Original research · AI recommendations
Which project management tools does AI recommend to small teams?
When a small team asks an AI assistant which project management tool to buy, a few brands get most of the mentions. We asked Claude 25 real buyer questions and counted.
Data collected 1 November – 2 November 2026 · 75 answers · Claude with web search · run 3 of 3
- Named in answers
- 92%ClickUp, the most named
- Never named
- 14of 50 project management tools tracked
- Brands per answer
- 7on average
- Searched the web
- 89.3%of answers
Key findings
- ClickUp was named in 92% of answers and placed in the top three 46 times (average position 3.1).
- ClickUp, Asana and Trello together took 49% of the share of voice, weighted by position.
- 14 of the 50 project management tools tracked were never named in any answer.
- A typical answer named 7 project management tools, and Claude searched the web before answering in 89% of answers.
- Claude read ganttpro.com in 9% of answers but never named GanttPRO: being found is not the same as being recommended.
- Apart from the tracked project management tools' own sites, it read rock.so (39%), thedigitalprojectmanager.com (36%) and plaky.com (29%) most often.
Which project management tools get named
Share of all 75 answers that named each project management tool, the 12 most named. 36 of 50 were named at least once.
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By kind of question
The three project management tools named most often for each kind of buyer question.
| Question type | Questions | Most named |
|---|---|---|
| Shortlist | 6 | Asana (100%), ClickUp (100%), monday.com (94%) |
| Constraint | 10 | ClickUp (100%), Asana (93%), monday.com (83%) |
| Alternatives | 3 | Trello (100%), Asana (100%), ClickUp (100%) |
| Comparison | 3 | Trello (44%), Asana (44%), ClickUp (33%) |
| Validation | 3 | Trello (100%), ClickUp (100%), Asana (100%) |
What it read
Share of answers in which Claude retrieved a page from each site while searching. Sites marked brand belong to a project management tool in the study.
Read, but not recommended
Project management tools whose own site was read in more answers than named them: the engine looked at these brands more often than it recommended them.
| Brand | Site read | Named |
|---|---|---|
| ONES | 46.7% | 5.3% |
| GanttPRO | 9.3% | 0% |
| ProofHub | 6.7% | 4% |
| ProjectManager | 6.7% | 1.3% |
| Nifty | 6.7% | 0% |
| Celoxis | 6.7% | 0% |
| Motion | 4% | 0% |
| Avaza | 4% | 0% |
| Teamhood | 2.7% | 1.3% |
| Bitrix24 | 2.7% | 0% |
All 50 project management tools
Every brand tracked, including those never named. Each name opens that brand's own card. Download the data (CSV).
Show the full table
| Brand | Named | Avg. position | Top three | Share of voice | Site read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ClickUp | 92% | 3.1 | 46 | 19.9% | 21.3% |
| Asana | 90.7% | 3.4 | 40 | 15% | 1.3% |
| Trello | 80% | 3.6 | 35 | 14.3% | 1.3% |
| monday.com | 74.7% | 4.4 | 19 | 9.6% | 16% |
| Basecamp | 50.7% | 5.3 | 13 | 6.1% | 0% |
| Jira | 34.7% | 3.8 | 14 | 5.8% | 4% |
| Linear | 34.7% | 4.7 | 10 | 5.3% | 0% |
| Teamwork.com | 24% | 3.6 | 11 | 5% | 12% |
| Notion | 56% | 5.9 | 7 | 4.9% | 1.3% |
| Microsoft Planner | 17.3% | 6.1 | 4 | 2.5% | 0% |
| Zoho Projects | 26.7% | 6 | 2 | 2.1% | 0% |
| Productive | 12% | 4.2 | 4 | 1.4% | 8% |
| Wrike | 20% | 6.3 | 0 | 1.3% | 9.3% |
| Todoist | 12% | 6.1 | 5 | 1.2% | 0% |
| ONES | 5.3% | 7 | 2 | 0.9% | 46.7% |
| Paymo | 8% | 6 | 2 | 0.8% | 8% |
| Shortcut | 5.3% | 3.5 | 2 | 0.6% | 0% |
| OpenProject | 8% | 9 | 0 | 0.4% | 0% |
| Airtable | 6.7% | 7.6 | 0 | 0.4% | 4% |
| ProofHub | 4% | 4.7 | 1 | 0.4% | 6.7% |
| MeisterTask | 4% | 5.3 | 1 | 0.4% | 4% |
| Plane | 5.3% | 10 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| Smartsheet | 4% | 10.3 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| Hive | 4% | 8.7 | 0 | 0.2% | 1.3% |
| Freedcamp | 2.7% | 5 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| SuiteDash | 2.7% | 6.5 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| Zenhub | 1.3% | 3 | 1 | 0.2% | 1.3% |
| Quire | 2.7% | 13 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| TeamGantt | 1.3% | 5 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Accelo | 1.3% | 7 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Scoro | 1.3% | 7 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Bonsai | 1.3% | 7 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| YouTrack | 1.3% | 4 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Teamhood | 1.3% | 6 | 0 | 0.1% | 2.7% |
| ProjectManager | 1.3% | 14 | 0 | 0% | 6.7% |
