Finding the right tools to enable effective project management is a challenge that all companies face at some point in their lifespan. Effective project management enables better collaboration, increased productivity, and more automated workflows.
There are so many software tools that claim to make project management easy for both managers and team members. We've researched and compiled a list of the top project management applications, with mid-sized businesses in mind. At Elate, we consistently prefer to use Linear, and this application topped our analysis for this exercise as well.
Our Top 3 Project Management Apps
First Place --- Linear stands out at the top of our list for several reasons. Linear simplifies project management without sacrificing depth in functionality, and is a favorite for engineers.
Linear tops our list for the following reasons:
- Scalability: As your business grows, Linear grows with you. It's built to accommodate increasing complexity, many teams, and a large volume of projects and issues. This makes it a long-term solution for businesses expecting to grow quickly.
- Integration Capabilities: Linear integrates seamlessly with many other tools that businesses rely on, such as Slack, GitHub, and Figma. This helps to unify an organization’s tech ecosystem and reduces the need to switch between apps. Elate offers a Linear integration for Google Chat, check it out here.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Linear’s costs are transparent and competitive with other project management apps.
- Sharable Views: Create filtered views of issues or projects that you can save and share with others in your workspace.
Second Place --- Asana is another strong contender, designed to facilitate task management, collaboration, and project tracking. It also has many integrations with other tools, and can scale well with growing companies. The interface is somewhat more intuitive to use initially compared to Linear, but Linear has more powerful functionality, such as sharable Views.
Third Place --- Trello uses a card-based system for organizing tasks and projects. It can be a good choice for teams that prefer a highly visual method of project management. It's very simple to use and also has a range of integrations to enhance its functionality. Trello is too simple for our purposes, however, and lacks the customization that Linear and Asana offer.
Our Runner Ups: Monday.com & Jira
Takeaway
When it comes to choosing the right project management app, it's important to consider scalability, integration capabilities, and cost-effectiveness. Linear excels in all these areas, making it a great choice for businesses to improve productivity and reduce expenses on their tech stack. It can be used by all teams, from engineering to product to marketing.
