Top 8 Best Business Management Software in 2024

GoCo is a versatile business management platform that simplifies HR, payroll, benefits administration, performance management, and compliance, making it a strong solution for companies looking for a streamlined business management system. Designed for small to medium-sized businesses, GoCo helps centralize critical HR tasks while its integration and customization features allow businesses to easily implement and tailor the platform to meet their unique HR needs.

Key Features:

• Performance Management: Easily track employee performance with customizable review templates, goal setting, and feedback loops, empowering managers to conduct efficient performance evaluations and improve team productivity.
• HR Automation: Automate routine tasks like onboarding, benefits enrollment, and compliance tracking, reducing administrative burden.
• Integrated Payroll: Use GoCo’s built-in sync with existing payroll providers like ADP and QuickBooks, ensuring seamless payroll operations without needing to overhaul your system.
• Customizable Workflows: Tailor processes like employee reviews, surveys, equipment requests, and more to fit your business's unique structure, ensuring all departments can work efficiently.

GoCo offers competitive, transparent pricing plans designed for businesses of all sizes. With its scalable solutions, GoCo grows alongside your business, providing the tools and support needed to streamline HR and business management.

Best For: Companies seeking an all-in-one HR and business management solution with strong customer support that is intuitive, customizable, and built to evolve with their needs.

Basecamp is a user-friendly project management platform designed to simplify collaboration and organization for teams. It's a great option for businesses seeking a straightforward tool to manage projects, communication, and file sharing in one place, although it doesn’t have wider capabilities beyond these.

Basecamp’s Features Include:

• Centralized Project Management: Basecamp provides a clear, organized dashboard where teams can manage tasks, schedules, to-dos, and files, all within dedicated project spaces. This eliminates the need for multiple tools to handle various aspects of a project, ensuring everything is easily accessible.
• Collaboration Tools: The platform supports communication with message boards, real-time group chat (Campfire), and automatic check-ins. These features streamline team communication, reducing the need for constant meetings and long email threads.
• File Storage: Every project has its own Docs & Files library, where teams can store, share, and collaborate on documents. Integration with external services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and others allows easy access to external files as well.
  Pricing: Basecamp charges a flat fee of $99 per month for unlimited users and projects, which makes it a cost-effective solution for larger teams or businesses managing multiple projects.

Basecamp is praised for its simplicity and ease of use, particularly among small teams and those with limited technical expertise. However, some users report that it lacks the advanced features needed for more complex project management.

Best For: Teams looking for an intuitive, simple platform strictly for managing projects and communication.

QuickBooks is a widely-used accounting software designed to help small to medium-sized businesses manage finances efficiently. It offers a range of features like invoicing, expense tracking, payroll management, and tax filing.

Key QuickBooks Features Include:

• Invoicing and Payments: Automate invoicing and track payments, with built-in payment processing options.
• Expense Tracking: Connect your bank accounts to automatically track business expenses and manage budgets.
• Payroll and Tax Filing: QuickBooks offers payroll management, including automated tax filings and compliance for state and federal taxes.
• Cloud Access: Secure, cloud-based storage lets you access your financial data from anywhere via mobile and desktop apps.
  Pricing: QuickBooks offers flexible pricing plans starting at $17.50 per month for small businesses, with more advanced plans for larger teams that go up to $117.50 per month.

Best For: QuickBooks is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses needing robust accounting solutions. While QuickBooks excels at accounting, it doesn’t provide broader business management tools, such as project or HR management.

For those who also require these features, QuickBooks can integrate with GoCo to provide a comprehensive business management system.

vcita is a small business management platform designed to help service-based businesses streamline client interactions, manage appointments, and handle payments. It combines CRM functionality with tools for scheduling, invoicing, marketing, and more, all in a single platform.

Key Features:

• Client Management (CRM): vcita offers an intuitive CRM that allows you to track client interactions, payments, appointments, and documents in one place.
• Appointment Scheduling: vcita simplifies scheduling by offering self-service booking for clients, automated reminders, and a business calendar that integrates with team schedules.
• Invoicing & Payments: The platform supports online payments, recurring billing, and automated invoicing, ensuring businesses get paid on time. It also integrates tax information directly into invoices, streamlining financial management​.
• Marketing Tools: vcita includes email and SMS marketing features with customizable templates for targeted campaigns. Businesses can create and send professional campaigns to nurture client relationships and encourage repeat business​.
  Pricing: vcita offers a range of pricing plans tailored to different business needs. These range from $29/month for basic client management, invoicing, and scheduling features, up to $93/month for more features like advanced reporting, increased storage, and integrations with apps like QuickBooks and Zapier​.

Users appreciate vcita's all-in-one nature, noting that it is especially useful for small service-based businesses such as consultants, health professionals, and coaches. However, some users report that it can feel overwhelming at first due to its wide array of options​.

Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an integrated platform that handles client management, scheduling, invoicing, and marketing. However, it doesn’t have broader HR capabilities, such as payroll and benefits enrollment.

Trello is a visual project management tool that helps teams of all sizes organize tasks and workflows. It uses boards, lists, and cards to help users track projects from start to finish. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, Trello makes it easy to move tasks between stages, keeping team members aligned and ensuring smooth project flow.

