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Best Hive Alternatives

Written by Camin McCluskey

Co-Founder & CTO

Edited by Steph Leung

Product & Operations Lead

Updated onMar 14, 2025
Hive is a comprehensive work management platform designed to streamline collaboration and boost productivity across teams of all sizes. Its versatile project views, automation capabilities, and integrated communication tools position it as a central hub for organizations looking to manage complex workflows. However, depending on your specific needs, several alternatives might better serve your team’s unique requirements. Jira excels for software development teams with its specialized workflows and development tool integrations, while Airtable offers superior data relationship management through its robust linking capabilities. For client-focused businesses, Paymo delivers exceptional time tracking and invoicing features, whereas Notion creates a seamless environment for internal documentation. Meanwhile, teams seeking simplicity for basic project management might find Trello’s intuitive interface more accessible than Hive’s feature-rich platform. This comparison explores how these alternatives stack up against Hive across different use cases to help you determine the optimal solution for your team’s specific workflow needs.

Best alternatives to Hive

For software development project management:

Jira product logo

Jira

Stackfix Rating:

6.2 / 10

Software development teams will find Jira’s specialized features make it a compelling choice over Hive for managing their projects. Jira’s deep customization capabilities allow teams to create sophisticated development workflows with multiple task types, validation rules, and custom fields—all while maintaining an intuitive interface through well-designed templates. Its native integration with development tools like GitHub enables seamless code-to-task tracking, while its built-in Agile features like backlog management and sprint planning support established software development methodologies. Though Hive offers solid project management fundamentals, it lacks Jira’s development-specific capabilities that streamline the software creation process.

Jump to product

For managing complex data relationships:

Airtable product logo

Airtable

Stackfix Rating:

7.3 / 10

Airtable excels at managing complex data relationships through its superior linking capabilities and customizable fields. While Hive offers basic task dependencies, Airtable enables users to create sophisticated connections between tasks, projects, OKRs, and other business metrics with its record linking feature. This allows teams to establish four types of dependencies (finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish) and create multi-level relationships between different data sets. Additionally, Airtable’s extensive custom field options – including formulas, rollups, and lookups – make it easier to track and analyze interconnected data points across the organization.

Jump to product

For client-focused business management:

Paymo product logo

Paymo

Stackfix Rating:

5.9 / 10

Paymo excels over Hive for client-focused business management with its superior time tracking, invoicing capabilities, and client-centric portfolio management. While Hive offers basic project management features, Paymo’s specialized tools make it a clear choice for businesses prioritizing client work and billable hours. Its time tracking system features built-in timers, automatic desktop tracking, and detailed timesheet views that seamlessly convert to client reports. The platform’s invoicing functionality allows teams to customize billing types, track financial metrics, and even accept direct payments through Paymo Invoice. Additionally, Paymo’s portfolio management provides comprehensive project overviews with estimated billable amounts and timeline visualization – essential features for managing multiple client projects effectively.

Jump to product

For creating and managing internal documentation:

Notion product logo

Notion

Stackfix Rating:

6.6 / 10

Notion stands out as a strong choice for managing internal documentation, thanks to its document creation capabilities and seamless integration with project management. Unlike Hive, which only offers Google Drive integration for documentation, Notion provides a rich, native document editing environment where teams can create, organize, and collaborate on internal documents. The platform’s standout features include AI-powered writing assistance, synced blocks that update across pages automatically, and the ability to embed interactive content from third-party tools like Miro and Figma. Additionally, Notion's highly customizable structure allows teams to build interconnected knowledge bases that link directly to relevant projects and tasks, creating a more cohesive documentation system.

Jump to product

For managing simple projects with small teams:

Trello product logo

Trello

Stackfix Rating:

6.7 / 10

Trello’s simplicity and intuitive design make it a good choice for managing simple projects with small teams. While Hive offers more advanced features, its complexity can be overwhelming for basic project management needs. Trello performs quickly and has an approachable interface that takes less than 30 minutes to learn, along with straightforward task management capabilities including custom fields, multiple assignees, and deadline setting. The platform’s Kanban board view is effective for visualizing workflow stages, and its clean, visually appealing interface helps teams stay focused on their tasks. For small teams seeking efficient project management without unnecessary complications, Trello’s streamlined approach is more practical than Hive’s feature-heavy solution.

