In this ClickUp review, we’ll go over the platform in detail, including its features, usability, security, integrations, and even customer support.
TL;DR
- Range of features: 8/10. The platform offers a good range of features, but the tool’s automations are not as flexible.
- User interface and usability: 6/10. ClickUp is easy to use for simpler tasks, but users feel lost when they are using the tool’s customization options.
- Security measures: 4/10. ClickUp’s security sounds good on paper, but a Redditor has found a significant security loophole.
- Integrations: 6/10. The tool offers a good range of native integrations, but not as many as its competitors.
- Customer support: 9/10. Customers are happy with the level of customer support and learning materials they were provided with.
- Pricing model: 9/10. The pricing starts from $7/month/user, which is some of the industry’s lowest, and some users have reported receiving significant discounts.
Average rating: 7/10.
ClickUp Overview
ClickUp is a cloud-based project management software that lets you automate your workflows and manage your tasks.
The platform offers Gantt charts, board views, and portfolios that you can use to simplify your work and project management & advanced reporting features to manage stakeholders.
The tool positions itself as an all-in-one platform that combines communication, project management, reporting, and task management.
Instead of constantly switching apps and being distracted, losing context all of the time with project tasks, the platform helps you declutter your workflows and improve your team’s productivity.
ClickUp is a good option for business owners and freelancers looking for customization options so they can tailor the platform for different use cases and industries.
💡 Since the aim of this article is to review ClickUp, I’ll be giving my unbiased ratings on the platform’s features, interface, security, integrations, and customer support.
Let’s dive deeper into the software’s features: 👇
ClickUp’s Core Features
Team Collaboration
ClickUp offers a neck-to-neck competition with other project management tools regarding team collaboration and communication features.
It helps you loop in stakeholders through comments and @mentions, talk with the team in-app, and assign tasks to multiple team members.
Additionally, it offers native docs and whiteboard features centralizing knowledge management. You can brainstorm with your team, map out project priorities, or create detailed proposals to share with clients.
Advanced Reporting Dashboards
ClickUp offers customizable dashboards to visualize project performance and give real-time insights.
Dashboards act like a focal point, enabling you to centralize different spaces to get a holistic view easily and quickly.
You can customize dashboards with 40+ cards, including charts, calendars, embeds, priority, chats, sprints, and custom.
Flexible Work Views
ClickUp offers 10 views to help you focus on your priorities in the way you want.
- Timeline view: Let users see project schedules and deadlines at a glance
- List view: The most straightforward way to show tasks in a vertical list format
- Board view: Organizes tasks into columns, similar to a Kanban board
- Gantt chart view: Shows tasks as horizontal bars on a timeline, depicting schedules, dependencies, and progress
- Workload view: Visualizes team members' workloads, helping managers balance task distribution
- Calendar view: Showcase tasks, deadlines, and events on a traditional calendar interface
- Table view: Presents task data in a spreadsheet-like format
- Map view: Plots location-based tasks on a map
- Activity view: Shows a chronological feed of recent actions and updates
- Box view: Organizes tasks into customizable boxes or containers
The best part is that views aren’t limited to task levels. Your team can create views at folder level, space, or even for the entire workspace.
Built-In Time Tracking
ClickUp offers a native time tracking field to set time estimates for each task that your team is working on – which I find to be particularly useful for service businesses that need to bill their clients for time spent on tasks.
The platform also lets you sync time tracking through integration with time-tracking apps like Toggl to improve your team’s productivity.
ClickUp Chat
ClickUp offers a different kind of chat functionality – one that helps you create and manage work while messaging by turning messages into tasks with one click.
The platform’s AI functionality helps you turn conversations into tasks and docs.
ClickUp will also give you suggested answers, summarize threads and discussions, and automatically create the tasks.
Rating: 8/10.
ClickUp offers a good variety of features for various use cases and industries. But the platform is not the ‘’everything app’’ that they are trying to portray themselves with.
For example, the platform’s automations are not that flexible, and technical teams claim on G2 that the platform was not built for software development, as everything is based on lists.
That means if you need a separate entity or any other attribution, it should be covered via lists.
