The best project tracking tool shows every project's real status on one screen without anyone chasing updates. Look for status that rolls up from the work itself, portfolio dashboards and reports you can share, then choose between ready-made trackers, build-your-own platforms and client-facing tools depending on who needs to see progress.
Ask five project leads how their projects are going and you'll get five formats, five levels of optimism and at least one promise to check and come back. Project tracking software exists to replace that round of questions with one screen everyone trusts.
This list is about seeing status and progress across many projects at once, not planning them or capturing tasks. The nine tools are in no particular order. Before the list, though, there's one test that matters more than any feature.
Recorded status versus real status
A tracker shows you what people recorded, not what's true. That sounds obvious, but it's where most tracking set-ups quietly fail. The moment updating status becomes a separate chore, a field someone has to remember to change on a Friday, it goes stale, and the dashboard turns into a confident picture of last week.
The better pattern is status that comes from the work itself. When a task moves to done, the project's progress moves with it, and the portfolio view rolls that up without anyone retyping it. So when you look at any tool here, ask two questions. Does status roll up from tasks automatically, or from a field someone edits? And can you see every project's status on one screen without building a report first?
Then test it with real people. Ask two colleagues to keep one live project updated for a week, and look at the dashboard on day five. If it's already out of date, no amount of chart styles will fix that.
Nine trackers compared at a glance
| Tool | How it shows status | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Airtable | Build-your-own tracker | Custom trackers with shareable reporting |
| Bitrix24 | All-in-one workspace | Tasks next to CRM and meetings |
| Businessmap | Portfolio status and forecast | Portfolio status tied to OKRs |
| Orangescrum | Unlimited-user tracker | Dashboards with a self-hosted option |
| ProofHub | Collaboration with reports | Progress reports on deadlines and team performance |
| Quickbase | Custom project apps | Custom apps for complex project work |
| Rocketlane | Customer-facing progress | Showing clients delivery progress |
| Workzone | Portfolio status view | Every project's status on one screen |
| Zenkit | Many views and reports | Many views over many projects |
Who each tracker suits
Airtable
Best for: Anyone happy to build their own tracker from connected databases and workflows, then measure and share progress through its reporting.
Bitrix24
Best for: Small businesses wanting project tasks alongside CRM, meetings and team management in one wide workspace; the vendor states a free plan.
Businessmap
Best for: Leaders tracking strategic and project work together, with OKR tracking on one dashboard and delivery forecasts from historical data (vendor's description).
Orangescrum
Best for: Teams wanting reports, dashboards, risk management and financial tracking in plan, track and deliver views, with a self-hosted option on the vendor's page.
ProofHub
Best for: Collaboration-heavy teams seeing task statuses, Gantt charts and progress reports on deadlines and team performance in one place (vendor's description).
Quickbase
Best for: Organisations building custom apps for complex projects, bringing teams, equipment and capacity into one place, with an AI app builder called Pave.
Rocketlane
Best for: Services teams delivering customer projects who want clients to see progress, with risk alerts and resourcing built in (vendor's claim).
Workzone
Best for: Managers who want every project and task in one view, from portfolio status to the next deliverable, without building reports from scratch.
Zenkit
Best for: Multi-project teams switching between Kanban, table, Gantt and mind map views, with over 100 ready-made reports in a real-time dashboard (vendor claim).
Four ways these tools surface progress
Ready-made portfolio views. Workzone is built around seeing every project and task in one place, from portfolio status down to the next deliverable, and says you can see capacity and progress without building reports from scratch. Businessmap works higher up, tying portfolio status to OKRs on one dashboard and forecasting delivery from historical data, and it's positioned for larger organisations.
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Collaboration tools with built-in reports. ProofHub pairs task statuses and Gantt charts with reports on progress, team performance and deadlines. Zenkit offers Kanban, table, Gantt and mind map views over many projects, all feeding one real-time dashboard. Orangescrum lists dashboards and reports with a self-hosted option, which matters if your project data has to stay on your own servers.
Build-your-own platforms. Airtable and Quickbase let you design the tracker yourself: the first through connected databases, workflows and reporting, the second through apps for complex project work, including an AI app builder. Both are flexible, but you set the tracking up yourself, so someone has to own it and keep it tidy.
Status for people outside the team. Rocketlane is built for customer delivery projects, giving clients visibility into progress and flagging delivery risks early, according to the vendor. Bitrix24 is a wide all-in-one suite where tasks sit next to CRM, meetings and team management, so status lives where sales and service teams already work.
My advice before you commit to a tracker
Choose around the one screen you'll open every Monday. If that's a portfolio view for leadership, start with the tools that show portfolio status out of the box. If your team already lives in a collaboration tool, a tracker with good built-in reports saves a migration. If your process is unusual, a build-your-own platform will fit better, as long as someone owns the set-up. And if clients are the ones asking where things are, a client-facing tool removes a whole category of status emails.
Tracking is one slice of a bigger picture. If you're still choosing the main tool your team plans in, see my list of project management software. For timelines and dependencies, Gantt chart software shows them more clearly, and time tracking software covers the hours that progress reports often lean on.
Run a one-week tracking trial
- Pick two tools from the list that match the screen you need, not five.
- Load one live project into each, with its real tasks and the real people doing them.
- Ask the team to work as normal and change nothing about how they update.
- On day five, compare each dashboard with what you know is true from talking to the team.
- Keep the tool whose status was still right without anyone being chased.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a project tracking tool?
It's software that shows the status and progress of your projects, usually through dashboards, status views and reports, so you can see what's on track and what isn't without asking around.
How is project tracking different from project management software?
Project management software covers planning, tasks and collaboration. Tracking focuses on visibility: rolling up progress, showing status across projects and reporting it to the people who need it.
How do I track several projects at once?
Use a tool with a portfolio or multi-project view that rolls up status from each project automatically, so you're not stitching separate reports together by hand.
What should a project status dashboard show?
At minimum, each project's overall status, progress against plan, upcoming deadlines and anything at risk. Keep it short enough to read in a minute.
Can I track projects in a spreadsheet?
You can, and plenty of teams start that way. It tends to break once several people update it or you run more than a handful of projects, because status stops rolling up on its own.
How often should project status be updated?
Ideally whenever the work changes, which is why status that updates from finished tasks beats a weekly field someone has to remember to edit.
