SaaS Project Management Tools: Everything You Need To Know + Examples (2025)

SaaS project management software is project management software delivered as a cloud subscription (software as a service), which teams use in the browser to plan work, assign tasks, track deadlines and collaborate: Jira, Asana, monday.com, ClickUp and Trello are the best known. The term also covers managing the projects that build and ship a SaaS product, where short release cycles make those tools the center of the work.

Key Takeaways

• All eight tools compared here have a free plan, and their entry paid plans run from $5 per user per month (Trello Standard, billed annually) to $10.99 (Asana Starter, billed annually), with Jira Standard at $9.70 on monthly billing, per each vendor’s pricing page in October 2026.
• Free plans differ most in team size: Asana’s and monday.com’s cover 2 people, while Jira’s covers 10 users and Trello’s 10 collaborators per Workspace, per their pricing pages in October 2026.
• Some features sit above the entry plan: monday.com’s time tracking is on Pro and Trello’s Timeline view on Premium ($10 per user per month billed annually), per their pricing pages in October 2026.
• ClickUp’s founder and CEO, Zeb Evans, told Founderpath that ClickUp builds in feature squads of five to seven people, each with a product manager and an engineering manager.
• ClickUp began in 2015 as an internal tool called Mission Control Center, built by a team tired of switching between platforms, early team member Chris Cunningham said in a Founderpath talk; GetLatka reports its annual recurring revenue passed $300M in September 2025.

What Is SaaS Project Management?

The term has two meanings, and the pages that rank for it use both. The first is the software: project-management.com describes SaaS project management tools as online software that teams subscribe to and use in the cloud to create, plan, assign and schedule projects that update in real time, as an alternative to software installed on your own servers. The second is the job: leading the team that builds, releases and maintains a SaaS product or feature.

The two meet because SaaS products never really finish. They ship in short cycles, change with customer feedback and need constant maintenance to keep customers. That puts more weight on the project tool than in a one-off project. A SaaS team uses it to:

• coordinate engineering, design, marketing and customer success around the same release dates;
• plan the first version (the minimum viable product, or MVP) and every update after it;
• track bugs, support tickets and feature requests in one queue;
• keep stakeholders and customers informed about what ships when.

For the management side in more depth, see our guide to successful project management for SaaS companies.

The Best SaaS Project Management Tools Compared

These eight tools come up across the lists that rank for this search. The table sets out what each is built around and what it costs to start, using each vendor’s own pricing page as of October 2026. Prices are per user per month in US dollars, billed annually unless the table says otherwise.

Tool	Built around	Free plan	Entry paid plan
Jira	Scrum and Kanban boards, backlogs, sprints	Up to 10 users	Standard, $9.70 (monthly billing, up to 100 users) or $950 a year for up to 10 users
Linear	Product development: issues and projects	Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues	Basic, $10
Asana	Cross-team work management	1 or 2 people	Starter, $10.99 ($13.49 monthly)
monday.com	Customizable boards	Up to 2 seats	Basic, $9 per seat ($12 monthly)
ClickUp	Tasks, docs, goals and chat in one app	Unlimited members, 60MB storage	Unlimited, $7 ($10 monthly)
Trello	Boards and cards	Up to 10 collaborators per Workspace	Standard, $5 ($6 monthly)
Wrike	Enterprise work management	Yes	Team, $10 (2 to 15 users)
Notion	Docs, wikis and project databases	Yes	Plus, $10 per seat ($12 monthly)

How we checked: we read each vendor’s pricing page on October 18, 2026. monday.com and Notion showed euro prices for our location, so their US dollar prices come from the pricing data those pages publish. Jira prices by team size; its figures are the ones its page shows for monthly billing and for a 10-user annual plan. Vendors change plans often, so check the page before you buy.

Jira

Jira is Atlassian’s project tool for planning work in sprints, with Scrum and Kanban boards and backlogs. Atlassian’s own customer stories show marketing teams running sprints in it too. The Free plan covers up to 10 users, and Standard lists at $9.70 per user per month on monthly billing for up to 100 users, or $950 a year for up to 10 users on annual billing, per Atlassian’s pricing page.