‘’It is not fully prepared for software development processes. Everything Is based on lists; if you need a separate entity or any other attribution, it should be covered via lists.’’ - G2 Review.
ClickUp’s Interface: Is It Easy To Use?
ClickUp’s interface – at first glance – looks easy to use and navigate.
When I was reviewing the platform’s UI, I had no trouble assigning tasks or setting up the Spaces inside the platform.
Despite that, I found on G2 that other businesses did not find it as easy and intuitive when they wanted to use the platform for more complex tasks.
For example, a product manager has shared in a G2 review that the way some of the platform’s features work has been unclear for their team.
They explain that ClickUp’s ‘’me mode’’ and filters have taken them days and conversations with customer support about how to use them so they can see only tasks and sub-tasks assigned to them.
The product manager then goes into detail about the abundance of customization that has been too much to handle – eventually giving up trying to customize certain elements of the platform.
The result has been that their team has started feeling ‘’insecure’’ about using the platform as they feel like they have limited control over the platform.
‘’Bottom line: I feel insecure when I use ClickUp. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I fear losing tasks just because after a couple of weeks of using ClickUp on an everyday basis I still feel that I don't have control over it. And as a product manager control it's what I need.’’ - G2 Review.
Rating: 6/10.
The platform is easy to use and navigate if you plan on using it for basic tasks, such as allocating tasks to your employees and then tracking progress.
But things can get messy when it comes to customizing the platform and setting up automations.
ClickUp’s Security Measures
ClickUp has been described as safe by popular security review websites, such as UpGuard, which gives it an A rating (822/950).
ClickUp uses encryption to safeguard your information, helping you ensure that your projects and communications remain private and secure.
If you’re on ClickUp’s Enterprise plan, you will get access to:
- Advanced permissions for access.
- SSO.
- Advanced public sharing to better protect your documents.
It all sounds good on paper – until this Reddit post was published 9 months ago discussing ClickUp’s security loopholes.
According to the Redditor, with ClickUp, your attachments, clips, and forms (items) are all completely publicly accessible.
This is because they have a link that anyone can access, even without a ClickUp account with no authentication required.
This problem was originally raised in 2021, and despite ClickUp’s team ‘’fixing’’ the problem, the documents are still temporarily public for 1 hour.
Rating: 4/10.
Despite ClickUp’s best efforts to be a compliant and protected platform, there are still security concerns that they need to address.
I cannot possibly give them a higher rating than 4, as this privacy problem still exists.
ClickUp’s Integrations
Despite being a powerful project management platform, ClickUp offers only 45 native integrations and public API to build custom integrations.
As ClickUp tries to be ‘’the everything app’’, they have fewer integrations as they prefer to build features inside of their platform.
The platform also connects with Zapier to let you connect with over 1,000 apps, which comes at an additional cost for a Zapier subscription.
Some of ClickUp’s native integrations include:
- Tableau Web connector.
- Microsoft teams.
- GitHub.
- Slack.
- Discord.
- Hubspot.
Rating: 6/10.
ClickUp technically has a good range of integrations, but when compared to other platforms on the market, such as Monday.com (200+ native integrations), the tool is coming short.
ClickUp’s Customer Support
ClickUp has been ‘’spoiling’’ its customers with excellent and timely customer service, according to the majority of G2 reviews.
According to users of the platform, the platform offers good support through its chat and forum.
‘’ClickUp provides excellent support. A couple of days ago, I got stuck on some issues, but I was able to find solutions easily through its forum.’’ - G2 Review.
If you’re on their Enterprise plan, you’ll also get access to:
- Live onboarding training.
- Customer success manager.
Rating: 9/10.
Despite the occasional dissatisfied customer with customer support (every tool has a few of them), pretty much everyone has been happy with the attention they’ve been given by support.
ClickUp’s Pricing Model: Does It Provide A Good Value For Money?
ClickUp offers a free plan that includes unlimited task creation, access to 100 MB storage, and collaborative docs.
The platform offers three paid plans with a 14-day free trial:
- Unlimited: Starts at $7 per user/month, which includes access to unlimited custom views, timesheets, guest access, and 100 mind map creation.
