Making Projects Easier
Since you’ve found your way to this post, you’re likely someone who deals with projects in one way or another. You may even be thinking about adopting ClickUp yourself. Whether you’re a project manager, part of a project team, or just an average Joe, we all deal with projects. More specifically, we all deal with small tasks on a day-to-day basis.
If you deal with projects in your business life, you understand how easily big projects can become unorganized. Luckily, software has developed over the last decade that helps business people better manage their projects. Having a good understanding of projects will make understanding ClickUp much easier.
What is ClickUp?
ClickUp is a project management tool that aims to make your business life easier. The founders decided to make their own tool because due to their dissatisfaction with the tools offered at the time. The end result is a straightforward, user-friendly solution made for any business.
ClickUp employs a hierarchy of views to organize your business’s projects. The tiers of this hierarchy are as follows:
- Teams.
- Spaces.
- Projects.
- Lists.
- Tasks.
- Subtasks.
These tiers begin very broad with teams, and descend into the most specific subtasks.
We will dive into what each of these tiers are and what each tier’s function is. Let’s take a look at teams first.
Teams
Teams in ClickUp shouldn’t be thought of as “teams” in a traditional sense. We separate businesses into a number of departmental teams like marketing, finance, development, etc. ClickUp uses the term “team” to describe an organization as a whole. This is essentially every department within your business.
Because of this ambiguity, ClickUp encourages that you don’t get too caught up in all of the terminology. Rather, understanding the what each ClickUp component does will ensure your success with this software.
Spaces
Spaces are where your different business departments will independently operate. All spaces are a part of the same team. Your team may be made up of any number of spaces. If you are using ClickUp to manage your whole business, you may have independent spaces for marketing, software development, and quality assurance. Many organizations will only have one space in their team.
Projects
Again, the word “project” here can be a little misleading. ClickUp’s projects tier is more of a categorization of projects rather than instances of projects themselves. For example, say we have a software development space in our ClickUp app. We would have projects dedicated mobile software, web, and API development.
Within each of these projects, we would see individual instances of these project types. For example, we may see “iOS app v1.0.1” and “Android app v2.1.2” in the mobile software project. ClickUp calls these individual instances lists, and they are what we traditionally think of as “projects.”
Lists
As mentioned, lists are what we’ve traditionally thought of as “projects.” They coordinate a number of tasks that help us move towards completing said list. ClickUp groups lists together with similar lists under a single project. This whole concept can seem confusing, but it will make sense as you play with ClickUp.
Lists can have associated start and end dates, as well as attachments/descriptions. They don’t have assignees, but the tasks that they manage do.
Lists also have three views, “Time,” “List,” and “Board.” Take a look at the quick demo below to better understand how lists give our tasks more meaning in ClickUp.
Tasks & Subtasks
Tasks are what we traditionally think of as tasks. They are steps in a project that, upon completion, move us closer to completing the associated project. Tasks in ClickUp are pretty smart as they can have associated:
- Statuses.
- Assignees.
- Tags.
- Dependencies.
- Priorities.
- Attachments.
ClickUp tasks can even have associated subtasks. Users must complete subtasks in order to complete their parent task. Think of subtasks as a way to simply break a task down into even more specific steps.
Goals
ClickUp utilizes an OKR approach to setting and achieving goals in your business. Goals are made up of targets, which are essentially measurable things within your business.
If my company, Tallyfy, wanted to make a goal for increasing traffic to our website, we could set a number of targets that would help us move towards that goal. For example, we could set one target for posting 12 articles per month and another target for increasing web-advertising spending to $10k/month.
Let’s take a look at how we could do something like this in ClickUp:
ClickUp Pricing
When it comes to picking the right project management tool for your team, price is one of the largest decision factors. Luckily, ClickUp is a solution that offers a free plan.
About half of the project management tools on the market offer a free plan, but these plans are always pretty limited. Free plans are usually a sort of promotional tool to introduce people to the software; we shouldn’t expect full functionality in a free plan.
ClickUp is no different. This is why they offer three additional plans: unlimited, business, and enterprise. Let’s take a look at the features and limitations of each plan so you can find the best ClickUp plan for your team.
Free
As mentioned, ClickUp offers users a free plan. This plan is pretty attractive from the jump as it offers unlimited users and unlimited tasks.
Still, there are, of course, some limitations to this plan. Perhaps the biggest hinderance is the limited storage. The free plan allows for only 100MB of file storage in your workplace. This can be extremely limiting as it is unclear whether you can pay for extra storage without upgrading your whole plan.
The free ClickUp plan is also missing advanced reporting. This may not be a big deal for many teams, but some will need the reporting offered in ClickUp’s paid plans.
Some additional features, such as custom fields and goals, are limited to 100 uses in the free plan. In order to use these features beyond the 100 use limit, you’ll have to upgrade your plan.
Pros
- Free
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited tasks
Cons
- Limited storage.
- Missing key features.
Price
- Free.
If all you want to do is document processes, you don’t have to pay for ClickUp. Tallyfy’s most basic plan, Tallyfy Docs, offers several key features like unlimited amount of templates, issue reporting, and Slack integration. Below is a GIF showing how easy Tallyfy makes it to create a client onboarding procedure.
