If you’ve ever run a business, you know how tough it can get. Operations, projects, finances, marketing, customer relationships, sales - there’s always something to be worried about. At times, it feels like a hopelessly endless cycle. But here’s the good news. You don’t have to do it all alone!
Technology has brought so many improvements to businesses operations. The right tools can automate workflows, ensure teams collaborate more efficiently and both clients and finances are managed at top level. So, what are the best solutions out there? Here’s the top business and project management tools that companies from different industries are relying on in 2025:
- GanttPRO
- ProofHub
- GanttProject
- QuickBooks
- FreshBooks
- Xero
- Webflow Studio
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Maikchimp
- HubSpot
- Semrush
Let’s see what benefits they bring to the table.
Project Management Tools
GanttPRO
If you do the research on project management apps’ reviews, the most common characteristics that are mentioned for GanttPRO is intuitiveness and accessibility. It makes sense since its approach focused on clear visualization makes complex project scheduling and management feasible to teams of all technical levels.
GanttPRO is a truly powerful online Gantt chart software that becomes more and more functional each year. Their interactive charts with a fast-loading drag-and-drop interface works very well to adjust tasks and manage dependencies instantly. Besides, task bars with color differentiation combined with customizable task details like status, priority, progress etc. makes complex tasks more manageable. For effective prioritization,you can use the critical path feature which highlights tasks that make the most difference in terms of timely project completion.
Its collaboration features adhere to the best practices applied in PM tools in 2025. The app focuses on efficient communication within the tasks, in-app file sharing, alerts and a centralized hub to keep track of all the communication. They have also added an insightful dashboard view recently that allows you to track project performance alongside reports, baselines and general visual indicators. The platform also offers features to work with project resources and assign tasks based on the cross-project workload and availability of each member.
ProofHub
One more tool in this category is ProofHub. It is powerful, feature-rich project management software that allows users to plan projects, break them into small tasks that can be easily delegated, and facilitate team collaboration from one place.
The platform comes with a powerful built-in Gantt chart software to plan projects, set dependencies, track progress against the baseline, and evaluate the impact of delays on the project timeline.
The standout feature of the platform is centralized task management. You can create tasks, add task descriptions, set start and due dates, and attach files. Each task has a unique task ID and space. You can use @mentions to tag users in the task space and upload files related to the task. This organizes and streamlines task collaboration.
Besides these features, you get advanced project management functionality such as multiple project views including board and table, calendar, time tracking, project reports, custom workflow, integrations, custom permissions, and templates.
GanttProject
Not all businesses need a complete or advanced project management experience. This is where GanttProject can come into play as a trusted option for when you seek something straightforward and simple without extra costs and complexity. This open-source solution focuses on three key project management areas: creating tasks with dependencies, managing resources at the basic level and using project data to generate reports.
The 2025 release introduces improved import/export capabilities that better integrate with other business software. Teams can now seamlessly transfer data between GanttProject and popular enterprise resource planning systems, creating more cohesive workflows across organizations.
Don’t get confused with the complicity, though. The software is still suitable to handle a certain level of complexity with plenty of tasks without crashing. What’s more, that simplicity allows the app to operate fast on any hardware and OS.That’s really nice if you hate to stare at the “loading” page.
Financial Management and Accounting
QuickBooks
Ask your network about financial management tools they are using or have used, and most will mention QuickBooks. Its Online Advanced version can be rightfully aced in the top position in financial management software. The 2025 version introduces advanced machine learning to financial management and automates transaction categorization. This enhancement allows the system to learn from your corrections, and improve the understanding of the patterns of your financial decisions and operations.
The platform now adds predictive cash flow analysis. This marks it easier to anticipate undesirable shortfalls. For small and medium scale businesses, it is really helpful, especially when operating in uncertain economic conditions with tight margins.
QuickBooks Online Advanced keeps adding integrations partners, expanding the reach to popular e-commerce platforms, payment processors, and banking apps. If you are a frequent user of financial management and accounting software, you will definitely understand how great it is for a unified workflow.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is still a favorite accounting tool among service-oriented businesses and freelancers. The software doesn’t stay still and makes improvements for their customers as well. For example, the time-tracking features now let you capture billable hours more accurately and easily.
The invoice customization options have undergone some changes in 2025. Now, your invoices can be not only professional and compliant, but also reflect the visual identity of the business brand. The automated payment reminders have taken a more balanced approach allowing you to be persistent to get paid faster, but still remaining professional and friendly relationships with clients.
FreshBooks' reporting now comes with industry benchmarks. This means that you can look at your performance and assess it against similar companies. First of all, it helps identify room for improvement. Secondly, it shows if you’re following successful financial strategies or need to shift.
Xero
The last one in the category is Xero. It is a powerful contender in the accounting software category, especially if your business operates in an international context. The platform has improved their multi-currency feature by adding real-time exchange rate updates. Plus, you’ve got more accurate forecasting possibilities to operate globally.
