6 Best Task Management Software for Small Businesses

Although most of ClickUp’s task management features and 24/7 support are offered across plans, there are differences in access to customizability and project management. Beginning with the Free plan, you can access unlimited tasks and custom views, but many actions are limited. For example, Gantt charts only include up to 60 actions, and there is no support for team views.

The free plan includes only 100MB of data storage, while the paid plans have unlimited storage. Therefore, this plan is best for solopreneurs and small teams that don’t share many documents. Compared with the Free plan, the Unlimited plan unlocks many of the limitations of the first plan by providing more automation and customizable features.

However, this plan only provides access to some team collaboration features. It lacks public sharing and private documents, making it more difficult to track progress on projects with multiple teams or assignees. For large-scale project tracking and dynamic views, the Business plan provides project teams with the most task management features.

In addition to the essential plans, ClickUp offers an Enterprise plan with priority customer support features, like tailored onboarding and a dedicated account manager. To learn more about this plan, contact a sales representative for details on custom pricing and standout features.

• Task checklists: Simplify your to-do lists with drag-and-drop checklists or templates to organize tasks. The checklists also include a nesting feature to create sublists and the option to delegate tasks on your checklist with assignees.
• Custom task IDs: Each task you create includes a task ID for more efficient tracking. Business and Enterprise plan users can also customize these IDs to make it easier to identify tasks and organize project workflows.
• Mind maps: Get your ideas out of your head and into the world with Click-Up’s mind mapping software. Use this feature to create visual flow diagrams of projects with task assignments and notes.

Visually plan your ideas with ClickUp’s mind-mapping software. (Source: ClickUp)

monday.com offers essential plans and an enterprise service that fits the task management needs of multiple industries and small business owners. For an introduction to basic task management features like a dashboard, multiple column types, and templates for up to two seats, I recommend the free plan for solopreneurs managing personal projects.

In contrast, the Basic plan is more beneficial for small teams because it provides access to unlimited features, like unlimited boards, documents, and messages. The Standard plan is best for mid-sized businesses that require collaborative workspace management tools, like integration with meeting software, customizable fields, and access to additional project views.

Finally, the Pro plan is best for distributed teams working on complex projects. This plan includes access to more assignment-based task management tools, like time tracking and the dependency column, as well as 25,000 integration and automation actions to speed up managing team members and completing tasks.

Although most small business owners do not require enterprise-grade task management, the Enterprise plan provides the most capacious package, with 250,000 integration and automation actions, five years of activity logging, and 1,000GB of file storage. Feel free to contact a sales representative for information about custom pricing.

• Column types: A wide array of column types are available for storing data and organizing your board based on your project needs. Supported columns include people, status, date, numbers, timeline, rating, and world clock.
• Shareable forms: There are no-code form builders for generating personalized forms, which you can easily share with your employees or company website. You can also create follow-up questions with conditional logic.
• Customizable templates: Centralize your projects with premade and custom templates. These are useful for creating boards for specific industries, such as marketing, sales, human resources (HR), and software development.

Differentiate between tasks and to-do lists with color-coded templates. (Source: monday.com)

Nifty provides scalable task management tools across several plans, from free to enterprise-grade project management. Although the Free plan only provides 100MB of storage and two active projects, it does give you access to enough tasks, team chat, portfolios, docs, milestones, and files for successful task management.

The Personal plan provides a significant bump in file storage and features, with 100GB of storage for 40 projects, including time and budget tracking, reporting, and custom fields. Therefore, this is the best plan for small businesses managing projects for a client or customer.

The Pro plan also introduces file proofing and workflow automation for 100 projects, making it ideal for managing routine or recurring tasks. Similarly, the Business plan is excellent for workload management and team collaboration because of its unlimited storage, projects, and custom roles.

Contact sales to learn more about custom pricing for the Enterprise plan, which provides the most customer support features, such as a dedicated account manager and priority support. I also recommend the 14-day free trial to preview Nifty’s task management features.

• Proofing: Add comments or feedback directly on files or videos and transform comments into a task to track real-time progress. This speeds up the approval process for action-oriented proofing.
• Recurring tasks: Uses custom criteria to automate task creation instead of creating tasks manually. There are three ways for a task to repeat: date, status, and completion.
• Swimlane view: Nifty offers hybrid project views that align your milestones with specific tasks. Like a Kanban board, the swimlane view segments a project into color-coded columns to organize large teams visually.

