If you’re looking to save time and increase productivity, we’ve put a list together of the best productivity apps to help you out.
Because we’ve all had one of those days where we plan to get things done, but then somehow find ourselves in bed at the end of the night having accomplished very little. Maybe you got stuck doing some simple task that you thought was only gonna take five minutes, but ended up taking hours. Or maybe you kept procrastinating and getting distracted by—well, pretty much everything.
That’s why there are productivity apps to get you back on track. Some are specifically designed to help you focus, while others help to organize your workflow and better manage your workload. Depending on the way you prefer to work (and the type of work you do) there are at least a few apps here that can make you more productive, too. 🚀
(Looking for the best free productivity apps? We’ve got a whole post dedicated to that.)
In a hurry? Here's our picks for the 23 best productivity apps
Check out the website for each app by clicking on the link, or keep reading below for our thoughts and impressions on how much time each of these will actually save you.
For improving focus
- Freedom: Block out distractions, schedule focused work sessions, and work online or offline.
- Engross: Create to-do lists, track time, and disconnect from distractions to focus better.
- Forest: Plant a virtual tree that grows with your productivity.
- Brain.fm: Focus music designed to help you work better.
For managing tasks and projects
- Todoist: Simple, super easy to use, and the gold standard for task management and to-do lists.
- Hive: Manage tasks and projects better, and collaborate with team members.
- Asana: Like Todoist for project management, and the free plan is super generous.
- Google Docs: The trusty word processing and document management tool.
- Chanty: Team productivity app for organizing tasks.
- ClickUp: Project management tool for teams to organize their tasks all in one app.
- Lucid: Visual collabration app for teams. Like mindmapping, but in a team atmosphere.
- Scribe: Turn your screen recordings into step by step guides easily.
For time tracking
- Toggl: Crazy easy to use, with all the essential features, like time tracking and invoicing.
- Everhour: Integrates with your favorite project management tools, helping you monitor productivity and track budgets.
For sales productivity
- Kixie: Send automated, personalized voice and SMS messages to deliver better customer experiences—on autopilot.
- Klyck: Create, manage, and organize interactive sales presentations and documentation to delight prospects.
- Octoparse: Super powerful web scraping app with data cleaning features. Your CRM will love this one.
- Calendly: Appointment scheduling software that eliminates the need for endless back and forth emails.
- Loom: Screen recording app that lets you give presentations with or without showing your face.
For automating repetitive tasks
- Magical: No-code task automation tool that doesn’t need any integrations. Loved by sales pros, recruiters, and customer service agents.
- IFTTT: Automate pretty much any task that can be automated.
- Wrike: Streamline work processes easily for your team.
- Pabbly: Complete suite of tools in addition to automated workflow solutions.
How to choose the right productivity app
Let’s start with a few FAQs.
What is the #1 productivity app?
There isn’t a clear “best” productivity app, but we’ve reviewed some solid ones worth considering. For example, Magical is great for automating everyday tasks, while Freedom lets you focus better by blocking out distractions.
What is the most useful productivity tool?
Depending on your needs, you might find some productivity tools more useful than others. For example, Freedom is great for focusing better, but an app like Asana helps manage tasks and organize your everyday activities. Both apps boost productivity, but in different ways!
What apps increase productivity?
Lots of apps can increase productivity, depending on the nature of your work. Apps like Forest help people focus better, and automation tools like IFTTT boost productivity by automating repetitive tasks.
What are the best productivity apps? Our top 23 picks
These apps are great for focusing better, organizing workflows, automating tasks, and generally improving productivity.
For improving focus
These apps improve productivity by blocking out distractions and helping you focus.
1. Freedom
Free plan/free trial? Yes. Freedom offers a seven-day free trial.
Plans: $8.99/month, or $3.33/month for a yearly subscription.
Freedom is a simple, easy-to-use productivity app that lets you block websites, track time, and schedule sessions to stay focused. The app supports both online and offline modes, in case you want to block the internet out entirely.
