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Why do you need project management software?
The search for project management software often begins when you have more than one project and communication has outgrown your messaging app. On a construction site, the situation is familiar: the site supervisor keeps deadlines in their head, procurement asks what to buy, tradespeople send reports to a group chat, and the client wants an update on a stage of the work.
A task manager provides the essential foundation: a shared list of tasks with owners and deadlines. It helps record agreements and reduces the number of times someone says, “I didn’t see it.”
The features of the services listed here were checked against official documentation on September 13, 2026. The key is to understand how you want to organize your work: Kanban boards by stage, a construction schedule, workload monitoring, or client approvals.
How do you choose project management software?
There is no universal solution because projects differ. Renovating an apartment and building a house may involve similar stages, but they differ in the number of participants, purchasing volumes, and how often requirements change.
Start with a brief assessment of the problem you want the tool to solve. For some teams, deadlines slip; for others, employees lose track of tasks or decisions disappear into message threads.
Planning is another consideration. If you work to a construction schedule, decide in advance whether you need Gantt charts and task dependencies. We discuss schedules separately in How to Create a Construction Schedule.
- Mobile access. Can you and your team work from a phone on site without constantly needing a laptop?
- Roles and permissions. What can a tradesperson see, what can a manager see, and what do you share with the client?
- Task views. Do you need a Kanban board, a list, a calendar, or a Gantt chart?
- Files and discussions. Where will task photos, documents, and conversations be stored?
- Reporting. Are there reports on deadlines, workloads, and overdue tasks?
- Adoption. How long will it take for the team to start maintaining tasks regularly?
Once these criteria give you a clear picture of the service you need, choosing becomes easier. Test the selected service on a typical project for your team.
Trello
In Trello’s official guide, work is organized into columns such as “planned,” “in progress,” “under review,” and “done.” For renovation projects, this fits stages and substages such as demolition, preparatory work, building services, finishes, and final work.
A typical situation: you have three sites, a tradesperson asks which mix to use, procurement is on the way to the store, and you are also agreeing on changes with the client. A board of cards helps you keep unfinished work in sight and identify bottlenecks.
Trello is easy for teams to follow because the card-based structure is clear at a glance. If you want to start with Kanban and keep things simple, it is a workable choice provided the service is available to your team. In Russia and Belarus, Trello blocks the creation of new accounts; its apps have also been removed from the app stores in those regions.
Asana
Asana lets you manage tasks with deadlines and owners and link dependent work. Timeline planning and dependencies are available on Starter plans and above; check the features included in your plan before rollout.
In construction, this helps a project manager who oversees several sites and switches between them regularly. In the morning, they check what needs urgent attention; during the day, they record new assignments after calls; in the evening, they prepare the next day’s task list.
Asana works well as a control center for the office side of a project. If you have an established management team and tasks go through an approval process, the tool can be a good fit.
ClickUp
ClickUp supports tasks, checklists and templates, and knowledge bases. This is useful if you have your own way of working and want to bring it into one interface.
For example, you may have a standard renovation process, but each client requests changes. In ClickUp, you can keep project templates and add branches for individual decisions without scattering everything across chats.
If you are prepared to set up the structure once and then reuse it across new sites, ClickUp can become a core tool for tasks and internal procedures, provided it is available to your team. Under ClickUp’s rules, access for users in Russia was discontinued on September 12, 2024.
Jira
Jira lets you configure workflows with statuses and transitions. Creating complex workflows requires the appropriate administrator permissions and time for configuration.
For a construction team, such a workflow can define rules: what counts as assigning a task, what counts as acceptance, who can change deadlines, and who approves changes. It acts as a form of quality control for the task management process.
If your projects need strict procedures and you are ready to support them organizationally, Jira can fit. The effect will be weaker without team discipline. Companies in Russia and Belarus face restrictions: Atlassian announced that it would wind down its business in those countries from October 31, 2022.
Notion
In Notion, you can keep project pages and linked tasks alongside documents and notes. This can help when knowledge and documents are spread across folders, chats, and personal notes.
The situation is familiar: a construction detail changes on site, a photo is posted in the group chat, and a week later no one can find it. Notion helps you create a project page, collect materials there, record decisions, and keep a task list nearby.
If you want project documentation and management notes alongside tasks, Notion may fit where the service is available. Under Notion’s rules, users in Russia have had no access to the platform since September 9, 2024; workspaces with current or historical billing information associated with Russia are subject to termination.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 combines tasks and projects (documentation in Russian) with communication, files, and a calendar. Tasks offer several views, including Kanban and Gantt charts, so the service can support both stage-based management and schedule planning.
In a construction company, this might work as follows: a sales manager handles leads, a project manager assigns tasks, procurement follows assignments, and accounting stores documents in the shared system. When some processes already run in Bitrix24, bringing project management into it is a logical step.
If you want project management in the same environment as your company’s other management processes, Bitrix24 is worth considering as a core solution.
YouGile
YouGile is a task and project communication service with boards and configurable user roles (documentation in Russian).
This is useful when you have subcontractors and observers: a user with a separately configured role sees only permitted tasks, while an observer sees tasks and can write in the chat but cannot edit tasks or the project structure. Standard roles do not, by themselves, restrict visibility to a user’s own tasks. This reduces the risk of accidental changes and saves time otherwise spent sharing screenshots.
If you want Kanban-based communication across sites while retaining control of permissions, YouGile is worth considering.
Why does a task manager fall short of complete project management?
Tasks organize actions, but construction projects also need a financial outcome: advances, funds issued for purchases, procurement, payments to tradespeople, and client reports. After choosing a task manager, a manager may quickly find that the overall financial picture is still missing.
One common blind spot is money issued to staff for expenses. Purchasing tasks may be assigned and receipts may arrive, yet the project total still has to be compiled manually. We cover this separately in How to Track Funds Issued for Construction or Renovation Expenses (in Russian).
One way to organize work is to connect task management with separate financial tracking. Whether you need a second service depends on the functions of your chosen system: first check which tasks and financial transactions it already covers. In construction, the 101 App can serve this purpose: each site is managed as a project, participants report transactions, and the manager sees the balance and expense details. 101 also has tasks and Gantt charts, so first check whether your team needs a separate task manager.
If you are choosing a system and want to compare approaches, see our reviews of Gectaro and the 101 App (in Russian) and Smetter and the 101 App (in Russian). They help explain the boundary between task management and management accounting.
Connecting work with finances also makes estimating easier: see our articles on preparing an estimate quickly (in Russian) and calculating an estimate online (in Russian). Confirming events in the 101 App helps record participants’ actions and approvals. For conditions and limitations, see Accepting Work Without an Acceptance Certificate: How Digital Confirmations Can Help in a Dispute (in Russian).
If you want to see how project finances work in the 101 App and how to connect them with your team’s tasks, join a product presentation.
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