ClickUp Review 2023: Features Tested, Pros and Cons Revealed

In short, ClickUp is the best project management software application out of the top 14 providers we've tested, scoring 4.8/5 overall. It's got custom and pre-built automation for streamlining the mundane parts of your day, plus collaboration tools on all of its plans that most other providers don't offer, like an online whiteboard and a resource management feature. There are also data dashboards and custom charts and widgets for displaying project data, which we'll discuss in detail further on in this ClickUp review.

ClickUp is different from a lot of its competitors because it keeps very few features locked away on its expensive plans. On ClickUp's feature-rich free plan, for example, there's no user limit, document editing functionalities, and time-tracking. ClickUp also offers the three most useful ways to view project progress in project management software – a Gantt Chart, Kanban Board, and Spreadsheet view – on every plan. There's even 24/7 live support and guess what – it's 24/7 on all ClickUp's plans.

When we tested ClickUp, it receives a 4/5 usability score because setting up a project is so easy. It also gains the best score out of the 14 providers we tested for task management (4.9/5), workflow creation (4.3/5), and data visualization (5/5). It's entirely unsurprising that ClickUp scores so highly in our independent research, which means you'll definitely get a return on your investment. Somehow, it manages to offer more features than monday.com, Smartsheet, and Wrike's plans, while remaining affordable.

In this guide:

• ClickUp – Quick Fact File
• ClickUp – Key Features
• Is ClickUp Right for Your Business?
• How Does ClickUp Compare to Other Providers?
• How We Rated ClickUp
• Verdict – Is ClickUp Good Value?
• ClickUp Review FAQs

ClickUp – Quick Fact File

Before we delve into the detail in this ClickUp review, we'll give you a whistle-stop tour of ClickUp's key features, functions, and what it scored in our research:

• Ease of Use (4/5): ClickUp is easy to setup with a customizable task list. The vertical bookmark bar at the top of your project makes it easy to access different tools, although the automation builder took a bit more time to get used to.
• Features (4.5/5): ClickUp has a Gantt Chart and Kanban Board (pictured below); and additional tasks management tools, such as sub-tasks, task dependencies, an automation builder, and custom project templates. Displaying project data is easy with custom charts, as is collaborating with a team instant messenger.
• Customer Support (3.8/5): ClickUp's customer support options include 24/7 live support, live chat, phone, and email – so all of the essentials are covered. There's also onboarding support on the Enterprise plan.
• Value for money (4.4/5): ClickUp has a better feature set than competitors like monday.com, but it also offers less expensive plans. We found that the free plan, for example, has virtually everything you need to manage a project for a small team.

ClickUp – Key Features

ClickUp's key features include task management options like Gantt Charts and a Kanban board which will let you view your project's progress, a custom automation builder to streamline workflows, as well as an online whiteboard and team messenger for collaborating.

ClickUp scores 4.5/5 for features overall, with a market-best 4.9/5 for task management, 4.3/5 for workflow creation, 5/5 for data visualization, and 3.8/5 for collaboration. 

Setting up With ClickUp

“Setting up a project in ClickUp is a quick and easy process” says James, who heads up project management software testing at Tech.co and is a ClickUp expert. This is less complicated than setting up with Jira, which James describes as a “steep learning curve.”

“Upon opening a project, users are straightaway provided with a task list that can be customized with different columns,” he continues. “This enables users to input all the details they need without going through multiple menus, or needing to navigate the platform.”

Overall, though, ClickUp's setup justifies its 4/5 usability score, and choosing a simple-to-use application like ClickUp will make your life easier.

Task management and workflow creation

Compared with other project management software, ClickUp has a large range of tools for managing tasks, including a function that can be used as an issue log, a time tracker, milestones, task dependencies, and custom fields.

“ClickUp also has a sub-tasking feature, which is useful for occasions when issues arise as a sub-task can be added to the task where the issue arose,” says James. 

In terms of workflow adjustment, custom and pre-built automation (pictured below) is available on all ClickUp plans – although there's a limit of 100 actions per month on the free plan, and 1,000 on the Unlimited plan. However, it's not the easiest automation builder we tested (that was Asana), and it “proves difficult to use when setting up example workflows,” James reports.

Displaying project data

On all of ClickUp's plans, you'll have the ability to use preset charts and widgets to display data from your project like a pro. From the Business plan, upward, you can create custom charts and generate custom widgets, too. In addition, the dashboard for displaying data, which is limited to 100 uses on the free plan, can be used as much as you want.