You can manage Freedom’s settings directly from the dashboard; it lets you restrict specific sites (we’re looking at you, TikTok), so you can focus on important tasks. The platform also allows you to schedule “sessions” on your device of choice to dedicate to productive and focused work.
Freedom comes with some nice additional features, including ambient noise, time tracking, and even note-taking features. The premium plan lets users schedule recurring sessions, connect unlimited devices and set unlimited sessions, and take advantage of the platform’s partner discounts (there are 20 of them).
2. Engross
Free trial/plan? Yes. Engross is entirely free to download.
Engross is another app that helps people focus, plan better, and better manage their time. The app’s productivity features are inspired by the Pomodoro Technique, a time management methodology that prioritizes scheduling time to work and time for breaks.
Engross lets you create to-do lists with important tasks, and you can schedule “events” for timed productivity sessions. The platform also includes focused work features that block out notifications and distractions. Plus, Engross has a really simple, straightforward interface that makes it easy to use.
3. Forest
Free trial/plan? Yes. Forest’s Chrome extension is free to use, and the Android app is free with in-app purchases.
Plans: Forest’s iOS app costs $3.99.
Forest has a really interesting strategy for improving productivity: it helps you focus by planting a virtual tree that grows while you work. If you get distracted, procrastinate, or leave the app, the tree dies.
Basically, Forest helps you focus by gamifying productivity. The app’s personality test helps you identify your focus needs, tailoring your app experience. Forest also partners with Trees for the Future, a tree-planting organization, allowing you to send virtual coins to plant real trees. 🌱
4. Brain.fm
Free trial/plan?: Free trial
Plans: $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year
Brain.fm is a music focus app that uses science to create music that helps you focus and relax. They even tested it with scientists and showed increased blood flow to the areas of the brain that are responsible for creativity. The music Brain.fm produces is not distracting-rather it's built to help you operate at the highest cognitive level.
For managing tasks and projects
Looking to manage your to-do lists and different projects? These apps will help you out.
5. Todoist
Free trial/plan? Yes. Todoist’s free plan supports up to five projects and collaborators.
Plans: Start at $5/month or $48/year.
Todoist is one of the best task management tools available, perfect for organizing your daily activities and tracking productivity. The app syncs and works across all your devices, and it supports all major brands. The free plan is quite generous, but it lacks some features you might want, like labels, filters, better file upload limits, and different themes.
Still, the free plan supports collaboration with up to five people, and lets you manage five projects. So, it’s more than enough for basic needs. And if you’d like to access the premium features, the Pro plan costs just $5/month (or $48/year).
The Pro plan massively increases your limits—to 300 projects and 25 collaborators per project—and gives access to tons of extra features, like productivity reports, automated backups, reminders, and more.
6. Hive
Free plan/trial? Yes. Hive has a Free Forever plan with unlimited storage, tasks, and projects.
Plans: The Teams plan costs $12/user/month.
Hive is a productivity platform with desktop, web, and mobile applications. The platform helps users improve productivity, manage tasks and projects, and collaborate with team members. It also lets users create and manage to-do lists, share files, monitor project progress, and communicate with fellow team members in real-time.
Hive’s desktop and web apps have more features than the mobile app, including different project views (Gantt Charts, Kanban boards, etc.) and better collaboration features. Users like Hive for its ease of use, intuitive interface, and comprehensive feature set.
7. Asana
Free plan/trial? Yes. Asana offers a free plan and the paid tiers come with a 30-day free trial.
Plans: Start at $10.99/user/month.
Asana strikes a nice balance between personal task management and team-level project management. The app’s interface is intuitive and easy to use, and Asana sports loads of integrations, including with CRMs, file-sharing platforms like GDrive and Dropbox, email, and more.
Asana supports all major project views, including Kanban, calendar, list, etc. The app lets you create and manage projects and tasks, including task dependencies. And its free plan gives you access to basic features and comes with 10 team member seats. Asana’s reporting features and centralized dashboard help you track productivity and progress at task and project levels.
8. Google Docs
Free plan/trial?: 100% free
Google Docs is the word processor of choice for a reason. It's free (part of the Google Suite of tools), it's super simple to use, and has many features that allow you to collaborate with your team on projects.
