13 Best Project Management Tools for Marketing Agencies in 2026

The Short Answer

Most agencies end up running two layers. One tool runs the billable work: projects, hours, invoices, capacity. A second runs client social: content, approvals, and the monthly report. Maeve Social covers that second layer with client workspaces, review links clients open without a seat or an account, approval workflows, and white-labeled PDF reports, at flat pricing from $25 a month with no per-seat or per-client fees as the roster grows.

For the PM and billing layer, the right pick depends on size:

What Agency PM Software Actually Has to Do

Five capabilities separate agency tools from generic ones. Billable time tracking that ties hours to projects, carries rates per role or client, and flows into invoices. Client workspaces or portals where each client sees only their own work, rather than a guest seat bolted onto a shared project. Retainer and budget tracking, hours used against hours sold. Capacity planning, who is on what and who has room. And profitability per client, what the engagement cost against what you billed.

Agencies that pick a general PM tool usually end up running three or four products: PM plus Harvest or Toggl for time, QuickBooks or FreshBooks for invoices, and a spreadsheet for reporting. Agencies on a purpose-built tool consolidate to one or two. If you are under 5 people and not billing hourly yet, you may not need any of this; a free general PM tool holds up fine until billable hours enter the picture.

The 13 Tools at a Glance

Vendor-listed prices as of August 2026, annual billing where noted.

1. Maeve Social, the Social Execution Layer

Maeve Social is not a PM tool and does not try to be one. It is the social-execution slot that sits next to whatever runs your billable hours. Each client gets their own workspace inside one agency account, 2 on Basic, 5 on Standard, unlimited on Premium, so their content, calendar, and analytics stay cleanly separated. When a post needs sign-off, you send a review link and the client approves from their browser without a seat, an account, or a view into any other client's work. At the end of the month, the white-labeled PDF report with written analysis handles the deliverable agencies otherwise assemble by hand.

Around that sit publishing to 9 platforms, an AI assistant on monthly credits, a social inbox covering Instagram, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and Google Business Profile, analytics across seven supported networks, Content Workbench planning, and a public API. Pricing is flat within each plan's workspace, user, and connection limits.

What it deliberately does not do: time tracking, billing, invoicing, or project tasks. That is the PM tool's job, and Maeve pairs with any of the twelve below because it keeps to the social slot.

2. Teamwork, Client Services With Retainers Built In

Teamwork repositioned itself around client services and now competes head-on with Productive.io. Time tracking comes with every plan including the free one, which is rare, and the agency-critical pieces live on Accelerate at $24.99 per user: capacity and utilization tracking, time budgets, retainer management, and QuickBooks and HubSpot integrations, with profitability forecasting on the custom-priced Optimize tier.

The caveats: the free plan caps at 5 users and 5 projects, retainer management needs Accelerate, and the top-tier pricing is unpublished.

3. Productive.io, Agency Operations in One Tool

Productive.io was designed for agencies from the start, and it shows: project management, time tracking with billable rates, budgeting, resource planning, invoicing, and per-client profitability all live in one product. Essential at $10 per user a month on annual billing costs less than most general PM tools while including time tracking and budgets natively, and client workspace invites are free, so clients never count against your seats.

The trade-offs: a 3-seat minimum shuts out solo freelancers, invoicing and billable approvals need Professional at $25 per user, and the community is smaller than the general PM giants.

4. Workamajig, the Ad Agency Specialist

Workamajig is built for ad agencies specifically, and it puts accounting software inside the PM platform: accounts payable, accounts receivable, multi-currency invoicing, revenue forecasting, digital proofing, and unlimited client and vendor access, with a sales CRM on the agency tier. Agencies that finish the guided implementation tend to report it replaced QuickBooks, their PM tool, and their CRM in one move.

The commitment is real: a 10-user minimum and a product deep enough to require deliberate onboarding and configuration. Teams looking for a lightweight task board should look elsewhere.

5. Scoro, Quote to Cash

Scoro reaches wider than most agency PM tools by folding CRM, financial reporting, and supplier management into the usual PM, time, and billing trio. Core at $31.90 per user monthly covers Gantt charts, quotes, bills, and invoices; Growth at $52.90 is where retainers, project budgets, role-based labor cost, and utilization reports arrive, with forecasting and the sales pipeline on Performance.

The caveats: most agencies need Growth rather than Core, users describe task creation as cumbersome, and setup takes real time to get right.

6. FunctionFox, Creative Time Tracking on a Budget

FunctionFox is aimed squarely at creative shops. Everything is built around the stopwatch timer, with project tracking, estimates and budgets, and retainer tracking included on the $10.50 Classic plan.

The limits: no native invoicing, so you pair it with QuickBooks or FreshBooks, reporting that trails Productive and Scoro, and Gantt charts on the Premier tier.

