15 Best Agile Project Management Tools

Progress tracking and team collaboration are vital for maintaining the flow of Agile projects.

With bug tracking, user stories, and iteration, it’s imperative to find a way to track progress effectively — finding ways to distribute tasks in such a way that every member of your project team can see and understand.

This is easily done through Agile project management tools, which you can use to supplement your standard software development tools.

In this article, we will take a look at the 15 best Agile project management tools that you’d want to use in your Agile management ventures.

What is Agile?

Before we dive into Agile project management tools, we must understand what Agile means. 

While there are many variations to the definition of Agile, Coursera describes it as “an approach to project management that centers around incremental and iterative steps to completing projects”.

Although Agile has been in use for a long time, it was formally established in 2001 with the Agile Manifesto and the 12 principles behind it. 

What is an Agile project management tool?

Before we provide you with a list of tools, we must determine what we expect from an Agile project management tool.

As it is firstly a PM tool, we expect task management options, with features that lead to better team collaboration. 

PM software might also integrate with other tools your project uses, like graph visualization or database tools.

Agile PM software is expected to expand upon these requests, adding features that are specifically useful for Agile project management, such as:

• Kanban boards,
• Backlog management,
• Scrum boards,
• Sprint planning options, etc.

In essence, these features should serve to support the flexibility, variety, and iterative nature of the Agile project management methodology.

What are the top Agile project management tools? 

There are a great number of tools on the market for Agile project management. 

We have selected the top 15 Agile project management tools for you to consider depending on what you’re looking for. 

#1: Plaky — best free Agile tool

As a free online project management platform, the versatility of Plaky makes it a great tool for Agile teams. 

Plaky makes it easy to set up Sprints, having an intuitive and smooth task creation process. 

To facilitate immediate feedback, Plaky offers @mentions in comments and email and in-app notifications of all changes in a task you are subscribed to. You can also always refer to the activity log to see a chronological list of all changes.

For those who prefer their task management more visually engaging, Plaky offers Kanban view and Gannt view, in addition to the regular table view.

Plaky Pros	Plaky cons
– Intuitive interface  – A selection of board templates – Free for unlimited users, projects, and boards – Time tracking with Clockify	– Limited integrations

What do you get with Plaky?

Plaky offers an array of features with comments in tasks, sort and filter options, priority status, and activity log being just some of them. 

It has an intuitive interface that makes it an excellent tool for those who have no experience with project management tools. The UI design is smooth and simple to use, with plenty of options that are easy to find and implement.

Plaky helps you get Agile projects up and running thanks to its project management template center where you can find many premade templates that are perfect for Agile projects, such as a Scrum Board or a Bug Tracking template.

Plaky also integrates with the Clockify time-tracking app, which will greatly improve your project time management. Simply install the browser Clockify plug-in, and you’ll get a button for every task that lets you start tracking your work (you can even add the time manually if you forget to track it).

What makes Plaky the best free tool for Agile teams? 

Plaky offers loads of features and templates for any number of users, even with its free plan, including 24/7 support. 

Teams with a tight budget will definitely appreciate Plaky since they can get a full-functioning tool with all the basic features without spending a dollar.

Available for: web, Android, and iOS

Plan type	Plaky pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Pro — $4.99/user/month (or $3.99/user/month billed annually) Enterprise — $10.99/user/month (or $8.99/user/month billed annually)

#2: monday.com — best for visual progress tracking

monday.com is a great all-rounder for all your project management needs, and its capabilities are particularly suitable for Agile teams. 

If you choose this tool, your workflow will benefit from a mostly straightforward interface and intuitive, visual progress tracking.

monday.com pros	monday.com cons
– Intuitive interface – 24/7 support – Progress tracking column	– Only 2 seats in the free plan – Most security and administration features available only in the Enterprise plan

What do you get with monday.com? 

monday.com has an easy learning curve. Like most other software, monday.com has a guide on their blog on how to use it and a tutorial on YouTube. However, what sets monday.com apart is the UI design, which is seamless and intuitive in use. If you still have trouble using it, you can turn to their 24/7 support. 

monday.com offers various views such as Kanban board, Gantt chart, Timeline, Calendar, etc. 

