5 tools compared
Best project management software
Issues, sprints, roadmaps and the reporting layer leadership asks for on the last Friday of the quarter.
The field
Every project tracker worth considering
Cheapest first. Ranked properly once you tell us about your team.
ClickUp
A deliberately maximal tool that absorbs docs, goals, chat and tracking in one licence.
$7 · free tier
Linear
Fast, opinionated issue tracking for product and engineering teams that want less process.
$8 · free tier
Jira
The configurable standard for engineering issue tracking and enterprise reporting.
$8.6 · free tier
Asana
Cross-functional work management that non-engineers will actually adopt.
$10.99 · free tier
Monday.com
A visual, spreadsheet-shaped work platform you assemble per department.
$12 · free tier
Prices are unverified estimates — useful for comparing orders of magnitude, not for budgeting. Confirm the current figure with the vendor before you commit to anything.
Feature matrix
What each project tracker can do
Generated from the dimensions this category is compared on, so it stays true as the catalogue changes. Blank means we have not established it either way.
| Capability | Asana | ClickUp | Jira | Linear | Monday.com |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning methods | Kanban, Gantt / waterfall | Sprints, Kanban, Gantt / waterfall | Sprints, Kanban, Gantt / waterfall | Sprints, Kanban | Kanban, Gantt / waterfall |
| Git and CI integration | Basic | Basic | First-class | First-class | Basic |
| Portfolio reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| No-code automation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Usable by non-engineers | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| SAML single sign-onAvailable on some tier — check which, it is usually the expensive one. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No | No | No |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile apps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
How to choose
The questions that actually decide a project tracker
Everyone asks about price and seat count. These are the ones specific to this category — and the ones our questionnaire asks you.
- 01
How does the team plan work?
Sprints or cycles · Continuous flow on a board · No formal method · Different per team
- 02
Who needs to work in it?
Engineering only · Engineering and product · The whole company
- 03
Roughly how many items are active at once?
Under 100 · 100 to 1,000 · More than 1,000
- 04
Does leadership need portfolio or roadmap reporting?
Yes, regularly · Occasionally · No
The trade-offs
What each one asks you to accept
No tool here is strictly better than the others. These are the prices of admission.
Breadth costs coherence — expect a setup phase and some feature depth gaps.
Deliberately opinionated — if you need bespoke workflows and approval gates, it will fight you.
Configurability is the cost: most Jira instances need an owner, not just an admin.
Per-seat cost is high once everyone in the company needs a licence.
Seats are sold in tiers — you often pay for five when you need three.
10 comparisons
Head to head
If you have narrowed it to two.
Questions
Choosing a project tracker
What is the best project tracker?
There is no single best one, and any page that names one without asking about your team is guessing. The credible options are Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Linear, Monday.com. Which fits depends on the answers to the 4 questions this category turns on, plus your team size and budget — our questionnaire scores all 5 against them in about three minutes.
Is there a free project tracker?
Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Linear, Monday.com all have a free tier. The limits differ sharply though — usually on history, seat count, or exactly the features that pass a security review. Check what the free tier withholds before you plan around it.
How much should we expect to pay for a project tracker?
Median list price across the tools we cover is about $12 per seat per month, which is roughly $7,200 a year for 50 people. Real bills land above that once you add the tier that includes single sign-on, and again once add-ons appear.
When is it worth switching project tracker?
When the problem is a capability the current tool does not have — a price that scales the wrong way, a compliance control it cannot enforce, an integration that does not exist. When the problem is how your team uses the tool, a new one reproduces the same mess in a fresh interface within six months, and you will have paid for the privilege.
What should we compare project trackers on?
The dimensions that actually separate them: planning methods, git and ci integration, portfolio reporting, no-code automation, custom workflows, usable by non-engineers. Price matters, but it is rarely the thing that decides whether a tool survives contact with your team.