The Best Project Management Software for Solopreneurs

The increasing autonomy and connectivity of the digital age creates an environment ripe for entrepreneurship. And now more than ever, solopreneurs are seizing the opportunity to bring their innovative ideas to life, driving change in markets big and small.

Stepping into the world of entrepreneurship, however, isn’t easy. It requires careful orchestration of all elements of a business, from product development to marketing, customer relations to financial management. Amid this sea of responsibilities, managing a business single-handedly, while possible, can often be overwhelming.

This is where project management software for solopreneurs comes in. Project manager software offers a framework that helps solopreneurs manage tasks efficiently, streamline operations, and ultimately, increase productivity. With the right project management software, solopreneurs can take a step back from micro-management and focus on the bigger picture: growing the business.

Choosing the right software from the multitude of options available can be a challenge. To make the decision easier, we’ve reviewed and ranked our top project management software picks that you can try. Let’s dive in.

1. ClickUp

Best Overall

For the solopreneur navigating the various moving parts of project management, ClickUp provides a practical and versatile solution. ClickUp offers a broad range of features designed to simplify the solo entrepreneur’s journey, enabling users to stay organized, on task, and focused on the bigger picture.

Key Features and User Experience

ClickUp is a standout tool in the realm of project management, with its key selling point being its highly customizable nature. The platform offers several striking features that enhance its usability and effectiveness:

• Easy-to-Tailor Dashboards: ClickUp’s dashboards can be personalized to provide a focused overview of your tasks, projects, and goals. Moreover, they can be accessed across multiple devices, keeping you connected and on top of your activities at all times.
• Efficient Task Management: A particularly useful feature is the setup of notifications for impending tasks, significantly easing the multi-tasking aspect of solopreneurship.
• Goal Management through Goal Folders: Tasks can be directly linked to goals, enabling real-time tracking of progress and keeping your business objectives front and center.
• Shared Dashboards and Integration Capabilities: ClickUp expands beyond individual usage by offering Shared Dashboards for client interactions. The platform’s integrative features allow the seamless incorporation of your favorite apps, creating a unified digital workspace.

Exploring further, ClickUp’s unique characteristics include:

• Personal Account Setting: This feature hides team-oriented aspects, streamlining the interface for a single user and offering a distraction-free environment.
• 20+ Real-Time Views: Including List, Board, and Calendar views, this flexibility lets you visualize work in a way that aligns with your preferences.
• Whiteboards Feature: This thoughtful addition is ideal for planning and strategizing projects.

ClickUp however is not without its drawbacks. Although the platform boasts an extensive set of features, it falls short of providing advanced reporting capabilities. This isn’t necessarily an issue for solopreneurs, who typically have an overall view of their operations, but could be a helpful addition as the business grows.

Additionally, the setting up of project dashboards can be time-consuming due to the vast array of features and customization options. New users may find this overwhelming, potentially slowing down initial project setup and necessitating a familiarization period.

Despite these minor issues, ClickUp presents a comprehensive project management solution for solopreneurs. Its strengths, particularly in customization and adaptability, make it a strong contender in this space.

2. Monday

Best for Scalability

Despite being titled after the least popular day of the week, this project management software seeks to inject productivity and efficiency into your work life, giving a whole new meaning to Mondays.

Trusted by industry leaders like Canva, Coca-Cola, and Hulu, Monday delivers a versatile project management solution, appealing to diverse industries and professions with its extensive customizability.

Key Features and User Experience

Monday offers a robust and intuitive interface for project management, designed with a familiar, spreadsheet-like structure. This approach ensures the software’s wide array of tools and features are presented in an approachable manner. Key features of Monday include:

• Custom Dashboards: Central to its offerings, Monday allows you to build personalized dashboards that enable tracking of progress, budgets, and timelines, giving you a comprehensive view of all your projects.
• 200+ Software Integrations: Monday boasts an impressive array of integration options, including popular tools like LinkedIn, Gmail, and Adobe Creative Cloud, facilitating a smooth and unified workflow.
• Collaborative Features: For solopreneurs planning to scale, Monday provides numerous features that foster collaboration, such as shared document spaces, making vital information readily accessible.
• Automation: This key feature is a boon for time management, freeing users from repetitive tasks.
• Add-Ons: Add-ons like DocuGen and Figma extend Monday’s functionality, enabling document automation and boosting design capabilities, respectively.

