7 Best Wrike alternatives and competitors to consider in 2026  

Wrike is a work management platform that is known for its comprehensive set of project management features, stability & reliability, customization, and enterprise-grade security, scalability, and control. However, just like any other software, Wrike also has downsides, such as a steep learning curve, a complicated user interface for non-technical users, expensive pricing for small to medium-sized businesses, especially for top-tier plans, limited collaboration features, and complexity for simple project management. Thus, despite being one of the most reliable project management (PM) software with a good market reputation and decent feature set, Wrike is not the right choice of PM software for everyone.    

From my over 15 years of experience in the project management industry and leading the marketing of our own product, ProofHub, I have realized no one tool is the right fit for everyone. One needs to consider one’s organization and team’s needs before choosing project management software, going beyond the marketing claims. In this post, I have compared the top 7 alternatives to Wrike with Wrike. 

I have evaluated and compared each tool with Wrike based on set criteria that include key factors like ease of use, learning curve, core project management and team collaboration features, value for money, and stability, reliability, and performance of the platform. I have also explained “what” and “for whom” each competitor is best for. To make this Wrike comparison guide comprehensive, I have briefly touched on what Wrike is, why you should look for Wrike alternatives, and what to look for in a Wrike alternative.        

Note: Although we have carefully reviewed and tested each tool ourselves, we recommend taking the free trial and seeing the potential of your chosen tool before committing to it. All apps listed in this article offer a free trial, so you can test them before deciding.

Quick overview of the best Wrike alternatives

What is Wrike, and why look for Wrike alternatives?

Wrike is a work management software that allows users to manage project requests, projects, teams, and collaboration from a centralized place in order to manage the entire workflow of an organization from one place. It was founded by Andrew Filev in 2006, a former Facebook engineer, to overcome the chaos of working through email and spreadsheets. As per the official website, the platform is used by more than 20,000 organizations in the world. 

Users can manage a project from start to finish, including project requests, project budget and resources planning, project plan execution, team collaboration, progress tracking, project reporting, digital assets proofing, and data analysis from a single place. You can create a project, break a project into tasks and subtasks, create a workflow, set dependencies, design a project plan, communicate with the stakeholders, collaborate with team members, monitor progress, and manage resources to successfully manage a project. 

The platform is known for providing control, clarity, and security to users with its vast range of project management features, customization, and industry-leading security infrastructure. 

Key features of Wrike

• Wrike project hierarchy to break a project into tasks and subtasks
• Task management to help collaborate on tasks  
• Gantt charts to set and manage dependencies 
• Real-time dashboards with customizable widgets to overview project and portfolio progress 
• Workload charts, resource booking, and workload balancing for  resource management 
• Real-time collaboration with file attachments, cross-tagging, and the Wrike Document Editor to corresponding tasks
• Online proofing to review, edit, and share feedback on digital assets
• Approval workflow to manage project requests
• Workflow automation to automate workflows

However, like any other project management platform, Wrike is not without limitations. It is a complex project management platform that has a massive and steep learning curve and takes time to learn. Wrike is an expensive project management software. And for some sections of users and use cases, it simply does not fit the needs either due to design, price, features, or any other factor. Thus, users need to look for Wrike alternatives

Here is an example: 

Suppose you are a software development team and you need project management software to manage tasks and dependencies in a project. You choose Wrike as your software for project management. Now, Wrike is inspired by the PMBOK style of project management (traditional project management). It has a powerful Gantt chart, project budgeting, resource planning features, and powerful reports. But you, as a software development team, need software with features like story point calculation, sprint planning, WIP limits, and reports with Agile metrics. Wrike either does not offer these features or only at a basic level. You need project management software that provides you with all these features to support the direct and effective implementation of Agile methodologies. In this case, your best alternative to Wrike can be Jira, Azure, or Linear.  

Similarly, there are various scenarios where Wrike is not the best choice despite being a good project management software.

Key limitations of Wrike 

• Large and steep learning curve 
• Complicated user interface and tool architecture for non-technical users   
• Expensive for small teams. Low-tier plans do not provide all the features. Advanced features are reserved for premium plans only
• Lacks advanced in-built team collaboration features such as whiteboarding, chat, and screen recording     
• Limited usability across use cases   

Thus, you need to look for Wrike alternatives.    

