Written by Camin McCluskey
Co-Founder & CTO
Edited by Steph Leung
Product & Operations Lead
Picking the right project management tool is a day-one decision that can save (or waste) serious time. With so many options, it’s easy to get stuck setting up instead of shipping.
We’ve tested the best tools so you don’t have to – this guide covers the top picks for startups, whether you’re technical, remote, or managing complex projects.
Linear
Stackfix Rating:
7.6 / 10
Used by leading startups like Perplexity, Monzo and Cursor, Linear is purpose-built for teams developing software products.
In Linear, you'll find only exceptional, well-crafted features essential for planning and building software - nothing more, nothing less. This includes excellent cycle planning, issue tracking, and product roadmaps right out of the box. Our team was able to get set up and going in just 10 minutes. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with the most common startup tech stacks, such as GitHub for linking pull requests and Figma for viewing design components.
We also loved Linear’s near-impeccable user experience and elegant design. Its keyboard-first approach, with shortcuts for nearly every action (e.g., creating a new task by typing a single "c"), allows for rapid task management and navigation.
That said, Linear is very rigid. You can’t add custom fields, and you’re limited to just two ways to view your tasks: as a board or a list, unlike other tools that offer timeline or calendar views. If having flexible workflows is essential for your team, Linear might not be the best fit.
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Used by leading startups like Perplexity, Monzo and Cursor, Linear is purpose-built for teams developing software products.
In Linear, you'll find only exceptional, well-crafted features essential for planning and building software - nothing more, nothing less. This includes excellent cycle planning, issue tracking, and product roadmaps right out of the box. Our team was able to get set up and going in just 10 minutes. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with the most common startup tech stacks, such as GitHub for linking pull requests and Figma for viewing design components.
We also loved Linear’s near-impeccable user experience and elegant design. Its keyboard-first approach, with shortcuts for nearly every action (e.g., creating a new task by typing a single "c"), allows for rapid task management and navigation.
That said, Linear is very rigid. You can’t add custom fields, and you’re limited to just two ways to view your tasks: as a board or a list, unlike other tools that offer timeline or calendar views. If having flexible workflows is essential for your team, Linear might not be the best fit.
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Linear
Stackfix Rating:
7.6 / 10
Asana
Stackfix Rating:
7.5 / 10
Asana is one of those rare tools that perfectly balances power with ease of use, making it a fantastic fit for startups with multiple teams juggling various projects.
With its powerful yet approachable portfolio management, we found it incredibly easy to get a high-level overview of all our projects. You can quickly see which projects are on track or at risk, track milestones, understand how each project supports your goals, and monitor overall progress. Dive a little deeper, and each project's Overview feature gives you a one-page update on its progress.
What also impressed us was Asana's dedicated goals feature. It seamlessly connects company, team, and personal objectives, allowing teams to track goal progress with visual indicators and link existing projects. This makes Asana ideal for organizations focused on strategic alignment.
If we had to nitpick, we'd say Asana's documentation capabilities are just okay. While you can attach notes to projects, there's no company-wide wiki functionality, and the formatting options are pretty basic. This limits teams' ability to build comprehensive knowledge bases.
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Asana is one of those rare tools that perfectly balances power with ease of use, making it a fantastic fit for startups with multiple teams juggling various projects.
With its powerful yet approachable portfolio management, we found it incredibly easy to get a high-level overview of all our projects. You can quickly see which projects are on track or at risk, track milestones, understand how each project supports your goals, and monitor overall progress. Dive a little deeper, and each project's Overview feature gives you a one-page update on its progress.
What also impressed us was Asana's dedicated goals feature. It seamlessly connects company, team, and personal objectives, allowing teams to track goal progress with visual indicators and link existing projects. This makes Asana ideal for organizations focused on strategic alignment.
If we had to nitpick, we'd say Asana's documentation capabilities are just okay. While you can attach notes to projects, there's no company-wide wiki functionality, and the formatting options are pretty basic. This limits teams' ability to build comprehensive knowledge bases.
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Asana
Stackfix Rating:
7.5 / 10
Notion
Stackfix Rating:
6.6 / 10
Unlike your typical project management tool, Notion is more like a blank canvas where you can build your own system, seamlessly blending documentation, project management, databases, automation, and more.
It's especially fantastic for creating internal knowledge hubs and wikis. It features a unique block-based system that lets you customize document layouts to your heart’s content. You can embed project plans, Figma prototypes, timelines, or other files directly into your pages. Plus, with synced blocks, your content can update automatically across multiple pages.
