Apps for project managers: plans, time, meetings, docs, and the record of what everyone agreed

A project manager's phone carries the team's plan, a private to-do list, a timer, a meeting notetaker, two document suites, a signature service and at least one assistant, and the question that matters is not which is best but what each one is for and what a year of it costs. Below: the apps other lists name most often, grouped by job, each in its maker's own words with the price its maker publishes, team tools kept apart from personal ones, plus the one record none of them holds.

Most project managers already have the apps. The team tool was chosen before they arrived, the document suite came with the laptop, and the rest accumulated one subscription at a time. Fewer can say what each one is for, where two overlap, or what the year's bill comes to. This page sorts that out, job by job. It covers apps; what ChatGPT and Claude are good for on a project is in ChatGPT for project managers and Claude for project managers.

Who is writing: Equerry, whose own app sits in the last group, the stakeholder record, marked as ours. Equerry is not a project-management tool: it keeps no board, no Gantt chart and no team workspace. No maker paid to be here, there are no affiliate links, and a subscription to anything listed earns us nothing. Three rules governed the list: the maker describes the app, quoted from its own site or App Store listing on 6 November 2026, and nothing was tested or scored; prices are the maker's published prices with the billing period, because "$9 a month" per user is a different commitment from $29 a month for the whole team; platforms are as the maker's App Store listing states them. Within a job the order is alphabetical.

Apps for project managers by job: the table, as of 6 November 2026

Team tools and personal task managers are different rows

The first group is bought for the team and priced per user; the second is bought for yourself. They are kept apart because the forum threads mix them, and the mixing is where the "which one is best" argument comes from. A team tool is where the project lives. A personal task manager is where your own commitments live, including the ones that never belong on the project board: "chase the signed change order", "tell the sponsor the risk before Friday".

Team plans and tasks

• Asana. Asana's site: "Work management software for teams and AI agents. Plan, automate, and execute critical workflows together." The App Store app is "Asana: Work Management" for iPhone and iPad. Price: Personal is $0, "Free forever"; Starter is $10.99 per user a month billed annually or $13.49 billed monthly; Advanced is $24.99 billed annually or $30.49 monthly.
• Basecamp. "Manage projects, coordinate teams, and master your company with Basecamp." Priced per package with a user cap, not per user. Price: "One project, free forever. Invite up to 3 people." Freelancer is $29 a month, 3 projects, up to 5 users; Pro $79, 8 projects, up to 10; Pro Plus $99, 12 projects, up to 15; Pro Unlimited $199 a month billed annually, unlimited projects and users. The iPhone and iPad app is "Basecamp - Project Management".
• ClickUp. "One Workspace built to think and work." The app, "ClickUp: Tasks, Chat, Docs, AI", runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Price: Free Forever is $0; Core is $9 per user a month billed yearly, next to "Regular price $12"; Business is $17, next to "Regular price $25".
• Jira. Atlassian's Jira page leads with "Turn plans into agent-ready tasks." The app is "Jira Cloud by Atlassian" for iPhone and iPad. Price: Free is "Free forever for 10 users"; with the page's "Monthly" option selected, Standard is $8.48 and Premium $15.56 per user a month; the annual option is marked "SAVE UP TO 17%". Enterprise is "Contact sales".
• monday.com. "Plans for every team, people and agents included." The app is "monday.com - AI Work Platform" for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Price: the pricing page is in euros: Free for "Up to 2 seats"; Basic €9, Standard €12 and Pro €19 per seat a month billed annually. The page's own description reads "Starting from $9 per user per month"; no US price was shown on it.
• Smartsheet. "Where people and AI get work done, together." The app is "Smartsheet: Projects & Teams" for iPhone and iPad. Price: Pro is $9 per Member a month on the Yearly pricing setting or $12 monthly; Business is $19 yearly or $24 monthly; Enterprise is quoted.
• Trello. Also Atlassian's: "Escape the clutter and chaos—stay efficient with Inbox, Boards, and Planner from anywhere, even on mobile." The app is "Trello: Daily Task Tracker" for iPhone and iPad. Price: Free is $0, "Free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace"; Standard is $5 per user a month billed annually or $6 monthly; Premium is $10 billed annually or $12.50 monthly.