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CM

Meet your expert: Camin McCluskey

Stackfix Co-Founder & CTO

Having worked as a software engineer and CTO in enterprise and startup environments, I've been on both sides of the software buying journey. I'm excited to help you find the right software for your business, as well as supporting our partners to communicate what makes their software unique.

Hive logo

Hive

Jira logo

Jira

Airtable logo

Airtable

Paymo logo

Paymo

Notion logo

Notion

Trello logo

Trello

Our rating
Functionality
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Generally, Hive's functionality is strong where it is available, but many of its best features are only available on its most expensive plans. Hive's automation both in-app and across app stand out as incredibly strong. Time-tracking functionality is also very impressive - with quick ways to filter for availability, but, again, this is only available on their more expensive plans. For creative work and real-time collaboration - Hive isn't great. It lacks any real time collaboration tools and the ability to make internal documents.</p>
9

Functionality

9/10

<p>Jira delivers nearly all the functionality that SMBs—and even enterprises—will need.</p><p>Its task and project management capabilities are incredibly powerful and flexible. You can customize Jira to fit virtually any project, even those with complex structures like five layers of sub-tasks, each with their own custom fields.</p><p>That said, Jira does have some gaps. It doesn’t natively offer features like invoicing, billing, or expense tracking, which other tools sometimes include. Plus, for built-in docs or wikis, you’ll need to use its sister product, Confluence.</p>
7

Functionality

7/10

<p>Airtable offers most of the functionality that companies will need but lacks a few useful features. Users will benefit from strong workflow automations, dependencies, the ability to link tasks, projects, key metrics and company goals, forms which auto populate spreadsheets with responses and more. However, Airtable lacks in-real-time collaboration, the ability to create internal documents and some strong time-tracking features.</p>
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Paymo focuses on delivering the core set of functionality required for managing client work. It offers excellent time tracking, invoicing and accounting functionality. However, the focus on client projects mean Paymo lacks some common project management functionality, such as inbuilt documentation, building automated workflows, adding custom fields or any meaningful analytics (besides time reports).</p>
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Notion offers almost all of the functionality most companies will need. It Offers best-in-class inbuilt documentation, and added a lot of AI features in the past year that allows you to query your entire Notion workspace. It has also been rolling out many new features e.g. Notion calendar, forms, and Notion mail (coming soon).</p><p>That said, it’s still missing some features larger teams with many active projects might require, like advanced analytics, robust workflow automation, and time tracking. There’s room for improvement, but it’s evolving fast.</p>
4

Functionality

4/10

<p>As opposed to a project management tool, Trello is more of a "shared to-do list" which only offers basic task management features to manage simple projects. Trello doesn't have any built-in functionality to manage task dependencies, and inbuilt documentation section or any meaningful analytics.</p><p>However, you can layer on richer functionality via its rich marketplace of "power ups" plugins - usually at a premium.</p>
Ease of Use
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Hive is easy to use - functions are well-labelled and the reasonable amount of customisation means that you never feel overwhelmed. The only exception to this is workflow automations across apps. As such, we expect a<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">n average start-up employee would require around half a day and minimal guidance to proficiently use all key functionalities of the product. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Processes are always easy to locate key info and processes are generally intuitive. </span></p>
4

Ease of Use

4/10

<p>Compared to other project management tools, we find Jira complex to navigate. The interface is packed with features and options, which can make it overwhelming and unintuitive—especially for new users. The learning curve is steep, and it can take weeks for team members to get fully comfortable.</p><p>For example, even for simple projects, there are multiple configuration pages to manage: settings for the entire project, specific project views, built-in fields, custom fields—you name it. It’s powerful, but all these layers can quickly become confusing.</p>
6

Ease of Use

6/10

<p>Airtable is generally easy to use. We estimate that an average start-up employee would require around half a day and some guidance to proficiently use all key functionalities of the platform. The notable exceptions to this are the extensions required to make custom reports and creating subtask in table view.</p><p><br></p><p>Airtables key processes are easy to find and do not require many clicks to reach. Some more complex processes like customizing the UI itself can be more hidden.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Due to its limited functionality, Paymo is rather easy to navigate. Key workflows such as tracking time, creating new tasks and projects are straightforward and intuitive. However, there are some UX quirks. For example, you can only manage task dependencies in the portfolio view, and there are unfamiliar terms here and there e.g. an unexplained "booking" tab that's by default in every tab.</p>
6

