Top 12 Hive Alternatives: Best Competitors With Key Features & Benefits

Welcome to our guide to the best Hive alternatives.

Are you interested to learn more about Hive and how it compares to competitors? Or are you looking to update to the latest project management software? Keep reading for our list of top alternatives with key features, benefits, and user reviews.

Hive is a project management tool that offers a wide range of capabilities for team collaboration and project progress tracking. Key features include project management with a Gantt chart view, time tracking software, customization, and automation.

Hive has high user reviews overall, with 4.5+ stars across Capterra and G2. Although users feel positive about the tool when it comes to collaboration features, they mention some notable downsides:

Overall, users enjoy that Hive offers “useful tools for a reasonable price” (Source: Capterra). The collaboration and project management tools are frequently praised, alongside the mostly user-friendly interface.

Productive is an all-in-one management software designed by industry veterans for agencies of all shapes and sizes. In comparison to Hive, Productive is a more comprehensive solution, as it offers advanced resource and financial management, as well as lightweight CRM.

As an all-in-one tool, Productive aims to standardize your processes on one platform to support reliable analytics and efficient workflows. However, despite being a robust platform, it’s often praised for its modern interface and responsive customer support.

Interested? Keep reading to find out more about Productive’s key features.

Productive’s Project Management feature supports day-to-day task management and team communication, as well as more complex project planning initiatives. Keep your projects on track and share key information with all crucial project team members, including clients.

Some of the key capabilities for project management in agencies include:

Related: Mastering Agency Project Management: The Ultimate Guide

 Productive’s integrated Time Tracking helps employees streamline repetitive tasks as much as possible, while also supporting billable and non-billable hours insights.

Productive provides multiple ways of managing time entries. You can use the automatic timer directly from tasks, as well as turn it on and off from the desktop with a widget. Or, use manual entry after task completion. With resource planning, you can transfer booking data to fully automate the process.

Productive also has integrated leave management. Define agency-specific categories of leave and approve requests on the platform. Vacancies are visible both in your resource scheduling and platform status.

Productive’s Resource Planning helps you get the most out of your agency’s resources with a responsive, easy-to-edit resource plan. Use heatmaps to visualize your team’s workloads, drag-and-drop to reallocate teammates, and filter your views by people or project.

One of Productive’s standout features is financial forecasting. By booking your employees, you can then switch to a Profitability view which provides insights into key agency metrics over time, including revenue, profit margins, and budget burn. This helps you make proactive decisions based on reliable data. Any changes to your scheduling are reflected in this data.

Productive also supports utilization insights. Making sure that your utilization is around the industry benchmark of 70% to 90% for production staff helps ensure that no one is over or underworked. Moreover, utilization forecasting helps you align your strategic objectives with daily operations.

Read the full story: Using Productive, DotDev Has Grown 50% YoY For the Past Three Years

Additional functionalities include placeholders for external staff and tentative bookings to account for unconfirmed projects.

Productive approaches Budgeting as the foundation on which your projects are built. By defining your budgets, services and entering cost rates, employees can track time directly across them to generate easy insights into actual project progress. Productive supports various client engagements, including hourly, fixed-price, retainer, and hybrid. For complex projects, you can even segment your budgets into phases for easier money management.

Other key features include:

Your expenses, billing, and budgeting are all reflected in your agency reports. Find out more about Productive’s reporting capabilities here.

Finally, Productive’s collaboration capabilities also include Docs. Docs provide a way for teams to collaborate within the platform by drafting pages, adding multimedia content, as well as creating and assigning tasks directly from text. Auto-saving and version history help keep your information safe.

Additional features: Sales, Reporting, Automations.

Integrations include: Xero, QuickBooks, HubSpot, BambooHR, Zapier, Slack, Jira, and more.

Productive offers a 14-day free trial, so you can decide if it’s the right Hive alternative for your agency. For an in-depth comparison of Productive and some of its competitors, check out our review of the best Productive.io alternatives.

Trello is a task and project management platform known for its user-friendly and intuitive interface.

Key features:

Trello can be a great Hive alternative if you’re looking for a collaboration-focused tool that takes a streamlined approach to project management. However, if you want to switch from Hive to a more robust platform, you might want to consider some of the Trello competitors on this list. Consider also that Trello offers time tracking as a powerup and not an integrated feature.