You can use automations to simplify your everyday work. For example, you can make it so that you get notified when the due date of a task arrives. Automations are available starting from the Standard plan, which is similar to how most other tools with automation treat this feature. 

Unfortunately, monday.com offers only 2 seats in the free plan, putting them at the bottom of our list when it comes to the number of users in free plans (Smartsheet is the only one behind monday.com with 1 user available). So, if you work in a team (like most businesses) you will need to upgrade to one of monday.com’s paid plans.  

Moreover, a lot of security and administration features like custom roles, HIPAA compliance, and audit logs are available only in the Enterprise plan. 

If these issues deter you from using this software, you might want to look into a monday.com alternative. 

What makes monday.com the best tool for visual progress tracking? 

In our opinion, monday.com’s highlight feature is the progress tracking column. It calculates the item’s progress by taking into account all the status columns. 

For example, you can have a task “writing a project proposal”. Within it, there will be 3 status columns: Write, Review, and Send. If only the first status column is done, the progress tracking column will show that the task is 33% completed. 

This way, you can clearly see how your project is advancing.

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Plan type	monday.com pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️ (for 14 days)
Paid plans:	Basic — $9/user/month* Standard — $12/user/month* Pro — $19/user/month* Enterprise — contact sales*

*Prices billed annually. 

#3: ClickUp — best for teams with complex projects

ClickUp is a cloud-based tool for Agile project management. 

The UI design is very toned down in color, with small font and icons, giving it a more modern look. Depending on your preferences, this can feel anywhere from smooth and polished to difficult or annoying.

ClickUp pros	ClickUp cons
– Over 10 views24/7 support	– Steep learning curve – Only 100MB of storage in the free plan

What do you get with ClickUp?

ClickUp is highly customizable and offers a plethora of features, including:

• Over 10 view options, 
• A virtual whiteboard for ideas, and 
• Tasks with dependencies, custom fields, and statuses, and 5 levels of priority.  

With such an overwhelming number of options to choose from, it can take a bit of time to get the hang of ClickUp. If you are looking for a straightforward tool to organize your tasks and projects, then maybe you should look elsewhere. 

For example, Vanessa B. mentioned on G2 that “it’s not immediately intuitive to brand new users coming into a system that is well-established and in use. There are SO many customization capabilities in ClickUp, that we have an entire internal onboarding for anyone new that we create a user for so they understand how we are using it”.

Another user, Paulo F. brings up the same issue: “While ClickUp offers an array of powerful features, getting acquainted with the platform can take some time.”

So, if you are ready to dedicate your time to learning all the features ClickUp has to offer, in return, you will get a highly customizable tool with tons of features to help you manage your workflow. 

ClickUp offers help for when you’re just getting started in the form of:

• ClickUp University — library of ClickUp courses, tips, and live training,
• On-demand Demos,
• Webinars, 
• Support Docs, and
• Their Youtube channel.

All this is here to help you navigate ClickUp. There are also over 100 templates to choose from so that you don’t have to start from scratch. 

If the provided materials aren’t enough, ClickUp offers 24/7 support for all users (including free users), which puts it ahead of tools such as Asana (24/7 support only in Enterprise) and Jira (only in Premium and Enterprise). 

ClickUp’s free plan offers only 100MB of storage, so if this doesn’t suit you, you might want to consider ClickUp’s paid plans or a look into a free ClickUp alternative. 

Why makes ClickUp the best tool for complex projects? 

As we already mentioned, ClickUp offers a wide range of features, so it can easily support complex projects and large teams. Even if your project contains loads of information, you can present them clearly in ClickUp’s Dashboards.

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. 

Plan type	ClickUp pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Unlimited — $5/member/month* Business — $12/member/month* Business Plus — $19/member/month* Enterprise — contact sales*

* Prices billed annually.

#4: Trello — best for smaller projects

Trello, made by Atlassian, is inspired by the Kanban system, so it is more than suitable for Agile project management.

