Finding the right workflow management platform to match your organization’s needs can be challenging. ProWorkflow helps you manage time and resources related to projects. It may not be as well known as some other software, but it is worth considering when its strengths match your organization’s needs. We’ll break down the strengths and weaknesses of this software in our ProWorkflow review.
ProWorkflow Compared to the Best Workflow Management Software Options
We reviewed the best workflow management software, and ProWorkflow did not make our list because it didn’t quite have the all-around versatility its competitors do. If ProWorkflow isn’t right for you, check out the other options on our best workflow management software list. Here are our top three:
With ProofHub software, you receive outstanding versatility, meaning this workflow management software will work nicely for a wide range of customers. Sign up for ProofHub and take advantage of its 14-day free-trial period to test the software without risk.
If simplicity is the most important feature you need from your workflow management software, Process Street is one of our favorite choices, as beginners can jump in and start using it successfully almost immediately. You can take advantage of Process Street’s 14-day free-trial period to decide if it’s the right option for your business.
Hive is a robust workflow management software when you need to manage a remote workforce or a group of freelancers while keeping them engaged. You can try Hive free for 14 days to see if its features meet your needs.
ProWorkflow: The Good and the Bad
When deciding whether ProWorkflow is a good choice for you and your team, it’s important to understand its strengths and weaknesses. We will break down the pros and cons.
What ProWorkflow Is Good At
ProWorkflow has some great benefits, especially when it comes to the number of users and tracking work.
Very few limits: Unlike some competitors, ProWorkflow allows you to have as many users as you want. There is no limit on the maximum number of users per subscription. In the lower pricing tier, you can subscribe as a single user.
Regardless of which pricing tier you select, you will never have a limit on the number of projects you can track in ProWorkflow. However, there is a limit of 25 GB or 50 GB for file storage, but you can use that space to track as many projects as you want.
Easily track workload: ProWorkflow has an integrated time-tracking feature. You can track time spent on projects as a whole or on individual tasks within that project.
You can also generate reports based on your staff members’ workload breakdown. You can then use that information to spot any potential problems with team members overloaded with work.
Additionally, ProWorkflow has a timeline view that shows workloads for all projects. You can use the timeline view to adjust one team member’s work and instantly see how it affects the other team members.
This feature is important when you’re billing clients based on the time your team spent working on a project. You can directly transfer your tracked time to invoices whenever needed.
Even if you bill based on a flat rate per project, you can use ProWorkflow’s time-tracking features to ensure your team is spending its time efficiently.
Good for freelancers: If you are working alone as a freelancer trying to juggle multiple projects, ProWorkflow is a nice option. The Professional pricing tier, which starts at $18 per user per month, allows you to subscribe as a single user. This delivers a significant bargain versus project management software tools requiring you to have at least five or 10 users to access particular tiers.
Even as a single user paying a low subscription price, you can track as many projects as you want. No matter how complex or simplistic your projects are, you can track them all in ProWorkflow.
Brand ProWorkflow to match your company: If you plan to share your project tracking boards with clients, you’ll appreciate that ProWorkflow has multiple design customization options. To personalize the software interface, you can apply your branding to the ProWorkflow interface, including adding a logo and color scheme.
Keeping your brand in front of clients looking at your project boards provides a more professional, white-label appearance. You also can adjust things like the default currency to reflect your company location or the location of a particular client.
You don’t have to be a big company to be able to customize ProWorkflow to feature your brand, but you’ll look like one. This can also enhance your clients’ confidence in you.
Manage staff workflows: ProWorkflow offers an Active Staff View as part of its dashboard. This view shows how staff members spend their time and whether they are logged in to the system, making workflow management easier, as you can see everything you need to know at a glance.
Robust security features: ProWorkflow offers multiple security features that protect the data you are using with the software. ProWorkflow uses encryption to protect any data sent over a public network and hosts all data associated with your account at Microsoft Azure data centers.
The software uses SAML-based authentication. It also maintains an audit log for 90 days for no extra cost, so you can track which users are accessing which files.
Additionally, ProWorkflow includes security measures you can apply to individual users. Administrators can limit the data that certain users can see by setting individual user permissions.
What ProWorkflow Is Lacking
As with any tool, ProWorkflow has a few drawbacks, such as no free forever plan and more limited integrations than some other software. Let’s dive into them and see if any are a deal-breaker for your business.
No free or low-priced tier: At one point, ProWorkflow offered a Solo pricing tier that was half the price of its Professional plan and one-third of the price of its Advanced plan. However, the Solo tier is no longer available, meaning the lowest-priced tier from ProWorkflow costs $18 per month per user.
Even so, the Solo tier was extremely limited, so it would not have worked for a team. However, as a freelancer or small business owner, you may struggle to fit ProWorkflow into your budget without the option of the lower-priced Solo tier.
As a comparison, one of the things we like about ProofHub is its flat pricing. Rather than charging you per user per month, ProofHub has a flat monthly fee for unlimited users.
We do like that you can use a 14-day free trial with ProWorkflow, which allows you to test the software without risking money.
Limited integration options: Many project management tools allow you to add extra features to their functionality through integrations with third-party apps. Users can use integrations for almost anything, such as simplifying team communication, file sharing, and syncing tasks to calendars or emails.
