For a team under 20 people, the right project management platform is the difference between hitting deadlines and losing a Friday afternoon to status-update meetings. It turns messy Slack threads, half-remembered decisions, and scattered to-do lists into a single source of truth — who is doing what, by when, and where things stand.
We spent 35 hours testing eight project management platforms that are well-suited to UK small businesses in 2026. We set up a realistic multi-project workspace for each, imported 50 tasks, built a small team workflow, connected Gmail and Microsoft 365, and measured how long it took to go from empty account to usable system.
Our top pick for most UK small businesses is Asana — it hits the best balance of ease of use, features, and price for teams of 2 to 20. If you’re on a zero budget, Trello or ClickUp Free are both genuinely workable. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Planner is probably already in your subscription and worth trying before you buy anything else.
Our top picks
- Best overall for small teams: Asana — from around £9 per user/month
- Best free option: Trello — genuinely usable free tier, unlimited cards
- Best all-in-one: ClickUp — tasks, docs, goals, chat on one platform
- Best for visual workflows: monday work management — flexible boards
- Best for Microsoft 365 users: Microsoft Planner — included with most M365 plans
- Best for client/agency work: Teamwork — purpose-built for billable projects
- Best for documentation-heavy teams: Notion — docs, tasks and wikis in one
- Best for founders who want structure not tools: Basecamp — flat pricing, opinionated workflow
Comparison table
| Platform | Free plan | Starting paid price (GBP, excl. VAT) | Best for | UK/EU data hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asana | Yes (up to 10 users) | ~£9/user/month (Starter, annual) | All-round small business projects | Yes (EU data region available on Enterprise) |
| Trello | Yes (unlimited cards, 10 boards) | ~£4/user/month (Standard) | Visual task management | Yes |
| ClickUp | Yes (unlimited users, 100MB) | ~£6/user/month (Unlimited) | All-in-one work platform | Yes |
| monday work management | Free (2 seats) | ~£9/seat/month (Basic, 3-seat min.) | Flexible visual workflows | Yes |
| Microsoft Planner | Included with most M365 Business plans | From £4.30/user/month (Plan 1 add-on) | Microsoft 365 shops | Yes (UK data residency) |
| Teamwork | Free (up to 5 users) | ~£9/user/month (Starter) | Agencies and client work | Yes |
| Notion | Free (unlimited personal use) | ~£8/user/month (Plus) | Docs + tasks in one place | Yes (EU data hosting available) |
| Basecamp | 30-day trial | $15/user/month or $299/month flat (Pro Unlimited) | Distributed small teams | US only |
All prices billed annually unless noted. Monthly billing typically adds 20–25%. Verified April 2026. Most vendors charge in USD at UK checkout so prices in UK Pounds are approximate; always verify on the vendor’s own site.
How we tested
For each platform we created a free trial or free account, set up a three-project workspace (a website redesign, a product launch, and a back-office admin board), invited two test users, and imported 50 realistic tasks with deadlines, assignees, and dependencies. We connected Gmail and Microsoft 365, set up automated reminders, and ran the workspace for a week.
Scoring weighted five criteria: ease of setup (20%), core project management features (25%), collaboration features like comments and file sharing (15%), value for money in GBP (20%), and UK-relevant considerations including data residency and Microsoft 365 integration (20%).
1. Asana
Best overall for small teams
Pricing: Free for up to 10 users (basic boards, lists, calendar). Starter from around £9 per user/month (billed annually). Advanced from around £21/user/month.
Best for: small teams of 5 to 50 running multiple concurrent projects.
Asana is the platform we recommend for most UK small businesses. It strikes the best balance between depth and simplicity on this list — powerful enough to run a complex product launch, simple enough that a non-technical colleague can be productive in an afternoon.
Views include list, board, timeline (Gantt), and calendar; all four are available on the Starter plan. You can move between views on the same project without losing context, which matters when a marketing person wants a calendar view of the same work an engineer wants as a list.
The Starter plan is the sweet spot for most small teams. It unlocks timeline view, custom fields, forms, rules-based automation, and unlimited dashboards. The free plan is generous enough to trial Asana properly — up to 10 users, unlimited tasks, and basic collaboration — but most growing teams will want Starter’s automations and timeline within a few months.