Ease of Use

6/10

<p>For those new to Notion, its blank canvas, endless customization options, and sheer number of templates can feel a bit overwhelming at first. Setting up a project management system from scratch might take a few days to figure out—but once you get past that initial learning curve, Notion becomes incredibly intuitive and user-friendly.</p><p>Creating new projects, documents, and tasks is lightning-fast, and there are quick keyboard shortcuts for almost everything, from adding new blocks to navigating between pages. Once you’re up to speed, Notion feels like second nature.</p>
9

Ease of Use

9/10

<p>Trello has an extremely approachable and intuitive UX. It should be easy and straightforward to implement for teams with any level of technical competency. The only more complex features Trello has are its power-ups and automations module. Besides that, it should take any SMB employee less than 30 minutes to feel comfortable with platform.</p>
Look and feel
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Hive is more colourful than some of its competitors with similar UIs and the general architecture of its UI is nicely layout. That being said hive is not visually anything special - it just does the job.</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>While Jira has made strides in design and usability with recent updates, it still feels a bit dated compared to more modern Project Management tools like Linear. Customizing the UI is pretty limited, so you’re mostly stuck with the default look and feel.</p><p>Our main gripe, though, is page load times. At 2–3+ seconds per page, things can feel sluggish—and this gets gets compounded as your projects and teams grow. It's a frustration that can niggle you every day.</p>
8

Look and feel

8/10

<p>Airtable has a more customizable UI than most. You can alter colour and some layout features vai their interface designer. However, inevitably, UIs will not differ so much from one user to the next. They could all still have more sleep designs and more colour.</p><p><br></p><p>Loading times are fast (1 second per page).</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Although not visually stunning, Paymo's interface is uncluttered and functional. However, we have noticed that Paymo's pages load slowly at times (3+ seconds).</p>
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p>Out of the box - Notion has a clean, modern, uncluttered interface. But you have the power to completely customise the look and feel of Notion to make it look visually stunning.</p><p>The main drawback is that Notion suffers from slow load times, especially as your workspace grows. Pages can take 3–4 seconds to load, especially if you have a lot of data and files stored&nbsp;in Notion.&nbsp;It’s something to keep in mind if you plan on using Notion as your all-in-one company operating system, or as your usage scales.</p>
8

Look and feel

8/10

<p>Trello offers a clean, visually appealing interface that is both functional and engaging. If you dislike Trello's default interface, you're able to personalise boards and cards with custom colours, images and stickers. Its page loads are also lightning fast (&lt;1 second), which is refreshing compared to most project manage tools.</p>
Customisability
6

Customisability

6/10

<p>Hive has some strong customisation features - unfortunately many of these are only available of its more expensive tiers. Customisations for automated workflows are strongest with conditional logic and plenty of action and trigger functions across many apps. Forums are also highly customisable with conditional logic again available, along with many answer types and the ability to turn responses of forms into tasks.</p>
10

Customisability

10/10

<p>We find Jira to be impressively, and overwhelmingly, customisable.</p><p>You can customise almost anything you can think of - custom task types, workflows, specialized screens, validation rules, and more. For ultimate flexibility, there’s even Jira’s own query language (JQL), which lets you search and filter issues with incredible precision.</p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p>Airtable has strong customizability. Automations integrate with third parties and offer a decent selection of action/ trigger functions, as well as, conditional logic. Highly customizable forms also allow for conditional logic, many answer types and cosmetic customizations like banners, logos and colours. Out-of-the-box reporting extensions also allow for customizable reports.</p>
3

Customisability

3/10

<p>While Paymo allows for some customisation e.g. switching between project views, applying filters to customise project views - its focus on client projects limits further customisability. Every project must be structured around clients and time budget. Also, you're unable to add any custom fields or tags, or create custom reports.</p>
9

Customisability

9/10

<p>Notion gives you endless customization options to shape it exactly how you want.</p><p>You can mix and match blocks—pages, databases, calendars, and project views—and even connect them with third-party tools to create a setup that fits your workflow, system, or use case perfectly. You’re in control of everything: how tasks and projects are organized, the structure of your internal docs and wikis, the platform’s overall look and feel, and even the layout of individual pages.</p><p>That said, Notion isn’t without its limits. It falls short on advanced reporting features and can’t handle workflows that require complex automation, like branching or conditional logic.</p>
4

