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! 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!
Kurt Knows has a video review of ClickUp for those who like a visual experience. You can still read our article to get a complete overview of ClickUp.
What is ClickUp? A Handy Overview ClickUp Docs
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. How do you track your time? Go for Hubstaff or ActiveCollab. Want to create documents and presentations for the rest of your team to see and share? Microsoft Office and Google’s suites of tools might help.
Teams from all walks of the spectrum have to deal not only with project management. 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. 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. 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.
ClickUp’s flexible pricing range makes it a great choice for workplace activities. ClickUp also offers a free forever plan which is one of the most affordable productivity platforms. 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. ClickUp is ideal for remote teams with limited budgets. ClickUp Docs
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Who Are the Ideal Teams for ClickUp?
ClickUp is a great tool for small and large teams. Its overall design makes it an ideal choice for anyone.
- 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.
- 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 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.
What’s Good and What’s Not with ClickUp
ClickUp is a popular choice for productivity software online, with its simple, user-friendly offerings and packed pricing plans. 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.
- The system comes with many elite customization options that are suited to different 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. 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 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. Color layouts can also be a concern.
- 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 Docs
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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 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
ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan is one of the most outstanding features on the platform. Even though it’s an entry-level plan, you have unlimited access to tasks and can add unlimited team members to your workspace. ClickUp’s core features are also explored, including native video recording, whiteboards and time-tracking.
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. ClickUp’s Unlimited plan offers many welcome upgrades and additional features at very affordable prices. Other productivity platforms offer similar plans, but at a higher price. ClickUp Docs
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. 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
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.
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. If you pay yearly, the Business plan is only $12 per user per month.
Business Plus Upgrade
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. 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. Marketed towards very large-scale teams and established businesses and corporations, it has no fixed plan – this means you will need to link up with ClickUp’s sales department first to forge a deal on how much you may need to pay.
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. You can also use multiple apps to sign on, including Google. There are also custom onboarding training available for new colleagues and a dedicated success manager who will ensure a positive and productive workplace. ClickUp Docs
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ClickUp’s Features: A Closer Look
Before we can explore the rest of ClickUp, let’s first examine its hierarchical structure. A typical productivity system is composed of two things: a company or its projects. ClickUp takes it up a notch with a few structural adjustments, resulting in the creation of its distinct hierarchy of, in this order, Teams, Workspaces, Spaces (Projects), Folders, Lists, and Tasks.
ClickUp defines a team as a company or organization that manages all tasks and assigns them the employees or their 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.
After the Workspaces come next, a varying number of Spaces or work projects are assigned by the 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. The much-anticipated Tasks from the Lists section are finally here, each one assigned to a different member of the team.
Let’s now get to the point.
Multitask Toolbar
The multitask toolbar appears when you click on one of the tasks in the ClickUp user interface. It has the same old functions that you could expect from, say, a taskbar from any e-mail platform like Yahoo Mail or Gmail, such as the ability to select and mark as read, delete, etc. 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.
Simplified Methodology for 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.
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. 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. 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. ClickApps is a section that gives the Workspace a more personal feel. It provides time-saving tools like automations, dependencies and sprints. These can all be integrated into your 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 Docs
Collaboration and Communication Tools
ClickUp makes it easy to communicate with your team and provides them with in-house tools that make it simple. Its e-mail service and chat feature allow you to interact with your fellow teammates without having to leave elsewhere, as you can do several things, such as catch up on your tasks and ask for special requests whenever necessary. However, as good as these features may seem, it’s important to note that they shouldn’t be heavily relied on as there are some issues with the interface and that it’s better to have some comms backups on the ready in case something goes awry.
ClickUp is not only integrated with communication tools but also has smooth collaboration features. Like Google’s work suite, you can see whatever your teammates are working on in real-time from the Whiteboard to the Documents. Do you have any feedback? You can review your files and your team’s tasks, make suggestions, and even share them to others.
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.
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.
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. Aside from easily digestible visual graphs, the platform houses automatic reporting tools such as the Pulse section, where you get to view how many of your teammates are online at a specific time, Time Estimates, Team Points, and reports on how many tasks a teammate was able to complete in the day, month, or year.
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. Its time tracking and reporting functions are just like the rest of ClickUp’s tools.
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. The core tools for general time tracking management such as time billing, editing and timesheets will be covered. Have you used a separate time-tracking app before, and do you want to transfer data from there to ClickUp? Simply sync information between the two platforms. ClickUp Docs
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The ClickUp Support System Bonus
Need assistance? ClickUp has almost everything you need to assist you! ClickUp is not only packed with useful tools for managing work, but it also excels at providing excellent customer support and learning materials.
It offers 24/7 customer support, which is available to all subscribers regardless of whether they are on a paid or unpaid plan. What’s nice about it is that you get plenty of support teams to choose from. The Sales section, for example, is the best place to go if you have questions about the Enterprise plan. 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 Docs
ClickUp: What customers have to say about it
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.
Most team leaders who have used ClickUp for work have been generally positive about their experiences navigating through it so far. 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. ClickUp users may need to take more time to become familiar with its internal workings. The service has a lot of onboarding and learning 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 Docs
Alternatives to ClickUp
ClickUp is a well-known productivity software that has earned a reputation for being the best. ClickUp’s recognition has been equaled by the following other work platforms. Each one has its own unique features and competitive aspects, but some aren’t as good as ClickUp.
- 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. Apart from the usual features you may expect from any PM software, and some great solutions can be used individually. Although it doesn’t have all the features ClickUp offers, Teamwork has a complete suite of products that can be used to enhance productivity. ClickUp Docs
- Asana – Some PM platforms like ClickUp may have too many features. Others may need to be simpler. They might be considered useless. Asana strikes the perfect balance between power and simplicity making it an excellent choice for small to large teams. Asana is a great tool for beginners, offering a comprehensive mix of tools, from task management to communication. However, some aspects require access beyond the paywall, like full-range customization.
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ClickUp for the Final Verdict
Let’s wrap up our ClickUp review and ask these questions: 1) Is it accurate in claiming that ClickUp will increase productivity? How does it handle 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. But having a lot of tools can have downsides, such as the feeling of information overload. Second, it depends on your perspective, the software will do its best to handle multiple tasks, even if some aspects need improvement.
Based on everything we know so far, is ClickUp worth a try as the go-to software for you and your employers? Although the final decision is up to you, we believe it’s worth a try in this instance. ClickUp may be a good choice for you if you are a small team looking to move to remote work.
FAQ ClickUp Docs
What number of devices does ClickUp currently offer to download?
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?
Although ClickUp is not the best platform for freelancers working with clients on their own, it has enough tools to be useful 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. 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).