This app is best suited for you if you have a small team or a small-scale project you are working on.

Trello pros	Trello cons
– Well-designed Kanban boards – CustomizablePlenty of views to choose from	– No built-in time tracker – Not suited for complex projects

What do you get with Trello? 

In Trello, you can manage tasks with checklists and a simple, easily navigable visual design.

It offers different views such as:

• Board view,
• Timeline,
• Table,
• Calendar,
• Dashboard, and more.

 Adding lists and cards in the Kanban view is easy, with plenty of drag-to-move ways of sorting items, which is highly intuitive. 

If you want to make your board more personalized, Trello offers a plethora of customization options, with our favorite — an option to add stickers to your board, serving just as a cute cosmetic for it.

Trello’s built-in automations are available in all plans, but they leave something to be desired. One user, Peter C. commented on G2: “ While it offers some automation options, additional automation features for repetitive tasks and notifications could be beneficial”.

Another thing that is missing in Trello is a time-tracking feature, which, as user Mayura D. stated on G2 “may be a drawback for users who require detailed time management or need to track billable hours for projects.”

If this is a dealbreaker for you, you might want to consider a Trello alternative. 

What makes Trello the best tool for smaller projects?

Trello’s Kanban board is ideal for smaller projects. It provides the team with a highly functional and visually appealing overview of their projects. 

The Kanban system is not designed for overly complicated projects since too many cards can make the board unclear. But if you have a small project whose tasks don’t clutter the board, Trello will be a great assistant in your work.

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Plan type	Trello’s pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Standard — $5/user/month* Premium — $10/user/month* Enterprise — $17/user/month*

*Prices billed annually.

#5: Asana — best for Scrum teams

Asana aims to help you run your projects with smooth design and great automation options.

Much like Trello, with its visual-oriented workspace, Asana’s interface is pretty simple to get used to.

If you are looking for a platform with all the necessary functionalities of Agile software and a pleasant interface design, Asana might be the tool for you.

Asana pros	Asana cons
– Goal visualization – Adding the same task to multiple projects	– A lot of features available only in paid plans – Pricy paid plans

What do you get with Asana?

Asana is an all-around project management tool with good task management features and different project views such as List view, Kanban board, Timeline (Gantt chart), etc. 

What stood out to us in Asana is goal visualization. You can create 3 types of goals: 

• Company goals,
• Team goals, and 
• My goals. 

You can also add contributors to those goals and keep track of their progress. 

With projects that go on for a long time, it’s easy to lose sight of what end goals you are trying to reach. This way, each of your team members can see how their work contributes to their team’s goals, and ultimately to the company’s goals. This is a simple, but effective way to make your employees feel like they matter. 

Another great feature is that you can add one task to multiple projects. Just by pressing Tab + P and using the plus button that appears, you can copy the task to as many projects as you want, eliminating repetitive work.

Unfortunately, plenty of useful features are only available in paid plans, like Timeline, task dependencies, and Asana’s highly praised automation systems. With Asana’s paid plans starting at $10.99, it is one of the more expensive tools on the market. So, this presents quite a problem if you have a big team that needs more complex features.

If you find it frustrating that so many good features are hidden behind a paywall, you could also look into a free Asana alternative. 

What makes Asana the best tool for Scrum teams?

Asana is a great choice for Scrum teams who organize their work in Sprints since it offers:

• Sprint planning template, 
• An article on its guide page that offers tips and how-tos to help you create and manage your sprint projects, and 
• Integration with ScrumGenius. 

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

Plan types	Asana pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️(for 30 days)
Paid plans	Premium — $10.99/user/month* Business — $24.99/user/month*

*Prices billed annually.

#6: Jira — best for software development

Jira, made by Atlassian, is an Agile tool primarily made for IT professionals. It has an integrated environment for code development. 

So, if you are looking for a great tool for software development planning, Jira might be the tool to consider.

Jira pros	Jira cons
– Abundance of integrations – Well-designed issue layout	– Steep learning curve – 24/7 support only on Premium and Enterprise plan

What do you get with Jira?