Customisability

4/10

<p>While Trello allows for some customisation e.g. switching between project views, adding custom fields - its inherent simplicity limits advanced customisability. There are simple things you can't customise e.g. which columns are shown on a table, filters are limited to a few default fields, which can be frustrating if you're trying to adapt Trello to your workflow.</p>
Ease of Setup
9

Ease of Setup

9/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a very rich library of templates. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
4

Ease of Setup

4/10

<p>Jira offers a self-serve free trial and lets you purchase without dealing with sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks or subtasks takes about 30–40 minutes, which can feel a bit more confusing compared to other tools. That said, its rich library of templates helps streamline the process.</p><p>Be prepared, though—a full setup will likely take at least a few days, especially if you’re customizing it for more complex workflows.</p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a very rich library of templates. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
6

Ease of Setup

6/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, but it lacks a rich library of templates. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p>Notion offers a self-serve free trial and lets you purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, helped by very extensive library of templates. A full setup shouldn’t take more than a day or two, even for more complex use cases.</p>
9

Ease of Setup

9/10

<p>Offers a self-serve free trial and allows purchase without needing to talk to sales. Getting started and setting up a few tasks and subtasks should take 20-30 minutes, because it has a very rich library of templates, including hundreds from the Trello community. Full setup should take less than a day.</p>
Customer Support
9

Customer Support

9/10

<p>Hive has great customer support personalised help is available both via email and on a live chat in app and responses are fast (&lt;1 hour).</p><p><br></p><p>Self-serve materials also have great depth and quality. In particular, succinct video tutorials make discovering the platform a breeze.</p>
4

Customer Support

4/10

<p>We find that Jira's support leaves a lot to be desired. Atlassian (the maker of Jira) nudge users toward self-service options like documentation and community forums, which can be frustrating when you need quick, direct help. Even when you reach out for support, the experience can be hit-or-miss—especially if you’re a smaller customer without a premium support plan.</p>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>An in-app chatbot is useful for filtering through self-serve material, but if you want to talk to a real human you need to do this via email (not that forms can be submitted via email) and agents will reply within 48 hours - but usually in less than 12 hours.</p><p><br></p><p>Airtable's self-serve materials are excellent. Articles, videos and seminars all have excellent depth and quality. These can all be access in app.</p>
9

Customer Support

9/10

<p>Paymo offers in-app live chat with their C-suite members. The Paymo team almost always responds within minutes, and helpful and patient. You can also tell that the team is open and responsive to customer feedback. You can also easily access Paymo's help centre within the live chat widget, which is a plus.</p>
5

Customer Support

5/10

<p>Notion's support team can only be contacted via email, and this option is very hidden away on their site. From our experience, responses take about a full business day—not the fastest—but the agents are friendly and genuinely helpful. On the bright side, Notion’s help center is top-notch, with detailed, high-quality documentation that can often solve your questions without needing to wait for support.</p>
4

Customer Support

4/10

<p>Trello's support leaves much to be desired. Trello seems to push users towards self-service, such as to their documentation and community forums, which can be frustrating when you need immediate assistance. Even direct support from Atlassian can be hit-or-miss, especially for smaller customers not on premium support plans.</p>
Integratability
8

Integratability

8/10

<p>Hive has integrations with most third parties of interest. Most notably, the across-app automations are available with such a large varied of third parties that Hive seamlessly integrates within your project management ecosystem.</p><p><br></p><p>Hive also has an API which allows teams to build custom integrations if needed.</p>
9

Integratability

9/10

<p>Jira, powered by Atlassian, has a thriving app marketplace with thousands of plugins. If there’s a feature you need that Jira doesn’t offer natively, chances are there’s a third-party app for it. Plus, Jira provides an API, giving you the flexibility to build custom integrations when needed.</p>
8

Integratability

8/10

<p>Airtable only offers 36 native integrations which pails in comparison to other project management software - like Clickup or Asana. However, most of the big names are covered - like Jira, Github, Slack etc. Some integrations also include automations - e,g. sending messages in slack or creating a weekly digest in google documents.</p><p><br></p><p>Airtable also offer an API allowing users to build integrations where necessary.</p>
3

Integratability

3/10

<p>Paymo only has 14 pre-built integrations. While this list includes Google Calendar, Zapier and Slack, it's missing a lot of common integrations with tools from categories like customer support, sales, analytics etc. However, it does offer an API for custom integrations.</p>
6

