12 Best Project Management Software For Startup Companies

As a startup founder, effectively managing projects is essential to your success. Whether you’re launching a new product, growing your team, or juggling multiple projects, having the right startup project management tools can make all the difference.

In this post, I’ve curated a list of the trending task management tools for small startup teams currently in the market. These tools offer essential features such as task tracking, team collaboration, and more to streamline your workflow and help you achieve your goals.

Selection Criteria for the Best Project Management Software for Startups

Based on the research, here is the selection criteria for project management tools for small business startups:

• Features: We prioritized software for startups that offer core project management functions like task management, scheduling, team collaboration, file sharing, and reporting. Advanced features such as resource management, budget tracking, and integrations are also a plus.
• User-friendliness: The software for a startup should be easy to set up and use, with a clear and intuitive interface. Startups need quick solutions, and software that requires minimal training is key.
• Pricing: For startups with tight budgets, affordable pricing or free plans with basic features are important. Transparent pricing without hidden fees is another must.
• Integrations: Startups often rely on multiple tools, so integration with existing platforms (e.g., Slack, Google Workspace) enhances usability and value.
• Customer Support: Reliable customer service is crucial, especially for startups unfamiliar with project management systems. Look for tools offering extensive knowledge bases, live chat, email, or phone support.

How We Select and Review Software for the Nifty Blog

At Nifty, our team of researchers and writers carefully evaluates each software tool to help you choose the right one. We spend hours testing apps against clear, category-specific criteria, focusing on features, usability, and value. We’re committed to honest and unbiased recommendations, we never accept paid placements or compensation for rankings. Thousands of readers trust our reviews. To learn more, see our Software Review Methodology Guide.

What are the Best Project Management Tools for Startups?

Here is a detailed comparison of the 12 most affordable project management software options for startups, including their key features and pricing options:

Stay ahead of the curve by selecting the software that best fits your startup’s unique needs!

1. Nifty

Nifty is the most affordable project management software for small business startups, bringing chat, tasks, roadmaps, docs, and files into one simple workspace. It’s helps you cut down on back-and-forth messages and speed up our workflow. For a growing team, it’s affordable, reliable, and easy to use. The built-in AI template builder makes it fast to create ready-to-use project templates tailored for startups. What I love most is how clearly I can track our goals and deadlines.

The result? Milestone-driven progress automation that keeps your entire team aligned and focused on delivering results.

Here are some of the best features that make Nifty the best project management software for a small tech startup.

Task Management

• Nifty offers flexible task views
• Built-in AI by Nifty Orbit and if/then rule based workflow automation
• Enhanced filters for detailed task reporting

Interactive Roadmaps

• Automated progress reporting based on task completion
• Flexible public sharing feature to keep stakeholders informed
• Milestone dependencies to organize workflows

Docs & Wiki

• Create beautiful docs, wiki’s, and SOPs
• Native Google docs, sheets, and presentations
• Public sharing with customizable permissions

Team Discussions

• Establish knowledge hub
• Convert discussions into tasks
• Share task IDs in chats to align everyone

Automated Reporting

• Cross-project overviews to track the status across projects
• Workloads with capacity planning to manage team resources
• Export and print data to CSV or PDF

Nifty Pricing:

• Nifty offers a generous free forever plan with unlimited users.
• Starter plan at $7/user/month with custom fields, guests, and time tracking.
• Business plan is $16/user/month with custom domain, roles + permissions, workloads, Microsoft SSO, and more.

Compare all features and plans in detail

Ready to kickstart your startup project management?

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Also read: Best OKR software for startups

2. Celoxis

Celoxis is an easy-to-use and scalable AI-powered project and portfolio management software designed for startups, growing businesses, and enterprises that want to scale faster. Known for its intuitive design and enterprise-grade capabilities, Celoxis helps teams manage complex projects, streamline collaboration, and make data-driven decisions — all from a single platform.

Celoxis users enjoy:

• Interactive Gantt Charts, capacity planning, and advanced resource management tools to effectively plan, track, and allocate workloads across multiple projects
• Time and expense tracking with robust reporting to monitor productivity, profitability, and team efficiency
• Custom BI-quality dashboards and what-if analysis to gain real-time insights and make smarter, data-driven decisions in project management
• Seamless integrations with tools like Slack, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Jira, and more to keep workflows connected

In addition, Celoxis comes with Lex — its AI project management assistant. Lex helps teams automate routine tasks, boost productivity, and simplify decision-making, making Celoxis one of the most intelligent project management platforms available.

As a leading resource planning and capacity planning tool, Celoxis is trusted by startups and enterprises alike. Its powerful project and portfolio management features, combined with AI, make it an ideal choice for teams seeking collaboration, scalability, and cost efficiency.

Pricing: Celoxis offers a 14-day free trial, and paid plans start at just $10 per user/month (billed annually).

Also read: Best AI tools for startups

3. TeamWork

Teamwork is a powerful and easy-to-use project management platform that allows creative teams around you to manage multiple complex tasks and projects in one centralized location. It is flexible and affordable, with many pricing plans available.

