7 Best Creative Management Software in 2025

For creative teams and agencies, aligning projects with client goals while managing feedback, deadlines and deliverables is vital to staying on track.

The right tool simplifies collaboration, organizes workflows and ensures every deliverable exceeds expectations.

In this post, you’ll learn about seven of the best creative management software to find the perfect fit for your team’s unique needs and processes.

7 best creative management platforms for all types of teams

Whether you’re a small agency juggling client campaigns or an in-house marketing team creating multimedia content, a creative management tool can align your operations.

The right software can streamline workflows, enhance collaboration and keep projects moving seamlessly from ideation to delivery.

We’ve selected the following software based on the following:

• Ease of use. We prioritized intuitive and user-friendly tools, ensuring your team can get up and running quickly without a steep learning curve

• Scalability. Platforms that grow with your team, offering flexible plans and features to accommodate increasing project complexity and team size

• Customization options. Tools that allow you to tailor workflows, layouts and features to fit your team’s unique processes

• Collaboration features. Platforms that support uninterrupted communication and file-sharing among team members and clients

• Integration potential. The software we selected integrates with popular tools you already use, reducing the need to switch between platforms

No matter your team’s size or creative focus, these cloud-based platforms stand out for their ability to empower teams to do what they do best – create.

1. Best for streamlined sales to project management: Pipedrive’s Projects

Pipedrive is a well-known customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Projects is an included feature with Power and Enterprise plans (available as an add-on for all others) that extends its functionality to project management to help creative teams organize their work more effectively.

Designed for teams that want to keep their sales and project management in one place, Projects bridges the gap between building strong client relationships and delivering high-quality creative work.

With Projects’ intuitive dashboards, you can easily connect your sales pipeline to your creative workflows.

For example, you can create projects directly from “won” deals (when you secure new clients), creating a smoother transition from onboarding to project delivery.

This connection allows you to ensure all creative deliverables (e.g., branding packages) align directly with the client information you collected in your CRM system (e.g., preferred styles and goals).

Projects helps streamline your operations without investing in multiple tools. One platform also reduces the chances of miscommunication or missed details.

Adding deadlines and reminders helps keep your small team on track with client expectations and ensures every project meets their needs and goals.

Some of Projects’ key features include:

• Client-focused task tracking. Directly tie creative tasks and deliverables to specific client projects, ensuring all work supports overall business goals and deadlines

• Customizable workflows. Adjust project pipelines to match your preferred creative stages (e.g., “Brainstorming”, “Design”, “Review” and “Final approval”)

• Collaborative workspaces. Centralize creative feedback and revisions by attaching files, comments and notes to assets

• Workflow automation. Automate recurring tasks (e.g., sending reminders for approvals or updating clients on project milestones) so your team can focus on the creative process

• Resource allocation. Assign task lists to team members with clear ownership, ensuring you optimize your resources across ongoing creative projects

• Project templates. Save time with pre-built templates for common workflows (e.g., brainstorming sessions, content calendars and approval processes)

Projects makes aligning project progress with client needs easy, ensuring deliverables remain on track while building stronger business relationships.

2. Best for solo or micro-operations: Trello

Trello is a project management tool suited to solo creatives or micro-operations that require simplicity and a highly visual approach.

The platform’s Kanban-style boards allow users to organize and track tasks, offering an overview of workflows without unnecessary complexity.

With Trello, creatives can quickly adapt the platform to fit their unique projects, such as creating design concepts, building a small portfolio or planning creative content for clients.

Some of Trello’s key features include:

• Kanban boards. Organize projects into cards and columns that represent different creative or timeline stages (e.g., “To-do”, “In progress” and “Completed”)

• Task management. Drag and drop tasks as they move through the pipeline

• Team collaboration. Share boards with clients or collaborators to streamline communication and feedback

• Customizable power-ups. Add integrations like calendar views, advanced checklists and team voting (to prioritize creative ideas) to your workflows

• Card attachments and comments. Attach files, add checklists and communicate directly within task cards to keep all relevant details in one place

Trello’s simplicity allows creatives to focus on delivering their work without being hindered by overly complex systems.

3. Best for large creative teams: Asana

Asana is a work management solution for large creative teams dealing with intricate, multi-phase projects.

Its task management tools and timeline features help users handle high-volume workflows.

