Software

Top 7 Workflow Software (2023 Reviews)

Holly Peck

Senior Coaching Program Manager

July 29, 2020

14min read

Looking for the right workflow software?

From project management to employee onboarding, most workflows involve hundreds of repetitive tasks that eat away your time and other resources.

And how do you tackle that issue?

By using workflow software!

Workflow software (or workflow management software) can streamline repetitive processes to boost your coordination and efficiency.

But when there are tons of such tools in the market, which one should you go for?

Don’t worry!

We’ll ask Jack Sparrow and his crew from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies to help you out.

In this article, we’ll cover what to look for in workflow software and highlight the top 7 tools in 2021. And to help you make an informed decision, we’ll cover the key features, pros, cons, pricing, and customer ratings of each workflow app.

All hands on deck!

Before diving into each tool, let’s first understand what to look for when choosing a workflow management system.

However, if you’re like Captain Sparrow and want to get straight to the action, click here to jump to the section reviewing the top 7 tools.

This Article Contains:

5 Things To Look For In A Workflow Automation Tool

When it comes to pirates, there’s always something that sets them apart from each other.

Take Barbossa (the legendary pirate captain) and Jack, for example:

Both are great pirates but very different.

Similarly, each workflow app is different from each other.

Some are simply workflow automation software while others — like project or resource management tools, offer a broader workflow management system as part of their suite.

However, there are five features that every good work management tool should have.

Let’s have a quick look at each of these functionalities before determining which tool is right for you:

A. Workflow automation

This is the most obvious feature.

Without process automation, a workflow tool is pretty much like a pirate without a ship.

Remember how stressed Jack was when he lost his ship, the Black Pearl?

Same scenario here.

With automation, you can create an automated workflow — where the app or tool will perform repetitive tasks instead of your team doing them manually.

For example, instead of having your HR managers onboard each employee, just use an onboarding tool to guide a new employee through the process.

While an automated workflow speeds things up and makes tasks easier to manage, it’ll also free up your crew for more critical work — like defending your ship against pirates.

B. Deadline tracking

Sure, an automation feature is helpful.

But for a workflow tool to be really useful, it should also help you create and manage all your deadlines easily.

After all, every project has a deadline, and if you don’t keep track of them, you’d be jeopardizing the entire project!

For example, in the Dead Men Tell No Tales movie:

Jack’s project: get to Poseidon’s Trident
His deadline: get there before the pirate captain Salazar does (while this is subjective, it’s still a deadline!)

(Sure, Salazar got there first, but Jack was able to get the job done before Salazar could enjoy his success.)

C. Performance management

Let’s say you’re using a workflow management system to boost your team’s productivity.

How do you know if it has actually helped them do that?

That’s why you need a performance management feature in your workflow software!

You’d only have to look at the various reports the tool generates to know:

Your team’s activity levels over a given period
Which member needs to step up their game
How many tasks a specific member has completed during a day, week or month

Thoughts, Jack?

D. Integration

From a file-sharing platform like Google Drive to a video conferencing app like Zoom, any business depends on multiple software to manage their workflow tasks.

After all, you also need the sails, masts, and rudders to steer a ship — not just the steering wheel!

If your workflow tool can integrate with other workplace software, you’ll be able to manage your workflows across platforms to create an integrated workflow. This way, you can boost efficiency across the board quickly!

E. Pricing

Another obvious factor when it comes to choosing any software is its price.

And that’s sure to get some heads to turn around, like Jack here:

As every business has its own unique needs, you may not require all the features that the workflow software is offering.

So choose a workflow automation tool where you only need to pay for what you’re using. And if it has a feature-rich free plan, that’s even better!

The 7 Best Workflow Software In 2022

Now that you know what to look for in a workflow software solution, where do you start looking?

No, guys! You don’t have to set sail for Tortuga!

We’ve done the hard work and created a list of 7 workflow software options for you to explore, and find the one that suits you best! To help you out, we’ll highlight each tool’s key features, pros, cons, pricing, and customer ratings.

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is the world’s #1 project management software.

Used by 200,000+ teams in companies from startups to titans like Airbnb, Google, Netflix, and Webflow, ClickUp is the only tool you need to create and manage project workflows easily.

This automation software can handle everything you throw at it — from project planning to tracking your in-house or remote team’s productivity.

Key features

Here’s a quick overview of some of ClickUp’s powerful features:

1. Workflow Automation

ClickUp’s Automation feature offers tons of task automations to help you automate repetitive tasks in your workflow. While this speeds things up, it also frees up your resources for tasks that actually require their input.

A workflow automation in ClickUp works like this:

If a trigger happens and a condition is true, a specific action is executed automatically.