Teamwork users enjoy:

• A variety of different viewing options to manage ongoing projects at a panoramic level
• Time Tracking to effectively manage and track time spent on individual projects
• Workload tracking of teams and team members to ensure effective and efficient task management and distribution

Teamwork is a powerful project management software that offers a range of features to help startups work together, oversee projects, and monitor development.

For startups searching for a complete project management system, its user-friendly interface, task management features, time-tracking functionality, and collaboration options make it a great alternative.

Pricing: Teamwork offers a range of pricing options, from a free trial to various paid levels. Their cheapest premium option is $10 per user ($12.50 billed monthly).

4. ClickUp

ClickUp is a powerful all-in-one project management tool for startup companies that allows teams of any size to effectively manage tasks, bugs, releases, wikis, and more.

Teams across industries use ClickUp because of its customization capabilities, advanced features, and affordable pricing plans—making it the only tool you’ll need to scale your business.

ClickUp users enjoy:

• Organize work into tasks and subtasks with ClickUp’s Hierarchy
• Choose from 15+ views, including Board, Gantt, Box, and Mind Maps
• Add Watchers to tasks to get automatic task update notifications
• Communicate with your team using the in-app Chat view and have discussions within tasks with threaded comments that you can edit and assign to team members

With its user-friendly interface and customizable workflows, ClickUp is a versatile startup software that can be tailored to suit the needs of teams of any size.

Check out: ClickUp Alternative 😎

Also read: Best database software for startups

Pricing: Add unlimited members and tasks and get 100 MB of storage with the Free Forever Plan. Paid plans
start at $5/ user/ month; get unlimited storage and access to more advanced features.

5. ProofHub

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration software that is designed for teams of all sizes across various industries.

By using a range of advanced features in a centralized location, project managers and team members can manage various stages of tasks and projects in a single location.

Easy to understand and simple to use, ProofHub is an ideal choice if you want to use a single tool for efficient project management and team collaboration.

ProofHub users enjoy:

• Simple, fixed pricing plans
• A Bird’s eye view of Tasks and Projects
• Custom fields and table view
• Group chat and online discussion

Pricing: ProofHub offers two plans. The Essential plan is priced at $45/month/billed annually. The fully loaded Ultimate Control plan is priced at $89/month/billed annually.

6. ProProfs Project

ProProfs Project is an easy-to-use online project management tool that is used by startup companies. It allows you to plan work efficiently and deliver on time. From a centralized location, team members can easily collaborate and get work done delightfully.

Visually interactive and affordable, it is the perfect tool for freelancers, small businesses, and big enterprises.

ProProfs Project users enjoy:

• Planning project tasks and subtasks using a shared calendar.
• Tracking project progress via an intuitive dashboard.
• Generating insightful reports with powerful analytics.

Pricing: ProProfs Project’s Essentials plan starts at $3/user/month, and the Premium plan at $6/user/month (billed monthly) with unlimited storage.

Read also: Agile project management tools to watch out for

7. Xtensio

Xtensio is a project management software for startups that offers a range of features designed to help improve communication and collaboration on projects.

Startups can easily manage projects and monitor progress using Xtensio’s user-friendly interface and intuitive design.

It is a good cloud-based collaboration platform for creating, sharing, and managing beautifully designed online business documents.

Xtensio users enjoy:

• Drag-and-drop features

• Customizable templates to stay on brand

• Quick sharing of documents as links

Overall, Xtensio is an excellent project management software for startups, offering a range of features that can help streamline project management and collaboration.

Its user-friendly interface, collaborative workspace, and customizable project templates make it an ideal choice for startups looking for a powerful and flexible project management tool.

Pricing: Starts free for basic individual plans and scales in pricing based on plan usage and features.

8. Wrike

Wrike is a robust and versatile project management tool that helps small teams collaborate and communicate with transparency. Wrike would be best for a team of over 20 users.

Wrike users enjoy:

• Gantt Charts
• Custom Dashboards
• Resource Management

Price: At a price tag just shy of $10/user/mo, Wrike is an affordable solution for budding software development teams everywhere.

9. Trello

Don’t overthink it! Trello’s Kanban boards are a lightweight way to manage tasks amongst a team if you don’t yet require all of the other nuts and bolts of project and team management.

Trello is considered one of the best project management tools because Tello users enjoy:

• A free platform
• Easy-to-use task boards with task customizability
• Quick onboarding allows you to jump right into the action

Price: Free to start with a $9.99/mo/user Business plan and up to $20.83/mo/user Enterprise plan

Best Enterprise Project Management Software Tools

10. Airtable

Flexible, organized, and affordable, Airtable is a spread-sheet style project management system that provides a plethora of views.

Airtable users enjoy:

• Premade templates for quick onboarding
• Customizable views to cater to your workflow
• Widespread integrations with other tools

Price: Airtable is free to start and scales in pricing based on factors such as storage size and data history

11. Timely

Timely is an automated time-tracking tool that also lets you track projects, monitor budgets, and view team performance all in one software.

