The Forrester Wave™: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q2 2025

Collaborative Work Management Tools Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

Key features and pros and cons of top Collaborative Work Management Tools products:

Adobe - Leaders

Pros:

Significant marketing presence and platform approach to work management
Acts as an organization's system of work with end-to-end support from strategic planning to campaign delivery
Strong enterprise capabilities among the strongest in the CWM market
Robust agentic AI support throughout the entire application provides guidance to optimize
Resident strategic capabilities drive greater transparency into planning and delivery
Excellent service and tech support

Cons:

Workfront's power comes with complexity
Implementations require services support in building custom fields and configuration
Limited support for end-user configuration
Requires a certain level of maturity to use effectively

Asana - Leaders

Pros:

Unified coordination platform that serves as a single source of truth
Leverages intelligent automation and purpose-built AI agents
Designed to be flexible and scalable, adapting to diverse industries and use cases
Work Graph enables interrogation of data to surface complex patterns
Strong community and client support
Product flexibility enables development of best practices

Cons:

Lacks portfolio and financial management capabilities to be a strategic end-to-end solution
Still developing enterprise-level strategic planning features

Smartsheet - Strong Performers

Pros:

One of the most versatile products in the CWM market with familiarity, flexibility, and scalability
One of the earliest vendors to offer end-user workflow design
Supports a wide variety of planning and tracking needs
Robust analytics with internal reporting and third-party BI integrations
Security support among the most robust in the market
Easy adoption and collaboration
Strong customer community and technical support
Ease of automation

Cons:

Current architecture supports multiple platforms for modules, which complicates UX
Higher learning curve for enterprise-level use cases
Goal management requires simple configuration support
Current agentic AI lags Leaders'
Mixed feedback about sales communication and pricing changes
Scalability concerns for large organizations
Expensive premium features

Wrike - Strong Performers

Pros:

Robust administration and configuration capabilities
Portfolio, financial, and resource management capabilities much better than most point solutions
Blueprints enable design of complex workflows without exposing them to end users
Strong analytics with both internal analytics and integration with third-party tools
Goal-driven performance management is competent and continues to evolve
Strong implementation support with high marks for professional services
Straightforward pricing model is a differentiator

Cons:

AI investments and security certifications lag Leaders'
Current AI capabilities lack agent support
Product flexibility may tempt users to overcomplicate configurations, potentially driving down adoption
Recent acquisition of Klaxoon still integrating to support ad hoc work

monday.com - Strong Performers

Pros:

Usability, CX, and collaboration capabilities are key differentiators
Competent project management and financial tracking capabilities
Automation drives both planning and execution
On par with competitors in BI analytics and performance analysis
Admin-level workflow design with maturing end-user configuration capabilities
High marks for customer support
Ease of use and quick time to achieve productivity improvements
Flexible reporting capabilities

Cons:

Resource capacity planning and portfolio management lag some competitors'
Capacity planning needs improvement
Scalability issues with linked boards, available widgets, teams, and tasks impacting performance
Releases could be more consistent
Limited in-person training options

Quickbase - Strong Performers

Pros:

No-code capabilities enable power users to build applications without professional development support
Out-of-the-box ML and data analyzer allows quick trend analysis
Chat agents generate complex queries to surface recommendations
Deep industry-specific predefined templates and workflows
Mobile support is a differentiator with UX mirroring desktop use
FastField capability enables conversion of PDFs or photos to forms
Quick deployment and real-time monitoring
Strong customer support
Team formation based on needs versus locations supports global rollouts

Cons:

Out-of-the-box strategic portfolio functions need configuration support for full functionality
AI support continues to evolve
Graphing suites need improvement
Initial learning curves can be challenging
Data design complexity
Focus on construction and manufacturing may not translate easily to broader audiences

ClickUp - Strong Performers

Pros:

ClickUp Brain is an AI-driven contextual search engine to surface information from connected systems
Planning and actual work data stored in a single system enables AI agents to gather company-specific language and preferences
Workflow design and collaboration enhance usability and product adoption
Security is on par with competitors
Ease of adoption and cost-effective
In-app email and flexible role configuration
Easy-to-configure forms support project and process management
Responsive support

Cons:

Portfolios and budgeting are weak compared with competitors'
Trails competitors in BI and analytics reporting
Integration gaps, especially with third-party resource tools
Fast pace of releases can be difficult for larger organizations to consume
Risk of overengineering the product

ServiceNow - Strong Performers

Pros:

Leverages the strengths of the Now platform for scalable implementation and configuration
Agentic AI defines agents to support automation and workflow design
Many predefined agents to cover multiple processes across the platform
Robust support and fast-paced release of features
Good for collaboration within the ServiceNow ecosystem

Cons:

End-user configurations limited to simple personal automations
More advanced automations require tech user or development support
Current features only support limited use cases
To leverage CWM, clients must buy into SPM to gain the most value
Top-down capabilities handled in SPM with allocations distributed to CWM

Atlassian - Strong Performers

Pros:

Planning, tracking, and reporting capabilities on par with competitors
Evolving AI capabilities
BI analytics comparable with other enterprise vendors
Integration support above par, allowing cross-system searches and data aggregation
Product breadth and strong support
Continued innovation through strategic acquisitions like Loom
More flexible UI configuration than original developer-oriented design

Cons:

Vision to shift from development platform to enterprise work management messaging not fully clear
Planning support for portfolio, resource, and financial management is evolving
Requires integration with other Atlassian products like Align or Focus for full CWM experience
Additional configuration of custom fields needed for full management
Combination of products has room for improvement

Airtable - Contenders

Pros:

Low-code/no-code platform empowers citizen developers
Workflow design, automation capabilities, and relational database to build powerful, scalable applications
AI support accelerates workflow and rule-based design
Support for complex business logic
Usability allows building applications with little professional developer oversight
Measurable benefits reported by customers
Strong service, communication, and beta testing support

Cons:

Light project management capabilities
Out-of-the-box portfolio and resource management capabilities limited and require configuration
Configurable financial formulas require setup
Citizen developers must understand business logic and data schemas for best results
Mixed feedback on vendor support, particularly ongoing consulting services
Tech-driven approach may result in challenging adoption without right skills

Zoho - Contenders

Pros:

29 years of product delivery with long-term product stability
Administration and usability on par with competitors
Collaboration, workflow design, and automation capabilities solid
Conversational AI and some automation for agent creation
Industry support and scalability on par with competitors
Wide availability of apps reduces need for custom configuration
Solid resource management and budgeting capabilities within project formats
Support for large projects and formal project management practices
Automated communication and collaboration

Cons:

Enterprise work management is weak, forcing users into a project construct
Limits ability to self-organize activities or add ad hoc tasks outside project format
Vendor support could be faster to respond
Emphasizes fundamentals over innovative ways of working
Platform approach with 55+ products may create complexity

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

A: Adobe, Asana

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave for Collaborative Work Management Tools demonstrate the strongest current offering and strategy in the market. They excel in providing comprehensive CWM capabilities including enterprise work management, robust AI support, strong collaboration features, workflow design, portfolio management, financial management, resource management, and analytics. Leaders typically have strong market presence, extensive customer bases, continuous innovation roadmaps, and receive outstanding or above-average customer feedback. They are positioned to guide the market direction and set best practices for collaborative work management solutions.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Collaborative Work Management Tools in 2025

Collaborative Work Management Tools Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

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