10 Best Project Tracking Software To Deliver Projects On Time (2022)

No one likes missed deadlines, delayed project deliveries, and failed projects. And yet, according to PMI, over 11 percent of project investment is wasted due to poor project performance. Using project tracking software can help you reduce waste and deliver projects profitably.

In this article, we look at:

• What is project tracking software?
• Project tracking features
• And, the top project tracking software tools

If you’re ready, let’s get started.

What Is Project Tracking Software?

Project tracking software helps managers keep track of project activities and manage project resources.

But when it comes to modern teams, project tracking software is not just for managers. It’s for the entire team. That’s because, as project visibility and collaboration improves, so does delivery.

Project tracking helps teams understand:

• Is a project on schedule? Or do you need to adjust the plan to meet deadlines?
• Are necessary resources available when required? Or do you need to allocate more resources?
• Do you have all the necessary information to do a project activity? Does anything else need to get done before you start on a task?
• What’s dragging the project down and preventing you from delivering on time?
• What can be improved based on the tracked KPIs?

Features You Should Look For In Project Tracking Tools

Often project tracking features are already a part of your project management software. The tracking features you should consider before investing in a project management tool are:

• Real-time data: Does your project management software provide you with real-time data about your project’s activities and resources? Or, do you need to generate reports before you can see what’s happening?
• Alerts and notifications: Does your project tool provide alerts or email notifications as tasks get done? Do your team members know when task information is updated? 
• Gantt timelines: Can your team get clear visual cues about what’s happening when and who’s responsible? Do they know when the deadlines are?
• Time tracking: Does your project management tool come with time tracking software? Can you identify activities where estimates go wrong and adjust the schedule?
• Dashboards: Can you see how your project is progressing in real-time? Do team members get personal dashboards that tell them what needs to be done when?
• Reports: Is it possible to generate progress reports from your project tool? Can these reports be shared with all stakeholders? Do these reports provide insights into what went well and what can be improved?

Note that you don’t need all features to track features. The features your use depends on the project workflow and team culture. 

10 Best Project Tracking Software Tools

So far, we’ve looked at what project tracking software is and the features you may need. In this section, we look at the top project management apps that’ll help you stay on top of projects.

Toggl Plan

Toggl Plan is a simple, online project management tool. 

When it comes to project tracking, Toggl Plan is best for teams that don’t need a lot of bureaucracy or paperwork.

It comes with Gantt timelines that give your team a clear overview of the project’s progress. Besides, you can also create color-coded milestones for important dates.

Similarly, you can also create unlimited team timelines that help you visually manage team workloads. You can even include shared team resources.

Plus, you also get Kanban boards to track progress visually for small iterative projects or agile sprints.

You can also stay on top of your tasks by receiving in-app updates and email notifications when tasks are updated or completed.

Toggl Plan also integrates with Toggl Track to help you track the time spent on each task. 

Additional features & pricing

Toggl Plan’s pricing starts at $9 per user per month. It also has a free plan which gives you unlimited timelines. It also comes with the following additional features:

• Unlimited Kanban boards
• Recurring tasks
• Task checklists, file attachments, and comments
• Assign tasks to multiple team members
• Role-based access control
• Integrations with Github, Google Calendar, and Slack

Is Toggl Plan right for you?

Toggl Plan does not come with reports. So if you need audit reports for clients or as a part of your project workflow, Toggl Plan may not be for you.

However, if you prefer visual project management and macro-management, Toggl Plan is a tool that you’ll enjoy using every day.

Asana 

Asana is a popular project management application. For project tracking, Asana is best for large projects or complex teams. 

Asana’s Gantt timelines make it easy to visualize project tasks and dependencies. However, it’s not as easy to see your project’s progress just from the timeline.

You also get a project dashboard that shows tasks by status, priority, and assignee.

With the reports feature, you can generate reports based on a project or an assignee. You can also save these reports and review them again in the future.