Personal task managers

• Notion. "The AI workspace where teams get more done, faster." Listed here because many project managers use it as a private notebook and task list rather than as the team tool; its app is "Notion: Notes, Tasks, AI" for iPhone and iPad. Price: the pricing page is in euros: Free €0, Plus €9.50 and Business €19.50 per member a month; no US price was shown on it. Its App Store listing's in-app purchases are "Notion – Plus Monthly" $11.99, "Notion – Plus Yearly" $119.99 and "Notion Business" at $23.99 and $239.99.
• OmniFocus 4. The Omni Group: "Task management software for busy professionals that helps them accomplish more every day," and "Purchase or subscribe to OmniFocus 4 once for full access to OmniFocus on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro." Price: its App Store listing's in-app purchases are "Unlock Standard" at $74.99, "Unlock Pro" at $149.99 and two "Legacy Subscription" items at $9.99 and $99.99, periods not stated on the listing.
• Things 3. Cultured Code: "the award-winning personal task manager that helps you plan your day, manage your projects, and make real progress toward your goals." Price: a one-time purchase per device on the App Store: $9.99 for iPhone (with Apple Watch), $19.99 for iPad, $49.99 for Mac.
• Todoist. "The task system you'll actually stick with." The app, "Todoist: To Do List & Calendar", runs on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Price: Beginner is $0; Pro is $5 a month, "$60 billed yearly", or $7 billed monthly; Business is $8 per user a month "plus local tax", "$96 billed yearly", or $10 billed monthly.

Time and workload

Where hours are billed to a client or people's time is planned across a team, a timer sits beside the team tool. All three have iPhone apps; Clockify and Toggl also list iPad; Harvest's page lists "Mac & iOS apps" and Toggl's Legacy app lists Mac.

• Clockify. "The most popular time tracker for teams." The app is "Clockify Time Tracker" for iPhone and iPad. Price: a free plan; Basic is $3.99 per seat a month billed annually or $4.99 monthly; Standard $5.49 or $6.99; Pro $7.99 or $9.99. Its page notes that "Every active or invited user listed on your Team page occupies one paid seat."
• Harvest. "Turn hours into profit." The Free plan is "Built for individual freelancers" with 1 seat and 2 projects and lists "Mac & iOS apps". Price: Teams is "starting from" $9 per seat a month, "$108 per seat, billed annually", or $11 billed monthly; Enterprise is $14 per seat a month, $168 billed annually, or $17.50 monthly; Enterprise Plus is "Custom pricing".
• Toggl Track. "The time tracker millions trust." Toggl lists two iPhone apps on the App Store, "Toggl: Track Time & Plan Work" for iPhone and iPad and "Toggl Track (Legacy)", which also runs on Mac and Apple Watch. Price: Free is "Free for a limited number of users"; with the page's Annual setting, Starter is $9 and Premium $16 per user a month; $12 and $24 on the Monthly setting.

Meetings and notes

Two paid notetakers that join or record calls, and the two apps that come with the iPhone. Where a maker records meetings, we say so in its own words; Equerry, below, does not.

• Apple Notes. Apple's iPhone User Guide: "In the Notes app, you can record audio and have the spoken words transcribed to text. You can search the transcript, add the text to the note, or copy the text to other documents." Transcription is "available on iPhone 12 and later" in listed languages. Price: none; it comes with the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
• Fathom. "AI notetaking that is out of this world." The app is "Fathom AI Notetaker" for iPhone and Mac. Price: a Free plan, "Unlimited recordings, instant call summaries, integrations with LLMs & more"; Team is $15 per user a month billed annually or $19 monthly, "2 user min"; Business is $25 billed annually or $34 monthly, also "2 user min".
• Otter. "Your AI notetaker is now also your Conversational Knowledge Engine." The app is "Otter Transcribe Voice Notes" for iPhone and iPad. Price: Basic is free with "300 monthly transcription minutes"; Pro is $16.99 per user a month on the Monthly setting or $8.33 on Annual ("save 51%"); Business is $30 on Monthly, where a "20% off for 3 months" offer shows $24, or $19.99 on Annual ("save 33%").
• Voice Memos. Apple's iPhone User Guide: "Speech in your audio recordings can be transcribed to text in Voice Memos," on iPhone 12 or later in listed languages, and the transcript menu includes "Copy Transcript." Price: none. That command is also the route from an existing recording into Equerry, below: copy the transcript and paste it into a note. Equerry takes no audio files from other apps.