Jira is a great Agile tool that offers both a Scrum board and a Kanban board view.

Its basic unit is an issue (a bug, story, or task) that moves from the To do column through stages to the Done column. 

The issue layout is well-organized. It can contain subtasks, an assignee, a description, a priority field, attached files, comments, etc. You can even arrange the fields in the issue layout to make it more convenient for you. 

The number of integrations in Jira exceeds a whopping 3,000, so if you use a bunch of apps while working on a project, Jira might be the software for you. 

It’s important to note that, since it was designed for software developers, Jira can be a bit difficult to use for people who aren’t as tech-savvy. 

Most IT companies also employ people who aren’t in that field, such as HR specialists or marketing strategists, so it’s highly likely that some employees would struggle initially. Combined with the fact that 24/7 support is available only on the Premium and Enterprise plans, this can be a problem.

For example, Kate E. stated in her review on G2: “One of the problems we encountered was the initial learning curve. At first, we felt a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of functions and customisation options that Jira offers. However, with a little patience and dedication, we were able to master the most important functions and realized that the possibilities are limitless.”

If this seems bothersome to you, you can try a free Jira alternative. 

Why makes Jira the best tool for software development?

Jira was specifically designed for teams that work in software development. It offers templates for:

• Bug tracking, 
• DevOps, 
• Web design process, and more. 

Available for: web, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. 

Plan type	Jira pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️ (for 7 days)
Paid plans	Standard — $7.75/user/month Premium — $15.25/user/month Enterprise — contact sales

#7: Notion — best for personal use

Notion is a great tool for project management built on a system of customizable notes, docs, and wikis.

This tool is often recommended not only for organizations, teams, and companies but also for personal use — both for freelancing and day-to-day life.

Its simplicity and visual style make it a great tool for your Agile project management needs.

Notion pros	Notion cons
– Guest access – Status subcategories – Notion AI	– Audit log and Workspace analytics available only in the Enterprise plan

What do you get with Notion? 

One of the core values of Agile is customer collaboration. Notion’s guest access feature enables you to invite your customers to collaborate on individual pages, without giving them access to the entire workspace. 

The cherry on top is that even the free plan allows you to collaborate with 10 guests. Although it may seem like a low number, usually it’s enough to add just a client’s representative to share the information with.

Notion has 3 basic task status categories: 

• To do, 
• In progress, and 
• Complete. 

This is pretty standard. But, what we really like about Notion is that within these 3 categories, you can create custom sub-categories as you wish. For example, a “Backlog” and “Priority” sub-categories within the “To do” category. And every status category and its sub-categories will be in the same color, so you know where each sub-category belongs at first glance. Quite neat.

If you are not satisfied with your writing skills, you can turn to AI technology in Notion. It can fix your spelling and grammar mistakes, summarize, edit the tone of your text, and more.

The downside of Notion is the lack of administrative features. For example, if you want to have access to your Workspace’s analytics to see how your employees are using Notion, you have to pay for the Enterprise plan. The same goes for audit logs. 

What makes Notion the best tool for collaboration on pages and Docs?

In Notion, you can collaborate on pages in real time. When you are on a page, you can see all the changes and added comments as they are created. Moreover, profile pictures of your teammates show you where they are on the page, so you can see who is working on what. 

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Plan type	Notion pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Plus — $8/user/month* Business — $15/user/month* Enterprise — contact sales

*Prices billed annually.

#8: Wrike — best for resource management

Wrike is a project management tool that focuses on resource management in mid to large-scale organizations.

In October 2022, Wrike introduced a new version of its platform — Wrike Lightspeed. This new, customizable design includes a new Item view, Table view, sidebar and toolbar, single-panel navigation, and more. 

Wrike pros	Wrike cons
– Great automation  – 4 add-ons  – Time-tracking	– Expensive for bigger teams

What do you get with Wrike?

The tool offers plenty of options for Agile project management, including a Kanban view, Gantt charts, and a template that includes Sprint management and bug tracking.

