There's a painful irony in agency project management: the tools designed to save you time often end up eating more of it.
You sign up for a "powerful" PM tool, spend a week setting up boards and workflows, invite your team, and then three months later you realize nobody's updating anything because the system is more complex than the work itself.
For small agencies — teams of 2 to 10 people — the problem is rarely a lack of features. It's finding something that's powerful enough to handle real client work without becoming a full-time job to maintain.
Here's what we found after testing the most popular options.
What small agencies actually need (and what they don't)
Before we compare tools, let's get honest about what a team of 3–10 people actually needs from a project management tool.
You need:
- A clear view of what's active, what's waiting on the client, and what's overdue
- The ability to assign work and track progress without a 30-minute daily standup
- Some way to share deliverables with clients and get approvals
- Basic invoicing or at least easy export for billing
- Something your team will actually use (the best tool is useless if nobody opens it)
You probably don't need:
- Resource allocation matrices
- Gantt charts with dependency mapping
- Enterprise-level permission systems
- 47 custom field types
- A "workflows" feature that requires a YouTube tutorial to set up
With that in mind, here are the tools worth considering.
1. TryApprove — Best for agencies that want one platform for everything
Pricing: Free (2 projects) / Pro at $29/mo (unlimited projects)
I'm biased here because we built it, but let me explain why.
Most PM tools treat client interaction as an afterthought. You manage your projects in one tool, then email the client, send them Dropbox links, create invoices in another app, and chase approvals over WhatsApp.
TryApprove combines project management with client-facing features — approvals, onboarding, invoicing, and a branded portal — so you're not duct-taping five different tools together.
What stands out:
- Clients review and approve work through a portal link — no signup needed on their end
- Built-in client onboarding with contracts, questionnaires, and welcome docs
- Visual annotations on images and videos
- Invoicing built right into the same platform
- White-label branding on Pro so the portal looks like your own
Where it falls short: If you need deep Gantt-chart-style project planning or complex resource scheduling across 50+ people, this isn't designed for that. It's built for small teams that are client-facing, not enterprise project offices.
Best for: Creative agencies and freelancers under 10 people who want to manage projects and the client relationship in one place.
2. Asana — Best for teams that love structure
Pricing: Free (up to 10 users) / Premium at $10.99/user/mo
Asana is powerful and well-designed. The free tier is genuinely useful for small teams, and the interface is clean enough that most people can figure it out without a training session.
What stands out:
- Multiple project views (list, board, timeline, calendar)
- Good automation rules ("when task moves to Done, notify client")
- Strong integration ecosystem
- Portfolios for tracking multiple projects at a high level
Where it falls short: There's no built-in client approval workflow. You can share projects with clients as guests, but they'll be looking at your internal PM tool — task names, due dates, and all. It doesn't present your work professionally. You'll still need a separate tool for proofing, invoicing, and client-facing communication.
Best for: Teams that want a solid internal PM tool and are okay using separate apps for the client-facing side.
3. Monday.com — Best for visual teams who want customization
Pricing: Free (up to 2 users) / Basic at $9/seat/mo (min 3 seats)
Monday is visually appealing and extremely customizable. If you love color-coding, dragging things around, and building custom dashboards, you'll enjoy it.
What stands out:
- Highly visual and easy to customize
- Great dashboards for a bird's-eye view of all projects
- Lots of column types (people, timelines, status, formulas)
- Generous automation limits on higher tiers
Where it falls short: Customization is a double-edged sword. You can spend hours perfecting your board setup instead of doing the work. The per-seat pricing adds up quickly, and client-facing features are limited — you're essentially inviting clients into your internal workspace. Read our detailed Monday.com comparison for more.
Best for: Visual thinkers who want to build a custom project management system and don't need strong client-facing features.
4. ClickUp — Best for feature maximalists
Pricing: Free / Unlimited at $7/user/mo
ClickUp tries to do everything. And honestly, it does most things reasonably well. The feature density is remarkable for the price.
What stands out:
- Docs, whiteboards, goals, time tracking — all built in
- Flexible hierarchy (spaces, folders, lists, tasks, subtasks)
- Good free tier with decent feature access
- Regular updates with new features
Where it falls short: The sheer number of features can be overwhelming. I've talked to agency owners who spent weeks setting up ClickUp only to revert to simpler tools because their team couldn't keep up. It also lacks proper client portal functionality — clients would need ClickUp accounts to participate, which adds friction.
Best for: Teams that want maximum features at minimum cost and are willing to invest time in setup.
5. Notion — Best for documentation-heavy teams
Pricing: Free / Plus at $10/user/mo
Notion is more of a knowledge management tool than a PM tool, but a lot of small agencies use it for project management anyway. And for certain workflows, it works surprisingly well.
What stands out:
- Incredibly flexible — you can build almost anything
- Beautiful for documentation, SOPs, and client-facing wikis
- Database views make it usable as a lightweight PM tool
- Affordable and easy to get started with
Where it falls short: It's not a purpose-built project management tool, and it shows in the details. No native time tracking, limited automation, and the "everything is a page" model can get messy as projects scale. Client collaboration requires sharing Notion pages, which can expose your internal structure. If you're a Notion user looking for client portal capabilities, check our guide on the best client portal for Notion users.
Best for: Teams that already live in Notion and want to keep everything in one tool, even if it means some PM compromises.
6. Basecamp — Best for teams that hate complexity
Pricing: $349/mo flat (unlimited users)
Basecamp takes the opposite approach to ClickUp. Instead of adding every possible feature, it gives you a small, opinionated set of tools and says "this is how you manage projects."
What stands out:
- Dead simple to use — almost zero learning curve
- Message boards and to-dos keep things organized without overwhelming
- Flat pricing means you don't pay more as you hire
- Built-in client access with controlled visibility
Where it falls short: The simplicity can feel limiting. No Kanban boards, no Gantt charts, limited reporting. At $349/mo, it's expensive for a team of 3. You're paying for unlimited users, which only makes sense if you have 15+ people.
Best for: Medium-sized agencies (15+ people) that want simplicity and don't need visual project planning.
So which one should you pick?
Here's the honest answer: it depends on what your biggest headache is.
- If your biggest headache is the client side — approvals, feedback, onboarding, invoicing — TryApprove solves that in one place.
- If your biggest headache is internal coordination — who's doing what, when it's due — Asana or Monday are solid choices.
- If your biggest headache is information overload — too many tools, too many tabs — Notion or Basecamp simplify your stack.
- If your biggest headache is budget — ClickUp gives you the most features per dollar.
The worst thing you can do is pick a tool because it has the most features. Pick the one that solves your actual problem. For most small agencies, that problem is less about project tracking and more about the messy space between your team and your clients.
That's the gap we built TryApprove to fill. Try it free and see if it fits.