Every company can benefit from using project management tools. These tools not only help teams plan and track their own projects, but also help to increase alignment and collaboration across the whole business.
Not every project management tool is the same, however. If your company practices Agile, you need an Agile project management tool that was designed to help your teams focus on incremental work and implement Agile frameworks. While there’s many project management solutions out there, only a few actually help your team increase agility and adapt better to change.
We’ve gathered the top 13 Agile project management tools, with a breakdown of pros and cons and unique features for each, to help you decide which one is best for your business.
What is Agile project management?
Agile teams approach project management with an Agile mindset, implementing the way they plan, maintain, and manage projects according to Agile values and principles. This means that teams value responding to change over adhering to a strict plan as they focus on continuous improvement. They also break down work into smaller, more incremental tasks that allow teams to shift priorities as needed.
While the Agile Manifesto was originally developed by software practitioners, businesses in any industry can practice Agile values. As more and more companies implement Agile, teams need a way to track and manage their projects according to Agile frameworks such as Kanban and Scrum, using Kanban boards and conducting Agile events such as sprint planning. Agile project management tools should be flexible and adaptable while helping teams break work into small elements.
While traditional project management tools can help Agile teams, these teams benefit the most from tools that were specifically designed with Agile in mind. Read on to learn which Agile project management tools can help your team plan sprints and successfully drive continuous improvement.
Best 13 tools for Agile project management
Jira
Jira is a project management tool that helps teams plan and organize tasks and track progress in their workflows. In Jira, it’s easy to assign tasks and align cross-functional teams on issues. Jira supports a variety of Agile methodologies and can be used for sprint planning, daily standups, sprint retrospectives, Kanban, and more.
Best for:
Large-scale project management and software development teams.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Highly customizable; you can create custom workflows to build, test, and release software.
-
Integrates with over 3,000 apps.
-
A helpful tool for Agile, Scrum, and Kanban methodologies.
Cons:
-
Can be less engaging or collaborative if used during Agile events; teams don’t get an opportunity to give input or estimates on work. It’s helpful to use Jira alongside a virtual whiteboard for enhanced collaboration.
-
Has a bigger learning curve and can be overwhelming for people to learn how to use.
-
Doesn’t work as well for teams in departments other than software/development; teams such as marketing and design can find the platform more cumbersome to use.
Features
-
Includes Agile tools such as boards, backlog management, project tracking, issue tracking, custom workflows, and agile reporting.
-
Provides more data-driven reporting with burndown charts, velocity charts, release burndown, epic burndown, and control charts.
-
Includes Jira Align, an enterprise agile planning platform for companies on a larger scale. Large enterprises can combine Jira Align for high-level planning with Jira for team-level planning.
Pricing
Jira’s pricing tier offers several subscription options:
-
Free for up to 10 users, providing unlimited projects, tasks, and forms.
-
Standard at about $7.50/month with increased user roles and permissions and the capability for external collaboration.
-
Premium for multiple teams at about $13.50/month with dependency management and access to Atlassian Intelligence.
-
Enterprise for advanced controls, analytics, and security. Contact sales for pricing.
Jira’s subscriptions can be paid monthly or annually (exception is Enterprise, which is billed annually only).
Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps is a platform that helps teams develop and deliver software. It aims to boost productivity, efficiency, and code quality. Azure Boards, one of its special features, offers Agile tools for planning and tracking work with Kanban boards, backlogs, and more.
Best for:
Software development teams and teams that use the Microsoft ecosystem.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Helps teams focus on continuous integration and continuous delivery.
-
Assigning tasks such as bugs and new user stories is simple, making it easy for teams to keep track of their work.
-
Easy to integrate and deploy for Agile teams.
Cons:
-
As a very technical platform, can be difficult to use for teams in departments other than software development.
-
Setting up and configuring pipelines can be very complex and time-consuming.
-
Collaboration through the platform can be challenging.
Features
-
Includes Agile planning tools such as configurable Kanban boards, interactive backlogs, and drag-and-drop sprint planning tools.