Although Wrike has a free plan and 4 paid plans, this is not all. There are also 4 optional add-ons you can include in your paid plan for an additional price:

• Wrike Integrate,
• Wrike Lock,
• Wrike Two-Way Sync, and
• Wrike Marketing Insights.

One of the features that make Wrike user-friendly is its Automation Engine. While only available in some paid plans, Wrike has useful automation options, including commands like “when-then” and “if”, that trigger certain actions. As practitioners of Agile methods, this is something that IT teams will find very familiar and easy to use.

One thing to consider is that Wrike can be quite expensive for bigger teams. Since its Team plan is available only to 2–25 users, bigger teams that want more than the free plan is offering need to opt for the Business plan, which costs $24.80 per user per month. 

What makes Wrike the best tool for resource management?

Aside from common views such as Table view, Kanban, or Gantt, Wrike offers a Resource view. This view allows you to see users grouped by projects they are assigned to as well as users’ allocated effort (per day, week, or month). 

Wrike’s also offers a time tracking feature that helps you track billable hours.

These 2 features combined give you a clear overview of how your employees use their time and which projects require the most resources. 

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. 

Plan type	Wrike pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Team — $9.80/user/month Business — $24.80/user/month Enterprise — contact sales Pinnacle — contact sales

#9: Smartsheet — best for project scaling

Smartsheet is an Agile project management tool that comes with a variety of features and interface customization options. 

Smartsheet pros	Smartsheet cons
– Great scaling options – Useful user forums and help pages	– Free plan available only for 1 user

What do you get with Smartsheet?

As the name suggests, the basic item in Smartsheet is your Sheet, which you can see in the Gantt chart, Card, Calendar, and Grid view. You can also create a Dashboard which can be a good overview of your data and metrics.

If you have trouble navigating Smartsheets, there are helpful user forums and help pages. Even if your question is not in the FAQ section, there is a high chance someone has already asked it on the user forums and got a useful reply. 

When it comes to administration, the Activity log and Admin Center are available only in Business and Enterprise plans. 

Although looks aren’t everything, we have to mention that Smartsheet is not the most visually appealing tool out there. It just doesn’t look as modern and vibrant as monday.com or Plaky.

What makes Smartsheet the best tool for project scaling? 

Smartsheet prides itself on its scaling options. They offer a Control Center add-on for Business and Enterprise accounts that helps with consistency and visibility at scale. 

Smartsheet enables scalable data collection, automated project creation, and portfolio reporting to help you scale your business without issues. 

They even offer a webinar to help you with the scaling process. 

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and iOS. 

Plan type	Smartsheet pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Pro — $7/user/month* Business — $25/user/month* Enterprise — contact sales

*Prices billed annually. 

#10: Teamwork — best for client work

Teamwork is an Agile tool built specifically for client work. It’s great for large companies, and it offers everything you’d expect from an Agile tool, such as a Kanban board, Gantt chart, and collaboration features.

It has a smooth visual style, which helps you visualize the information about the progress of your tasks.

Teamwork pros	Teamwork cons
– Well-designed time-tracking Invoice creation on all plans	– Steep learning curve – Only 3 users in the free plan

What do you get with Teamwork?

Aside from the basic features such as different views, tasks and subtasks, templates, etc. Teamwork offers some interesting additions.

Firstly, Teamwork has built-in time-tracking. It quickly became obvious to us that Teamwork really took care to create a well-organized time-tracking system. You can:

• Use a timer to track your work on projects, 
• Receive reminders to log your time, 
• Log time through My Timesheets, and
• Have a clear overview of your hours in Timesheets.

Another big plus is that you can create invoices on all plans. 

It’s important to add that Teamwork takes some time to master. Like user Samantha G said on G2: “One thing that I found when first introduced to the platform is that there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to navigating the platform. I found that once I adopted my own style for laying out a project I was able to better make the most of the platform’s abilities.”

