10 best agile project management software tools, compared

Most agile tools look the same in a demo. The differences show up a few sprints in, when your developers want the board to update from their code, or your marketing lead just wants to see what’s blocking a launch.

This guide splits the tools into two groups — one for software teams and one for cross-functional teams — so you can skip straight to the group that fits yours. For each tool, you’ll see the price, what its AI actually does, and the one limitation to consider before you commit.

Asana wrote this guide. We last reviewed every tool in October 2026 and held Asana to the same criteria as the rest, including the areas where another type of tool does better.

The 10 best agile project management tools, compared

Use this table to narrow your shortlist by team type, then click any tool to jump to its full breakdown. 

Entry price is the lowest paid plan per user per month, billed annually in US dollars. We checked every price on vendor sites in October 2026.

What makes a good agile project management tool

Every tool on this list supports agile project management, though how deep that support goes varies. Most teams run Scrum, Kanban, or a mix of the two. That means a backlog to prioritize work, boards to track progress, and sprints or cycles if your team works in time-boxed iterations.

How much depth you need depends on your team. Software teams running two-week sprints lean on estimation and reporting daily, while a marketing team might only need a clear board and backlog.

How we compared these tools

For a tool to make this list, it had to be widely used by US teams and support Scrum or Kanban with real boards, backlogs, and sprints or cycles. Developer-first tools like Jira and Linear qualified alongside broader work management platforms like Asana and monday.com.

Each tool sits in one of two groups, software teams or cross-functional teams, even when it reaches into both. Asana offers Command for engineering teams, for example, but we place Asana in the cross-functional group because that’s where its core product fits best.

We looked at every tool through six lenses:

• Scrum and Kanban support: How well the tool handles the daily mechanics of agile work, from grooming a backlog to running a sprint or cycle.

• Reporting: Velocity, burndown, and burnup charts tell you whether your team delivers what it plans.

• Integrations: Software teams need Git and build pipelines, while business teams need connections to the tools they already use, like Slack and Google Drive.

• AI: Agile tools now use AI for everything from stand-up summaries to coding agents, and how vendors charge for it varies widely.

• Administration and security: Larger organizations need permissions, single sign-on, and audit controls before rolling a tool out across departments.

• Total cost: Entry prices look similar on paper, but seat minimums and AI add-ons change the real bill.

We grouped the list by team type with five in each group so both readers get a solid shortlist. Jira leads the software group because it’s the category default. Asana leads the cross-functional group because we wrote this guide, and its spot at the top isn’t a claim that it beats software-native tools at their own job.

Each review draws on vendor documentation and published pricing, checked in October 2026. User feedback comes from verified reviews on G2, and the rest reflects our editorial judgment.

We held Asana to the same criteria as every other tool here, including its limitations. Core Asana isn’t as software-native as Jira or Linear, so if your team needs developer-grade issue tracking with Git built in, we recommend those tools instead.

Agile and AI: what each tool’s AI does

AI now comes with almost every agile tool, but what it actually does, and whether you pay extra for it, varies from one tool to the next.

1. Jira: best for software teams running Scrum or Kanban

Jira is the default agile tool for software teams, and it earns that spot. It handles Scrum and Kanban natively, so you can run sprints from a well-kept backlog and track delivery without add-ons.

• Where it's strong: Scrum and Kanban boards with backlog management come on every plan, including Free. Velocity and burndown reports show what your team delivered each sprint, and Premium adds Plans for coordinating work across teams.

• Where it falls short: Some users mention a steep learning curve and complexity, and Jira scores lower than Linear on ease of admin on G2. It works best when someone on your team owns the setup.

• G2 rating: 4.3/5 across 8,000+ reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Software teams that want the deepest native Scrum and Kanban support and plan to scale it across many teams.

• Choose something else if: Most of your team doesn’t write code, or nobody has time to manage the setup. Asana or Trello will be easier to roll out.

• How it uses AI: Rovo summarizes any work item and breaks larger work into smaller tasks, and you can delegate tasks directly to Rovo agents. For engineering teams, Rovo Dev runs from a Jira work item and creates merge-ready pull requests.

• Pricing: Free for up to 10 users. Paid plans start at $8.48 mo./per user, billed monthly

• How it bills for AI: AI agents are included on every paid plan. Rovo agents come with every paid plan. Monthly Rovo credits go from 25 per user on Standard to 150 on Enterprise.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Jira editions; Rovo in Jira), published pricing (Jira pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

2. Linear: best for fast-moving product and engineering teams

Linear is the modern alternative to Jira for software teams that care about speed. It trades deep configuration for a fast, opinionated workflow, and G2 reviewers rate it well above Jira for ease of use and setup.