Integratability

6/10

<p>Notion offers 110 integrations with a decent range of third-party tools, covering areas like automation, analytics, and collaboration. However, it’s missing some key integrations in commonly needed categories—there’s no native support for customer support tools, calendars, or email platforms.</p><p>That said, Notion does provide an API, so you can build custom integrations if you have specific needs.</p>
7

Integratability

7/10

<p>Trello has a extremely vibrant marketplace with most relevant third-party integrations (Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp) and "Power-ups" - plugins that extend Trello's functionality e.g. creating forms, invoicing, managing task hierarchies.</p><p>It also has an API for custom integrations. However, note that on lower tier plans, there's a limit to the number of Power-Ups you can use per board, which limits the usefulness.</p>
Ease of Migration
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p>All reports can be exported to a pdf file. There is a large selection of self-serve analytics with great depth and quality (much of this is behind their most expensive tiers) but there are no custom reports.</p>
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>Migrating away from Jira can be a bit of a headache. Exporting data isn’t exactly seamless, and you’ll likely need to spend time cleaning and reformatting it before it’s usable in another tool. Custom fields, workflows, and issue types often don’t have direct equivalents elsewhere, which can lead to data loss or tricky mapping processes. It’s definitely something to plan for if you’re considering switching.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Exports of key and custom data and reports are available self-serve via a CSV file.</p>
4

Ease of Migration

4/10

<p>It seems like you're only able to export invoices and your list of projects + clients via self-serve. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to export your tasks &amp; task content. However, this may be doable via Paymo's API.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Notion makes exporting easy with a self-serve option—there’s an export button on every page, so you can quickly grab what you need. For more advanced needs, you can also export data using their API.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Exporting key data out of Trello is relatively straightforward. You can simply export entire projects, with all your tasks, in JSON or CSV formats. However, note that not all data - such as comments, activity logs and attachments will transfer seamlessly. However, you can export other data via its API.</p>

Jira: Hive alternative for software development project management

Jira product logo
Jira

Stackfix Rating:

6.2 / 10

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Starting at

$0

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Software development teams will find Jira’s specialized features make it a compelling choice over Hive for managing their projects. Jira’s deep customization capabilities allow teams to create sophisticated development workflows with multiple task types, validation rules, and custom fields—all while maintaining an intuitive interface through well-designed templates. Its native integration with development tools like GitHub enables seamless code-to-task tracking, while its built-in Agile features like backlog management and sprint planning support established software development methodologies. Though Hive offers solid project management fundamentals, it lacks Jira’s development-specific capabilities that streamline the software creation process.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hive vs. Jira.

Pros

  • Extremely Configurable

  • Transformative Project Templates

  • Extremely Sophisticated Task Management

  • Powerful Workflow Automation

  • Extensive Integration Ecosystem

Cons

  • Complex to Navigate

  • Dated User Interface

  • Subpar Customer Support

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Airtable: Hive alternative for managing complex data relationships

Airtable product logo
Airtable

Stackfix Rating:

7.3 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Airtable excels at managing complex data relationships through its superior linking capabilities and customizable fields. While Hive offers basic task dependencies, Airtable enables users to create sophisticated connections between tasks, projects, OKRs, and other business metrics with its record linking feature. This allows teams to establish four types of dependencies (finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish) and create multi-level relationships between different data sets. Additionally, Airtable’s extensive custom field options – including formulas, rollups, and lookups – make it easier to track and analyze interconnected data points across the organization.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hive vs. Airtable.

Pros

  • Exceptional Project Portfolio Management

  • Powerful Workflow Automation

  • Highly Customizable

  • Strong Integration Capabilities

Cons

  • Cumbersome Subtask Management

  • No Internal Documentation Capabilities

  • Absence of Time Tracking

  • No Task Creation from Forms

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Paymo: Hive alternative for client-focused business management

Paymo product logo
Paymo

Stackfix Rating:

5.9 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Paymo excels over Hive for client-focused business management with its superior time tracking, invoicing capabilities, and client-centric portfolio management. While Hive offers basic project management features, Paymo’s specialized tools make it a clear choice for businesses prioritizing client work and billable hours. Its time tracking system features built-in timers, automatic desktop tracking, and detailed timesheet views that seamlessly convert to client reports. The platform’s invoicing functionality allows teams to customize billing types, track financial metrics, and even accept direct payments through Paymo Invoice. Additionally, Paymo’s portfolio management provides comprehensive project overviews with estimated billable amounts and timeline visualization – essential features for managing multiple client projects effectively.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hive vs. Paymo.