- Business: Starts at $12 per user/month and adds private docs, sprint reporting, and all dashboard views.
- Enterprise: Custom price that adds white labelling, enterprise-grade security, and AI features.
➡️ You can learn more about what you’ll get in each paid tier in our comprehensive ClickUp pricing guide.
According to 3rd-party data from Vendr, ClickUp’s Enterprise plan can go up to $30/month/seat, and the average contract value is $24,256 a year from the 13 deals the site has handled for ClickUp.
Rating: 9/10.
Considering the vast amount of features, customization and automations that the platform offers, a starting price of $7/month/seat is a pretty good deal.
Bonus insights from Vendr that I found include that a customer was able to negotiate a decent discount on the Business plan from $12/month/seat down to $8/month/seat by committing to growth over the term and signing an early renewal.
How Does ClickUp Compare To Alternatives On The Market?
💡 You can check out our in-depth comparison of ClickUp vs. Asana vs. SmartSuite, where we cover the 3 best-in-class project management tools.
What Are Customers Saying About ClickUp?
Throughout this article, I’ve been showing you a glimpse of the users’ opinions on ClickUp – but let’s dive deeper.
TL;DR: ClickUp’s users recommend it for customizability and adaptability – but warn that there is a huge learning curve.
What users love about ClickUp:
- High customizable dashboards – users appreciate how customizable ClickUp is, as they can create custom workflows and views to match their IT workflow.
- Integration with connective platforms like Zapier to automate tasks.
- Built-in team communication (ClickUp Chat), time tracking, and document creation.
‘’I like how customizable ClickUp is. The ability to create custom workflows and views to match our workflow has been a great benefit for my IT department. The flexibility in organizing tasks and milestones helps us stay on track, particularly with complex projects. ClickUp also integrates well with other tools, such as Zapier, allowing us to automate tasks. ClickUp has improved my team's collaboration and project tracking.’’ - G2 Review.
‘’We use ClickUp every day to manage multiple projects. As an engineer, I appreciate how ClickUp can be used for simple to-do lists and scaled up to a comprehensive team management and complex project management tool. It is an excellent communication platform with various options for viewing tasks, milestones, decisions, opportunities, and reminders. These features help visualise objectives and goals in a meaningful and engaging way and bridge the gaps between different teams within the organisation.’’ - G2 Review.
Common complaints about ClickUp:
- An extensive range of features comes with a huge learning curve, especially for project management beginners.
- Slow loading speed for dashboard spaces, especially when multiple people are working.
- Feature usage limitations often push users to jump to higher-tier plans.
‘’If ClickUp worked properly, it would be a great choice. It doesn’t, to the point that it because unusable for my team due to performance issues. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend it as a result.’’ - Reddit comment.
‘’One of the challenges I face with ClickUp is the wide variety of features that can sometimes be overwhelming, especially for new users of ClickUp. While it's highly customizable, there is a steep initial learning curve. The complexity of ClickUp requires some time to get everyone up to speed.’’ - G2 Review.
Verdict: Is ClickUp Really Worth It?
So far, I've rated ClickUp:
- Range of features: 8/10.
- User interface and usability: 6/10.
- Security measures: 4/10.
- Integrations: 6/10.
- Customer support: 9/10.
- Pricing model: 9/10.
Which gives ClickUp an average rating of 7/10 for me.
To summarize:
ClickUp is the ideal choice if you:
✅ Are looking for a highly customizable project management tool.
✅ Require multiple view options like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and timelines
✅ Need integrated project management, time tracking, collaboration, and reporting features.
ClickUp isn’t the best option if you:
❌ Would rather have a simpler, more intuitive interface without a steep learning curve.
❌ Require best-in-class data security and protection of your team’s documents and uploads.
❌ Need a tool that natively integrates with more platforms from the ones you’re using.
Looking For A ClickUp Alternative?
Despite ClickUp’s range of features and affordable pricing model, some customers are still finding faults with the product’s usability, security measures, and steep learning curve.
Across the ClickUp alternatives, SmartSuite (that’s us) is one of the most affordable, easy-to-use, and feature-packed platforms.
- Our platform offers better task management capabilities through 40+ fields, including a linked records field.