-
With Azure Test Plans, has manual and exploratory testing tools to help improve code quality.
-
End-to-end traceability for software features and stories.
Pricing
The pricing for Azure DevOps user licenses include:
-
The basic plan for $6/month which includes Azure Pipelines, Azure Boards, Azure Repos, and Azure Artifacts.
-
Basic + test plans with extended features including test planning, tracking, and execution for $52/month.
Asana
Asana helps teams manage their work from individual tasks all the way to product launches and strategic initiatives. Asana can help organize, manage, and plan Agile initiatives and events such as Scrum sprints thanks to its Agile management software. You can use Kanban boards and create sprint plans quickly and easily.
Best for:
Companies that need an all-around project management tool that can be used by both technical and non-technical teams.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Minimal, easy-to-use interface that’s user-friendly and quick to learn.
-
Robust collaboration features, including goal visualization that can be shared across teams.
-
The ability to add the same task to multiple projects, and when task status is changed, that update is reflected in each project.
Cons:
-
If a project involves multiple dependencies, it can be cumbersome to navigate and clear those dependencies.
-
Can only search task names, not comments or descriptions, leading users to miss out on important information.
-
No reminders or time tracking capabilities in the platform itself.
Features
-
You can view project management boards or timelines with tasks broken down into small pieces.
-
Access to Gantt charts; you can organize your work as a list, Gantt chart, Kanban board, and more.
-
Track, prioritize, and update bugs all in one place.
Pricing
Asana’s pricing includes:
-
A free personal account for individuals and small teams.
-
A starter account for larger teams at $10.99/month.
-
Advanced accounts for companies that need to manage work across departments at $24.99/month.
-
Enterprise and Enterprise+ accounts for companies with complex work or strict compliance requirements. Contact sales for pricing.
Monday.com
Monday.com aims to provide teams with everything they need to track and manage their workflows all in one place. Monday dev is the project management platform built on top of Monday.com that helps product and development teams in particular launch new products. Its Agile project management software helps Agile teams manage sprint planning, product roadmaps, bugs, and more.
Best for:
Teams of all sizes.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Manage everything in one place, from planning to launching and collaborating across teams.
-
Easy-to-use interface with color-coded features so it’s easier to understand timelines, projects, and assignments at a glance.
-
Task tracking features make it easier for teams to stay in alignment and updated on the status of projects.
Cons:
-
The vast array of features can lead to a steep learning curve and be overwhelming for beginners.
-
For larger boards, there can be performance issues and slow loading times.
-
Takes time to get used to its functionality and all the ways to customize.
Features
-
Highly customizable workflows so that teams can create the project management tool they need.
-
Customizable templates for task management, business operations, goals and strategy, portfolio management, client projects, and more.
-
Real-time reports to receive the most up-to-date information on tasks, project status, and analytics.
Pricing
Monday.com’s pricing options include:
-
A free account for individuals looking for a way to track their work.
-
Basic accounts for teams at $90/month.
-
Standard accounts for companies that need to collaborate work across teams at $120/month.
-
Pro accounts that help companies streamline their complex workflows at scale for $190/month.
-
Enterprise accounts that include exclusive features and extended security and governance. Contact sales for pricing.
Lucid Suite (Lucidspark and Lucidchart)
The Lucid Suite helps teams bring their ideas to life with a visual collaboration platform that features a virtual whiteboard and intelligent diagramming capabilities. Thanks to a universal canvas, users can switch between Lucidchart (Lucid’s diagramming tool) and Lucidspark (Lucid’s whiteboarding tool) without missing a beat. Lucid has hundreds of templates to help Agile teams get started on sprint planning, big room planning, sprint retrospectives, and more. It also helps enhance collaboration and alignment by providing a single source of truth for teams. Whether you’re working fully remotely or your company has a hybrid work policy, Lucid helps you boost productivity, innovation, and agility across your entire organization.
Best for:
Agile teams looking to increase communication and collaboration in hybrid or remote work environments.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Lucid Suite provides two connected but individually powerful solutions onto one canvas: Lucidspark for virtual whiteboarding and Lucidchart for intelligent diagramming.
