ClickUp Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons

ClickUp is probably best categorized as an "all-in-one tool", even though it started off as more of a project manager, and is quite task management focused at the core.

Features & Differentiation

Rating: _C-

While an "all-in-one" tool may sound appealing because it sounds simple, here are the red flags with using any tool that tries to do too many things:

The main complaint we hear with ClickUp is that it's too complicated for its main use, and that it can be easy to get overwhelmed by all the features that are included. And this is the exact problem we have with this category. It does many things well, but it's consistently missing the last 10-15% in every category, which might not seem like a big deal, but I assure you that it'll frustrate the team.

With that, ClickUp isn't a tool we'd give positive differentiation points to. They are trying to do too many things, and with that comes a buggy experience and often feeling like you can't rely on the tool. While it does a decent job for many businesses in helping them with managing projects, it wouldn't be a tool we'd be quick to recommend if you're just beginning your search.

ClickUp overall is a tool that we have consistently considered on almost a yearly basis (and again with their recent launch of "ClickUp 3.0"). The problem is, is that the promise of what it is, and what it actually is upon using it just doesn't quite meet expectations.

User Interface (UI)

Rating: _B

ClickUp has a decent user interface, it's relatively clean and nice to look at.

User Experience (UX)

Rating: _C-

About 20% of our closest friends that run businesses, use ClickUp, so the "why" is a regular discussion that comes up whenever we hang out. The main consensus we've heard is:

"It does a lot but it's also incredibly buggy"

ClickUp does a good job at marketing features and functionality to intrigue you—we've literally signed up to re-evaluate it at least once a year because of exactly that. But when you begin actually using it, you start noticing the drawbacks. They come out in the experience, between slowness, overwhelm of where to find things and how to organize the information at hand.

It's a blank canvas, it claims to be able to do everything for your business, and that's why one of our friends literally runs an agency that just sets up ClickUp for other agencies, and charges mid-5-figures per year to do just that. Being convinced to sign up for ClickUp is easy. Using it well is not.

In general, if you're considering between ClickUp and Asana, we'd say stick with Asana and supplement it with a proper team knowledge base tool like Slite, or give our top pick in the category a shot (Motion) to see if it might work for you. 🤷

Competition

When viewing it more as an all-in-one tool, you're starting to compare it more with apps like Notion and Coda, but what's also a bit strange is both of those tools were built more as documentation software, and have evolved more into the "all-in-one" category.

This is where things get difficult to prescribe without deeply understanding your specific use-cases. We believe that rarely are the "all-in-one" tools best for companies, as we strongly believe in using the best tool for the job. That said, ClickUp is definitely the most "Task Management" focused tool of the bunch. Meaning, if you want to rely on getting timely alerts for getting work done and project completed, ClickUp will handle that better than Notion on Coda.

Although, if documentation and almost a form of "no-code app" building is more important to you, that's where Coda or Notion will shine.

And this is the exact problem we have with this category. It does many things well, but it's consistently missing the last 5–10% in every category, which might not seem like a big deal, but I assure you that it'll frustrate the team.

So with all of that said, that's where we typically recommend using a tool like Motion as your Project Manager, and then Slite as your documentation/shared team collaboration tool (I would also say Notion, but it suffers from the all-in-one syndrome as well, that I fear you'll start trying turning Notion into your team's project management tool given enough time using it—which is not ideal), versus trying to just fit them all into a single product.

Final Thoughts

ClickUp has done a *phenomenal job* at marketing itself (literally the CEO on stage wearing a ClickUp suit kinda marketing). In the last few years, they've invested millions of dollars in their advertising, everywhere you looked you saw a ClickUp billboard. They have consistently hit their growth goals because of that. But is it just hype? For some, ClickUp fulfills their business needs, for others they see through the marketing. In terms of your project management software options, is it the best? We think not.

ClickUp does have a free version although it's very much for personal use so we wouldn't say its a free project management tool.