Project management software for architects can help you achieve the best results and projects by providing a centralized platform for task management, collaboration, and automation.
However, the project software options in the market are many, and choosing the one that fits your needs can be challenging.
In this article, we’ll carefully review the best project management software for architects in 2023.
Best Project Management Software for Architects
- ClickUp – Best Overall
- Wrike – Best for Improving Architectural Workflow
- Teamwork – Best for Collaboration Among Architectural Teams
- Smartsheet – Best for Small Architectural Firms
- Nifty – Best for High-Quality Design and Performance
Product
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Collaboration and Communication
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
Cost and Budget Management
Document Management and Version Control
Mobile Access
Integration with Other Software and Tools
Customizable and unique workflows
Advanced collaboration detection feature
Project Management calendar + Resource allocation template
Project cost management template + 6 view types
Docs management+ focus mode feature + archive feature
Mobile application
1,000+ tools
Centralized platform + custom dashboards
Shared workspace feature
Project scheduling template + effort-centric resource allocation
Budgeting feature
Document management + sharing tracking
Mobile application
400+ tools
Collaborative platform + centralized location
Transparency + flexibility + less complexity
Project insight + milestone tracking
Budget expense feature
Microsoft Office plugins
Mobile application
Integrates with several software including HubSpot and Google Drive
Integrated project delivery b
Messaging + video
Project sharing
Cost tracking
Agile document management system
Mobile application
100+ tools
Visualization tools + clash detection + quantity takeoffs
Document milestone automation + collaborative document creation
Resource allocation feature + project planning and scheduling
Billable hours tracking + automated insights
Centralized storage and collaboration tools with access control and permissions.
Mobile application
2,000+ integrations
ClickUp – Best Overall
ClickUp is our best in this list of project management software for architects because its powerful features take the guesswork out of project management. ClickUp offers several features including Gantt charts, Calendar view, and process automation that you can use to create task dependencies with only a few clicks. You can also assign tasks and projects to team members anywhere in the world.
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
ClickUp offers architects customizable workflows that you can tailor to suit the specific requirements of any BIM project. You can create unique workflows for every phase of the construction project including design construction, and commissioning. This makes it easy to manage complex BIM projects with multiple stakeholders and tasks.
Collaboration and Communication
ClickUp has an advanced collaboration detection feature that makes collaboration and communication between you and your team a breeze. You don’t need to be unaware or confused about what a team member is doing again. With ClickUp, you can tell when others are editing, commenting, and even viewing the same task as you.
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
ClickUp gives you a free project management calendar that can help to meet the needs of Agile projects, remote teams, and their full ambitions. The calendar view of this software is a great way to visualize important plans and deadlines for scheduled projects.
ClickUp also features a resource allocation template that helps you to keep track of the capacity of your organization and the availability of your resources in one place.
Cost and Budget Management
ClickUp has a project cost management template that allows you to track low-level costs and high-level budgets in your architectural projects. The template offers about six different statuses including $ estimate input, approved, complete needs approval, and needs changes.
You also have access to about 6 view types including project costs request and project cost table all for tracking your cost and managing your budget.
Document Management and Version Control
With ClickUp, all your work and documents can be in one place. You can create beautiful wikis, and docs, and connect them to workflows to execute architectural project ideas with your team.
The focus mode feature allows you to work free of distraction and keep track of details. There is also the archive feature that allows you to hide documents that you don’t need immediately to avoid cluttering your workspace view. You can find these documents later using the search feature.
Mobile Access
A mobile application is another great feature that ClickUp offers architects. Instead of carrying your laptop or personal computer around, all you need is your smartphone. You can reply to a comment, change task status, mark a reminder as completed, and access the dashboard using ClickUp’s mobile app.
Integration With Other Software and Tools
ClickUp allows you to connect with over 1,000+ tools and software for free. Some include Slack, GitHub, GitLab, Webhooks, Everhour, Toggl, and harvest. You can be more productive with these useful integrations and achieve amazing results.
- Very easy to utilize and customize your needs
- Visually appealing and good user interface
- Superb customer support
- Mobile application
- Does not have all the views in the mobile app
- The learning curve can be steep for some users
Pricing
- Free Forever Plan
- Unlimited Plan: $5/month per member
- Business Plan: $12/month per member
- Business Plus Plan: $19/month per member
- Enterprise Plan: Contact Sales for pricing
Why Did We Choose It?
We chose ClickUp because it offers interesting features. Whether you’re an architect managing a small renovation or a large-scale construction project, using ClickUp helps you to stay on top of your tasks from start to finish!
Wrike – Best for Improving Architectural Workflow
Wrike is a project management software tool for architects. Its major purpose is that it improves architectural workflow and boosts productivity among many projects, especially those that seem complex. It has a list of impressive features and can fit your specific needs.
Building and Information Management (BIM)
Wrike provides a centralized platform for managing building information. By utilizing Wrike’s custom dashboards and reports, architects can monitor progress, identify issues, and make informed decisions based on real-time data for building projects.
