ClickUp is a cloud-based project management software primarily used for workplace-related engagements and interactions. 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! While other workplace apps have specific uses to fit particular needs, ClickUp aims to bring all of those things into one comprehensive system with the primary goal of increasing team productivity. How true is the claim? What is its performance when it comes to workflow management? These and other questions will be answered in our complete review.
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. To get a comprehensive overview of ClickUp, you may still want to check out our article below.
What is ClickUp? A Handy Overview ClickUp Branding
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 realized that the current productivity system could be all over.
There are many project management tools available that can be difficult to track. For instance, Monday.com and Asana may be a better place to manage project-related tasks. Time tracking management? Go for Hubstaff or ActiveCollab. 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 is also important. While a few platforms include a chat function, many of them can be downloaded separately. You can think of Slack and MS Teams or even Discord.
With that in mind, there are way too many productivity-based apps for teammates to keep up with, creating an oversupply of separate ecosystems. Some may find it more difficult to finish certain projects or achieve specific goals due to the increased number of apps. 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. ClickUp offers many useful tools, such as real-time collaborations with team members, shared task setting, productivity reporting, templates and other customization options. This is in addition to the usual tools like 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. While certain apps put their best features behind layers of paywalls, ClickUp ensures that all important tools are available for every teammate to use free of charge. This makes it highly ideal for short-on-budget teams who work remotely. ClickUp Branding
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ClickUp: Who are the ideal teams?
As already reiterated, ClickUp has enough features and traits that make it feasibly possible for teams of all sizes, from small startups to large-scale enterprises. 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.
- Design and advertising teams – Feedback is an important aspect when it comes to working with teammates in the design and applied arts field, so ClickUp delivers that with seamless collaboration and communication features like chat and comment sharing.
- ClickUp is a great tool for marketing and finance-focused companies. ClickUp’s reporting and tracking features are great for teams that specialize in marketing or finance.
- Teams working in healthcare – Healthcare companies must adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. ClickUp offers this compliance, but it is limited to the enterprise plan.
What’s Good and What’s Not with ClickUp
From simple and convenient offerings to jam-packed pricing plans, it’s no wonder why ClickUp has become one of the top choices for the best productivity software on the internet, and a fan favorite, too! But, from the looks of it, this statement may be too good to be true, so keep reading if you want to check if ClickUp still has what it takes to stand on its own two legs.
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. This includes customizing dashboards according to personal preference and the “Custom Fields” tool.
- ClickUp houses a diverse library of work management tools in one place as a means to further boost communication and engagement throughout the workplace. You can find everything from great real-time reporting to seamless collaboration options.
- Most of its tools are simple, convenient, and easy to explore, lessening the burden of juggling many productivity apps in one sitting.
- ClickUp’s plans don’t have the same limitations as other platforms. If you want to integrate with third-party apps or services or accommodate more team members, ClickUp has you covered.
- 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
- ClickUp is full of easy-to use features but it can be difficult for new colleagues to learn how to use them.
- 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. Its integrated tools may not be as intuitive as its counterparts. ClickUp Branding
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ClickUp’s pricing plans broken down
ClickUp offers four pricing plans to its users, with a sub-plan and upgrade tier for each. Each plan is suitable for different types of teams, depending on their 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. You’ll also explore ClickUp’s jam-packed core features, such as real-time chat, whiteboards, time-tracking, and native video recording.
While the lineup of offerings appears to be convincing, you have to keep in mind that some limitations have been put into place, like the allowance of only 100 automations per month and 100MB worth of 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 Branding
For as low as $5 per user per month (if paid annually), you get the same core features from the Free Forever plan, plus unlimited storage and app integrations, unlimited dashboard creations, advanced reporting tools, and the Goals & Portfolio tool. This plan is ideal for small teams with a larger client base and more resources. However, upgrading from Free Forever will cost you a little extra, making it very valuable.
Business Plan
ClickUp’s Business Plan is for teams that have grown beyond their small spaces and are prepared to tackle new challenges. ClickUp’s Business Plan includes a host of features to meet the increasing demands of effective workplace resources. For instance, it has extra security features for teammates, such as two-factor authentication and single sign-on integrations with Google on top of the features from the two previous tiers combined.
Additionally, the Business Plan has seen worthy upgrades for some of ClickUp’s core features, including advanced dashboard customizations, next-level automation, and upgraded public sharing. Also included is the Goal Folders feature, which lets you compile and organize project goals into separate folders for easy safekeeping. The Business plan costs as low as $12 per user per month (if paid yearly).
Business Plus Upgrade
Want to explore more with the Business Plan? The Business Plus upgrade is priced at $19 per member per year (annually), and unlocks all the features of the tier to maximize productivity within your team. You will also get additional automations allowances.
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 Branding
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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. A typical productivity system is composed of two things: a company or 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.
ClickUp defines a team as a company or organization that manages all tasks and assigns them the employees or their teammates. Teams are usually created by companies from different fields. However, there are rare instances when large groups manage multiple teams simultaneously. The Workspaces are also known as departments within the company.
After the Workspaces come next, a varying number of Spaces or work projects are assigned by the departments within the Team. Each Space branches out to the Folders, which then branch out 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. You can, for instance, change the status if they’re complete or not, modify the due dates, set assignees among your current teammates, and even convert some of them into sub-tasks to make the full goal less complicated.
