15 Best Agile project management tools

Progress tracking and team collaboration are vital for maintaining the flow of Agile projects.

This is easily done through Agile project management tools, which you can use to supplement your standard software development tools.

In this article, we will take a look at the 15 best Agile PM tools that you’d want to use in your Agile project management ventures in 2023.

What is Agile?

Coursera defines Agile as “an approach to project management that centers around incremental and iterative steps to completing projects”.

What is an Agile project management tool?

Agile project management software is firstly a PM tool, so it should have task management options, with features that lead to better team collaboration. 

But, it needs to expand upon these requests, adding features that are specifically useful for Agile project management, such as:

• Kanban boards,
• Backlog management,
• Scrum boards,
• Sprint planning options, etc.

What are the top Agile project management tools? 

There are a great number of tools on the market for Agile project management. 

We have selected the top 15 for you to consider depending on what you’re looking for.

#1: Plaky — best free Agile tool

As a free online project management platform, the versatility of Plaky makes it a great tool for Agile teams. 

Plaky makes it easy to set up Sprints, thanks to its intuitive and smooth task creation process. And if you prefer the Kanban framework, it also offers a Kanban board view.

Some of Plaky’s features include:

• A user-friendly interface,
• Public and private boards,
• Time-tracking with Clockify, 
• A selection of board templates, and
• 24/7 support. 

#2: Monday.com — best for visual progress tracking

Monday.com is a great all-rounder for all your project management needs and its capabilities are particularly suitable for Agile teams. 

Some of its features are:

• An intuitive interface,
• Automations,
• 24/7 support, and 
• A progress tracking column. 

Unfortunately, monday.com offers only 2 seats in the free plan.  

#3: ClickUp — best for teams with complex projects 

ClickUp is a functional tool for Agile project management. 

It’s highly customizable and offers a plethora of features, including:

• Over 10 view options,
• A virtual whiteboard for ideas, and
• Tasks with dependencies, custom fields, and statuses, and 5 levels of priority.  

With so many options to choose from, ClickUp can be a bit overwhelming. 

But if you dedicate yourself to mastering it, in return you will get a highly customizable tool with tons of features to help you manage your workflow. 

#4: Trello — best for smaller projects

Trello is a piece of software inspired by the Kanban system, so it is more than suitable for Agile project management.

This app is best for small teams or small-scale projects.

It offers:

• Well-designed Kanban boards,
• A plethora of customization options, and
• Built-in automations in all plans.

However, it doesn’t offer a built-in time-tracking system.

#5: Asana — best for Scrum teams

Asana is a platform with all the necessary functionalities of Agile software and a pleasant interface design. 

Some of its key features are:

• Goal visualization,
• Great automation options, and
• A Sprint planning template.

The downside of Asana is that a lot of features are available only in paid plans, which are quite expensive. 

#6: Jira — best for software development

Jira is an Agile tool primarily made for IT professionals.

Its stand-out features are:

• An integrated environment for code development,
• 3,000+ integrations,
• Templates for bug tracking, DevOps, web design processes, etc.

Still, being designed for software developers, Jira can be a bit difficult to use for people who aren’t as tech-savvy. 

#7: Notion — best for collaboration on pages and docs

Notion is a project management tool built on a system of customizable notes, docs, and wikis.

Its simplicity and visual style make it a great tool for your Agile project management needs.

Notion offers:

• Guest access on all plans,
• Status categories and sub-categories,
• Notion AI, and
• Collaboration on pages in real time.

However, Notion’s audit log and Workspace analytics are available only in the Enterprise plan. 

#8: Wrike — best for resource management

Wrike is a project management tool that focuses on resource management in mid to large-scale organizations.

Some of Wrike’s useful features are:

• User-friendly Automation Engine,
• Resource view, and
• Time-tracking software.

One thing to consider is that Wrike can be quite expensive for bigger teams.

#9: Smartsheet — best for project scaling 

Smartsheet is an Agile PM tool that comes with a variety of features and interface customization options.

Some of its notable features are:

• Dashboards with an overview of your data,
• Control center add-on,
• Portfolio reporting, and
• Scalable data collection. 

Unfortunately, Smartsheet’s free plan is limited to only 1 user. 

#10: Teamwork — best for client work

Teamwork is an Agile tool built specifically for client work.

Some of its prominent features are:

• Built-in time tracking,
• Reports such as the Profitability Report, Planned vs Actual Report, and Utilization Report,
• Client-related features such as Client View, Client User, and User Rates, and 
• Invoices on all plans.

Teamwork’s free plan includes milestones, dashboards, and dependencies, but it’s available only for up to 3 users. 

#11: ActiveCollab — best for time management

ActiveCollab is an Agile tool that puts focus on time management. 

It’s visually well-organized and aims to give you complete control over your workflow.

ActiveCollab offers:

• Workload management software,
• Time tracking for projects and tasks,
• Time estimates, and
• Expense tracking.

Still, its task management options need some work. 

#12: ZohoSprints — best for release management

Zoho Sprints is one of the project management tools developed by Zoho. As its name suggests, it was created specifically for Agile projects, trying to make the lives of Scrum teams easier. 

It offers: 

• A variety of charts and reports,
• Affordable plans, and
• Integration with other Zoho apps.

The problem with this tool is that the UI can be a bit unintuitive and difficult to use.

#13: Pivotal Tracker — best for issue tracking

Pivotal Tracker is another tool created for software developers that implements Agile principles.

The basic unit in Pivotal Tracker is a Story — a succinct description of a function, a problem, or a new idea.

Its features include:

• A collaborative workspace, 
• Estimates of Stories’ difficulty, and
• Many integrations related to issue tracking. 

However, its Startup and Standard plans don’t offer much more than the free plan.

#14: Taiga — best for switching between Kanban and Scrum

Taiga is a free Agile project management tool that’s different from all the others in this article in one major way — it’s open source. 

Experienced programmers can use this to build upon the system and customize it more thoroughly to their needs.

Taiga offers:

• Unlimited users and projects for free,
• Scrum boards with Sprint planning, estimations, and burn-down charts, and
• Kanban boards with WIP limitations, epics, and sub-tasks.

Unfortunately, Taiga lacks templates.

#15: Hygger — best for prioritization

Hygger is an interesting alternative to bigger names on the market, giving all the expected functionalities of an Agile tool, with little to no downsides. 

It offers:

• A free plan with unlimited users, projects, and boards,
• 6 different ways of prioritization, and 
• Threads in comments.

The downside of Hygger is that there are only 10 integrations available. 

How to pick the right project management tool?

When picking an Agile PM tool for your business, ask yourself:

• How big is my team?
• How much time and resources do I have for Agile tool onboarding?
• What will my team focus on most?
• What kind of reports and analysis do I expect from my Agile tool?
• Will I require templates for assistance in board creation?

And then choose accordingly. 

Conclusion: Using a PM tool is essential for Agile and will yield great results

When you get your team used to a specific Agile tool, you’ll see efficiency in work and employee satisfaction skyrocket, with the tools allowing your projects to run more smoothly.

And, as you venture into your Agile management endeavors, keep in mind that your software of choice can greatly increase the efficiency of your projects, so choose your tools wisely.