Unlimited
As the name suggests, ClickUp’s “unlimited” plan focuses on mitigating the limitations found in the free plan. Unlimited allows for not only unlimited users and tasks, but also:
- Unlimited storage.
- Unlimited integrations (with apps like Google Drive and Dropbox).
- Unlimited features usage.
While the free plan has a 100-use cap on some features, the unlimited plan does away with this limitation. It also does away with that 100MB storage cap seen in the free plan. The unlimited plan’s price is very cheap for unlimited storage when compared to similar tools. In addition to getting rid of limits, the unlimited plan also grants users access to advanced reporting.
Still, unlimited isn’t ClickUp’s most comprehensive plan. There are still two plans that offer more than the unlimited plan.
Pros
- Eliminates most limitations of free plan.
- Offers advanced reporting.
Cons
- Still missing some more advanced features.
Price
- $5/user per month (billed annually).
Business
The next tier up from the unlimited plan is the business plan. As the name suggest, “business” offers all of the unlimited features, plus some things that larger or more business-oriented teams may need. These added features include two-factor authentication, Google SSO, an upcoming “advanced exporting,” and more.
One interesting feature offered in ClickUp’s business plan is folders for goals. This is essentially a way to better organize your team’s goals.
Pros
- More advanced features than the unlimited plan.
Cons
- Mid-tier; more expensive but not including all features.
Price
- $9/user per month (billed annually).
Enterprise
ClickUp’s enterprise plan is the software’s most comprehensive plan offered. Most SAAS companies offer an enterprise plan for larger companies whose needs go beyond what’s offered in typical plans. ClickUp is no different as they offer their own solution for enterprise sized companies.
The interesting thing about enterprise plans is that you typically need to contact the provider for a price quote. This is because enterprise plans will typically differ from one another as each business has different needs. The same goes for ClickUp as you’ll need to contact the company sales team for a quote. This can easily been done via ClickUp’s pricing page.
The enterprise plan comes with a slew of more advanced features. These include:
- More single sign-on options (including Google, Microsoft, and Okta).
- HIPAA compliance.
- Increased API usage.
- A customized onboarding experience.
- and more.
Another interesting thing about ClickUp is that you’ll need to use an enterprise plan if you are wanting to make any changes to the default contracts offered in other plans. This is because of the price associated with business law services to make custom contracts.
This is seen also in the fact that HIPAA compliance is only offered in the enterprise plan. Medical institutions will often have to pay more to simply comply with regulations, but at least HIPAA compliance is offered.
Pros
- Full software functionality.
- HIPAA compliance.
- More API usage.
Cons
- Likely the costliest plan.
- No set price.
Price
- Must contact ClickUp sales.
Recap
So what is ClickUp? It’s simple project management software for very small teams and companies. Every successful organization eventually evolves from project management into process management. Read more about Tallyfy – which focuses on helping you grow and scale your organization.
Related Questions
What is ClickUp best for?
ClickUp shines brightest for teams who need a flexible task management tool that can handle multiple project views. It’s particularly effective for creative teams, marketing departments, and software development groups who want to switch between list views, boards, and timelines. The tool excels at breaking down complex projects into manageable chunks, though some users find this very flexibility can make it feel overwhelming at first.
Is ClickUp worth paying for?
ClickUp’s value depends on how much you’ll use its premium features. While the free version is generous, teams that need time tracking, custom fields, or advanced workflow automation will find the paid versions worthwhile. The Business plan (around $12 per user monthly) offers the best balance of features and cost, though smaller teams might find the price steep compared to simpler alternatives.
Is ClickUp better than Jira?
ClickUp offers more versatility and easier setup than Jira, making it a better choice for non-technical teams and varied project types. While Jira remains the gold standard for software development with its deep technical features, ClickUp provides a more user-friendly experience with similar capabilities. However, ClickUp’s interface can feel busy compared to Jira’s more focused approach.
What are alternatives to ClickUp?
Several worthy alternatives exist depending on specific needs. Asana offers a cleaner interface and better task management, while Monday.com provides more intuitive workflow automation. Trello remains popular for simple projects with its card-based system, and Notion excels at combining project management with document collaboration. Each alternative trades some of ClickUp’s flexibility for greater specialization in specific areas.
How long does it take to learn ClickUp?
Most users need about 2-3 weeks to become comfortable with ClickUp’s basic features, and 1-2 months to master its advanced capabilities. The learning curve can be steeper than simpler tools because of the vast feature set, but ClickUp’s extensive training resources and tutorial videos help speed up the process. Teams often benefit from having a designated ClickUp champion to help others learn the system.
Can ClickUp replace multiple tools?
ClickUp can potentially replace several standalone tools, including task managers, document collaboration software, and time tracking apps. However, while it offers many features, some are not as robust as dedicated solutions. For instance, its document editing capabilities aren’t as powerful as Google Docs, and its chat features can’t fully replace Slack. It works best as a central hub while integrating with specialized tools.
Does ClickUp work well for remote teams?
ClickUp adapts well to remote work environments with its real-time collaboration features and clear task ownership. The comment threads, document sharing, and various project views help maintain team alignment across time zones. However, the platform can sometimes feel overwhelming for remote teams just getting started with digital collaboration tools, and requires clear usage guidelines to prevent information overload.