7. Wrike, General PM With Real Agency Features

Wrike sells itself as general PM, but the agency-shaped features run deeper than most: custom request forms for client intake, proofing and approvals, time tracking, and shareable dashboards. The free plan allows unlimited users, the $10 Team plan caps at 15 users as the small-agency tier, and Business at $25 opens the agency toolkit.

The gaps: no built-in invoicing or accounting, the key features gated to Business, and an interface that feels dated next to the newer tools.

8. Bonsai, Everything a Tiny Agency Needs

Bonsai serves the smallest end of the market: solo freelancers, 1 to 3 person shops, consultants. Its whole pitch is bundling proposals, contracts, invoicing, time tracking, a client portal, and light PM into one product, from $9 per user a month on annual billing, with branding removal on the Premium tier for a white-label client experience.

The caveats from reviews: payment processing delays on initial payouts, support that can be slow, and a product that thins out above 10 to 15 people.

9. Kantata, Enterprise PSA

Kantata is professional services automation for enterprise agencies and consulting firms: resource management with capacity forecasting, project accounting, business intelligence, and a very large integration catalog. There is no public starter tier because there is no starter customer; it is built for organizations large enough to justify a custom implementation.

Budget accordingly: custom per-user pricing at scale plus implementation costs that land well beyond the subscription, and a learning curve users consistently report.

10. ClickUp, the Budget All-in-One

ClickUp wins on price: tasks, docs, chat, and dashboards bundled at $7 per user, with time tracking and Gantt views arriving on that same Unlimited tier, so a small agency can skip the separate time tool entirely. The cost you pay instead is the learning curve, the steepest in general PM, and an interface density that overwhelms non-technical teammates.

The agency gaps: billing stays limited, the AI is a separate add-on, and the client experience runs on guest seats rather than a real portal.

11. Asana, the Incumbent Your Agency May Already Run

Asana earns its spot because so many agencies already live in it, not because it was built for agency operations. Time tracking only exists on the $24.99 Advanced tier, there is no native invoicing, and client involvement happens through guest seats. The typical Asana agency pairs it with Harvest for time and QuickBooks for billing, three tools doing what Productive does in one.

What it keeps: the fastest onboarding for non-technical teammates, the largest integration ecosystem in general PM, and approvals and proofing on Advanced that fit creative workflows.

12. monday.com, Visual Boards With Guest Access

monday.com's visual boards are a real advantage for creative teams, and guest access starts on the $12 Standard tier. Guest billing has its own rules, so agencies should price the number of external collaborators rather than assume every client is free. Time tracking lives on Pro at $19, and invoicing stays external.

Per-seat pricing compounds: 15 users on Standard is $180 a month before any time or billing tools join the stack.

13. Planable, the Social Approval Slot

Planable appears here for the same reason Maeve Social does: it fills the social slot in an agency stack rather than the PM slot. For agencies producing client social content, its visual previews and structured approvals, optional on Basic, required on Pro, multi-level on Enterprise, replace the email chain of PNG attachments, with unlimited collaborators on every plan.

The constraints: per-workspace pricing that stacks across many clients, post caps of 60 and 150 a month, and analytics at $14 a month plus the inbox at $9 as add-ons. It pairs with whichever PM tool runs the wider operation.

What Per-User Pricing Costs at Real Agency Sizes

Per-user pricing compounds quickly. At 15 users on annual rates, Productive Professional and Teamwork Accelerate land around $375 a month, monday Standard and ClickUp Business around $180, and Asana Advanced about $375 at its standard US annual rate. At current monthly rates, Scoro Growth is about $794 and Workamajig is $705 for the same headcount, before general PM tools add time tracking or accounting subscriptions.

The social layer behaves differently. Maeve Social allows 1 user on Basic and 5 on Standard, and Premium removes the cap entirely at $199 flat, so a new hire inside the caps changes nothing on the bill, which is exactly the opposite of every per-seat tool above. Flat social pricing plus per-user PM pricing is the standard agency shape for a reason.

Sample Stacks by Agency Size

Built from listed prices; treat totals as planning figures.

How We Put This List Together

Each tool was scored on five capabilities generic listicles often skip: billable time tracking, client portals and workspaces, retainer and budget tracking, capacity planning, and invoicing. Purpose-built tools are rated against agency-specific rivals; the general PM tools are framed as products agencies adapt through templates and integrations. Prices were checked against vendor pages in August 2026, with annual billing identified where applicable.

Maeve Social is our product. It is not a PM tool, tracks no time, and sends no invoices; it holds the social execution slot, client workspaces, no-login review links, approvals, and white-labeled reports, and pairs with any PM tool on this list. That two-layer shape is our honest recommendation even where neither layer is ours.

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions agencies ask most about this stack.