ClickUp is a cloud-based, project management software that’s primarily used to manage workplace interactions and engagements. Its one-stop-shop nature makes it stand out among the rest: it has all the tools needed to create impactful projects rolled into one easy-to-use and accessible platform.
Yep, you heard it right! ClickUp is a workplace app that has specific uses and can be used to meet certain needs. ClickUp, however, aims to combine all these functions into one system with the primary goal to increase team productivity. How true is the claim? What is its performance when it comes to workflow management? We’ll answer these and more in our full review right here.
Also, in this article, we’ll tackle other important factors you might want to consider before getting it, including the pricing levels, system support, and the pros and cons that could either make or break ClickUp. Let’s begin!
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from Kurt on his YouTube channel Kurt Knows. You can still read our article to get a complete overview of ClickUp.
What is ClickUp? A Handy Overview ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
Established in 2017 as one of the many up-and-coming tech startups at the time, the team behind ClickUp knew their aim: for the platform to be the ultimate go-to place for businesses and teams to work more productively. They understood that the current productivity system might often be all over the place.
There are a lot of project management tools out there that may be hard to keep direct track of – for instance, if you’re looking for a place to deal with project-related tasks, look closer to Monday.com or Asana. Time tracking management? Hubstaff and ActiveCollab are good options. Do you want to share documents and presentations with your team? Maybe MS Office or Google’s suite of tools could help you with that.
It’s not just the typical project management stuff that teams from all walks of life have to deal with. Communication also comes into play – while a select few platforms have a chat feature integrated within, most of them are downloaded separately. You can think of Slack and MS Teams or even Discord.
Keep in mind that there are many productivity-based apps available for colleagues to use, creating an oversupply. For some, the increasing number of those may require more work to complete certain projects and achieve certain goals efficiently. ClickUp recognizes the need to create a platform that provides all workplace solutions from one location. ClickUp also believes that it will help improve productivity by 20%.
ClickUp was founded over a decade ago. It has since grown to include more than 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses and companies. These teams use ClickUp because of its cost-saving features. This helps them save time and money. Some of ClickUp’s notable tools include real-time collabs with fellow team members, shared task-setting, convenient productivity reporting, ready-made templates, and other handy customization assets, all on top of the usual tools such as task management, communication, and time tracking.
Another thing that makes ClickUp a solid pick for workplace activities is the flexible price range, including its free forever plan, which is among complete free packages as far as productivity platforms are concerned. ClickUp makes sure that every member of the team can access all of its most important features, unlike other apps which hide their best features behind paywalls. ClickUp is ideal for remote teams with limited budgets. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
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Who Are the Ideal Teams for ClickUp?
ClickUp is a great tool for small and large teams. But, its overall nature has made it an especially ideal choice for
- ClickUp can be used by remote or home-based teams. This is great news for companies that have many different teams.
- Human resources departments – ClickUp is equipped with excellent management, reporting, and storage tools, including a performance tracker, which any company’s HR department must have.
- ClickUp provides seamless collaboration and communication features such as chat and comment sharing for design and advertising teams.
- Marketing and finance-focused businesses – Teams who specialize in marketing and finance may have a ball with ClickUp’s tracking and reporting features and other notable aspects such as goal-setting, account management, and collaboration within the team and with clients.
- Teams who work in healthcare – Healthcare companies, no matter if they work remotely or not, must abide by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). ClickUp, thankfully, offers this compliance; however, it’s only limited to the enterprise plan.
ClickUp: What’s good and what’s not
ClickUp is a popular choice for productivity software online, with its simple, user-friendly offerings and packed pricing plans. This statement might seem too good to be true. Keep reading to see if ClickUp can still stand on its own.
The Pros
- ClickUp is one of a few platforms that offers a fully functional free plan. This includes vital workflow features that are not available through the paywall.
- It comes equipped with a wide range of elite customization options, each suited for teams from various industries. You can customize dashboards to your personal preferences using the “Custom Fields” tool.
- ClickUp provides a wide range of tools for work management that can be used to improve communication and engagement in the workplace. It can range from excellent real-time reporting features to smooth collaboration options.
- Its tools are easy to use, simple and convenient. This reduces the stress of trying to manage multiple productivity apps at once.
- ClickUp’s plans are not as limited as those from other platforms, so if you’re looking to accommodate as many team members as possible or integrate with numerous third-party apps and services, you can do so no matter what plan you’re subscribed to.
- ClickUp offers desktop access as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android that allows inter-team collaborations to take place while on the move.
The Cons
- Despite being filled to the brim with easy-to-use features, using ClickUp requires having to go through a steep learning curve – in the case of onboarding, for instance, it may take an extra bit of time for new teammates to navigate through all of its in-house tools and learn how to use them well.
- ClickUp is not the best in UI design. Some parts of ClickUp’s font and text sizes might be difficult to read for some users. The color layouts may be of great concern as well.
