logo
Search for anything...
About

Paymo vs ProjectManager - Comparison 2025

Paymo vs. ProjectManager

Last updated on

Reviewed by Camin McCluskey

Stackfix Co-Founder & CTO

CM

Paymo and ProjectManager are best used for different types of work. Paymo excels as a specialized tool for client-focused teams requiring robust time tracking, invoicing, and billing capabilities, with outstanding customer support. Its comprehensive time tracking features and direct payment processing make it ideal for agencies and freelancers managing client projects.

ProjectManager, conversely, is better suited for internal teams needing straightforward project management with better task organization, workflow automation, and user-friendly interface. While both tools handle basic project management, their strengths make them suitable for different use cases - Paymo for client-focused work and ProjectManager for internal team collaboration.

Paymo Product Logo

Advantages of Paymo

Paymo is far superior at time tracking and billing
Paymo's time tracking functionality is exceptional, with features like Pomodoro timers, automatic desktop app tracking, and seamless timesheet-to-invoice conversion. While ProjectManager offers basic time tracking, it lacks the depth and billing integration that makes Paymo particularly valuable for client-focused teams.
Paymo offers significantly better customer support
We found Paymo's customer support to be outstanding, with in-app live chat support from C-suite members and quick response times. ProjectManager, while offering decent support, relies more on email and phone support without the immediate in-app assistance that Paymo provides.
Paymo excels at invoicing and payment processing
Paymo's invoicing capabilities are comprehensive, including direct client payment processing through Paymo Invoice and detailed financial tracking. ProjectManager doesn't offer any native invoicing functionality, making Paymo the clear choice for teams needing integrated billing solutions.
ProjectManager Product Logo

Advantages of ProjectManager

ProjectManager is significantly easier to use for task management
We found ProjectManager's task management interface to be notably more intuitive and comprehensive than Paymo's. While testing, we discovered that ProjectManager offers seamless task creation with extensive customization options, including custom fields and tags, whereas Paymo lacks these basic customization features. This makes ProjectManager particularly valuable for teams that need flexible task management without complexity.
ProjectManager has better integration options
ProjectManager offers more comprehensive integration options compared to Paymo, including native integrations with key tools like Zendesk and JIRA. While testing, we found that Paymo relies heavily on Zapier for most integrations and offers only 14 pre-built integrations. This makes ProjectManager more suitable for teams needing seamless connectivity with their existing tools.
ProjectManager offers superior automation capabilities
ProjectManager includes built-in workflow automation features that Paymo completely lacks. During testing, we found that ProjectManager offers 12 trigger and 7 action functions for creating automated workflows, while Paymo has no automation capabilities. This makes ProjectManager more efficient for teams looking to streamline repetitive tasks.

Paymo is best for

  • Businesses with a low number of active projects (3-5 projects at a time)
  • Who need robust time tracking and client billing capabilities, like automatic desktop time tracking and direct client payments
  • And/or who want strong team workload management across projects with visual scheduling and capacity planning.

ProjectManager is best for

  • Businesses with a moderate number of active projects (5-10 projects at a time)
  • Who need efficient task management and basic workflow automation for day-to-day operations
  • And/or who want comprehensive project visibility through ready-made reports and dashboards.

Paymo is less good for

  • Businesses with a high number of active projects (10+ projects at a time)
  • Who need extensive workflow automation and custom fields for complex project structures
  • And/or who want robust internal documentation and advanced reporting capabilities beyond time tracking.

ProjectManager is less good for

  • Businesses with a high number of active projects (10+ projects at a time) requiring sophisticated document creation and custom reporting capabilities
  • Who need advanced workflow automation with extensive third-party integrations and email templates
  • And/or who want sophisticated approval processes and built-in team chat capabilities.

Gallery

Paymo logoPaymo
Paymo screenshot
ProjectManager logoProjectManager
ProjectManager screenshot

Pricing, features & ratings

Paymo logo

Paymo

Starting at

$0

Billed monthly

Pricing calculatorVisit Website
ProjectManager logo

ProjectManager

Starting at

$16

user / month

Billed monthly

Pricing calculatorVisit Website
Stackfix Verdict
Functionality
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>ProjectManager has most of the functionality that any team will need. More importantly, these features are done well. Reporting, automations and task management are all strong and easy to use. However, none of ProjectManager's features are exceptional - they do the basics and they do them well - that's it. For example, automations are only offer 12 action and 7 trigger functions and no integrations with email, slack etc.</p>
Ease of Use
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>
8

Ease of Use

8/10

<p>The learning curve here is not steep at all - the product is usable right from the word go. We estimate that a start-up employee would require about 1 hour and some guidance to be comfortable using all key functionalities.</p><p><br></p><p>Most key functionalities are very intuitively located. However some are hidden. For example, automations are not well-labelled on the UI.</p>
Look and feel
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>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>ProjectManager has some colour customisation available. That being said, it could do with a touch more finesse in places. It is by no means an unattractive piece of software but it's nothing special.</p><p><br></p><p>Loading times are fast at ~ 1 second per page.</p>
Customisability
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>
5

Customisability

5/10

<p>ProjectManager could do better here, but still has some good customisation. You cannot create a custom report in ProjectManager - there are only self-serve reports available. However, the level of filtering available when choosing which projects, tasks, tags etc. should be measured when creating these self-serve reports is extensive. Automations, on the other hand, could do more customisation wise. They offer basic automations - but no email templates or integrations with 3rd parties, e.g. sending a message in Slack.</p>
Ease of Setup
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>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>
Customer Support
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>
7

Customer Support

7/10

<p>Personalised support is not available via in-app chat but is available on email and and over the phone. Responses are fast and helpful.</p><p><br></p><p>Self-serve materials are of great depth and quality. In particular, their onboarding materials essentially tell you all you need to know to use the ley functionality and leaves you feeling in control of the product.</p>
Integratability
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>
5

Integratability

5/10

<p>ProjectManager integrates with some tools natively but relies heavily of Zapier for most integrations. For example, Salesforce, Jira, onedrive, dropbox are all available only through Zapier.</p><p><br></p><p>However, ProjectManager offers an API to build custom integrations where necessary.&nbsp;</p>
Ease of Migration
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>Exports of all key data, reports and dashboards are available to PDF and/or excel.</p>
Loading...

Compare other Project Management Tools

Want to find out how Paymo or ProjectManager stacks up with their competitors?