Another user, Lisbeth G. stated: “It definitely has a learning curve, and you will have to get familiarized with it. I have been using it for 3 months and I feel more comfortable now and I am loving it more than I did when I started. It can get confusing at first, but they offer tutorials in YT!”

Teamwork’s free plan offers some more advanced features like dashboards, time-tracking, dependencies, and project milestones, but unfortunately, it is available only for up to 3 users. So, while not suited for teams, the free plan would best suit individuals who work for clients and have to track their billable hours. 

What makes Teamwork the best tool for client work?

• Client View — a comprehensive view of all your clients, 
• Client User — a user type with fewer permissions than the standard user, 
• User Rates — a feature enabling you to assign rates to individual users and clients,
• Various reports such as Profitability Report, Planned vs Actual Report, Utilization Report, etc.

Teamwork has many useful features to help you organize your client work, including:

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Plan type	Teamwork pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Starter — $5.99/user/month* Deliver — $9.99/user/month* Grow — $19.99/user/month* Scale — contact sales

* Prices billed annually. 

#11: ActiveCollab — best for time management

ActiveCollab is an Agile tool that puts focus on time management, with Team Timesheets and Time Reports. 

It aims to give you complete control over your workflow, but you might start wishing for more automation options down the line.

ActiveCollab pros	ActiveCollab cons
– Good workload management – Visually appealing	– Only 3 members allowed on the free plan – Task management options need some work

What do you get with ActiveCollab?

ActiveCollab is visually well-organized. With one of the smoothest visual designs on the list, it’s easy to hop into ActiveCollab and quickly check the project progress, which is great for work efficiency.

If you are looking for a way to manage your team’s workload and time, this is the tool for you. It offers a workload management feature that enables you to see the daily capacity of each of your employees and how much work they already have planned and assign tasks accordingly. 

However, it seems like a lot of energy went into making this a superb time tracking and workload management tool, and not as much into task management. 

As one user on G2 commented: “Tasks can be assigned to only one person (though you can add watchers/subscribers). If you need to delegate subtasks, these cannot be given separate due dates, so the main task needs to be re-assigned with a different due date to the next person working on their part of the task. There’s a lot of manual processes that make this system way more cumbersome than project management should be.”

ActiveCollab’s free plan is available only to 3 members, which is quite disappointing, as we feel that an app with such versatile time and work management options is more suited for larger teams. With Asana offering collaboration with 15 teammates for free, and Wrike’s free plan with an unlimited number of users, this just isn’t enough.

What makes ActiveCollab the best tool for time management? 

While some PM tools offer simple time tracking and timesheets, ActiveCollab has gone a step further and created a tool that offers:

• Project time tracking,
• Task time tracking,
• Time estimates,
• Expense tracking,
• Personal and Company-wide timesheets and more. 

It’s safe to say that whatever type of time tracking you need, you are bound to find it in ActiveCollab. 

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. 

Plan type	ActiveCollab pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Plus — $9.5/3 members/month* Pro — $8/member/month* Pro + Get Paid — $11.75/member/month*

*Prices billed annually. 

#12: Zoho Sprints — best for release management

Zoho Sprints is one of the project management tools developed by Zoho. As its name suggests, it was created specifically for Agile projects, trying to make the lives of Scrum teams easier. 

Zoho Sprints pros	Zoho Sprints cons
– Affordable pricing  – Variety of charts and reports	– Unintuitive UI – Release management available only in the Premier tier

What do you get with Zoho Sprints?

If you are a team dedicated to organizing your work according to the Agile methodology, Zoho Sprints will be right up your alley. It uses Agile terminology such as Scrum boards and Epics. 

We really like the variety of charts and reports Zoho Sprint offers such as burnup and burndown charts, Epic progress charts, velocity charts, timesheet reports, etc. This enables you to have a visual representation of your data, which really saves time in your daily work.

Like Atlassian, Zoho also offers easy integration with other apps of their creation, or you can sign up for Zoho One, which lets you use all Zoho apps in one place.