- ClickUp may have already been blessed with an abundance of productivity features, but it sure does lack a few other important ones, such as post-project feedback. Some of its integrated tools are also not as intuitive as the platform’s counterparts. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
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Breaking Down ClickUp’s Pricing Plans
ClickUp offers its potential users four pricing plans, including a sub-plan or upgrade tier for one of them. Each of these plans is suited for a diverse range of teams varied by size, manpower, and availability of resources. Without further ado, let’s take an in-depth look at ClickUp’s plans!
Forever Free
Among the platform’s greatest highlights, there’s no question needed as to why ClickUp’s Free Forever plan is placed in the category of the best free plans offered by any productivity software. Though an entry-level tier, you get access to unlimited tasks and add an unlimited number of team members to your workspace with no fuss. ClickUp’s core features are also explored, including native video recording, whiteboards and time-tracking.
Although the offerings seem appealing, there are limitations. For example, the monthly allowance of 100 automations and 100MB storage. Nonetheless, the Free Forever plan is a solid pick for solopreneurs, project management newbies, and small-scale teams needing more budget.
Unlimited Plan
You like the free tier, but you don’t want to follow the rules that could impede your workflow. You may be glad that ClickUp’s Unlimited Plan offers plenty of welcoming upgrades and extra features at affordable rates. Other productivity platforms offer similar plans, but at a higher price. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
For $5 per user per year (if you pay annually), you get all the core features of the Free Forever plan plus unlimited storage and app integrations. Unlimited dashboard creations are also possible. Advanced reporting tools and Goals & Portfolio are also available for a low price. Ideal for small-sized teams with an expanded client base and increasing resources, upgrading this plan from Free Forever requires a little money, making it valuable.
Business Plan
For teams who have expanded beyond the confines of a small space and are ready to take on new challenges, ClickUp’s Business Plan comes with a slew of features that deliver their increasing need for effective workplace resources. It includes extra security features such as double-factor authentication and single sign on integrations with Google for team members, in addition to the other features of the two previous tiers.
The Business Plan also received upgrades that have been worth it, such as advanced dashboard customizations, next level automation, and improved public sharing. The Goal Folders feature allows you to compile and organize your project goals into separate folders, making it easy for safekeeping. The Business plan costs as low as $12 per user per month (if paid yearly).
Upgrade to Business Plus
Want to explore more with the Business Plan? The Business Plus upgrade, priced at the starting point of $19 per member per month (annually), unlocks the rest of the tier’s features for a maximized productivity experience within the team. Not only will you get an additional allowance for automations.
You’ll also explore ClickUp’s efficient KPI tracking tools, team-sharing features, and custom role creation. ClickUp offers priority support. If you have any questions or requests, ClickUp will assist you as soon as possible.
Enterprise Plan
ClickUp’s Enterprise Plan is the most comprehensive tier, offering more enterprise-grade features than all other plans. It is targeted at large-scale businesses and corporations as well as established businesses. There is no fixed price, so you’ll need to connect with ClickUp’s sales team to discuss the amount you might need.
The Enterprise tier offers advanced solutions like white labeling, unlimited custom role, advanced permissions and customized contract agreements with legal support. It also includes HIPAA compliance for healthcare team members. Other noteworthy deals include the ability to do single sign-on using multiple apps aside from Google, custom onboarding training for new teammates, and a dedicated success manager to ensure a highly productive and positive workplace. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
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A Closer Look at ClickUp’s Features
Before we go ahead and check out the rest of what ClickUp has to offer, it’s important to first look at its hierarchal structure. Nearly every typical productivity system consists of at least two things: a company and its projects. ClickUp elevates it with some structural changes. ClickUp creates its own hierarchy consisting of Teams, Workspaces and Spaces (Projects), Folders Lists, Tasks, and Folders.
Teams, in ClickUp terms, refer to the company or organization that handles all the tasks and assigns them to the employees or teammates. Usually, Teams are created by companies of various fields as just one entity, though there are rare cases in which some big groups handle multiple teams at once. The Workspaces are also known as departments within the company.
The Workspaces are followed by a variety of Spaces, or work projects. These are assigned by departments within the Team. Each Space branches to the Folders, which in turn branch to the Lists. These Spaces are essentially subprojects of the larger plan. Lastly, the much-awaited Tasks from the Lists section, each assigned to different team members.
Now that we’ve got it dealt with let’s break down ClickUp’s integrated features and tools!
Multitask Toolbar
Once you step into the ClickUp user interface, you may notice the multitask toolbar, which appears if you click on one or multiple tasks on the list. You will find the same functions you would expect from an e-mail platform such as Yahoo Mail or Gmail: the ability to mark and select as read, delete, and the ability to delete. It is a wonderful feature for managers and solo power users who have to handle a lot of tasks.