Whether running a global campaign or collaborating across departments, Asana’s project-tracking capabilities keep everything in one place.

Some of Asana’s key features include:

• Project timeline view. Map out multiple projects with task dependencies and deadlines to help creative pipelines run smoothly

• Task dependencies. Link tasks to see which team members must complete before others for multi-phase creative work (e.g., video production or product launch email campaigns)

• Real-time collaboration. Creatives can assign tasks, leave comments and share updates to stay aligned without endless emails

• Portfolios for progress tracking. Monitor several projects at once to meet deadlines and milestones

• Proofing and approvals. Streamline the review process with built-in tools for providing and acting on feedback

Asana offers visibility and control for multiple teams with overlapping or interdependent projects at every stage.

4. Best for centralized knowledge management: Notion

Notion is a hybrid platform that blends project and knowledge management for creatives who need to organize tasks, ideas and resources in one place.

Teams can centralize everything from brand guidelines to project briefs, ensuring critical information is easily accessible and up-to-date.

Ideal for small to mid-sized teams, users can create knowledge bases to fit their brainstorming, project planning and tracking needs.

Some of Notion’s key features include:

• Collaborative databases. Build knowledge bases to store and organize everything from creative briefs to client notes

• Customizable project boards. Manage tasks, timelines and progress with complete control over layouts and labels

• Integrated note-taking. Keep meeting notes, ideas and feedback linked to specific projects

• Real-time collaboration. Work on documents and boards with team members simultaneously for updates and edits

• Multi-platform accessibility. Access workspaces from desktop or mobile to stay connected wherever team members are

Notion is suitable for teams requiring a single source of truth for managing their creative workflows and supporting documentation.

5. Best for simplified feedback and approvals: Wrike

Wrike is a work management platform designed for creative teams that need centralized collaboration, feedback and approvals for projects with multiple stakeholders.

The proofing and digital asset management features ensure more organized feedback and annotations tied directly to files.

In addition to reducing revisions and speeding up approvals, Wrike better aligns teams by keeping all project communications and updates in one place.

Some of Wrike’s key features include:

• Built-in proofing and approvals. Upload files, leave detailed feedback and mark revisions directly on creative formats like images, videos and PDFs

• File versioning. Automatically organize updated files to prevent confusion about which version is the latest

• Visual planning. Use Gantt charts to map out timelines and dependencies and gain a clear overview of creative projects

• Collaborative calendars. Share updates, assign tasks and track changes to keep everyone on the same page

• Integrations. Connect with over 400 third-party apps like Adobe Creative Cloud, Slack and Microsoft Excel

Wrike’s feedback and approval tools ensure smooth communication between creative teams and their clients or stakeholders.

6. Best for client-facing boards: Basecamp

Basecamp’s project management and collaboration platform combines communication and project tracking, making it ideal for creative teams that need constant back-and-forth.

The simple interface ensures that messages, to-dos and files are all organized in one central hub.

Creative teams can reduce clutter and stay focused, even when juggling multiple projects or handling extensive client feedback.

Some of Basecamp’s key features include:

• To-do lists. Break down creative projects into actionable steps with clear assignments and deadlines

• File sharing and storage. Keep all design project assets centralized and easily accessible for team members and clients

• Campfire chats. Enhance teamwork with real-time chat for quick creative discussions or problem-solving sessions

• Automatic check-ins. Get regular updates from different teams without arranging formal meetings

• Client access. Share progress and updates with clients in a controlled, transparent way

Basecamp’s focus on communication channels helps teams stay aligned without jumping from platform to platform.

7. Best for comprehensive creative agencies: ClickUp

ClickUp is a comprehensive project management solution with diverse customization options for large creative teams.

From brainstorming to final delivery, ClickUp’s multiple use cases are ideal for agencies managing numerous clients and workflows.

Its versatility allows creative teams to oversee everything from creative planning to resource allocation.

Some of ClickUp’s key features include:

• Agile views. Switch between list, board, Gantt and calendar views to track creative projects in multiple formats

• Creative asset management. Attach files, leave comments and link tasks to specific client projects to streamline workflows

• Time tracking. Track progress of time spent on tasks to manage budgets and deadlines better

• Document creation. Create interactive briefs, storyboards and mockups without leaving the platform

• Client collaboration tools. Share updates and request feedback from clients in a controlled interface

ClickUp’s ability to scale and adapt to any workflow makes it popular for creative agencies with diverse needs.