Docs, files and approvals

The suite usually arrives with the employer or the client; the signature service is the one most often bought by the project manager personally, for change orders and acceptance forms. Three of the four pricing pages below are priced in euros.

• Docusign. Its Personal plan is "For individuals and sole proprietors with basic e-signature needs," and the app is "Docusign - Upload & Sign Docs" for iPhone and iPad. Price: Personal is $11 a month on the "Annual | Billed monthly" setting, which the page calls "an annual commitment of $132," for "5 envelopes per month"; Standard is $30 per user a month, "an annual commitment of $360."
• Dropbox. Its Plus plan is "For 1 person" with "2 TB of storage"; apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Price: the plans page is in euros: Basic is free with 2 GB; Plus is €9.99 a month; no US price was shown on it. Its App Store listing's in-app purchases are "Dropbox Plus - Monthly" $11.99 and "Dropbox Plus - Annual" $119.99.
• Google Workspace. "The better way to work." Docs, Sheets, Drive and Meet on iPhone and iPad. Price: the pricing page is in euros with a "50% off for 3 months" offer: Business Starter €6.80, Business Standard €13.60 and Business Plus €21.10 per user a month at the standard rate, "All plans billed monthly"; no US price was shown on it.
• Microsoft 365. Microsoft's comparison page: "powerful productivity apps with Copilot, your personal AI assistant, plus advanced AI features, digital security, and spacious cloud storage across your devices." Word, Excel, OneDrive, Teams and Planner on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Price: Personal is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year; Family is $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year; the business plans are priced on a separate Microsoft page.

Best apps for project managers: what the threads ask for

Read the forum threads behind that phrase and three questions recur. Which one app should I use? There is no one; the team tool is chosen for the team and the rest are chosen by you, and the table above is the honest shape of the answer. Which works best on the iPhone? Every team tool here has an iPhone app from its maker, so the phone question is really a question about which workspace you already live in; for a private list, Things 3, OmniFocus 4 and Todoist were built for Apple devices first. What am I missing? Almost always the same thing: not a plan, a timer or a notetaker, but the record of what the people on the project said. The last group on this page is for that.

The general assistants, as one category

ChatGPT and Claude are on most project managers' phones now, and they belong in the list as a category of their own rather than as a replacement for any row above. What they are good for on a project, and the trap of letting a draft turn a request into an approval, is worked through in ChatGPT for project managers and Claude for project managers. Equerry, ours, is the third entry, and it is a narrower thing: not a general assistant that drafts anything, but a personal assistant that keeps what you send it about each stakeholder and answers from it.

• ChatGPT. OpenAI's pricing page lists plans named Free, Go, Plus and Pro, with "Access on web, iOS, Android" in its comparison table; the iPhone and iPad app is "ChatGPT". Price: OpenAI's help centre: "Price: $20/month (billed monthly)" for ChatGPT Plus; the App Store listing's in-app purchases are ChatGPT Go at $8.00, ChatGPT Plus at $19.99 and ChatGPT Pro at $100.00, $200.00 and $500.00; the pricing page shows Pro as "From".
• Claude. Anthropic's download page: "Access all of Claude on desktop and mobile." The app is "Claude by Anthropic" for iPhone and iPad, with a macOS download. Price: Free is $0; Pro is $17 a month "with annual subscription discount ($200 billed up front)" or $20 billed monthly; Max is $100 a month; Ultra is $200 a month.
• Equerry (ours). A personal assistant for iPhone and iPad that keeps what each stakeholder said, decided and promised, and briefs you from it. Price: Pro is $39.99 a month or $329 a year. What it does, exactly, is below.

