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Best of Productivity Software 2021

January 6th, 2021 33 min read

The Productivity Software category for the Best Of Awards encompasses a wide range of applications that help better facilitate time management, as well as the organization of tasks and information. In the fast-paced world of business where there are many moving parts, it is absolutely critical for users to be able to stay organized and on top of their tasks. This year, TrustRadius is awarding the best in customer support, feature set, and usability among some of the most common categories of Productivity Software in use today.

This year, the Best of Productivity Software winners are:

Best Customer Support – Appointment Scheduling

  • Calendly, 1st Place
  • Acuity Scheduling, 2nd Place
  • Doodle, 3rd Place

Best Feature Set – Appointment Scheduling

  • Calendly, 1st Place
  • Acuity Scheduling, 2nd Place
  • Doodle, 3rd Place

Best Customer Support – Diagramming 

  • Lucidchart, 1st Place

Best Feature Set – Diagramming

  • Lucidchart,1st Place

Best Customer Support – Knowledge Management 

  • Bloomfire, 1st Place

Best Usability – Knowledge Management 

  • Bloomfire, 1st Place

Best Feature Set – Knowledge Management

  • Bloomfire, 1st Place

Best Customer Support – Product Lifecycle Management

  • Arena, 1st Place

Best Usability – Product Lifecycle Management

  • Arena, 1st Place

Best Feature Set – Product Lifecycle Management

  • Arena, 1st Place

Best Customer Support – Project Management

  • GanttPRO, 1st Place
  • ClickUp, 2nd Place
  • Wrike, 3rd Place

Best Usability – Project Management

  • Wrike, 1st Place

Best Feature Set – Project Management

  • monday.com, 1st Place
  • ClickUp, 2nd Place
  • GanttPRO, 3rd Place

Best Customer Support – Task Management

  • Todoist, 1st Place

Best Feature Set – Task Management

  • Todoist, 1st Place

Best Feature Set – Workflow Management

  • Comindware Tracker, 1st Place

Best Appointment Scheduling Customer Support

Now more than ever, with many offices working remotely, Appointment Scheduling is key for employees to stay synchronized during these unprecedented times. It is crucial for vendors to be able offer support with any number of problems or processes which could arise in the use of technically complex software, especially for something which many people will rely on as a cornerstone of their productivity. It is for this reason we have chosen to celebrate the following products for their outstanding customer support in the category of Appointment Scheduling:

Calendly, 1st Place

Customer Support Score: 9.2

Customers praise the company’s extensive help section, as well as the ease of access to these resources. They also spoke highly of the prompt, thorough and efficient responses provided by the customer support team.

“Their support is pretty good. I have had to contact them a couple of times because I needed help with setting up my integrations. The time taken to resolve my query could have been faster but overall it was a pretty good experience.” 

  • Verified User , Account Manager in Sales | Hospital and Healthcare Company, 10,001+ employees

Acuity Scheduling, 2nd Place

Customer Support Score: 8.9

Many customers were pleased with the comprehensive help center and quick turnaround time. Their single gripe? a lack of phone support, which while many admitted would be helpful, did not turn them away from the purportedly excellent email support.

“Every time I had a question on how to do something or had any issues with Acuity Scheduling, mainly in the very beginning, when I was learning the platform, customer service was excellent. They were prompt to respond, friendly, and very helpful until I had the right solution.”

  • Katelyn Silva, Sole Proprietor | The Author MentorE-Learning, 1-10 employees

Doodle, 3rd Place

Customer Support Score: 8.4

While customers praised this vendor’s prompt and thorough responses, many were pleased to report that they didn’t even need to contact them, having extensive built-in support and ease of use.

“Support has been most helpful and responsive any time I have needed them, but to be honest, the structure is so easy that I have rarely needed support to intervene.”

  • Scott Welborn, Executive Administrative Assistant | Hayes Barton Baptist ChurchReligious Institutions, 11-50 employees

Best Appointment Scheduling Feature Set

These days, appointment scheduling software tends to include more than just an online calendar. They may scale to include backend automation (e.g. inventory management, workforce management), or front desk tools (e.g. Point of Sale). The following are the winners for the Best Feature Set among Appointment Scheduling Software

Calendly, 1st Place

Customers were particularly satisfied with Calendy’s ability to synchronize with their existing calendars, as well as its robust automation capabilities. 

“We used Calendly for a few different things. One was across the organization for getting the meetings scheduled for our Sales Team, and the other was to schedule interviews for our research project. We needed to collect interviews and make sure that we could send out the information ahead of it with notes. “

  • Katya Hill, Product Marketing Manager | QwilFinancial Services, 51-200 employees

Acuity Scheduling, 2nd place

Third party integration was one of the biggest selling points for customers, as well as helpful features like appointment confirmation emails and reminders.