Just to inform you about the Wrike pricing for comparison, here are the details of Wrike pricing:

• Free: With limited features
• Team: $10 per user per month, 2-15 users, billed annually
• Business: $25 per user per month, 5-200 users, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing, 5 to unlimited users, billed annually
• Pinnacle: Custom pricing, 5 to unlimited users, billed annually  

Note: Keep in mind that all these limitations are comparative. In comparison with some platforms, Wrike might have a smaller learning curve, a better user interface experience, or a better value for money than the other platforms. However, for this article, we chose the alternatives that overcome Wrike’s shortcomings, not the ones that have the same shortcomings as Wrike.

What to look for in a Wrike alternative, and how do we choose the Wrike alternatives?

Wrike is a comprehensive project management platform that provides users with a lot of functionality with its wide range of features, granular control, enterprise-grade security, scalability, and stability, and decent onboarding & ongoing training, support, and resources. Ideally, a Wrike alternative should have all these features without the limitations of lack of ease of use, long learning curve, expensive pricing, and complexity. Though needs vary from one organization to another, you can omit some of the limitations and features of Wrike. 

Based on my team and my understanding and consensus, here are the five key areas you need to look for in a Wrike alternative:   

• Core project management features
• Ease of use and learning  
• Pricing and value for money 
• Reliability and stability
• Support and resources  

Our review criteria

We follow an extensive review and testing process. It is a three-step framework of research, test, and verdict. For the Wrike competitors comparison, we kept five key factors in our criteria:

• Project management and team collaboration features: We evaluated features from various angles and considered the implementation of basic project management methodology.  
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: We compared the ease of use and learning curve.    
• Pricing and value for money: We thoroughly compared the plans and analyzed the value.  
• Stability, reliability, and performance: We tested the tool in various environments.     
• Customer support and resources: We reach out to the support executives and read public reviews and sentiments.

How we rated the best Wrike alternatives

To rate the Wrike alternatives, we evaluated each alternative to Wrike on the selected five key criteria. To make our comparisons objective, we assign a score (out of five stars) on each criterion to reflect how well a platform performs in that area compared to Wrike and other leading tools.

7 Best alternatives to Wrike  

1. ProofHub: Best for minimal learning curve and pricing

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration software, founded in 2013, that helps you manage projects, team collaboration, and documents from a centralized place. Just like Wrike, it provides a comprehensive range of features to execute project management activities from start to finish. 

The platform allows users to create a project, break a project into tasks and subtasks, design a custom workflow, set dependencies, delegate tasks to the project team, collaborate directly on tasks by sharing files and adding comments, track progress, communicate with team members in real-time, share feedback on digital assets, and create reports.            

ProofHub makes the best alternative to Wrike in the list due to ease of use, minimal learning curve, and value for money. ProofHub has the minimum learning curve and training requirements among all the platforms in the list, and that too, without compromising on features. Its interface is simple and easy to use. The platform’s architecture is highly structured and organized with clear hierarchies and navigation flow, making it easy for users to remember how to use the tool and encouraging the usage of the platform for day-to-day operations. In addition to that, ProofHub offers the best pricing deal among all the platforms in the list. It has a flat fee structure that allows an organization to add as many users as they want without worrying about paying per user per month. For a flat fee, the entire organization can use the platform. Basecamp also offers flat fee pricing with $299 per month for unlimited users, but the ProofHub plan is $89 per month for unlimited users.     