-
Helps both technical and non-technical teams consolidate information and their tech stack.
-
Enhances team brainstorming and collaboration with a whiteboard built for Agile teams.
Cons:
-
Adding images and custom icons could be a little easier.
-
Some users had difficulty with the history recovery feature.
-
Could provide more training based on specific use cases for using the platform.
Features
-
Team Spaces provide a central repository for your team and an easy place to ensure alignment.
-
Use Visual Activities and team estimation activities to identify priorities, estimate effort for work tasks, and conduct confidence voting.
-
Includes Agile development templates for every step of the sprint cycle, and integrates with Jira and Azure DevOps so you can conduct dependency mapping and stay in sync with your existing system of record.
Lucidspark’s pricing options include:
-
A free account that’s best for individual users.
-
An Individual account starting at $9/month.
-
A Team account starting at $10/month for each user.
-
An enterprise account for larger organizations with advanced features and permissions. Contact sales for pricing.
ClickUp
ClickUp brings teams together so everyone can collaborate in one place and helps you manage the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to launch. Its Agile project management features helps Agile teams in particular track sprint progress with burnup and burndown charts, backlogs, and Gantt charts.
Best for:
Large teams with complex projects.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Highly customizable and can adapt to many workflows.
-
Its library of user resources, ClickUp University, helps people increase their productivity and learn more about the platform.
-
Offers over 1,000 integrations.
Cons:
-
A high number of tools and settings leads to a cluttered interface that can be difficult to navigate.
-
Color customization is limited and many companies can’t customize their colors to their branding.
-
Slow loading time for boards and features.
Features
-
Pre-built Agile templates to get users started quickly and the ability to visualize progress with Agile dashboards.
-
Custom work views with options that include lists, Gantt charts, and more.
-
Customizable Sprint points system, which helps teams see what work has been completed and what’s left, estimating workload capacity.
Pricing
ClickUp’s pricing tiers include:
-
A free account that’s best for individual users.
-
An unlimited account that’s best for small teams at $7/month.
-
A business account for mid-sized teams at $12/month.
-
An enterprise account for larger organizations with advanced features and permissions. Contact sales for pricing.
Trello
Trello was designed for teams everywhere who need to monitor every aspect of their projects, from ideation to completion. Built-in automation tools help you with repetitive tasks, and the interface was designed to be very simple and intuitive for anyone to use. A Trello board is very similar to a Kanban board, making it easy for Agile teams to implement as their project management tool.
Best for:
Small teams with smaller-scale project management needs.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Simple but powerful project management tool.
-
Intuitive user interface; quick to set up and start using, with a short learning curve.
-
The similarity to Kanban boards is easy to use and familiar for many Agile teams.
Cons:
-
Limited features for more complex projects, including detailed reporting and analytics.
-
No native Gantt chart functionality.
-
While it’s possible to create flowcharts, this feature can be difficult to manage and lacks advanced options.
Features
-
Different ways to view: as a board, timeline, table, calendar, map, and more.
-
Templates to get you started, taking you from idea to action in a few simple steps.
-
Custom fields to adjust your view to any project.
Pricing
Trello’s pricing includes:
-
A free plan for up to 10 users per workspace.
-
A standard plan for small teams that need to enhance collaboration for $5/month, billed annually.
-
A premium plan for teams that need to visualize projects in multiple ways for $10/month, billed annually.
-
An enterprise plan for companies that need cross-functional collaboration and enhanced security and controls for $17.50/month, billed annually.
Wrike
Wrike helps teams collaborate, communicate, and deliver their work faster through an improved workflow. The platform helps you monitor deadlines and ensure that you can adapt to change with ease. Wrike includes features specifically designed for Agile teams, including Kanban boards, sprint planning templates, and other Agile tools.
Best for:
Complex project management with resource management capabilities.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Automation capabilities include reporting, approval, and request forms to speed up efficiency for teams.
-
Customizable views so you can adapt the platform to your team and workflow.
-
Supports a wide variety of use cases so you can use the platform for every department in your company.