9. Chanty
Free plan/trial?: Free plan
Plans: $4.00 per user, per month.
For teams that need to stay connected and organized, there's Chanty. This app allows you and your team to stay coordinated with messages, content sharing, and task creation. They boast of having a secure platform for teams to work comfortably with the option of adding or deleting users easily.
10. ClickUp
Free plan/trial?: Free plan
Pricing: $7.00 per user per month for Unlimited, $12.00 per user per month for Business.
One of the best, most robust all in one apps, ClickUp is a document creator, form creator, time tracking tool, and project management tool. You can automate tasks within the app, use customized templates and create whiteboards for brainstorming ideas across the team.
11. Lucid
Free plan/trial?: Free plan
Pricing: $11.93 a month for a single user, $13.50 per user per month for a team.
With Lucid, you can create diagrams for mindmapping or brainstorming from a template or one you made from scratch. It's easy to share across teams and there's even AI built in to help with your creations. You can connect Lucid with Slack, Google Suite, and many other tools.
12. Scribe
Free plan/trial?: Free plan
Pricing: $23 per month for individual and $12 per seat per month for a minimum of five users.
Scribe takes away the annoyance of copying and pasting screenshots and allows you to create a step by step manual with your clicks. Just record your screen while showing a process, and Scribe will create a guide for you. It works and desktop apps, mobile apps, and websites.
For time tracking
Time-tracking software helps you monitor productivity and schedule focused work sessions. Here are two of our top picks to boost productivity.
13. Toggl
Free plan/trial? Yes. Toggle has a free plan for up to five users.
Plans: The Starter plan for teams starts at $8 per user.
Relative to many of its competitors, Toggl is super easy to use with a simple, straightforward interface and intuitive navigation. The tool comes with basic time-tracking features, but also offers more advanced capabilities like billing options and reporting functionality. These capabilities make it a popular choice for people doing client work.
Toggle helps businesses and individuals see where they’re spending the most time—and where time is being wasted. This helps identify opportunities for improving productivity and reducing inefficiencies. Toggl has web, mobile, and desktop apps and the free plan supports up to five users.
14. Everhour
Free plan/trial? Yes. Everhour has a free two-week trial.
Plans: Start at $8.50/month, with discounts for annual billing.
Everhour is a great time-tracking tool that works with your existing project management setup. The app supports integrations with major project management tools including Asana, Jira, and GitHub, allowing teams to track time and monitor productivity across different projects. The app also comes with budget-tracking features for projects.
Like Toggl, Everhour offers invoicing features to make client billing easier. The app’s reporting features help you monitor progress and make sure activities are on schedule, and the visual planning capabilities offer project-level insights at a glance.
For improving sales productivity
Looking to improve your sales team’s productivity? Here are three excellent sales productivity tools to consider.
15. Kixie
Free plan/trial? Yes. Kixie offers a seven-day free trial with all its plans.
Plans: Start at $35/month, billed quarterly.
The technical term for Kixie is an “IVR”—an interactive voice response solution for automating sales processes. In simpler terms, it lets sales teams send automated voice and SMS messages, triggered by specific user behavior. Basically, it’s like email automation, except with SMS and voice messages.
Kixie lets sales teams automate lead nurturing and engage with customers in a more personalized way. The platform also includes calling features, routing, and transfers, for when your team needs to pick up the phone and talk directly to customers. Naturally, Kixie supports integrations with major CRMs like Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive.
16. Klyck
Free plan/trial? Yes. Klyck offers a limited free plan.
Plans: The paid plans start at $9/user/month
Klyck is like a more advanced Sharepoint, designed specifically for B2B needs. The platform is especially useful for sales teams because it helps to create and organize interactive sales collateral, including presentations, to engage and qualify prospects.
Klyck helps sales teams improve productivity by making file sharing, creation, and management much easier. The platform has many advanced, instant search options to help you find the content you need, when you need it. The app also lets you sort pages into “channels”, organized by subject, team, or topic.
