Top 10 Best CRM and Project Management Platforms for 2027 

Managing leads is only one part of running a successful business. Once a prospect becomes a customer, teams still need to organize projects, assign tasks, track deadlines, record employee time, monitor costs, and keep client work moving smoothly. This is why businesses increasingly use project management software CRM solutions that connect customer information with project execution. Instead of relying on separate systems for customer management, projects, tasks, time tracking, and reporting, companies can use project management CRM platforms to centralize important workflows. In this guide, we compare 10 popular CRM and project management platforms for 2027. We also explain how CRM and project management work together, which features businesses should compare, why time tracking matters, and how AYYES supports project-based teams.

Best Project Management CRM Platforms at a Glance

The best platform depends on whether your business needs a strong sales CRM, advanced project management, detailed employee time tracking, or a combination of these capabilities.

Software	Best For	CRM	Project Management	Task Management	Time Tracking
AYYES	Projects, tasks and time tracking	Client-focused management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Productive	Agencies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
monday CRM	Custom workflows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Available
Pipeline CRM	Sales teams	Strong	Available	Yes	Limited
Insightly	Customer lifecycle	Strong	Yes	Yes	Limited
HubSpot	Sales and marketing	Strong	Basic	Yes	Integrations
ClickUp	Project-first teams	Configurable	Strong	Strong	Yes
Zoho	Integrated business management	Strong	Strong	Strong	Yes
Scoro	Professional services	Yes	Strong	Yes	Yes
Bitrix24	Small businesses	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

How Do CRM and Project Management Work Together?

CRM and project management become especially useful when the sales and delivery stages are connected. A lead can first enter the CRM, move through the sales pipeline, become a customer, and then be converted into a project containing tasks, deadlines, responsible employees, tracked hours, and billing information. This creates a workflow such as Lead → Opportunity → Customer → Project → Task → Time Tracking → Billing → Reporting. Connecting these stages can reduce information loss when responsibility moves from sales teams to project teams.

Why Combine CRM and Project Management?

Businesses often use separate systems for sales, projects, tasks, and time tracking. While this approach can work, it may also create duplicate data, disconnected information, and unnecessary administrative work. Combining CRM and project management can provide a clearer view of both the customer relationship and the work being delivered.

1. Keep Customer and Project Information Together

Keeping customer and project information connected can help delivery teams understand what was agreed with the client and what work needs to be completed. Instead of searching through emails or separate platforms, employees can access the information connected with the relevant customer or project. This can be particularly valuable for agencies, consultants, professional-service firms, and other businesses that manage several projects for multiple customers at the same time.

2. Improve Sales-to-Project Handoffs

The transition from closing a deal to starting a project is an important stage of the customer journey. When sales and project teams use completely separate systems, important requirements can be missed during this transition. Connecting CRM information with project management allows project teams to receive relevant customer requirements, agreed deliverables, timelines, and other information more efficiently.

3. Reduce Duplicate Data Entry

Using separate applications often requires employees to enter the same customer or project information several times. This increases administrative effort and creates opportunities for errors. Integrated project management and CRM tools can reduce duplication by allowing customer information to remain connected with the projects and tasks associated with that customer.

4. Improve Team Collaboration

Salespeople, account managers, project managers, and employees often need access to different parts of the same customer relationship. A connected environment can make collaboration easier because teams can see relevant customer, project, task, and progress information without switching constantly between multiple applications.

5. Improve Task and Deadline Management

Strong task management CRM capabilities allow businesses to turn customer requirements into actionable work. Managers can create tasks, assign responsible employees, establish priorities, set deadlines, and monitor completion. Connecting tasks with clients and projects also provides more context than managing tasks as isolated items.

6. Improve Time and Cost Visibility

Time is one of the most important costs for service-based businesses. When employee hours are connected directly with projects, managers can see how much effort is required to complete different types of work. This makes CRM project management time tracking especially valuable for agencies, consultants, remote teams, and companies that bill customers according to employee hours.