Moreover, Monday offers distinct advantages:

• Color-Coding Options: This seemingly basic feature enhances visual navigation and provides an element of customization.
• Numerous Templates: The wide variety of templates cater to a range of project needs, adding to the platform’s flexibility.

However, Monday does have some limitations. While the interface is comprehensive, it can be challenging to navigate for new users. The absence of guest or client access also hinders the potential for collaborative work with external parties.

3. Trello

Best Easy-to-Use Option

Trello stands out in the project management software landscape with its distinctly visual, Kanban-style interface that makes it incredibly easy to use. This approach lends itself well to solopreneurs, as it simplifies workflow visualization and management, allowing you to move tasks across various stages with ease.

Key Features and User Experience

Trello shines in project management with its highly visual and intuitive interface, designed around the Kanban board. The board consists of cards, each representing a task, and workflow columns to denote different stages of progress. Its distinctive features include:

• Customizable Workflows: The ability to swiftly customize workflows and visualize progress through Timeline and Dashboard views provides an intuitive, user-friendly experience.
• Drag-and-Drop Tasks: This feature simplifies task management as work progresses.
• Integration with Third-Party Applications: Trello’s compatibility with various apps enhances its functionality and versatility.
• Productivity Metrics: Instant insights into performance metrics are readily available for users.
• Built-In Automation System, Butler: Butler enables users to automate tasks with rules, buttons, and commands, boosting efficiency in the dynamic landscape of entrepreneurship.

Advantages of Trello:

• Visual Layout: More than just aesthetically pleasing, Trello’s visual layout facilitates easier navigation and project dashboard monitoring.
• Collaboration: The task comments feature encourages open dialogue and idea generation, simplifying collaborative efforts.

Trello’s unique visual approach and its generous free plan make it an attractive option for solopreneurs. It offers multiple views including board, timeline, table, calendar, dashboard, and map. Trello also provides tried-and-true templates from its user community and integrates with popular apps like Slack, Jira, Miro, and MS Teams. While Trello may not be the most robust task management tool, it excels in making workflows visually accessible. Its free version can be used indefinitely, rendering it a cost-effective choice for solopreneurs seeking a simple project management solution.

4. Notion

Best for Content Creators

Notion is a tool that will appeal to the creative side of every solopreneur. It masterfully fuses note-taking, project management, and content creation into a central platform, providing an integrated space to draft ideas and organize content.

Notion’s versatility has even earned it the endorsement of popular YouTubers like Ali Abdaal and Thomas Frank, who regularly employ it in their content creation processes.

Key Features and User Experience

Notion is a versatile project management tool that offers an array of views – Kanban, gallery, checklist, and timeline views – to best suit your workflow. Additionally, the platform’s strong multimedia support allows the embedding of various content types, making it especially appealing to creative professionals. Key features of Notion include:

• Personal Wiki: This serves as a dashboard to store and organize all your knowledge, while databases offer a more extensive organization of pages, each being its own editable page.
• Docs: These act like a note-taking app or document editor, providing a space to embed files, write codes, jot down thoughts, and add collapsible sections.
• AI-Assisted Content Creation: Notion’s AI augments the Docs feature by summarizing notes, correcting errors, translating text, and performing other writing tasks, enhancing your content creation process.
• High Customizability: You can alter the structure of your content or create new sections by dragging and dropping Notion blocks. The platform also provides a library of customizable templates.
• Free Version: Notion offers a generous free version with unlimited pages and a wide range of customization options. The various view options cater to different work styles, and the note-taking features stand out in their utility.

Notion’s paid plans offer substantial storage space, making it attractive to those needing significant content hosting. Moreover, the AI feature is available for free across all pricing plans, providing a valuable tool at no additional cost.

Despite these drawbacks, Notion’s combination of note-taking, project management, and content creation tools, coupled with its extensive customizability, make it a prime consideration for solopreneurs, especially those in the creative field.

