The best project management tools for a UK business depend on what keeps going wrong: unclear ownership, missed dependencies, too many spreadsheets or client work that becomes unprofitable. Start with that problem. Asana is worth evaluating for repeatable projects, Trello for a simple visual queue, monday work management for configurable operations, ClickUp for a structured workspace, Teamwork for client delivery and Microsoft Planner for teams already working in Microsoft 365.
These are starting points for a shortlist. A useful buying decision comes from running one representative project and checking the complete team cost, including the first plan upgrade you are likely to need.
Table of Contents
Choose by workflow before comparing prices
| Tool | First use case to evaluate | Limit or upgrade trigger to check |
|---|---|---|
| Asana | Projects with owners, dates and repeated handovers | Personal currently supports two users |
| Trello | A straightforward board of work | Free supports ten collaborators and ten boards per Workspace |
| monday work management | Operational work with custom fields and statuses | Paid subscriptions start at three users; automation has monthly allowances |
| ClickUp | Several project types within a shared hierarchy | Check the package offered to your Workspace |
| Teamwork | Client projects, time and capacity | Free supports five users and five projects |
| Microsoft Planner | Work organised alongside Microsoft 365 | Distinguish included Planner from premium project features |
Do not choose an enterprise product simply because you have a large headcount, or a basic board simply because the business is small. A five-person engineering consultancy can need more dependency planning than a much larger team handling independent requests.
Asana: evaluate ownership and repeatable delivery
Asana’s current plans are Personal, Starter, Advanced and enterprise editions. Personal includes list, board and calendar views for two users. Starter adds timeline and Gantt views, forms, custom fields and rules; Advanced adds capabilities including portfolios, workload and native time tracking. Older references to “Asana Business” are not a reliable guide to a new subscription.
Our suggested test is a recurring project with an approval that can delay later tasks. Ask a colleague to find the next action, the responsible person and the effect of a late approval. Then repeat the project for another client. Choose the edition that supports the coordination you need rather than judging the whole product from the free plan.
Trello: start with a clear board
Trello Free allows ten collaborators and ten boards per Workspace, with 250 monthly automation command runs. Standard is advertised at US$5 per user per month on annual billing, or US$6 monthly. It adds unlimited boards, custom fields and 1,000 monthly command runs. Premium adds views such as Timeline and Dashboard.
Those are dollar prices, not fixed pound prices. Confirm currency and tax at checkout. Also check any paid Power-Ups needed for the complete process.
Trello is a useful first trial when colleagues need a shared queue with obvious stages. Create a small board such as Requested, Ready, In Progress and Complete, with one accountable owner on each card. If your actual problem is capacity across many overlapping projects, include that reporting requirement in the trial before adding more boards.
monday work management: price the operating process
Make sure you are evaluating monday work management; monday CRM and monday dev have different packages. Its free option supports two seats, while paid subscriptions start at three users. Standard includes timeline and Gantt views, and Pro adds time tracking and private boards.
The automation allowance is a practical upgrade trigger: Standard includes 250 automation actions and a separate 250 integration actions per month; Pro provides 25,000 of each. A multi-step process can consume more than one action.
Before subscribing, model the busiest normal month. Include reassignment, reminders and integrations, then check measured usage in the trial. A board that looks affordable with sample data may need a different edition once it handles the business’s full workload.
ClickUp: design the hierarchy before migrating
ClickUp organises work within a Workspace, using Spaces, Lists and optional Folders or Subfolders. Its hierarchy guide is useful before choosing how clients, departments and projects should be represented.
Check the actual offer shown to your account. ClickUp’s new-plan guidance describes a limited rollout of AI-inclusive packages such as Core, Business and Business Plus. It says existing customers are not automatically moved to new pricing. An old Unlimited-plan price and a new package may therefore describe different offers.
Trial one agreed structure with a few current projects. Ask someone who did not design it to find a task, move it appropriately and produce a list of overdue work. Add complexity only when the simpler structure cannot answer a real operational question.
Teamwork: examine client delivery and billable work
Teamwork’s current pricing page lists Free, Basics, Accelerate, Optimize and Enterprise. Free allows five users and five projects. Basics includes billable-time tracking and reporting, while Accelerate adds capacity planning, time budgets, retainers and invoices from logged time.
This makes Teamwork worth evaluating when delivery effort affects what you bill or whether a project is profitable. Test an approved estimate, actual time and a scope change, then ask the project owner to explain the resulting position. A timer alone does not establish a sound process for approving or charging additional work.
For the stage before delivery, our CRM for consultants guide covers referrals, proposals and client handovers. Define what transfers from the sales record when a contract is won.
Microsoft Planner: distinguish the current products
Microsoft’s UK pricing page lists Planner Plan 1 at £7.70 per user per month, paid yearly, with an automatically renewing annual subscription, excluding VAT. It includes premium planning features such as Timeline view and dependencies. Planner and Project Plan 3 is £23.10 on the same stated billing basis, with additional capabilities including baselines and critical path.
Check whether basic Planner already comes with your Microsoft 365 subscription before buying another tool. Also distinguish the product names carefully: Microsoft says Project for the web moved into Planner in August 2025, and lists 30 September 2026 as the retirement date for Project Online. Review the official transition guidance for an existing Project setup.
A practical selection exercise for a small team
Illustrative example: an agency has three client projects running together. One client delays approval, another adds a deliverable and a team member is absent. The chosen system should show what can still proceed, what needs a decision and who can take over.
- Build the same project in two shortlisted tools, with real stages and realistic dates.
- Give each deliverable an owner and define the approval that makes it complete.
- Introduce the delay, extra work and absence. Check whether the team can explain their consequences.
- Invite a test client account and inspect exactly which projects, comments and files it can access.
- Export a sample and check whether the records you would need for a future move remain usable.
Record the administration required as well as the features that worked. Someone will need to maintain templates, remove access and investigate failed automations after the initial setup.
Compare the full commitment
Use the same team size and billing period for each quote. Include minimum seats, paid guest roles, connectors, automation usage and AI allowances, plus VAT where applicable. Record the renewal price separately from an introductory discount. For existing subscriptions, confirm whether changing plans would remove a legacy entitlement.
Keep access controls, retention and the supplier’s data-processing terms in the review. Hosting location is one consideration, rather than a substitute for checking how your organisation will use and protect the information.
If the requirement is mostly individual to-dos, our task management guide may be the better starting point. For projects connected to sales, compare the relationship-management stage in our HubSpot versus Pipedrive guide. Choose the combination that gives your team clear ownership without duplicating the same work across several systems.
Optional reference material: search Amazon for Asana. This is a marketplace search; check the relevance of individual results. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Last updated 9 September 2026. Plan details checked against official documentation; workflow examples are illustrative.