With Timely, you can examine past costs, tasks, and turnarounds to set competitive rates and improve future project profitability and efficiency.

And with automatic time-tracking and timesheet drafts, your team can focus less on daily admin tasks — and more on the work itself.

Timely Users Enjoy: 

• Intuitive controls and a privacy-first approach make it a tool that people actually want to use.
• World-class customer support is only a chat message away
• Real-time dashboards, live reports, and powerful planning

Cost: The starter plan is $8 per user per month, scaling up to the unlimited plan at $20 per user per month.

Also read: Time tracking software for startups

12. Fyle

An expense management software like Fyle can help automate mundane, repetitive expense management tasks to boost both the finance team and employees’ productivity.

The tool comes with a receipt scanning feature that employees can use to scan, capture, and extract information from paper and digital receipts. 

It automatically attaches crucial documents like the receipt and fills the digital expense report without any manual effort. 

Fyle’s Users Enjoy: 

• They simply need to review and upload their expense reports, and approvers and finance teams can go ahead and verify the expenses and close the reimbursement cycle on time.
• Fyle’s robust policy check engine also auto-checks the expense reports for any errors or out-of-policy expenses in real time. 
• Finance teams can also take care of tedious, manual credit card reconciliation processes as the tool automatically reconciles credit card transactions, expenses, and receipts with just a click of a button.

Price: Their standard plan starts at $4.99 per month, Business at $8.99 per month, and custom pricing for Enterprise.

Benefits of using project management tools for startups

As a startup, it is imperative to have a streamlined approach to managing projects. This is where the top project management tools for startups come in handy. These tools can help you manage your projects efficiently and effectively. Here are some benefits of using project management tools for startups:

1. Improved Collaboration: Project management tools allow team members to collaborate effectively. With real-time updates, everyone can work on the same project simultaneously, which improves communication and reduces errors.

2. Better Time Management: These tools come with features like task lists, deadlines, and calendars, which help you manage your time better. You can prioritize tasks, set reminders and track progress, ensuring that you meet your deadlines.

3. Increased Productivity: With the best project management tools, you can automate repetitive tasks, track progress, and manage resources better. This frees up time for your team members to focus on more important tasks, which increases productivity.

4. Improved Project Tracking: These tools provide a clear picture of the project status, including the progress, timelines, and milestones. This helps you stay on track and identify any issues early on.

5. Better Resource Management: With project management tools, you can allocate resources efficiently, ensuring that everyone is working on the right tasks. This improves resource utilization and reduces wastage.

6. Enhanced Reporting: These tools come with reporting features that allow you to generate reports on project status, performance, and resource utilization. This helps you identify areas of improvement and make data-driven decisions.

Closing thoughts

In conclusion, using the best project management tools for startups can help you manage your projects efficiently, improve collaboration, increase productivity, and make data-driven decisions. These benefits can help you stay ahead of the competition and achieve success in your business.

There you have it. With the changing times, the needs of startups are changing as well. Spend a good amount of time to figure out if you need a project tracking tool, robust planning software, or a holistic view of projects and processes in one place. Know what your team needs.

We hope that the above list provides you with a list of top project management tools to be used in 2025. 

Take the next step! ✨ Switch to Nifty for free. ✨

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

What are the cheapest project management software for small business startups?

Trello, Nifty, Teamwork, and Proprofs projects are some of the cheapest project management tools for startups. They offer free plans or low-cost pricing, making them ideal for small teams on a budget.

Which project management software works well for startups?

Best Project management software works well for small startup companies:

• Nifty – Combines tasks, timelines, and docs | Free forever, paid plan starts at $7/user/month
• Monday.com – Visual project boards | Starts at $9/user/month
• Asana – Team task coordination | Free for small teams
• Airtable – Database-style project views | Free plan available

What are good team management software alternatives for small startups?

Some of the good team management software for small startups includes:

• Notion – Combines team wikis, tasks, and databases in one workspace.
• Slack + Asana – For real-time communication and task follow-up.
• Nifty – Built for remote teams with discussions, tasks, and docs.
• ClickUp – Popular for goal tracking and workload management.
• Basecamp – Simplified team coordination for non-technical teams.

Trending task management tools for small startup teams

Trending task management tools for small startup teams include ClickUp, known for its goal tracking and customizable workflows starting at $7/user/month, and Notion, which blends tasks, docs, and wikis in one free workspace. Nifty is gaining traction for its combination of tasks, timelines, and team chat, with plans starting at $5/user/month. Asana remains a favorite for its user-friendly task assignments and project views, offering a free tier for teams up to 15 users. Trello continues to be popular for its simple, visual Kanban boards and generous free plan.

What project management tools are used by startup companies?

Startup companies also rely on tools like Basecamp for its straightforward team collaboration features, Airtable for flexible project tracking with spreadsheet-style views, and Wrike for advanced task management and reporting. Teamwork is often used by service-based startups for client-focused project delivery, while Freedcamp provides a free, modular system that suits lean startup teams. These tools help startups stay organized, manage deadlines, and scale workflows as they grow.