Wrike and ClickUp are powerful project management tools with functionalities ranging from task management and workflow automation to time tracking. We have compared both providers and declared ClickUp as the overall winner as it is more user-friendly and offers far more value for money due to its feature-rich nature. While Wrike lacks those aspects, it stands out for its artificial intelligence (AI) features and powerful integrations. Based on our comparison, the best use cases for ClickUp vs Wrike are as follows: ClickUp: Best for easy-to-use task management with built-in collaboration tools Wrike: Best for customization and enterprise-grade project management Here’s a better alternative if you’re looking for more native integrations, project templates, and flexible project management features: monday.com: Best for visual-based project management platform Wrike vs ClickUp Compared Price (per User, per Month) Free Plan ✓ ✓ Free Trial 14 days 14 days File Storage 2GB to 15GB 100MB to unlimited Project Management ✓ ✓ Workflow Automation ✓ ✓ Project Views ✓ ✓ Team Collaboration File proofing Chat, file proofing, and video recording Third-party Integrations 155 apps 48 apps For More Information Best Alternatives Both Wrike and ClickUp offer impressive project management capabilities, such as automation, project views, and collaboration tools. But if you’re looking for specific services like a beginner-friendly platform and cheaper monthly plans, we recommend the following options: monday.com: This provider is known for its colorful spreadsheet-like interface that works for any workflow type, earning the best overall free project management software. Paid plans start at $10 per user, monthly for a minimum team size of three, with key features like task dependencies, robust integrations, 200-plus templates, and tons of column types. Trello: Affordability and ease of use set this provider apart from competitors. Trello has a monthly starting fee of $6 per user, designed primarily for small teams with basic project management needs. Its core features include templates, automation, and project views, and it relies mainly on Kanban boards, earning a spot in our best Kanban software guide. Zoho Projects: Part of the larger Zoho ecosystem, Zoho Project is our top project management software for small businesses. Premium plans start for as low as $5 per user, monthly, which includes Gantt charts, task management, dependencies, and time tracking. Best for Pricing: ClickUp Rates are based on a monthly per-user basis. Discounted fees are available for annual billing. Price is based on monthly per-user rates and billed on an annual basis. In terms of cost-to-service value, we highly favor ClickUp over Wrike, with its feature-rich offerings and unlimited number of supported users per plan. While both providers have free versions and similarly priced per-user fees, ClickUp’s mid-tier plans are closely priced and support monthly billing. Plus, ClickUp has far more value due to its extensive project views, collaboration features, and unlimited storage space on all paid plans. With Wrike, scaling to a mid-level tier can be expensive with its $15 per-user price gap from the entry-level plan. This means you need to pay more to get an upgraded version at $24.80 per user, monthly, which requires an annual prepayment. While Wrike has two custom packages for enterprise-level tools, it’s better suited for bigger organizations. Best for Task Management: ClickUp Both ClickUp and Wrike offer essential task management features, including multiple assignees, subtask management, and recurring tasks. However, ClickUp allows you to get more done by organizing tasks based on priority levels, assigning comments on tasks, and minimizing a task. These features offer more control to manage your tasks in one place. Wrike unlocks basic task management features on its free version, but it is not as extensive and flexible as ClickUp’s. It is tailored for advanced task management with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features like AI subtask creation, generative task description, and project risk management. Unfortunately, these features are simply nice to have but are not necessary for small businesses. Best for Team Collaboration: ClickUp ClickUp obviously holds an edge over Wrike in this category thanks to its built-in collaboration tools. Project management providers like Wrike typically rely on third-party integrations for messaging, screen recording, and file sharing. With ClickUp, fast-track teamwork with in-app video recording, real-time chat, file attachments, and chat view for projects. Wrike sticks with the usual collaboration features found in most project management tools, like commenting, proofing, and live editing documents. However, it has two highlight features—cross-tagging and external requester collaboration. Cross-tagging allows users to track a specific task based on their team’s specific purpose, while external requester collaboration lets Wrike users collaborate with other people outside of Wrike. Best for Workflow Automation: ClickUp Both providers have strong automation capabilities that let you automatically execute various actions with projects and tasks when there’s