Wrike Review: Cloud Based Project Management & Collaboration Platform

Wrike, (www.wrike.com) is an online cloud based project management & collaboration platform. Based out of San Jose California, Wrike task management software is their primary product offering. Since it is a web-based project management software, there are no upfront setup costs. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. With a centralized dashboard, users can track, assign and visualize projects from a single location. And this web based scheduling software makes it easy to track all your deadlines in a single view. What does Wrike have to offer?

Wrike: Cloud Based Project Management & Collaboration Platform

One of the major advantages of Wrike’s simple project management tools is that there are no infrastructure setup costs. You can literally set up the platform within minutes. Some of the major functional advantages of Wrike over its competition are as follows:

• Ability to change milestones based on dates that affect timelines in the built-in Gantt chart software.
• Invite external users/entities or vendors outside your network to collaborate and work on tasks.
• See timeline views of project progression and all its dependencies.
• Setup contingencies and maintain workflows.
• Group workspaces for real-time co-authoring.
• Time tracking software for project management and easy client billing

In addition to this, scheduling, ability to add notes & reminders can be done with ease. The website is responsive and lightweight. In addition to that, Wrike also provides you free iOS and Android project management app. A dedicated iPad app is also available for a fullscreen experience.

The Wrike mobile apps provide the following functionality:

• Capture ideas and Tasks right from the mobile app.
• Prioritize your to-do lists.
• Real-time mobile notifications & alerts.
• Mobile viewer to collaborate on documents.
• Attach photos to tasks from a mobile device.

Wrike Cost: Pricing and Planning

Wrike offers multiple pricing structures suitable for small teams to large enterprises. They also offer a free tier of up to 5 users. Here is the breakup of its cost structure:

• Free: Up to 5 users, offering basic collaboration and project management
• Professional: $9.80/user/month for a full project planning and collaboration experience. Users of 5,10 or 15 users.
• Business: $24.80/user/month targeted for businesses of up to 200 seats.
• Marketers: $34.60/user/month with unlimited users (minimum 5) billed per user when paid annually.
• Enterprise: Contact Wrike for exciting offers.

You can find more information here on the Wrike website.

Wrike External users & Email Notifications

Emails notifications are only sent when changes are made to a project task by other users. Your own changes do not trigger any notifications. The notification system is dynamic and does not reply on user settings. Users, on the other hand, can set up alerts instead. Here are the scenarios where an email notification is dynamically triggered:

• If a task assignment, Dates or assignee is changed.
• If other users mentioned you with @user tagging.
• If a new user is added to task, folder or a project.
• Changes to task description, file or comment addition.
• Reports delivery can trigger an email notification.

Here is a screenshot of the notifications settings below:

Wrike Integration with Google and Microsoft Outlook Calendar

Only Wrike users can create iCal links directly from Wrike. You can use iCalendar links for Folders & Projects, Tasks and Sub-folders. Any application which supports iCalendar should work with this feature. Here are the highlights:

• Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar or Calendar for Mac, for example, any iCalendar compatible app should work fine.
• Wrike system uses iCalendar or Web Calendar link.
• You can export tasks from Project folders into a calendar link. This includes subfolders as well.

Here is a screenshot for your reference:

Wrike Reports, Dashboards & Templates

You can build customizable reports from your tasks and projects pane. Reports will refresh the data automatically at runtime. This ensures that you are always greeted with up to date information. As you would have guessed, external project collaborators can only read the reports, but cannot create any. The predefined Wrike report templates give you instant access to business insights. With data and reports readily available, setting expectations with clients becomes much easier.

Here is a snapshot of a sample Wrike Dashboard:

Getting started with Wrike:

You can get started with Wrike Cloud Based Project Management & Collaboration Platform right away. We hope you like our review. For any suggestions or clarifications, please drop us a comment below in the comment section. Cheers!