The best project management tools for small dev teams

By Darko Bačić, founder of App Tube · 9 October 2026 · Facts checked 9 October 2026

Pick devBoard if you want a board, a timer on each task and an app on your phone and Mac. Pick GitHub Projects if your code is on GitHub and you want nothing new, or Linear for fast issue tracking with sprints. Pick YouTrack for time tracking on a free plan, Plane to host it yourself, and Trello if a board is all you need. We make devBoard, so keep that in mind. It is on the list, and we say where the others are better.

At a glance

devBoard

Pick it if

You ship an app as a small team, like Luka, Mira and Ivan. Work has three levels. An epic is a big piece of work split into smaller tasks, and a subtask is one small step inside a task. You plan by release, a version of your app that goes out on a date. Each task has a timer. A pull request is a request to merge code changes. Once you connect GitHub, a pull request with a key like APP-42 in its title shows on that task.

The catch

There is no web version and no importer. There are no docs, chat or automations. The Windows and Linux apps are not out yet.

Linear

Pick it if

You want a fast tracker made for software teams, with little to set up. You plan in cycles, which are sprints that repeat. It runs in the browser and on Mac and Windows, and its phone apps are native.

The catch

There is no time tracking, and estimates are points, not hours. The free plan has a limit on issues. A daily user on Hacker News says search is slow. More in devBoard vs Linear.

GitHub Projects

Pick it if

Your code already lives on GitHub. Issues, pull requests and a board sit in one place, at no extra cost. The GitHub phone app can open projects and edit fields.

The catch

There is no time tracking. Browser add-ons from Harvest, Toggl or Clockify fill the gap. A user found in 2025 that Projects filters cannot do "or", such as mine or unassigned. There is no desktop app for Projects. See GitHub Projects alternatives.

Jira

Pick it if

You will be ten people or more soon. You need custom workflows, sprints and reports. Automations come on every plan.

The catch

Someone has to own the setup. A Capterra review from September 2026 says it slows a five-person team. Jira logs work by hand, with no timer, and there is no desktop app. More in devBoard vs Jira.

Shortcut

Pick it if

You want stories, epics and sprints without Jira's setup. Docs come on every plan. Startups with fewer than 50 staff can get a year free.

The catch

Shortcut's own pages say it has no native time tracking. We found no desktop app, and could not confirm a current phone app. See Shortcut alternatives.

YouTrack

Pick it if

You want time tracking without paying. YouTrack has it on the free plan, with timesheets and reports. It also has a knowledge base, a helpdesk and a Gantt chart. You can host it yourself or let JetBrains host it.

The catch

There is a lot to learn. Review summaries we saw in search results mention a steep learning curve. There is no desktop app. A three-star App Store review calls the phone app clunky. See YouTrack alternatives.

Plane

Pick it if

You want open source. The Community Edition is free to run on your own server, and the cloud version has a free plan too. It imports from Jira, Linear, Asana and ClickUp on every plan.

The catch

Time tracking starts on Pro. Hosting it yourself means running upgrades. Plane's self-hosted forum has threads from 2026 about install and upgrade trouble. See Plane alternatives.

Trello

Pick it if

A board is all you need. There is a free plan, and Butler rules run on every plan. It runs in the browser, on Mac and Windows, and on phones.

The catch

There are no subtasks, only checklists on a card. Time tracking needs a Power-Up, an add-on that plugs into a board. More in devBoard vs Trello.

How we chose

We make devBoard, so we put it first. That is a bias. We pictured a dev team of two to ten people. We looked at five things: the board, levels of work, built-in time tracking, apps and price. We read each pricing page on 9 October 2026. We left out tools built to run a whole company, such as ClickUp, Asana and monday.com. Our post on big trackers and small teams says why. There are more fair lists on our blog.