Cons:
-
Since the platform is more complex and has many nuances, it takes a lot of training and even expert guidance to learn how to use.
-
Can also be difficult to navigate due to its complexity.
-
For simpler or smaller projects, Wrike can be very overwhelming.
Features
-
Automated reporting with detailed, automatically-generated reports based on real-time data.
-
Teams can choose board and spreadsheet views to customize their visualization of work tasks.
-
Task and subtask management helps teams break down work into smaller, more actionable tasks.
Pricing
Wrike’s pricing tiers include:
-
A free account for teams getting started on task management.
-
A team account for small teams to quickly get started on the platform at $10/month for each user.
-
A business account for multiple teams across an organization at $24.80/month per user.
-
An enterprise account for large teams and enhanced security and scalability. Contact Wrike for pricing.
-
A pinnacle account for teams with very complex work needs and advanced analytics. Contact Wrike for pricing.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet brings teams together onto a single platform and makes it easier to find all the information you need in one place. It helps teams set up projects faster, increase productivity, and save time on manual tasks. Agile teams can use Smartsheet for sprint planning and more with Gantt chart templates for Agile projects.
Best for:
Large teams that need a customizable option for project management.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Customizable views, workflows, reports, and dashboards for all the information your team specifically needs.
-
Resource management; allocate resources to tasks more efficiently and track how resources are used in real time.
-
Enhanced security, including single sign on (SSO).
Cons:
-
Performance issues when the number of rows becomes large.
-
Not as easy to manipulate data once data is entered or adjust formulas.
-
Not as intuitive or easy to use, with no free option in its pricing for users to explore and become familiar with the platform.
Features
-
Gantt chart functionality for Agile teams.
-
Customizable reporting, alerts, and automated actions so teams receive the right information at the right time.
-
Workflow automation to eliminate manual repetitive tasks and save teams time.
Pricing
Smartsheet’s pricing options include:
-
Pro accounts for up to 10 members at $9/month per member.
-
Business accounts with unlimited guests and users at $19/month per member.
-
Enterprise accounts for organizations that need complex solutions. Contact Smartsheet for custom pricing.
-
Advanced work management accounts for organizations that have a large scale of work and need to connect their systems. Contact Smartsheet for custom pricing.
Rally
Rally enhances business agility and supports digital transformation by helping organizations continuously improve at every level. Use Rally for value stream management and for enterprise Agile management. It helps teams align, improve visibility, and enhance efficiency.
Best for:
Smaller teams and markets.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Retrospective and feedback loop features that help Agile teams reflect on sprints.
-
Customizable view/dashboard settings, such as Kanban boards, as options for viewing work tasks.
-
Easy to track the status of tasks and create program-level views for leadership.
Cons:
-
Not intuitive or very easy to use.
-
Collaboration within the platform can be difficult.
-
Does not have the capacity to estimate work.
Features
-
Visualize and track work in real time, including dependencies, to enhance decision-making.
-
Eliminate silos with tracking and reporting at every level of your organization.
-
Leadership reporting that automatically takes data across methodologies and teams to enhance continuous improvement.
Pricing
Not seeing numbers; need to contact company
Zoho Sprints
Zoho Sprints was created to be easy project management software for Agile teams. Use Zoho Sprints for dynamic sprint planning and seamless collaboration, from building user stories to releases. A backlog feature helps you get projects started on the right track to provide high value to customers.
Best for:
Small teams that need an easy way to use sprint management tools.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
An easy-to-use Agile tool completely dedicated to sprint planning.
-
Includes a variety of reporting features and chat options.
-
Time tracking features to track billable and non-billable hours, helping you manage time logs.
Cons:
-
Steep learning curve, especially for first-time users; features can be overwhelming.
-
Doesn’t offer as many integrations as other platforms.
-
Dashboard and Gantt views can be improved.
Features
-
Chat, feed, and forum communication support to enhance communication within the platform and externally.
-
Product backlog management to help Agile teams refine work items and start sprints on time.
-
Integrations for bug tracking for development teams.
