Workflow apps for every business process: 17 options

The term “workflow app” can refer to dozens of software solutions for different teams, needs, and use cases. 

For some, a basic Kanban task tracking app is enough to shape their workflow and keep their to-do list under control. Others want integrations with the software they use in different departments — like features to include budgeting in their project workflows. And then some want their workflow management to form part of a wider project management system to close the gaps in their processes. 

That’s why the best workflow apps are never one-size-fits-all — they’re the ones that adapt to the way you work. 

However complex your needs, this guide to the best workflow apps will help you find the right option for your business processes, company size, and workflow complexity. 

We’ll cover the strongest workflow apps by category and use case, so you can quickly compare tools designed for different types of workflows. We’ll also explore our own platform, Wrike, in more detail, with real examples of how teams use it to manage four common workflows in one connected platform.

17 best workflow apps by category and use case

Workflow apps are built to solve different problems, which is why comparing them side by side without context can be misleading. Some tools focus on document creation and approvals, others on visual task tracking, and others on supporting Agile development workflows.

To make this comparison easier, we’ve grouped the best workflow apps by category and primary use case below:

• Apps to centralize simple and complex everyday workflows

• • Wrike: Centralized work management for planning, executing, and reporting on workflows across teams
  • Asana: Cross-team task and project coordination
  • Monday: Visual work management and automation platform for end-to-end team workflows
  • ClickUp: Productivity software for various team workflows

• Apps to support document workflows

• • Box: Secure file sharing and content workflows for contracts, agreements, and forms
  • Docusign: E-signature and legally compliant document approvals
  • Ziflow: Version control and approvals for documents and creative assets

• Approval workflow tools

• • Jotform: Standardized approval forms with optional e-signatures
  • Filestage: Review and approval workflows for creative teams and agencies
  • IntelligenceBank: Creative briefs, asset approvals, and structured feedback

• Apps for Kanban overviews

• • Trello: Visual task boards with automation and multiple project views
  • Kanban Tool: Lightweight Kanban boards with time tracking
  • Kanban Flow: WIP limits and Pomodoro-based productivity features
  • MeisterTask: Kanban boards with Gantt charts and reporting

• Agile workflow management tools

• • Jira: Sprint planning, backlog management, and Agile reporting
  • Zoho Sprints: Scrum boards, backlog dashboards, and time tracking
  • Aha!: Roadmapping and ideation for Agile product teams

Apps to centralize simple and complex everyday workflows

Everyday workflows can become fragmented quickly as teams grow and work spreads across multiple tools. That usually results in tasks, files, updates, and requests all living in different systems, which complicates workflows and makes it harder to keep everyone aligned.

The workflow apps we list here centralize day-to-day work into a single platform, giving teams one place to plan, manage, and track workflows across departments.

1. Wrike: One platform to manage everyday workflows

Wrike is an all-in-one work management platform designed to support multiple workflow types in a single system. Teams use Wrike to plan projects, collaborate on tasks, track work across departments, and manage complex and cross-functional workflows.

Today, some of the world’s largest organizations use Wrike — including Walmart and Siemens — to manage complex workflows across teams. For example, Blue Yonder, a global digital supply chain provider with nearly 8,000 employees worldwide, uses Wrike to bring visibility and structure to complex marketing workflows.

Wrike makes it quicker and easier to find things. You don’t have to turn things into a full-blown meeting, and you can operate more asynchronously. When someone asks where this document is, we know it’s in the task.

PT Umphress, Global Director of Digital Marketing Operations, Blue Yonder

Below, we’ll look closely at four everyday workflows teams can streamline with Wrike and the key benefits of managing these workflows in one platform.

4 everyday workflows, streamlined by Wrike 

To keep a simple project on track, a workflow app needs to do three things: 

• Represent your tasks
• Clarify the stages that take them from input to output 
• Visualize where your current tasks are in that process 

If you pick a tool just because it ticks these basic boxes, you probably won’t get the best solution for your team. Basic task tracking alone doesn’t address workflow automation or help teams automate tasks that repeat across projects, teams, or departments.

Again, different workflows suit different types of tasks and project management methodologies. That’s why below, we’ll explore the areas where Wrike can boost specific, familiar business processes, and the benefits you can expect when you switch to a more powerful workflow app for your team.

1. Document workflows

A document workflow manages the way a team creates, shares, and stores its files. Here, the workflow stages standardize the process and ensure the files comply with the company’s internal policies. 

You could explain these processes during onboarding for a new team member. You could write a checklist for people to follow every time they create a new document. 