ProofHub vs Wrike

• Core features and additional value: ProofHub offers most of the core project management features that Wrike offers. However, Wrike has the edge over ProofHub in the vastness and advancement of certain features, such as reports & dashboards, automation, templates, and integrations.              
• Ease of use and learning curve: ProofHub is one of the easiest to use platforms with a flat and minimal learning curve. In contrast, Wrike has a steep and large learning curve with significantly higher training requirements. Additionally, ProofHub’s interface is far simpler, more organized, and less cluttered than Wrike, which makes it easy to use, adopt, and learn. Thus, ProofHub is a clear winner among ProofHub vs. Wrike comparison when it comes to ease of use, interface, and learning curve.  
• Pricing and value for money: ProofHub offers the best value for money among all the platforms listed. Its pricing plans start from $45 per month for unlimited users, which allows you to add unlimited users for one flat price. Whereas, Wrike and all other platforms in the list except Basecamp charge per user per month fee. Thus, ProofHub has a clear edge over Wrike in pricing and value for money. Here is an effective pricing comparison of 50 users for ProofHub vs Wrike. ProofHub: $45, 50 users, 0.9 per user per month. Wrike: $10 per user per month, 50 users, $500 per month.                   
• Stability, reliability, and performance: Both ProofHub and Wrike are fairly stable and reliable platforms. However, Wrike is a more resource-intensive platform than ProofHub. ProofHub feels lighter and faster in simple workflows. As per collective data from review websites, ProofHub earns higher user satisfaction (92%) for consistent operations without frequent bugs, outperforming Wrike’s 85% rating.               
• Customer support and resources: Both ProofHub and Wrike offer decent technical and customer support and help resources. However, Wrike support is more comprehensive, and resources are more extensive than ProofHub, especially for enterprise-level onboarding.   

Key features 

• Hierarchical breakdown of a project to implement the work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Task management to add key details of tasks such as assignee, start and due dates, estimated resources, description     
• Custom workflow to define the flow of tasks in a project
• Gantt chart to set dependencies, add milestones, visualize project plan, create a baseline, and highlight critical path 
• Task comments and file sharing directly on tasks to streamline collaboration
• Built-in chat to facilitate real-time communication
• Time tracking to track the time spent on tasks and create timesheets
• Project reporting to overview the project progress and performance
• Multiple project views, including Board and Table, and custom filters to track the status progress at a glance
• Calendar to visualize resource schedule
• Custom roles to manage access and permissions  

Pros

• An extensive range of native collaboration features, such as chat, project discussions, notes, announcements, forms, task comments, and file sharing        
• Quick and easy setup with a minimalistic learning curve
• Flat pricing with no per-user fee for unlimited users

Cons

• No free version available 
• Not suitable for individual users              

Pricing

ProofHub offers two flat-fee paid plans:

• Essential: Flat $45/month (billed annually) for unlimited users, including all the core features.
• Ultimate control: Flat $89/month(billed annually) for unlimited users and all the advanced features.

Use ProofHub if

• Your team is new to using project management software and not well-versed in technology   
• You are a growing team and need a solution that scales cost-effectively without increasing the cost exponentially with per user per month fee    
• You are a team of any size and budget, and need a simple and easy-to-use platform with a minimal learning curve, with all the core project management features out of the box  
• If you need project management software with a  comprehensive range of collaboration features

2. Asana: Best for user experience and ease of use

Asana is a project management software founded by former Facebook engineers, Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, in 2008. It is one of the easiest to use platforms with the cleanest interface among all the tools in the list. Asana allows users to create a project, manage projects in a portfolio, collaborate with teams, track progress, manage workload, and create reports from a centralized place. 

Asana is the best alternative to Wrike for the user experience. It has a very clean, simple, and sleek interface. The platform has a highly organized structure that makes it easy to use. After an initial learning curve, users can use the tool easily without any hassle. Even the advanced features, such as portfolio management, automation, goals management, and workload balancing, are quite easy to use, which is something missing in Wrike. The moment you compare the interfaces and how the same features function differently in both platforms, you will immediately realize the value of Asana. That’s why it is placed second in the list, as it offers most of the core functionality of Wrike but with ease. Having said that, there are aspects where Wrike outperforms Asana.  