To track multiple projects and resources across the organization, Asana comes with project portfolio management. Plus, you can also visualize team utilization using the Workloads feature.

Additional features & pricing

With so many tracking features, Asana is an attractive option. However, to get access to all the above features, you’ll need to subscribe to the Business plan, which costs $30.49 per user per month.

In addition to the above features, you also get:

• Unlimited Kanban boards, timelines, and calendars
• Unlimited tasks (limited to 1000 tasks in the free plan)
• Project goals
• Request forms with branching and customization
• SAML
• User provisioning and de-provisioning

Is Asana right for you?

Asana is great if you work in a large team or on complex projects. 

However, it’s also relatively expensive. So, it may not be for you if you’re looking for budget project management software.

Monday.com

Monday.com is the next popular tool on this list. 

It comes with a timeline view that helps you plan and stay on top of your project’s schedule. Besides, you also get Kanban boards to track a project’s progress visually.

You can track work changes using the Activity Log. Plus, you can visualize project data by building custom dashboards.

It also comes with a workload view to manage team members who may be overwhelmed or underworked.

Monday.com also has inbuilt time-tracking to monitor time spent on each task.

Additional features & pricing

To get all the time-tracking features mentioned above, you’ll need to upgrade to Monday.com’s Pro plan, which costs $20 per user per month. Also, you need to pay for a minimum of 3 users to subscribe.

Monday.com does not have a free plan. However, it does have a free trial. You’ll find the following additional features with Monday.com:

• Unlimited projects and tasks
• List, timeline, board, calendar, and map views
• Enterprise-scale workflow automation 
• Enterprise-grade security

Is Monday.com right for you?

Monday.com comes with lots of features for staying on top of work.

However, it’s expensive. If you’re a small team with a small budget, Monday.com may not be right for you.

Microsoft Project

No discussion about project management software can be complete without MS Project. Right from its desktop days, Microsoft Project has been a popular tool among project managers.

Today, Microsoft Project is available along with the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. The suite is available either as a cloud-based or as an on-premise solution.

MS Project comes with Gantt timelines and Kanban boards to visually track project progress. It also has pre-built reports to track projects, portfolios, and resources.

Its timesheet feature helps you keep track of time spent on all project-related tasks. Also, you get resource management features to track team workloads and availability.

Additional features & pricing

MS Project costs $30 per user per month for access to all the above features. Note that you’ll also need to pay for the Microsoft 365 suite subscription.

Microsoft Project comes with the following more features:

• Project task lists
• Team collaboration with Microsoft Teams integration
• Portfolio management
• Demand management
• Enterprise resource planning and management

Is MS Project right for you?

Microsoft Project is popular among trained, technical project managers. 

So if you’re a non-technical manager, you may find MS Project quite overwhelming. Plus, it’s expensive for smaller teams.

Wrike

Wrike is a versatile project management tool with lots of tracking features.

It comes with Gantt charts and boards to visually keep tabs on the project’s progress. 

You can also create customizable dashboards to get insights into projects, tasks, and files. It also comes with pre-built reports that you can share with your clients.

Finally, you can get real-time notifications and track time spent on tasks with the built-in time tracking feature. 

Additional features & pricing

All the above tracking features are available in Wrike’s Business plan. It costs $24.80 per user per month, billed annually.

In addition to the above features, you also get:

• File sharing
• Spreadsheet views and task lists
• Custom fields and workflows
• Graphical analytics
• Request Forms
• Project & task approvals

Is Wrike right for you?

Wrike is a robust project tracking tool. 

However, it requires you to commit to annual billing. For teams with a small budget or cash-flow, Wrike can be expensive.

Workzone

Workzone is an enterprise project management app. 

It comes with unlimited projects and tasks that you can track using Gantt charts. It also has built-in time tracking to monitor time spent on tasks.

Workzone’s resource management features help you keep track of project resources. 

Also, you can create custom reports to track a project’s progress.

