional useful and relevant information.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Intuitive and easy to use
Features for discussions, notifications, and uploaded files could be improved
Interactive Gantt charting functionality
No budgeting or invoicing tools
Simple drag-and-drop interactions
Reporting capabilities are limited
Pricing
Basic: $12 per project, per month
Business: $24 per project, per month
Builder Edition: $99 per month introductory pricing
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Free personal plan available
Features
Allows simple Gantt charting with a minimal learning curve
Extensive tutorials make getting up to speed easy
Provides visibility for workloads and team availability
Product design
TeamGantt offers a chart-centric design that lets users plan tasks, manage workloads, and visualize work in a variety of formats. This also includes Gantt, lists, and a calendar view of assigned tasks and project status. In addition, the TeamGantt dashboard has resource management tools that help balance workloads among team members.
Why I picked it
TeamGantt provides user-friendly interface, continuous refinement, and adaptable pricing. It simplifies collaboration and task management, accommodates diverse methodologies, and offers affordable pricing for small businesses. The interactive Gantt chart feature provides a dynamic, visual approach to project timeline management.
YouTrack: Best for extensive customization and collaborative tools
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 4/5
Additional Features: 4/5
Integrations: 4/5
Support: 3/5
Vendor Profile: 5/5
Product Design: 5/5
Czech software vendor JetBrains is perhaps best known for its software development integrated development environment (IDE), IntelliJ, and the Java-compatible Kotlin programming language. The company also develops YouTrack, a universal project management system used by over 85,000 teams across the world.
Visit YouTrackThe YouTrack dashboard shows existing projects with their start times and dates.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
All-in-one workspace, strong dashboard widgets, and agile boards
Users have reported various UI/software bugs and glitches
The tool offers many customizations and collaboration tools
Can be difficult to configure
Ample integrations and automation
UI is dated
Pricing
Cloud monthly: Starts at $5.40 per user, per month
Cloud annual: Starts at $4.50 per user, per month
Helpdesk agents: $6 per agent, per month
Free tier available for up to 10 users
Features
Easy-to-use task manager
Strong permissions management and agile workflow tools
Product design
YouTrack dashboards are customizable, letting you display collections of reports and other helpful information on a single page. Team members can create endless dashboards for personal, team, and client requirements and share them with other YouTrack members or publish them publicly, for anyone with the access link to view.
Why I picked it
YouTrack is best for its agile project management, which offers highly customizable workflows and issues a tracking system that you can tailor according to different project management styles for every organization. It offers seamless integration with various popular integrated development environments that makes it easier for developers to use.
Zoho Projects: Best for time-tracking and resource management
Overall rating: 4/5
Core Features: 5/5
Additional Features: 2/5
Integrations: 4/5
Support: 4/5
Vendor Profile: 5/5
Product Design: 5/5
Zoho has long been regarded as an affordable, enterprise-focused alternative to many of Microsoft’s Office tools. These days, Zoho Projects offers a full-featured cloud project management platform ideal for small and medium sized organizations.
Visit ZohoZoho dashboard shows different main tasks and subtasks along with their statuses.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Easy to set up and learn with extensive configuration options
Does not include readymade templates out-of-the-gate
Strong time-tracking and in-app communication tools
Slightly unusual resource management view
Pricing
Premium: $5 per user, per month
Enterprise: $10 per user, per month
Free tier available
Features
Offers built-in time-tracking and resource management reports
Tracks and alerts on project budgets
Project templates and workflows are customizable
Product design
Zoho Projects dashboard displays important progress indicators, graphs, statistics, and key performance metrics. It has repositionable widgets and customizable chart styles that provide an overview of work items and project progress.
Why I picked it
Zoho is not just a cloud project management platform; it also offers a customer relationship management (CRM) tool suitable for sales, marketing, and customer support. The platform’s powerful analytics provide important insights into customer behavior and campaign performance that enable more informed decision-making. Zoho’s seamless connectivity with various business software allows organizations to build a cohesive ecosystem that enhances efficiency and productivity while providing excellent customer service.