What to look for in your creative project management software

To ensure smooth operations, your creative team needs project management software with features tailored to your unique workflows.

Here’s a breakdown of the most essential elements and why they matter:

User-friendly interface

A user-friendly interface presents information like tasks, timelines and project stages clearly and intuitively.

For example, visual boards and drag-and-drop functionalities are straightforward for new users to understand.

Here’s what that looks like in Pipedrive.

Creative teams thrive on clarity and ease of use. A straightforward design keeps workflows organized and allows teams to focus on creativity rather than onboarding complicated tools.

Here are three examples of a user-friendly interface in action:

• A project manager may create Kanban boards to track content creation stages, from ideation to publishing

• A design team could rely on Gantt charts to visualize overlapping deadlines for multiple campaigns

• A video production team may customize its dashboard to display deadlines, storyboard approvals and feedback loops all in one place

Collaboration features

Collaboration features (e.g., in-app messaging and comment threads) allow team members and stakeholders to communicate, share files and provide real-time feedback.

For example, Projects allows you to add notes to project tasks and notify the tagged user immediately.

Creative projects often involve input from multiple stakeholders, both internal and external. Centralized collaboration minimizes email back-and-forth and keeps everyone aligned on project goals.

Here are three examples of collaboration tools in action:

• A client can provide detailed feedback on a graphic design directly within the project management dashboard

• Team members share ideas and revisions through real-time comments on a campaign outline

• An agency uses shared workspaces to collaborate with freelancers on visual assets for a product launch

Task management

Task management involves creating, assigning and tracking tasks (e.g., setting deadlines and adding priorities) to ensure timely project completion.

For creative teams, straightforward task and resource management ensures every member knows their responsibilities and how their work fits into the bigger picture. This agile project management element is critical for meeting deadlines and maintaining high-quality outputs.

For example, tasks and subtasks should allow you to set owners, due dates and the project phase they relate to.

Here are three examples of task management in action:

• A content writer receives a task with a due date, associated research files and notes for drafting a blog post

• A design lead assigns a series of tasks for creating, revising and delivering visuals for an ad campaign

• A video editor tracks subtasks like scripting, editing and finalizing client feedback to meet production deadlines

Workflow automation

Workflow automation allows teams to automate repetitive tasks, such as sending reminders, updating task statuses or sharing progress reports.

Automation saves time and reduces errors, letting creative teams focus on their work’s strategic and creative aspects. It also ensures consistent processes when managing multiple projects.

Here are three examples of typical workflow automations:

• Assigning a task to the next team member once a stage is marked “complete”

• Sending notifications to clients about invoicing or request forms

• Creating recurring tasks for monthly social media campaigns or scheduled design sessions

Integrations

Integrations connect your creative management software with other tools you already use (e.g., design platforms, cloud storage or communication apps).

Creative teams often rely on multiple tools for their work. Integrations reduce the need to switch between platforms and sync all relevant information.

For example, Pipedrive integrations include these project management tools:

Here are three examples of integrations in action:

• A design team could integrate their project management tool with Adobe Creative Cloud to collaborate on assets in real time

• Marketers may chat over Slack to receive task updates and share ideas about marketing campaigns

• A content team may link to Google Drive to store and organize project-related documents directly within their creative management software

Competitive pricing

Finding a creative management tool with competitive pricing ensures your team gets the features it needs without overextending your budget.

Creative teams often operate with tight resources, so choosing software that balances affordability with functionality is critical.

Here are three examples of balancing your software’s pricing plan with your current needs:

• A freelance designer might start with a free plan that includes basic task management and cloud storage to manage solo projects

• A small marketing agency could choose a mid-tier plan with collaboration tools and tailored integrations without paying for unnecessary features

• A growing content team may invest in an enterprise-level plan for advanced automations, a free API (application programming interface) and extra storage as their workload increases

Final thoughts

When choosing creative management software, consider your team’s unique needs, project complexities and workflow preferences. Clarify those deliverables and pick the right tool to significantly boost creative team productivity and project success.

Pipedrive’s Projects lets you track tasks, manage deadlines and automate workflows – perfect for small teams balancing client work and creative projects.

Try Pipedrive free for 14 days and test out all of its features to see how it can drive project and sales success from start to finish.