But that’s a time-consuming way to manage a workflow. It doesn’t automatically ensure every file goes through the steps for security and compliance, and it definitely doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to track those documents down when you need them again in the future.

Document workflow management is a prime example of a process that can be standardized, improved, and automated with a good workflow app. That’s why Wrike combines real-time editing with enterprise-grade security to enable effortless document creation and management. 

Imagine a process supported by features like this:

• Automated intake and initiation: To kick off new document workflows, Wrike includes templates, request forms, and customizable blueprints to give you everything you need to start a new task — and set the workflow in motion automatically. 
• Collaboration tools: In addition to standard comment threads and discussion features, Wrike’s robust document workflow system includes live editing and tools for marking up images and PDFs. 
• File routing: At the end of your document workflow, Wrike sends the files to the people who need them and stores them in designated project folders so you can locate them in seconds.
• Security features: With customizable permissions and user roles, you can give team members access to the files in your workflows and folders while keeping sensitive information confidential.

In essence, Wrike automates the stages where a process can stall, smooths over the areas where it’s easy to introduce errors, and makes sure all the documents your company produces are held to the same high standards. These features save time at every stage of the document workflow and drastically reduce the number of feedback rounds your files go through. 

Read more about document workflows and the apps that power them: Document workflow software: 5 scalable options.

2. Approval workflows

An approval workflow manages the way your workflow outputs are reviewed and authorized. It routes completed assets — such as content, presentations, proposals, or expense reports — to a designated approver and records their decision. 

As with the document processes I discussed above, software can standardize and streamline your approval workflow. Without this clear structure, your tasks could fall at the final hurdle. With Wrike, you can reinforce accountability and consistency at the end of your workflow, helping your team maintain the highest standards across all the work you deliver.

For approval workflows, Wrike’s standout features can: 

• Speed up the approval process: Our comprehensive system of automated notifications means approvers often see the files for review more quickly than if they were emailed. We’ve seen Wrike users slash their approval times from seven days to one, or change up their system to get client approval within an afternoon. 
• Group all the materials necessary for review: Because Wrike brings together all the files, discussions, and history related to a piece of work on the task card, the reviewer can access the information they need without requesting it from the different team members involved.
• Automate the approval process: Wrike won’t give your reviewers a literal rubber stamp, but they will be able to reject or approve a task at the click of a button. This decision can notify the team, send the file back for amendments, share the task with an external client, and even adjust the project schedule. 
• Save time later: Approval workflow tools record the reviewer’s feedback and their ultimate decision, which makes it easier to reflect on or audit the process later.

In Wrike, you can add approval stages to as many task workflows as you need. Most importantly, you can tailor those approval processes to your unique teams, projects, and clients. This brings invaluable transparency to your reviews and sets you up to maintain and improve your standards across the board. 

For a more detailed look at these tools and more, check out this post: 12 approval workflow software solutions to streamline approvals.

3. Kanban workflows 

A Kanban workflow is a highly visual approach to task management. These workflows are built around a Kanban board with columns to represent the different stages the tasks move through before they’re marked complete. If you use Agile project management methodologies, or if your team completes deliverables in batches, this type of workflow can help your projects run smoothly — but only if your boards are robust enough to handle custom workflows and a high volume of tasks.

Kanban workflows started with teams moving paper task cards across a table as they completed the subtasks, but there are clear advantages to digitizing the process in Wrike’s Kanban app. 

Wrike takes Kanban workflows to the next level with features to support: 

• Information sharing: Wrike’s task cards are detailed, laying out checklists, including the file attachments needed to complete the task, and recording the discussions that have gone into the work so far. This removes the need to schedule a sit-down meeting with a team member when a new task lands on their plate. 
• Accountability: Our Kanban boards show who has been delegated the task, who owns it, and who has approval authority. We also make it easier for team members to complete their tasks by displaying them in personal dashboards and workflow diagrams. This sets up a clear chain of responsibility and reduces the risk of a task being overlooked. 
• Productivity: Wrike’s Kanban tools are fully automated, saving time, reducing errors, and keeping your overview current. We’ll move your task cards whenever a workflow stage is completed, and notify the next team member in the chain. These productivity features help make sure tasks are completed smoothly and consistently over the course of a Kanban project.

You’ll find more options for Kanban apps in this post: Kanban software for everyone: 6 workflow visualization tools.

4. Agile workflows

Agile workflows group outputs together in cycles called sprints. Crucially, this style of working includes a chance to adjust the workflow based on feedback from the team and their clients. 