ClickUp is a workflow management and team collaboration software suitable for various industries, including construction, healthcare, and professional services.

Key features:

ClickUp can certainly be a good alternative to Hive, as it offers a range of features that streamline day-to-day operations. This includes tracking project progress, managing information, and supporting communication on one platform.

Before you opt for ClickUp, consider that as a generalized management tool, it might lack some agency-specific workflows and advanced features. You can check out some of the top ClickUp competitors for robust management.

Wrike is a project management software that supports agency efficiency and goal-driven workflows.

Key features:

Wrike can be a good alternative to Hive if you’re looking for a tool that offers cost management and project budgeting features. Still, something to keep in mind is that Wrike approaches this as a premium feature, while competitors like Productive offer budgeting in their essential pricing plan. Read our Wrike vs Asana vs Productive guide for an in-depth comparison.

Asana is another user-friendly solution that can be a suitable option for smaller agencies or mid-sized businesses.

Key features:

Asana can be a good alternative to Hive, as both tools offer a free option with essential features for streamlined teamwork. They share similar features, such as basic resource management and project management capabilities. However, Asana is not as suitable for professionals who want to focus on project financial management, as it lacks some advanced features.

Jira is a project management solution for agile development and software teams.

Key features:

Jira is a well-known software development solution and can be a good alternative choice for agencies developing websites, apps, and other similar projects. Agencies working with different methodologies or within other industries might want to consider a more flexible option.

Basecamp is a task management tool with user-friendly features for SMEs and teams within larger organizations.

Key features:

Like Hive or Trello, Basecamp excels in supporting teamwork and project visibility. A potential benefit is its streamlined pricing tiers, which can speed up and simplify the decision-making process. For more advanced agency management, consider an all-in-one alternative.

Monday.com can be described as a work management platform for teams across various industries.

Key features:

Like ClickUp, Monday.com is a versatile tool for project management. It can be a good alternative if you’re not interested in managing your financial capabilities more closely, as some essential features, such as utilization tracking or forecasting, are limited.

Smartsheet is a project management tool for professional services, best known for its spreadsheet-like interface.

Key features:

Smartsheet’s design is both its advantage and its flaw. If you’re working with an Excel-savvy team, Spreadsheet can be a good alternative, as some users describe the platform as a “giant spreadsheet” (Source: Capterra).

On the flip side, for a more modernized approach, you’ll want to look at some other tools on this list, or you can check out some Bitrix24 competitors (Smartsheet’s one of them).

Aha! is a specialized platform that helps project managers create interactive roadmaps and visualize their strategies.

Key features:

Users enjoy Aha! for helping them capture the thought process of product development. As the biggest downside, users mention that customer support could be better. According to some reviews, the onboarding can be hands-off, which may not be suitable for inexperienced agencies or those with complex workflows requiring customization.

Zoho Sprints is a project management software for agile development from the leading provider, Zoho.

Key features:

Zoho Sprints can be a good Hive alternative for agile teams. However, some users note that compared to similar tools, like Jira, Zoho Sprints lacks some capabilities and usability. Additionally, as a specialized tool, it doesn’t have some essential features such as resource or financial management.

FunctionFox is a creative agency project management software for teams in graphic design, marketing, advertising, and PR.

Key features:

FunctionFox can be a suitable Hive alternative for creative teams. As a downside, agencies that reported that CRM and advanced profitability insights are lacking in Hive will likely be disappointed with FunctionFox. If robust management is your pain point, you’ll want to consider other alternatives.

FunctionFox is a popular Accelo alternative, so you can check out our article on Accelo reviews and key features to learn more.

We’ve explored a variety of solutions for project and agency management, including PSA software, generalized work management tools, and platforms designed for specific industries.

Although the best Hive alternative can be a subjective pick, there are some things you can keep in mind when making your choice. Consider user-friendliness and scalability as important factors. The first will promote adoption within your agency, and the second will ensure that your software can follow your growth.

Finally, consider comprehensiveness as a criterion. Finding an all-in-one tool can be very beneficial, as it supports uniform data and aligned workflows across multiple projects and departments.

If you’re looking for be best all-in-one agency management alternative to Hive, consider booking a demo with Productive.