Just like you would any e-mail service, ClickUp’s multitask toolbar allows you to do a variety of things with your chosen tasks. To make it easier, you can modify their status, add or remove assignees, change due dates and convert some tasks into subtasks.
A Simplified Approach to Managing and Viewing Tasks
On nearly most productivity apps, you would be expected to bear the weight of manually writing in your tasks and inputting them into your team calendar and goals everywhere you go. ClickUp has made this process much easier. Instead of spending nearly an hour writing down your tasks and inputting them into your team calendar and goals, you can simply type the task you are interested in and wait for ClickUp to incorporate the data into your workspace.
Regarding how you view your laid-out tasks, ClickUp has given you plenty of options to explore. It currently houses over 15 powerful views, from the calendar and boards to the more advanced views like the Gantt chart, mind map, map view, and workload. That way, you’ll get a complete scope of how the rest of your team is doing, plus the assurance that your goals may be reached efficiently.
Customization range
ClickUp is a great tool for task management. The useful drag-and drop feature makes organizing tasks a breeze. For instance, if you wish to change the deadline to a later period and day, you may simply drag one of your existing tasks further right or left in the Calendar section.
ClickUp allows customization beyond drag-and-drop functionality and multitask bar tools. Its ClickApps section, on the one hand, helps give the Workspace experience more life by supplying you with time-saving tools such as automations, dependencies, sprints, and more, all of which you can incorporate into your team’s space. On the other, you can have the option to create pre-made templates for your checklists, documents, folders, and the like that you may put into good use in the future, and, for a powered-up work environment, you can also integrate with over 1,000 apps and services – all made possible through Zapier. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
Collaboration and Communication Tools
Communication is key to a successful work project, and ClickUp provides you and your team with in-house features that deliver the aspect right on the spot. You can chat with your colleagues and catch up on tasks. These features are great, but they should not be relied upon. There are issues with the interface, and it is better to have backup comms in case of an emergency.
That aside, apart from the integrated communications tools, ClickUp’s also packed with smooth collaboration features up its sleeves. You can see what your colleagues are doing in real time from the Whiteboard to Documents, just like Google’s work space. Do you have any feedback? You can proof your files or your teammates’ tasks, assign comments for suggestions, and even share them with others so they can see what’s going on.
Documents
Having an outlet where you can lay out the ideas and goals of your project is an excellent idea until you realize you would have to access it on separate applications. ClickUp addresses this problem by integrating its version of Documents to the platform. This allows you and your team members to work together without having to go elsewhere.
More than creating and editing your files with a handful of fonts, sizes, and photos, ClickUp Docs lets you link them with your Workspace tasks seamlessly through the use of widgets. Why update your workflow in separate tabs when you can do it within the editor? This feature not only saves you time, but also helps you to be more productive.
When your docs are ready, you have the option to share them either privately between your teammates or publicly with an automatically generated copy-paste link. ClickUp Docs also offers other useful features such as Focus Mode, which allows you to focus on the part you are working on without distractions and allowing you to look at page details including word count, approximate reading time, and estimated reading time.
Real-time Reporting and Goal Tracking
It is crucial to track the progress of projects and determine if any steps have been taken to achieve their goals. ClickUp’s customizable dashboard allows you to view all types of project indicators from one place. From the current status of project goals and sprints to a real-time graph indicating how many tasks have been completed within the team, rest assured that you have the right tools to determine if any of your projects are geared towards success or otherwise.
As far as reporting how well your general workspace is doing is concerned, you may be glad to know that ClickUp’s reporting section made it incredibly simple for you to do so, as with most of its other features. Apart from visually appealing graphs, ClickUp also offers automatic reporting tools like the Pulse section. Here you can see how many of your team members are online at any given time, Time Estimates and Team Points. You can also view reports about how many tasks each member completed in a particular period of time.
Time Management
Remote work is becoming more popular. This has led to a growing demand for time management apps that help team members track how much time they work each day, week, and month, even though they may be in different places. While there have been dedicated platforms for that, time management features are already part of ClickUp’s loaded package of offerings. Like the rest of the tools, its time tracking and reporting duties are designed to be just as convenient and simple.
The global timer allows teammates to enter their work hours, link their task and take notes. It doesn’t matter what device you use – ClickUp’s Chrome extension is free and you can record your time on your computer, your mobile phone or your laptop. ClickUp allows you to set the timer to start when you are done with your tasks. Or you can manually enter how many hours you will work each day. The core tools for general time tracking management such as time billing, editing and timesheets will be covered. Do you have a different time-tracking app and would you like to transfer your data to ClickUp? Simply sync information between the two platforms. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
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Bonus: The ClickUp Support System
In need of assistance? ClickUp has nearly everything you may need to help you with them! Apart from being packed with many handy work management tools, ClickUp equally shines in providing its users with excellent customer support and learning resources.
