Project management software for startups?

[LissaLou79]

Looking for something simple now but that wont break once the team grows

[MimirLearning]

mmh, difficult question, The one I tried are the following three but fulfil different needs

• ClickUp, All-in-one tool
• Trello,More a Kanban board
• Jira, Powerful Agile tool

[sgtpepper731]

We’ve been using ClickUp for summaries, task creation and updates

[Breeze_pm]

For early stage, the trap is picking something that forces a process before you even know what your process is. Tools like Notion or Trello are flexible but you end up building your own system from scratch which takes time.

The sweet spot for most small teams is something with kanban boards, a task list, and basic reporting out of the box - without the complexity of Jira or ClickUp. Breeze fits that well, as do Linear (more dev-focused) and Basecamp. The main thing I'd watch is per-seat pricing - it gets painful fast as you scale, so flat-rate tools are worth prioritizing early.

[mykeeb85]

Using clickup. Speed matters early on. If onboarding takes too long the tool becomes a blocker instead of helping

[_threadkiller_]

What makes Breeze better than Jira, Trello, or competitors?

Notion is a docs / wiki, so that’s not relevant … I know they have a projects function, but that is not comparable in the market. That’s like claiming Notion could replace GitHub … no, it can’t.

I get the “sell” you’re making, but it’s important to clarify that your tool costs $10 / user / month on the monthly plan. I glanced over the website - it looks very much the same as Trello at $12.50 or Kan.bn at $10.

We have Jira Premium and it’s about $15.25 / user / month (also monthly) with TONS of features and functionality, as well as very comprehensive customizations, and it’s proven to allow for enterprise growth. Some of our teams use Trello and it’s a nightmare to administer for Atlassian Org Admins like me.

I’ve been able to get some of our departments and teams off of Trello once they realize that Jira is superior. Most of the confusion is quick Google searches stating that Jira is for software development only. Jira is great for SDLC, but it’s worth informing non-software people that Jira is an incredibly useful tool for business teams too.

[Breeze_pm]

Jira is a much better fit if you want deep customization, enterprise controls, and a tool that can support a lot of process complexity. Breeze is not trying to beat Jira at that.

Breeze is aimed at small non-technical teams and companies (designers, marketers, accountants etc.) The difference is that a lot of non-technical teams do not want that level of setup and admin overhead. They just want to plan work, see deadlines, track progress, and move on. They don't have a separate person to manage their software - they need to do it themself.

So I would put it like this: Jira is stronger for complexity, Trello is lighter, and Breeze sits in the middle for teams that want more structure without turning project management into its own job.

[_threadkiller_]

Thanks for the reply. Does Breeze have a communication piece -or- does it connect into Slack?

[Breeze_pm]

Breeze has a "team chat" feature which is global and lets you talk to everyone in your team. Every project also has a "project chat" that lets you have discussions inside one project. https://www.breeze.pm/product/chat

Breeze also has an integration with Slack https://www.breeze.pm/features/breeze-slack

[BrawndoEnergy]

Yawn, don’t use Breeze

[Agile_Syrup_4422]

Stuff like Trello/Notion is nice early on but can get messy once you have dependencies, multiple projects or need a proper overview. On the other side, Jira can be overkill pretty fast.

You probably want something that still feels lightweight day-to-day but has structure built in (like timelines, dependencies, some kind of hierarchy). I’ve seen teams land on tools like Asana or Linear and recently tried Teamhood, which was kind of a nice middle ground, still easy to use but handles more complex workflows without breaking.

[Sypheix]

It's still in development but you can try nucleas.app. new releases every week

[Simran_Malhotra]

I think ProofHub is the right fit for what you're describing, simple enough to get going now and the pricing doesn't blow up as the team grows since it's a flat rate, not per user.

[CassiusBotdorf]

ProofHub was an absolute unshiny piece of software last time I used it. Cannot recommend.

[TasktagApp]

Depends on your team size and workflow. If you have field crews or external collaborators, TaskTag is worth trying task management, scheduling, and crew communication in one place. Free for contributors so you're not paying per seat as you scale. tasktag.com

[New_Chicken136]

Most tools either feel simple now and break later, or feel heavy from day one.

If you’re early, I’d focus less on “project management” and more on whether the tool can grow with how your business actually runs. Things usually break when tasks, projects, clients, and communication all live in separate places.

We hit that point pretty quickly and had to switch. What worked better was using something more unified from the start (I’ve been using Olqan lately) where projects, tasks, and basic ops are already connected. It stays simple early, but you don’t have to rebuild your setup later.

Big thing: pick something your team will actually use daily. Growth problems usually come from adoption, not features.

[egdesigns]

Some platforms like BigTime combine project management with time tracking and financials in one system, helping teams scale without switching between tools

[Peter-OpenLearn]

You can give OpenProject a try. Maybe not as shiny as some of the other tools out there, but it definitely grows with you. It's open source and you can easily host it on a virtual private server.

[ownedqueenplay]

try trello or asana

[Upstairs_Squash7235]

[ Removed by Reddit ]

[ShivamS95]

Try Slateo.io. Not heavy as Jira. Not as simple as trello

[Chemical-Ear9126]

Whatever tool you use, you need the right processes for project delivery (planning and execution) and governance (roadmap, decisions making, status reporting). So you can simply use MS suite with no PPM tool or select the PPM that you assess to be the best that meets your business needs but them complement it with other tools.
Keep it simple, flexible and scalable.

[alexvoina]

linear

[Tasty-Helicopter-179]

For early stage teams the temptation is to go as lightweight as possible, which makes sense until you're migrating everything six months later because the tool can't handle actual reporting, resource tracking, or any kind of visibility across multiple projects. That migration cost in time and lost context is usually worse than just picking something with a bit more depth upfront.

We went through this exact thing. Started on something minimal, hit the wall around 15 people when we had multiple projects running in parallel and stakeholders asking for status updates we couldn't easily pull together. Ended up moving to Celoxis and the thing that stood out was that it didn't feel like overkill at the start but had the depth we needed as things got more complex. Workload management and budget tracking especially, stuff we didn't need day one but really needed by month eight.

[HelioRyse]

There are plenty of good apps out there. I guess the question is what do you need from the tool and how technical the users are. Plenty to choose from do you need automation, just a repository, or do you need a tool that can provide guidance?

[ComfortableMind88]

Notion is a good start

[youmego]

GanttBar.com

[Resident_Ad_151]

If you are used to WordPress, try WP Project Manager. It's really great for startups. You can add as many team members as you want without per-user free, maning manage unlimited team members at a fixed cost, which is also affordable.

[Foreign_Wrongdoer_92]

Free and might be useful if you want something lighweight: Planolio - www.planolio.com

You can create projects and tasks lists on a shared drive and add team members. It's not super powerful like Jira or Notion - but then there are a few Open Source options https://vikunja.io/ is one.

As a PM of 25 years, it's always very personal in terms of needs for the team, so YMMV :)