7. Improve Client Reporting

Accurate customer, project, task, and time information can improve both internal and client-facing reporting. Managers can use this data to review project status, employee hours, outstanding work, and project costs while preparing more informed updates for clients.

8. Reduce the Number of Separate Tools

Businesses may use one system for CRM, another for project management, another for tasks, and another for time tracking. This can increase costs and make workflows more complicated. Choosing software that combines several of these capabilities can reduce unnecessary tool switching and create a more consistent workflow for employees.

How We Evaluated the Best CRM and Project Management Software

Not every platform combines CRM and project management in the same way. Some products are built around sales and customer relationships, while others are project-management platforms that offer configurable customer-management capabilities.

1. CRM Capabilities

CRM capabilities were considered based on how effectively each platform can organize customers, contacts, leads, opportunities, deals, or client-related information. Businesses with dedicated sales teams may require more advanced sales-pipeline functionality than companies mainly managing existing clients.

2. Project Management

Project management capabilities include the ability to create projects, organize project stages, assign employees, manage deadlines, monitor progress, and maintain visibility across multiple active projects. For service businesses, project management can be just as important as the CRM itself because it controls what happens after a customer signs an agreement.

3. Task Management

Task management determines how easily businesses can break large projects into smaller responsibilities. Useful systems allow employees to understand what needs to be completed, when it is due, who is responsible, and what priority should be assigned.

4. Time Tracking

Time tracking was considered because employee hours directly affect project costs, billing accuracy, and resource planning. Agencies and professional-service businesses may particularly benefit from systems that connect time entries directly with projects and tasks.

5. Reporting and Analytics

Reporting helps business owners and managers understand what is happening across customers, projects, tasks, and employee work. Useful reports can highlight project progress, total hours, workload, costs, performance, and other operational metrics.

6. Automation

Automation can reduce repetitive administrative work. Depending on the platform, businesses may automate reminders, status changes, notifications, project actions, sales activities, and other recurring processes.

7. Integrations

A platform should also work with the broader technology stack used by the business. Integrations with accounting, communication, calendars, payroll, file storage, and other systems can reduce manual data transfers.

8. Pricing

Software pricing should be evaluated according to the total cost required for the team. Businesses should consider per-user fees, annual billing requirements, feature restrictions, minimum seat requirements, add-ons, and costs associated with upgrading to higher plans.

9. Ease of Use

Software only creates value when employees actually use it consistently. An overly complicated system may result in poor adoption and incomplete data even if it offers advanced features.

10. Scalability

Businesses should also consider whether the platform can continue supporting their workflow as the number of employees, clients, projects, and reporting requirements grows.

10 Best CRM and Project Management Software for 2027

1. AYYES – Best for Projects, Tasks and Time Tracking

AYYES combines project management, task management, employee time tracking, timesheets, scheduling, and reporting in one platform. Teams can organize work while connecting employee hours directly with projects and tasks. The platform is especially useful for businesses that need greater visibility into how employees spend their time. Managers can review project progress, billable work, activity, timesheets, and operational data without relying on separate tools. Pricing: The AYYES Free plan is available for teams of up to 12 members. Businesses that need additional monitoring and reporting features can upgrade to paid plans starting at $0.88 per seat/month annually or $0.99 per seat/month monthly. Paid plans include features such as screenshot tracking, app and website monitoring, and advanced analytics, while AI Agents automation is still under development for future paid-plan access. Best For: Businesses that need project and task management with detailed employee time tracking, timesheets, activity monitoring, reporting, and billable work visibility. Suitable For: Agencies, consultants, remote teams, professional services, small businesses, and growing companies managing client projects and employee time. Screenshot tracking and activity/app monitoring are paid features and are not included on the Free plan.

