Wrike Review: What Can the Project Management Tool Do?

Teamwork in the 21st Century is digital, networked, and mobile. Productivity depends increasingly on which software tools we use. And that makes project management platforms, like Wrike, indispensable.

We took a closer look at Wrike and will let you know how it did compared to the other solutions from our review series.

Wrike* is project management software from San José, California. First released in 2007, the platform is used by more than 20,000 businesses worldwide, ranging from multinational concerns like Siemens and Sony to small firms and agencies.

The software promises to help teams of any size, branch, or background to collaborate more effectively and complete projects more efficiently.

We've heard all that (or something like it) from nearly every project management solution we reviewed. Below, we'll let you know what Wrike can actually do.

To start using Wrike, you'll need an account, which only takes a few minutes to create. New users who want to test the platform's premium features can begin a 14-day free trial without inputting any payment information.

Users provide some information about themselves and their businesses when they register. You can use this opportunity to integrate your team and first project onto the platform as you'll be able to immediately invite teammates via email.

After registration, you'll be taken to your first project's main screen. On the right, you'll notice a brief tutorial that explains Wrike's most important features and basic concepts.

The interface doesn't need much explaining and is relatively straightforward. The Project screen is primarily divided into four areas:

Wrike's organizational hierarchy is also fairly straightforward. You'll use three elements to arrange your work: Spaces, Projects, and Tasks.

You'll likely spend most of your time in Wrike working on your projects. To create a new project, click on "+ Project" in the menu bar on the side. After that, you can fill your project with tasks.

Use the upper taskbar on the Project screen to alternate between views that emphasize various aspects of your project. The available options are:

As such, Wrike provides the most important views, even though it isn't as versatile as other platforms. ClickUp, for example, offers dedicated Milestone and Workload views, and a geographically-organized cards view.

Nevertheless, for most users, what's available should be enough. Below, you can see how Wrike's views compare to the other solutions from our sample:

Wrike offers a smartphone app (unfortunately, it doesn't allow in-app screenshots). You'll have access to your inbox, Spaces, and Projects, and can use the most important task features.

Its display and menus aren't always straightforward. In the Board view, tasks are grouped into project phases. However, the Calendar view isn't available for smartphone users. And there are occasional syncing problems too.

We would only use Wrike's mobile app for emergencies or spot checks to see how things were going since the platform's browser version is much easier to operate.

No one can accuse Wrike of being difficult to use: Its interface is sleek and modern, setting up projects takes no time, and navigating between different features and screens is effortless.

One of our few complaints is that the mobile version isn't as user-friendly as its desktop counterpart. In addition, adding a few more views would not hurt the platform either.

Each concrete action carried out as part of a project should be included in your Wrike dashboard as a task (or subtask). These can be further configured and broken down into subelements.

You can directly add a task to a view on the Projects screen, or anywhere else in the platform's interface by clicking on the plus symbol in the upper right and then "Task".

It's also possible to edit tasks in different ways. In the Table view, you can adjust task attributes in the individual fields. Click on the plus symbol in the upper right of the table to filter which fields are shown.

However, you can also click on a particular task and open a detailed view that shows its fields. These include its status, who's responsible for it, its start and end dates, description, budget, attachments, and potential subtasks or dependencies (more on this below).

You'll also find a comments section that you can use to discuss the assignment with team members.

Perhaps you'd like to add some attributes to your project that the existing fields don't cover? No problem: You'll find plenty of options in the Table view.

First, name the custom field and select a type. After that, you can describe the field type further, based on its functionality and the field's content. If you choose "Multiple select", you can add different answers and assign each a unique color.

Wrike offers the most important field types, including formulas that can automatically calculate table data. Still, the selection isn't as big as with Airtable or monday:

For larger projects that consist of many tasks, involve multiple participants, and/or have specific workflows, it can be useful to break components down further or group them into specific project milestones. All of this is possible with Wrike.

Subtasks are referred to as Subitems in Wrike. You can create them in the detailed view for a particular task. There, they'll be displayed as to-do lists, with the completion of each notated with a check in the corresponding box.

However, once you're back in the regular view, subtasks will be listed as regular tasks, which you can edit and contextualize similarly. Subtasks can even be broken down further into subsubtasks.

In the Table view, you can drag and drop tasks and even indicate subtasks by dragging a task onto another task.

In the Task view, you can define dependencies between various parts of your project. There are four kinds of dependencies:

Tasks dependent upon another task will be noted as either "Predecessor" or "Successor" in the detailed view.

For a better overview of all dependencies within your project, go to the Gantt Chart view, which visualizes them as arrows. It's also possible to define new dependencies here by drawing a line from one task to the beginning or end of another.

Milestones are another tool for effectively monitoring project progress and represent key events, like the publication of an article, or the release of a new feature.

Any task can be converted into a milestone (or vice versa) by clicking the three-dot menu in the upper right and selecting the appropriate options.

Wrike provides plenty of options and details for planning workflows and tracking progress.

What's missing are superordinate goals, such as those offered by ClickUp and Asana: It would be nice to set goals for certain Spaces (such as the number of articles per quarter) and then track them.

Below, we've provided a comparison of Wrike's task features to the other services from our review series:

Wrike offers plenty of customization options for tasks that should be enough for most projects.

Still, there could be more custom fields, particularly since choices are limited compared to tools like Airtable or Smartsheet. The same goes for team or project goals, however, apart from that, Wrike covers the most important aspects.

Teams that jointly work on projects and tasks are Wrike's main audience.

There are several ways to add a team member to your Space: You can click on the "Invite" button in the lower right of the dashboard, on the "Share" button in the upper right of your Project view, or head to Settings > User.