Linear

Linear describes itself as the system for product development, built for planning and building products. Its Free plan has unlimited members but stops at 2 teams and 250 issues; Basic is $10 per user per month, billed yearly.

Asana

Asana calls itself work management software for teams and AI agents. Its free Personal plan is for one or two people and includes list, board and calendar views; Starter is $10.99 per user per month billed annually, or $13.49 billed monthly.

monday.com

monday.com organizes work on boards you shape to the team, with tasks on one board and customers on another, for example. The free plan covers up to 2 seats, and Basic starts at $9 per seat per month billed annually ($12 monthly). Time tracking sits on the Pro plan, two tiers above Basic.

ClickUp

ClickUp calls itself the everything app for work, combining tasks, docs, goals and chat. Free Forever includes unlimited free plan members with 60MB of storage, and Unlimited is $7 per user per month billed yearly ($10 monthly).

Trello

Trello, also an Atlassian product, organizes work as cards on boards. The free plan covers up to 10 collaborators per Workspace, and Standard is $5 per user per month billed annually ($6 monthly). The Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views come with Premium, at $10 per user per month billed annually.

Wrike

Wrike positions itself as enterprise work management. There is a free plan, and Team is $10 per user per month for 2 to 15 users, billed annually.

Notion

Notion is a connected workspace for wikis, docs and projects, built on databases you can track work in. There is a free plan, and Plus is $10 per seat per month billed yearly, or $12 monthly.

How to Choose a SaaS Project Management Tool

Start from who does the work, not from the feature list. Three questions sort most SaaS teams:

1. Is most of the work engineering? If your projects are issues, sprints and releases, start with an issue tracker such as Jira or Linear.
2. Do several teams share projects and deadlines? If product, marketing and customer success work on the same launches, a work management tool such as Asana, monday.com, ClickUp or Wrike fits better.
3. Is the team small and the workflow simple? Boards and docs in Trello or Notion are often enough, and both have a free plan.

Then check the features your team will use every week, and which plan they are on:

• tasks with one owner, a due date and subtasks;
• the views your team thinks in: list, board, timeline or calendar;
• comments and files attached to the task, so decisions stay with the work;
• integrations with the tools you already use, such as Slack and Google Drive;
• reporting on progress and workload;
• permissions and guest access that still work as the team grows.

Price the plan you will actually need, not the entry plan. On the pricing pages above, views such as Trello’s Timeline and monday.com’s time tracking sit on higher tiers. Every tool here has a free plan, so run one real project in two of them before you commit.

Why SaaS Teams Use Project Management Tools

A project tool earns its cost by putting the work, the decisions about it and its status in one place. Three things change when it does:

• Fewer silos. Conversations about a task happen on the task, where everyone working on it can see them, instead of in private messages.
• Visible progress. Anyone can see what ships next and what is blocked, without a status meeting.
• Less chasing. Owners and due dates are explicit, so managers spend less time assigning work and following up.

The opposite problem is common too: every team picking its own tool. ClickUp’s history started there. Chris Cunningham, a founding member of the ClickUp team, told a Founderpath audience that in 2015 the team saw people split across tools by role, with new users on Trello, marketers on Asana and developers on Jira, and that founder Zeb Evans was tired of jumping from platform to platform. So they built an internal tool they called Mission Control Center, which became ClickUp (watch at 9:14). ClickUp’s annual recurring revenue passed $300M in September 2025, per GetLatka.

Watch the full talk with Chris Cunningham on how ClickUp bootstrapped to $25M, with transcript.

How to Manage a SaaS Project

Whatever tool you choose, the same five practices keep SaaS projects on schedule.

1. Pick a method that matches the work

Most SaaS product work suits an Agile approach: plan a short sprint, build, release, collect feedback and plan the next sprint with what you learned. Waterfall runs each phase once, in order (requirements, design, build, test, release), and fits work with a fixed scope, such as a customer implementation or a data migration with set milestones. Many teams run product work in sprints and implementations as Waterfall projects.