The problem with this tool is that the UI can be unintuitive and difficult to use. As a Capterra user Srishti J. pointed out, “The software lacks some advanced features, such as portfolio management, that may be needed for larger projects. Additionally, the user interface is somewhat clunky and could be improved with a more modern design”.

There is a free plan, but it’s very limited. You can only have 3 users, 3 projects, and 500 MB of storage, and there’s no epic or timesheet management. 

Considering what you can get for free with other tools on this list, this is hardly impressive. But, the upside is that the paid plans are quite cheap. 

What makes Zoho Sprints the best tool for release management? 

We were quite taken with Zoho’s thought process behind organizing this tool. It feels like they created a tool to fit into your software development tasks, rather than forcing you to fit your work around the tool. 

You can organize your new releases using a release planning module, a CI/CD module that integrates with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, and Release Reports. 

Available for: web, Android, and iOS. 

Plan type	Zoho Sprints pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Starter — $1/user/month* Elite — $2.5/user/month* Premier — 5/user/month*

*Prices billed annually. 

#13: Pivotal Tracker — best for issue tracking

Pivotal Tracker is another tool that was created for software developers, more specifically web and mobile developers. It implements Agile principles to make project management effective and useful.

Pivotal Tracker is easy to learn, with all the relevant information available to everyone on the team.

Pivotal Tracker pros	Pivotal Tracker cons
– Collaborative workspace – Estimation of difficulty	– Startup and Standard plans don’t offer much more than the free plan

What do you get with Pivotal Tracker?

The basic building unit in the Pivotal Tracker is a Story — a succinct description of a function, a problem, or a new idea. For example, you can create a Story for a bug with the title “user isn’t able to log in with a single sign-on“. 

You estimate the difficulty of the Story (1, 2, or 4 points for straightforward stories and 8 points for complicated stories that should be divided into several stories). Each story can include tasks to break down work, comments, labels, description, and more. 

Pivotal Tracker has a good collaborative workspace. Everyone in the project team can track and access all the relevant information in all the projects. There is a clear overview of stories in the Current, Backlog, and Icebox columns (place to store your ideas before they are moved to the Backlog). Current and Backlog can be combined into one column if that is more practical for you. 

What surprised us is the difference between the free plan and paid plans, or lack thereof. The number of users is the only big difference, followed by unlimited projects and volume discounts. Aside from that, they all include unlimited core features and unlimited read-only seats. 

The real upgrade in features is present if you opt for the Enterprise plan. Here you will get full project history, priority support, SSO, and projects visible to the entire organization.

What makes Pivotal Tracker the best tool for issue tracking?

Pivotal Tracker was created with software development in mind. One of the main things that developers have to deal with on a daily basis is bug or issue tracking. 

Pivotal Tracker enables an easy way to track all the issues with a functional board and 24 integrations related to issue tracking.  

Available for: web, Android, and iOS.

Plan type	Pivotal Tracker pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Startup — $10/6–10 collaborators/month Standard — $6.5/collaborator/month Custom — contact sales

Tool #14: Taiga — best for software modification

Taiga is a free Agile project management tool that’s different from all the others mentioned in this article in one major way — it’s open source.

Since plenty of Agile practitioners are from the IT field, this can lead to increased customization and user control possibilities, allowing those capable to build upon the features existing in Taiga.

Taiga’s pros	Taiga’s cons
– Open-source software  – Created with Agile teams in mind	– Lack of templates

What do you get with Taiga? 

Taiga has a lot to offer for free, most importantly unlimited users and projects. It also has a paid plan, which is just there to grant you better support and to serve as a way to crowdfund an open-source project. 

Open-source software is always a treat for IT industry professionals. Experienced programmers may be able to take advantage of this feature to build upon the system and customize it more thoroughly to their needs.

We were delighted to find that Taiga really focuses on the Agile framework, with features such as:

• Scrum boards with Sprint planning, estimations, and burn-down charts, and
• Kanban board with WIP limitations, epics, and sub-tasks. 

What Taiga lacks are templates. This is not a major flaw, but it is a bit annoying since pre-made templates really save you time. In comparison, many other PM tools, such as ClickUp, Notion, and Plaky offer an abundance of templates for different types of projects.  