Collaboration and Communication
Wrike offers you and your teammates a shared workspace feature. Here, you can discuss issues, share progress, and see the status of tasks and the final version of files.
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
As an architect, Wrike’s project scheduling template can help you to track your project progress from start to finish. Using the timeline view, you can see vital tasks or projects and their due dates.
Wrike software has an effort-centric resource allocation that also allows you to indicate and share task hours or minutes independently from task duration. This means that team members can tell exactly what they should work on and when.
Cost and Budget Management
Wrike has a budgeting feature for cost and budget management. This feature enables you to track and estimate your financials across projects in real-time and in one place. Examples include setting your account to your preferred currency and setting default hourly rates for users and job roles in projects.
Document Management and Version Control
Wrike allows you to manage and share documents. Using Wrike, you can create new automated processes to speed up architectural workflows and get rid of tasks with little or no value. This software also enables document tracking so that you can know when there is a change to a file or a document.
Mobile Management
Lacking internet or Wifi? You don’t have a problem with Wrike. Wrike has an offline mode that allows you to access tasks without an internet connection. Create sub tasks, tasks, edit tags, make comments, and view cached content among others on your mobile phone.
Integration With Other Software and Tools
Wrike is very flexible software and allows integration. With Wrike, you and your architectural team can connect to over 400 applications, automating your tasks, projects, and workflows like never before.
- Allows you to effectively plan and manage your resources
- Approval software helps you prevent delays
- Organizes your project task
- Cheaper plans have limited users
- Expensive for solo or small teams
Pricing
- Free plan
- Professional plan: $9.80/month
- Business plan: $24.80/month
- Enterprise plan:contact Wrike for a custom quote
Why Did We Choose It?
We chose Wrike because it can boost architectural productivity. It has impressive features and all of the plans offer useful features for architects. Wrike is also an essential project management software for consultants.
Teamwork – Best for Collaboration Among Architectural Teams
Teamwork is mainly designed to help architects and their team members collaborate on projects. It has an intuitive interface that enables effective communication with the members of your team in a central hub. You can also access real-time reporting to stay up-to-date on your team’s progress.
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Teamwork software helps with Building Information Modeling (BIM) by providing a collaborative platform for all stakeholders in an architectural project to share and manage data.
With Teamwork, teams can upload and store BIM models, drawings, schedules, and other relevant project documents in a centralized location, allowing for real-time collaboration and communication.
Collaboration and Communication
Teamwork promises 3 major things; more transparency, more flexibility, and less complexity. It has project collaboration tools that let you create custom and unique workflows to fit the best practices of your team while you work together more effectively and transparently.
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
With Teamwork, you can plan, manage, and utilize your resources more efficiently. It provides insight into the scope of your project, helping to monitor and balance your team’s workload by project scheduling. Teamwork is an efficient software for tracking project goals and milestones.
Cost and Budget Management
Teamwork enables you to add budget expenses to a project’s budget, facilitating accountability for any additional individual costs that may be required after the logged time. However, the budget expenses feature is only available on per-user Grow and Premium subscriptions and higher plans.
Document Management and Version Control
Teamwork enables you access to the latest version of your document, including reviewing the document offline or accessing the document through the Microsoft Office plugins. Team members can also add their comments directly into the activity feed for the document to determine what changes they would recommend.
Mobile Access
Teamwork has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices that architects can utilize from anywhere, making work on the go easy and possible.
Integration With Other Software and Tools
Teamwork users can integrate the software with other third-party integrations like Dropbox, HubSpot, OneDrive, and Google Drive among others from the administrative Settings menu.
- Unlimited free client users
- Prioritizing tasks from different projects relative to each other
- Great for managing tasks over multiple projects
- The overload of features and UI design can overwhelm new users
- The software can take time to update project fields when assigning tasks
Pricing
- Free Forever
- Deliver: $9.99/month
- Grow: $17.99/month
- Scale: Contact Teamwork for details
Why Did We Choose It?
We chose Teamwork because it is best for teams that need a simple project management software. It enhances collaboration and streamlines architectural projects. It facilitates better communication among teams and offers an in depth view of the total project history.
Smartsheet – Best for Small Architectural Firms
If you own or oversee a small architectural firm, Smartsheet is one of the best project management software for startups and small firms. The Smartsheet work execution platform plus its app add-ons and integrations help you plan, track and manage your daily work.
Many architects leverage Smartsheet to ensure data consistency throughout their projects from start to finish.
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Smartsheet is a valuable tool for anyone working in the Architectural industry who needs to manage BIM projects. It helps you scale through the phase of integrated project delivery by testing potential scenarios and establishing what the team will achieve.
Collaboration and Communication
Using Smartsheet enables teams to work together via messaging, video, or other virtual methods. This fosters success and accomplishment, despite not being in the same location.
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
Using Smartsheet, you can share your project with any number of internal and external collaborators who can manage project schedules and resource allocation details from anywhere and at any time.
Cost and Budget Management
In Smartsheet, you can track costs associated with projects and other tasks and remain within budget.
The resource management features also enable you to optimize budget management, utilizing them efficiently and staying within budget constraints.
