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 and looks after 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. It's a different kind of purchase from the software above: a monthly run plan (from $2,000) with the first build included, so it only makes sense if you'd rather pay a team to build it and look after it than set up and maintain a tool yourself. It runs on your own accounts, so you own it. 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? Let us build it for you.
Forge builds custom software for people businesses - agencies, accountants, lawyers, consultants, recruiters - and looks after it on a monthly plan. It starts with a 2-week ops audit.