Combine milestones and tasks with Nifty’s swimlane view. (Source: Nifty)

Trello is one of many task management apps Atlassian provides for organizing processes and tracking projects. Each tier of the four Trello plans offers specific features that work best for businesses of different sizes, project types, and task complexity. However, it only includes monthly plans, without the annual discount offered by most software providers.

For solopreneurs and small teams with simple projects, the Free plan includes unlimited cards for up to 10 boards with built-in automation, templates, and unlimited storage. This plan also offers 250 workspace command runs, unlimited activity logs, and app integrations, which is a more generous package than many of the free plans on this list.

Small teams that need collaborative tools will benefit from the Standard plan, which includes unlimited boards, checklists, custom fields, and 1,000 Workspace command runs. In contrast, the Premium plan suits teams with more complex projects and timelines by offering dashboard and workspace views with customizable templates and advanced security features. You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial to preview the Premium plan.

While many software providers include custom pricing for Enterprise plans, Trello provides transparent pricing for its enterprise-grade plan. This plan offers unlimited workspaces and organization-visible boards, with volume discounts for subscriptions with over 250 members.

• Advanced checklists: Organize tasks into a single, easy-to-access list. Add a checklist to a card, list all the tasks as items, and assign a due date and team member.
• Butler automation: Set up automation, commands, and rules on your Trello board to reduce manual and repetitive work. For example, if a Trello card is moved to the “Done” list, all items, including the checklist, due date, and members, will be crossed off.
• Card templates: A card is the most detailed unit of a Trello board for representing tasks and ideas. It can hold a wide variety of information, like reminders or a to-do list. Therefore, card templates can be used to copy tasks and assignments quickly.

Use Trello card templates to repeat tasks and customize workflows. (Source: Trello)

One of the primary differences between Smartsheet and the other providers on this list is the pricing structure. Smartsheet is the only provider that doesn’t offer a free plan, and there are only two essential plans: Pro and Business. The Pro plan provides project tracking and tasking management for one to 10 members a month, with unlimited sheets, forms, reports, and up to 250 monthly automations.

In contrast, the Business plan is best for businesses managing multiple teams because it includes unlimited automations with workload tracking and admin capabilities that simplify people management. This plan also offers 1TB of data storage, which is excellent for teams that share documents and media content.

In addition to the essential plans, Smartsheet offers two plans with custom pricing, the Enterprise and Advanced Work Management plans. The Enterprise plan includes Smartsheet’s AI features, such as AI formulas and charts, and a dedicated workspace manager with access to the WorkApps platform and Work Insights.

The Advanced Work Management plan provides everything you need to manage large teams or an extensive portfolio of clients, such as integrations with workspace management tools like Jira and Salesforce. This plan also provides dynamic views and apps for advanced data analytics. Contact a sales associate to learn more about these customizable plans.

• Forms: A dedicated form builder lets you create rules to collect data and assign tasks. These forms can also be customized with company branding and color schemes.
• Workload tracking: View each team member’s capacity and prioritize tasks based on workload and work allocation. You can also reallocate tasks to avoid uneven workloads.
• File library: Create a central space for storing your files, making them easier to search and find for collaborative projects and tasks. Simply upload your files to the library to access them in your workspace.

Streamline workflows and tasks with the accessible file library. (Source: Smartsheet)

Todoist is the only provider that doesn’t offer enterprise-grade plans, unlike other task management software on this list. Instead, you can choose from three essential plans that reflect some of the most affordable prices in the industry and provide simple task management for personal projects and goals.

For example, the Beginner plan is a free plan that includes five active projects, 5MB file uploads, and five guests. However, it lacks team collaboration and artificial intelligence features and only offers limited automated features, like recurring due dates. In contrast, the Pro plan includes an AI assistant and expands on advanced features like custom reminders and an unlimited activity history.

The highest-tier plan is the Business plan, which provides various team collaboration tools for more complex projects, such as shared project templates, up to 250 team members per project team, role assignments, and 100MB file uploads. Todoist also regularly updates its software and plans with new features and task management tools, so you should visit the website to stay updated as each plan expands.

• Subtasks: Break tasks into smaller parts and divide work among multiple team members. They are embedded within a parent task with the same set of fields, making it easier to organize assignments.
• Activity history: This provides a complete snapshot of your account activity and other collaborators, organized by date. You can filter tasks by completion, updates, modifications, and deleted tasks.
• Task descriptions: To facilitate project start-up and completion, you can add details to each task, such as brief descriptions, documents, due dates, and instructions.

Use descriptions to create clear instructions for each task. (Source: Todoist)