Figuring out whether an app meets your needs can be the most time consuming part of modern technology these days. There are so many apps — choosing the wrong one can be devastating because you might add all of our tasks, train your staff, and pay for an annual subscription and only later realize you choose wrongly. As a writer, I found the Clickup app to be a wise choice for basic task management while the added value of a built-in messaging service made it ideal for small teams to collaborate and communicate at the same time.
Clickup review: Design and features
Calling Clickup a glorified spreadsheet is both a compliment and a ding at the same time. It’s not, for reasons I’ll explain, but at first glance there’s some familiarity to a product like Microsoft Excel in that you see tasks listed in rows and columns that show things like due dates and who is assigned to the task. The fact that the main part of the interface could conceivably be duplicated in Excel is not a bad thing, but it’s much more than rows and columns.
Clickup offers a way to manage tasks at its core, but there is also a calandering component, a way to store files, message team members and much more — then collaborate on all of these things in Spaces which are like team dashboards to keep your work on track. You can store all documents for a project and quickly see tasks in the Spaces view.
Clickup also has a highly capable AI called the Clickup Brain which can answer questions and help you figure out how to use the product itself, among many other uses.
Having messaging built-in to the app is a godsend. I could see a small business skipping Slack altogether and just having everything in one place. The fact that Clickup lets you store docs, message with other team members, and manage all tasks means it is tightly focused on making sure teams get their work done. Similar to other apps, you can comment on tasks and discuss what needs to happen separate from the main messaging channels.
Clickup review: Testing and impressions
I used Clickup for my everyday work for a solid month. I added dozens and dozens of tasks and invited a few colleagues to collaborate. I’ve used Monday.com and Trello extensively, as well as Airtable. Clickup falls into a nice niche where it is the most powerful when it comes to keeping you and your team on task. The four main components for projects and tasks, docs, AI assistance, and messaging all fold into the same basic dynamic of keeping everyone on tasks.
I find Monday.com to be overly complex at times, add so many layers and such a massive scope to projects that it can feel overwhelming. Not every company needs such a sprawling, massive app. Clickup has a bit more in common with Airtable since that product will be immediately familiar to anyone who has used a spreadsheet. It’s a familiar and comfortable design showing rows and columns. Not everyone loves the kanban approach of Trello which uses cards you slide around to keep everything organized.
My favorite Clickup feature is the ability to have a calculation for any column. That means you could have dozens of tasks where each one is assigned a dollar value. Let’s say you have a cleaning business. If you list each task that needs to be performed and the pay you will receive, then Clickup is a smart tool because it cuts out all of the clutter. You see the tasks, the values, and can then have a calculation for the month. It’s that “one glance” aspect of task management that makes the product easy to use and keeps you productive.
An example of the Monday.com complexity versus Clickup simplicity is when it comes to quickly finding tasks. I liked using the Clickup Brain to find tasks that are a bit buried, but I found it was easy to organize my work with lists for each month. I’ve had to do a lot more digging with other work management apps, including both Trello and Airtable.
I also liked how easy it was to customize the fields and assign color coded labels. I never even had to go through a tutorial, I just picked up the basics by trial and error. I had all of my tasks organized into months with a calculation for any dollar values all up and running in about an hour. I never had any trouble finding even more advanced features, such as formulas, because it is all spelled out and easy to understand in the interface without having to hunt around.
Clickup review: Final results
What this meant for me is that Clickup matched the way I worked and my approach to productivity. I don’t like all of the frills, I just want to get my tasks done. The calculation for any column was also my favorite feature that helped me get a clear picture of my work. Clickup is my favorite app for managing tasks and helped me stay productive.