The 21 best workflow automation software for any business size

Project management and team collaboration

Project management and team collaboration tools help teams organize tasks, share files, track progress, and communicate, streamlining work by keeping everyone on the same page, whether teams work in the same office or remotely.

Asana

Asana is a web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. It allows users to create projects, assign tasks, set deadlines, and communicate directly within the platform, streamlining collaboration and improving productivity.

Best for: Task management and team collaboration.

Top features:

• Task management: Create tasks, assign them to team members, set due dates, and track progress to ensure timely completion.
• Project views: Visualize work through various views such as lists, calendars, timelines (Gantt charts), and Kanban boards to suit different project needs.
• Automation: Automate routine tasks with custom rules to increase efficiency and reduce manual work.
• Integrations: Connect Asana with numerous tools like Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Office 365 to create a seamless workflow.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• A personal (free) plan is available for individuals or small teams.
• Starter: $6.92 per user/month (discounted from $10.99)
• Advanced: $15.74 per user/month (discounted from $24.99)

Jira

Jira is a project management tool developed by Atlassian that enables teams to plan, track, and manage work across various projects. It offers customizable workflows, agile boards, and real-time reporting to support efficient project execution. Jira is widely popular among tech companies and has an important role in project management for product development.

Best for: ​​Agile project management and issue tracking

Top features:

• Agile boards: Supports Scrum and Kanban boards, which enable teams to visualize workflows and manage tasks effectively.
• Customizable workflows: Allows teams to create workflows that match their specific processes, enhancing flexibility and control.
• Robust reports and analytics: Provides detailed reports and analytics, such as burndown charts and velocity reports, to monitor progress and team performance.
• Integration capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various tools, including translating tools like Lokalise or developer tools like GitHub and Bitbucket, enhancing collaboration and efficiency.

Pros and cons:

Pricing:

• A free plan for up to 10 users
• Standard: $7.53 per user/month
• Premium: $13.53 per user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Slack

Slack is a collaboration platform that centralizes team communication, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity. It offers features such as organized conversations, process automation, app integration, and information discovery, all in one place.

Top features:

• Channels: Organize conversations by topics, projects, or teams, ensuring focused and efficient communication.
• Workflow builder: Automate routine tasks without coding, enhancing efficiency and reducing manual work.
• App integrations: Connect with numerous tools and services, bringing all your work into a single platform.
• Search functionality: Quickly find past conversations, files, and information, making knowledge retrieval seamless.

Pros and cons:

Best for: Team communication and collaboration

Pricing:

• A free plan with limited capabilities
• Pro: $4.38 per month (discounted from $8.75)
• Business+: $15 per month
• Enterprise Grid: Custom pricing

Sales and marketing automation

Sales and marketing automation tools help businesses streamline repetitive tasks like email campaigns, lead tracking, customer follow-ups, and analytics.

HubSpot

HubSpot is an AI-powered customer platform that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for marketing, sales, customer service, and content management. It integrates various functions to help businesses attract visitors, convert leads, and delight customers, all within a single platform.

Phil Portman, CEO and founder of Textdrip, shares that his team uses HubSpot for email campaigns and lead nurturing. Portman provides an example of what Textdrip has automated through this tool: “We automated a customer onboarding sequence for Textdrip users: once a lead becomes a customer, they receive personalized emails over 30 days, guiding them through setup and advanced features.”

Best for: All-in-one marketing and sales.

Top features:

• Marketing Hub: Offers tools for email marketing, social media management, and lead generation to execute and analyze marketing campaigns effectively.
• Sales Hub: Provides features like email tracking, deal pipelines, and meeting scheduling to improve sales processes and close deals faster.
• Service Hub: Includes customer feedback, ticketing, and knowledge base tools to improve customer service and satisfaction.
• Content Hub: Enables content creation, management, and optimization across various channels, streamlining content marketing efforts.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Sales Hub Professional: €90 month/seat
• Sales Hub Enterprise: €150 month/seat
• Marketing Hub Professional: Starts at €792/month and includes 3 seats
• Marketing Hub Enterprise: Starts at €3,300/month and includes 5 seats

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales-focused customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to help sales teams manage leads, track deals, and optimize sales processes. Its intuitive, visual, pipeline-centric interface allows for easy tracking of deals and sales activities, making it a popular choice among small to medium-sized businesses.

Best for: Sales pipeline and lead management.