Asana vs Wrike

• Project management and team collaboration features: Asana offers all the core features for project management that Wrike offers. However, in some aspects, Wrike has an edge over Asana. For example, Wrike reporting and analytics capabilities are more extensive and comprehensive than those of Wrike. Wrike proofing is more advanced than Asana’s. Wrike allows you to add multiple reviewers at different stages in an approval workflow, whereas in Asana, a task only has a single assignee. However, at the same time, some features in Asana are not present in Wrike as comprehensively as in Asana, such as goal management. But still, Wrike has an edge over Asana in features.                            
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: Asana offers the best user experience of all the tools listed. Asana has a clean, sleek, and straightforward user interface experience, whereas Wrike’s user interface is complex and cluttered. Wrike has an overwhelming user experience, especially for non-technical users. Thus, Asana has an edge over Wrike in ease of use, learning curve, and user experience with the cleanest interface.                  
• Pricing & value for money: Both Asana and Wrike are similarly priced. Both tools reserve the advanced features, priority support, and advanced security layers for top-tier paid plans. An organization eventually has to upgrade to the top-tier paid plans. Considering features, Wrike provides a better value for money than Asana.
• Stability, reliability, and performance: Both Asana and Wrike are stable platforms with 99.9% uptime. Asana performance is better than Wrike. It loads faster than Wrike. Both tools have fewer reported bugs.    
• Customer support and resources: Asana has more intensive onboarding resources than Wrike. Asana Academy, self-help guides, and a well-developed partner/consulting ecosystem give Asana an edge over Wrike. When it comes to support, both platforms have a great support team dedicated to onboarding and customer success.     

Key features

• Set goals at the company, project, team, and personal levels
• Multiple project views, including board and timeline to visualize progress
• Reporting to provide an overview of the project progress
• Portfolios to help you visualize and manage projects   

Pros

• Most capable free plan as compared to the other tools in the list 
• Integrates seamlessly with over 200 tools, including Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams.

Cons

• Limited set of features forces users to pay for third-party apps 
• Advanced features are reserved for higher-tier plans

Pricing

Asana offers the following pricing plans:

• Free plan: Suitable for individuals or small teams.
• Starter: $10.99/user/month (billed annually).
• Advanced: $24.99/user/month (billed annually). Asana offers a 30-day free trial of premium features.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for the platform based on specific requirements

Use Asana if

• Your team prefers simplicity over the comprehensiveness of features
• Your team needs a tool that is easy to use with advanced project management features and AI assistance
• Your team has a decent budget to spend, as Asana is an expensive platform, and due to limited features, you need to invest in third-party apps such as Slack, Google Drive, and Zoom to facilitate real-time communication and collaboration         

3. Smartsheet: Best for similar capabilities with a spreadsheet-based interface

Smartsheet is a powerful project management software that is known for its customization, granular control, and similarity to the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet’s interface. It makes the best alternative to Wrike for a platform with similar capabilities to Wrike but with an entirely different user experience and user interface. Smartsheet has an interface similar to a spreadsheet and functions like an Excel spreadsheet, but with far more ease and features out of the box, ready to use. 

Smartsheet uses a combination of rows and columns to create a table for a project to help users with project management. It allows you to create, plan, monitor, and manage projects with a custom table for each project. Each row in a table is a task that allows users to add various attributes to tasks for comprehensive task management. Users can collaborate with team members directly on tasks by sharing files and adding comments.

Smartsheet is the best alternative to Wrike for users who are switching from Excel spreadsheets to project management software or non-technical users who are not able to get the hang of Wrike, even after hours of training, and find it too difficult to use.

Smartsheet vs Wrike

• Project management and team collaboration features: Both Smartsheet and Wrike offer a vast range of project management features, from a project hierarchy to a Gantt chart, custom workflow, task management, and reporting. However, Smartsheet’s project management features, such as resource management, reports and data analytics, granular control and permissions, and overall tool customization and flexibility, are better and more advanced than Wrike. On the other hand, if your focus is more on cross-functional collaboration, Wrike is a better choice than Smartsheet due to its workflow, design, and built-in collaborative features. For example, in Smartsheet, row-specific comments are crammed in the table which creates clutter on the table and are not easy to differentiate or identify and does not appear intuitively when a row is clicked, whereas in Wrike the same mentions appear intuitively in a dedicated task board as each task has its space and comments are easy to identify in the comment section, making it easy to collaborate. 
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: Both Smartsheet and Wrike are not easy to learn and use. These tools have significant training requirements and a learning curve. Wrike seems more intuitive and easier to learn than Smartsheet for a regular user. For a regular user, Smartsheet has a slightly higher learning curve than Wrike, but Excel spreadsheet users might find Smartsheet easier to use and learn than Wrike, due to the similarity of Smartsheet to the Excel spreadsheet. Otherwise, most other users find Smartsheet more difficult to learn than Wrike, and the platform requires more training to use advanced features and customize the platform appropriately. 
• Pricing & value for money: Both Wrike and Smartsheet are similarly priced across the tiers, but Wrike offers more features than Smartsheet. However, it is important to note that Smartsheet features such as time tracking, reporting, granular control, customization, and integrations are more comprehensive than Wrike. Thus, Smartsheet offers a more effective high value for money than Wrike.     
• Stability, reliability, and performance: Both Smartsheet and Wrike are fairly stable platforms. However, G2 reviews include complaints about feature-specific bugs in Smartsheet. Smartsheet is more resource-intensive than Wrike.     
• Customer support and resources: Smartsheet customer support team is slow to respond. Some reviewers report slow responses for complex issues. Whereas Wrike has a good support system.       

