Hunting for new workflow tools? We’ve been in your shoes before. As a public service, there should be a book called, “What To Expect When You’re Expected To Buy New Workflow Software.” Unfortunately, the aforementioned book is still a figment of our imagination (for now), but we’ve got the next (or maybe third or fourth) best thing.

We used our team’s very specific set of skills to crunch the data on features, user reviews and more to bring you our picks of the best project management software for managing workflows. The winners? monday.com, ClickUp, Jira, Smartsheet and ProofHub.

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After signing up for free trials for each product, I was all set for two weeks of testing. I evaluated each product’s workflow capabilities by setting up processes and building automations and customizations. As tempting as going in blind may have been, for the sake of time, I popped over to the product’s knowledge center for help or, in a few cases, watched YouTube tutorials for inspiration.

What follows is our inside scoop on pricing, differentiating features, a walkthrough of how to build workflows, what each product is best for and why a product may not “work” for your team.

Workflow Tools Comparison

Top Workflow Tools

monday.com

Our Analysis

Best For

Organizing and tracking project work using multiple views, customizable columns and filters, no-code automations and in-built templates. Bonus points for their 7-day free trial extensions.

Avoid If

The Enterprise version is out of your budget because you won’t have access to the workflow builder.

Pricing

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ClickUp

ClickUp

PricingDemo

Best Overall, Best for Customizations

Learn More & Reviews

Or request free trial

Starting Price

$7

Company Size

Small, Medium, Large

Deployment

Cloud

• Overview
• Benefits
• Key Features
• Researcher’s Summary
• Pros & Cons

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management solution designed to help businesses in any industry optimize project cycles with a highly customizable interface, robust automation capabilities and extensive collaboration features. It helps you visualize tasks and project optimally with over 15 views including options like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and calendars.

No-code automation with templates and drop-down menus for increased personalization mean you can build effective workflows. Other notable features include in-card comments, custom dashboards, sprint management, in-built documents and time tracking.

During our test run, ClickUp scored points for its easy automation, customization to the nth level, reporting views and collaborative tools. We found it incredibly easy to build custom workflows, implement templates for a new space and keep assignees accountable with the activity stream in each card.

Overall, we think ClickUp is a fantastic option for businesses of all sizes, especially if you’re looking for a highly customizable and collaborative project management platform.

• Customize Your Workspace with ClickApps: Create a personalized environment for your business by enabling ClickApps for specific spaces or the entire organization. Enable apps like time tracking, custom fields, dependency warnings, time estimates and sprints. We loved the custom fields with multiple drop-downs for statuses and teams and the dependency warnings, so nothing slips through the cracks.
• Create No-Code Automations and Workflows: Click on the Automations tab on the right-hand side of your screen to create your own custom automations using prebuilt templates with conditions, actions and triggers or build your own. We tested building our own workflow automation for status changes with more than one action and found it was simple to execute.
• Collaborate Better via Various Channels: Communicate more efficiently via comment threads in the card, user mentions, screen recordings, native docs and group chats. We appreciated the accountability of comment threads and how you can assign comments to users that show up differently from a regular mention. The ability to link internal documents and add checklists to cards is a great way to enforce processes and brand guidelines — a big plus in our eyes.
• View Projects in Multiple Ways: Set up multiple views for each of your spaces so you can zoom in a particular step in your project or get an overview of your progress. We liked the variety of views, including Kanban, list and calendar, and also that you can pin certain views, say urgent tasks, so it’s front and center for all team members.

• Multiple Views: ClickUp's “Board view” facilitates users to visualize a workflow and manage their tasks and projects. ClickUp's customizable Kanban system enables dragging-and-dropping tasks, sorting, filtering, and performing other actions to streamline workflow. Users can create a Board view at any level within their workspace. Whether they prefer to concentrate on a single list, an entire folder, or all spaces across their workspace using the “Everything view.” The workflows can be tailored by creating custom statuses suitable for various processes, ranging from sprints to multi-stage workflows. They can add new statuses or edit existing ones directly in the Board view
• Workflow Automation: Create custom automations for tasks and processes without coding expertise. Use built-in recipes, ClickApps or build-your-own automations in each space using actions, triggers and conditions custom to your workflow and processes using drop-down menus.
• Custom Workspaces: Create (work)spaces for each project with your own set of workflow rules, automations, statuses, fields and even assignees. Move tasks in-between spaces and change priority, receive pop-ups if statuses are different and control space accessibility.
• Task Management: Keep track of tasks using cards that you can build from scratch or create using custom templates and fields. Assign tasks, post points, due dates, assignees and statuses. View and add comments, create alerts for overdue tasks, use custom checklists and add task dependencies.

My Experience with Workflow Automation

It’s all well and good to read “simple workflow automation” on a company’s website. But how does it really work? I got under the hood of ClickUp’s Automations tool and tested two automations. The first automation was a “ClickTip” to add a template to tasks created and the second template involved two actions for a status change.

To start off I clicked on the Automations tab on the top right of the screen and selected add automation. It wasn’t hard to uncheck the other sources and selected users, since I specifically wanted tasks created by a particular user (me).

Next, I changed the action to apply a template, which I chose from my workspace, although you can use ClickUp’s templates as well.

After creating the automation, it was time to test it out. I created a dummy task, and the automation worked its magic. I thought it was particularly handy for filling out and creating custom fields.