2. Organize small teams around features

Small teams with one clear owner move faster than a single big queue. ClickUp’s founder describes how the company structures product and engineering:

Now what we’ve done is really hyper focused them on very individual features, so that you have a squad of five to six or seven people. You got a PM [product manager], you got an EM [engineering manager], you got a few engineers, and usually a designer… that’s tied to each of those.

Zeb Evans, Founder and CEO, ClickUp. Watch at 7:29

3. Set one line of communication

Every team member should know where updates, decisions and urgent requests live, and the answer should not change from week to week. Turn on the tool’s notifications, keep project discussion in the project, and agree how quickly people should reply. Simplero’s chief of staff, Beth Barr-Jobson, sums up her company’s setup on one slide: three critical tools, one for project management, one for everything else and one for urgent communication (see slide 7).

4. Plan releases with goals and milestones

Write down what each release must achieve, how you will measure it and when, whether that is the first 3 months, 6 months or a year. Name the team or person responsible for each goal, so the project manager knows whom to check with when a milestone slips. For the business side of that plan, read our guide to creating a SaaS business plan.

5. Track risks early

Lack of time, missing skills and thin resources hurt SaaS projects most when they are found late. List the risks at the start of the project, give each an owner and a plan, and review them at every milestone. A risk tracked as a task in the same tool gets seen; one in a separate document rarely does.

Paying for Growth Without Selling Equity

Project tools and the teams that use them are a monthly cost that grows with headcount. Revenue-based lenders look at the numbers you already track: recurring revenue, retention and margins.

Founderpath provides non-dilutive capital for B2B SaaS companies with at least $10K MRR. There’s no equity, no warrants, no board seats and no personal guarantees. Connect your billing, banking and accounting data, and most founders see funds within 24-48 hours.

Check what you qualify for. It takes less than 5 minutes.

SaaS Project Management: FAQ

What is SaaS project management?

It is project management done in cloud software that teams use through the browser on a subscription, such as Jira, Asana, monday.com, ClickUp or Trello. The term also means managing the projects that build and ship a SaaS product, which run in short release cycles.

What is the best project management software for SaaS?

It depends on who does the work. Engineering-led teams usually start with an issue tracker such as Jira or Linear; teams that share projects across product, marketing and customer success use work management tools such as Asana, monday.com, ClickUp or Wrike; small teams with simple workflows often get by with Trello or Notion. All eight have free plans, so test two with a real project.

How much does SaaS project management software cost?

As of October 2026, entry paid plans on the vendors’ pricing pages run from $5 per user per month (Trello Standard, billed annually) to $10.99 (Asana Starter, billed annually), and Jira prices by team size, from $9.70 per user on monthly billing. Monthly billing costs more: Asana Starter is $13.49 and monday.com Basic is $12 per seat.

Is there free project management software for SaaS teams?

Yes. All eight tools in this guide have a free plan as of October 2026. The limits differ: Asana’s and monday.com’s free plans cover 2 people, Jira’s 10 users, Trello’s 10 collaborators per Workspace, and Linear’s unlimited members but 2 teams and 250 issues.

What does a SaaS project manager do?

A SaaS project manager plans and tracks the work behind a SaaS release or implementation: the timeline, the tasks, who owns each one, the risks and the updates to stakeholders. On product teams the role often sits next to a product manager, who decides what to build, while the project manager makes sure it ships on time.

Should SaaS teams use Agile or Waterfall?

Most SaaS product work suits Agile, because the product ships in short cycles and changes with customer feedback. Waterfall fits projects with a fixed scope and order, such as a customer implementation or a migration with set milestones.

What features should a SaaS project management tool have?

Tasks with owners and due dates, list, board and timeline views, comments and files on the task, integrations with tools such as Slack and Google Drive, progress reporting, and permissions that scale with the team. Check which plan each feature is on, because many views and time tracking sit on paid tiers.