Pros: Excellent balance of power and approachability. Four useful views out of the box. Strong automation (Rules) on the Starter tier. Great mobile apps. 200+ native integrations.
Cons: No native time tracking until the Advanced plan. Goals feature is only on Advanced. Pricing adds up quickly past 15 users.
Verdict: The default recommendation for a UK small business that wants one tool for everything project-related.
2. Trello
Best free option
Pricing: Free (unlimited cards, 10 boards per workspace, unlimited users). Standard around £4/user/month, Premium around £8/user/month, Enterprise around £14/user/month.
Best for: small teams that want a visual Kanban board and not much else.
Trello is the most approachable project management tool ever made. If a team member has never used software like this before, they’ll be productive within 10 minutes. The Kanban board — columns, cards, drag-and-drop — is the entire interface, and for a lot of small businesses that’s genuinely enough.
The free plan is properly usable: unlimited users, 10 boards per workspace, basic automation via Trello’s Butler bot, and unlimited Power-Ups (integrations) since 2023. For teams who just want to track who is doing what, the free plan can last indefinitely.
The limitation is that Trello is a single-view tool. If you need a Gantt chart, a calendar spanning multiple boards, or a spreadsheet-like view of tasks across projects, you’ll need to upgrade to Premium (£8/user/month) — at which point Asana or ClickUp look like better value.
Pros: Instant to learn. Genuinely useful free plan. Great mobile experience. Power-Ups extend functionality without bloating the core product.
Cons: Single view philosophy limits complex projects. Reporting is very basic even on paid plans. Premium pricing is not dramatically cheaper than Asana Starter.
Verdict: The right answer if your only PM need is a shared Kanban board. Outgrown quickly if you need Gantts, dependencies, or cross-project reporting.
3. ClickUp
Best all-in-one platform
Pricing: Free (unlimited users, 100MB storage). Unlimited around £6/user/month. Business around £10/user/month. AI add-on around £4/user/month.
Best for: technically confident small teams who want one tool for tasks, docs, chat, and goals.
ClickUp is the most feature-packed platform on this list. It includes tasks, docs, whiteboards, goals, native chat, time tracking, forms, and automation — all on a single platform. For a small business that would otherwise buy three or four tools (PM, docs, chat, time tracking), ClickUp can replace all of them.
The trade-off is complexity. The free plan is a real plan, with unlimited users and tasks — but the interface exposes so many options that non-technical colleagues often feel overwhelmed. Expect to invest more time up-front configuring ClickUp than you would Asana or Trello.
Pros: Huge feature set on every plan. Unlimited users on the free tier. Strong automation. Native time tracking (unlike Asana).
Cons: Steep learning curve. Interface can feel cluttered. Occasional performance issues on larger workspaces. AI features require a £4/user/month add-on.
Verdict: Worth the configuration effort for a small team that wants to consolidate tools; overkill for a team that just wants a shared task list.
4. monday work management
Best for visual workflows
Pricing: Free (2 seats, 3 boards). Basic around £9/seat/month. Standard around £11/seat/month. Pro around £19/seat/month. 3-seat minimum on all paid plans, billed annually.
Best for: teams that want to shape their own workflow and aren’t put off by a minimum-seat charge.
monday’s work management product is the flexible, colourful cousin of its sales CRM. Everything is built around the concept of a “board” — a customisable table where each row is a task, project, or item, and each column is a field you define. Boards can be visualised as timelines, calendars, Kanbans, Gantts, or workload views.
It’s an excellent platform if your work doesn’t fit a pre-defined template — you build exactly the workflow you need. That flexibility is also its weakness: it can take longer to configure than more opinionated tools like Asana or Trello.
The 3-seat minimum means the cheapest realistic paid plan is about £27/month (Basic) or £33/month (Standard). If you’re a one-person business or duo, monday’s paid plans are not cost-efficient.
Pros: Highly flexible. Gorgeous, colour-coded interface. Excellent automations. Strong reporting.
Cons: 3-seat minimum inflates the entry price. Configuration overhead. No native time tracking until Pro.
Verdict: Great for a team of 3 or more who want to shape their own workflow. Skip if you’re solo or a duo.
5. Microsoft Planner
Best for Microsoft 365 users
Pricing: Included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium at no extra cost. Planner Plan 1 (standalone) from £4.30/user/month. Planner and Project Plan 3 from £22.60/user/month.