Document Management and Version Control
Smartsheet has a strong Agile document management system, with many features that have been designed to facilitate communication, real-time, fast-paced change and improvement, improving organization and efficiency as a whole.
You’ll also set up your Smartsheet document management system from scratch and customize it to fit your specifics.
Mobile Access
The Smartsheet mobile app for Android and iOS enables real-time access to your Smartsheet data, irrespective of where you are. The editable grid allows you to easily update information and track real-time progress on dashboards, including filling out forms to collect data.
Integration with Other Software and Tools
Smartsheet connects with over 100 apps including Salesforce, Google Sheets, Gmail, Asana, Jira, and Slack, and creates workflows without any coding required.
- Easy to use and navigate
- Enhances collaboration
- Best for small teams
- Visibility can sometimes be a malfunction
Pricing
- Free
- Pro: $7/month
- Business: $25/month
- Enterprise: Contact Smartsheet for custom pricing
Why Did We Choose It?
We chose Smartsheet because it is excellent for small architectural firms and teams. Its app integrations and add-ons are also useful to plan, track, and manage your daily work. You can also use this software to always ensure project data consistency. It is also a good program management software for nonprofits.
Nifty – Best for High-Quality Design and Performance
Nifty is a good project management software for architects who need a unified work management tool to save them time and effort. Nifty has a lot of amazing features that make it easy to plan, track, collaborate, store, and manage projects.
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Nifty helps architects perform BIM by providing visualization tools that allow architects to create 3D models, renderings, and animations of their designs.
Nifty software also offers features like clash detection and quantity takeoffs, which help architects identify and resolve design conflicts and estimate the quantities of building materials needed for a project.
Collaboration and Communication
Nifty enables the automation of project milestones and communications tracking with teammates and clients. It also enhances collaborative document creation among teams in a centralized workspace.
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
Nifty software can be used to monitor progress, plan project timelines, identify resource constraints, assign tasks to team members, and adjust schedules accordingly. Plus, Nifty’s resource allocation feature allows teams to view the availability and workload of team members, making it easier to assign tasks and optimize team capacity.
Cost and Budget Management
With Nifty, you can track billable hours and receive insights according to projects’ time logs. Each spreadsheet with logged-hour details all the projects and tasks for the date range that you set. Nifty’s automated insights also send you instant reports, enabling you to distribute and balance workloads.
Document Management and Version Control
Nifty software provides centralized storage and collaboration tools with access control and permissions. These simplify the document creation process and ensure that every team mey is working with the same version of the document.
Mobile Access
Nifty software has a mobile app, both for iOS and Android that you can use from anywhere in the world. This makes it easy to work at any time.
Integration with Other Software and Tools
Nifty allows 2000+ integrations with different tools for workflow automation. These include Slack, WebEx, Google Drive, and Microsoft Suite.
- It is versatile
- Allows users to make their choice view
- Makes document management a breeze
- Pricing is expensive
- Does not have a support community
Pricing
- Free
- Starter: $39/month
- Pro: $79/month
- Business: $124/month
- Unlimited: $399/month
Why Did We Choose It?
We chose Nifty because of its high-quality design and performance. It also offers powerful unification that can help architects streamline their workflows and increase productivity, efficiency, and organization as a whole.
Methodology for Project Management Software for Architects
When selecting the best project management software for architects, we considered several essential factors. Here are the primary aspects we examined and the best methodologies that we used:
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
We evaluated the software’s capability to support Building Information Modeling (BIM), which is crucial for architects. Additionally, we looked at how the software can help you manage and organize all your necessary project data, including 3D models, floor plans, and blueprints.
Collaboration and Communication
We assessed how the software enables collaboration and communication among architectural project teams. Plus, we studied features like real-time chat, task flow, and task comments.
Project Scheduling and Resource Allocation
We evaluated how the software can help architects with project scheduling and resource allocation. Also, we examined how the software manages project timelines, tracks project progress and assigns tasks and resources.
Cost and Budget Management
We looked at how the software can help architects with cost and budget management. Then, we evaluated how the software tracks expenses, creates budget reports and alerts architects when they exceed the budget. We also discussed the free project management software in this roundup.
Document Management and Version Control
We assessed how the software can help architects manage project documents and maintain version control. Features like document sharing, document commenting, and version history tracking were assessed.
Mobile Access
We evaluated how the software provides mobile access to architects. We then provided information on how the software allows architects to access and manage projects from their mobile devices.
Integration with Other Software and Tools
We assessed how the software can integrate with other software and tools commonly used by architects. We looked at how the software integrates with other software and tools like Gmail, Google sheets, and GitHub.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Best Project Management Software for Architects
Bottom Line on the Best Project Management Software for Architects in 2023
The best project management software for architects in 2023 enables efficient communication, collaboration, and organization of tasks and schedules. We strongly recommend all the options on this list.
However, we are strongly drawn to ClickUp because of all the features it offers. ClickUp is good for architectural project workflows, assigning tasks, tracking progress, and managing projects effectively.
We hope that our project management methodologies and recommendation has given you insight into the best software for your architectural projects in 2023.