Most “best PM software for agencies” articles recommend monday.com or Asana. Both are wrong for agencies running client accounts.

The reason: agencies need three features that monday.com and Asana don’t include at their standard pricing tiers — native time tracking, client billing by project, and a client-portal view that hides internal margins and team communication from external contacts. monday.com has no native time tracking. Asana has no native time tracking at any tier. Neither has a clean client portal without significant configuration overhead.

The agency-specific shortlist: Teamwork (£9.99/seat Deliver), Wrike (£19.95/seat Business), or ProofHub (£39/month flat-fee, unlimited users).

The realistic cost reality

For a 15-person agency team using any of the agency-specific tools:

• Teamwork Deliver: 15 seats Ã- £9.99/mo = £1,798/year. Time tracking included. Client portal included. 1 free client user. Additional client users charged separately.
• Wrike Business: 15 seats Ã- £19.95/mo = £3,591/year. Resource workload management. Time tracking. Client portal with 2 free guests.
• ProofHub Ultimate Control: £79/month flat = £948/year (unlimited users and clients). The cheapest option for teams with many client contacts — flat-fee pricing eliminates per-seat math.

Realistic year-1 all-in for a 15-person agency: £2,000–£5,000 depending on tool and client-contact volume.

The three tools that actually work for agencies

Teamwork — best for client-billing agencies

Teamwork is purpose-built for client-services work. Time tracking is native at the Deliver tier (£9.99/seat). Billing rates are configurable per project, per person, or per task — standard agency billing models. Client-portal access is included without a separate product.

The billing model: invoice clients based on Teamwork time reports. Export hours by project, mark as invoiced, and reconcile against the client contract. Not as automated as QuickBooks, but the data is accurate because it lives where the work happens.

Best for: Agencies that invoice hourly or project-based and need accurate billable-hours reporting without a second tool.

Not ideal for: Agencies running complex internal operations alongside client work — Teamwork’s internal-operations features are thinner than Wrike’s.

Wrike — best for large agencies with resource constraints

Wrike Business (£19.95/seat) includes the strongest resource workload management in the mid-market segment. For agencies managing 20+ concurrent projects across 15+ team members, the ability to see who is overloaded before the deadline is operational. Wrike surfaces this; Teamwork doesn’t.

The workload view shows each team member’s committed hours for the current week against their capacity. Drag-to-redistribute tasks when someone is over capacity. Track actual hours against estimates. Compare utilisation rates by department.

Best for: Agencies at 30+ employees with complex resource-conflict problems and multiple clients running simultaneously.

Not ideal for: Small agencies under 15 people where the learning curve overhead (Wrike’s folder/project/task hierarchy is the steepest in the category) isn’t justified.

ProofHub — flat-fee for multi-client agencies

ProofHub’s flat-fee pricing model (£39/month Essential, £79/month Ultimate Control) is the differentiator for agencies with many clients. At 20+ client contacts who need portal access, ProofHub’s unlimited-user model is cheaper than per-guest billing on any competitor.

Essential (£39/month): 40 projects, unlimited users, basic time tracking. Ultimate Control (£79/month): Unlimited projects, unlimited users, full time tracking, client portals, custom roles.

Best for: Agencies with many small clients (10+) who each need portal access — the flat fee eliminates guest-seat math.

Not ideal for: Agencies that need deep resource management or enterprise integrations. ProofHub’s automation and integration story is thinner than Wrike’s.

What about monday.com and Asana for agencies?

Both are valid choices for agencies that don’t need native time tracking:

• monday.com is excellent for project tracking, client communication (via updates and board sharing), and creative workflow management. Time tracking requires an integration (Harvest, Toggl) that adds cost and a manual export step. For agencies where billable-hours reporting is not operationally critical, monday.com is the most pleasant tool to use daily.
• Asana has the best cross-functional workflow and OKR tracking — relevant for agencies that also manage internal strategy alongside client work. Same limitation: no native time tracking at any tier.

The honest position: if your agency invoices clients based on hours worked, build your PM stack on a tool where time tracking is a first-class feature, not an integration. Teamwork and Wrike are that tool. The alternative — building a system where time tracking is always one step removed — reduces data accuracy and adds weekly reconciliation overhead.

Integrations agencies commonly need

• QuickBooks / Xero: Teamwork integrates with both via Zapier. Wrike integrates with QuickBooks via Zapier (Business tier). ProofHub integrates with QuickBooks via Zapier. No native accounting integration in general PM tools — plan for Zapier costs.
• Slack: All three integrate with Slack natively. Project status updates, task notifications, and client message routing all work via Slack.
• Google Drive / Dropbox: Native integration on all three for file attachment and document linking.
• HubSpot / Salesforce (for sales → project handoff): Wrike Business has HubSpot and Salesforce integration; Teamwork via Zapier; ProofHub via Zapier.

The decision matrix

The fastest path to a personalised recommendation: take the 60-second quiz.

FAQ

Do I need separate time tracking software if I use Teamwork?

No. Teamwork’s native time tracking on the Deliver tier covers standard agency requirements: billable vs non-billable hours, time reports by project and person, and export for invoicing. If your billing model is unusual (split billing, milestone-based with complex reconciliation), you may still want a dedicated tool — but for most agencies, Teamwork eliminates the Harvest subscription.

Is monday.com good for agencies?

For creative workflow management (campaign tracking, content calendars, deliverable approval workflows), monday.com is excellent. For time-tracked client billing, it’s not the right tool without a time-tracking integration. Most mid-sized agencies end up with monday.com as their primary project board and Harvest for time — two tools where one (Teamwork or Wrike) would suffice.

What’s the cheapest agency PM tool that actually works?

ProofHub Essential at £39/month for unlimited users and up to 40 projects. For a 10-person agency with 5 clients, ProofHub’s cost is £39/month vs Teamwork’s £100/month — a £732/year saving. The trade-off: ProofHub’s automation and reporting are less mature than Teamwork’s.