Productive review

Productive is built around the questions agency owners ask at the end of each month: which clients made money, who is overbooked and how much of the retainer is left. The Essential plan, at $10 per user per month on yearly billing, already includes budgeting, resource planning, project and task management, docs, time tracking, expense management, reporting and time off management. Staff log hours from web, desktop or mobile, and bookings can convert into time entries so the plan and the actuals stay close. Professional adds rate cards, billable time approvals, expense approvals and advanced reporting, which is where many agencies with mixed rates will land. Ultimate adds revenue forecasting and Scenario Builder for testing hiring or pipeline changes. Tasks come with Kanban, list, table, timeline and workload layouts, so delivery teams do not need a second tool. The trade-offs are a 3-seat minimum and no free plan.

Who it is for

Creative, digital and marketing agencies of 10 to 200 people that want project budgets, bookings and profitability in the same app their team plans work in.

Price

No free plan; Essential from $10 per user per month billed yearly, 3-seat minimum.

Essential $10 per month - billed yearly
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 9, 2026.

Key features

• Budgeting, resource planning, time tracking and expense management on the Essential plan
• Time approvals, employee cost rates and billable time rounding
• Rate cards, billable time approvals and expense approvals on Professional
• Revenue forecasting and Scenario Builder on Ultimate
• Sales CRM, docs, Gantt charts and an AI assistant inside the same workspace

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Agency finance features start on the $10 Essential plan
• Strength: Bookings can turn into time entries automatically
• Strength: Pricing is shown in USD with a yearly discount of up to 17%
• Weakness: Every plan needs at least 3 seats
• Weakness: Rate cards and billable time approvals sit on the higher Professional tier
• Weakness: No permanent free plan, only a 14-day trial

Key facts

• Free trial: 14 days, no credit card
• Minimum seats: 3 on all plans
• Paid plans: Essential, Professional, Ultimate
• Customers: 2,000+ companies, per Productive

Where it ranks

Productive is No. 1 in our Best Project Management Software for Agencies verdict.