What we love about Notion is its incredibly flexible and interconnected ecosystem. Every item—whether it’s a page, task, or document—can be linked bidirectionally, making it simple to connect and navigate between related items. This means you can build complex systems where projects, tasks, and documentation are all seamlessly tied together. For example, at Stackfix, we track user feedback in Notion, which allows us to easily reference specific user quotes when planning new features.
However, if you’re looking for a ready-to-use, traditional project management tool, Notion might be a bit frustrating. Features like progress bars and Gantt charts aren’t built-in and require manual creation or the use of templates, which can take some extra effort.
Jump to product
Unlike your typical project management tool, Notion is more like a blank canvas where you can build your own system, seamlessly blending documentation, project management, databases, automation, and more.
It's especially fantastic for creating internal knowledge hubs and wikis. It features a unique block-based system that lets you customize document layouts to your heart’s content. You can embed project plans, Figma prototypes, timelines, or other files directly into your pages. Plus, with synced blocks, your content can update automatically across multiple pages.
What we love about Notion is its incredibly flexible and interconnected ecosystem. Every item—whether it’s a page, task, or document—can be linked bidirectionally, making it simple to connect and navigate between related items. This means you can build complex systems where projects, tasks, and documentation are all seamlessly tied together. For example, at Stackfix, we track user feedback in Notion, which allows us to easily reference specific user quotes when planning new features.
However, if you’re looking for a ready-to-use, traditional project management tool, Notion might be a bit frustrating. Features like progress bars and Gantt charts aren’t built-in and require manual creation or the use of templates, which can take some extra effort.
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Notion
Stackfix Rating:
6.6 / 10
Monday.com
Stackfix Rating:
7.5 / 10
Monday is a beginner-friendly, all-in-one work management tool.
We appreciate how Monday makes it genuinely easy to hit the ground running with its extensive library of templates. No matter your use case—whether it’s sales, HR, operations, or even non-profits—you’re likely to find a template that fits. There are also templates for automating workflows, tasks and customizing task views - whatever requires setting up, Monday has a template for it, saving you time and effort.
Even automating workflows is intuitive. Automation is set up by easily modifying a "if this, then that" statement, which means even beginners & non-technical teams can fully harness the power of automation. The platform connects with 74 third-party apps, enabling sophisticated workflows like automatically creating tasks from Gmail or syncing with Github repositories.
However, Monday’s simplicity does have its limits. You can’t create multiple layers of sub-tasks or set up complex task dependencies, which can restrict customization for more intricate project needs.
Jump to product
Monday is a beginner-friendly, all-in-one work management tool.
We appreciate how Monday makes it genuinely easy to hit the ground running with its extensive library of templates. No matter your use case—whether it’s sales, HR, operations, or even non-profits—you’re likely to find a template that fits. There are also templates for automating workflows, tasks and customizing task views - whatever requires setting up, Monday has a template for it, saving you time and effort.
Even automating workflows is intuitive. Automation is set up by easily modifying a "if this, then that" statement, which means even beginners & non-technical teams can fully harness the power of automation. The platform connects with 74 third-party apps, enabling sophisticated workflows like automatically creating tasks from Gmail or syncing with Github repositories.
However, Monday’s simplicity does have its limits. You can’t create multiple layers of sub-tasks or set up complex task dependencies, which can restrict customization for more intricate project needs.
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Monday.com
Stackfix Rating:
7.5 / 10
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.
Stackfix Rating:
7.6 / 10
Visit website
Starting at
$0
Used by leading startups like Perplexity, Monzo and Cursor, Linear is purpose-built for teams developing software products.
In Linear, you'll find only exceptional, well-crafted features essential for planning and building software - nothing more, nothing less. This includes excellent cycle planning, issue tracking, and product roadmaps right out of the box. Our team was able to get set up and going in just 10 minutes. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with the most common startup tech stacks, such as GitHub for linking pull requests and Figma for viewing design components.
We also loved Linear’s near-impeccable user experience and elegant design. Its keyboard-first approach, with shortcuts for nearly every action (e.g., creating a new task by typing a single "c"), allows for rapid task management and navigation.
That said, Linear is very rigid. You can’t add custom fields, and you’re limited to just two ways to view your tasks: as a board or a list, unlike other tools that offer timeline or calendar views. If having flexible workflows is essential for your team, Linear might not be the best fit.
Linear list view of tasks grouped by status
Want to know more? Get a full breakdown of Linear's features and pricing.
