Web Design Client Management Tools

Managing a web design project is complicated. Matching client expectations profitably while keeping your creative team happy can feel like a tightrope-walk. Using the right project management software can help.

In this article, you'll learn about the top 10 website project management software.(For other types of projects, check out this comprehensive list of project management tools.)

But first, let's cover a few basics:

Why you need website project management software?
How To Choose A Website Project Management Software?

Let's dive in.

Why You Need Web Design Project Management Software?

It's tempting to think that you don't need a project management tool for a small project or team. However, that's not true.

There's so much more to managing web design work.

Work visibility: Do you have the resources and bandwidth to take up a new project? Can you deliver it within the expected timeframe?
Delivery management: Are you on track to deliver on time? Which tasks are dragging your project schedule down? Do you need to adjust your delivery schedule?
Client communication: Has the client approved the design? How do you get feedback from them? Where do you store client inputs and make them accessible to your team?
Workload management: Is anyone from your team overwhelmed with work?

How To Choose A Website Project Management Software?

One tool can rarely fulfill all your web design project management software needs.

That's because tools that do a bit of everything fail to do specific things well. Plus, these tools are often too complicated to use. As a result, you end up investing time and money in training and onboarding your team.

In general, you'll need the following features for managing your website projects:

Planning
Task management
Collaboration & communication
Resource management
Time tracking & reporting

Based on your needs, you may need more features, such as integrations with code/design repositories, workflow automation, etc.

In addition, budget and ease of use are two other critical factors that'll affect your choice. Both these factors are also affected by whether you go with a cloud-hosted or an on-premise solution.

With on-premise software, you're responsible for the setup, maintenance, and upkeep. But, this adds to the one-time software cost. Plus, it also means that you need a team to keep the software running.

On the other hand, cloud-based solutions can scale as your team grows. And, you pay a monthly subscription price, which saves on upfront investment.

Best Web Design Project Management Software

Now that you know the why and how let's look at the top web design project management software.

Toggl Plan

Toggl Plan is a beautifully simple project tool. Whether you're a freelance web designer or an agency, you'll love it's simple interface and flexible project management features.

Planning: Toggl Plan comes with a Plan timeline to plan project schedules and the Team timeline to manage team availability.
Task management: Manage custom task workflows right from the timelines or Kanban task boards.
Team collaboration: Make multiple team members responsible for a task. Collaborating on tasks is effortless with file attachments and comments. Also, you can share a read-only view of the timeline with clients.
Quality control: Attach checklists to tasks to improve task completion quality.
Time tracking: Track time spent on tasks with the Toggl Track integration.

Price: Toggl Plan has a free plan for solo users with which you can manage unlimited projects. Team plans start at $9 per user per month with a free 14-day trial. You get additional features in paid plans, including recurring tasks, access control, and time tracking.

Podio

Podio is a task management and collaboration tool. It's fully customizable and can adapt to your team's way of work.

Task workflows: Create custom workflows, manage team tasks, and keep track of project progress.
File sharing: Share files and manage revisions on Podio or using integrations on Google Drive and Dropbox.
Communication: Chat with instant messaging. Also, you can set up meetings using GoToMeeting integrations.
Calendars: Set up and manage personal as well as team calendars.
Integrations: Integrates with Zendesk, Campaign Monitor, Freshbooks, and more.

Price: Podio's free plan lets you manage up to 5 users. Paid plans start at $9 per user per month. And, come with unlimited tasks, user management, and custom workflows.

FunctionFox

FunctionFox is a project tool for creative teams. It helps you manage your entire agency workflow with its time tracking, project management, and dashboard reporting features.

Gantt chart: Plan project schedules, and keep track of project progress using interactive Gantt charts.
Task assignments: Assign tasks and track task completion.
Time & expense tracking: Track time and expense for projects and tasks in real-time.
Communication blogs: Communicate within your team using internal communication blogs.
Powerful reports: Dissect project data with interactive charts and real-time reports.

Price: FunctionFox does not have a free plan. You get all the necessary website project management features if you subscribe to the Premier plan. The Premier plan costs $50 per month for the first user and $10 per month for each additional user.

Basecamp

Basecamp is an all-in-one toolkit for team collaboration. It doesn't come with any specific website project management features. However, it can be used as a light-weight project execution tool.

To-do lists: Create tasks to do, assign them to team members, and set dues dates.
Message boards: Communicate project updates, ask questions, and pitch project ideas.
Docs & files: Collaborate using files uploaded to Basecamp or added from online storage tools like Google Drive.
Group chat: Ask quick questions and share quick updates with your team.
Check-ins: Set up questions to automatically ask your team about project or task progress.

