What if you could access your project management app and monitor the progress right through your WordPress editor? It could save you tons of time you spend opening your project management program separately.
In this article, I’m going to break down the 5 best WordPress project management plugins you can install right away. The best part is, many of these are FREE. Moreover, I’ll also give you an overview of each to help you make the final decision.
Whether you’re using managed WordPress hosting or shared hosting, these project management plugins are pretty lightweight to keep running uninterruptedly.
That said, let’s roll in.
1. Upstream
So far the best project management plugin for WordPress is Upstream. It offers a neat & clean interface that lets you track and manage your content planning without getting distracted by other stuff. By installing Upstream on your WordPress editor, you can monitor your content planning right from your WordPress dashboard.
The plugin also tends to be effective for freelance bloggers who’d like to make it easy for their clients to track everything that’s going on, on their website. The features like milestones, mark bugs, and discussion threads make it easy to use Upstream for this purpose.
Other than that, Upstream also makes it easy for you to collaborate with your content team including writers, editors, graphics designers, and SEO analysts.
The plugin is essentially free to install and use. However, the free version is available, with a definitive list of premium features you can get with the click of a button (by installing Upstream extensions).
That said, the pricing for the premium version starts from as low as $39.50/year. We recommend that you start off with the free version and upgrade to the higher one later on if you like the functionality of Upstream.
One of the main highlights of Upstream is it lets you upload files and documents into your project management boards. Other than that, you can create milestones, tasks, and projects and link them to different users for the projects.
The automated progress tracker feature keeps you up-to-date on your content workflow. For instance, you’re notified when a piece of content gets ready or an editor schedules an article for publishing. With customizable frontend templates, you can personalize your project management boards just as you wish.
2. WP Project Manager Pro
One of the most popular WordPress project management plugins is WP Project Manager Pro. The plugin comes with a wide range of effective project management features that help you be more productive and create more (and better) content for your audience.
The highlights of WP Project Manager Pro include the user-friendly interface that’s responsive and lets you (and your team) create and complete projects quicker. Moreover, the time tracking tool helps to make sure the performance report is accurate.
The key features of WP Project Manager Pro include to-do lists. You can create as many to-dos as you wish, all with titles and descriptions. Like other project management tools, it lets you add users to the tasks, assign due dates, and track progress.
The options for milestones is another key benefit allowing you to create upcoming, completed, and late milestones hassle-free. You can also assign the messages and to-do lists on the milestones.
Other than that, the plugin comes with an advanced notification tool. It keeps your team updated on the progress of tasks. Moreover, the premium version throws in the additional feature of managing who receives a notification from settings.
3. WP-Client
WP-Client is yet another well-known name in the industry of project management programs. It is best defined as an all-in-one business plugin due to its versatility. You can use it to send invoices, send messages, share files & documents, and whatnot?
If you’re an agency with a big database of clients, WP-Client is your go-to choice. But, what makes WP-Client a WordPress project management plugin?
Well, this business tool comes with various extensions that include project management. It helps collaborate with your team to work on your clients’ projects and ensure you’re productive while doing that.
If you’re someone who’d prefer a client management tool combined with project management, WP-Client is certainly worth consideration. However, if you’re looking for a project management plugin alone, Upstream might be a better option.
The plugin comes at a one-time price of $59 with the option to upgrade each year for updates. The higher plans are also in place as they throw in some additional features for businesses.
The highlights of WP-Client particularly include its user-friendly interface. It lets you coordinate with your team and communicate with your clients easily, without the hassle of navigation.
4. Panorama
Though not as popular as some other options we listed, Panorama is equipped with powerful project management features to help you be productive in collaborating with your team. The highlight of Panorama is that it lets you customize your project management boards deeply, with your company’s branding.
The tool offers effective project bars that tend to be effective in determining how close a task or project is to completion. Either your clients or the managers can use this feature to minimize email queries.
Moreover, you can also indicate milestones & achievements and make it easy to track them for your team & clients, using Panorama. The best part about Panorama is its user-friendly interface that helps your team streamline their tasks and visualize them at their best.
Unlike tools that put restrictions on tasks, users, and project phases with the free version, Panorama lets you use unlimited of these.
Thankfully, the tool is available for free and offers project templates to help you get started quickly. However, the premium version is also in place, starting from $69. It throws in some extras like add-ons and email compatibility.
5. CoSchedule
CoSchedule is one of the best marketing tools on the planet. It is best known for the content marketing calender it offers. Thankfully, the tool now also offers a WordPress plugin that you can install to level up your content planning game.
The mission of CoSchedule is to make it easy to manage your digital marketing tasks. CoSchedule’s marketing calendar helps to eliminate the old way where you’d have to:
- content plan in a spreadsheet,
- manually share your plan across each social media handle,
- often get exhausted due to ineffective workspace,
- communicate with your team through emails each time,
- and so on.
The calendar of CoSchedule is intuitive and easy to use. It’s pretty colorful with all the features pre-described. It lets you automate your content creation and publishing tasks.
Whether it’s about scheduling your blog posts on WordPress or posting content across different social media platforms, CoSchedule’s content calendar helps you with all that.
Key Takeaways
What are the best WordPress project management plugins in 2022? Here are the takeaways:
- The best WordPress project management plugin, hands down, is Upstream. It offers a wide range of automation features and collaborating tools to help you be more productive.
- A great Upstream alternative is WP Project Manager Pro. It offers a user-friendly interface and an effective notifier tool that keeps you updated on the progress.
- Lastly, WP-Client is an excellent option if you’re looking for a combination of client management and project management tools.
