The best project management software for agencies, compared.
Project management is where most agencies' internal stack starts - and where the gap between 'internal tool' and 'client-facing tool' is most visible. The big four (ClickUp, Asana, Monday, Notion) are excellent at the team's internal workflow and weak as a client-facing layer. Here's a fair look at each.
How we picked
Each tool below is judged against the same four lenses. Pricing is the headline plan as of 2026 - always check the vendor for the current rate.
- Genuinely suits agency workflows (briefs, sign-off, client review)
- Honest pricing - watch for per-seat creep at scale
- Either great for internal teams or great client-facing - clearly stated
- Real integrations with the rest of an agency stack
ClickUp
Best for: Agencies that want the feature shelf and have someone to configure it
Pricing: Free tier; paid from $7/user/month
- Enormous feature set - covers nearly everything
- Strong free tier for getting started
- Highly customisable
- Setup is a real project - takes weeks to land
- Client-facing experience is generic
- Per-user pricing climbs with the team
Asana
Best for: Agencies that prefer a flexible, well-designed PM workspace
Pricing: Free tier; paid from $10.99/user/month
- Clean, polished UI
- Solid feature depth without being overwhelming
- Strong workflow automation on paid tiers
- Not built to be client-facing
- Per-user pricing on paid tiers
- Premium features locked behind higher plans
Monday.com
Best for: Agencies that want a visual, colourful PM tool with strong automations
Pricing: From $9/user/month, 3-seat minimum
- Very visual and easy to grok
- Strong automations and integrations
- Boards are flexible across use cases
- Per-seat pricing climbs fast as the team grows
- Client-facing sharing is limited
- Some features locked behind annual commitments
Notion
Best for: Agencies that want PM + docs + wiki in one and accept the trade-offs
Pricing: Free tier; paid from $10/user/month
- PM + docs + wiki in one place
- Very flexible - design every page yourself
- Strong for internal knowledge
- Not designed to be client-facing
- Permissions model can leak workspace structure
- Branding is Notion's
Trello
Best for: Small agencies that want simple Kanban without the feature shelf
Pricing: Free tier; paid from $5/user/month
- Genuinely simple - low setup time
- Strong free tier
- Familiar to most teams already
- Limited reporting for owners
- Per-user pricing on paid tiers
- Power-Ups needed to fill feature gaps
And where Forge fits in this list.
Forge isn't a replacement for your internal PM tool - it's the client-facing layer on top. Keep your team in Trello, ClickUp, Asana, Monday or Notion (or any combination), and Forge builds a separately-branded portal and status page per client that reads from the source. Your team's workflow doesn't change; your clients see something polished, branded and shaped to their work. If you've got internal PM working but the client-facing experience is generic, that's the specific gap Forge fills.
Common questions
What's the best PM tool for a small agency?
ClickUp for the feature shelf, Asana for a polished workspace, Monday for a visual board, Notion if you want PM and docs in one, Trello for the simplest possible Kanban. All five are great internally and generic as a client-facing layer.
Can I use a PM tool as my client portal?
You can share boards or views, but it's a compromise - branding is the tool's, the permission model often leaks workspace structure, and clients see a project-management interface rather than something shaped to them. Most agencies pair an internal PM tool with a separate, branded client-facing layer once they grow past a few clients.
Should I switch PM tools?
Usually no. Tool switching is expensive in lost time and team buy-in. Unless your current PM tool is actively painful, the higher-leverage move is usually to add the missing client-facing layer rather than replace the internal workflow.
How much should I spend on PM software?
$5-15/user/month is the common range. For a 10-person agency that's $50-150/month - reasonable. Watch the per-seat climb as you grow, and watch for features (automations, reporting) locked into higher tiers.
Related on Forge
Done comparing? Build something.
Pick a tool, answer a few plain questions, and we build it. Live in minutes.