Top features:

• Visual sales pipelines: Offers customizable pipelines that provide a clear overview of sales processes, enabling teams to manage deals effectively.
• Activity-based selling: Focuses on sales activities that drive deals forward, helping teams prioritize tasks and improve efficiency.
• Automation and AI sales assistant: Automates repetitive tasks and provides AI-driven insights to boost sales performance.
• Integrations: Supports integration with various tools and platforms, allowing for a seamless workflow across different applications.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Essential: $14 per seat/month
• Advanced: $34 per seat/month
• Professional: $49 per seat/month
• Power: $64 per seat/month
• Enterprise: $99 per seat/month

Salesforce

Salesforce is a leading cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses manage sales, service, marketing, and more. It unifies various departments by providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions, enabling personalized and efficient service.

Best for: Enterprise CRM and automation.

Top features:

• Sales Cloud: Streamlines sales processes with tools for contact management, opportunity tracking, and sales forecasting.
• Service Cloud: Improves customer support with case management, knowledge bases, and omnichannel support capabilities.
• Marketing cloud: Facilitates targeted marketing campaigns through email, social media, and advertising channels, with robust analytics to measure effectiveness.
• Agentforce: Introduced in 2024, Agentforce is an AI-driven platform that automates routine tasks and provides real-time business insights, raising productivity across various business functions.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Starter Suite: $25 user/month
• Marketing Cloud Growth Edition: $1500 organization/month
• Marketing Cloud Advanced Edition: $3250 organization/month

Content workflows

Content workflow tools help teams plan, create, review, and publish content more efficiently. They streamline the entire content lifecycle, from brainstorming ideas to final publishing.

Airtable

Airtable is a cloud-based platform that combines the simplicity of spreadsheets with the functionality of databases, enabling teams to organize and manage data collaboratively. Its flexibility suits various applications, including project management, content planning, and CRM.

Best for: Data organization and project planning.

Top features:

• Customizable views: Offers multiple views such as Grid, Kanban, Calendar, and Gallery, allowing users to visualize data in formats that best suit their workflow.
• Pre-made templates: Provides a variety of templates to help users quickly set up databases tailored to specific needs, increasing efficiency.
• Integration and automation: Supports integration with popular tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Salesforce and includes automation features to streamline repetitive tasks.
• Collaboration Tools: Enables real-time collaboration with team members, including commenting, tagging, and role assignments, fostering effective teamwork.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• A free plan is available
• Team: $20 per seat/month
• Business: $45 per seat/month
• Enterprise Scale: Custom price

Contentful

Contentful is a headless content management system (CMS) that enables businesses to create, manage, and distribute content across various platforms and devices. Its API-first approach allows seamless integration with different technologies, providing flexibility in delivering content to websites, mobile apps, and other digital channels.

Best for: Headless CMS for content delivery.

Top features:

• Content modeling: Allows users to define custom content structures tailored to specific project needs, facilitating organized and efficient content management.
• API-driven delivery: Provides robust RESTful and GraphQL APIs for delivering content to any platform or device, ensuring consistent and scalable content distribution.
• Real-time collaboration: Enables multiple users to work simultaneously on content, with features like live previews and versioning to streamline the editorial process.
• Extensive integrations: Supports integration with various tools and services, improving workflow efficiency and allowing for a customizable content management experience.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Free: Suitable for individuals or small projects
• Lite: $300 per month
• Premium: Custom price

Lokalise

Lokalise is the easiest to use translation management system (TMS) designed to simplify and automate repetitive localization tasks for teams working on software, mobile apps, websites, and other digital content. With 60+ plug-and-play integrations to facilitate collaboration between developers, translators, and project managers,  combined with AI translation tools and workflow templates that you can set up to perform tasks automatically, it’s never been easier or more profitable to adapt products and services for multiple new markets. Lokalise's flexibility, rich set of features, and focus on automation make it a valuable tool for teams aiming to efficiently manage multilingual content and expand their global reach.

Best for: Translation project management, localization projects

Top features:

• Automated workflow: Lokalise provides advanced localization automation tools that allow you to integrate localization into your continuous delivery workflow. Set up custom rules to keep your project moving along automatically.
• In-context editing: Lokalise allows you to preview how your design looks in different languages to instantly spot and fix any design errors. Connect with product managers, translators, and developers, ask questions, leave comments, and share screenshots — all in one platform.
• Integration capabilities: Lokalise allows translators, designers, and other team members to work on localization with minimal input from development. Save 100+ hours weekly by allowing your team to send screenshots to translators for better context and preview localized content inside Figma and Adobe.
• Over-the-air SDKs: Use over-the-air (OTA) SDKs to send translation updates to iOS, Android, and Flutter apps without waiting for the next release or submitting a new version for approval. This enables quick fixes and updates to localized content. 