Key Features

• Project and task management
• Automatic and manual time tracking
• Web and desktop timer
• Timesheets
• Billable hours
• Screenshots
• App and website tracking
• Scheduling and approvals
• Project budgets
• Reports and dashboards
• Invoicing workflows
• Employee activity tracking

2. Productive – Best for Agencies

Productive is designed for agencies and professional-service businesses that need to connect project delivery with resources, budgets, employee time, and financial performance. Teams can manage client projects, schedule resources, record time, monitor budgets, and evaluate profitability. This makes Productive useful for companies that want stronger control over both project operations and financial results. Best For: Agencies that need project management, resource planning, time tracking, budgeting, workload management, and profitability monitoring in one platform. Suitable For: Marketing, creative, software, digital, and consulting agencies managing multiple clients, projects, employees, budgets, and resources.

Key Features

• Project management
• Task management
• Time tracking
• Resource planning
• Project budgeting
• Workload management
• Profitability tracking
• Client management
• Project reporting
• Team scheduling
• Financial forecasting
• Project documentation

3. monday CRM – Best for Customizable Workflows

monday CRM provides a flexible environment for managing leads, contacts, deals, pipelines, and customer activities. Businesses can customize the platform around their own sales and operational processes. Its connection with monday.com’s broader work-management ecosystem also allows teams to coordinate CRM data with tasks, projects, dashboards, and automated workflows. Best For: Businesses that need customizable CRM pipelines, workflow automation, dashboards, customer management, and flexible sales-to-project processes. Suitable For: Sales teams, agencies, service businesses, SMBs, and account-management teams needing flexible and customizable CRM workflows.

Key Features

• Lead management
• Contact management
• Deal pipelines
• Custom fields
• Workflow automation
• Dashboards
• Sales reporting
• Task management
• Customer communication tracking
• Project boards
• CRM templates
• Integrations

4. Pipeline CRM – Best for Sales-Focused Teams

Pipeline CRM focuses strongly on managing leads, opportunities, deals, contacts, and sales activities. It helps sales teams maintain visibility across each stage of the customer acquisition process. The platform also supports tasks and post-sale project workflows, allowing businesses to keep customer information connected after a deal has been closed. Best For: Sales-focused businesses that need strong pipeline management while keeping customer records, post-sale tasks, projects, and follow-up activities connected. Suitable For: Sales teams, service companies, consultants, contractors, and B2B businesses managing deals followed by customer projects.

Key Features

• Lead management
• Contact management
• Deal tracking
• Sales pipelines
• Project management
• Project tasks
• Milestones
• Kanban views
• Gantt views
• Activity tracking
• Sales reporting
• Workflow management

5. Insightly – Best for Customer Lifecycle Management

Insightly combines CRM functionality with project management, allowing businesses to manage customers from the sales stage through project completion. Teams can convert successful opportunities into projects while keeping important customer and account information connected. This helps improve continuity between sales and service-delivery teams. Best For: Businesses that want CRM and project management connected so customers can move smoothly from sales opportunities into structured post-sale projects. Suitable For: B2B companies, consultants, service firms, sales teams, and organizations managing customer relationships followed by project delivery.

Key Features

• Lead management
• Contact management
• Opportunity tracking
• Sales pipelines
• Project management
• Task management
• Project milestones
• Workflow automation
• Email management
• Custom fields
• Reporting
• Project pipelines

6. HubSpot – Best for Sales and Marketing Teams

HubSpot provides CRM tools for managing contacts, leads, deals, marketing campaigns, sales activities, customer service, and automation. Its main strength is customer acquisition and relationship management rather than detailed project delivery. Teams requiring advanced projects or native employee time tracking may need additional integrations. Best For: Organizations focused on CRM, marketing, sales automation, lead management, customer service, and revenue workflows rather than advanced project tracking. Suitable For: Sales teams, marketing departments, SaaS companies, B2B businesses, customer-service teams, and rapidly growing organizations.

Key Features

• Contact management
• Lead management
• Deal tracking
• Sales pipelines
• Marketing automation
• Workflow automation
• CRM tasks
• Email tools
• Customer-service tools
• Reporting dashboards
• Custom objects
• Integrations

7. ClickUp – Best Project-First CRM Platform

ClickUp is primarily a project and productivity platform, but teams can configure it to support CRM-style customer and sales workflows. Businesses can organize clients, tasks, pipelines, projects, documents, employee time, and automation within the same workspace, making it flexible for teams with complex operational requirements. Best For: Project-focused teams that need powerful task management, time tracking, dashboards, automation, and customizable CRM-style customer workflows. Suitable For: Agencies, startups, software teams, consultants, marketing departments, operations teams, and remote project-based businesses.

Key Features

• Project management
• Task management
• Subtasks
• Custom fields
• Custom statuses
• CRM templates
• Time tracking
• Billable time
• Timesheets
• Dashboards
• Documents
• Workflow automation
• Goals and milestones

8. Zoho CRM + Zoho Projects – Best Integrated Business Suite

Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects provide separate but connected systems for managing sales relationships and project execution. CRM handles leads and customers, while Projects focuses on tasks, time, and delivery. Businesses already using Zoho products can connect customer management with projects, accounting, invoicing, support, and other operational processes within the broader Zoho ecosystem. Best For: Businesses wanting dedicated CRM and project-management tools that work together with time tracking, automation, reporting, billing, and other Zoho apps. Suitable For: SMBs, agencies, consultants, IT firms, professional services, and companies already using Zoho applications for daily operations.

Key Features

• Lead management
• Contact management
• Sales pipelines
• Project management
• Task management
• Time tracking
• Timesheets
• Project budgets
• Expense tracking
• Workflow automation
• Reporting
• Invoice integrations

9. Scoro – Best for Professional Services

Scoro combines CRM, project management, employee time tracking, resource planning, billing, and financial reporting in one professional-services platform. Businesses can connect customer data with project budgets, tracked hours, invoices, and profitability. This gives managers greater visibility into both project delivery and financial performance. Best For: Professional-service businesses that need CRM, project management, time tracking, budgets, billing, resource planning, and profitability analysis together. Suitable For: Consultancies, agencies, architecture firms, IT services, creative businesses, and professional teams managing billable client work.

Key Features

• CRM
• Project management
• Task management
• Time tracking
• Billable hours
• Resource planning
• Project budgets
• Client invoicing
• Profitability analysis
• Dashboards
• Financial reporting
• Workload planning

10. Bitrix24 – Best All-in-One Option for Small Businesses

Bitrix24 combines CRM, projects, tasks, communication, collaboration, documents, and employee-management tools within one business platform. Its broad functionality can help smaller businesses reduce their reliance on separate applications for customer management, project coordination, communication, and internal teamwork. Best For: Small and growing businesses wanting CRM, project management, task management, team communication, time tracking, and collaboration in one platform. Suitable For: Small businesses, agencies, service providers, sales teams, remote teams, and internal departments needing an all-in-one workspace.

Key Features

• CRM
• Lead and deal management
• Project management
• Task management
• Time tracking
• Kanban boards
• Gantt charts
• Scrum boards
• Team communication
• Calendars
• Document management
• Workload reporting

CRM Project Management Time Tracking: Why It Matters

One of the biggest opportunities when combining customer management and project delivery is connecting employee time directly with customer work.

1. Measure Time Spent on Each Client

Knowing how much time employees spend on each customer can help managers understand the true operational cost of client relationships. A customer generating substantial revenue may still consume an unexpectedly high number of employee hours. Connecting time to customers and projects gives managers better information when reviewing workloads, pricing, and account profitability.

2. Track Time by Project and Task

Recording total employee hours is useful, but connecting those hours with specific projects and tasks creates much more valuable information. Managers can identify which activities consume the most time, compare estimated hours with actual hours, and use historical data when planning future projects.

3. Improve Billable-Hour Accuracy

Agencies, consultants, legal teams, professional-service businesses, and freelancers often bill according to time. Missing even a small number of hours across several employees can reduce revenue. A system that connects time entries directly with projects can improve the reliability of billing records.

4. Monitor Project Costs

Employee time is often one of the largest costs involved in delivering a project. Tracking hours allows managers to compare actual labor effort against the original project plan. If time consumption begins increasing unexpectedly, managers can identify the issue before the project becomes significantly over budget.

5. Improve Invoicing

Accurate time and project records can make invoicing more straightforward. Instead of reconstructing employee work at the end of the billing cycle, businesses can use existing project and time information. This can also provide stronger supporting records when clients request details about billable work.

6. Understand Project Profitability

Revenue alone does not determine whether a project is successful. A high-value project can still produce weak margins if it requires significantly more employee time than expected. Connecting customer, project, and time information helps businesses understand the real relationship between revenue, labor effort, and profitability.

Features to Look for in CRM Project Management Tools

Choosing CRM project management tools should begin with understanding what your business actually needs from the platform.

1. Contact and Client Management

Businesses should be able to organize customer and client information in a way that employees can access easily. The system should provide enough context for teams to understand who the customer is and which projects or activities are associated with the account.

2. Sales Pipeline Management

Organizations with active sales teams should evaluate how the platform manages leads, deals, opportunities, pipeline stages, and forecasts. A project-first platform may not provide the same depth as a dedicated CRM in this area.

3. Project Management

Strong project management should allow teams to organize work from beginning to completion. Managers need visibility into project status, deadlines, responsibilities, progress, and outstanding work.

4. Task Management

Task management should make responsibilities clear. Employees should understand what they need to complete, when it is due, its priority, and how it relates to the larger project.

5. Time Tracking

Businesses that rely heavily on employee labor should consider time tracking an important feature. Accurate time information improves project planning, client billing, cost analysis, and workload management.

6. Automation

Automation can reduce routine administrative work by triggering notifications, updating records, creating tasks, or moving information through defined workflows.

7. Reporting and Analytics

Reports should help decision-makers turn customer and project information into actionable insights. The most useful reports will depend on whether the business prioritizes sales performance, project progress, employee hours, budgets, or profitability.

8. Billing and Invoicing

Client-based companies should check whether project information and time records can be connected with billing workflows. This can reduce manual work and improve invoice accuracy.

9. Integrations

No platform operates completely independently. Businesses should check whether the software works with their existing accounting, communication, calendar, payroll, cloud-storage, and productivity applications.

10. Mobile Access

Mobile access becomes especially important for remote employees, field teams, managers traveling between locations, and employees who need to update projects away from a desktop computer.

11. Security and Permissions

Businesses should evaluate user permissions, access controls, account security, and how sensitive customer or employee data is handled. Different employees may require different levels of access to customer, financial, or project information.

How to Choose the Best CRM and Project Management Software

Choosing the best CRM and project management software starts with understanding your own business workflow.

1. Define Your Main Workflow

Begin by mapping how a person moves from prospect to customer and how your team then delivers the purchased service or project. This helps reveal whether the bigger problem exists in sales, project delivery, time management, or communication.

2. Decide Whether CRM or Project Management Is More Important

Businesses with large sales teams may require a CRM-first platform with advanced pipeline features. Companies that already have customers but struggle with project delivery may benefit more from project-first software. Understanding this distinction can prevent a business from paying for advanced CRM functionality it rarely uses or choosing a project platform that is too limited for its sales process.

3. Evaluate Task Management

Task management should reflect the complexity of your projects. Businesses should test whether employees can easily understand responsibilities, priorities, deadlines, dependencies, and project status.

4. Determine Whether Time Tracking Is Necessary

Time tracking becomes essential when labor affects billing, budgets, profitability, or staffing decisions. Agencies and professional-service businesses should particularly consider whether time can be tracked directly against clients, projects, and tasks.

5. Compare Integrations

Evaluate how the platform fits into your existing software environment. Replacing one disconnected tool with another disconnected tool may not solve the underlying problem.

6. Calculate the Real Cost

Advertised starting prices can be misleading because some important features are available only on higher plans. Calculate the cost according to the number of users, required plan, add-ons, and expected growth.

7. Check Reporting Requirements

Managers should identify which information they need regularly. Sales teams may focus on deals and pipeline performance, while project managers may care more about hours, workload, deadlines, budgets, and profitability.

8. Test the Software With a Real Project

The best way to evaluate a platform is to recreate a realistic workflow. Add a customer, create a project, assign tasks, record employee time, update progress, and generate reports. This makes it easier to understand whether the platform fits your real working process rather than simply looking attractive on a feature page.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing CRM and Project Management Software

Choosing a platform based only on price or a long feature list can lead to poor adoption and unnecessary costs. The right CRM and project management software should match the way your sales, project, task, and client workflows actually operate.

1. Choosing Software Without Defining Your Workflow

Businesses often compare platforms before identifying their real requirements. First map how a lead becomes a customer, how projects are created, how tasks are assigned, and how work is tracked. This makes it easier to select software that supports the complete process.

2. Focusing Only on CRM Features

A strong sales CRM may not provide the project management, task management, time tracking, or budgeting features needed after a deal closes. Businesses should compare both sales and project-delivery capabilities before making a decision.

3. Ignoring Time Tracking Requirements

Agencies, consultants, and professional-service businesses may lose valuable project data if time tracking is treated as an optional feature. Connecting employee hours with projects and tasks can improve billing, budgeting, resource planning, and profitability analysis.

4. Choosing Too Many Features

More features do not always mean better software. A complicated platform can make onboarding difficult and reduce employee adoption. Businesses should prioritize the features their teams will actually use rather than selecting software based on the longest feature list.

5. Comparing Only the Starting Price

The lowest advertised price may exclude important features such as automation, reporting, time tracking, integrations, or advanced permissions. Businesses should calculate the real cost based on team size, required features, add-ons, and future growth.

6. Ignoring Integrations

CRM and project management software rarely works alone. Choosing a platform without checking integrations can create additional manual work between accounting, communication, payroll, calendar, and other business systems.

7. Not Testing the Platform Before Implementation

Feature pages cannot fully show how software will perform in a real business workflow. Before committing, create a test customer, project, tasks, deadlines, and time entries to see how easily the team can complete its everyday work.

Why Choose AYYES for Project and Client Work Management?

AYYES is especially relevant for businesses that want to connect project delivery with employee time and work information.

1. Manage Projects and Tasks in One Workspace

AYYES allows businesses to organize work through projects and tasks so employees can understand what they are responsible for and managers can maintain visibility across active work. Connecting tasks with projects creates a clearer structure than managing work through disconnected messages, spreadsheets, or individual to-do lists.

2. Track Time Against Projects and Tasks

One of the strongest reasons to consider AYYES is the ability to connect employee time with actual project work. Instead of seeing only how many hours an employee worked during the day, managers can understand where those hours were spent and which projects or tasks consumed the most effort.

3. Track Billable Client Work

Businesses that charge customers according to employee time need reliable records. AYYES can support project-based tracking that helps teams associate work with the clients or projects being delivered. This can make timesheets and billing processes easier to review while reducing reliance on manually reconstructed records.

4. Improve Project Cost Visibility

When employee hours are associated with projects, businesses gain a clearer understanding of the labor required to complete client work. Managers can use this information to compare planned effort with actual effort and identify projects that are consuming more resources than expected.

5. Improve Visibility Into Employee Work

For distributed and remote teams, managers may need additional context around work activity. AYYES provides work-monitoring capabilities that can complement project and time information where businesses choose to use these features. This visibility can help managers review employee activity alongside the projects and tasks being completed.

6. Turn Time Data Into Useful Reports

Time data becomes more valuable when it can be reviewed through timesheets, dashboards, approvals, and reports. AYYES connects employee tracking with broader work-management information, allowing businesses to understand not just how long employees worked but how those hours relate to actual project delivery.

7. Support Growing Project Workloads

Businesses managing multiple customers can quickly accumulate large numbers of projects and tasks. AYYES’s project-management environment is designed to support teams that need to organize ongoing work while maintaining visibility into employee time, task progress, and operational information.

Frequently Asked Questions About CRM Project Management Software