In the past we have brought you the Top 5 Online Project Management Tools - a collection of the best SaaS project management tools. Here we look at the best project management tools available from Google Apps.

Project managers are likely to already use Google Apps with Google Mail, Google Docs and Google Calendars all now classified as Apps. These services are great for collaboration as everything is stored by Google, allowing you to share documents, appointments and contacts easily with anyone in the world.

Companies such as the ones below have taken advantage of Google’s popularity by designing tools that connect with other Google Apps – recognising docs, appointments, contacts and more. This is useful for project management as you don’t have to re-enter data for each project as it is skimmed from existing spreadsheets, emails etc. into a new project. These projects can then be shared with other team members, stakeholders and clients.

Using Google Apps to manage projects shows how useful cloud computing has become in the work place.

Here are the Top 5 Project Management Apps on Google App Store ranked by user rating:

1. Manymoon

The top rated Project Management App on Google Apps, Manymoon is highly popular. Integrating with your Google Docs, Google Calendar and GMail, Manymoon allows you to organise projects, tasks, docs and past conversations in an App accessible by the whole team and even clients.

Pricing: Free to check out all the features, plans ranging from $19 to $49 per month depending on amount of storage you require and number of features.

2. Mavenlink  

Mavenlink describe themselves as the ‘most comprehensive solution to manage projects, files, time, expenses, invoices, and online payments’. User feedback promotes the app as perfect for complex projects involving high levels of collaboration between multiple clients and staff. Interestingly, Mavenlink allows users to brand apps with their logos and colours – meaning that when you involve clients in projects they feel they are using your product.

Pricing: Limited Free Account – max 3 Active Projects. $39 or $79 per month for expert/guru accounts that allow more storage, projects, members and features.

3. Smartsheet

Smartsheet is designed to turn spreadsheets into projects. This is great if you already use Google Docs for collaboration as Google Spreadsheets are very basic. Smartsheet adds features such as Gantt charts, sub-tasks and discussions allowing you to turn a basic spreadsheet into a useful project.

Pricing: Free trial available. Five pricing options from $15.95 to $149 per month depending on required functions and storage from the tool.

4. Gantter

Gantter is still in development so is currently free so if you’re looking for price over functionality this is the app for you. However, because it is in development there are still a number of bugs. It seems users have problems with missing data and even missing projects . Once these bugs are sorted it should be a very good app but then it might not be so free…

Pricing: As Gantter is still in development it is currently free but they plan to start charging ‘a nominal fee’ when fully operational.

5. RapidTASK

RapidTASK makes it into the list because it is simple to use and instead of a trial version there is a permanent free option. On top of that the paid options are still very cheap compared to other similar tools. Unfortunately the app doesn’t quite live up to its name and is actually very slow. If you want to use it, go for the free version first to see how much of a hindrance this is. There are also some reported bugs – but these should be fixed in time.

Pricing: Free account with limited features or priced options of $5 or $25 per month, making this the cheapest of the priced apps.

These apps all are useful for managing projects but are more effective in the hands of a qualified project manager. PRINCE2 is the industry recognised methodology of project management so we recommend prospective project managers to come on a PRINCE2 course which will teach you how to apply the methodology to your role.

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cloud computing, prince2, PRINCE2 Tips, prince2 training, project management, project management apps, project management tools, project management training