Tools to manage client projects

The problem, in plain words: “I run a small design agency and we keep missing deadlines and don't have a clear system for who owns which client tasks.”

Asana: Work Management fits best, with 8 more that fit too.

You run a small design agency that misses deadlines and needs a simple, team-visible way to assign and track ownership of client tasks.

Updated August 2026.

What fits

Asana: Work Managementstrong · 92

Asana's primary purpose is organizing team projects and individual tasks so you can assign owners, add due dates, and see who is responsible at a glance — directly tackling missed deadlines and unclear ownership.

Best for: Small teams that want a full-featured, proven project-management system with robust task assignment, due dates and team views.

Trellostrong · 88

Trello's board-and-card model makes task ownership and status highly visible; you can assign cards to teammates, add due dates and use simple workflows to prevent items slipping through the cracks.

Best for: Agencies that prefer a lightweight, visual Kanban approach for assigning ownership and tracking deadlines without heavy process overhead.

Workflowstrong · 86

Workflow is explicitly built for creative teams and agencies to track creative work, gather feedback, and keep task assignment visible — matching a design studio's need for ownership and timely delivery.

Best for: Design teams and agencies that need creative-focused project tracking with feedback loops and owner visibility.

Relystastrong · 85

Relysta aims to replace scattered client-facing tools with a single workspace for agencies, which helps centralize tasks, ownership and client updates so nothing is lost across email and drives.

Best for: Small agencies that want a single client-facing workspace to centralize tasks, files and communications for clearer ownership.

WorkLenzstrong · 82

WorkLenz is an all-in-one project-management solution built for agencies that centralizes tasks and team workflows, providing the visibility and assignment controls needed to stop deadlines from slipping.

Best for: Agencies wanting an open-source, agency-focused project-management tool to centralize tasks and team workflows.

Arpixastrong · 80

Arpixa packages agency needs into one platform including project boards and a client portal, so you can assign tasks, show status to clients, and reduce confusion about who owns what.

Best for: Agency owners who want an all-in-one business platform that includes project boards and client-facing portals.

+ 3 more that also fit — run your own wording through the matcher below to see them ranked for your exact situation.

Partly fits

Chikpartial · 60

Chik combines tasks, time tracking and client portals for freelancers and solo consultants, so it covers assignment and deadlines but is pitched primarily at individual freelancers rather than small multi-person agencies.

Won’t cover: Geared toward freelancers and solo consultants rather than multi-person agency workflows and team capacity planning.

Squad Centralpartial · 60

Squad Central focuses on resource management and workload visibility for software agencies, which aligns with capacity and assignment tracking but is narrower toward engineering-style resource allocation.

Won’t cover: Oriented to software-agency resource allocation, so its workload features may be narrower than a design agency's creative workflow needs.

Missivepartial · 58

Missive focuses on shared inboxes and turning email into tasks, which helps teams who lose work in email but is centered on inbox collaboration rather than full project management.

Won’t cover: Acts primarily as an email-centric collaboration layer rather than a full project-management system for all client deliverables.

Todoist: To Do List & Calendarpartial · 50

Todoist is a strong personal and lightweight team task manager to reduce missed deadlines, but it is not explicitly built for agency client workflows or client-facing project boards.

Won’t cover: Built first as a general task manager rather than an agency-focused system with client-facing boards and project templates.

Questions

What's the best tool to manage client projects?

Asana: Work Management is the strongest match — Asana's primary purpose is organizing team projects and individual tasks so you can assign owners, add due dates, and see who is responsible at a glance — directly tackling missed deadlines and unclear ownership.

Is there a tool that fully solves this?

9 products match this closely.

What won't these tools cover?

Acts primarily as an email-centric collaboration layer rather than a full project-management system for all client deliverables. · Geared toward freelancers and solo consultants rather than multi-person agency workflows and team capacity planning. · Oriented to software-agency resource allocation, so its workload features may be narrower than a design agency's creative workflow needs. · Built first as a general task manager rather than an agency-focused system with client-facing boards and project templates.

Not quite your version of it?

Describe the problem in your own words and the matcher will read it fresh — including products too new to be anywhere else.

Try your own problem

Matched by Matchbox. Nothing here is sponsored and payment never affects ranking. Products link to their listings; some are auto-extracted and not yet maker-verified.