The 7 best project management mobile apps of 2015

Project managers continue to advance as invaluable resources to businesses of all sizes. They are information powerhouses and masters at planning, facilitating, scheduling, communicating and conflict resolution. With workforces becoming increasingly mobile, project managers also require access to powerful project management mobile apps to streamline and simplify PM processes.

With so many mobile apps out there, it’s difficult to determine which ones are best for your company. Here are seven of best project management apps, their features, capabilities and pricing.

Asana is available on Android and iOS platforms and features high-level views of projects through dashboards, the capability for project managers to share projects with smaller groups within a team, as well as with unlimited clients, vendors, contractors, other third-parties and organization guests. Priority support is available through premium plans that offer dedicated “Success Managers” who provide front-line support and help companies maximize use of the app to meet their needs. Project managers can use Asana to plan their day, visualize goals and milestones, set tasks and due dates, and communicate priorities and offers central administration and billing. With Asana, companies can also manage their users, admins and configure authentication.

Asana integrates with just about every other platform out there, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Slack, Evernote, Github, WordPress, Jira, Mailchimp, Zendesk, Xendo and many more.

Pricing ranges from one member at $21/user per month up to as much as $834 per user/month for up to 100 members, with fees paid on an annual basis.

Clarizen has robust scalablePM software,available on Android and iOS platforms. It offers project portfolio management, project planning, document management, templates, resource management, change request and case management, social collaboration, task management, budget and expense management, email collaboration using Clarizen InterAct, risk management and Clarizen Panels.    

Clarizen integrates with a host of leading platforms as well, including Excel, Salesforce, Google Docs, iCal Calendar, Active Directory sync, Box, Chrome Extension, Holiday Loader, Google maps, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Testuff, Intacct, Onelogin, Box, Jira, and Digital Proofing.

Pricing ranges from $30/user per month for the Professional edition, which is suitable for small to medium businesses; $45/user per month for the Enterprise edition, allowing some business rule customization for enterprises; and $60/user per month for the Unlimited edition, offering unlimited customization for large business. All plans are based on a 36-month plan paid in advance. Clarizen may be expensive in comparison to many other software providers, but they are considered a world-class PM software vendor.

According to LiquidPlanner CEO Liz Pearce, “There are few jobs in the world today that are as complex and dynamic as project management. Our goal is to help organizations to tame the chaos and uncertainty in work, to be able to keep pace with constant change, and ultimately to drive growth in their own businesses. We consider ourselves partners in planning, which is why we provide not just software, but training and personalized consultations to our customers.” LiquidPlanner offers a top-notch PM App also available on Android and iOS platforms. LiquidPlanner is a unique predictive project management tool for mid-market IT and technology companies and departmental enterprise deployment. Its proprietary scheduling engine automates portfolio project management and predicts project completion based on three primary inputs, and a risk assessment calculation that captures uncertainty in every task/project across the portfolio in real-time. LiquidPlanner’s key features include prioritizing work and projects by simply dragging and dropping. It allows for estimating best /worst case time requirements for tasks by project contributor. Additionally it tracks resources assigned to the project, their workloads and availability remaining, which ensures work schedules are booked with the highest priority work, without being overbooked. LiquidPlanners’ project workspace provides significant business intelligence and offers dashboards & reports to enhance project & portfolio.

Currently, LiquidPlanner integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Zapier,Jira and Salesforce, and has an open API that makes it easy to connect to other Web-based systems.

Pricing: There is a 10-user minimum for all service levels and LiquidPlanner can be paid monthly or annually across three service tiers. The Silver tier is $29/user per month when purchased annually; the Professional tier is $39 per user/per month when purchased annually; and the Enterprise tier is $49/user per month when purchased annually.

Mavenlink’s PM app is also accessible via Android and iOS platforms, specializes in the professional services market, and its PM software offers resource planning, project accounting and advanced business intelligence capabilities. With this app PMOs can use templates to replicate and visualize success using various timeline charting tools; Mavenlink can track changes effectively and in a timely manner.

In addition to its project management software, Mavenlink has just announced the release of Mavenlink Insights, an enterprise-grade business intelligence (BI) product designed for professional services firms. According to Mavenlink, “Insights gives executives, finance teams and project managers’ visibility into trends and issues impacting their businesses so they can make swift, informed decisions and improve business performance.” According to Mavenlink’s CEO and co-founder, Ray Grainger “Mavenlink Insights is more than reporting and goes beyond generic business intelligence. It’s an in-depth analysis of the data behind your services business: what is happening, why is it happening and what can be done to improve it.”

Mavenlink integrations include Salesforce, Netsuite, Jira, Quickbooks and Google Drive; they also offer customized integrations through their API.

Pricing: For up to five users is a monthly subscription of $19/user per month for the Teams package, $29/user per month for the Professional package and a Premier package is also available. All packages are paid in full annually.

Podio has developed a small business-friendly and easy-to-use project management app that also works with Android and iOS platforms. It is highly customizable, allowing companies to select the features they need as well as the ability rebrand it to fit team needs. Podio is social media friendly and features include workspaces, communications and online meetings, tasks and calendaring, and file sharing with apps that are drag-and-drop for simplicity. Podio’s workflows allow for what-if scenarios; workspaces are used to manage projects and connect people and can be set as private, open or employee only.

Integrations with Podio include Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Evernote, Microsoft Exchange, Zendesk, Sharefile, Campaign Monitor, GoToMeeting, Fresh books, Excel add-ins, Hightail, OneDrive, Zapier and Sugarsync.

Pricing starts at $9/user per month for the Basic plan, $14/user per month for the Plus plan, $24/user per month for the premium plan, and an Enterprise plan is also available. All plans offer an unlimited number of users and offer different features.

Trello is available on Android and iOS platforms also and accommodates individuals, as well small and medium-size businesses.  Its features include agile project management, budgeting, collaboration, customization, issue tracking, learning and support, notifications, task management and traditional project management functionality. Trello also offers budget and expense tracking, reporting, resource management and project notifications. Where Trello really shines brightest is in the task management arena. This PM software is highly visual and also utilizes drag-and-drop capabilities.

Trello currently integrates with Zapier, Usersnap, Slack, Pivotal Tracker, Marketo, Hubstaff, Dropbox, Desk.com, Bitium, SupportBee, Catchapp and more.

Pricing for Trello includes a free plan for individuals, with the option to upgrade to the “Gold” plan at $5/user per month for additional functionality. A Business plan is available for $8.33/user per month and there is an Enterprise plan for $20.83/user per month. All plans are paid in full annually.

Zoho Project is available on Android and iOS platforms and offers traditional and agile project management, collaboration and tracking of bugs which can be of great use for software development projects, all with a 360-degree view of every project. Zoho Project allows teams to create task lists, share documents, set dependencies and host chat discussions.  Zoho offers reporting tools that provide visibility using advanced analytics, business intelligence and several other great features for small to medium-sized businesses. With Zoho, project managers can create custom reports and allocate resources across multiple projects.

Zoho integrations include Google Apps, Evernote, Dropbox, GitHub and other Zoho apps.

Pricing with Zoho allows for one free project, then $20/month for up to 20 projects on the Express plan, $40/month for up to 50 projects on the Premium plan, or $80/month for unlimited projects on the Enterprise plan.

In addition to these PM apps, there are a few other impressive contenders like Smartsheet, Wrike, Basecamp, Omniplan, Casual and 10,000ft that are worth looking into.