What makes Taiga best for switching between Kanban and Scrum?

Although both Kanban and Scrum are Agile, they organize projects differently. Sometimes, your project might benefit from Kanban’s visual approach with WIP limits, while other times, it might need Sprints.

In Taiga, you can switch from one to the other and vice versa with ease, enabling you to get the most out of the Agile approach with every project.

Available for: web and self-hosting

Plan type	Taiga pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	N/A
Paid plans	Taiga Cloud: $70 per month or $600 annually Taiga Self-hosted: from $10

Tool #15: Hygger — best for prioritization

Hygger is an interesting alternative to some of the bigger names on the market, giving all the expected functionalities of an Agile tool, with little to no downsides.

Given that it’s a relatively unknown tool, you’ll be surprised at the functionalities that Hygger offers.

Hygger pros	Hygger cons
– Threads in comments – Wide range of templates	– Small number of integrations – A lot of useful features are available only in paid plans

What do you get with Hygger?

Hygger is an Agile tool with built-in prioritization for Agile teams. It focuses on helping you prioritize projects. To help you start your projects, Hygger offers a wide range of templates, grouped according to the field of work such as design, HR, project management, etc. 

In Hygger, you can communicate with your teammates with comments, which is quite common for a PM tool. However, we were pleased to see that you can respond in a thread, which is very useful when there are a lot of members asking questions and discussing several topics in the comment section. 

The downside of Hygger is that it offers only 10 integrations. Most tools offer several times more, and some offer more than 400 (Wrike), or even over 1,000 (ClickUp). 

The free plan in Hygger includes an unlimited number of users, projects, and boards, which is quite generous when we consider that monday.com and Smartsheet allow for only 2 and 1 free user respectively. However, if you want to have multiple projects on the same board, or you need SAML SSO and Google Apps SSO, you will have to pay for the Enterprise plan. 

What makes Hygger the best tool for prioritization?

Hygger recognizes the importance of prioritization and gives you all the tools you need to help you. 

You can prioritize tasks in 6 different ways, using:

• Eisenhower matrix,
• Values vs effort matrix,
• Values vs risk matrix, 
• ICE,
• RICE framework, or
• Weighted scoring. 

All you have to do is drag and drop the task to a place on the board to indicate its priority. 

Available for: web, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Plan type	Hygger pricing
Free plan	✔️
Free trial	✔️
Paid plans	Standard — $7/user/month* Enterprise — $14/user/month*

*Prices billed annually. 

How to pick the right Agile project management tool for you?

Picking a suitable Agile PM tool for your business is paramount. Choose right, and your team will become more successful; choose wrong and they can become irritated with a tool they can’t get used to and which doesn’t meet their needs. 

Luckily, plenty of tools have free trials or free plans that you can use to gauge which one can be the right one for your Agile management needs.

Some important questions to ask yourself when determining this are:

• How big is my team?
• How much time and resources do I have for Agile tool onboarding?
• What will my team focus on most?
• What kind of reports and analysis do I expect from my Agile tool?
• Will I require templates for assistance in board creation, and what kind?

Ultimately, it all boils down to your individual needs.

For example:

If your team consists mostly of IT professionals, you’d stand to gain a lot from Jira, Pivotal Tracker, or Taiga. 

If you are looking for great automation options, Trello or Wrike would suit you best.

If you need free software with all the functionalities of most paid plans, Plaky would be perfect for you. 

Conclusion: Using a PM tool is essential for Agile and will yield great results

When you get your team used to a specific Agile tool, you’ll see efficiency in work and employee satisfaction skyrocket, with the tools allowing your projects to run more smoothly.

And as you venture into your Agile management, keep in mind that your software of choice can lead to great success in the efficiency of your projects, so choose your tools wisely.

Out of all Agile PM tools on the list, Plaky stands out as a highly customizable tool with a user-friendly interface. If you are looking for flexible software that can keep up with your ever-changing projects without slowing you down, Plaky is the right choice for you.