Wrike is an advanced project management and collaboration software but it might not suit the need of every business. Whether your motivation stems from financial constraints, specific feature requirements or a desire for a different, more intuitive user interface, choosing the right project management tool is a crucial choice than can impact the success of your entire organization.
Let's explore the top Wrike alternatives.
What are Wrike's top limitations?
Like every other software, Wrike has certain limitations that can affect its overall usability. Knowing these limitations can allow for better decision-making when selecting the right tool for your team's requirements.
- Lack of customization: Wrike’s user interface is not very customizable. This can make adapting the software to meet individual team needs challenging.
- Learning curve: Wrike’s platform can be complex and overwhelming for new users. You and your team would require a significant amount of training and familiarization.
- Expensive plans: Wrike’s higher-tier plans can be quite costly, particularly for small businesses and startups on a budget.
- Navigation complexity: Some users reported difficulty when trying to navigate through the tool describing it as non-intuitive.
- Limited customer support: Wrike offers customer support, however, some users have reported that it can be slow and unresponsive.
What to look for in project management tools like Wrike?
When searching for an alternative to Wrike, you shouldn’t compromise on certain features. These essential features will ensure effective project management and team collaboration.
- Comprehensive task management: The alternative should allow for detailed task management from task creation to tracking and reporting.
- Intuitive collaboration tools: The software must offer a platform where team members can effortlessly collaborate. It should allow seamless communication and real-time notifications.
- Flexible and detailed reporting: You should be able to extract detailed reports and analytics. The data from these can help in project decision-making and strategizing.
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1. Bonsai - Top Wrike Alternative for Agencies & Consultancies
If you're on the hunt for a Wrike alternative, Bonsai might just be the perfect solution for you. It’s an all-in-one solution that provides project management, time tracking, invoices, contracts and a client portal.
One of Bonsai’s standout features is its centralized system. You can access its suite of tools all in one place. This creates a more organized and streamlined workflow. It also helps eliminate fragmentation by using separate systems.
Why choose Bonsai over Wrike?
- Designed for Agencies and Consultancies: Bonsai is specifically built with agencies and consultancies in mind, offering features like invoicing, contracts, resource planning and time tracking alongside project management. While Wrike is geared more toward larger teams and enterprises, Bonsai’s focus on service-based businesses makes it ideal for managing client projects and operations seamlessly.
- Simplified User Experience: Bonsai has a clean and clear interface. Navigating through the platform is a breeze, and there is hardly any learning curve for first-time users.
- All-in-One Business Management: While Wrike excels in project management, Bonsai integrates a broader set of business tools, including proposal creation, client CRM, task tracking, and even tax support. This makes it easier to manage various aspects of your agency or consultancy in one platform.
- Client Collaboration Features: Bonsai facilitates direct collaboration with clients, making it easy to manage projects, contracts, and payments within the same platform. Wrike is more focused on internal team collaboration, which may not be as suited for managing external client relationships.
In addition, whenever there are issues or queries, the team at Bonsai is also quick to respond and keen on resolving issues, making the overall customer service experience a positive one.
Let's explore some of Bonsai's key features.
Project management
Bonsai project management features are designed to streamline the process of creating, tracking and completing projects. It allows users to create tasks, set deadlines, assign team members, monitor progress, with Kanban or Gantt chart, and track time against estimates, in a simple, intuitive interface. Unlike Wrike, which can feel overwhelming with its numerous features aimed at large enterprises, Bonsai focuses on delivering a user-friendly experience for agencies and consultancies, making it easier to manage multiple projects without complexity.
Resource planning
Planning your ressources using Bonsai ensures that your team members and resources are allocated efficiently. It helps you track the availability of each team member, including time off, prevent overbooking, and distribute workloads effectively. Additionally, Bonsai includes financial forecasting, which helps businesses predict the financial impact of resource allocation. While Wrike also offers resource management, Bonsai’s focus on simplicity and its integration of time off tracking and financial forecasting make it easier to maintain a clear picture of team capacity and financial health without relying on separate tools or complex configurations.
Budgeting
Bonsai’s budgeting tools provide a clear advantage for agencies and consultancies looking to keep their projects financially on track. With built-in budgeting features, you can track project costs, monitor expenses, and ensure profitability without needing third-party tools. This integrated approach makes Bonsai a better choice for businesses focused on controlling project finances, whereas Wrike might require you to rely on external tools or integrations for detailed budgeting.
Client management
Client management is another area where Bonsai shines. The platform includes features for handling client communication, contract creation, scheduling, invoicing and payments, all in one place. In addition, Bonsai provides a client portal, which makes it easy to manage client relationships throughout the project lifecycle, from initial proposals to final payments. In contrast, Wrike focuses more on internal team collaboration, leaving client-facing tasks to other software. For businesses that rely heavily on client interaction and smooth workflows, Bonsai offers a more comprehensive, integrated solution.
Integrations
Bonsai offers seamless integrations with a variety of popular tools, allowing users to connect with software they already rely on for accounting, communication, and productivity. Whether you need to sync with Google Calendar, QuickBooks, or payment processors like Stripe and PayPal, Bonsai ensures smooth integration, making it easier to manage your entire workflow in one place.
Pricing
2. Trello
Trello is a flexible online project management tool often used by teams for task organization and progress tracking. Its most recognizable trait is its visual system that uses boards, lists, and cards for various functions. Trello is also a collaborative platform that allows real-time updates, comments, and notifications.
Users often love its simplicity and user-friendly interface. It can also be integrated with other tools and applications to further promote productivity and enhance workflow.