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Start: $140 per month, includes 10 seats
• Essential: $270 per month, includes 10 seats
• Pro: $990 per month, includes 15 seats
• Enterprise: Custom price

Finance and accounting automation

Finance and accounting automation tools help businesses streamline invoicing, expense tracking, payroll processing, and financial reporting, reducing manual work, improving accuracy, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a widely used accounting software designed to help businesses manage their financial operations efficiently. It offers a range of features that streamline tasks such as invoicing, expense tracking, payroll processing, and financial reporting, making it a comprehensive solution for small to medium-sized enterprises.

Best for: Small business accounting software.

Top features:

• Invoicing: Create and send professional invoices, track their status, and accept online payments to expedite cash flow.
• Expense tracking: Automatically import and categorize expenses from linked bank accounts and credit cards, simplifying expense management.
• Financial reporting: Generate detailed financial reports, including profit and loss statements and balance sheets, to gain insights into business performance.
• Payroll management: Process payroll, calculate taxes, and manage employee payments with integrated payroll features.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Simple Start: $17.50 per month (discounted from $35)
• Essentials: $32.50 per month (discounted from $65)
• Plus: $49.50 per month (discounted from $99)
• Advanced: $117.50 per month (discounted from $235)

Xero

Xero is a cloud-based accounting software designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their finances efficiently. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools for tasks like invoicing, expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting, all accessible through an intuitive interface.

Best for: Cloud-based financial management.

Top features:

• Invoicing: Create and send professional invoices, set up automated reminders, and accept payments online to streamline cash flow.
• Expense tracking: Monitor and categorize business expenses, attach receipts, and manage reimbursements to maintain accurate financial records.
• Bank reconciliation: Connect bank accounts for automatic transaction imports, simplifying the reconciliation process and ensuring up-to-date financial data.
• Financial reporting: Generate real-time reports, including profit and loss statements and balance sheets, to gain insights into business performance and make informed decisions.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• 30 days free trial
• Starter: $2.90 per month (discounted from $29)
• Standard: $4.60 per month (discounted from $46)
• Premium: $6.90 per month (discounted from $69)

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting and invoicing platform tailored for small businesses, freelancers, and self-employed professionals. It simplifies financial management by offering tools for invoicing, expense tracking, time tracking, and reporting, all within an intuitive interface.

Best for: Invoicing and expense tracking.

Top features:

• Invoicing: Create and send professional invoices with customizable templates, automated payment reminders, and options for online payments, streamlining the billing process.
• Expense tracking: Easily track business expenses by capturing receipts, categorizing expenditures, and importing expenses from bank accounts, ensuring accurate financial records.
• Time tracking: Log billable hours with a built-in timer, assign time entries to specific clients or projects, and seamlessly convert them into invoices, enhancing productivity and billing accuracy.
• Financial reporting: Generate insightful reports, including profit and loss statements and expense summaries, to monitor business performance and make informed financial decisions.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Lite: $4.75 per month (discounted from $19)
• Plus: $8.25 per month (discounted from $33)
• Premium: $15 per month (discounted from $60)
• Select: Custom price designed for businesses with complex needs

HR and employee management

HR and employee management tools help businesses handle recruitment, onboarding, payroll, performance tracking, and employee engagement.

BambooHR

BambooHR is a cloud-based human resources (HR) software designed to streamline HR processes for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to manage employee data, recruitment, onboarding, time tracking, and performance management, all within an intuitive interface.

“BambooHR is great for automating onboarding when it comes to HR workflows. Instead of manually sending new hires paperwork, we’ve set up workflows that handle everything, from contracts, training schedules, and welcome emails, automatically,” says V. Frank Sondors, founder of Salesforge.ai.

Best for: Employee data and onboarding management

Top features:

• Employee data management: Centralizes employee information, making it easy to store, access, and manage personnel records securely.
• Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Streamlines the hiring process by managing job postings, applications, and candidate evaluations in one place.
• Onboarding tools: Facilitates a smooth onboarding experience for new hires with customizable checklists and electronic signatures for necessary documents.
• Time-off tracking: Simplifies leave management by allowing employees to request time off and managers to approve requests, all while automatically updating balances.