Key features

• Custom table with rows and columns to manage tasks 
• Conversation to mention people at the table for collaboration
• Workload tracking and resource management to identify workloads and allocate resources
• Admin controls, custom roles, and permissions to manage access
• Dashboard and reports to view project status using various data points

Pros

• Built-in templates to get started with project management
• Automation to automate workflows to save time

Cons

• A steep learning curve makes onboarding and set-up challenging
• Smartsheet does not have chat 
• Expensive software requires paid add-ons or upgrading to paid plans for advanced features such as workload tracking, unlimited automation, and time tracking

Pricing

Smartsheet offers three paid plans:

• Pro: $9 per user per month, billed annually
• Business: $19 per user per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team

Use Smartsheet if

• You need an enterprise-grade security, scalability, data management, and features for work management   
• Your team does not like the interface of Wrike and needs something similar to the Microsoft Excel 
• Your team needs detailed project planning capabilities, granular control, and customization 

4. Monday.com: Best for end-to-end work management

monday.com is a project management software that is known for its intuitive interface, customization, and tools for end-to-end work management. It allows you to create projects, manage tasks, collaborate with team members, track progress, and run automations.

monday.com is the best alternative to Wrike for end-to-end work management and a better user experience. monday.com has products like monday work management, monday CRM, monday Dev. monday Campaigns, and monday Service. When it comes to the user interface, monday.com has an interface a bit similar to a spreadsheet, which the platform calls a board. To start managing work with monday.com, first of all, you need to create a board. You can add the details of all the tasks of a project on the board, group the tasks under a stage or a project phase, and create a new group of tasks at any time. 

monday.com is a tool, something between Smartsheet and Wrike. It has the simplicity, customization, and similarity of Smartsheet but the intuitiveness, structure, and ease of Wrike. However, the biggest concern with monday.com is the hosting of data. If you are working in critical environments, ask about the data hosting centers and privacy policy.                 

monday.com vs Wrike

• Project management and team collaboration features: Both monday.com and Wrike have similar capabilities. Though Wrike has an edge over monday.com in reporting and analytics, proofing, and collaboration. monday.com tries to fill the functionality gap by providing end-to-end work management capabilities with tools like monday Work Management, monday CRM, monday Dev, and monday Service.   
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: monday.com is more intuitive, easier to use, and has a shorter learning curve than Wrike. The platform is known for its colorful interface, theme customization, and organization of features on the board.                
• Pricing & value for money: monday.com is cheaper than Wrike. Both platforms offer most of the project management features. But it is hard to comment on value for money as monday.com support is not as extensive as that of Wrike. 
• Stability, reliability, and performance: monday.com is a less stable and reliable platform than Wrike. User reviews consistently report complaints about the product. As far as performance is concerned, Wrike performs better for complex projects and high-volume data.       
• Customer support and resources: monday.com has good self-help resources and support. However, in complex cases, enterprise support or resolution is slower than Wrike.   

Key features

• Task management to create, delegate, and manage tasks  
• Resource and workload management to visualize resource capacity and plan resources  
• Project planning with Kanban, Gantt, and Calendar
• Advanced reporting dashboards provide insights into performance and workload
• Integration and automation to automate the workflow

Pros

• Highly intuitive interface 
• Highly customizable for cross-departmental collaboration

Cons

• Can feel complex or overwhelming for small teams 
• Per-user pricing can increase costs as teams scale.
• Heavy reliance on data structure means more initial setup time.