Pros

  • Comprehensive Client Billing System

  • Strong Team Workload Management

  • Excellent Customer Support

  • Effective Portfolio Management

  • Exceptional Time Tracking Capabilities

Cons

  • Poor Task Management Functionality

  • Weak Customization Options

  • Limited Integration Capabilities

  • Limited Reporting Capabilities

  • Poor Data Export Options

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Notion: Hive alternative for creating and managing internal documentation

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Notion

Stackfix Rating:

6.6 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Notion stands out as a strong choice for managing internal documentation, thanks to its document creation capabilities and seamless integration with project management. Unlike Hive, which only offers Google Drive integration for documentation, Notion provides a rich, native document editing environment where teams can create, organize, and collaborate on internal documents. The platform’s standout features include AI-powered writing assistance, synced blocks that update across pages automatically, and the ability to embed interactive content from third-party tools like Miro and Figma. Additionally, Notion's highly customizable structure allows teams to build interconnected knowledge bases that link directly to relevant projects and tasks, creating a more cohesive documentation system.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hive vs. Notion.

Pros

  • Powerful abstractions and relationships between project items

  • Blank canvas to build your own system

  • Flexible task management

  • Best-in-class document management

Cons

  • Lacks Some Traditional Project Management Features

  • Slow Page Loads with Large Databases

  • Poor Customer Support

  • Severely Limited Analytics & Reporting

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

Trello: Hive alternative for managing simple projects with small teams

Trello product logo
Trello

Stackfix Rating:

6.7 / 10

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Trello’s simplicity and intuitive design make it a good choice for managing simple projects with small teams. While Hive offers more advanced features, its complexity can be overwhelming for basic project management needs. Trello performs quickly and has an approachable interface that takes less than 30 minutes to learn, along with straightforward task management capabilities including custom fields, multiple assignees, and deadline setting. The platform’s Kanban board view is effective for visualizing workflow stages, and its clean, visually appealing interface helps teams stay focused on their tasks. For small teams seeking efficient project management without unnecessary complications, Trello’s streamlined approach is more practical than Hive’s feature-heavy solution.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Hive vs. Trello.

Pros

  • Fairly extensive library of plugins

  • Exceptionally Easy to Use

  • Clean, Fast Interface

Cons

  • Only Kanban boards are available on the free tier

  • Basic Task Management

  • Limited Customization Options

  • Inadequate Customer Support

  • Weak Analytics and Reporting

Compare all Project Management toolsRead the full review

How we test products

With so many Project Management tools on the market, we focus on identifying the best options for small and midsize businesses. Our evaluation process reflects real-world usage, prioritizing functionality, ease of use, and overall value. Here’s how we do it:

Functionality

Project Management software should help teams stay organized, track progress, and collaborate efficiently. We start by identifying key use cases—task management, workflow automation, resource allocation, reporting, and team collaboration—then test how well each platform supports these needs. Tools that provide essential features without unnecessary complexity score highest.

User Experience & Onboarding

A great Project Management tool should be easy to adopt and navigate. We test each platform’s interface by accessing core features without prior training and track onboarding time—from account setup to managing the first project. Platforms that require extensive setup or technical expertise lose points.

Collaboration & Workflow Automation

Effective project management requires seamless collaboration. We evaluate built-in communication tools, task dependencies, automation workflows, and team notifications. Platforms that reduce manual effort and improve team efficiency score highest.

Integrations & Compatibility

Project Management software must integrate smoothly with other business tools, such as CRMs, file storage solutions, and communication platforms. We test how well each product connects with essential business systems and assess whether native integrations or third-party connectors are required.

Pricing & Value

We compare pricing across competitors, analyzing what each plan includes and whether critical features are locked behind paywalls. Hidden costs—such as per-user fees, premium automation features, or required enterprise plans—are factored into our assessment. Platforms that offer strong core functionality at a fair price score highest.

