12 Best Backlog Alternatives for 2023 (Free & Paid) | Friday.app

Find the Top Backlog Alternatives for Project Management This Year

Posted by The Friday Team
Last updated: September 12, 2023

Are you one of Backlog’s users who finds the project management platform helpful but is looking for something a little bit more?

Backlog is a project management software to help users and organizations with project and task management. But it has its limitations.

 Some of these include:

  • Messy subtask implementation compared to other bug tracking tools
  • No screenshot or video recording feature

Eventually you will need a better application. We've curated a list of best Backlog alternatives to help you on your journey. Let's dive in!

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is one of the highest-rated project management software used by companies of all sizes. Its fully customizable platform allows project managers and teams to plan, manage, and track all of their work – all in one place. This management software offers team collaboration, status alerts, and project updates. It also has a task-setting option to help your business better align around your goals.

Best Features

  • Various views including List view, Board view, Box view, Gantt Chart view, Calendar view, and more 
  • Simplified task hierarchy to give you more flexibility and control 
  • Integrate and connect more than 1,000 tools for free

Limitations

  • App interface, views, and features can be too complex for first-time users
  • Some features and views are not available for mobile view

Pricing

  • Free: Free forever
  • Unlimited: $5 per user per month
  • Business: $12 per user per month
  • Business Plus: $19 per user per month
  • Enterprise: Contact sales

User Ratings

G2: 4.7/5 (4800+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.7/5 (3100+ reviews)

Get started with ClickUp free, no credit card required

2. Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based collaboration software for teams following project management models such as agile, waterfall, and more. Among other project management tools, Wrike offers support for marketing teams, project management, IT, and organizations offering professional services. The work management platform also supports customer management with extensive growth key features.

Wrike vs ClickUp: Which Tool is Better for Project Management?

Best Features

  • A built-in chat function that allows you to keep tabs with your teams
  • Efficient time logging and time tracking capabilities
  • KPI monitoring and reporting to track deliverables

Limitations

  • Wrike’s complex web API makes onboarding difficult for teams
  • Many will find the desktop version of Wrike to be non-intuitive
  • Wrike is relatively expensive compared to equally powerful tools

Pricing

  • Wrike offers a free version
  • Team: $9.80 per user/month
  • Business: $24.80 per user/month
  • Enterprise: Contact sales for pricing

User Ratings

G2: 4.2/5 (1200+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.2/5 (1600+ reviews)

3. Jira

Jira is a powerful bug tracking and project management software. It offers tools to help software teams sketch out a roadmap for big and complex projects. Teams who are looking to follow a scrum, kanban, or any other project management framework can find support from Jira. Unlike Backlog, Jira provides each user with access to comprehensive agile reporting to give them actionable insights to how each team performs during each sprint.

Best Features

  • Support for Scrum, Kanban, and any framework in between
  • Intuitive interface makes it easier for anyone to access the tool
  • Customizable workflows, bug report templates, and boards

Limitations

  • Lack of collaboration tools to communicate with your team
  • Software can be clunky and slow

Pricing

Free for 10 users

Standard: $7.75 per user

Premium $15.25 per user

Enterprise: Contact sales for pricing

User Ratings

G2: 4.2/5 (5000+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.4/5 (12700+ reviews)

Trello vs Jira: The Best Project Management App for your Team

4. Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management tool designed to help teams manage projects and collaborate more effectively. It has been around since its 2004 launch and is one of the most popular and widely used tools in the project management space. Basecamp offers users a variety of features that make it easier for teams to break down big projects into smaller tasks and assign responsibilities.

Best Features

  • To-do lists to create and assign tasks
  • Chat functionality to communicate in real-time
  • Reports to track progress and address issues
  • Separate inbox for notifications helps reduce on-screen clutter

Limitations

  • Limited number of integrations with other platforms
  • Navigation in between projects can be improved

Pricing

  • Basecamp offers a 30-day free trial for each plan
  • Basecamp: $15 per user/month
  • Pro Unlimited: $299/month

User Ratings

G2: 4.1/5 (5000+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.3/5 (13000+ reviews)

5. ProofHub

Collaborate with your team on all kinds of projects under one tool. ProofHub is a Backlog alternative that helps users plan, organize and deliver projects on schedule. The tool offers features to help individuals with on time project delivery and team accountability. ProofHub has a simple and straightforward interface that is great for users with limited to little understanding of project management applications.

Best Features

  • Plan and organize projects with a table view, kanban board, or a gantt chart
  • Assign and prioritize tasks with deadlines, time estimates, and labels
  • Custom workflows show an overview of current task progress

Limitations

  • Limited integrations with other software platforms
  • UI/UX can be improved

Pricing

  • Ultimate Control: $89/month
  • Essential: $45/month

User Ratings

G2: 4.5/5 (60+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.5/5 (70+ reviews)

Looking for Proofhub alternatives? Check out our list here!

6. ProProfs

Proprofs Project is an online application with a project management tool that helps users plan work and collaborate to finish projects and tasks on time. It has a simple and easy to understand interface to help manage and organize projects in a single dashboard. The tool offers various collaboration and task tracking functions. Proprofs Project also helps provide useful insights and reports to how future project completions can be improved.