On the one hand, its 24/7 customer service section can be accessed at any time regardless if you’re signed to a paid or free plan. It’s great that there are many support teams available. For instance, if you have a question regarding the Enterprise plan, the Sales section is the place to be. Likewise, if you want help setting up your Workspace, there’s a dedicated team for that.
Conversely, ClickUp lets you explore a vast library of learning content to guide you on how to use the platform, from the on-demand video tutorials in the Demo package to the information-rich documents found in its Help Center. ClickUp University offers courses and webinars that can help you and your team improve your work skills. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
What Customers Have to Say About ClickUp
ClickUp’s impressive list of project management tools has given it a cutting edge over the rest, although the number of those may be too overwhelming for some users who may just want to keep their fellow team members on track. It has a large following in the general public.
ClickUp has been a popular tool for team leaders. They have generally been positive about the process of using it. The platform’s endless customization options and time-saving features have been praised by many team leaders. They also appreciate how functional the free entry-level plan can be compared to other productivity programs and how worthwhile it is to upgrade to higher tiers, especially considering the price.
Since ClickUp is loaded with many features, it’s already a given that the learning curve can be steep, especially for those not fully familiar with how remote project management works. With that in mind, they may need to allow themselves more time to get used to its inner workings, which the service thankfully catches up with a vast range of learning and onboarding material. In addition, ClickUp, like the rest, is not fully immune to criticism in terms of having a sometimes buggy web and mobile app interface, but other than that, most users do not see any concerning issues with it as a whole. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
Alternatives to ClickUp
ClickUp has made its mark as one of the best productivity software out there, and its level of recognition today has now equaled the following alternative work platforms below. Each of these has competitive features and aspects that make it unique; however, some things aren’t always on par with what ClickUp offers.
- Monday.com – From the looks of it alone, it’s no wonder that Monday.com is considered by many to be among the closest competition to ClickUp in terms of workload features, range of customization, integrations, and providing teammates with learning and onboarding resources. While it lacks in its free plan and wide range of tools, it sure does make up for its ease of set-up and use.
- Smartsheet – Smartsheet offers teams the same caliber of project management tools as ClickUp, such as a reliable mobile app, multiple task-viewing options, and the ability to collaborate with teammates in real time. Smartsheet shines best when it comes to creating spreadsheet-adjacent project plans, making it a much better choice for detail-oriented teams that deal with a huge load of data and only sometimes for small-scale groups and freelancers.
- Teamwork – While ClickUp and the rest are collectively best for team projects, Teamwork has a slew of tools geared toward client- and service-based interactions. You can also use some of the great features that you would expect from any PM program, as well as many other useful tools. Though it may not have everything ClickUp has, Teamwork does offer a full suite of dedicated products for seamless productivity. ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
- Asana – Some PM platforms, like ClickUp, may be inundated with too many features, and others may need to be more basic. They may be considered pointless. Asana strikes the perfect balance between power and simplicity making it an excellent choice for small to large teams. With a cohesive mix of tools from task management to communication, Asana, on a base level, is great for beginners. Some aspects, such as full customization, require that you pay extra.
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ClickUp: The Final Verdict
As we reach the end of our ClickUp review, let’s go full circle to the beginning and answer these questions: 1) How accurate is its claim to increase productivity rates? And 2) how well does it deliver when it comes to handling workflow?
Firstly, from how it executes its premise by being a one-stop platform for all project management needs, there’s no doubt that ClickUp has the potential to improve workflow among teammates, even while remote. However, having too many tools can lead to information overload. Second, it depends on your perspective, the software will do its best to handle multiple tasks, even if some aspects need improvement.
ClickUp is ClickUp worth the effort based on what we have learned so far. The final answer may be up to you, but it’s a yes for us in this case! ClickUp may be a good choice for you if you are a small team looking to move to remote work.
FAQ ClickUp 2.0 Beta Review
How many devices is ClickUp currently available to download on?
ClickUp offers a desktop version, as well as an app for Android and iOS that we have already developed. It can be downloaded on Windows, Mac and Linux. It also has a Chrome browser extension currently available on the Google Chrome web store, as well as availability through voice command services, namely Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
ClickUp is it suitable for solo or personal use?
Though not the de-facto best platform for freelancers who deal with clients independently, ClickUp has enough tools that can be maximized even for personal use. Those who work solo for a living may enjoy ClickUp’s range of excellent project management tools the same way as small- or medium-sized companies do.
Does ClickUp offer offline access?
Yes! ClickUp does offer an Offline Mode option for teammates who want to work even without the presence of an internet connection. With it, you can create and view tasks, craft reminders, and take a look at notes; however, you may not be able to access some of its other tools unless you’re connected online.
ClickUp’s Offline Mode feature can be found on the platform’s website, desktop program, or mobile app (Legacy2.0).