| GoodDay | 1.3% | 16 | 0 | 0% | 1.3% |
| Microsoft Project | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Nifty | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 6.7% |
| GanttPRO | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 9.3% |
| Celoxis | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 6.7% |
| Podio | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Plutio | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Project.co | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Odoo Project | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Bitrix24 | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 2.7% |
| Motion | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 4% |
| Avaza | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 4% |
| Businessmap | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Backlog | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Bordio | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
Method
Brands. 50 project management tools sold to small teams, compiled from G2 and Capterra listings and buyer's guides and the top search results for “project management software for small teams”. A brand counts as named when the answer uses its name or domain. Names that are everyday words (Notion, Basecamp, Teamwork.com) count only when used as a name.
Questions. 25 questions written the way buyers ask them, across 5 kinds: shortlists, constraints, alternatives, comparisons and validation. Each was asked on its own, with no system prompt and web search on, through the official API.
Measures. Named is the share of answers naming the brand. Average position is where it first appears among the brands an answer names. Share of voice weights each mention by position (first counts 1, second ½, third ⅓). Site read is the share of answers in which the engine retrieved a page from the brand's own domain.
Limits. This is one engine and 3 runs. Answers vary from day to day, so the study repeats every question on 3 days. So far, the project management tools named for the same question overlapped by 72% between runs on average. It shows what the engine said, not why: read the differences as correlation, not cause. CoScale.DM is not a CRM vendor and has no commercial tie to any brand here.
The 25 questions
- What's the best project management software for a small team? shortlist
- Which project management tool should a 10-person company use? shortlist
- What are the top project management tools for small businesses in 2026? shortlist
- Best project management app for a team of 5 people shortlist
- What project management software do most small businesses use? shortlist
- Best free project management software for a small team constraint
- Best project management tool for a small team under $10 per user per month constraint
- Best project management software for a small marketing agency juggling multiple clients constraint
- Best project management tool with Kanban boards and Gantt charts for a small business constraint
- Best project management software with built-in time tracking for a small team constraint
- Best project management tool for a small fully remote team across time zones constraint
- Best project management tool for a small software development team constraint
- Simplest project management tool for a non-technical small team that hates complicated software constraint
- Best project management tool for a small business that uses Microsoft 365 and Teams constraint
- Best project management tool with a client portal so clients can see progress constraint
- What are the best alternatives to Asana for a small team? alternatives
- monday.com is getting too expensive. What project management tool should a small business switch to? alternatives
- Alternatives to Jira for a small team that finds it too complex alternatives
- Asana vs monday.com for a small business comparison
- ClickUp vs Notion for managing projects in a small team comparison
- Trello vs Basecamp for a small team comparison
- Is Trello's free plan good enough for a small team? validation
- Is ClickUp good for small businesses? validation
- Is Asana worth paying for with a team of 8? validation
- I run a 12-person design and marketing agency. We juggle about 15 client projects at a time, track hours for billing, and use Google Workspace. Spreadsheets aren't cutting it anymore. What project management tool would you recommend and why? shortlist
Where does your brand stand?
We run the same check for one brand against its rivals, across the engines your buyers use, and fix what keeps it out of the answers.