Although the dashboard is effective, it isn't perfect. “The only issue with their chart creator is that you cannot pull data from custom fields. Therefore, no information regarding budgets could be presented,” James explains.

Collaborating and communicating

If we had to pick a weak spot for ClickUp, it would be collaboration. It only receives a score of 3.8/5 in this category in our research. However, admittedly, this was the second-best score out of the 14 providers our research team tested, so it's not like ClickUp is severely lacking in this area. Teamwork came first with 4/5, thanks to a useful project message board.

ClickUp has an instant messenger, calendar, a task comment function (pictured below), and a recently-added online whiteboard.

ClickUp Review – Is ClickUp Right for Your Business?

Objectively, ClickUp is a great project management program – but which plan is right for your business will depend on your business's needs. Here's a quick rundown of all the plans ClickUp has on offer – but if you'd like more information, visit our breakdown of ClickUp pricing.

When it comes to features, ClickUp has the best free plan we tested. 8 out of 14 of the providers we put through their paces had free plans, and on ClickUp's, you get Custom project templates, custom automation, charts and widgets for displaying data, as well as 24/7 live support.

ClickUp's free plan is much better than Wrike's free plan, despite the fact that Wrike's free plan has no user limit too, and they're the only two providers that offer this – Zoho Projects' free plan, for instance, as a 3 person limit. Wrike has no 24/7 live support, no data tools, and no automation. It's ideal for freelancers and solo workers.

The Unlimited plan removes limits on Gantt chart, milestones, custom fields, and data dashboard features, and allows you to create unlimited projects. This is almost half the price of our test runner-up monday.com's Basic plan ($9 per user, per month) and ClickUp is a better value application, offering more features for less money. ClickUp also offers guest access, 24/7 live support, time tracking, unlimited storage, and a team instant messenger – none of which are included in monday.com's Basic plan, making it a better option for small teams.

Read our monday vs ClickUp guide to learn more about how the two providers compare in price.

ClickUp's Business and Business Plus plans both come in at under $20 per user, per month – but if you compare the Business Plus plan to Smartsheet's Business plan, you'll see its far better value and the better option for multiple teams. There's live chat, burndown charts for scrum teams (pictured below), time-tracking, and an online whiteboard, all of which Smartsheet doesn't have.

There's also an Enterprise plan with features to suit very large businesses with multiple teams, including unlimited custom roles, a dedicated success manager at ClickUp, and live onboarding training.

How Does ClickUp Compare With Other Providers?

ClickUp is the best project management system on the market, according to our research, but there are plenty of alternatives for businesses with specific needs.

Teamwork, for example, is better than ClickUp for collaboration as it offers tools like project message board, where Clickup doesn't, and scores 4/5 for collaboration tools vs ClickUp's 3.8/5. Here's a quick rundown of ClickUp's closest competitors that also offer project management software:

In comparison to Smartsheet, which was the most usable project management software we tested, ClickUp wasn't quite as easy to use, largely due to the spreadsheet default view in Smartsheet, which makes the transition from programs like excel slightly easier. However, ClickUp had better task management features and is a lot cheaper.

Asana, which scores 4.5/5 overall, doesn't have quite the feature set ClickUp does, but it does have a better automation builder than ClickUp and is the best out of any provider our research team put through its paces.

Asana has a flow-chart style automation builder called ‘Rules', and all the available actions and triggers for creating automations are visible from the main flow-chart view which meant it was quite easy to build automations as minimal menu-diving is required. ClickUp, however, had much better collaboration options.

Remember, the best tactic is to assess your priorities and compare project management software on that basis.

How did we Rate ClickUp?

Here at Tech.co, we have an insights team who conducts data-driven research into all of the services and software that we write about – including in this ClickUp review.

They scope out the best providers on the market, put them through their paces with rigorous usability tests, and then collaborate with our team of expert writers in order to provide this research-backed ClickUp review and other reviews and comparisons for our readers.

Project Management software testing criteria

Before testing project management software like ClickUp – or providers with a bigger market share, like Jira – our insights team devised a research framework to score each of the various providers. For project management software, the broad areas upon which each provider was assessed includes:

• Price – is the product good value for money, considering the price point against the features on offer?
• Usability – how easy is the product to use? Is it difficult or easy to set up, and how much assistance is given to the user in the process?
• Features – what features are included in the software, how useful are they, and how do they hold up during a usability test? Task management, workflow creation, data visualization, and collaboration features were assessed separately.
• Customer support – what customer support options are on offer, and do they function well?

ClickUp Review: FAQs