Price: Basecamp's free Personal plan is suitable for up to 3 projects and 20 users. The Business plan costs $99 per month for an unlimited number of users.

GanttPro

GanttPRO is a visually appealing and highly intuitive project management tool based on Gantt charts. It covers all project management workflows such as task management, resource allocation, and time tracking.

Gantt chart timelines: GanttPRO offers an intuitive Gantt chart timeline where it is so easy to plan, schedule, track, and manage activities.
Task management: The software comes with more than a dozen of task-specific features for comprehensive management. Besides, a Board view and My tasks list are available.
Team collaboration: Easily collaborate on tasks with your teammates right inside GanttPRO with comments, attachments, mentions, and real-time notifications.
Resource management: GanttPRO comes with robust resource management that takes into account different scenarios for precise planning.
Time tracking: Track time spent on tasks right inside your project management software.

Price: GanttPRO has a free 14-day trial with all the features available. Paid plans for individuals cost $15 user/month. Team plans are available for a minimum of 5 users and cost $8.90 per user per month.

WordPress Project Management by UpStream

Unlike other tools on this list, WordPress Project Management by UpStream is an on-premise solution. That's because, you need to set up your own WordPress website to start using this plugin.

Milestones & tasks: Create project tasks, assign them to users, and set due dates. Group tasks into milestones to manage deliveries.
Issue tracker: Record bugs, assign them to your team, and track progress.
Client management: Manage client users, and grant them access to specific projects.
Discussion boards: Publish project updates or discuss ideas and issues.
Activity feed: Get real-time updates about all the project activities happening in your workspace.

Price: The free version of this plugin comes with all of the above features. Calendar, timeline, and other extensions are available from $79 per year.

Asana

Asana is an all-in-one project management tool. It comes with features for planning, collaboration, and task management.

Planning: Set project goals. Visualize project plans using a Gantt chart timeline or the calendar view. Add task dependencies and milestones.
Task management: Manage tasks using a list view or on Kanban boards. Customize task workflow to match your needs.
Collaboration: Collaborate on tasks using shared files and task notes.
Workload management: Normalize workloads of overwhelmed and underworked team members.
Project portfolio management: Manage multiple accounts or multiple projects for a client account.

Price: Asana's free plan works for teams with up to 15 members. Paid plans start at $13.49 per user per month and come with timelines and workload management features.

Workamajig

Workamajig is a creative work management tool for agencies and in-house teams. It comes with all the features that a web design team needs to manage its entire business workflow.

Project management: Plan schedules, manage tasks, and track progress with end-to-end project management.
Sales CRM: Qualify leads, close sales, and forecast your sales pipeline.
Time tracking: Track time that your team spends on billable projects and bill clients more accurately.
Revenue forecasting: Find most-profitable clients, get real-time financial metrics, and accurately predict revenues.

Prices: Workamajig does not have a free plan. Paid plans come at $50 per user per month.

Wrike

Wrike is a versatile project management software. It comes with some unique features that make it useful for web design teams.

Interactive Gantt charts: Create plans using a simple interface. Visualize project schedule and track progress with Gantt charts.
Kanban boards: Visually manage tasks and manage agile teams with Kanban boards.
Project templates: Ready-made templates for event management, product delivery, onboarding, and more.
Proofing: Get feedback from teammates and clients. Keep it all in one place.
Shared team calendars: Plan your team calendar, so you don't miss out on any milestone.

Price: Wrike free plan includes unlimited projects for up to 5 users. Gantt chart timelines, templates, and proofing features are available in paid plans starting at $9.80 per user per month, paid annually.

Monday.com

Monday.com is a fun, colorful, and flexible project management software. Its features provide enough to manage work for creative and design teams as well.

Planning: Add project goals and map project activities against these goals.
Task management: Manage and track tasks using task lists. Collaborate on tasks by sharing feedback and files.
Reports: Assess project performance. Adjust project plans by finding out where things go wrong.

Price: Monday.com does not have a free plan. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month for a minimum of 3 users.

Trello

Trello is a simple task management and collaboration software. However, you can also extend it's core features using add-ons (or powerups as Trello calls them). Core features include:

Task management: Create custom task workflows and manage tasks using Kanban boards.
Collaboration: Collaborate on tasks with your team using comments and shared files.
Shared calendars: Use the calendar view to plan your team's shared calendar so you don't miss out on deadlines.

Price: Trello's free plan is perfect for up to 10 team projects and unlimited users. Paid plans start at $12.49 per user per month.

Wrapping Up

Web designers have a lot of good options when it comes to project management tools. But once you know what features you should look for, finding the right project management tool is easy.

To find a tool that fits your team's needs — decide on a budget, make a list of critical features, shortlist, and try out a couple of tools.