Project management software for agencies: what to look for and which tools fit

Who this guide is for

This guide is for agencies and other client-service teams: marketing, creative, web and consulting firms that run several client projects at once and bill for hours, retainers or fixed-fee deliverables. The question is not whether a tool can track tasks. Almost all of them can. It is whether the tool can show, per client, where the hours went, who has room next week and what the client has approved.

Every product fact below comes from the vendors' own pricing pages and help centers, checked on 19 October 2026. We have not tested these tools hands-on.

What client work needs from the software

Write down how your agency handles each of these today before you compare products:

• Time against projects. Hours logged on the task, marked billable or non-billable, and reportable by client.
• Budgets. A way to compare logged time or cost with what the client agreed to pay, for fixed fees and for retainers.
• Client access. Clients can see progress, comment and upload files without seeing internal discussion or other clients' work.
• Proofing and approvals. Feedback is left on the actual layout, PDF or video, and sign-off is recorded in one place.
• Capacity. A workload or resource view that shows who is overbooked before you promise a client a date.
• Intake. Forms that turn a client request into a task with the details your team needs.

In the tools below, tasks and boards are on free or entry plans, while time tracking, proofing and workload views often sit one or two tiers higher. Check which plan each of your needs lands on.

Features to check closely

• Time tracking. Check whether the timer is native and whether billable flags, timesheets and approvals sit on the same plan as the timer. ClickUp, for example, includes time tracking from the first paid plan (Unlimited or Core, depending on which version of the pricing page you see), but billable time is less clear. The version of the pricing page with Unlimited lists billable time and billable reports on Business, while the version with Core lists advanced time tracking as a trial below Enterprise. ClickUp's help center lists usage limits on marking time entries as billable on Free Forever, Unlimited and Business: 40 uses on Free Forever and Unlimited and 100 on Business. Confirm with ClickUp if billable hours matter.
• Guest rules. They decide your seat count. Asana lists unlimited free guests from Starter, Wrike lists free viewers on every plan, and Basecamp counts clients as users but includes unlimited users from its Studio plan.
• Proofing limits. Some tools meter proofing by month or by use. Teamwork.com lists 5 Proofs a month on Free, 20 on Basics and unlimited from Accelerate.
• Budget tracking. Teamwork.com tracks time against budgets from Accelerate, Zoho Projects lists project budgets from Premium, Wrike lists budgeting based on bill and cost rates from Pinnacle, and Asana sells timesheets and budgets as an add-on.

The shortlist

Among the tools on this site, these seven cover agency needs in different ways. ClickUp is our commercial partner and is listed first.

• ClickUp. Tasks, Docs, Gantt, Workload view and native time tracking in one Workspace. Time tracking is a trial on Free Forever (100 uses) and included from the first paid plan; timesheets start on Business. Workload view, the capacity view, is a trial on Free Forever and the first paid plan and is unlimited from Business; ClickUp's help center gives 60 uses on Free Forever and 100 on Unlimited. Gantt has 60 uses on Free Forever, and uses do not reset. Proofing on images, PDFs and videos has 100 uses on Free Forever and Unlimited, according to ClickUp's help center, while the version of the pricing page with Core lists Annotate Attachments as a trial on Free Forever and Core; it is unlimited from Business. Free Forever has 60 MB of storage, and its guests always get full permissions; paid plans add a set number of permission-controlled guest seats and unlimited view-only guests.
• Teamwork.com. Its pricing FAQ says it is designed with client work in mind. Billable and non-billable time tracking is on every plan, and client users can be invited into projects from Basics. Timesheets, time budgets, retainers, workload planning and basic invoices from logged time start on Accelerate. Cost budgets, client rates and profitability reports start on Optimize.
• Wrike. Free viewers on every plan let clients follow work without a paid seat. Time tracking, timesheets, file proofing and approval, guest approvals, request forms and workload charts start on Business. Budgeting for project, portfolio and client budgets, based on bill and cost rates, starts on Pinnacle.
• monday.com. Guest access and Timeline and Gantt views are listed from Standard, and unlimited free viewers from Basic. Its support center says every 4 guests on Standard count as 1 billed seat, while Pro and Enterprise allow unlimited guests. Time tracking, dependencies and private boards are on Pro. Resource management is listed on Enterprise.
• Asana. Unlimited free guests and forms from Starter. Time tracking that compares estimated and actual effort, approvals and proofing, and workload balancing within a portfolio are on Advanced. Billable hours, user rates and project budgets come with the Timesheets & Budgets add-on.
• Zoho Projects. Time logs, timesheets with multi-level approval, project budgets and earned value management start on Premium, with a workload report per project. Client users are a paid add-on from Premium. The Free plan covers up to 5 users and 3 projects.
• Basecamp. Client access is built in: Basecamp's help center says clients see only the items you make visible and can post messages, comments, to-dos and files. Time tracking is listed on Pro and Unlimited.

Plans and costs to check

We do not publish prices because they change. Check each vendor's pricing page for current numbers. These plan rules affect the total as much as the per-seat rate:

• Seat minimums. monday.com plans start from 3 users. Teamwork.com lists a minimum of 3 users on Basics and 5 on Accelerate. Wrike's Team plan covers 2 to 15 users and Business 5 to 200.
• Guest seats. ClickUp's help center gives Core and Unlimited 5 permission controlled guest seats for a one-member Workspace plus 2 for each member invited, and Business, Business Plus, Enterprise and Max 10 plus 5. On monday.com Standard, every 4 guests count as 1 billed seat.
• Whole-workspace upgrades. ClickUp's FAQ says an upgrade covers every member of the Workspace.
• Add-ons. Asana's Timesheets & Budgets and Zoho Projects' client users are priced separately from the base plan.
• Flat pricing. Basecamp's paid plans list no per-user fees, with unlimited users from Studio, which can matter when many clients need logins.

How to run a trial

• Pick one live client project with real hours, a budget and at least one deliverable that needs client sign-off.
• Log a full week of time in each tool, mark billable entries and pull a report by client. Check whether the plan you trial is the plan you would buy.
• Invite a friendly client or a colleague acting as one, and confirm what they can and cannot see.
• Run one proof or approval cycle on a real file.
• Compare the workload view with your resourcing spreadsheet for the same week.

Trial lengths differ: Teamwork.com, Wrike and monday.com (on Pro) list 14 days, Zoho Projects 15 days, and Basecamp 30 days (45 on Unlimited). ClickUp has a Free Forever plan, and its pricing FAQ describes a full refund within 30 days of a purchase.

When a specialized tool is a better fit

If quoting, invoicing, utilization targets and profitability by client are the core of what you need, look at professional services automation software or at the upper plans of a client-work tool. Teamwork.com, for example, lists quotes, role-based rates and profitability insights on Optimize.

If your main need is a client-facing portal or creative review at volume, check whether a dedicated proofing or portal tool would work alongside your project tool. Keep one system as the record of tasks and dates, and connect the rest to it.