A Simplified Approach to Managing and Viewing Tasks
Nearly all productivity apps require you to manually enter your tasks, and then inputting them in your team calendar and goals. ClickUp has simplified the process to a huge extent – instead of taking up nearly an hour or more of your time, you need to type in whatever task you have in mind and wait for the platform to integrate the data into your workspace very shortly.
ClickUp offers many options for how you see your tasks laid out. ClickUp currently offers more than 15 views. These include the calendar, boards, mindmap, map view and workload. This will give you a full overview of the team’s performance and help you to set realistic goals.
Customization Range
To continue where we left off from task viewing options, it’s worth noting that ClickUp knows a thing or two about making task management supremely convenient and less of a hassle to deal with. Its useful drag-and-drop feature has turned the process of reorganizing tasks into a piece of cake. You can drag and drop tasks to move the deadline to a later date or period.
However, customization goes beyond the simple drag-and-drop and multitask toolbar tools with ClickUp. 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 Branding
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.
ClickUp is not only integrated with communication tools but also has smooth collaboration features. You can see what your colleagues are doing in real time from the Whiteboard to Documents, just like Google’s work space. Have any feedback in mind? You can review your files and your team’s tasks, make suggestions, and even share them to others.
Documents
It is a great idea to have a place where you can share your ideas and goals. However, you will need to access them on different 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.
ClickUp Docs allows you to create and edit files using a few fonts, sizes and photos. You can also link your files with Workspace tasks through 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.
Once your documents are complete, you can share them with your team members or publically using an automatically generated copy/paste link. Additionally, with ClickUp Docs, you can explore other useful features, such as turning on Focus Mode to let you focus on your part with no distractions and looking at the page’s details, including the word count and approximate 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. To see how they play out as they happen, look no further than ClickUp’s customizable dashboard feature, which lets you navigate through different types of project indicators in one space. You have all the tools you need to know if your projects are on track for success, from the status of sprints and goals to the real-time graph showing how many tasks were completed by the team.
ClickUp’s reporting section makes it easy to report on how your workspace is doing. 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. There have been other platforms that offer time management, but ClickUp already offers them as part of its comprehensive package. Like the rest of the tools, its time tracking and reporting duties are designed to be just as convenient and simple.
The software’s global timer enables teammates to input their work hours, link their tasks, and add notes regardless of the type of device being used – you may record your time from your laptop, mobile phone, or from ClickUp’s free Chrome browser extension. You may opt to either start the timer as you get to your tasks or manually type in how many hours you’ll work in a day – no matter which way you prefer, ClickUp provides you with them. You’ll also explore the core tools that come with general time-tracking management, like time billing, editing, timesheets, and reporting. Do you have a different time-tracking app and would you like to transfer your data to ClickUp? You may do so by simply syncing info between both platforms. ClickUp Branding
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Bonus: The ClickUp Support System
Need 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.
It offers 24/7 customer support, which is available to all subscribers regardless of whether they are on a paid or unpaid 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.
ClickUp allows you to explore a wide range of learning content that will help you use the platform. This includes the Demo package’s on-demand video tutorials and the Help Center’s rich documentation. ClickUp University offers courses and webinars that can help you and your team improve your work skills. ClickUp Branding
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. But, for what it’s worth, it has amassed a considerable following among 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’ve also appreciated how fully functional its free entry-level plan is compared to other productivity software and how worth the upgrades to higher tiers can get considering the valuable price range.
ClickUp has many features. It’s no surprise that learning can be difficult, especially for people not familiar with remote project management. 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 Branding
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 one has its own unique features and competitive aspects, but some aren’t as good as ClickUp.
- Monday.com – It’s obvious Monday.com is a close competitor to ClickUp. Monday.com offers many of the same features as ClickUp, including customization options, workflow capabilities, integrations and the ability to provide learning and onboarding resources to its teammates. It makes up for what it lacks with its free plan and large range of tools.
- Smartsheet – Smartsheet provides teams with the same quality project management tools that ClickUp offers, including a reliable mobile app and multiple task-viewing options. They also have the ability to share tasks with colleagues in real-time. Smartsheet excels when it comes creating spreadsheet-adjacent projects plans. This makes it an excellent choice for detail-oriented groups that have to deal with large amounts of data, as well as freelancers and small-scale groups.
- 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 Branding
- Asana – Some PM platforms like ClickUp may have too many features. Others may need to be simpler. They might be considered useless. Asana perfectly strikes the balance of power and simplicity, making it a strong option for teams of various sizes. With a cohesive mix of tools from task management to communication, Asana, on a base level, is great for beginners. However, some aspects require access beyond the paywall, like full-range customization.
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ClickUp for 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! If you’re especially a small start-up team or simply ready to transition to remote work, you may be glad to know that ClickUp has nearly all the tools you need to help achieve your future goals.
FAQ ClickUp Branding
How many devices is ClickUp currently available to download on?
Apart from the mobile app for Android and iOS, which we’ve tackled early on, ClickUp has a desktop version that you can download on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. You can also download the Chrome browser extension from Google Chrome.
Is ClickUp ideal for personal or solo 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. ClickUp offers a wide range of project management tools that can be used by solo workers.
Is ClickUp available offline?
Yes! ClickUp does offer an Offline Mode option for teammates who want to work even without the presence of an internet connection. It allows you to view and create tasks, remind you of important dates, and look at your notes. However, some tools may not work if you aren’t connected online.
ClickUp’s Offline Mode feature is available on the platform’s web version, desktop program, and mobile app (Legacy 2.0).