Pricing

monday.com offers five plans:

• Free: $0 for up to 2 users
• Basic: $27 per month for 3 users, billed annually
• Standard: $36 per month for 3 users, billed annually
• Pro: $57 per month for 3 users, billed annually
• Enterprise: Contact sales for pricing

Use monday.com if

• You want to create an ecosystem of tools from the same vendor for end-to-end work management  
• You need intuitiveness and ease of use without compromising on the functionality and features

5. ClickUp: Best for an extensive range of features and value for money

ClickUp is a productivity app known for its vast range of project management and team collaboration features out of the box. It is a feature-rich platform that allows you to plan projects, manage tasks, track progress, collaborate with team members, track progress, create documents, and much more to improve productivity. 

ClickUp is the best alternative to Wrike for teams that need all the features out of the box, within a single platform, and do not want to rely on the integrations with third-party apps. In addition to that, the platform provides one of the most extensive capabilities for team collaboration and document creation, such as ClickUp Inbox, Chat, Comments, Docs, AI, Whiteboarding, and Proofing.     

However, ClickUp lacks depth in many features, such as reports, project planning, and resource management. It is a jack of all trades but master of none because it tries to do everything and does not excel in any. Thus, ClickUp is the best alternative to Wrike only for a certain section of users.

ClickUp vs Wrike

• Project management and team collaboration features: ClickUp has an edge over Wrike in the number of features, both in project management and team collaboration. Especially, in the document collaboration capabilities and AI integration into the platform, ClickUp has an edge over Wrike.           
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: ClickUp is comparatively easier to use than Wrike and has a lower learning curve than Wrike. However, as far as the interface is concerned, Wrike has a better interface and organization of features than ClickUp. Users might feel that ClickUp has crammed everything into one app. Therefore, after an initial learning curve, users might find Wrike easier to use and navigate than ClickUp.            
• Pricing plans structure & value for money: ClickUp offers better value for money than Wrike.
• Stability, reliability, and performance: ClickUp has a lot of bugs, inconsistencies, and performance issues, especially at scale. It sometimes misbehaves or performs irregularly, which is a great concern for organizations seeking stability and reliability. Wrike is a better platform than ClickUp when it comes to stability and performance.  
• Customer support and resources: ClickUp has a large library of guides, templates, and a community for self-help. However, users have expressed dissatisfaction over the quality of customer support. Customer feedback mentions poor support quality when issues are complex. Eventually, Wrike has a better rating than ClickUp in customer support.    

Key features

• Clear project hierarchy- Space, Folder, List, Tasks, Subtasks, and Checklists- to plan projects and organize tasks
• Multiple project views to view progress from different angles
• A suite of collaboration tools such as Chat, Comments, Whiteboards, Docs, and proofing
• ClickUp AI to help you create, analyze, and summarize content

Pros

• An extensive library of templates to help you get started quickly
• A vast range of features in one place at a competitive price

Cons

• Complex interface and steep learning curve
• Slow loading speed, bugs, and performance issues 

Pricing

ClickUp offers four plans:

• Free: Free for small teams, with basic features and limited storage
• Unlimited: $7 per user per month, billed annually
• Business: $12 per user per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Use ClickUp if

• You do not need depth and advancement in project management features, but needs a vast range of features to perform basic project management activities 
• You need software with a high value for money
• You need software with the features for project management and team collaboration out of the box

6. Basecamp: Best for simple project collaboration

Basecamp is project collaboration software that has made its name in the industry for simplicity and seamless collaboration. Most tools require significant administrative work to use and manage the platform. Basecamp took the approach of simplicity for work collaboration. It reduces the work to manage the work with its simplicity of design.

Basecamp is the best alternative to Wrike for simple project-based collaboration. It is not as comprehensive as Wrike when it comes to features for project management, but good enough to perform core project management activities. This is the reason some users don’t refer to it as a full-fledged project management software, and you will find that Basecamp does not have project management features like Gantt charts and an advanced dashboard.                                     

Basecamp is best for teams that rely heavily on real-time and seamless collaboration for work management rather than rigid project plans, dependencies, and reports.