For Captain Jack Sparrow, an automated workflow could look something like this:

If the Flying Dutchman (the ghost ship) is on the Black Pearl’s stern, increase the Pearl’s speed by 20 knots. Here:

Trigger: Flying Dutchman
Condition: On Pearl’s stern
Action: increase Pearl’s speed by 20 knots

While you can create a custom automated process, this workflow management tool offers 50+ prebuilt automations to help you automate workflows quickly.

Some of these include:

Automatically change the assignee when a task’s status changes
Apply a workflow template when a task is created
Update task priority when its checklist is resolved
Change tags when a task’s due date arrives
Archive a task when its priority changes

(Click here to check out more preset Automations.)

2. Tasks, Subtasks, and Checklists

Just like how a ship has a lot of moving parts, a project has tasks, deadlines, assignees, and more.

Manually keeping track of all these will wear out even an experienced captain like Barbossa.

This is why ClickUp lets you create Tasks, Subtasks, and Checklists for easy workflow management.

Here’s how it works:

Tasks and Subtasks: Split up your project into smaller tasks and subtasks to help your team tackle the project step-by-step
Checklists: create simple to-do lists to quality check items, map out steps, etc. for any task. Team members can then check these off quickly as they progress through the task.

3. Custom Statuses

Another reason to go for ClickUp is that it lets you create Customized Task Statuses that reflect your project needs accurately — a feature that most workflow software don’t offer.

For example, if Jack’s project is “find Poseidon’s Trident”, he can create a ClickUp task status like “reach Tortuga” to ensure that his project proceeds smoothly.

All he (or any project manager) needs is a glance at the task’s status to know what stage it’s in.

4. Comments

Jack and his crew can’t steer the Black Pearl or fight Salazar without communicating with each other.

Similarly, your projects or tasks may often require some clarifications or discussions.

ClickUp offers a dedicated Comment section in each task to help you have such task-specific conversations. Remote teams can also use this feature to collaborate over tasks quickly!

You can use the Comment section to:

Clarify how to tackle the task
Tag team members to draw their attention
Share relevant files quickly
Address any roadblocks with the right context
Assign comments to specific team members to ensure that it doesn’t go unnoticed

5. Due Dates

With ClickUp’s Due Dates, tracking deadlines is as easy as lighting a cannon.

This feature lets you set deadlines for a particular task, subtask, or List in ClickUp.

While you can choose a specific date from the calendar, you can also type it in just as you’d normally say it out loud.

For example, if you type in “next Mon at 4 pm” for a task, the deadline will be automatically set for that time!

Additionally, you can also:

Add a task’s deadline from anywhere in ClickUp
Edit or delete a task’s Due Date
Filter tasks by deadline
Adjust deadlines in ClickUp’s Calendar View with drag and drop

6. Pulse

If Jack wants to check what his crew members are working on right now, he has to stand on the ship’s helm and ask them individually.

That’s going to take a lot of time, right?

But with ClickUp’s Pulse feature, he doesn’t have to do that anymore!

Pulse uses machine learning to analyze what your team is most focused on at the moment.

It also lets you:

Check who’s online/offline
View your team’s activity over a given period
See what tasks your members are viewing or commenting on in real-time
Automate your Scrum meetings

7. Integrations

Remember how your workflow management tool must have integrations?

With ClickUp, that’s exactly what you get!

This automation software has tons of awesome integrations with various workplace software. Some of its integrations include:

Slack: a virtual team communication tool
Zoom: a video conferencing software
Google Drive: for secure file storage and sharing
Google Calendar: an online calendar management tool
Time Doctor: a time tracking tool
GitHub: a software development platform

Click here to check out all of ClickUp’s integrations.

If you can’t find the integration you’re looking for, don’t worry — we release a new integration every single week!

(Surely the latter, Will!)

Pros

User-friendly interface
Offers a feature-rich free version
Drag and drop feature for easy workflow management
Offers Multiple Views to suit any project style
Docs feature helps document and store all project files for easy access
Can quickly assign tasks to any team member
Gantt Chart view to keep track of your project’s timeline
Smart search function to find all your project resources quickly
Can create detailed web forms with the Form view feature
Powerful Dashboard to manage multiple workflows effortlessly
Can assign multiple team members to a specific task
Auto-generates various detailed reports that break down your team’s performance
Can highlight a task’s priority with the Priority feature
Visualize project progress with Burnup, Burndown, Velocity and Cumulative Flow charts
Create Task Dependencies to ensure that your team tackles projects in the right order
Supports Native Time Tracking to know how long your workflow tasks take to complete
Available as powerful desktop, browser and mobile apps

Cons

Can’t export Dashboards
No white-labeling available
No tags for Docs

You can check out ClickUp’s product roadmap here.

Pricing

ClickUp has a powerful free version that offers a host of useful project management features. For added functionality, paid plans start at just $5/user per month.

Customer ratings

G2: 4.7/5 (1,000+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.7/5 (1800+ reviews)