Pros and cons:

Price is customized based on the number of employees and specific needs of the organization.

Workable

Workable is a comprehensive recruitment platform designed to streamline the hiring process for businesses of all sizes. It offers a suite of tools that assist in sourcing candidates, managing applications, and facilitating collaboration among hiring teams, all within an intuitive interface.

Best for: Recruitment and applicant tracking.

Top features:

• Job posting and distribution: Post job openings to over 200 job boards and social media platforms simultaneously.
• Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Manage the entire recruitment process with a centralized system that tracks candidate progress, schedules interviews, and stores evaluation feedback.
• AI-powered candidate sourcing: Use AI technology to search a database of over 400 million candidate profiles and efficiently identify and reach out to potential matches.
• Collaborative hiring tools: Facilitate team collaboration with features like interview scheduling, shared feedback, and customizable workflows to ensure a cohesive hiring strategy.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• 15 days free trial
• Starter: $149 per month
• Standard: $299 per month
• Premier: $599 per month

TriNet (Zenefits)

TriNet Zenefits is a cloud-based human resources (HR) platform designed to streamline and automate HR tasks for small to mid-sized businesses. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including benefits administration, payroll processing, time and attendance tracking, and compliance management, all accessible through an intuitive interface.

Best for: HR, payroll, and benefits administration.

Top features:

• Benefits administration: Manage health insurance, retirement plans, and other perks with ease through a centralized system that simplifies enrollment and compliance.
• Payroll processing: Automate payroll calculations, tax filings, and direct deposits, ensuring accurate and timely employee compensation.
• Time and attendance tracking: Monitor employee work hours, manage paid time off (PTO), and track attendance to maintain accurate records and ensure compliance with labor laws.
• Compliance management: Stay up-to-date with HR regulations and maintain compliance through automated alerts and built-in safeguards that help mitigate risks.

Pros and cons:

Pricing is customized based on the number of employees and specific needs of the organization.

Customer support and help desk

Customer support and help desk tools help businesses manage customer inquiries, provide technical support, and resolve issues efficiently.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service platform that helps businesses manage and improve customer support operations. It offers a suite of tools designed to streamline communication, track customer interactions, and boost overall customer satisfaction.

Best for: Multi-channel customer service platform.

Top features:

• Ticketing system: Converts customer inquiries from email, chat, and social media into tickets, allowing support agents to manage and resolve issues efficiently.
• Live chat and messaging: Enables real-time communication with customers through live chat on websites and messaging apps, facilitating immediate assistance and engagement.
• Knowledge base: Provides a self-service portal where customers can find answers to common questions and resolve issues independently.
• Analytics and reporting: Offers detailed insights into support metrics, agent performance, and customer satisfaction, helping businesses make data-driven decisions to improve their service.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Suite Team: $55 per agent/month billed annually
• Suite Growth: $89 per agent/month billed annually
• Suite Professional: $115 per agent/month billed annually
• Suite Enterprise: Custom price

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support platform designed to help businesses manage and streamline their customer service operations. It offers a range of features that centralize customer interactions and boost agent productivity.

Best for: Customer support and ticket management

Top features:

• Ticketing system: Consolidates customer inquiries from various channels into a single, organized platform, enabling efficient issue tracking and resolution.
• Automation: Automates repetitive tasks like ticket routing, SLA management, and canned responses, saving time and boosting productivity.
• Knowledge base: Provides a self-service portal where customers can find answers to common questions, reducing the volume of support requests and empowering users to resolve issues independently.
• Multi-channel support: Enables support across email, phone, chat, and social media, ensuring customers can reach out through their preferred communication channels.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• A free plan is available for up to 2 agents
• Growth: $15 /agent/month, billed annually
• Pro: $49 /agent/month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $79 /agent/month, billed annually

Intercom

Intercom is a comprehensive customer communication platform that combines messaging, automation, and AI-driven tools to boost customer support and engagement. It connects businesses with customers across various channels, providing personalized and efficient interactions.

Best for: Customer communication and engagement automation.

Top features:

• Unified inbox: Consolidates customer messages from multiple channels into a single inbox, allowing support teams to efficiently manage and respond to inquiries.
• AI-powered support: Includes Fin AI Agent, which provides instant, accurate answers to customer queries 24/7, and Fin AI Copilot, an AI assistant that aids support agents in resolving issues more effectively.
• Proactive messaging: Allows businesses to send targeted messages, product tours, and announcements to users, facilitating proactive customer engagement and support.
• Help center: Offers a customizable, no-code help center where customers can access self-service resources, reducing the volume of support requests and empowering users to find answers independently.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• Essential: $39/seat
• Advanced: $99/seat
• Expert: $139/seat

Data integration and general automation

Data integration and automation tools help businesses connect disparate data sources, automate repetitive tasks, and streamline workflows.