• Where it's strong: Cycles time-box work into one- to eight-week sprints and roll unfinished issues into the next cycle automatically. The GitHub integration links pull requests to issues and updates their status as code ships.

• Where it falls short: G2 reviewers point to limited customization, and reporting is lighter than what Jira offers. Teams with complex custom workflows may run into limits.

• G2 rating: 4.6/5 across 124 reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Product and engineering teams that want sprint structure without a configuration project.

• Choose something else if: You need highly customized workflows or portfolio reporting across many teams. Jira gives you more room to configure.

• How it uses AI: You can assign issues to coding agents like Cursor, Codex, and Devin, while a person stays the primary owner. Linear Agent triages issues, drafts progress updates, and reads your backlog to suggest what should move into the next cycle.

• Pricing: Free for unlimited members, capped at 250 issues. Paid plans start at $10 mo./per user, billed annually.

• How it bills for AI: Linear Agent is included on every plan. Some features, like coding sessions, use AI credits.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Linear docs; GitHub integration; Linear for Agents; Linear), published pricing (Linear pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

3. Azure DevOps: best for engineering teams on Microsoft tools

Azure DevOps bundles agile planning with code hosting and build pipelines. Its planning tool, Azure Boards, is the part that compares most directly with the other tools on this list.

• Where it's strong: Azure Boards gives you product and portfolio backlogs, sprint taskboards, and Kanban boards. Delivery Plans map work and dependencies across teams on a calendar. Since Azure Repos and Azure Pipelines are included in the same product, your backlog stays connected to your code and releases.

• Where it falls short: Azure DevOps comes with a steep learning curve and an interface that can overwhelm newcomers, according to G2 reviewers. Teammates outside engineering usually find it hard to adopt.

• G2 rating: 4.4/5 across 140 reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Engineering teams already working in Azure and Microsoft tools that want planning and deployment in one place.

• Choose something else if: Your agile work spans marketing or operations, or your engineers prefer a lighter tracker. Linear or Jira may fit better.

• How it uses AI: You can assign an Azure Boards work item to the GitHub Copilot coding agent, which creates a branch and a draft pull request linked back to that work item. Copilot code review for Azure Repos pull requests is in public preview.

• Pricing: The first five Basic users are free. Each additional Basic user is $6 mo./per user.

• How it bills for AI: Copilot code review and Copilot Autofix are billed separately through GitHub AI Credits.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Azure Boards docs; Azure DevOps docs; Azure Boards integration; Azure Repos updates), published pricing (Azure DevOps pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

4. Shortcut: best for software teams that want less overhead than Jira

Shortcut gives small and midsize software teams a lighter way to run agile. You get stories, epics, and iterations without the setup a larger tool demands, and ease of use is the top strength G2 reviewers mention.

• Where it's strong: Iterations time-box your stories and come with burndown and cumulative flow charts. The GitHub integration moves a story forward automatically when a pull request opens or merges.

• Where it falls short: Reporting thins out on lower plans. The Free plan skips the metrics dashboard, reports covering more than 100 days require Business, and some G2 reviewers want more varied metrics.

• G2 rating: 4.4/5 across 177 reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Software teams that want Jira-style structure with less administration.

• Choose something else if: You’re scaling agile across dozens of teams or need deep portfolio reporting. Jira or Azure DevOps handles that scale better.

• How it uses AI: Assign stories to AI agents and track their progress like any teammate. Shortcut’s own agent, Korey, turns rough ideas into scoped stories with acceptance criteria, and coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor connect through the Shortcut model context protocol (MCP) server.

• Pricing: Free for up to 10 users. Paid plans start at $8.50 mo./per user, billed yearly.

• How it bills for AI: AI agent collaboration is included on every plan.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Shortcut help center; GitHub help; MCP Server help), published pricing (Shortcut pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

5. Aha! Develop: best for connecting roadmaps to delivery

Aha! Develop is the engineering half of the Aha! product suite. It shines when your product team already plans in Aha! Roadmaps and wants sprint work tied directly to that strategy.

• Where it's strong: Each team can run Scrum, Kanban, or a hybrid on its own boards. Capacity planning accounts for each person’s availability, and estimates sync back to Aha! Roadmaps so product leaders can track progress against the plan.