Decisions and promises before the status call: where Equerry fits

Every app above holds a thing: a task, an hour, a transcript, a document, a signature, a draft. None of them holds the conversation. Take Halden, an invented client rolling out a new warehouse system. The sponsor said on a call that go-live can slip a week if the carrier integration is not signed off. The carrier's project lead confirmed the test window by email, then moved it in a one-line reply you have not opened. You told Halden's IT lead, walking out of the steering meeting, that you would have a decision on the cutover by Thursday. The board shows a task, an owner and a date. It does not show who said what, or that the window moved.

Equerry (this is our app) is a personal assistant on your iPhone who helps you get things done. For a project manager that means the stakeholder record, not the plan: it keeps no board, assigns no tasks, holds no shared team memory and connects to nothing. It reads only what you send it and never asks for your inbox.

Equerry has an email address of its own, ending in @mail.getequerry.app. Put it on the CC line of a live thread and every later reply arrives on its own for as long as the address stays there; the original stays in your mailbox. The unit is the one thread you chose, so what it holds about Halden is exactly what you sent, and the same is true of your other five projects.

What Equerry is not: a project-management tool or a connection to one (it does not talk to Asana, Jira, monday.com or any suite above), a recorder or transcriber of calls, a way to send the status email (you write the update, and you press send), or a source of advice. It cannot find the thread you never forwarded, and anyone on a CC'd thread can see the address on the CC line, so forward instead where that would be awkward. Sending something is still sharing it: what you send, with the calendar snapshot if you allow it, is processed by the outside providers named on our AI disclosure page so that it can be searched and answered from, so your client's policy on tools applies here exactly as it does to any app on this page.

Setting up the phone

Start with what the client or the company already pays for: the team tool and its phone app, the document suite, usually a notetaker. Then buy only for the jobs still open: a personal task manager if your own commitments are drowning in the team board, a timer if you bill or plan people's time outside the team tool, a signature plan if nothing you pay for signs. That leaves the stakeholder record, which is rarely bought on purpose and usually noticed the first time a sponsor says "as I told you on the call" about a condition nobody wrote down. The habit of organizing what a meeting decided, with or without an app, is in our guide to organizing meeting notes.

Sources, all read 2026-11-06. Dollar prices are from each maker's US page or US App Store listing; where a maker's pricing page is in euros (monday.com, Notion, Dropbox, Google Workspace), the euro figures are given as published and no US price was shown on it; platforms are from each app's US App Store listing. Asana, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Basecamp, home page, pricing and App Store listing. ClickUp, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Atlassian, Jira, Jira pricing, Jira Cloud App Store listing, Trello, Trello pricing and Trello App Store listing. monday.com, pricing and App Store listing. Smartsheet, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Notion, home page, pricing and App Store listing. The Omni Group, OmniFocus and OmniFocus 4 App Store listing. Cultured Code, Things and the App Store listings for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Todoist, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Clockify, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Harvest, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Toggl, Toggl Track, pricing and the App Store listings for Toggl: Track Time & Plan Work and Toggl Track (Legacy). Apple, Record and transcribe audio in Notes on iPhone and View a Voice Memos transcription on iPhone. Fathom, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Otter, home page, pricing and App Store listing. Docusign, eSignature plans and pricing. Dropbox, plans. Google, Google Workspace and pricing. Microsoft, compare Microsoft 365 plans. OpenAI, ChatGPT pricing, What is ChatGPT Plus? and ChatGPT App Store listing. Anthropic, pricing, download and App Store listing. Makers change their products and prices often; where a maker's current page disagrees with this one, the maker's page is right. Halden is an invented client; nothing on this page describes a real engagement.

Last updated 2026-11-06.

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