- SmartSuite has built-in team collaboration tools like email integration, whiteboards, and a member directory.
Let’s look at some key features that make SmartSuite the best ClickUp alternative.
#1: Advanced task management
SmartSuite’s task management feature helps small—to large-sized organizations plan, manage, and track all their tasks in an intuitive dashboard.
One key area where SmartSuite really shines over ClickUp is that in our platform, you can turn anything into a task—a checklist item, comments, or sub-item. You can also quickly assign these tasks to the right stakeholder with a due date and priority status.
Other key features that stand out about SmartSuite include:
- 7+ task views: SmartSuite offers over seven task views, including Grid, Kanban boards, Card, Calendar, Timeline, Map, and Chart. All the views are available starting from its free plan, letting you build more flexible workspaces.
- Native time tracking: Your team can keep track of time on every task or project by adding a time field in your workspace.
You also get to generate timesheet reports to accurately view billable and non-billable hours and track your team’s productivity levels.
- Set up recurring tasks: It is possible to automate routine tasks within a specific record by setting it as a repeating task. Choose the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly), set the task status, and choose the day/date to start the repeating cycle.
- My work section: A dedicated section where you get a granular view of all the tasks assigned to you, notifications you received, and comments that need your attention.
You can group the tasks by assigned date, priority level, or progress status. My work section creates a dedicated space, making task management a breeze for all of your team members and keeping them on their due dates.
#2. Integrated team collaboration
Our platform focuses on facilitating integrated communication with less contextual switching.
SmartSuite’s comprehensive team collaboration feature is replete with tools to ensure team members get real-time updates, share feedback or approvals, and keep external clients updated.
Some key features that boost a team’s productivity include:
- Comments to task conversion: You can convert any comment into an action item within a record or a field within a record. Also, you can assign these tasks to team members and track their progress in real-time.
- Member’s Directory: Your leadership team will get a complete list of all your team members in a single dedicated space and get access to information such as their department, position, location, timezone, etc.
To find the right member/s, you can use grouping or filtering options without manually scrolling through the list.
- Email integration: Integrating your email account with SmartSuite and sending and receiving emails within your workspace so you do not have to switch.
And the best part? SmartSuite offers an intuitive mobile app that lets you stay in touch with co-workers on the go.
#3. Flexible automation builder
SmartSuite offers automation starting from its free plan, similar to ClickUp.
However, SmartSuite’s automation builder is much more user-friendly and lets you automate actions across workspaces—on a task or overall project level.
It gives you more power to automate and build processes that handle recurring tasks such as status updates or follow-up emails.
The automation builder offers no-code functionality to build simple one-liner sequences or multi-step flows through triggers, conditions, and actions.
Your team can choose the prebuilt actions or integrate SmartSuite with email, file storage, messaging, or SMS platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Suite, Slack, and Calendars to build custom actions.
You can, for example, authorize your account by selecting the Gmail integration action, specify your email addresses, and customize your message.
This email will be sent when the trigger and its conditions are met.
Get Started with SmartSuite For Free Today
If you want to customize your workspace to the last bit and need a tool that does it all, ClickUp is the ideal choice.
But with such flexibility comes a higher learning curve and slow loading time when your projects grow in numbers.
SmartSuite’s platform helps you tackle this by offering just the right customization and a library of 200+ project management templates to get your projects up and running.
It’s also as user-friendly and intuitive as it gets, unlike ClickUp which leaves its users feeling helpless.
Here’s what's in it for your team when you try SmartSuite:
- Access to a generous free plan with features including multi-board views (Kanban, Chart, Map, Timeline, Card, and Calendar), 100 automation/month, and 40+ field types, including formula and linked record fields.
- No-code automation builder to set up to 500,000 trigger/action workflows.
- Built-in productivity tools, including time tracking, status tracking, and checklists.
- Team collaboration and planning tools such as whiteboards and SmartSuite docs.
- Resource management across projects and teams.
- 40+ field types, including the option to add your custom fields.
Sign up for a free plan to test the water or get a 14-day free trial to explore all its amazing features.
Or, if you’d like to talk to our team of experts, schedule a demo.