Best for: small businesses already paying for Microsoft 365.
If you already have Microsoft 365 for Office, email and Teams, you already have Planner. The base version is bundled into most Business plans and sits inside the Teams app as a tab you can add to any channel.
In April 2026 terms, this is the single biggest “free” project management tool available to a UK small business — because you’re already paying for it. It won’t match Asana or ClickUp on features (no Gantt chart on the base version, limited automation), but for a team that lives in Teams and Outlook, the zero friction of not introducing a new tool is often worth more than the extra features.
Microsoft also rebranded Project for the Web as Planner Premium, which adds Gantt charts, resource management, and dependencies for teams that need more.
Pros: Effectively free if you’re on Microsoft 365. Deep integration with Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and To Do. UK data residency available on enterprise plans.
Cons: Base version lacks advanced features. Interface feels less polished than Asana or ClickUp. Requires a Microsoft 365 subscription to be useful.
Verdict: Try Planner first if you’re already on Microsoft 365. Only upgrade to a paid PM tool if it’s genuinely not enough.
6. Teamwork
Best for agencies and client work
Pricing: Free for up to 5 users. Starter around £9/user/month. Deliver around £11/user/month. Grow around £19/user/month.
Best for: agencies, consultants and service businesses that run projects on behalf of clients.
Teamwork is the only platform on this list built specifically for client work. It has the core PM features (tasks, milestones, Gantt) but adds billable-hours tracking, client user seats (free on most plans), invoicing, and project budgeting as standard.
If you run a marketing agency, a design studio, a web development shop, or a consultancy — anywhere the project is the product you’re selling — Teamwork is worth trialling before more general tools. The ability to give clients limited views into their own projects, without paying for extra seats, is a real cost-saver compared to Asana or monday.
Pros: Purpose-built for client projects. Free client users. Native time tracking and invoicing. Strong UK agency community.
Cons: Interface is less modern than Asana or ClickUp. Non-agency teams will find a lot of features they don’t need.
Verdict: The first tool to try if you run a service business that bills clients for projects.
7. Notion
Best for documentation-heavy teams
Pricing: Free (unlimited pages and blocks for individuals, limited for teams). Plus around £8/user/month. Business around £14/user/month. Notion AI add-on around £6/user/month.
Best for: teams that write a lot — writers, researchers, consultancies, product teams.
Notion blurs the line between document and database. A “page” can be a wiki, a task list, a project tracker, or a meeting note — and databases inside Notion can be viewed as lists, boards, calendars, timelines, or tables.
For a team whose work revolves around writing and documentation, Notion can replace Confluence, Google Docs, and a basic project tracker with one tool. The trade-off is that Notion is a weaker pure-PM tool than Asana or ClickUp — dependencies and resource management are thin.
Pros: Excellent for documentation + lightweight project tracking. Very flexible. Strong community templates. Notion AI is genuinely useful.
Cons: Weaker project management features than dedicated tools. Performance can suffer on large workspaces. Permissions model takes some getting used to.
Verdict: Great if your work is writing-heavy; secondary choice if you need serious PM features like critical-path Gantts.
8. Basecamp
Best for founders who want structure
Pricing: Basecamp Plus at $15/user/month (around £12). Basecamp Pro Unlimited at a flat $299/month (around £240) for unlimited users, billed annually.
Best for: founder-led teams of 10 or more who want predictable pricing.
Basecamp is the opinionated outlier on this list. Rather than letting you shape your own workflow, it insists on its own — six tools per project (to-dos, message board, chat, schedule, docs & files, and automatic check-ins) — and nothing more.
The flat $299/month Pro Unlimited plan is the pricing model small businesses often love: past 20 users, it becomes the cheapest platform on this list by a large margin. For a team of 50 running on Basecamp Pro, the effective cost is £4.80/user/month.
The downsides: no Gantt charts, no time tracking, no advanced reporting. Basecamp deliberately leaves those out — its philosophy is that most teams don’t need them. Whether that’s freeing or frustrating is personal.
Pros: Opinionated workflow reduces decision overhead. Flat pricing past 20 users. Clean interface. Strong mobile apps.
Cons: No Gantt chart. No time tracking. Data hosted in the US only. Philosophy won’t suit teams who want to customise.
