Marketing Agency Management Software Compared

What to look for in marketing agency management software

Most marketing agencies outgrow a plain task tool when retainers and headcount grow. Check these six things before you shortlist:

1. Time against retainers and budgets. Can you log billable time to a client project and see it against the budget?
2. Capacity. Can you see who is free next week before you accept new work?
3. Rates and profitability. Rate cards per role or person, and a view of cost versus fee per client.
4. Client communication. A client portal, or at least a structured way for clients to send requests.
5. Invoicing. Invoices built from the work, or an integration with your accounting tool.
6. Real cost. Per-user price and seat minimums. A 5-seat minimum changes the maths for a 3-person team.

Comparison: five tools marketing agencies shortlist

Competitor details are from each vendor’s pricing page, checked in November 2026. “Check vendor” means the pricing page didn’t make it clear. Prices are per user per month in USD unless noted, and change often, so confirm before you buy.

	Worklenz	Productive	Teamwork	Scoro	Bonsai
Starting price	See pricing	From $10	Free (up to 5 users); paid from $9.99, billed annually	From $17	From $9 (annual) / $15 (monthly)
Seat minimum	See pricing	Check vendor	3 (Basics), 5 (Accelerate)	5	3 on Elite only
Resource / capacity planning	Workload view (Pro); full scheduler (Business)	Included from Essential	From Accelerate	Resource app	Workload management from Premium
Rate cards	Org and per-project rate cards (Business)	From Professional	Check vendor	Cost and margin planning	Check vendor
Client portal	Business plan	Not a listed feature	Not on the plan list	Paid extra	From Essentials
Invoicing	Business plan (no online card payments)	Via integrations	From Accelerate (from logged time)	Core app	From Essentials

Where each tool fits

• Productive suits agencies that want budgeting and resource planning from the entry plan, and are happy to pay more for rate cards and advanced reports on Professional ($25 billed yearly).
• Teamwork suits agencies that want a mature agency PM tool with a free tier to start. Capacity planning and invoicing need Accelerate ($24.99 billed annually, 5-seat minimum).
• Scoro suits larger agencies that want quote-to-cash in one system: quotes, budgets, time, invoicing. The 5-seat minimum and per-app pricing make it a bigger commitment.
• Bonsai suits small agencies and freelancers who sell with proposals and contracts, and want invoicing and a client portal from the Essentials plan.
• Worklenz suits marketing agencies that want PSA features (time, workload, project finance, invoicing, client portal) without a large platform, and those who need the option to self-host their data.

Where Worklenz falls short

Be clear on the gaps before you switch:

• Integrations and automation are the gaps users mention most. Check that the tools you rely on are covered.
• Invoices can’t take online card payments. You create, send and mark invoices paid, and record payments manually.
• No timesheet approval workflow yet. If you need managers to approve hours before billing, Productive (Professional) is a better fit today.
• The client portal, invoicing and project finance are on the Business plan, not on Free or Pro.

Running a marketing agency in Worklenz

A typical setup for a retainer-based marketing agency:

• One project per client or campaign, with tasks, owners and deadlines. Import existing work from Asana, Trello, Jira, ClickUp, Monday or CSV.
• Time tracking with a task timer or manual logs, a billable flag, and estimated-versus-actual reports to catch retainers running over.
• Project finance: a budget per project, fixed costs, task costs, and rate cards at organisation or project-member level, in multiple currencies.
• Workload and scheduling to see capacity across clients, including time off and holidays, before you take on the next brief.
• A client portal where clients log in, raise requests against your services, follow each request’s status and chat with your team.

See how the pieces fit together on the PSA software and agency management software pages, or read about the client portal.

FAQ

Is there free marketing agency management software?

Yes, with limits. Worklenz’s Community edition is free and open source (AGPL-3.0) if you host it yourself, and Worklenz also has a Free cloud plan. Teamwork has a free plan for up to 5 users. Paid features such as capacity planning, invoicing and client portals usually sit on paid tiers in every tool.

Which marketing agency tools include a client portal?

From the tools above: Worklenz (Business plan), Bonsai (from Essentials) and Scoro (as a paid extra). Check each vendor’s current plan page, because portal features move between tiers.

Can I move my agency’s projects from Asana, Monday or ClickUp?

Worklenz imports from Asana, Trello, Jira, ClickUp, Monday and CSV, so you can bring existing client projects across instead of rebuilding them.