Basecamp vs Wrike

• Project management and team collaboration features: Wrike has an edge over Basecamp in advancement and comprehensiveness of features for project management. Whereas, when it comes to collaboration and visualization of collaboration, Basecamp has an edge over Wrike.           
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: Basecamp wins over Wrike in simplicity, learning curve, and user experience. It is easier to use, learn, and navigate than Wrike. Its interface is intuitive, simple, and easy to understand. One can easily learn to use Basecamp within a few days with little training.             
• Pricing plans structure & value for money: For teams with simple project collaboration needs, Basecamp offers a great value for money. It has an edge over Wrike in pricing, with a flat fee pricing structure.   
• Stability, reliability, and performance: Basecamp is a highly stable and reliable platform. Due to the small feature set, it has fewer bugs, is less resource-intensive, and loads faster than Wrike.      
• Customer support and resources: Basecamp offers better support than Wrike due to a relatively small client base than Wrike. The customer support team is highly accessible with fast replies and comprehensive help guides.   

Key features

• Message boards to collaborate with the team and share project plans & updates
• Calendar to plan the project’s timelines, milestones, and deadlines
• Chat for one-on-one or small group chats
• Docs & files to share, access, and collaborate on documents
• Basic reports to track progress

Pros

• Easy to use with a minimal learning curve
• Simplify and streamline project collaboration

Cons

• Need integrations with third-party apps to access some core project management features   
• Does not have advanced dashboards
• Missing Gantt charts  

Pricing

Basecamp has three plans:

• Free: Run one project at a time
• Plus: $15 per user per month, unlimited projects, billed annually
• Pro Unlimited: $299 per month for unlimited users, billed annually

Use Basecamp if 

• You need a platform to facilitate work collaboration in the team on tasks  
• You need a platform that is easy to use and adopt across all levels of technical experience of users
• You need a tool that does not scale costs with the number of users

7. Jira: Best for software development teams

Jira is an issue tracking and project management software designed specifically for software development teams for the management of software development projects. It supports the direct implementation of the various Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, with features like a Scrum board with Story point calculation, Backlog prioritization, Sprints planner, Agile task hierarchy (Epic > Story > Sub-task), Kanban board with WIP limits, and Issue tracking.

Jira is the best alternative to Wrike for the management of the software development projects due its wide range of features to support the direct implementation of Agile frameworks like Scrum and Kanban of agile project management methodology and seamless integration with third-party apps in the software development industry, such as Github and Jenkins, to create an ecosystem of work management and manage the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC) at a single place.

Jira vs Wrike

• Project management and team collaboration features: For the management of software development projects using agile methodologies, Jira has a clear edge over Wrike in terms of features. Wrike supports the implementation of Agile methodologies, but Jira has the most advanced features.       
• Ease of use, learning curve, and user experience: Both Jira and Wrike have a significant learning curve. However, Jira has a larger learning curve than Wrike. It is hard for a beginner to expect to learn Jira easily. It has extensive training requirements. Even the Jira setup requires dedicated assistance from an administrator. Thus, both for the project manager and the project management team, Jira is complex to learn and use. Wrike is comparatively easier to use, setup and learn than Jira. As far as the user interface is concerned, Wrike has a better user experience than Jira, with an intuitive and more organized interface.             
• Pricing plans structure & value for money: Jira and Wrike have similar pricing, but Jira offers more value for money due to its features, direct support for Agile methodologies, integrations with third-party software development apps, and support for SDLC.
• Stability, reliability, and performance: Both Jira and Wrike are large platforms with extensive feature sets. You can expect bugs, but these are addressed timely manner. Both platforms are resource-intensive and fairly stable and reliable    
• Customer support and resources: Jira has a better support system than Wrike. It provides extensive documentation, a large partner ecosystem, and enterprise support tiers.

Key features

• Scrum and Kanban boards to manage software development projects 
• Issue management to create, prioritize, assign, and track issues
• Timeline to visualize the project plan, roadmap, and responsibilities
• Burn-down charts, velocity charts, and cumulative flow diagrams for  data-driven insights into project performance

Pros

• Integrates natively with most third-party apps used by software developers, such as GitHub, VSS, and other CI/CD & testing apps
• Story point calculation, WIP limits, backlog prioritization, and sprint planning   

Cons 

• Steep learning curve
• Not an ideal work management solution for non-technical teams

Pricing

Jira offers four plans:

• Free: Free for up to 10 users
• Standard: $8.60 per user per month, billed annually
• Premium: $17 per user per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Use Jira if

• You are a software development team looking for project management software to manage a software development project
• You want a platform with an extensive range of integrations with third-party apps used in the software development industry
• You want to create an integrated ecosystem of tools to manage the entire software development life cycle (SDLC) from one place

What is the best Wrike alternative for you?