While Trello performs well in task management, it can be restricted when it comes to comprehensive project management solutions. Generally, it has difficulty in handling larger, more complex projects. Other issues include limited reporting tools and the absence of a built-in time tracker.
When it comes to pricing, Trello is quite affordable. It has a free basic plan and from there, you can get upgrades for advanced features like team board collections and Butler automation. There are also ‘Business Class’ and ‘Enterprise’ plans.
3. Asana
Asana is a project management tool made for effective work organization, tracking, and management. Its features include task tracking, team management, and integration with third-party apps like Gmail and Slack. The software also provides a dashboard for monitoring project progress and performance.
However, Asana does have some limitations. Some users think the interface is a bit crowded and overwhelming. It also lacks a built-in time-tracking feature. This can make it difficult to measure work efficiency or bill clients on an hourly basis. Asana’s mobile app also doesn’t support all the features available in the desktop version.
Asana offers a basic free version. Paid plans start at $10.99 per month. These offer additional features like custom fields and advanced search & reporting.
4. Monday
Monday.com is a highly customizable project and work management platform that helps teams strategize and organize their workflow. The platform's core strength is that it allows you to create custom workflows tailored to your team's needs. Here, you can maximize the tool’s features including visual project timelines and shared team calendars.
Despite its versatility, some users find the initial setup rather complicated. Some often-used tools like time tracking and Gantt views are also only available with higher-price plans.
Monday.com offers four different plans - Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. Prices start from $8 per month for the Basic Plan when billed annually. They also offer a free trial.
5. ClickUp
ClickUp is a cloud-based productivity platform that integrates project management and time tracking. With this software, you get customizable views and intuitive dashboards. You also get numerous integrations with other software such as Slack and Github.
Despite its wide-ranging functionality, ClickUp may not suit every organization. Users often find issues with its complex interface. Furthermore, while it offers plenty of integrations, some key ones missing might affect certain workflows.
ClickUp has a flexible pricing structure that includes a free plan. The paid option starts at $5 per month. Premium features include guests and permissions, goals, portfolios, and custom fields.
6. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is another cloud-based platform offering businesses project management solutions and other organizational needs. It boasts a wide array of features including Gantt chars and project and task management. Its versatility is extended by integrations with popular platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Box, and Salesforce. It also has mobile applications for on-the-go access.
Despite its rich features, Smartsheet may not be best suited to extremely large-scale projects. There’s a cap on the number of rows per sheet. Users also complain of a lack of detail in reporting and a deep learning curve.
For pricing, Smartsheet provides four pricing tiers. Individual is priced at $14 per month and Business is at $25 per month. Enterprise and Premium are both custom pricing. All tiers offer a free 30-day trial.
7. Basecamp
Basecamp is a popular project management and team collaboration software. Its features range from milestone tracking to task management. It also offers scheduling capabilities ensuring deadlines are met and events are efficiently planned.
An intriguing feature is its automatic check-ins. This reduces the need for meetings. Every user also gets individual profiles, which can be customized to permit access to certain tools and projects.
However, Basecamp does not include a Gantt chart feature, which some might find essential. Its reporting capabilities are also limited, making it more challenging to get a detailed overview of project progress or generate comprehensive statistical reports.
In terms of pricing, Basecamp offers a flat fee of $99 per month regardless of the number of users. However, there's no tiered pricing system, so smaller teams can't avail of a reduced rate. They do offer a 30-day free trial so potential users can evaluate the product before committing.
8. Jira
JIRA by Atlassian is a widely-used project management tool primarily aiding teams in tracking issues and delivering software products. It comes packed with features supporting Agile methodologies, issue and project tracking, and real-time reporting. It also incorporates tools for bug tracking, using powerful search filters to locate and resolve problems quickly.
Despite its robustness, JIRA has a complex interface that can be overwhelming for beginners. Configuring the tool can be time-consuming. Some features like advanced reporting and test management are also only available through additional paid plugins. Because of these complexities, some users find it less suitable for smaller teams or simpler projects.
JIRA's pricing differs based on hosting type and team size. For cloud hosting, price starts at $10/month for 10 users, but it increases as the team grows in size. The self-hosted solution starts at $20 for 10 users. Detailed pricing can be found at JIRA Pricing.
9. Notion
Notion is an all-in-one workplace software that allows you to manage tasks and organize projects. With this tool, you can also create databases and calendars. It also allows comprehensive collaboration among team members with real–time editing. The platform also integrates with a variety of tools, including Google Drive and Slack allowing you to bring all your work into one central place.
However, Notion can be slightly complex for beginners to navigate. The mobile application also isn’t up to par with the web version. Additionally, it doesn't offer offline access which can be a major hindrance for those working in locations with unstable internet.
The platform offers a free plan suitable for personal use. However, for more advanced features and collaboration, they offer their Team Plan starting at $8 per member/month and an Enterprise-level plan with custom pricing.
10. Slack
Slack combines chat, video calls, file sharing, and task management for teams. It allows you to share documents, images, and videos within group settings or direct messages and organize conversations into different topics or projects. It also provides online video calling and a search functionality for easy retrieval of past discussions or files.
However, Slack’s free version only keeps 10,000 of your team's most recent messages. The search function may also not include older communications. Additionally, simultaneous video calls are limited to 15 participants at a time for paid versions. Users have also reported occasional glitches and slow customer service response times.
Slack offers three pricing plans: Free, Standard at $6.67 per month, and Plus at $12.50 per month. For larger businesses, there is an enterprise plan, but price details are custom and only obtainable upon request.
Quiz: What is the best Wrike alternative for your business?
Frequently asked questions