In 2025, you may also benefit from improved inventory management if you’re running a retail or manufacturing business. That is because the system now allows you to track inventory levels in various locations, and alerts business when stock needs reordering. Very nice addition to optimize purchasing decisions and ensure a lean approach.
Xero's is also known for bank reconciliation capabilities. If that’s relevant for you, you’ll be happy to know that it has been also improved with smarter matching algorithms and batch processing. Many current users note that these improvements cut their reconciliation time in half!
Website Creation Tools
Webflow Studio
The greatest achievement of the last years in the tech industry is that you don’t have to be a programmer or highly technical person if you want to perform digital operations. There are many tools out there designed for any user type. Webflow Studio is one of these tools. It perfectly merges visual design with professional development. From one side, you can create a polished and responsive website without writing any code. From the other side, you still have the possibility to add some extra sophistication with the help of professional developers.
2025 comes with AI-powered assistance that analyzes your brand assets and industry best practices and suggests improvements for the layout, color schemes, and typography. This means that even if you’re not a professional designer (or don’t have any design talent at all), you can still create nicely looking websites that serve the intended purpose.
Additionally, there are some changes in e-commerce capabilities that bring a more complex experience for online stores. If price is the issue,keep in mind that the platform now offers subscriptions with modified discount structures.
WordPress
Even though it was released in 2003, WordPress continues to be the most widely-used website platform (43.5% of websites are powered by it!). The recent Quantum release addresses one of the biggest complaints users have - the loading speed. It has brought significant performance improvements, making sites load up to 60% faster than previous versions.
The block editor is now a comprehensive page-building system. That’s why you don't have to install additional software to develop complex layouts with dynamic content.
WordPress Quantum also improves the collaborative aspect making it easier for teams to work together on website content. You don’t have to exit the page so that your teammate can work on it. It’s possible to make simultaneous edits of the page. All the changes will be equally merged once published.
Shopify Commerce OS
Shopify has always excelled at helping businesses sell products online. However, their Commerce OS release is definitely going to bring it to another level transforming into a comprehensive platform to conduct business operations.
The new release is aiming to adhere to a unified commerce approach. How? By integrating inventory management, order fulfillment, CRM, and marketing automation under one platform. This means that you will be able to manage almost all, if not all, the commercial operations without the need to switch between apps, pull data from different sources and transfer it to the other ones.
Just as in case with Weblow Studio, Shopify Commerce OS makes sure that all businesses, even those without tech expertise or IT specialists, can still use and customize the workflow for their needs.You can now create truly unique shopping experiences adapted to certain customer journeys on your own regardless of your expertise in technologies.
Digital Marketing Tools
HubSpot
There have been a lot of talks about HubSpot recently. But its Marketing Hub continues to be the golden standard in digital marketing. The 2025 improvements bring more possibilities to segment the audience with the help of machine learning. This is mostly related to patterns in customer behavior that you would most probably omit without the tool.
AI has been also added to the content creation tools. There, your marketers will find writing assistance to reduce time spent on creating engaging, on-brand content. Of course, it doesn’t replace a human content creator and a human contribution, especially if you want to stand out. Nevertheless, it’s a nice addition that accelerates the process.
HubSpot's analytics have improved in terms of attribution modeling across multiple marketing channels. Your business can now follow customer journeys through socials, email, website interactions, and even offline points.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp, which has been known for a long time as an email marketing tool, can now be considered as a comprehensive marketing platform. The 2025 version has improved customer journey mapping tools, so that your business can create an optimal experience from being a prospect to becoming a loyal customer.
Automation has been upgraded with more trigger options and conditional logic. The reviews say that this upgrade allows to increase marketing output within the same team size.
Reporting has also undergone improvements. Now, it includes predictive metrics to forecast how the campaign will perform considering historical data and industry benchmarks. It works great to adjust strategies before launching campaigns, improving overall marketing ROI.
Semrush
The digital marketing landscape changes quite quickly with the development and proliferation of AI tools, and Semrush manages to maintain its toolkit in line with 2025 tendencies. The platform's SEO tools now go beyond keyword analysis and include content optimization suggestions with AI and AI search overview.
Its social media management tools have been also significantly refined with different scheduling options and performance analytics. Once again, a unified experience is a top priority. Businesses can coordinate campaigns from several platforms on a single dashboard.
Semrush's competitor analysis features now offer more precise data on advertising strategies, content performance, and keyword targeting. With this, your marketing team can identify opportunities missed by competitors and see which initiatives have not resulted in success.
Has something caught your eye?
If you’re still unsure whether investing in these tools is worth it, hopefully, this article has helped clear your doubts. Ask anyone in the industry, and they’ll admit relying on these tools to reduce manual work, gain valuable data insights, and drive business growth. No wonder, sticking to manual work is no longer a viable option.
As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, new innovations and upgrades will emerge every year, offering even more possibilities. So, at this point, using these tools isn’t just an option. It’s a necessity to survive in the market.