5. Airtable

Best for Database Management

Entrepreneurs who are familiar with managing projects on Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets will find Airtable a compelling alternative. This robust tool takes the familiar layout of spreadsheets and infuses it with project management capabilities, enabling an intuitive and multifaceted platform.

Airtable does not limit you to grid views; it offers multiple visualization modes including Kanban boards, galleries, grids, calendars, and Gantt charts. It also provides an innovative feature that allows you to label the priority of your upcoming tasks as “None,” “Low,” “Medium,” and “High.”

Key Features and User Experience

Airtable stands out with its unique blend of spreadsheet-like interface and project management features. Its Interface Designer enables users to build and share custom interfaces, and the multiple view modes provide different perspectives of your projects for better task oversight. Key features of Airtable include:

• Automation: This critical feature allows you to construct single notifications or complex, multi-sequence workflows using trigger and action logic, aiding solopreneurs in automating repetitive tasks.
• Sync Feature: This ensures you can access your data on any device, anywhere. It promotes seamless teamwork as collaborators can access the updated information as well.
• Data-Driven Extensions: Extensions enable the creation of charts, graphs, and top-line metrics for entrepreneurs who prefer data-based decision making.
• Smooth Integration with Third-Party Software: Airtable integrates seamlessly with Google Drive, Salesforce, Zendesk, other project management tools, and social media apps.
• Customizable Templates: Airtable provides an array of templates to jump-start your projects, allowing for quicker progress.

Airtable is highly flexible and customizable, offering the tools needed to tailor it to your work style. Its powerful automation features promote efficiency, and the ability to add photos, videos, links, and other files enhances the user experience.

There’s potentially a steep learning curve for this platform, but Airtable’s customizability and automation features make it a reliable tool for efficient project management. Its combination of a spreadsheet-like interface with project management features makes it particularly attractive for solopreneurs comfortable with grid layouts.

6. Basecamp

Best for Remote Operations

As more entrepreneurs transition to remote work, Basecamp presents itself as a particularly compelling tool for project management. Renowned for its client access features, Basecamp empowers users to decide the level of visibility their clients have on tasks, creating a seamless and intuitive system for collaboration.

With over two decades of industry experience, Basecamp has proven its reliability as a solid tool in the project management sphere, merging functionality with ease of use for the remote entrepreneur.

Key Features and User Experience

Basecamp is a robust project management tool equipped with features designed to facilitate efficient operations for solopreneurs. It offers:

• To-dos: A feature providing full visibility of all tasks, enabling easy monitoring of progress and deadlines.
• Docs & Files: An integrated solution for accessing your files directly within the app, eliminating the need to switch between applications.
• Campfire: A communication feature offering a chat function directly within each project, reducing the need for multiple communication channels or a cluttered inbox.
• Schedule: This streamlines time management, negating the need for separate spreadsheets or calendars.
• Card Table: A feature that allows users to see progress in real-time, offering a snapshot view of task completion.

Additional advantages of Basecamp include a mobile app, allowing project management from any location, and ample storage space in its paid plans. The plans also provide unlimited client/guest access, promoting seamless collaboration. One standout feature is Basecamp’s Hill Charts, which offers an innovative way to view the status of your tasks at a glance.

The platform does have high pricing plans, which may deter budget-conscious solopreneurs. Additionally, some users might encounter a steep learning curve when first using Basecamp. Still, Basecamp remains a compelling choice for remote project management. With its thoughtful mix of features and emphasis on simplicity, it’s well-suited for solopreneurs seeking a reliable tool to manage their business projects remotely.

7. Todoist

Best for Beginners

If you’re a solopreneur seeking a straightforward yet powerful tool to keep your work and life organized, Todoist may just be the solution you need. This task management software allows you to customize your to-do lists with filters, priorities, and labels, ensuring that you stay on top of your tasks without missing any critical tasks or activities.

Key Features and User Experience

Todoist offers a range of features designed to streamline task management for solopreneurs, such as:

• Ready-to-use Templates: These make it easy to get started on your work immediately.
• File Sharing: This feature simplifies the process of sharing files.
• Reminders: Setting up reminders is straightforward, using either email or push notifications.
• Integration Capabilities: Todoist integrates with over 30 other tools, offering a flexible workspace.