a status change. However, ClickUp takes the win if we consider the number of automation actions available and action limits per user, monthly. In ClickUp, the number of actions that can be completed per month ranges from 100 to 250,000 actions per user, depending on the plan (including the free version). Wrike, on the other hand, only provides 50 to 1,500 automation actions per user each month, excluding the free version. ClickUp has over 100 prebuilt automations you can use to complete routine tasks and generate task dependencies. While this provider lets you automate over 50 actions, Wrike only has 14 automation actions available. Wrike users will also need to upgrade to mid-level tier plans to get the most out of this feature. Best for Ease of Use: ClickUp Combining user reviews and our expert evaluation, ClickUp has more positive feedback than Wrike in terms of usability. Both solutions are customizable, but ClickUp is less cluttered and simpler to navigate. While Wrike supports 10 project views, ClickUp has an impressive 16 project views, allowing users to create their desired environment for project execution. Wrike relies heavily on a project hierarchy system, comprising four building blocks—spaces, folders, projects, and tasks. This layout works for highly organized teams needing better compartmentalization of tasks across different departments. However, this causes a steeper learning curve for those with basic project management activities. Best for Integrations: Wrike Wrike finally takes the last spot for our ClickUp vs Wrike comparison because of its rich third-party integrations. It comes with 155 prebuilt integrations, and purchasing the Wrike Integrate add-on provides access to over 400 prebuilt connectors with no code. Plus, use prepackaged automated workflows containing predefined sets of triggers and actions for different apps. ClickUp falls short in this category as it only integrates with less than 50 apps and relies heavily on Zapier to access its 5,000 app integrations. However, what we like about ClickUp is its native integrations with top social media platforms like YouTube and Discord. How We Evaluated Wrike vs ClickUp In comparing Wrike vs ClickUp, we used our expert knowledge of project management platforms and referred to legitimate review websites. Using our expertise, we looked at the strengths and weaknesses of each provider and evaluated them based on six categories: Here’s a complete breakdown of these factors: We checked which provider offers more value for money by comparing their monthly per-user costs. Since both providers are similarly priced, we looked at other factors like feature inclusions, user limits, free trial length, and scalability. In evaluating any project management software, we look for key features like task management, automation, and time tracking. From there, we looked deeper into each feature and checked for unique capabilities to see what sets them apart. We tested the two software to check for learning curves when tracking projects, customizing dashboards, and automating tasks. We considered the overall design interface, customization options, and user access controls. In addition, we check for the availability of onboarding resources to see how easy they are to set up and implement for beginners. We analyzed each product’s overall value by looking at the feature set and total costs. We examined user reviews to determine the popularity of both providers while considering our expert experiences. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ClickUp is more visually appealing than Wrike because of its clean yet well-designed interface. Although ClickUp is packed with more features, unlike Wrike, this provider doesn’t overwhelm users as options and menus are placed in intuitive locations. Yes. Wrike offers more customization options to match your project team’s specific needs. You can customize everything from dashboards, fields, user types, job roles, currency settings, productivity metrics, and integrations. Wrike and ClickUp have downloadable mobile apps for iOS and Android users. Their mobile apps allow users to create tasks on the go, collaborate with the team, and organize their to-do lists. Both providers have an offline mode, so you can continue to get work done on your phone even without an internet connection. Bottom Line The key to project management for small businesses involves learning the right tools that match your team’s unique needs and workloads. In this Wrike and Click match-up, we found that both providers have a fair share of similarities, including their free-forever plans, task management features, customizations, and project views. However, ClickUp won five out of the six categories we created for this Wrike vs ClickUp comparison. ClickUp’s strength lies in its easy-to-use features, rich automation options, collaboration features, and, most especially, the pricing—a critical factor for small business decisions. Wrike, on the other hand, has better integration packages and AI capabilities, which appeal to tech-savvy users and larger teams. Register for ClickUp’s 14-day free trial to see if it suits your project management needs.
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