Whichever option you choose, you'll be able to invite your colleagues via email. Next, you can think about what kind of role they should have:

Unfortunately, there are many paywalls for user and team privileges and features are somewhat scattered.

Business subscribers are the first tier allowed to create different user groups, which helps quickly share data; custom access roles are only offered to Enterprise subscribers.

This means that options are very limited in the more affordable Team subscription and you won't be able to manage access rights or group your teammates together.

Wrike only offers basic digital collaboration features. You can assign tasks to others or tag teammates in comments and then have impromptu discussions.

Tagged users are notified (both via email and Wrike notification) and automatically made followers of the task they've been tagged in.

Wrike isn't designed for direct communication and real-time collaboration: It lacks chat and messaging features, to say nothing of collaboration tools like the ability to edit shared documents or work in real-time on whiteboards.

Still, for those who can afford the priciest subscriptions, there are some extras such as proofreading and filesharing tools.

If you're looking for an all-in-one project management/communication platform, Wrike isn't it. You'll be better off with Basecamp or ClickUp.

Below, we've provided a comparison of Wrike's collaboration features to those of the other project management programs we reviewed:

Wrike offers teams a shared platform for their projects - nothing more and nothing less. You can assign tasks and comment on them, however, for regular communication, you'll need another solution.

Depending on which subscription you selected, Wrike includes a range of additional features that we either haven't mentioned, or only discussed briefly. Some of these include:

All paid subscribers can create questionnaires and digital forms for gathering data internally or externally from customers and other users.

Request forms consist of two parts: In the Form Editor, which you'll find among your Workspace's settings, you can create and manage request forms. It's possible to add custom fields to these forms.

Forms you create can then be shared via a link with internal or external users. Your teammates will see the form in the Project view and can complete it as they would a task. Responses they provide are then stored as a task in the relevant project.

This feature helps standardize the workflow for new projects, offers, or changes. However, external forms also aren't a problem.

Team subscribers and above can use the Analytics view to check basic statistics. There, you can visualize specific aspects of your projects and show progress with interactive charts and real-time data.

There are pie charts and column and bar diagrams. Users can filter each according to specific criteria or fields.

Business subscribers get even more reporting features: They can create custom reports on-demand and summarize them in dashboards. This feature makes it possible to tailor reporting for different audiences and presentations.

Wrike's automations help reduce routine work for you and your team by automating recurring processes. You'll start by defining these with fixed rules which determine what happens when specific actions occur.

The platform offers a nice selection of such rules, however, you can also create your own. Each automation is comprised of two or three parts:

You can also specify whether automations occur across your entire Workspace or just in certain areas, as well as whether they're applied to entire projects or only specific tasks.

Overall, automations work well in Wrike: There's a solid choice of predefined rules and it's easy to create your own, highly versatile ones too.

There are plenty of ways to integrate Wrike into your existing software setup. A huge selection of integrations awaits including classic app integrations and an API.

And that's not all: Subscribers to the more expensive packages will get even more features, such as time tracking and resource management (Business subscribers and above), and budget planning (Pinnacle plan).

There are a few AI features, however, these aren't particularly remarkable.

Below we've compared Wrike's advanced features to those of the other project management platforms we reviewed:

Wrike offers plenty of tools and features apart from the basics. Our only criticism is that time tracking and budgeting tools, which would be useful for smaller teams, are hidden behind paywalls.

Wrike's help center is comprehensive and teeming with numerous video tutorials, guides, and webinars.

The Knowledge Base is particularly interesting for beginners since it's grouped into collections of helpful and informative articles like "Get Started with Wrike" and "Learn the Basics." These explain all of the platform's features.

Articles feature plenty of screenshots, tip boxes, and links, all of which help to liven up the content.

Overall, Wrike's support material does well in terms of quality and quantity. On occasion, it would be nice to know which features or processes are limited to certain subscriptions, since some might not be available in your plan.

There's also a blog and an active community forum.

Direct help is only available via a support ticket. Our email query was answered professionally within a few hours. In addition, a few days after registration, a staffer reached out to see how we were doing and to answer any questions we had.

We had a very positive experience with Wrike's support, however, a few more ways to get in touch, like a live chat, would be beneficial.

Wrike offers five subscriptions: Free, Team, Business, Enterprise, and Pinnacle.

Below, we've prepared an overview of Wrike's different subscriptions:

And how does Wrike compare to the other project management platforms we reviewed? The answer depends on which features you need.

If the free version's limitations aren't too constricting, you could get the software for a song. Even if they're not all you had hoped for, the Team subscription is a good deal.

The ranking below compares prices among all project management platforms from our review series based on how much a plan that included 10 users and unlimited projects would cost:

Wrike is a solid project management platform that provides small and large teams with a hub for monitoring and steering their projects, tasks, and milestones. It's easy to set up, intuitive to navigate, and shouldn't be a challenge for beginners.

Its different views, whether Table or Gantt Chart, allow projects to be visualized in many ways.

However, Wrike isn't as versatile as some competitors: Its Table view is limited when compared to Smartsheet or Airtable and lacks many field types; collaboration tools aren't impressive, and many useful features are behind paywalls.

Still, Wrike is a flexible solution that can be readily adjusted to the needs of any sized team and their project processes.

What do Wrike's users have to say about the platform? We read through verified reviews on reputable aggregators and summarized the most common feedback:

Are you looking for an affordable and versatile platform that you can use without purchasing multiple licenses? If so, ClickUp might be appealing, since its Premium subscription has no license minimum.

Or maybe you'd like a solution that offers more communication tools? Teamwork or Basecamp are solid options.

You can find more of the best alternatives to Wrike here: