By Ali Demirci, founder of Woofocus · October 24, 2026 · 8 min readWho wrote this, and how we checked
We are Woofocus, a small web studio, and we make Proofyard, one of the eight tools below. Read the list with that in mind. None of the other vendors pays us, and for each one we say who it suits better than us.
Every price, limit and quote comes from the vendor's own pricing page or help center, read on 24 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars before tax, per person per month, billed yearly first and monthly second. We have used Asana, BugHerd and our own board on real client work; the others we know from their own pages and docs, not from use on client work. AI prices change most often, so check the page before you pay.
Why agencies leave Asana is mostly not the price. Asana Starter is $10.99 a seat a month billed yearly ($13.49 monthly), guests are free, and the AI is on every paid plan. In 90 days of our own Asana we counted 868 due-date changes, and 54% of hand-offs came right after a comment. The work was in Asana; the client's side of it, the approvals and the notes on the site, was not. Our Asana comparison has the long version.
The short answer
What hurts most in Asana today?
Look at Teamwork.com or Productive.io
Timesheets, budgets, retainers and invoices next to the tasks. Both bill at least 3 users.
- One seat a month
- $9.99 to $10 billed yearly
- Clients
- Free in both
The eight tools side by side
| Tool | One seat a month, yearly / monthly | Fewest seats billed | Clients | AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ClickUp Unlimited | $7 / $10 | 1 | 5 guest seats, 2 more per paid user | Brain AI, $9 a user on top |
| monday.com Basic | $9 / $12 | 3 | Read-only viewers free | 1,000 credits a month |
| Teamwork.com Basics | $9.99 / $13.99 | 3 | Free, up to 5 projects each | Free for now |
| Basecamp Freelancer | $29 a month for up to 5 users | 1 account | Counted as users | Bring your own |
| Productive.io Essential | $10 / $12 | 3 | Free | AI Assistant listed |
| Notion Plus | $10 / $12 | 1 | Unlimited guests | A trial; full AI on Business |
| Plane Pro | $6 / $8 | 1 | 5 guests per paid seat | 500 credits a seat |
| Proofyard | $12 / $15 | 1 | Free | 3,000 credits a member, included |
ClickUp showed a second version of its pricing page the same day, with Core at $9 billed yearly and AI credits included; more on that below.
The seat minimums matter more for a small studio than the headline. A three-person team pays the same on monday.com Basic and Teamwork.com Basics whether it has two people or three.
- 3seats at least on monday.com, Teamwork.com Basics and Productive.io
- $9a user a month on top for ClickUp's Brain AI, on one of its two pricing pages
- 5active projects at most for each free Teamwork.com client user
- 50+people: the agency size Teamwork.com says it is built for
The eight, one by one
ClickUp
Good at: doing everything in one place. Docs, chat, forms, sprints, time tracking and dashboards come in the same workspace, and the free plan has unlimited members.
Price: ClickUp showed us two pricing pages on 24 October 2026. One lists Unlimited at $7 a user a month billed yearly ($10 monthly) and Business at $12 ($19), with Brain AI at $9 a user a month on top. The other lists Core at $9 billed yearly (regular price $12) and Business at $17 ($25), with "ClickUp Brain² and a monthly credit allowance" on every plan. Which one you see seems to vary.
Clients: on Unlimited, "5 guest seats for a 1 paid user Workspace and 2 guest seats for each additional paid user", plus unlimited read-only guests.
The catch: the breadth. A studio of five can spend weeks deciding where things live, and the AI price depends on which pricing page you land on.
Suits better than us: teams that want one tool for docs, chat and tasks across every department, not only client sites. Our ClickUp comparison goes through it line by line.
monday.com
Good at: boards anyone can read, automations and dashboards. It is easy to show a client a board that looks finished.
Price: Basic $9 a seat a month billed yearly ($12 monthly), Standard $12 ($14), Pro $19 ($24). Its FAQ says "Plans start from 3 users", so one person pays for three.
Clients: "Unlimited free viewers" with read-only access from Basic; "Guest access" for outside users is listed from Standard.
AI: Basic lists 1,000 AI credits a month, Standard 2,000 and Pro 3,000, with Sidekick and agents running on credits.
The catch: the three-seat minimum, and the parts an agency wants first, guest access and the timeline and Gantt views, start on Standard.
Suits better than us: an agency that also runs sales, marketing and operations on boards and wants one vendor for all of it. Our monday.com comparison has the seat buckets and the AI credits.
Teamwork.com
Good at: the money side of agency work. Timers and timesheets, time budgets and retainers, invoices from logged time, utilization, and on its Optimize plan, profit by project or client. Client users are free. Proofs lets clients approve files without an account.
Price: Basics $9.99 a user a month billed yearly ($13.99 monthly) with at least 3 users; Accelerate, where budgets, retainers and invoices start, $24.99 ($29.99) with at least 5. Optimize and Enterprise are by quote. Free covers 5 users and 5 projects.
AI: "Teamwork AI is included in all paid plans for an introductory period." The page says usage-based credits are coming and gives two dates for it, September and November 2026. Its MCP server is on every paid plan at no extra cost.
The catch: its own agency page says it is "built for agencies of 50+ people", and the features that set it apart start on Accelerate or Optimize. Proofs takes files and links to files; we found no notes on a live site.
Suits better than us: an agency that bills hours or runs retainers and wants budgets and profit in the same place as the tasks. Our Teamwork.com comparison goes through it line by line.
Basecamp
Good at: calm, simple projects with the client in them. Message boards, chat, to-dos and card tables per project, and a price that does not grow with each person on the top plan.
Price: flat, not per seat. Freelancer $29 a month for up to 5 users and 3 projects; Pro $79 for 10 users; Pro Plus $99 for 15; Pro Unlimited $199 a month billed yearly ($329 monthly) for unlimited users. A free plan has 1 project and 3 users.
Clients: "every person you add is counted", so clients count toward the user limit until Pro Unlimited.
AI: no AI of its own on the pricing page. It lists "ChatGPT and Claude AI connectors" with "full MCP support" on every plan, so you bring your own AI.
The catch: time tracking only from Pro Plus, nothing about budgets or invoices on its pricing page, and the user caps on the cheaper plans fill fast once clients are in.
Suits better than us: studios that want the plainest possible tool and a fixed bill, and are happy to keep the client conversation in message threads.
Productive.io
Good at: agency operations. Budgets, resource planning, time tracking, invoicing and forecasting are its core, and agencies are the first industry on its menu.
Price: Essential $10 a seat a month billed yearly ($12 monthly), Professional $25 ($29), Ultimate by quote. Its FAQ says "all plans require at least 3 seats."
Clients: its help center says "Clients and Contacts do not count as paid seats", and comments can be hidden from clients.
AI: an AI Assistant, AI time tracking and AI report generation are listed on Essential, and its note taker includes 10 recording hours a month, with more as a paid add-on.
The catch: it is a business tool first. Design reviews and website feedback are not what it is for.
Suits better than us: a studio whose main question is "are we making money on this client", with a person who owns finance.
Notion
Good at: documents, wikis and databases you shape yourself. Many agencies already keep their processes and client handbooks in it.
Price: Plus $10 a member a month billed yearly ($12 monthly); Business $20 ($24).
Clients: guests are unlimited on paid plans ("External guest limit" is 10 on Free).
AI: Plus has only a trial of Notion AI; the full Notion AI is on Business. Custom Agents are "Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits".
The catch: you build the project system yourself, and it keeps working only as long as someone maintains it.
Suits better than us: a team that writes a lot and wants its knowledge, briefs and light project tracking in one flexible place.
Plane
Good at: a fast, open-source project tool with cycles, modules, a wiki and AI agents, which you can also host yourself.
Price: Pro $6 a seat a month billed yearly ($8 monthly), Business $13 ($15), and a Free plan for up to 12 users.
Clients: five free guests per paid seat.
AI: 500 AI credits a seat a month on Pro and 1,000 on Business, and an open-source MCP server.
The catch: it is built for product and software teams. We found no client approval step and no notes on a live site. Our Plane comparison has the detail.
Suits better than us: a studio with a development team that ships in sprints, or anyone who needs to self-host.
Our own board
Good at: website production. This is Proofyard, which we make. Each project runs in phases from brief to launch; clients approve in their own area with the design beside them; notes are pinned on Claude Design boards and on staging or live sites; and Claude does the connecting work while a person approves. See the client portal and pinned design and site feedback.
Price: $12 a team member a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), with 3,000 AI credits a member a month in the price. Clients and reviewers are free. No free plan: 14 days free, no card. Our pricing page has the details.
The catch: it is new. Our first line of code was written in October 2026. No budgets, invoices or built-in timer (a Toggl Track button instead), no public API, no compliance reports yet, and imports from Asana only.
Suits better than the others: a small web or design studio where the hard part is getting a site from brief to launch with the client's approvals and notes in order, and that wants Claude to do the busywork.
What to check before you move
Tick what the tool you are weighing does for your agency
0 of 7
Start with the price and the seat minimum; the rest only matters if those fit.
Run one new client project in the tool you pick, next to Asana, for two weeks. Moving a running project is the hard part; a new site shows quickly whether the client side works.
Sources
All read on 24 October 2026. Prices in US dollars before tax.
- ClickUp pricing (two versions of the page shown on the same day)
- monday.com pricing
- Teamwork.com pricing, Teamwork.com license types, Teamwork.com for agencies, Teamwork.com MCP
- Basecamp pricing
- Productive.io pricing, Productive.io help: employees, contractors, clients and contacts
- Notion pricing
- Plane pricing
- Asana pricing
- Proofyard: our own pricing page on 24 October 2026. Our Asana numbers: Woofocus Asana workspace, last 90 days, read through the Asana API on 5 October 2026.
More comparisons, each with sources and dates: all comparisons, and our list of AI project management tools.