A standout feature of Todoist is the ability to create custom filters for tasks, allowing users to align task views with their workflow and priorities.

The platform’s interface is another strong point, sporting a simple, clean design that is incredibly user-friendly. Coupled with the mobile app, it allows for task management on the go.

However, Todoist does have limitations. Managing projects via the mobile application can be challenging, and the platform lacks a calendar sync feature. Users have also noted shortcomings in customer service and the limited file upload size (up to 5MB) in the free version. Nevertheless, Todoist’s simplicity, ease of use, and affordability make it an appealing choice for solopreneurs looking to streamline their task management process. While it might not be optimal for managing complex projects, it excels at handling everyday tasks and smaller-scale projects.

8. Upbase

Best for Personal Productivity

As a solopreneur, finding a tool that caters both to your project management needs and personal productivity can be a game-changer. Upbase is a comprehensive tool that promises to deliver on both fronts.

Key Features and User Experience

Upbase is a versatile project management tool that provides a comprehensive set of features, such as:

• Tasks: This feature ensures you stay on top of your projects.
• Schedule: This allows for organizing work throughout the week based on priority.
• Docs: With this feature, you can build a knowledge base, take notes, and collaborate.
• Files: Ensures all your files are accessible from one place, anywhere.
• Messages and Chats: This is a great asset for staying connected and collaborating efficiently, particularly if working with a team.

What sets Upbase apart from others is its emphasis on personal productivity. The platform includes tools like Time-blocking, a Pomodoro timer, and a Daily Journal to boost productivity and maintain focus on tasks.

One of the significant advantages of using Upbase is the inclusion of these productivity tools, which are often absent in typical project management software. The ability to manage all files, tasks, and schedule in one place can greatly streamline workflow. Moreover, Upbase offers unlimited tasks and users, making it a scalable solution. Its affordable pricing plans further enhance its appeal for solopreneurs. But Upbase does have its limitations. It lacks a guest mode feature, which may be limiting if you frequently collaborate with clients or contractors. It also lacks an offline mode, which can be inconvenient when internet connectivity is poor. Lastly, the chat feature is limited to one-month access, which may not affect a solopreneur but could be a limitation for those working with a team.

Overall, while Upbase does have some drawbacks, its extensive feature set, focus on personal productivity, and affordability make it a noteworthy contender in the project management software market, especially for solopreneurs.

What to Look for in Project Software Management for Solopreneurs

As a solopreneur, your time is a precious resource. Streamlining your processes, tasks, and projects can be a game-changer for your productivity, allowing you to focus more on what you do best. Here are some key aspects to consider when selecting a project management tool for solopreneurs:

1. Effective Task Management

At the heart of any project management software is task management. The software you choose should allow you to quickly and easily create tasks, set due dates, assign priorities, and track progress. A visual task management feature like a Kanban board can be particularly useful for solopreneurs.

2. Simplicity and Ease of Use

As a solopreneur, you likely don’t have a team to turn to for technical support. Therefore, your project management software should be easy to use and understand. It should have a user-friendly interface and not require an extensive learning curve.

3. Integration Capabilities

A project management tool that integrates seamlessly with the other tools and software you use can significantly improve your efficiency. Look for a tool that works well with your email client, calendar, file storage, and other crucial tools you rely on.

4. Scalability

While you might be a one-person operation now, you want your project management tool to be able to grow with you. Look for software that can easily scale up and add more users or more complex projects as your business evolves.

5. Budget-Friendly

As a solopreneur, you likely have to be mindful of costs. Fortunately, there are many project management tools that offer robust features at affordable prices. Some even offer free versions that might be sufficient for your needs.

Project Management Software for Solopreneurs FAQs

Choosing The Best Project Management Software for Solopreneurs

Project management software isn’t reserved for massive teams or complex projects alone. Solopreneurs stand to gain much from these dynamic tools as they offer organization, improved productivity, and comprehensive task management.

Remember, the best software for you will depend on your unique needs, the nature of your business, your working style, and your budget. Make sure to consider all these factors before making your final choice. No matter which you select, integrating project management software can revolutionize your workflow, providing you with more time to focus on what you do best: running your business.