Key Features:

• Boards, Lists, and Cards: The core structure of Trello, where each board represents a project, lists represent stages, and cards represent individual tasks. Cards can hold all the necessary information such as due dates, attachments, checklists, and comments​.
• Multiple Views: Trello allows users to visualize projects in different ways, including calendar, timeline, table, dashboard, and map views, offering flexibility depending on the nature of the project​ and personal preferences.
• Integrations & Power-Ups: Trello integrates with over 200 tools including Slack, Google Drive, and Salesforce, allowing teams to connect their favorite tools to their Trello boards. Power-Ups further extend functionality by adding features like time tracking and reporting​.
  Pricing: Trello offers several pricing plans to fit different team needs. The Free Plan includes unlimited cards, but is limited to 10 boards per workspace, making it suitable for individuals or small teams. More advanced plans range from $5 per user/month up to $17.50 per user/month and add features like unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields, time tracking, reporting, and enhanced automation.

Users appreciate Trello's ease of use and its ability to visually organize tasks. However, for complex project management, users often feel it lacks the advanced reporting and workflow capabilities offered by more specialized tools. Trello’s more advanced plans and integrations can bridge these gaps, but they come with additional costs.

Best For: Teams that prefer a visual and customizable approach to managing projects and workflows. While it is great for organizing and tracking tasks, teams looking for capabilities beyond project management may find it limited.

Jira is a powerful project management tool designed primarily for software development teams, but it can be adapted for a wide variety of business types. It is known for its agile methodology support, helping teams plan, track, and release projects efficiently through customizable Scrum and Kanban boards.

Key Features:

• Agile Project Management: Jira is widely used by agile teams to manage workflows, with features such as Scrum and Kanban boards, backlogs, and sprints that help teams break projects down into manageable tasks​.
• Custom Workflows and Automation: Teams can create custom workflows that match their specific processes, including automating routine tasks with no-code automation tools, ensuring consistent progress even when no one is actively managing a task​.
• Collaboration Tools: Jira integrates with a wide array of third-party apps like Slack, GitHub, and Figma, centralizing all communication and task-tracking in one place. This makes it easier for teams to stay aligned and manage dependencies​.
• Real-Time Insights: Jira provides detailed reports, dashboards, and analytics that offer real-time visibility into project progress, team workload, and potential risks, enabling data-driven decision-making​.
  Pricing: Jira offers a Free plan for small teams with up to 10 users, providing basic agile tools and limited automation. For larger teams, the Standard plan costs $7.16 per user/month, adding project roles and audit logs. The Premium plan, priced at $12.48 per user/month, includes advanced features like unlimited automation and advanced roadmaps. For enterprises requiring enhanced security and compliance, Jira offers a customizable Enterprise plan, with pricing available upon request​

Jira is highly rated for its project management capabilities and scalability, making it ideal for both small teams and large enterprises. However, users also report a steep learning curve, especially for teams unfamiliar with agile methodologies. Its advanced features can feel overwhelming for those looking for a simpler project management tool​.

Best For: Agile teams working on complex projects, particularly in software development, where detailed tracking, customizable workflows, and sprint management are crucial. However, Jira's heavy focus on project management and development workflows may not meet the needs of businesses looking for an all-in-one business management solution.

Remote is a global HR and payroll platform designed to help businesses manage remote employees and contractors in over 170 countries. It simplifies compliance, payroll, and benefits administration, allowing businesses to hire internationally without setting up local entities.

Key Features:

• Global Payroll: Automate payroll for both employees and contractors worldwide, ensuring compliance with local tax and labor laws.
• Employer of Record (EOR): Remote acts as the legal employer on behalf of the company, handling compliance, benefits, and legal documentation for international employees.
• Contractor Management: Easily onboard, manage, and pay international contractors with localized contracts and payment options.
• Compliance and Security: Remote helps businesses stay compliant with labor regulations in different countries, managing everything from contracts to local taxes and benefits.

Pricing: Remote’s pricing starts at $29 per contractor per month for contractor management services. For full-time employees, its Employer of Record (EOR) services start at $599 per employee per month.

Remote is praised for its ease of use and ability to simplify global payroll and compliance. Users highlight its comprehensive support for international hiring, but some mention that pricing can be high for smaller businesses and there can be delays in customer support response during peak times.

Best For: Companies looking to manage and hire remote employees and contractors on a global scale. However, for businesses seeking broader tools that also cover domestic HR management, payroll, and performance tracking, GoCo offers an integration with Remote.

Asana is a project management tool that helps teams coordinate work, track progress, and collaborate efficiently. It offers flexibility through customizable task management and project views, like lists, boards, and timelines, making it ideal for various workflows.

Key Features:

• Task Management: Organize tasks with deadlines, priorities, and dependencies.
• Timeline & Gantt Views: Visualize project timelines and key milestones.
• Workflow Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and processes.
• Integrations: Seamlessly connects with tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams.
  Pricing: Asana offers paid plans starting at $10.99 per user/month with features like advanced reporting and timeline views. Their Advanced plan starts at $24.99 per user/month and adds features like time tracking and enhanced security.

Users generally praise Asana for its intuitive interface and ease of collaboration, but some mention it can become pricey when more advanced features are needed for complex project management. While Asana offers tool integrations, it doesn’t really offer any capabilities beyond project management.

Best For: Teams in tech, marketing, product development, and project management that require streamlined task tracking, project collaboration, and timeline management.