Best Features

  • Plan and allocate tasks with the shared calendar tool featuring an intuitive dashboard
  • Visualize milestones with Gantt charts
  • Dashboard and timely notifications help users better collaborate and communicate 

Limitations

  • Does not come with automation features
  • Responsiveness and interface can be improved

Pricing

  • Annual plan starts at $39.67 per month(billed annually)
  • Monthly plan starts at $49.97 per month

User Ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (30+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.7/5 (70+ reviews)

7. Monday.com

Monday.com is a powerful project management software that offers intuitive dashboards to view work status across multiple projects. You can easily set goals, establish task dependencies, and prioritize tasks, so your team is aware of the action plan at all times. This way, you won’t receive unwelcomed work surprises on Mondays!

Best Features

  • Use Gantt charts to plan, track, and manage tasks
  • Distribute tasks efficiently with the workload view
  • Integrations with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and more

Limitations

  • Dashboards are a paid premium feature
  • Limited customer support - lacks phone and chat service

Pricing

  • Individual
  • Basic: $10 per user/ month
  • Standard: $12 per user/ month
  • Pro: $20 per user/ month
  • Enterprise: Tailored to your needs

User Ratings

G2: 4.7/5 (6600+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.6/5 (3200+ reviews)

We listed the 15 best project management alternatives for Monday.com! Check it out here.

8. Zoho

Support and manage complex business processes and projects with the help of Zoho. This fully customizable platform offers a CRM, project management, customer service solution, and a financial platform for growing businesses. If you’re handling a growing team or business with multiple processes and projects, Zoho is a unified solution that comes with more than just project management features for you. Zoho offers various tools for sales and marketing, customer service, finance, human resources, sales, and so much more.

Best Features

  • Streamline tasks with workflow automation
  • Automate sales, marketing, and support functions to save time spent on manual processes
  • Integration with Zoho apps and hundreds of third party apps

Limitations

  • Learning curve due to number of features, integrations, and Zoho apps
  • Limited customer support

Pricing

  • Zoho is available for free for one user
  • Basic: $49 per organization per month
  • Standard: $99 per organization per month
  • Professional $249 per organization per month
  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing

User Ratings

G2: 4.3/5 (300+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.2/5 (270+ reviews)

9. Kanbanize

Kanbanize is an agile project management software that uses kanban boards to create different custom workflows. It is also a resource management tool with time tracking as well workflow management and visualization. It has easy to use kanban boards which makes it a great option even for non software development teams.

Best Features

  • Measure and visualize performance with workflow analytics
  • Create roadmaps with timeline planner
  • Scale platform horizontally and vertically without breaking anything

Limitations

  • App can be confusing due to complexity
  • Functions and key features may not be needed by smaller teams

Pricing

  • 15 Users: starts at $149 per month
  • 30 Users: starts at $299 per month
  • 100 Users: starts at $799 per month
  • 500+ Users: Contact for pricing

User Ratings

G2: 3.8/4(20 reviews)

Capterra: 4/8/5(100+ reviews)

10. nTask

nTask is a simple but powerful project management solution that makes it easy to manage complex workflows. It's made to bring project teams on one place, and collaborate to achieve business goals. The platform’s simple structure gives a bird’s eye view for project progress to help managers make effective decisions.

Best Features

  • Efficient tracking
  • Optimizes tasks and planning with kanban board views
  • Custom statuses for a personalized workflow

Limitations

  • Lacks advanced reporting features
  • Not built for large teams

Pricing

  • Free plan
  • Premium: $3/month per user
  • Business: $8/month per user
  • Enterprise: Contact nTask for details

User Ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (10+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.1/5 (10+ reviews)

Currently using nTask? Check out the best project management alternatives for nTask!

11. TeamGantt

TeamGantt is an innovative and efficient software to manage projects without the hassle of feeling overwhelmed. This project management tool makes it easy to evaluate progress, prioritize tasks and optimize crew members’ workloads with Gantt charts. TeamGantt also includes calendar integration, custom notifications, collaboration tools, and customizable color coding to ensure teams are performing their tasks on time and budget

Best Features

  • Track project hours with the software’s time tracking tool
  • View and manage all projects in a single online gantt chart
  • Collaborate on specific tasks with the project level in-app collaboration tools

Limitations

  • No mobile app for users to access data on the go
  • Cannot create custom fields or workflows

Pricing

  • Lite: $19/month per manager
  • Pro: $49/month per manager
  • Enterprise: Starts at $99/month per manager

User Ratings

G2: 4.8/5 (840+ reviews)

Capterra: 4.6/5 (190+ reviews)

Looking for TeamGantt alternatives? We compiled this list for you!

Manage Projects Successfully with Backlog Alternatives

While Backlog is a good task and project management software, there are so many other tools which offer advanced features that can better help you plan and manage projects as well as achieve goals. 

If you’re looking for a great Backlog alternative that can offer so much more, your search ends now!

ClickUp is an all in one project management application with hundreds of powerful tools that you can access all under one platform. 

These features can be customized to work according to any project goals and requirements. Create the perfect workspace to break out your projects and tasks and choose from over 35 ClickApps to customize your task management. 

Keep everything organized all in one place with ClickUp. Try ClickUp for free today and discover how you can tackle any type of work with increased productivity and efficiency.

Did we miss your favorite tool in this article? Suggest it here!

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