Pricing
Zoho Sprint’s pricing includes:
-
Starter plans that include 50 projects at $1/month per user, billed annually.
-
Elite plans for unlimited projects at $2.50/month per user, billed annually.
-
Premier plans for advanced features and settings at $5/month per user, billed annually.
Aha!
The Aha Suite was originally designed for roadmapping but has expanded its project planning capabilities. Use Aha to imagine and build great software, creating value for both customers and employees. Aha helps you roadmap your way into success and collaborate in a virtual space.
Best for:
Building roadmaps.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
More enterprise-ready for managing OKRs and strategic initiatives.
-
Easy to drive common processes across products and product lines.
-
Comprehensive, robust product roadmapping features to help easily visualize a variety of roadmap types.
Cons:
-
The platform has a steep learning curve and is not very intuitive.
-
Similar and redundant features such as roadmap views.
-
Setup and configuration can be very time consuming.
Features
-
Customizable for Agile methodologies to create a workflow that matches the way your Agile teams work.
-
Secure and high-performance environment to keep your data highly protected.
-
Takes a value-based approach with crowdsourcing features and the ability to measure and prioritize new functionality based on customer value.
Pricing
Aha’s pricing plan includes:
-
The develop plan to link Agile strategy to delivery at $9/month per user.
-
The whiteboards plan for teams looking for a visual space for innovation at $9/month per user.
-
The knowledge plan that includes Aha’s AI-powered information hub at $18/month per user.
-
The ideas plan which includes the whiteboards and knowledge plans for a comprehensive idea solution at $39/month per user.
-
The roadmaps plan for a complete project management solution at $59/month per user.
Productboard
Productboard can be used by anyone but is highly beneficial for product teams. Use Productboard to create and share customized, real-time roadmaps and incorporate customer data into your project planning. With aggregated customer insights and AI capabilities, Productboard aims to be a single source of truth for teams.
Best for:
Product teams and building roadmaps.
Pros and cons
Pros:
-
Ease of use; the platform is easy to set up, learn, and onboard.
-
Aggregates all customer feedback into one location, making it easy to analyze and incorporate feedback into product planning.
-
Roadmap visualization to keep product goals front and center.
Cons:
-
Integrations difficulty & issues; has a Jira integration, but not very flexible/robust.
-
Becomes difficult to navigate/use for larger organizations (5+ teams).
-
Difficult to present and share with stakeholders or your team; no presentation/powerpoint mode and not many facilitation tools.
Features
-
Use AI to summarize customer insights and connect these insights to feature ideas.
-
Aggregate customer feedback and data and assign importance with varying criteria.
-
Data-driven approach to prioritization with the ability to rank ideas and identify high-value, low-effort initiatives.
Pricing
Productboard’s pricing plans include:
-
A starter account that is free to use.
-
An essentials account with extended features for $19/month per maker, billed annually.
-
A pro account for Agile teams to drive outcomes for $59/month per maker, billed annually.
-
An enterprise account for organizations to bring their project management process up to scale. Contact Productboard’s Sales team for pricing details.
Conclusion: Choosing the best Agile project management tools for your team
Now you’re familiar with the top Agile software tools in the industry—how do you choose which one to use for your team?
It can depend on your industry and the nature of your work, but keep in mind that the best solution offers you more than just Agile management tools; look for something that enhances collaboration and alignment across your organization, provides a single source of truth, and helps your teams communicate.
It’s also helpful to select a solution that offers templates for Agile frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban so your team has all the information it needs to get started on sprint planning or continue using the Kanban boards that you’re already familiar with. Agile collaboration tools that come with tons of integrations are also beneficial so you can keep using your existing systems with a seamless transition.
The Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite does all of this, and more—with Lucid, you’ll find dozens of Agile development templates, guidance for Agile events, a professional services team to provide training, and intelligent diagramming capabilities. Thanks to its universal canvas, in Lucid you can easily show a diagram that’s connected to real-time data and then launch a team-building activity during big room planning, all within the same platform. Use Lucid and see how you can enhance collaboration and alignment for your Agile team today.