For the second automation, I wanted to see how well it would handle two different actions. I thought the dropdown options made it easy to set a status change as the trigger and then add two actions: adding a comment and changing the due date.

Since I changed the status from in progress to on hold, I wanted assignees to explain why the task is on hold. I also wanted to remove the due date so it didn’t complicate reporting.

Both automations worked swimmingly. I appreciated the no-code approach and the drop-down menus for each trigger and action that allowed me to fully customize each automation without too much cognitive work.

We reached out to ClickUp users for their insights on what works for them (and what doesn’t).

Pros

Versatility

Victor André Enselmann, Founder of digital marketing firm Modeva, is a big fan of ClickUp’s versatility. He noted, “ClickUp lets you tailor tasks, projects, and views down to the smallest detail, which was perfect for our team since each project can look totally different. For example, we used its automation features to auto-assign tasks when certain stages were reached, which cut down on a ton of back-and-forth and kept everyone aligned.”

Centralization and Collaboration

Steve Morris, Founder and CEO of NEW MEDIA, manages multi-city teams, so he appreciates centralized task management and communication. He said, “With offices across major U.S. cities, aligning everyone can be challenging. However, ClickUp’s customizable dashboards allow each team to organize tasks based on project demands while keeping a high-level view of overall progress. This flexibility has significantly reduced the back-and-forth between teams, saving time and ensuring that our large-scale projects stay on track.”

Cons

Too Many Features

For Victor, there is such a thing as too many features. “It’s easy to go overboard, which happened to us at first,” he said. “We ended up with a cluttered dashboard full of features we didn’t need, and it actually slowed us down. Once we simplified and focused on just the core tools, it was a lot smoother. So, with ClickUp, the trick is to use what you need and ignore the rest, or it can overwhelm more than it helps."

Learning Curve

Steve acknowledges that there is a learning curve for new team members. “Initially, the learning curve was steep, which led to some confusion and delays as we adapted,” he stated. “To address this, we created a custom onboarding process for new hires that guides them through the platform’s essentials before diving into more advanced functions.”

Learn more about ClickUp

Our Analysis

Best For

Extensive customization to meet the needs of any team’s workflow, over 15 view options, no-code automation and templates. Plus points for the ability to manage notifications and alerts.

Avoid If

You’re not planning on using their wide range of features and customization options as there is a steep learning curve for new users.

Pricing

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Smartsheet

Our Analysis

Best For

Workflow automation capabilities, templates and users familiar with spreadsheets.

Avoid If

Excel is not your jam, and you don’t have the budget for advanced features.

Pricing

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ProofHub

Our Analysis

Best For

Team collaboration, streamlined proofing and approval processes, user-friendly interface and pricing.

Avoid If

Automations are your bread and butter, and you need multiple integrations for your processes.

Pricing

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Jira

Our Analysis

Best For

Lovers of Agile methodologies and tools, scrum teams and workflow automations and tools.

Avoid If

Agile is not your cup of tea, or you have limited technical experience and don’t have the time to customize specs and train your team.

Pricing

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How We Chose and Evaluated Products

Testing products is a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. Luckily, I didn’t have to go in blind.

First, our analysts conducted in-depth research to understand the market. They then recommended the 5 best products based on a range of criteria: topic alignment, feature comprehensiveness, product popularity, user reviews and ratings, SelectHub in-house data, hands-on experience, market analysts’ reports, thought leaders’ opinions and information available in the public domain.

Products with better user reviews were given preference, provided they adequately met the other criteria listed.

While all the products on our list are project management tools, they offer impressive features for creating and managing workflows.

Armed with those insights from our team of analysts and free trials for each product, I was ready to put my grading cap on. To ensure an objective evaluation, here’s the criteria I used to test the products after our analysts gave us the final list:

Ease of Use: I didn’t expect to pick each tool up immediately, but I wanted each one to be intuitive and user-friendly to master for team members without Python as a soft skill.

Customization: Workflows aren’t exactly one-size-fits-all. I looked at how the tools could be customized to fit user-specific workflows.

For example, Cache Merill, Founder and CEO of Zibtek uses a set process for his company that requires in-depth customization.

We use workflows the most between design phases and development. So we have clear stories and tasks in design and devs can’t start until those designs are approved. We build a workflow around that, then once the approval is done it can automatically be placed in the dev queue. Some tools can be overly complex for non-technical teams, and setting up workflows often requires more customization and time.

Cache MerillFounder and CEO, Zibtek

Integration: No software is an island. I tested how well the products integrated with important solutions like email, third-party integration applications, CRM, ERP and project management software.

Scalability: It’s the second decade of the millennia and growth is a priority. Ipso facto, companies may not be fans of changing tools every time they scale (or downsize). I looked for the ability to, for example, increase users without a massive price hike or easily scale to an enterprise package.

Affordability: As much as we’d like it to be otherwise, pricing models matter. All the products included have affordable pricing models for small and mid-sized businesses and offer a monthly payment option.

Learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards.

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FAQs

Next Steps

Thanks for coming to our TedTalk on the best workflow tools! We hope the insights gleaned from our countless free trials help you make a better software selection or just give you more context about what’s out there. If you would like to dive deeper into the rabbit hole of workflow tools, check out our free comparison guide. Happy reading!

What is your biggest barrier to implementing new workflow tools? Is it pricing, trial periods, employee training or a secret fourth thing? Let us know in the comment section below.

SME Contributors