Klyck has 10+ pre-built modules, including tables, to-do lists, and more, to help teams get started quickly. It also lets you create and save custom templates.
17. Octoparse
Free plan/trial? Yes. Octoparse’s free plan supports 10 tasks and up to 10k data rows per extraction.
Plans: Start at $89/month (or $75/month when billed annually).
Octoparse is a no-code web scraping tool that’s easy to use, but don’t let its simplicity fool you—this AI-powered platform knows what it's doing. Octoparse lets you collect data from various platforms, including directories, social networks, web pages, and more. The app then cleans the data up and helps you export it directly to your CRM.
Octoparse’s web scraping and extraction features already boost productivity, but the platform’s advanced features and automation help you save even more time. For example, you can schedule extractions to occur at any time, via the cloud, at your desired frequency. The app also lets you perform multiple extractions simultaneously, without compromising on speed.
18. Calendly
Free plan/trial?: Free plan
Pricing: $10 per user per month for standard, $16 per user per month for teams.
More than a scheduling app, Calendly can be integrated as part of your team or sales workflows. Just create a scheduling link and use it for meetings or sales. It automatically sends follow ups to the people you invite and lets you know the time they schedule for so you're prepared.
19. Loom
Free trial/plan?: Free plan
Pricing: $12.50 for business. There's also an Enterprise option.
Loom is similar to Scribe (mentioned above) in that you can record your screen and share it with your team or with customers to explain SOP's or answer questions from customers. You can customize the backgrounds (for a personal touch) and record with your face or just your voice.
For automating repetitive tasks
20. Magical
Magical is a no-code automation tool that helps sales pros, customer service teams, recruiters, and more boost productivity. The app comes with customizable text expansion and data entry automation, helping you save loads of time every day.
For example, Magical lets you create templates to send emails and follow-up messages quickly. You can also move data across open tabs—without any integrations—eliminating boring copy-pasting. And the variables feature lets teams create personalized messages, using tags like {First Name} or {Date}.
One of the reasons why Magical is so popular is because it doesn’t require any integrations. It works where you do.
21. IFTTT (If This, Then That)
Free plan/trial? Yes. IFTTT’s free plan lets users access unlimited existing applets, and create up to five custom ones.
Plans: Pro plan costs $5/month (20 applets, faster speeds than the free plan, etc.) and Pro+ is $9.99/month (unlimited applets and more features, including developer tools).
IFTTT is a powerful, versatile task automation software that helps teams boost productivity and save time. IFTTT’s web and mobile apps are both mature, and the platform connects to voice assistants and smart devices. IFTTT lets you automate anything from turning off home devices to tasks across different apps.
IFTTT comes with pre-made automation recipes called “applets”—and you can create your own custom ones, too. While the app has a generous free plan that gives you access to unlimited existing applets, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid plans (which start at $5/month) if you want to create more than five custom applets.
IFTTT offers great value for money and it's an exceptional tool for automating repetitive tasks.
22. Wrike
Free plan/trial?: Free trial
Pricing: $9.80 per user per month for Teams, $24.80 per user per month for Business. They also have an Enterprise level.
Wrike offers project management, workflow management, task management, and resource management for teams. You can plan every aspect of your marketing campaign and share the details with the right people. For service providers Wrike really shines. You can bring in your client for every stage of your project and collaborate together, adding a touch of professionalism to your brand.
23. Pabbly
Free plan/trial?: Free trial
Pricing: $49 for Tier 1, $99 for Tier 2, and $199 for Tier 3.
Pabbly is an all in one app that gives you the ability to create automated workflows, e-mail marketing, form builder, and subscription billing.
Whether it’s sending bulk or promotional emails, integrating different applications, placing subscription forms over the website, managing sales & billing of customers or verifying email databases, Pabbly upholds everything that is needed for running any business flawlessly.
Ready to boost your productivity?
That’s a wrap! 13 of the best apps for productivity, including ones that help you focus, manage tasks and workflows, track time, and even automate repetitive tasks. You probably won’t need to use all—or even most—of these apps. But it’s a good idea to select a few that fit your workflow and individual needs.
