Are you trying to make a decision about the best project management software or collaboration software to use for your business?

We love using Basecamp for its mind-bending simplicity, but it still leaves much to imagination.

So what we did was put the most popular hosted software options under the microscope and compare must-haves and other essential features, such as mobile compatibility, price, and more.

You’ll see the complete project management software comparison in the sheet below this article. But, before that…

Here are the contenders:

Listed from most popular to least popular based on Alexa rankings:

ProofHub – an online project management tool packed with amazing productivity features, an easy to use interface and a free trial. And, the super-handy mobile app lets you stay connected with your work on the go.

Zoho Projects – a wide range of applications available on top of project management including CRM, calendar, chat and a wiki. Over 3 million users.

Basecamp – It is the leading web-based project management tool. Not only is it popular, it is also very easy to use. Time Doctor currently has Basecamp time tracking, which allows managers to accurately track time spent on projects & other tasks, as well as monitoring individual team member’s productivity.

Freshbooks – a very popular invoicing software solution for small business owners. Easily send invoices, track time, manage expenses, and get paid online.

Smartsheet – project management, CRM and other features based around using online spreadsheets.

Nifty – is new-wave project management that reduces project development cycles and improves team productivity by combining collaboration, communication, and automation. The result is milestone-driven results that keep teams inspired and organizational goals on schedule.

Wrike – some unique features for teams of any size such as: customized workflows, updating tasks via email, and an interactive Gantt chart view of project plans.

Teamwork.com – includes project tracking, contacts and calendar. We currently have a Time Doctor integration for Teamwork.com users, which allows managers to accurately track time spent on projects & other tasks, as well as monitoring individual team member’s productivity.

Redbooth – includes a Twitter style updates feature.

Nozbe – project management based around the David Allen “Getting Things Done” methodology.

Active Collab – provides task management, collaboration, time tracking, reporting, and invoicing, so you can centralize most of your work in one tool.

Harvest – focused on invoicing and time tracking, a competitor to Freshbooks.

LiquidPlanner – ability to plan, track, schedule, and analyze an entire portfolio of projects in real-time.

iMeet Central (formerly Central Desktop) – 425,000 users, includes real time integration between Microsoft office and the central workspace.

Clarizen – brings together cross-company project management, configurable workflow automation, in-context collaboration and a tailored, role-based experience, all built on a secure, scalable enterprise platform.

AceProject – a popular all around project and task management solution providing a great mix of ease of use with some higher-end functionality.

5pm – very colorful interface, and lots of features including time tracking, contacts and an iPhone app.

Huddle – integrates with Microsoft Office so you can save Microsoft files directly to a shared workspace.

Feng Office – includes solutions for project management time tracking, calendar and contacts.

Comindwork – includes Gantt charts, and a business wiki.

EGroupware – consists of multiple installable applications and includes a calendar app, address book, email, project management, timesheet and more.

Deskaway – includes timesheets, calendar, contacts and a micro-blogging status update feature.

Goplan – includes a Twitter like activity stream.

Hyperoffice – has a hosted email service and contact management.

Visma Severa – includes CRM and invoicing.

GenieBelt – Realtime project management tool that connects the construction site to the decision makers. It includes solutions for reporting, tracking, live project overview, and planning.

ClickUp – brings teams of all specialities together in a clear and collaborative setting. You can customize it the way you want and it allows you to save more time by combining the tools you use every day in one platform.

Standuply – a leading Slack bot for standups, team surveys and automating other Agile processes like backlog grooming or planning poker. Think of Standuply as a Digital Scrum Master inside Slack.

Plus a few more hopefuls:

SwiftKanban, BeeWits, Attendance Software, TeamWork Live, Nirvana, Intervals, ProWorkflow, Teamly, Glasscubes, Copper, Workspace, Tenrox, Journyx, Clientspot, Celoxis, 24sevenoffice, Workzone, ProjectManager.com and CloudBooks.

Some notes about this list

This is only about hosted SaaS online project management software.

There are dozens other open source platforms which we didn’t include in this list, especially those that are not hosted (meaning, you have to install the software yourself). TaskReports has a handy comparison chart of project management tools that you might also want to check.

We have also not included products that are more focused on CRM or products that are more of a bug tracker such as JIRA. We also excluded sites that did not have their pricing listed on their sites.

We know that the ranking of sites is not completely accurate, but it’s the best we could find. Compete or Quantcast are other alternatives for ranking sites but we decided to use Alexa.

Want more useful tools for business planning? Check out the list of online collaboration tools we have compiled for remote teams.