Workflow apps are incredibly useful for managing the high number of tasks in an Agile sprint. Still, more than any of the other processes on this list, they need specific features if they’re going to optimize your process and support your team.

Whether you take a true Agile or a hybrid approach to your workflows, we built Wrike to be customizable. Plus, to adapt to Agile more quickly, we include project management templates and dashboards that can help you set up your workspace with sprints and Scrums in mind.

Wrike’s Agile workflow software includes tools to: 

• Gather or submit items for the backlog: Wrike helps Agile project managers track and groom their lists of future tasks, so they can set strong priorities for their upcoming sprints.
• Delegate tasks: When you kick off a new workflow, Wrike includes capacity management and delegation features to help allocate work in a way that makes the best use of your resources. 
• Track progress: During a sprint, Wrike helps you track progress on both the individual tasks and story points and the sprint as a whole.
• Report on results: Wrike gathers data on when and how each task was completed, so you can draw on the latest information about your sprint during Scrum meetings and retrospectives.

If you’re just getting started with the Agile method, you’ll find more information in this post: How to build an Agile workflow for any type of project.

Key benefits of using Wrike to manage workflows

The main advantage of Wrike over other software is that you can adapt our platform to manage all these contrasting workflows simultaneously in a single shared workspace. 

You might have teams who work in different ways, projects with various regulatory requirements, and workflows that span multiple departments. But with Wrike, you can manage and track all those tasks and processes within a single user-friendly workflow platform. 

We can sum up the benefits into three categories:

• Enhanced collaboration and communication
• Time saved on repetitive tasks
• Better results

Enhanced collaboration and communication 

When you want to improve collaboration in your team, you look for ways to improve information sharing and centralize communication. There’s no better source of truth for your team than the live data on the workflow tasks they’re completing today. Wrike keeps all the vital updates at your team’s fingertips, so they can plan the most effective way to approach their shared tasks.

In a Wrike workspace, we translate live data on your tasks’ progress through your workflows into: 

• Shared project dashboards that show where your tasks are sitting, when they’re due, and who they’ve been assigned to 
• Individual dashboards to show team members their incoming tasks, the work they need to prioritize, and how their work fits into the bigger picture 
• Centralized communication tools like comment threads on task cards, AI summaries of discussions and meeting notes, and automated reminders for upcoming deadlines 

All these features boost collaboration by breaking down information silos and removing the need for internal emails, progress reports, and sit-down meetings. 

Time saved on repetitive tasks 

One of the main benefits of standardizing a workflow in an app is the time it can save your team.

With our workflow software, you can set up custom item types with workflow stages tailored to the task. For example, an IT team could set up custom item types for the different support requests they receive, or even the preferences of their different clients. 

Once you have these prebuilt templates in place, an incoming task does more than add an item to your list of upcoming work; it sends it to your workspace dashboards, assigns it to a team member, kicks off a workflow, and schedules it on your shared timeline.

Wrike also reduces the number of repetitive tasks you have to complete at the execution stage of your workflow. 

Every time a task changes status, you can set it to trigger an action with a simple when/then automation. For example, when a new presentation is approved, then send it back to the team so it can be rehearsed and scheduled with the client.

If these status changes affect the time required to complete a task, we’ll update the team’s shared overview and dynamically adjust your Gantt chart timeline. 

As you continue to work with Wrike, the machine learning element of our groundbreaking Work Intelligence® system notes patterns in the ways your team completes their tasks. Then it uses this information to suggest improvements to your workflow, eliminating more repetitive tasks and helping your business processes run even more smoothly in the future.

Improved results for every team

Transferring your process to a workflow app helps you understand it better, which is a great first step to improving your results. But the best workflow apps do even more. 

With Wrike, you can analyze your workflow performance and plan your next moves. The data on your workflow structure and progress isn’t just there to keep you on track for this project; you can also use it to improve the next project you schedule for your team. 

The same data that updates your dashboards and workflow diagrams in real time can also generate exhaustive, tailored reports on your performance. Then, you can use these reports to: 

• Provide quick, clear updates to managers and clients on, for example, the weekly progress of your projects. 
• Inform team meetings, like daily Scrums and progress updates so that you can run them more productively.
• Manage risks to your projects while they’re still emerging, so you have time to adjust course.

Wrike’s reporting features help you manage your workflows now and plan strategically to improve your approach to upcoming projects. And, because all our workflow tools are seamlessly integrated into our powerful project management platform, it’s easier than ever to share these insights and apply them across your organization in one unified, powerful platform.