What agencies actually need (different from product teams)
Six things. (1) Per-client project organisation, not per-team. (2) Client-facing visibility controls — clients see what you want them to see, not everything. (3) Approval workflows: send three concepts, client picks one with a typed signature, record it. (4) File link management (Figma URLs, Drive folders, Notion pages) more than native file storage. (5) Time tracking that doesn't require a PhD to configure (or, more often, no time tracking and a fixed-fee model). (6) A status board that answers 'are we on track' in one glance.
What agencies rarely need from PM tools: Gantt charts (your timelines are 4-8 weeks, not 12 months), sprint planning (you're not doing scrum), burndown charts, story points. Tools that emphasise those are built for product teams, not service teams.
1. ProjectKit by whatcanido — best for service teams
From $29/month. Built specifically for agencies, design studios, dev shops, and consultancies. Per-task visibility, magic-link client portal, approval workflows, status board, MCP agent layer.
Trade-off: fixed data model. If your work doesn't fit project/tasks/milestones cleanly, Monday or ClickUp.
2. Basecamp — best for flat-rate generalist teams
$99/month flat for any team size. Strong messaging + project management hybrid. Client guests need accounts which adds friction; portal-style access is functional but not native.
When to pick it: 20+ internal users, generalist work, client portal is secondary.
3. Notion + Notion Sites — DIY camp
$10/seat Plus. Build your PM tool yourself. Infinite customisation; you maintain it forever. Public Notion Sites makes client-visible pages possible.
When to pick it: solo or two-person team, you love Notion, your customisation needs are highly specific.
4. ClickUp — best for kitchen-sink configurability
$7-$19/seat/month. Everything-tool: tasks, docs, goals, sprints, time tracking, custom views. Faster to set up than Monday, slower than ProjectKit. Client guests cost extra at higher tiers.
When to pick it: you want one tool for both client work and internal ops. When to skip: setup time matters, you want preconfigured agency shape.
5. Monday.com — best when you need custom workflows
$9-$24/seat/month. No-code workspace builder. Powerful, configurable. Spends the first week building before you use it. Guest seats for clients are paid.
When to pick it: non-standard workflow (campaign management with stages-in-stages). When to skip: standard projects/tasks shape — overkill.
6. Asana — best for cross-team product work
$10.99/seat Starter, $24.99 Advanced. Strong at project management for product teams (cross-functional, sprint cadence, OKRs). Client portal works but requires guest seats; not the primary design intent.
When to pick it: you do product-style internal work AND agency-style client work in the same company. When to skip: pure agency motion — wrong shape.
7. Linear — for engineering-heavy dev shops
$8-$14/seat/month. Linear is the modern issue tracker for engineering teams. Beautiful UI, fast keyboard nav, great for dev work. Client visibility is minimal; designed for internal engineering.
When to pick it: dev shop with engineering-only output. When to skip: design studio, agency with client-facing surfaces — wrong shape.
8. Trello — for very simple kanban
Free for unlimited boards, $5-$17.50/seat/month for power-ups. Classic kanban. Easy to start, hits limits fast on multi-project portfolios.
When to pick it: 1-3 active projects, single-team workflow, simplicity matters more than depth. When to skip: more than a handful of clients or projects.
9. Just-don't-buy-one (do it in Drive + email)
$0/month if you have Google Workspace anyway. Per-client Drive folder, shared via link, status updates in email. Works for solo freelancers up to 3-5 active clients.
When this stops working: you can't find the version, you re-draft the same email twice in a week, you forget what's blocking. Then buy ProjectKit.
How to actually decide
Three questions. (1) What's your team size? Under 5 → ProjectKit Studio or just-Drive. 5-15 → ProjectKit Agency or Basecamp. 15+ → ClickUp, Monday, or Basecamp. (2) Is your work shape standard projects/tasks/milestones or custom? Standard → ProjectKit. Custom → Monday or ClickUp. (3) Does the agent layer matter (clients submit via Claude / ChatGPT)? Only ProjectKit supports it natively.
Stop comparison-shopping past two weeks. Pick the most plausible tool, run real client work on it for two weeks, then iterate. Sunk cost of paid PM tools at $30-60/month is trivial; sunk cost of NOT having a PM tool while clients drift is huge.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need PM software if I have a CRM?
Yes, they solve different problems. CRM tracks the relationship and the deal; PM tracks the actual delivery work. A 5-person agency typically runs both: CRM for the sales pipeline + invoicing (CRM by whatcanido), PM for project delivery + client portal (ProjectKit).
Can I run my agency on just Notion?
Solo or two-person agency, yes. Three or more people with shared client portfolios, the schema drift starts hurting. The DIY pattern of 'we'll just make our own template' usually costs you a weekend per quarter forever. Get a real PM tool around your third hire.
Is Basecamp's flat $99 a better deal than per-seat?
At 15+ users on Basecamp, yes. At 5 users on ProjectKit Agency ($59/month), no. The Basecamp flat-rate pitch is great marketing but only wins on cost above ~12 seats.
What about agency-specific tools like Productive, Teamwork, or Function?
Productive, Teamwork, and Function are real options for mid-market agencies (20+ people) with deep features around utilisation, profitability, time tracking, and invoicing. We didn't list them in the main nine because they target a larger team size than typical SMB agencies. Worth evaluating if your agency is in that range.
How does the agent layer change agency PM?
In 2026 a meaningful share of inbound client requests come through Claude or ChatGPT — a client asking their AI to 'start a new project with our agency, here's the brief'. ProjectKit's built-in MCP server lands those requests directly in your project queue with the brief pre-populated. Other PM tools require custom integration to be agent-callable; ProjectKit is the only mainstream agency PM tool that supports MCP out of the box.
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Client portal + project management for agencies, design studios, dev shops. Magic-link client access, approval workflows, AI agent layer. From $29/month.
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