The best project management software for consultants
A consultant's project software has a job an internal team's does not: it has to protect the thing you sell, which is your time. You juggle several clients at once, you bill by the hour or against a fixed scope, and you sometimes need to show a client progress without handing over your whole workspace. The feature that decides the tool is time tracking tied to clients and projects — so you can see profitability and bill accurately — plus clean client-facing sharing. We reweighted the rubric around billable work and ranked the six.
We scored the same five criteria as our main project-management ranking, then reweighted for a consultant or consulting firm. The deciding criterion is time tracking and billing — capturing hours against the right client and project — weighted at 30%. We valued a multi-client structure, weighted client sharing and guest permissions because you expose work to outsiders, kept ease high for small teams, and held value steady. See the full rubric →
Time tracking & billing30%
Multi-client structure20%
Client sharing & guests20%
Ease of use15%
Value15%
01
RANK
★ Editor’s Choice
ClickUp
Best for billable consultants
The strongest all-round fit because the billing machinery is built in. ClickUp has native time tracking — including on the free plan — so hours are captured against the right task and client without a bolt-on, and its dashboards roll those hours up to show utilisation and project profitability. Guest access lets you share a single project view with a client cleanly, and the structure handles many clients at once. At $7 per user a month it is also the value leader. For most consultants this is the rational default.
The most visual and polished option, and a pleasure to share with clients — guest access and clean boards make status obvious to a non-technical stakeholder. It tracks time on higher tiers and has a strong automation engine for repeatable engagements. The cautions are a three-seat minimum and time tracking that sits on the Pro plan, so price the tier that includes it before you commit.
Wrike is built for managing capacity, which matters when you are selling people's time across several engagements. Its workload and resource views show who is over-committed, and time tracking plus billing live on the Business plan. That depth suits a growing consulting firm with a bench to manage; for a solo consultant it is more than you need and the Business tier at $25 a user reflects that.
Asana is the cleanest tool for running a clear, repeatable delivery process — task ownership, deadlines and dependencies are beautifully handled. The gap for consultants is time tracking: there is no strong native timer, so you would integrate a tool like Harvest to capture billable hours. If your engagements are fixed-scope and process matters more than hourly billing, that trade-off is fine.
If you think in spreadsheets, Smartsheet feels like home — a grid that scales into real project management with strong reporting and rollups across clients. It is excellent for plan-heavy, deliverable-driven work and portfolio reporting. Time tracking is lighter and usually relies on add-ons, so it fits consultants who bill by deliverable or milestone more than by the logged hour.
Notion is wonderful for a solo consultant whose deliverable is thinking — proposals, research, client wikis and a light project tracker all in one elegant workspace, shareable with a client by link. The honest limit is that it is not a real time-tracking or resource tool, so once billing by the hour and managing a team matter, it stops keeping up. As a knowledge and delivery hub for one person, it is hard to beat at $10 a seat.
Which tool tracks billable time without an add-on?+
ClickUp. It has native time tracking built in — available even on the free plan — so hours are captured against the right task and client, and dashboards roll them up to show utilisation and whether an engagement is profitable. monday.com and Wrike also track time, but on their higher-priced tiers.
How do I share progress with a client without exposing everything?+
Use guest access. ClickUp, monday.com, Wrike, Asana and Notion all let you invite a client to see a specific project or view rather than your whole workspace. monday.com's boards are the most client-friendly to read at a glance; Notion shares cleanly by link for documents and lightweight trackers.
Is a free plan enough for a solo consultant?+
Often, yes, to start. ClickUp's free plan includes time tracking, and Notion and Asana have capable free tiers. As you take on more clients and need profitability reporting or guest controls, a paid plan around $7 to $12 a user pays for itself quickly by showing which engagements actually make money.
What is the mistake to avoid?+
Choosing a docs-first or board-first tool with no real time tracking when you bill by the hour. You will end up running a separate timer like Toggl or Harvest and reconciling two systems, which defeats the point. If hourly billing matters, start with a tool that tracks time natively, such as ClickUp.