As your software development team searches for project management software to save time and boost productivity, you may come across Wrike and Zoho Projects. Which is the better PM software? We will break down each regarding features, pricing, and pros and cons so you can answer that question.
Reading: Top collaboration tools for developers
wrike features
wrike is no slouch when it comes to features. Here are some of the capabilities it can offer to project managers to help your development team stay organized and productive, including templates, enhanced views for data visualization, task tracking, time and budget management, reporting, and file sharing, to name just a few :
- Multiple views to help project managers visualize data according to their liking (Gantt chart, table, Kanban board, calendar)
- Time-saving templates geared specifically towards Agile development teams, IT, etc.
- Create tasks within milestones to track project progress
- Unlimited task, subtask, project, and folder creation
- Team workspaces can be customized to your developers’ specific needs
- Budgeting capabilities via the table view
- Stream feature offers a feed of recent project updates that users can comment on
- Workload charts offer insight into how much developers have to do and whether they can accept more work
- Integrated time tracking
- Time-saving automation for recurring tasks
- Third-party integrations with Zoom, Slack, etc.
- Real time reporting
- File sharing, proofing, approvals, live document editing, etc., for team collaboration
Wrike Pricing: How Much Does Wrike Cost?
Wrike has five pricing plans for development teams to choose from. The free plan has project and task management, board and table views, and desktop, web, and mobile access.
The Team plan costs $9.80 per user, per month. It helps growing development teams of 2-25 users boost productivity via unlimited projects, custom fields, request forms, and tasks and subtasks. The Team plan also offers automations, interactive Gantt charts, free access for 20 collaborators, integrations, custom workflows, dashboards, and analytics and calendar views.
For $24.80 per user, per month, project managers can access Wrike’s most popular Business plan. It serves 5-200 users and offers Team plan features, plus custom item types, cross-tagging, file and video proofing, reports, unlimited dashboards, approvals and guest approvals, user groups and permissions, and more.
Large development teams can contact Wrike for custom pricing for its Enterprise plan. It works for unlimited users and offers the Business plan’s features, plus admin permissions, customizable user types, password policies, 2FA, custom access roles, and more.
Wrike’s top plan is Pinnacle, which also has custom pricing. It offers everything from Enterprise, plus job roles, budgeting, locked spaces, advanced reporting, and other top-notch tools for complex work.
Wrike Pros and Cons
Wrike excels in several areas, making it an attractive choice for PMs and development teams. The software gives developers multiple ways to collaborate and has enough features to be used for various departments within an organization and teams of all sizes. Wrike’s dashboard is tough to beat, and it’s also strong in terms of automation, task management, and reporting.
While Wrike has plenty of advanced features to offer development teams seeking an organizational and productivity boost, it can take a while to learn how to use all of that functionality. Smaller teams on tight budgets may find Wrike a bit pricey, and if you want a solid mobile solution to manage projects on the go, its mobile app may not be your cup of tea.
You can learn more about Wrike by reading our Wrike Project Management Software Review.
Zoho Projects Features
Zoho Projects has several features to attract project managers and development teams seeking a PM software solution, such as issue management, integration with Zoho Sprints for Agile developers, custom views and automations, and task dependencies:
- Feeds, forums, chat, mentions, email, and document sharing for team collaboration
- Issue management that lets developers list bugs, assign them to team members, and track them to ensure they get fixed fast
- The ability to break down complex projects into simpler tasks, subtasks, task lists, and milestones
- A universal add tab to quickly add work items like issues, tasks, events, documents, or users
- Multiple views for visualizing progress and tasks (classic, plain, Kanban board, Gantt chart)
- Task dependencies
- A portfolio dashboard that offers an overall view of projects, tasks, and issues
- Integration with Zoho Sprints for Agile project management
- Custom views, fields, functions, templates, and statuses
- Automations through the Blueprint feature that minimize mundane work
- Time management via timers, timesheets, and a calendar
- Invoicing and budgeting
- Task, issue, and timesheet reports, as well as planned vs actual to prevent budget overruns
- Integrations with Zoho tools (Sprints, Analytics, Desk, etc.) and third-party tools (Google Calendar, Microsoft Excel, Slack, etc.)
Zoho Projects Pricing: How Much Does Zoho Projects Cost?
Zoho Projects keeps it simple when it comes to pricing. Project managers and development teams get three pricing plans to choose from, beginning with the Free plan that gives you task management, Gantt charts, project feeds, forums, calendars, basic task and issue reports, limited storage, and mobile apps at no cost. The free plan can be used for up to three users and two projects.
The most popular Zoho Projects offering is the Premium plan, which costs $4 per user, per month with annual billing. It has everything from the Free plan, plus unlimited projects, 20 templates, 100GB storage, custom views, automation, project planned vs. actual, resource management, and budgeting.
Lastly is the Zoho Projects Enterprise plan, which costs $9 per user, per month. It has all of Premium’s features, plus 30 templates, 120GB storage, a portfolio dashboard, critical path and baseline, inter-project dependencies, custom fields and roles, task workflow rules, and enhanced security.
Zoho Projects Pros And Cons
Zoho Projects has several pros that could convince a development team to pick it for their project management needs. The software is simple to use, and project managers and developers can start adding tasks, milestones, and more with ease. Its Kanban, task list, and Gantt chart views offer flexibility for visualizing progress, and the customizable dashboard can be tweaked to fit your needs. Other reasons to pick Zoho Projects include integrated time tracking, several collaborative features, Zoho apps that extend functionality, integrations with third-party apps, bug tracking, and budget-friendly pricing.
What are Zoho Projects’ cons? Large teams may find its reporting to be lacking, and while helpful, the Gantt charts and Kanban boards can be a bit clunky.
You can learn more by reading our Zoho Projects PM Software Review.
Wrike And Zoho Projects Differences
One of the few knocks against Wrike is that it can be costly compared to other project management software. This is especially true when you compare Wrike’s pricing directly to Zoho Projects.
How else do Wrike and Zoho Projects differ? Both offer automations, but Zoho Projects offer more and is easier to use in that department. Zoho Projects has issue tracking, forums, chat, integrated audio/video conferencing, meetings, planned versus actual, and can serve unlimited users. Zoho Projects also has a more intuitive interface, a better mobile app, and is easier to adopt and customize.
And, while that may seem like Zoho Projects pushes past the competition, know that Wrike holds its own in terms of excellent reporting, post-project feedback, top-notch task management, security, and a robust free version that can help small development teams manage projects at no cost.
Wrike Vs. Zoho Projects: The Verdict
Which is the best PM software for your development team’s needs? If you are picking between Wrike and Zoho Projects, the answer to that question depends on what you are looking for. If you place a premium on user-friendliness, collaboration, managing projects on the go via mobile, and affordability, then Zoho Projects is probably your best bet. But if your development team needs PM software that is highly secure and excels in managing complex tasks and generating data-rich reports, then Wrike may be the better fit.
Project management tools and software for programmers
Still not convinced Wrike or Zoho Projects is the right tool for your software development team or remote programmers? We have a list of the Best Project Management Software and Tools to help you find more options.