Additional features & pricing

Workzone pricing starts at $43 per user per month if you want all the above tracking features. It also bills you annually and needs you to commit for a minimum of five users.

You also get the following features:

• Ready-made project templates
• File sharing, reviews, and approval
• Unlimited training and support
• Project intake forms
• Critical path analysis

Is Workzone right for you?

Workzone’s enterprise features make it expensive for small businesses.

However, if you’re looking for enterprise-grade reports and resource management, Workzone may be perfect for you.

Taskworld

Taskworld is a robust PM tool with a bunch of tracking features.

It comes with a project timeline to visually plan and track project progress. Plus, it also has built-in time monitoring features.

Taskworld has pre-built dashboards that give you an overview of what’s happening across multiple projects. 

It also has a reports feature where you can export reports and share them with your clients. Also, the project activity feed is a convenient way to track project tasks in one place.

Additional features & pricing

Taskworld’s Business plan costs $30 per user per month and gets you the above tracking features. In addition to tracking features, you also get:

• File sharing and messaging for collaboration
• Lists, timeline, and calendar views
• Real-time team performance feedback

Is Taskworld right for you?

Taskworld is an all-round project management and tracking tool. But, it’s expensive for small teams with small budgets.

GanttPRO

GanttPRO is a Gantt chart based online management solution. 

Similar to other tools, it comes with timelines and boards to visually track project tasks and milestones. You can see the task completion percentage for each task on the timeline.

You can track resource usage for both labor and materials. A workload view helps you keep track of team workloads.

Also, you can track task time and budget and log time reports.

Additional features & pricing

GanttPRO pricing starts at $8.90 per user per month, billed annually. Along with the tracking features above, you also get:

• Task lists
• Project portfolio view
• Email and push notifications
• File sharing and comments
• Personal calendars

Is GanttPRO right for you?

GanttPRO has powerful project tracking features. Pricing is very competitive. However, it only has an annual billing option. 

TeamGantt

TeamGantt is a powerful project tracking software tool.

It comes with timelines to plan and track project progress. Unlike other tools, you can compare planned and actual timelines.

You can manage a portfolio of projects. Plus, you can see all projects in one place and identify resource conflicts. This helps you manage workloads and team availability.

It also has a built-in time tracking.

Additional features & pricing

TeamGantt costs $29.95 per user per month and comes with all tracking features. It comes with the following additional features:

• Unlimited Gantt charts with calendar view
• Baseline project management
• File attachments and conversations on tasks

Is TeamGantt right for you?

TeamGantt has a good set of project tracking features. However, teams with small budgets will find it expensive.

ProjectManager

ProjectManager is a complete project management system that comes with almost all tracking features.

First, it comes with Gantt timelines and Kanban boards to visually overview tasks. Plus, you can track the time and budget spent on these tasks.

When it comes to resource management, you can track team availability in real-time and manage workloads.

Finally, you also get real-time dashboards and custom reports to keep an eye on the project’s progress.

Additional features & pricing

ProjectManager’s Business plan costs $25 per user per month. This plan comes with all the above tracking features. In addition, you also get:

• Task lists and calendars
• Project groups
• Timesheet approvals
• Expenses and budgeting
• Team and skills management

Is ProjectManager right for you?

ProjectManager has a solid set of project tracking features. However, it’s expensive and has a slightly dated user interface. 

For modern teams, this may be a deal-breaker.

How To Find The Right Project Tracking Software?

Finding the right project tracking software depends on your needs and budgets. Affordable tools often come without reports. However, if you’re a small team, you may not have much use for reports.

Besides, you also want to look at what project management features a tool offers. That way, you don’t have to spend on another tool and its integration with your PM tool.

We’ve already seen the top 10 project management + tracking tools above. Most of these tools have a free trial or a limited free version. 

Find a tool that works for your team and take it for a spin.

Or give Toggl Plan a try — a simple, visual tool to stay on top of projects and everyday work.