• Where it falls short: G2 reviewers mention the learning curve and high price, and the full suite can be more than smaller teams need. Burndown and burnup charts require Develop Advanced.

• G2 rating: 4.4/5 across 368 reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Product and engineering organizations that want roadmap strategy and sprint delivery in one connected system.

• Choose something else if: Your team has no formal roadmap process. Shortcut or Linear will get you running faster.

• How it uses AI: The Aha! AI assistant, Elle, proposes a sequenced set of user stories with testable acceptance criteria, starting from any feature in Aha! Roadmaps or Develop. Elle can also define acceptance criteria for a new feature on its own.

• Pricing: Plans start at $9 mo./per user, billed annually.

• How it bills for AI: Aha! doesn’t list AI pricing separately on its pricing page.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Aha! Develop; Aha! Develop support; Aha! User stories; Acceptance criteria), published pricing (Aha! Develop pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

6. Asana: best for running sprints across marketing, operations, and product

Asana brings agile structure to teams that don’t ship code, like marketing and operations. G2 reviewers rate Asana above Jira for ease of use and setup, which matters when the whole team needs to keep the board current.

• Where it's strong: Plan sprint milestones and manage your backlog on Kanban boards, then switch to a timeline to check dates. On Advanced, goals connect sprint work to company priorities, and a two-way Jira integration keeps you in sync with engineering.

• Where it falls short: Core Asana isn’t built for software delivery. G2 describes its agile features as lightweight boards and sprint-style planning, so teams that want velocity and burndown reports out of the box might notice the gap.

• G2 rating: 4.4/5 across 14,000+ reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Cross-functional teams that want agile structure without a developer-grade tool.

• Choose something else if: Your team needs code-linked issue tracking and deep Scrum reporting in one tool. Jira, Linear, or Azure DevOps will serve you better.

• How it uses AI: AI Teammates pull stand-up updates from the current sprint and summarize retros. For engineering teams, Command turns a spec into tickets that give coding agents full context.

• Pricing: Asana pricing starts free for up to two people. Starter is $10.99 mo./per user and Advanced is $24.99 mo./per user, billed annually.

• How it bills for AI: Paid plans include five AI Teammate requests per user each month. Command is available through sales.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Agile management in Asana), published pricing (Asana pricing), and third-party reviews (G2 and G2’s Asana vs. Jira comparison); checked October 2026.

7. monday.com (monday dev): best for visual, customizable sprint boards

monday dev is the monday.com product built for agile teams. It runs on the same flexible boards that mixed teams already use for other work, so engineers and business partners can share one workspace.

• Where it's strong: Scrum and Kanban boards come with sprint automations, burndown and velocity charts, and a roadmap tracker. Git integrations sync pull requests and commits to each item.

• Where it falls short: Flexibility cuts both ways. Some reviewers say boards get cluttered quickly as work piles up, and the three-seat minimum with no free plan raises the cost for small teams.

• G2 rating: 4.7/5 across 17,000+ reviews for monday.com (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Mixed engineering and business teams that want customizable, visual sprint tracking.

• Choose something else if: You’re a small team on a tight budget. Asana or ClickUp lets you start for free.

• How it uses AI: monday AI writes an executive sprint summary that analyzes how your sprint went, and it helps sort your bug queue. The Sprint Planner agent organizes your backlog and drafts sprint goals around your team’s capacity.

• Pricing: Paid plans start at $9 mo./per user, billed annually with a three-seat minimum.

• How it bills for AI: AI credits are included on every plan.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (monday dev; monday and GitHub integration; monday support; monday dev AI support), published pricing (monday dev pricing), and third-party reviews (G2 and Capterra); checked October 2026.

8. ClickUp: best for agile work and docs in one workspace

ClickUp is built for teams tired of juggling a separate app for every part of the job. Sprint planning and documentation sit side by side, so the context behind a task is never more than a click away.

• Where it's strong: The Sprints feature adds sprint folders and sprint points on every plan. With 18 view types, from Board and Gantt to Workload, each teammate can look at the same work the way they prefer.

• Where it falls short: ClickUp’s daunting number of features takes time to get used to. As one mid-market reviewer wrote on G2, “While ClickUp is exceptionally feature rich, it can occasionally make the platform feel overwhelming to first-day users.”

• G2 rating: 4.6/5 across 14,900+ reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Teams that want sprints and documentation in the same place and don’t mind investing in setup.