ProWorkflow allows integrations, but its primary option is Zapier, which is a separate, subscription-based tool. With a Zapier subscription, you can connect ProWorkflow to several hundred other apps, including Slack and Gmail. Although Zapier works well for integrations, you do need to pay to use it.
Outside of Zapier, ProWorkflow offers a handful of direct integrations, such as Xero, QuickBooks, Dropbox, or Google Drive. However, other project management software provides many more integrations that don’t require extra costs.
Limitations on Gantt charts: One of the most disappointing aspects of ProWorkflow is its limitations on project board options, which directly affects its versatility.
For example, you can’t create a Gantt chart, a standard display option in many project management tools. Gantt charts allow you to use horizontal lines to represent timelines and work completed on a particular task or project. In the display, the lines show you the total time planned for each task or project, helping you see if you are on track.
Instead, ProWorkflow gives you a Gantt view as part of its timeline board. Even though this looks like a Gantt chart, it isn’t quite the same as actually creating a regular Gantt chart.
ProWorkflow Options and Pricing
Let’s start with the pricing. Proworkflow has one main product and is available in three different pricing tiers:
- Professional: ProWorkflow’s Professional tier offers all the primary features you could want from project management software. It is available to one or more users at $18 per month per user on an annual plan.
- Advanced: The Advanced tier is a better option if you need more advanced administrative tasks or the ability to set up and track internal projects. It costs $27 per month per user on an annual plan with a minimum of five users.
- Enterprise: If you need custom features, ProWorkflow does offer an Enterprise tier. Reach out to ProWorkflow to learn more about it and receive a customized quote.
ProWorkflow works in a variety of use cases and for several different kinds of industries. Now, we’ll jump into use cases. If your business is in any of the following sectors, this can help clarify if it is the right product for your needs.
ProWorkflow for Tech
Tech companies can use ProWorkflow as an agile tool to track all the steps required to complete their projects. For things like app development or website design, completing each task within the required deadline is essential. ProWorkflow can help you monitor deadlines and keep your team members on track.
Tech company employees commonly use mobile devices when working, and ProWorkflow has a strong mobile app that gives you access to nearly all the features you can access in the web browser version.
If your tech company does work for clients where you bill clients based on time, you can track time from either the desktop or mobile version. Not all software has as good of a mobile app as ProWorkflow.
ProWorkflow for Marketing
When marketing teams are working on projects, they often require extensive collaboration from different departments. You need designers to be able to communicate with product managers to keep the message on point, as well as marketing leads to communicate with stakeholders, among others. ProWorkflow allows for and encourages communication between different departments.
The options for collaborating within ProWorkflow include reviewing text documents, sending messages, sharing artwork and photography, and fleshing out ideas, all from a single interface.
The deadline-tracking feature and robust mobile app are also extremely useful for marketing teams.
ProWorkflow for Government
When using ProWorkflow in a government setting, security is among the most important considerations. ProWorkflow stores all its data on Microsoft Azure servers in highly secure data centers.
ProWorkflow makes use of SAML-based authentication to protect data from hackers. All subscribers with ProWorkflow make use of 128-bit SSL certificates for maximum protection. As data travels across public networks, ProWorkflow encrypts it.
As an administrator, you can set permissions for groups of users or individual users, ensuring only specific users have access to sensitive files and data.
ProWorkflow for Community Work
As community groups work on projects, they often rely on multiple volunteers. ProWorkflow allows your team to keep track of all your volunteers’ contact information, create notes that show any special skills they may have, and track volunteer schedules.
You even can give volunteers limited access to your ProWorkflow project boards, allowing them to see upcoming tasks, volunteer opportunities, and progress.
Additionally, community groups may receive government funding or project grants and must track every dollar spent. ProWorkflow makes it easy to track expenses and assign spending to certain categories. It’s easier to stay on budget with this information readily available.
ProWorkflow for Education
For instructors in an educational setting, managing the coursework for multiple classes can be a challenge. If your academic department uses ProWorkflow, teachers can create a project for each course.
Even better, teachers may want to set up each student in the class as a client in the ProWorkflow account, which you can do for free. You can then share the coursework plan with the students and update it in real-time. You can alert students to upcoming project deadlines and even have them submit assignments in ProWorkflow by sharing files with you.
ProWorkflow for Healthcare
For a healthcare facility, ProWorkflow can help you manage tasks like health and safety protocols the staff should be following. You also may want to create a series of workflow tasks that show how patients should move through the appointment process.
ProWorkflow’s data encryption and security features are vital for healthcare facilities because of needing to protect patient data. If only certain staff members need access to sensitive information about each patient, you can limit who can see those files through user permissions.
ProWorkflow in Summary
We recommend using ProWorkflow when your team needs excellent project and task management capabilities. Even though you may not be that familiar with ProWorkflow, it has been around for over two decades, so you can trust its track record.
Although we like certain aspects of ProWorkflow, we decided not to include it on our list of the best workflow management software. We like the versatility of some other tools, as they appeal more broadly.
ProofHub is our favorite versatile software in this category, as it excels in every area you would expect. Process Street is an easy-to-use software that immediately lets your team members be more productive. And Hive works especially well for keeping remote team members in the loop.
