10 Best Project Management Software & Tools 2025

The Problem With Project Management Software

Many of the most popular project management tools are designed for large teams and organizations, and they can be overwhelming and complex to set up and use for smaller teams. Here's what to keep in mind:

• Setup is no joke. Prepare to dedicate 50+ hours on doing a proper setup and implementation with your team. Those who succeed with project managers are those who make a core part of their business initiative. Larger teams tend to hire agencies to help with with an implementation (and with that, still the implementation still fails at times).‍
• Adoption can be poor. Even if you are able to successfully set up a project management tool, there is no guarantee that your team will actually adopt it and use it effectively. In fact, a study by Wrike found that 35% of teams with fewer than 10 employees stop using a project management tool altogether after a year. The number is 28% for teams greater than 10.‍
• Daily time commitment + steep learning curve. Using a project management tool can also be a significant time commitment for team members. Team members will need to spend time updating the tool on a regular basis. This can add up to a significant amount of time, especially for small teams that are already stretched thin.

When to Use a Project Management Tool

We see more often than not that teams actually jump into implementing a project management tool too early believe it or not.

The main question we'd ask is, does your team currently use a CRM? If so, is your project management/task needs actually simple enough to not require an entire standalone tool for it?

Believe it or not, pipelines within a CRM can actually be a great alternative to a project management tool for smaller teams. With the introduction of a standalone project manager comes with a lot of added work as mentioned above.

Now this is totally fine and possible, just trying to flag that many smaller teams and startups might be trying to create too much complexity and structure, when they really just need to move quickly, pivot, and figure out their process before actually implementing a proper project management tool.

Ok, let's get into your best project management software options + project planning platforms ⤵