• Choose something else if: You want a focused agile tool your team can learn in an afternoon. Trello or Linear keeps things simpler.

• How it uses AI: ClickUp Brain writes automated stand-ups for up to 20 teammates. Super Agents flag projects that fall behind and ask for your approval before critical decisions, while Autopilot Agents act on triggers you set.

• Pricing: Free Forever plan available. Paid plans start at $7 mo./per user, billed annually.

• How it bills for AI: Every plan includes a pooled monthly allowance of AI credits. Brain add-ons and extra credits cost more.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (ClickUp help center; Intro to views; Automate StandUps; ClickUp agents; Autopilot agents), published pricing (ClickUp pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

9. Trello: best for simple Kanban

Trello is the fastest way to start with Kanban. Cards and lists make sense right away, and ease of use tops the list of what G2 reviewers like.

• Where it's strong: Unlimited Power-Ups on every plan let you add features as you need them. Built-in automation handles repetitive card moves, with 1,000 runs a month on Standard and unlimited runs on Premium.

• Where it falls short: G2 reviewers point to limited and missing features as projects grow, especially dependency tracking and Gantt-style planning. The Dashboard view, Trello’s reporting tool, starts on Premium. Teams running formal Scrum outgrow it quickly.

• G2 rating: 4.4/5 across 14,000+ reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Small teams with simple workflows, where speed of setup matters more than reporting.

• Choose something else if: You need sprints, velocity reporting, or task dependencies. Asana or Jira gives you room to grow.

• How it uses AI: Trello's AI agents can suggest a checklist based on a card’s title and description and turn a phrase like “Submit report by Friday” into a due date. They can also summarize card content and pull out action items.

• Pricing: Free for up to 10 collaborators per workspace. Paid plans start at $5 mo./per user, billed annually.

• How it bills for AI: AI is included on Standard and above.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Trello support; Butler commands; Trello forums; AI writing and editing), published pricing (Trello pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

10. Wrike: best for enterprise cross-functional agile

Wrike suits larger organizations that run agile work across many teams and need portfolio-level visibility. It sits at the enterprise end of the cross-functional group.

• Where it's strong: Kanban boards support custom columns, swimlanes, and work-in-progress limits on every plan. Dashboards and project portfolio management start on Team, and a Scrum template with backlogs and a sprint dashboard is available on Business.

• Where it falls short: Wrike handles agile through templates and configuration, so setup takes more effort than lighter tools. G2 reviewers also mention a steep learning curve and a complex interface. As one consultant wrote on G2, “Because Wrike is such an advanced and customizable tool, it can be difficult for some team members to get a grasp of.”

• G2 rating: 4.2/5 across 4,500+ reviews (as of October 2026)

• Best for: Enterprise teams that need cross-functional agile with portfolio visibility.

• Choose something else if: Your software team runs formal Scrum every day. 

• How it uses AI: Wrike AI assigns each project a risk level based on its data and creates subitems from task descriptions or comments. Its copilot also generates project summaries and status overviews.

• Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $10 mo./per user, billed annually.

• How it bills for AI: AI starts on Team, which includes AI Essentials like content editing and comment summaries. Business and above add a monthly allowance of AI Elite actions for running AI agents, and Pinnacle and Apex raise that allowance. The Free plan doesn’t include AI.

Evidence: Vendor documentation (Wrike Kanban boards; Comparison table; Agile teamwork; Wrike community), published pricing (Wrike pricing), and third-party reviews (G2); checked October 2026.

How to choose the right agile project management tool

Feature lists only get you so far. The right agile tool is the one your team will actually open every day, and that depends more on how your team works than on any single feature.

Start with your team type

Start by deciding whether you’re a software team or a cross-functional team. Once you answer that, most of your shortlist falls into place, and the questions below narrow it the rest of the way.

 Match the tool to your situation

Still deciding between two or three tools? Find the row that sounds most like your team and start your trial there. You can always switch later if the fit isn’t right.

Choose for your team, not the trend

The best agile tool is the one your team will still use three sprints from now. If you’re shipping software, look first at Jira, Linear, or Azure DevOps. If you’re bringing agile to marketing or operations, Asana gives you sprints and backlogs that everyone can keep current. If your engineers are ready to hand work to coding agents, Asana Command connects that planning to the code.

Keep your first step small. Build a backlog in Asana for your next two-week sprint and run your first stand-up from the board. Get started for free today, and by your next retro, you’ll know exactly what’s slowing your sprints down and what to change next.

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