Introduction
Managing freelancers or an entire team of them can represent a real challenge.
Outsourcing tasks, especially key ones, can make any business owner nervous. Will your freelance team meet deadlines? Will they produce results that are both to your standards and profitable? These are concerns that almost all businesses — small, medium, or large — have.
This is partly due to the fact that not having an in-house team is more challenging to manage. However, it’s certainly not impossible and oftentimes can have a more positive impact on efficiency and finances.
Various tools can help reduce the challenges faced when outsourcing tasks to help projects run smoothly and avoid any issues that may pop up along the way.
So let’s take a look at some of the best freelance management tools on the market in 2023.
Top Freelancing Project Management Tools
1. Asana
Asana is one of the most well-known freelance management tools that helps plan, organise, and track projects. Its features are quite comprehensive, so getting well acquainted may take a while. Here are some of the features you can look forward to when signing up to use this freelance project management software.
Features:
- Offers lists, boards, calendars, and timelines to help create a visual representation of your projects and tasks.
- Automation of critical tasks or events — set priorities.
- Forms available for client requests or collaborators — helps streamline planning tasks.
- Segmentation of tasks by category, milestones, etc.
Cost: Free basic plan. The premium plan starts at $13.99 monthly or $10.99 per month when you pay the subscription annually.
2. Trello
Trello is another fantastic freelancing project management tool to help monitor the progress of your individual and team projects. It is especially ideal for less complex projects, for instance, content management. However, it does not have a timeline feature, which makes it a bit challenging to track your progress over time.
Features:
- Great collaborative features make it simple to utilise with clients.
- Power-up feature — this allows you to integrate third-party features.
- The user-generated board is a great source of inspiration when it comes to customising your own boards.
- Task card format allows you to add and display additional task details, like attachments, checklists, deadlines, and comments, among others.
Cost: Free basic plan (includes one power-up per board). Premium plan starts at $12.50 monthly or $9.99 per month when you pay the subscription annually.
3. Monday.com
Monday.com is a dream for any business managing freelancers, looking for a wide range of features. This freelance management tool provides a comprehensive scope for those really complex tasks and is, therefore, less suitable for freelancers or freelance teams searching for a fairly straightforward or basic project management system. Here are some of its signature features:
Features:
- Great timeline feature to help plan and monitor your goals.
- Workflow automation allows you to assign tasks automatically as soon as the status changes.
- You can view monthly tasks in list format to help plan your work efficiently.
- You can integrate more than 50 external apps to help improve efficiency.
- Built-in repository will help inspire how you organize your own freelance projects.
Cost: 7-day free trial. Plans start at $10 monthly (per user). It’s important to note, however, that you will require at least three members to get started.
4. ClickUp
ClickUp is another great freelancing project management tool. It has a user-friendly dashboard that allows users to chat in real time. You can also share files, access various templates, add additional apps and tools, and utilise a local time-tracking system. Clients are also able to leave comments on project tasks. Here are some of its signature features:
Features:
- Prioritise tasks by level of urgency.
- Control access rights.
- Assign and leave comments on collaborative tasks.
- ClickUp Goals — define goals to be completed in a specific timeframe.
- ClickUp Mind Maps — brainstorm ideas and get client input.
Cost: Unlimited free trial. Plans start at $5 monthly (per user).
5. Jira
For those outsourcing their programming, Jira is ideal. This freelance project management software tracks solo and team projects effectively. It has scrum boards and offers the option to create custom workflows, allocate tasks, log problems, and plan sprints. Here are some of its key features:
Features:
- Great timeline feature to help plan and monitor your goals.
- Workflow automation allows you to assign tasks automatically as soon as the status changes.
- Monthly tasks can be viewed in list format to help you plan your work efficiently
- You can integrate more than 50 external apps to help improve efficiency.
- Built-in repository will help inspire how you organise your own freelance projects.
Cost: Free basic plan for up to 10 users. Plans start at $7 monthly (per user) with added perks like allowing more users and providing extra storage and support.
6. Toggl Plan
Toggl Plan is a versatile freelance project management system — whether you’re managing a technical or creative project, you’ll easily navigate this platform.
Features:
- Timeline view allows you to schedule, categorise, and segment tasks as well as set milestones.
- Create custom workflow boards and prioritise tasks based on urgency.
- Drag and drop interface lets you move tasks from your to-do list to completed boards effortlessly.
- Add extra details pertaining to tasks such as comments, checklists, notes, attachments, deadlines or tags, etc.
- Provide guest access for clients by sharing a URL to keep them up-to-date on the task/project progress.
Cost: Free basic plan with unlimited private projects (ideal for individual freelancers). Plans start at $10 monthly (per user).
7. GitHub
GitHub is another great tool offering freelance project management software for those working in programming. Not only is this cloud-based platform a code repository, but it lets you collaborate with coders worldwide, helping to streamline the finding of solutions with some of the best global resources at your fingertips.
Features:
- Open-source code and private repositories are available to share code.
- Create project-based boards and custom workflows to help track any issues and requests.
- Track various processes like milestones, bugs, code improvement, or prioritising tasks.
- You can review code changes and integrate them into your original code via automated status checks on the platform.
Cost: Free basic plan, although it is restricted when it comes to private repository actions and storage. Premium plan starts at $4 monthly (per user).
8. Hive
Hive is one of the best freelance management tools if you’re looking for a meeting and project management tool. It offers an array of templates to use as well as intricate time-tracking features. Here are some of its signature features:
Features:
- Multiple views to visualise and plan your project.
- Templates for project management.
- Time-tracking feature.
- Collaborative notes.
- Shareable forms — collect and submit requests for projects.
- In-app calendar.
Cost: Lifetime free account. Premium plans start at $12 monthly (per user).
Conclusion
Managing freelancers or a freelance team can be challenging, but certain tools can help make it that much easier.
Whether it’s to help streamline time management, payment, collaboration, or task and project monitoring, there are several freelance management tools to suit your needs and budget.
But with all these incredible tools at your fingertips, how can you ensure you have the right members on your freelance team? Blackbear has a rigorous vetting process and only matches the best freelancers to suitable tasks or projects.