“It is an easy to use scheduling platform that integrates well with other software (namely Google Calendar, Google Analytics, Zoom, Infusionsoft, and Mailchimp in my case). My schedule is already hectic enough without trying to fit in appointments. With Acuity, I can set the business hours, set a buffer before and after each appointment, and let it work out the scheduling with my Google Calendar. It does what it’s meant to do (scheduling) well, and it has an appealing price point.”

  • Ashlie Pappas, Founder | Naturally Ashlie, IncHealth, Wellness and Fitness, 1-10 employees

Doodle, 3rd Place

Google Calendar sync was a particularly popular feature Doodle employed, as well as its wealth of backgrounds, characters and props.

“My team is using Doodle to schedule meetings and find common times for all participants. Usually, we would send emails to confirm meeting times and RSVPs, but find that a tool like Doodle makes that process much easier. Whether you’re organizing a business meeting, finding a convenient event time, or RSVPing for an activity, Doodle helps.”

  • Verified User, Employee in Information Technology | Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

Best Diagramming Customer Support

When it comes to creating diagrams, flow charts, and maps for org charts, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with how complex things can quickly become! In situations like this, it is critical for vendors to be able to provide excellent support to help customers navigate any technical issues which may arise. The following products won our award for having excellent customer satisfaction ratings in the category of Diagramming Software.

Lucidchart, 1st Place

Customer Support Score: 8.4

Customers have praised Lucidchart’s extremely comprehensive FAQ section, as well as their easy to use support ticketing system. A fast turnaround time was also mentioned by many as a major selling point.

“The team is always available to answer questions on Instagram or through their live chat, and we get calls from them about once a year asking if we’re happy with stuff or want to upgrade our service. Overall, they have been really professional, and I can see that they really enjoy developing their software and helping companies with diagram creation services.”

  • David Cassel, Solution Manager Consultant | Integration Solution ServicesInformation Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

Best Diagramming Feature Set

Some diagramming software includes collaboration tools to share or allow groups to edit work, more advanced or complete templates, and extensive libraries of objects and support for custom object creation.More advanced diagrams and flow charts may integrate data or images from other applications or in turn produce outputs integrable into presentations. Below are winners of our Best Feature Set award for Diagramming software:

Lucidchart, 1st Place

Lucidchart appears to incorporate many excellent features, including auto-saving, cloud-based workflow, and a wealth of diagram options and styles. 

“We use Lucid Chart for all manner of graphically representative applications. We use it to map out our internal processes, workflows, and frameworks for various projects. We have started providing access to our clients to display user experience processes and allow them to edit our working files directly.” 

  • Andrew Knight, Director | KnightRiley Strategic MarketingMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

Best Knowledge Management Customer Support

Knowledge Management Software provides users a platform for sharing frequently requested or needed information. As a result, having downtime or technical issues across such a platform can adversely affect an entire team. Externally facing knowledge sharing systems can provide FAQs for customers or site visitors, Wikis and forums, or support customer self-service. Below are the winners of our Best in Customer Support for Knowledge Management software.

Bloomfire, 1st Place

Customer Support Score: 8.5

Bloomfire’s real time support, as well as willingness to integrate consumer suggestions, were all major selling points among reviewers.

“Support has been first rate. The team communicates very clearly and is always quick to respond. They are a patient lot as they guide you through the answers and will proactively highlight a better way to achieve a desired result. Also, Bloomfire community itself is very helpful where users from other organizations ask their questions which we can refer to for instant solutions.”

  • Verified User, General Manager in Product Management | Online Media Company, 1001-5000 employees

Best Knowledge Management Usability

Because knowledge-sharing platforms need to be accessed by many different people within an organization, it is vital that these applications be responsive, approachable, and easy to use. Below are the winners of the Usability category for Knowledge Management.

Bloomfire, 1st Place

Many have praised Bloomfire’s ease of use, so much so that there was little in the way of a need for customer support! People appreciate its intuitive and user-friendly layout in addition to its extensive search capability.

“Bloomfire is an easy-to-use platform for posting information and asking questions of my peers. It also has a user-friendly search capability. Yet like any other CMS, the secret to success rests in such items as the ability to use metadata to tag content or posts, and Bloomfire provides a wide range of options to make posting content and subsequently searching for it.” 

  • Paul Scianna, Managing Chair | C12 Group – Greater Kansas City AreaManagement Consulting, 1-10 employees

Best Knowledge Management Feature Set

Knowledge sharing software may be designed to support specific use cases. Internal knowledge management systems can include work instructions (especially for technical work), onboarding instructions or HR documentation, or standard operating procedures (SOPs). Below are the winners of the Best Feature Set category for Knowledge Management software.

Bloomfire, 1st Place

Bloomfire’s robust options for posting and searching content were all things customers appreciated, citing the extensive search features in particular.