Verdict: Worth considering once you’re past 20 users; generally over-priced below that threshold.
How to choose the right project management software
Four questions to answer before committing:
1. How many users will you have in 12 months? Most platforms are priced per-user, so the same plan that costs £27/month for a team of three costs £180/month at 20 users. Model the 12-month cost at your planned headcount before you sign.
2. Are you already paying for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace? If yes, try Microsoft Planner (on M365) or Google Tasks plus a shared spreadsheet (on Workspace) before buying anything else. The productivity suites you already pay for may cover more than you think.
3. Is your work primarily project-based or ongoing? Project-based work (launches, campaigns, client engagements) is well-served by Asana, monday, Teamwork, and ClickUp. Ongoing operational work (editorial calendars, sales pipelines, support queues) fits Trello, Notion, or a CRM better than a classic PM tool.
4. Do you bill clients for projects? If yes, Teamwork is purpose-built for you. Asana, ClickUp and monday all have time-tracking on their higher tiers but none is as tightly integrated with invoicing.
UK-specific considerations
Data residency. Most of the major platforms (Asana, Trello, ClickUp, monday, Notion, Microsoft) offer EU or UK data hosting on paid tiers, which satisfies GDPR requirements for most UK small businesses. Basecamp hosts data in the US — usually fine, but worth flagging if you handle regulated data.
VAT. Most platform subscriptions are priced in USD and have VAT added at UK checkout. Budget an extra 20% on top of the headline figure, and reclaim it in your VAT return if you’re registered. See our VAT registration guide if you’re unsure whether to register.
Integration with your existing stack. A PM tool is worth more when it plugs into the rest of your stack. If you already use tools reviewed in our CRM software, accounting software, or HR software roundups, check native integrations before buying.
Team size and the 3-seat minimum problem. A few platforms (notably monday) enforce a 3-seat minimum on paid plans, which inflates the entry price for solo founders and duos. Asana, Trello, ClickUp and Teamwork all let you pay for just the seats you need.
FAQs
Project management software is a shared workspace where your team plans projects, assigns tasks, tracks deadlines, and stores related files and conversations. If your team is more than two people, or if you juggle more than five active projects at once, yes — you need one. Email and spreadsheets stop working somewhere around that threshold.
Yes. Trello, ClickUp, Asana (up to 10 users), Notion, and Teamwork (up to 5 users) all have genuinely usable free plans. Trello and ClickUp have the most generous free tiers; Asana’s is the most polished.
Notion, Trello, or Asana Free. All three are designed to work well for a single user and can scale up when you hire your first team member. Avoid monday (3-seat minimum) and Basecamp (built around team collaboration) until you have a team.
At five users billed annually (excluding VAT): ClickUp Unlimited (~£30/month), Trello Standard (~£20/month), Asana Starter (~£45/month), Teamwork Starter (~£45/month), monday Basic (~£45/month with 3-seat minimum rounding), Notion Plus (~£40/month). Trello Standard is cheapest on paper; Asana and Teamwork offer more features for the extra spend.
Usually no. CRMs like HubSpot, Pipedrive or monday’s sales CRM are designed around deal pipelines and customer records, not task dependencies and project timelines. Running both (for example, HubSpot for sales + Asana for delivery) is almost always cleaner than trying to force one tool to do both jobs. See our CRM software guide for CRM recommendations.
A simple workspace with one project and five team members can be live on Trello, Asana, or Microsoft Planner in under an hour. ClickUp, monday, and Notion typically take a day or more to configure well. Budget a full working week for team onboarding regardless of platform — getting everyone to actually use it is harder than the setup itself.
The terms overlap heavily in 2026. Classical “project management” software (Microsoft Project, Smartsheet) focuses on Gantt charts, resource planning and critical paths for large, finite projects. “Work management” software (Asana, monday, ClickUp) covers the same ground plus ongoing operational work, day-to-day tasks, and cross-functional collaboration. For most UK small businesses, work management platforms are the better fit.
Methodology note: all platforms were tested between February and April 2026 using free trials or the lowest paid tier. Pricing was verified on each vendor’s site and is shown excluding VAT. Vendor pricing changes frequently and UK checkout prices may include VAT or differ slightly from the USD list — always verify on the vendor’s site before buying.
You might also like our guides to the best CRM software for small businesses, best HR software, and best invoicing software.
