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.
You heard it! 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. But how true to the word is its 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 Setup Templates
ClickUp was founded in 2017 as one the most promising tech startups of the moment. The team behind ClickUp understood their goal: to make ClickUp the best place for teams and businesses 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. How do you track your time? 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. Think of Slack, MS Teams, and 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. The guys behind ClickUp understand the growing need for a platform that not just provides all workplace solutions in one place but also helps improve productivity rates by 20%, so that explains why they took it upon themselves and created it in the first place.
Though founded around half a decade ago, ClickUp has since then amassed a following of over 200,000 small- and medium-scale businesses and companies. One of the eye-catching reasons why these teams rely on the platform is its cost-cutting list of features, helping them save up extra time – and money – in the process. 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.
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. 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. This makes it highly ideal for short-on-budget teams who work remotely. ClickUp Setup Templates
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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. Its overall design makes it an ideal choice for anyone.
- Teams who work remotely or from home – Since ClickUp is cloud-based, it is a great option for businesses whose teams often work apart from each other.
- ClickUp has excellent tools for human resources departments. ClickUp includes reporting and storage tools. ClickUp also offers a performance tracker which is a must-have for any HR department.
- 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 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.
- The system comes with many elite customization options that are suited to different industries. You can customize dashboards to your personal preferences using 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 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 has many productivity features. However, it does not have the ability to provide post-project feedback. Its integrated tools may not be as intuitive as its counterparts. ClickUp Setup Templates
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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 of these plans is suited for a diverse range of teams varied by size, manpower, and availability of resources. Let’s now take a closer look at ClickUp’s plans.
Forever Free
ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan is one of the most outstanding features on the platform. 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
Like the free tier but don’t like the set guidelines that may impede your workflow? You may be glad that ClickUp’s Unlimited Plan offers plenty of welcoming upgrades and extra features at affordable rates. At the same time, other productivity platforms have plans similar to this but at higher price ranges. ClickUp Setup Templates
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. 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. 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. 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 is priced at $19 per member per year (annually), and unlocks all the features of the tier to maximize productivity within your team. Not only will you get an additional allowance for automations.
ClickUp’s team-sharing and KPI tracking features, as well as custom role creation, will be explored. 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 includes advanced solutions such as white labeling, unlimited custom roles, advanced permissions, customized contract agreements complete with legal support, and HIPAA compliance for healthcare teams. 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 Setup Templates
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A Closer Look at ClickUp’s Features
Before we can explore the rest of ClickUp, let’s first examine its hierarchical structure. Nearly every typical productivity system consists of at least two things: a company and 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.
Teams, in ClickUp terms, refer to the company or organization that handles all the tasks and assigns them to the employees or teammates. Teams are usually created by companies from different fields. However, there are rare instances when large groups manage multiple teams simultaneously. From the Teams come the Workspaces, referred to 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.
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. 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.
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
ClickUp is a great tool for task management. 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.
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 Setup Templates
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. Have any feedback in mind? 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.
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. You don’t need to update your workflow in different tabs. Instead, you can do it all within the editor. Not only does this feature save you time but also your effort – this is especially important if you have a lot of tasks in mind and don’t like to clutter up your productive routine.
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. ClickUp’s customizable dashboard allows you to view all types of project indicators from one place. 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. 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. There have been other platforms that offer time management, but ClickUp already offers them as part of its comprehensive package. Its time tracking and reporting functions are just like the rest of ClickUp’s tools.
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 Setup Templates
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The ClickUp Support System Bonus
Need assistance? ClickUp has almost everything you need to assist you! 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. 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 Setup Templates
ClickUp: What customers have to say about it
ClickUp’s extensive list of project management tools gives it an edge over other products, though some users may find the sheer number overwhelming. It has a large following in 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’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 Setup Templates
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 – 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 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 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 Setup Templates
- Asana – Some PM platforms like ClickUp may have too many features. Others may need to be simpler. They may be considered pointless. Asana perfectly strikes the balance of power and simplicity, making it a strong option for teams of various sizes. 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: 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?
ClickUp is a platform that provides a single-stop solution for project management. This makes ClickUp a great tool to help improve collaboration among colleagues, even if they are far away. But having a lot of tools can have downsides, such as the feeling of information overload. Second, depending on how you see it, the software does its best to tackle multiple tasks, even though a few of its aspects require 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 Setup Templates
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. 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. ClickUp offers a wide range of project management tools that can be used by solo workers.
Does ClickUp offer offline access?
Yes! Yes! ClickUp offers an offline mode for coworkers who don’t have 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).