Zapier

Zapier is a leading automation platform that enables users to connect various web applications and automate workflows without coding. By creating "Zaps," users can set up triggers and actions between apps, streamlining repetitive tasks and enhancing productivity.

Zapier seems to be the go-to software for automation regardless of company size. Almost all experts we talked to for this article mentioned using it.

For example, Aljay Ambos, Head of Marketing at Twixify, says his team used Zapier to build a workflow where every form submission on their website is automatically added to HubSpot.

“This is together with tagged campaign details, entered into a Google Sheet for performance tracking, and pushed to a Slack channel so the sales team can jump in immediately. This saved us time and improved our response rates by 42%, and we saw a noticeable increase in lead conversion within weeks.”

Best for: No-code app integrations & automation.

Top features:

• Extensive app integrations: Zapier supports over 7,000 applications, allowing seamless connections between tools like Gmail, Slack, and Trello to automate complex workflows.
• Customizable workflows: Users can build tailored automation by defining specific triggers and actions, enabling personalized solutions for unique business needs.
• No-code interface: Users can set up automation via Intuitive interface without prior coding knowledge.
• Multi-step Zaps: Beyond simple one-to-one automation, Zapier allows the creation of multi-step workflows, facilitating complex processes across multiple applications.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• A free plan for basic automation of up to 100 tasks per month
• Professional: $19.99 per month
• Team: $69 per month
• Enterprise: Custom price

Make (formerly Integromat)

Make, formerly known as Integromat, is a powerful no-code automation platform that enables users to visually design, build, and automate workflows across various applications and services. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows complex, multi-step integrations without the need for coding expertise.

Best for: Visual automation builder.

Top features:

• Visual workflow builder: Make's user-friendly interface lets users create and visualize workflows, known as "scenarios," by connecting different apps and services through a simple drag-and-drop mechanism.
• Extensive app integrations: With support for over 1,000 apps, Make allows seamless connections between popular platforms like Google Workspace, Slack, and Shopify, facilitating comprehensive automation solutions.
• Advanced data manipulation: Make offers robust data transformation capabilities, enabling users to format, filter, and manipulate data within workflows to meet specific requirements.
• Real-time execution monitoring: Users can monitor their scenarios in real-time, observing data flow and execution steps, which aids in troubleshooting and optimizing workflows.

Pros and Cons:

Price:

• A free plan is available for up to 1000 ops per month
• Core: $9 per month
• Pro: $16 per month
• Teams: $29 per month
• Enterprise: Custom price

Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based service that enables users to create automated workflows between applications and services, facilitating seamless data integration and task automation. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform, designed to uplift productivity by automating repetitive tasks and integrating various systems without the need for extensive coding.

Best for: Enterprise-grade process automation.

Top features:

• Cloud flows (Digital Process Automation): Automate workflows across numerous applications and services, both in the cloud and on-premises, using a vast library of connectors.
• Desktop flows (Robotic Process Automation): Automate tasks on the desktop, including legacy systems that lack APIs, through UI-based automation, supporting both attended and unattended scenarios.
• AI integration: Incorporate AI capabilities into workflows with AI Builder, enabling tasks such as form processing, object detection, and text classification.
• Process mining: Analyze and visualize business processes to identify bottlenecks and optimization opportunities, uplifting overall efficiency.

Pros and cons:

Price:

• 30 days free trial
• Power Automate Premium: $15 per user/month
• Power Automate Process: $150 per bot/month
• Power Automate Hosted Process: $215 per bot/month

Start automating your business today

Workflow automation software transforms businesses' operations, making teams more efficient and reducing costly mistakes. It's not just about making things faster—it's about freeing your people from the daunting cycle of repetitive tasks and letting them do what humans do best: solve problems creatively, build meaningful relationships with customers, and dream up the next big idea.

Whether you need help managing projects, supporting customers, or bridging language gaps, there's a tool out there that can take the load off. From project management and customer support to content translation, there's a tool for every need, so take your time exploring the options. When you find the right fit, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Your team will thank you, and you'll finally have the breathing room to focus on what really helps your business grow.