The best alternative to Wrike for you depends on the needs of your organization and team. It includes various factors like project complexity, feature requirements, technical literacy of the team, pricing, scalability, data security, performance expectations, and existing technology stack. In this article, we have seen how, for different use cases, the choice of platform for project management changes for users. To make it easy to understand, here is the recommendation for the best Wrike competitors for you:

• Choose ProofHub if you demand ease of use and learning with exceptionally high value for money
• Choose Asana if you need a  better user experience and minimal learning curve without compromising on modern-day features, but have a decent budget to invest in the platforms and third-party apps to create an ecosystem of tools   
• Choose Smartsheet if you are looking for a solution similar to Wrike, do not have budget concerns, and need a software with a completely opposite user experience to Wrike and similar to Excel spreadsheets
• Choose monday.com if you need an intuitive work management platform and want to create an end-to-end work management platform with a suite of monday.com products
• Choose ClickUp if you want all the features out of the box from a platform ready to use, and do not want to pay for third-party apps
• Choose Basecamp if your team needs a collaboration platform to facilitate working on tasks  
• Choose Jira if your team needs project management software that directly supports the implementation of Agile project management methodology 

Final thoughts     

Wrike is one of the most reliable project management software solutions. However, despite all the real-value the platform offers, it is not the right platform for everyone. If your organization or your team is among the users to whom Wrike is not the right fit, it is important to find the right platforms that serve you and aid in work management, not a platform that itself becomes a task to manage. 

In this guide, we have recommended the right fit platform for different use cases. If you are just beginning to use the project management software, I would recommend you try ProofHub due to the value, ease of use, and minimal learning curve it offers. I hope the choice of the platform will help you make your workflow and collaboration efficient.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to Wrike?

Asana is the best free alternative to Wrike for teams seeking no-cost project management with room to grow. Asana’s free tier supports up to 15 users and includes essential work views (List, Board, Calendar), basic dashboards, task assignments, due dates, integrations with common apps (e.g., Slack, Google Workspace), and templates that help teams structure work without upfront setup. While it doesn’t include advanced features like Wrike’s resource management, enterprise reporting, or creative proofing, Asana’s intuitive interface and reliable performance make it easy for teams to adopt quickly. Its robust self-help resources (Asana Guide, Academy) further lower the learning curve. For small teams, startups, or teams transitioning from ad-hoc task tracking to structured work management, Asana’s free plan delivers core capabilities that cover most day-to-day project coordination needs without the cost burden.

Which Wrike alternatives are best for large teams?

For large teams, ProofHub, Asana, Jira, Smartsheet, and monday.com stand out.

• ProofHub excels in pricing with flat-fee plans that allow unlimited users to use the platform and all the core project features available out of the box, ready to use.   
• Asana scales well with portfolios, goals, custom rules, and enterprise support, with robust admin controls.
• Jira excels in engineering environments with deep issue tracking, automation, and scale for thousands of users.
• Smartsheet supports extensive reporting and program-level views that large organizations rely on for governance.
• monday.com offers flexible work OS capabilities with visual dashboards and automations that help coordinate large, cross-functional projects.

What alternative is better than Wrike for managing complex projects?

For complex project management, particularly where deep dependency management and structured workflows are critical Smartsheet and Jira are often better than Wrike.

• Smartsheet offers rich, spreadsheet-style project modeling, cross-project rollups, and enterprise dashboards that help manage interdependent work at scale.
• Jira is built for complex, large-scale software delivery, with robust issue hierarchies, sprint planning, advanced workflows, and traceability through releases. It handles deep dependency graphs and integrates tightly with developer toolchains.

Both handle complexity with mature configuration and reporting tools; choose Jira for engineering specificity and Smartsheet for enterprise program reporting across business functions