Wrike: Best for AI-powered automation
Overall rating: 3.7/5
Core Features: 5/5
Additional Features: 3/5
Integrations: 3/5
Support: 3/5
Vendor Profile: 3/5
Product Design: 5/5
As a project management tool, Wrike is most well-known for its strong Gantt chart creation features and options. The veteran project management player has managed to stack up an impressive list of industry awards and citations over the years for its user-friendly interface, real-time collaboration tools, automation capabilities, and features for helping manage complex projects more efficiently.
Recent Wrike updates include a refresh of its dashboards and user interface (UI), including a new look and feel for widgets and new automation and generative AI capabilities.
Visit WrikeThe Wrike dashboard provides a list of priority tasks with corresponding status reports and deadlines.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Comes with a variety of Gantt charts and forecasting features
Users have reported notification delays/latency with some integrations
Automation and AI features
No native team chat, with limited built-in note-taking tools
Comes with a myriad of integrations
Can be difficult to navigate/view tasks
Pricing
Team: $10 per user, per month
Business: $25 per user, per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Pinnacle: Custom pricing
Free tier available
Features
Includes interactive project timelines for easily visualizing timelines and dependencies
AI-powered features like project risk predictions/recommendations save time by automating tasks
Integrates with popular tools like Salesforce and Adobe Creative Cloud
Product design
Wrike’s project management dashboard provides next-generation analytics that allow users to build custom views for individual, team, or executive use cases. The next-gen feature allows users to pivot tables for quick data summarization and activity stream widgets for collaboration insights. Personalized dashboards can be customized to reflect business objectives. It has clean and data-rich dashboards that offer a detailed overview of project data and the progress of the team.
Why I picked it
With over 400 third-party applications, Wrike’s interface enables end-to-end campaigns, creative projects, and event management, establishing new standards for team collaboration, efficiency, and success in the digital era. Its AI-driven features and customizable solutions allow streamlined workflows and improved collaboration among its customers and partners.
Basecamp: Best for simple, innovative features
Overall rating: 3/5
Core Features: 5/5
Additional Features: 2/5
Integrations: 3/5
Support: 3/5
Vendor Profile: 4/5
Product Design: 5/5
Chicago-based 37signals first released Basecamp in 2004 to bring project management to the web. Today, Basecamp 4 continues the platform’s long-running focus on simple, organized project collaboration, with tools for to-dos, scheduling, file sharing, message boards, client communication, and lightweight team chat. It also supports third-party integrations for time tracking, reporting, automation, and accounting, while keeping its interface clean and easy to navigate.
Visit BasecampBasecamp dashboards show programmer cards with tasks and their current status.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Strong communication features
Lack of advanced features and analytics
Intuitive and easy to learn
Could use more customization options
Pricing
Plus: $15 per user, per month
Pro Unlimited: $349 per month
Free tier available
Features
Straightforward, minimalist UI is designed for simplicity
A range of premium features include task, project, milestone, and timesheet management
Product design
Basecamp offers a straightforward one-page dashboard for projects, tasks, and schedules. Features include messages for conversations, to-do lists for managing tasks, and a “Campfire” for real-time group chat. Basecamp provides a unique approach to Kanban and Hill Charts to give teams a more intuitive and comprehensive way to track and communicate project progress.
Why I picked it
Basecamp’s unique approach to project management collaboration allows its users to message within the dashboard and offers a simple scheduling system, collaborative writing, and file sharing. It is suitable for small businesses looking for simple-to-use cloud project management software that needs an all-in-one platform for both communication and project management.
Trello: Best for visual Kanban collaboration
Overall rating: 3/5
Core Features: 3/5
Additional Features: 1/5
Integrations: 4/5
Support: 3/5
Vendor Profile: 3/5
Product Design: 5/5
For years, Trello’s no-nonsense, effective Kanban solution has been the project management tool of choice for teams looking to ramp up quickly with minimal user training. The tool’s visually minimalistic system of boards, lists, and cards for organizing tasks and projects makes it easy to get up to production speed.
Visit TrelloTrello dashboard shows a team calendar board displaying the duration of individual tasks.
Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
Power in simplicity with a low learning curve
Lacks many advanced features
Tool renders well across devices
Offers limited customization options
Strong notification features
Users have reported scalability issues for larger organizations
Pricing
Standard: $5 per user, per month
Premium: $10 per user, per month
Enterprise: Starts at $17.50 per user, per month
Free tier available
Features
Card covers can be customized to spruce up UI
Advanced checklists allow for more granular task tracking
Automation via Butler, Trello’s AI help bot
Product design
Trello’s dashboard is known for its dashboard view, which lets you visualize and communicate your teams’ work statuses with reporting tools. It provides customizable charts and lets you create reports on particular data such as due dates, card assignments, and cards per label.
Why I picked it
Trello is a strong tool for visual thinkers and organizers that provides a clear and manageable workflow and provides non-subscription users with free boards and cards to use. Its card-based ecology allows for a comprehensive perspective of projects and activities, encouraging innovation and strategic thinking. Trello’s interface is straightforward, providing a bird’s-eye view that elevates project management to better user experience.
Key features of cloud project management software
Project managers have myriad options for cloud project management at their disposal these days with competent offerings that address any number of unique requirements, use cases, and environments. In general, cloud project management software should allow for project creation, planning, management, and reporting, with tools that support the following activities and processes.
Collaboration: Supports team communication, file sharing, comments, mentions, approvals, and other ways to keep project work visible across stakeholders.
Task management: Covers how teams create, assign, prioritize, organize, and monitor work items from start to completion.
Time tracking: Measures time spent on tasks, milestones, clients, or projects to support workload planning, billing, and performance tracking.
Scheduling: Helps teams manage deadlines, project timelines, dependencies, resource availability, and expected delivery dates.
Scalability and localization: Supports growing or distributed teams through features such as permissions, multi-language options, regional settings, global access, and admin controls.
To select the best product management software for your organization, determine which key features mean the most for your teams: flexibility, scalability, and accessibility, as well as specific features that facilitate project collaboration, planning, and execution. For example, software teams may benefit more from a solution like Jira, while creative/design teams may prefer a solution like Basecamp.
Methodology
To build this list of the best cloud project management software, I evaluated leading platforms based on the criteria businesses are most likely to weigh during the buying process. My goal was to identify tools that combine strong project management functionality with flexible pricing, useful integrations, solid support, and an interface that works well for day-to-day collaboration.
Each product was assessed using consistent criteria, including core features, pricing, support, integrations, product design, vendor reputation, and additional features. I looked at capabilities such as scheduling, task management, and project tracking, along with pricing flexibility, support resources, third-party connectivity, dashboard usability, vendor track record, and value-added functionality such as AI or collaboration features.
Products were scored based on how well they met these criteria, helping identify the cloud project management solutions that offer the strongest overall mix of usability, capability, and value.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What are cloud project management tools?
Cloud project management tools are online platforms that facilitate planning, collaboration, and organization of tasks, resources, and timelines for projects, enabling teams to work efficiently and access project information from anywhere with internet connectivity.
How do they differ from traditional project management tools?
Cloud project management tools are web-based platforms accessed via the internet, providing real-time collaboration and data storage, whereas traditional project management tools are locally installed software, limiting accessibility and necessitating manual updates for collaboration.
Can these tools integrate with other software commonly used in project management?
A highly effective cloud project management tool should possess strong integration capabilities with third-party software, streamlining workflows by seamlessly connecting with tools like communication platforms, document management systems, and other essential applications.
How much should I expect to pay for cloud project management tools?
The cost of cloud project management tools varies widely, ranging from free or entry-level plans with basic features to premium subscriptions that can cost anywhere from a few dollars to several hundred dollars per user per month, depending on the platform and the level of functionality required.
Bottom line
Cloud project management software has come a long way already, and the market can expect to see accelerated innovation in the space over the coming months—especially in the domain of project analytics and data-driven optimization. And of course, AI/ML features and enhancements will continue to automate manual processes, enhance project managers’ decision-making capabilities, and improve overall project performance and delivery. All of the tools included in this product guide are feature-rich, powerful solutions; selection will come down to your organization’s specific needs.
Leon Yen is a former staff writer for Datamation. He has been reporting on technology for over a decade and has written for CNET and BigThink. Before that, he was the co-founder and CEO of a cybersecurity startup, where he led the development of an industry-first cyber risk management platform. He has an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and a BS in Information Systems from the University of San Francisco.
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