“It’s an incredible resource for gathering all our info and documents for each manufacturer under one roof. The search function makes it essential to our daily work — I have an entire screen and browser window devoted to multiple Bloomfire tabs at all times. The “question” post function save us so much time by removing redundancies, allowing us to have faster and more accurate responses real-time for our external customers on the phone. It also allows us to have better manufacturer partnerships due to the fact that we are not constantly pestering for the same information we got last week!”

Best Product Lifecycle Management Customer Support

Implementation of Product Lifecycle Management  (PLM) software can help an organization reduce prototype costs, increase collaboration, improve quality, shorten time to market, and ensure compliance to industry standards or regulations. With such critical goals in mind, it is necessary for vendors to offer the support needed to keep clients’ operations running smoothly. Below are the awards for Best of Customer Support among Product Lifecycle Management software

Arena, 1st Place

Customer Support Score: 8.8

Praises was given to Arena for their prompt and in-depth responses to issues and feedback.

“Customer service is outstanding. Any time I have a question, a response is provided usually within 4 hours!”

  • Kim Khoe, Director Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance | Apical InstrumentsMedical Devices, 11-50 employees

Best Product Lifecycle Management Usability

PLM software allows leaders to efficiently manage innovation or iterations to products, designs, or documents. Automated tools streamline and simplify the lifecycle management process. For this reason, intuitive usability is tantamount to success. Below are the awards for Best Product Lifecycle Management Usability.

Arena, 1st Place

Usability Score: 9.0

Arena received high marks for its increased and continued ease of use across all iterations, as well as its efficiency.

“Arena is quite easy to use and they have improved ease of use in pretty much every new release, making the environment easier and quicker to understand, making commands more efficient and streamlining the overall daily use of ARENA.”

  • Normand W., Senior R&D Eng. Technologist | Trilliant IncTelecommunications, 201-500 employees

Best Product Lifecycle Management Feature Set

Many PLM tools tend to specialize in providing solutions for specific industries. Thus, they may provide just one or several different things, including design feature management, quality management, bill of material management, and supplier relationship management, among many others. Below are the awards for the Best Feature Set among Product Lifecycle Management software.

Arena, 1st Place

Arena is once again at the top of the pack, sporting a variety of useful features such as BOM management that customers found helpful and necessary.

“Arena does a great job with creating a Bill of Materials and makes it really easy to access that information. It can be presented in many different ways to highlight critical information.”

  • Verified User, Engineer in Research & Development | Medical Device Company, 11-50 employees

Best Project Management Customer Support

Project management involves a series of processes to support the initiation, planning, execution, completion and evaluation of projects. In order to accommodate the myriad of technical considerations involved in such undertakings, it is necessary for vendors to offer top-notch customer support. Below are the winners for Best Customer Support in Project Management software.

GanttPRO, 1st Place

Customer Support Score: 8.5

Real-time support combined with a prompt turnaround and email response time made GanttPRO quite popular among consumers.

“So far, I’ve been able to reach product specialists in near real-time for tech support questions. TSR’s seem to be very knowledgeable about product functionality. I haven’t encountered any bugs, so no experience with bug resolution.”

  • Brooks Jealous, Consultant | Eastern WindComputer Software, 1-10 employees

ClickUp, 2nd Place

Customer Support Score: 9.0

Clickup has been very communicative with consumers, whether it was in response to technical issues or feedback and suggestions. Users were extremely satisfied with the prompt and friendly service, albeit not frequently required.

“Their FAQ section and other training materials are fantastic. It’s broad and useful. They have active chat and email support, which can help with technical questions as well as any issues with your account, etc. They guide you through importing exported files from other project management systems for an easy transition.”

  • Rachel Gauvin, Project Manager | Rising Tide PartnersMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

Wrike, 3rd Place

Customer Support Score: 8.4

Users have praised the responsiveness of Wrike not only to user issues, but also to suggested improvements, often integrating solutions based on customer feedback.

“The support from Wrike’s engineers, customer service, and sales rep is fantastic. Questions are answered, problems are resolved, and feedback is greatly valued. Any feedback given is translated to the engineers and has been used to upgrade the system. There is never any push back or excuses. They offer solutions which is fantastic! My only complaint is sometimes it takes a bit of time and back and forth to have questions/issues resolved.”

  • Alisha Aschmann, Marketing Associate | Sun Devil AutoAutomotive, 201-500 employees

Best Project Management Usability

Project management tools are often used by project managers as well as team members or external resources involved in a project. For this reason, usability among these resources is crucial to the project’s success. Below are the winners of the Best Usability award in Project Management software.

Wrike, 1st Place

Wrike reviewers mostly agree that the product’s usability is user friendly and intuitive, although it may take some time to get used to and understand all it’s features. Reviewers appreciate the vast usability and centralized hub Wrike provides.  