Stackfix’s Fit Score

All of these factors contribute to Stackfix’s Fit Score, a proprietary ranking system that measures how well each Project Management tool aligns with a buyer’s needs. It combines two key elements:

  • Requirements Met – How many buyer requirements the software fulfills
  • Stackfix Rating – Our expert assessment of the software’s overall quality, usability, and value

The result? A clear, data-driven recommendation that helps businesses choose the right Project Management software—without hours of trial and error.

FAQs

What is a Project Management tool?

A project management tool is a software application that helps teams plan, organize, and track their work. It’s a centralised hub where everyone can collaborate, manage tasks, and keep projects moving smoothly. The key features of a Project Management tool usually include:

  • Task Management: Create, assign, and track tasks to ensure everyone knows what needs to be done and by when. This helps keep projects on schedule and ensures accountability.
  • Project Planning: Use calendars, timelines, or Gantt charts to map out milestones and deadlines. Visual planning helps organize tasks and spot potential delays early.

What should I consider when buying Project Management software?

Choosing the right Project Management software can make or break your team’s productivity and collaboration—so it’s essential to find one that fits your workflow, integrates with your existing tools, and aligns with your budget. Here are the key factors to consider before making your decision.

  1. Your requirements. It's important to first define what you need the project management tool to accomplish. Consider the types of projects you want to track – whether you need to manage all projects across the company, including departments like HR and sales, or focus on specific types of projects. This decision will directly influence the features and level of customization you require.
  2. Ease of use. Look for an interface that your team will actually like and use. A cluttered or overly complex interface can overwhelm less experienced teams, meaning all those fancy features go to waste. That’s why Stackfix gives every project management tool an ‘Ease of Use’ rating, so you can quickly see which ones are intuitive and user-friendly. Click into each product above to find the right fit for your team.
  3. Workflows and integrations.Take stock of your current workflows and the tools you use. You may want to connect the project management tool with your existing tools such as Google Calendar for time blocking, customer support platforms, design and engineering tools, and Slack for updates
  4. Cost. Many project management tools offer seductive free plans, but it's essential to check if the free plan includes the features you need. Additionally, consider how pricing scales as your team grows to avoid unexpected expenses down the line. Factor in setup costs and feature limitations to ensure the tool remains cost-effective as your usage increases.
  5. Customer support. This is one of those things you don’t think about—until you really need it. If something goes wrong during setup or day-to-day use, will the vendor be there to help? Look at response times, availability (24/7 or just business hours?), and self-serve resources like help centers or community forums. To make this easier, Stackfix rates every project management tool on customer support. Click into each product above to see how they stack up.


What are the common mistakes to avoid when buying Project Management software?

Avoiding common pitfalls when choosing Project Management software can save you time, money, and workflow frustrations. Here are some of the biggest mistakes startups make—and how to avoid them.

  1. Falling into the “all-in-one” trap: A lot of project management tools boast about being all-in-one solutions, but this often means they can be bloated and clunky. Depending on your specific needs, a more streamlined and focused tool might allow your team to move faster and use only the features that truly matter for your projects.
  2. Buying based on vendor popularity: The project management space is flooded with big names dominating through big marketing budgets (looking at you, ClickUp and Monday.com) While these popular tools are generally solid choices, ensure they’re the best fit for your use case, and has the features that you need.
  3. Over-optimizing for scalability: Sounds counterintuitive, right? But trying to pick a tool that can handle every possible future need can actually make things more complicated. Most* project management tools offer solid migration options and integrations, making it easy to switch if your needs change. Plus, unlike sales systems where migrating all client data is crucial, you usually don’t need to transfer every completed task or project. Instead of choosing a PM with a massive feature list you might never use, go for one that fits your current growth stage. A streamlined solution with the features you need now keeps things simple and efficient, and you can always upgrade as your team and projects expand.

How much does Project Management Software typically cost?

Several providers (like Asana, ClickUp, Notion, and Jira) offer free plans with core functionality, though these typically restrict user limits, advanced views, and automation capabilities.

For enterprise plans and above, you can expect to speak to sales for a bespoke price. These custom quotes typically factor in integration requirements, security needs, and advanced reporting capabilities. To skip the demo calls, be sure to check out our pricing calculator.

Compare other Project Management Tools

View our comparisons of other Project Management

AC

Asana vs ClickUp

ST

Smartsheet vs Teamwork

MW

Monday.com vs Wrike

PG

ProofHub vs GanttPRO