The 10 Most Popular Project Management Software Products

Last year, we saw notable growth in the number of small-business buyers looking for their first project management (PM) software solution.

In 2014, this group made up 46 percent of those who contacted Software Advice; in 2015, this jumped to 60 percent. (The number of buyers looking to replace their existing system remained steady, at 35 percent).

With 2016 underway, we anticipate continued growth in the PM market.

Many businesses today are replacing manual project management methods with software, while others are outgrowing current systems and looking to upgrade. The most popular project management software products on the market generally include:

• Basic task management and time tracking functionality.

• More advanced capabilities, such as project planning, budgeting and resource management.

To help guide buyers as they evaluate PM solutions, we’ve ranked the most popular project management software products.

This metric allows buyers to see which solutions are in high demand across a range of business models and sizes:

Expand all

Collapse all

 Adoption rate    Online searches for brand    Social followers

Rank

Product

Combined Score

• 1

  Microsoft Projects

  5.0

  5.0 

  4.7 

  5.0 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 29%Adoption rate

  • 40,500Online searchers for brand

  • 7,549,637Facebook followers

  • 7,370,000Twitter followers

  • 2,708,536LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 2

  Asana

  4.0

  3.9 

  4.9 

  5.0 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 7%Adoption rate

  • 165,000Online searchers for brand

  • 124,952Facebook followers

  • 87,100Twitter followers

  • 9,286LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 3

  Basecamp

  4.0

  4.4 

  2.6 

  3.0 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 10%Adoption rate

  • 880Online searchers for brand

  • 4,817Facebook followers

  • 113,000Twitter followers

  • 5,637LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 4

  Mavenlink

  3.3

  3.3 

  4.0 

  2.2 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 6%Adoption rate

  • 9,900Online searchers for brand

  • 17,991Facebook followers

  • 7,304Twitter followers

  • 3,793LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 5

  Smartsheet

  3.0

  2.8 

  4.6 

  2.3 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 5%Adoption rate

  • 74,000Online searchers for brand

  • 8,796Facebook followers

  • 7,974Twitter followers

  • 6,509LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 6

  Wrike

  2.5

  2.2 

  4.3 

  2.1 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 4%Adoption rate

  • 18,100Online searchers for brand

  • 10,721Facebook followers

  • 6,106Twitter followers

  • 7,504LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 7

  Trello

  1.9

  1.1 

  5.0 

  3.3 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 2%Adoption rate

  • 201,000Online searchers for brand

  • 58,311Facebook followers

  • 98,600Twitter followers

  • 4,180LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 8

  Zoho Projects

  1.7

  1.1 

  3.3 

  3.5 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 2%Adoption rate

  • 2,900Online searchers for brand

  • 49,325Facebook followers

  • 24,700Twitter followers

  • 30,711LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 9

  JIRA

  1.6

  1.1 

  2.5 

  3.6 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 2%Adoption rate

  • 720Online searchers for brand

  • 42,356Facebook followers

  • 47,400Twitter followers

  • 46,615LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

• 10

  WorkZone

  1.4

  1.7 

  0.9 

  0.4 

  Price Watch Demo

  • 3%Adoption rate

  • 70Online searchers for brand

  • 153Facebook followers

  • 355Twitter followers

  • 281LinkedIn followers

  Price

  Watch Demo

To arrive at the rankings above, we analyzed vendors according to the following metrics:

Adoption rate: This factor reflects the number of people using the product on at least a weekly basis. We conducted an original survey of software users to gather this data. We weighted user adoption level the most in calculating overall scores for products.

Online searches for brand: This factor reflects the number of times the product name and related phrases are searched in Google per month. We weighted this factor more than social followers, but less than user adoption.

Social followers: This factor reflects the number of people who’ve “liked” or “followed” the accounts of the vendor on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We weighted this factor significantly less than the other two factors.

The above popularity ranking reflects comprehensive solutions that have distinguished themselves in the PM market. To arrive at these calculations, we scored products based on three factors:

• Number of users

• Search traffic

• Social followers

The following charts show the top 10 products in each contributing category, prior to being collated into our overall popularity ranking:

Based on Number of Users: Top 10 PM Products

Based on Monthly Search Volume: Top 10 PM Products

The Top 10 PM Vendors by Number of Social Followers

If you have comments or would like to obtain access to any of the charts above, please contact eileen@softwareadvice.com.