Outstanding User Experience
Excellent Project Portfolio Management
Robust Data Analytics
Superior Customer Support
Exceptional functionality for software product teams
Only board and list views available
Limited customization options
Limited Automation Capabilities
Stackfix Rating:
7.5 / 10
Visit website
Starting at
$0
Asana is one of those rare tools that perfectly balances power with ease of use, making it a fantastic fit for startups with multiple teams juggling various projects.
With its powerful yet approachable portfolio management, we found it incredibly easy to get a high-level overview of all our projects. You can quickly see which projects are on track or at risk, track milestones, understand how each project supports your goals, and monitor overall progress. Dive a little deeper, and each project's Overview feature gives you a one-page update on its progress.
What also impressed us was Asana's dedicated goals feature. It seamlessly connects company, team, and personal objectives, allowing teams to track goal progress with visual indicators and link existing projects. This makes Asana ideal for organizations focused on strategic alignment.
If we had to nitpick, we'd say Asana's documentation capabilities are just okay. While you can attach notes to projects, there's no company-wide wiki functionality, and the formatting options are pretty basic. This limits teams' ability to build comprehensive knowledge bases.
Asana visual dashboard showing overview of project health
Want to know more? Get a full breakdown of Asana's features and pricing.
Exceptional Project Views
Intuitive Goals and OKR Management Feature
Powerful Portfolio Management
Strong Integration Capabilities
Delightful user experience touches
Lacks Advanced Task Management Customization
Basic Internal Documentation Features
Limited Cross-Project Automation
Poor Customer Support Experience
Stackfix Rating:
6.6 / 10
Visit website
Starting at
$0
Unlike your typical project management tool, Notion is more like a blank canvas where you can build your own system, seamlessly blending documentation, project management, databases, automation, and more.
It's especially fantastic for creating internal knowledge hubs and wikis. It features a unique block-based system that lets you customize document layouts to your heart’s content. You can embed project plans, Figma prototypes, timelines, or other files directly into your pages. Plus, with synced blocks, your content can update automatically across multiple pages.
What we love about Notion is its incredibly flexible and interconnected ecosystem. Every item—whether it’s a page, task, or document—can be linked bidirectionally, making it simple to connect and navigate between related items. This means you can build complex systems where projects, tasks, and documentation are all seamlessly tied together. For example, at Stackfix, we track user feedback in Notion, which allows us to easily reference specific user quotes when planning new features.
However, if you’re looking for a ready-to-use, traditional project management tool, Notion might be a bit frustrating. Features like progress bars and Gantt charts aren’t built-in and require manual creation or the use of templates, which can take some extra effort.
Notion table view of tasks
Want to know more? Get a full breakdown of Notion's features and pricing.
Powerful abstractions and relationships between project items
Blank canvas to build your own system
Flexible task management
Best-in-class document management
Lacks Some Traditional Project Management Features
Slow Page Loads with Large Databases
Poor Customer Support
Severely Limited Analytics & Reporting
Stackfix Rating:
7.5 / 10
Visit website
Starting at
$0
Monday is a beginner-friendly, all-in-one work management tool.
We appreciate how Monday makes it genuinely easy to hit the ground running with its extensive library of templates. No matter your use case—whether it’s sales, HR, operations, or even non-profits—you’re likely to find a template that fits. There are also templates for automating workflows, tasks and customizing task views - whatever requires setting up, Monday has a template for it, saving you time and effort.
Even automating workflows is intuitive. Automation is set up by easily modifying a "if this, then that" statement, which means even beginners & non-technical teams can fully harness the power of automation. The platform connects with 74 third-party apps, enabling sophisticated workflows like automatically creating tasks from Gmail or syncing with Github repositories.
However, Monday’s simplicity does have its limits. You can’t create multiple layers of sub-tasks or set up complex task dependencies, which can restrict customization for more intricate project needs.
Monday board view grouped by status
Want to know more? Get a full breakdown of Monday.com's features and pricing.
Powerful but intuitive workflow automation
Comprehensive integratability
Granular reporting and visualization
Exceptional workload visualization
Extensive templates that reduce setup time
Limited portfolio management
Lacks advanced task management features
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
The result? A clear, data-driven recommendation that helps businesses choose the right Project Management software—without hours of trial and error.
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:
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.
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.
How much does Project Management Software typically cost?
Most project management software ranges from free to $50+ per month, with entry-level options starting around $10-20 and premium software costing $30-50+ monthly. Most vendors structure pricing in tiers based on features and user count, so be sure to enter your requirements as accurately as possible in our pricing calculator.
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.
View our comparisons of other Project Management