“If you learn the system and use it on a daily basis, it feels fairly intuitive. It earns a 9 out of 10 because it has a relatively steep learning curve for those that have never used a digital project management system. For those that have used other systems, they pick it up right away.” 

  • Stephanie A. Wilson, MBA, Project Manager, Collections and Interpretation | Georgia O’Keeffe MuseumMuseums & Institutions, 51-200 employees

Best Project Management Feature Set

Project management software offers a set of tools and capabilities to organize the individuals and tasks associated with a project. Features include things like task management, resource management, document management and collaboration. Below are the awards for Best Feature Set in Project Management.

Monday.com, 1st Place

Monday.com reviewers find the features that allows them to track project timelines, departments and projects as particularly useful. A high number of reviewers agree that this app can be used across multiple departments within an organization, and appreciate the private email platforms that allow collaborations across the board.

“ It helps us keep track of project deadlines, drafts and reviews, and other project management aspects. It makes it very easy for me to assign tasks to my teams, and for us to review our work at the end of the year in strategic planning meetings.” 

  • Shaelina Holmes, Director of Development and Marketing | Harvest HouseIndividual & Family Services, 11-50 employees

ClickUp, 2nd Place

ClicUp’s easy assignment, versatile customizability and innovativeness gets high praises from it’s reviewers. Product features such as email attachments, custom tags, document management and task tracking are commonly mentioned by reviewers as game changers among other product management apps.

“We use it to organize all of the clients and to assign tasks for these clients. It is super easy to add people to a task if you need help with a project or assignment. We specifically help clients with their Amazon accounts and that can consist of many things. We work on their advertising, SEO managment, storefront, Enhanced Brand Content, etc.”

  • Jordan Matthews, Account Manager | Five Star CommerceMarketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees

GanttPRO, 3rd Place

GanttPRO reviewers highly rate the features that enable viewing especially through the use of Gantt and Kanban charts, it’s ease in use for project management and collaboration, and enjoy using it’s simple drag and drop task management system. It’s online working environment is also highly appreciated by reviewers, as it allows them to work from anywhere. 

“In my master’s studies, I use GanttPRO to organize all my reading, tasks, projects, assignments, and deadlines. As a visual person, it helps me to see the workload at a glance. I also see well ahead at what time I will have insufficient resources to deal with the workload. It’s helping me to plan accordingly. It is also very helpful to manage projects with other students” 

  • Qin Tian | Durham University Research, 1-10 employees

Best Task Management Customer Support

While project management software focuses on the logical execution of individual projects within an organization, task management tools help users break out steps within a project, into more minute steps. Vendors must then be prepared to assist customers with any technical concerns involved in these mission-critical processes. Below are the winners of Best Customer Support for Task Management.

Todoist, 1st Place

Customer Support Score: 8.4

Todoist support received glowing reviews for its timely responses and quick resolution. Many reviewers appreciated Todoist’s helpful forum and support documents, stating that the product barely required assistance from customer support, but those who have contacted them praised it’s personalized response.

“I didn’t have much cause to contact support, but when I did, they were super responsive, helped me immediately and resolved the issues quickly. I give this rating because they did this while using the free account as well as the paid account – so you simply don’t find that elsewhere.”

  • Vin Campbell, Owner | Just Me ConsultingInformation Technology & Services, 1-10 employees

Best Task Management Feature Set

Although similar to Project Management, many Task Management tools offer far more granularity in their feature set. For example, while a project management tool may be great for assigning teammates to an assignment, it may struggle to clearly designate the steps within that singular assignment. For that reason, having a robust feature set within your task management suite is key. Below are the winners for Best Feature Set in Task Management.

Todoist, 1st Place

Reviewers expressed satisfaction for Todoist’s simple but attractive features which include it’s calendar integrations, multi-device sync and easy predictive language. Users mostly agree that Todoist is a powerful task management app for personal use or small teams. 

“This does everything you need. It is quick and even has an app so you can stay mobile. You can flag and categorize events. You can even add contacts and photos or uploads of quotes and what not. It has literally made me a better manager and person.”

Best Workflow Management Feature Set

Workflow software helps create, automate, and track the tasks involved with workflows. Some key features include process optimization, monitoring and controlling of processes, and creation of an audit trail, to name a few. Below are the winners for the Best Feature Set in Workflow Management.

Comindware Tracker, 1st Place

Reviewers praise Comindware Tracker’s customer support for being helpful, friendly and quick to resolve issues through phone calls, email and online chats. On top of this, reviewers are impressed at their strong community support and knowledge base shared on forums as well. 

“As a remote tutoring organization, we had to connect to our mentors from different countries across the globe. We had to assign tasks, set deadlines, monitor progress daily. And Comindware Tracker provided an excellent solution to our needs. I’d recommend it to people who need a simple and intuitive workflow management tool.”

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