Summary: Wrike’s custom item types, space-level workflow, & custom access functionalities are best suited for Mid-market teams with complex processes, while ClickUp’s Custom Fields and Code Block ensure that even smaller teams can handle complex projects without feeling boxed in.
When project managers demand customizable project management software, they need a tool that doesn’t just WORK but also provides powerful features that scale with their team’s needs. Basic customizations such as:
- A drag & drop interface
- Dark mode screen
- Changing background image
- Task & Project templates, etc., will not cut it.
A customizable project management software (PMS) allows teams to change its standard features to suit their needs. It can be a powerful pre-built space where you can work faster or a blank canvas for a flexible work experience.
But how do you find this gem of a PMS?
- Product review blogs mostly compare prices– when business owners like you are more interested in scalability and Time-to-ROI.
- Most PMS hide their best custom features behind a premium subscription– and because you can’t find a detailed PMS customization review, buying the tool might feel like shooting an arrow into the dark.
No wonder 57% of companies switch vendors between 3-6 months of adoption.
G2 B2B Buyer Behavior (2022)
To help, we compared ClickUp and Wrike to determine the best customizable project management software for your team. Let’s begin with Wrike.
A Review of Wrike’s Unique Customisation Features
Founded in 2006, Wrike is a pioneering project management platform that differentiates itself with a remarkable suite of customization features. According to this study, 81% of Wrike reviews that mentioned “customisation” (and related terms) shared a positive experience.
Here are some of Wrike’s unique customization features:
- Intelligent custom item types
- Space level configuration
- Custom access functionality
Let’s examine how they work and what these features can do for your team.
Intelligent Custom Item Types
Default item types found in out-of-the-box PMS cannot demonstrate your team’s unique language and manner of working. However, most PMS systems restrict the redefinition of item types. In other instances, you might require expensive technical help to redefine item types. As a result, your team builds its database with terms that don’t represent your work language.
When you need to go beyond “tasks”, “projects”, and “folders”, Wrike’s intelligent custom item types empower you to do YOU. If your marketing team wants to create item types under “Campaigns” instead of “Promotions”, you can do it. This feature lets your team create item types using your internal language preferences.
And it is intelligent because it allows you to
- Build item-specific automation workflows for user-defined item types. For example, you can create a notification workflow triggered when a project is marked as “completed”. Although these kinds of workflows are available for standard item types in native apps, Wrike’s custom item types enable you to build workflows for user-defined item types, too.
- Generate reports and interactive dashboards for custom item-types.
Cons: Wrike’s custom item types work on premium plans only
Only business plan users or higher can create custom item types. But there is a lesser risk of incompatibility since you can still see how it works in the 7-day free trial subscription.
Space Level Workflow Configuration
In Wrike, “Space” is the central hub of information where admins can set permissions and define workflows. With Space level workflow customization, teams can manage processes and collaborate outside the organization’s configurations.
What this means is that, rather than having the project admin manage the general space, which can be tiring, teams can create a custom space and manage their process independently.
That way, IT and DevOps can create their own workflows independent of the out-of-the-box or admin-defined configurations and manage these workflows at the Space level. This approach enables individuals knowledgeable about a team’s workflow and daily activities to create and manage workspaces.
Space admins can set permissions and build team-specific workflows in Wrike.
How Wrike’s Space-level workflow customisation helps teams
Space admins can identify, fix issues, and update processes faster without the delay of Account admin permissions. That’s because they are closer to the process with space-level configurations.
Space-level workflow also prevents inaccurate reports since teams now work with less cluttered and more specific databases.
You can learn more about this feature here.
Custom access functionality
In our experience with team management, there is a subtle difference between creating tailored access to team space and having restricted access. The latter might involve team members asking for permissions many times in a day:
- It is frustrating
- It wastes time
- It causes distrust
They wonder what’s behind the huge wall you’ve built between them and the company-wide space.
Wrike changes that with custom access functionality– this feature enables account admins to provide custom access to a team member in any space.
Wrike’s custom access works best when you need to grant full viewing rights to team members but want specific accounts to be able to change control and settings. That way, account security is not compromised, and team members don’t feel locked out.
- ClickUp’s Unique Customisation Features
Robust Custom Fields
For Wrike, it was Custom item types, for ClickUp, it is robust Custom Fields. What’s the difference?
By using custom item types, teams can create personalized work categories like tasks, projects, or campaigns. Clickup’s custom fields then enable teams to customize those work categories with as much metadata as they require.
How Clickup’s Custom Field Works?
Imagine you’re dealing with a campaign project. Besides standard components like task, duration, and status, Clickup allows teams to create more information by adding custom fields. These custom fields may include:
- Website (to associate websites with a campaign task)
- People (to assign/associate Sam or the accounting team to specific tasks or tags)
- Checkbox (to create a simple true/false logical rule)
- Labels (to filter/differentiate customer-reported bugs from internally reported bugs)
Why do custom fields matter?
Every project team has different requirements and may need to track unique information. But the standard PMS fields may be inadequate for your team’s needs.
Custom fields change that by allowing you to change your PMS’s interface and work how you want– whether in construction, project development, finance, or marketing.
Benefits of ClickUp’s Custom Field
With Clickup’s custom fields, now:
- You don’t have to download project-wide reports. Just filter the dashboard to show information on specific custom items, such as a client’s name.
- You don’t have to sift through dozens of pieces of information to get what you want. Sort fields by their custom items to cut through the clutter in seconds.
- You don’t have to do the mental maths when estimating hours worked and hourly rate. Create numerical custom fields and calculate their value with Clickup’s advanced formula.
Code block formatting
Imagine you’re building a new product feature and need to share and review code; ClickUp enables you to interpret JavaScript, Python, Ruby, CSS, Java, PHP, and HTML code within the system. The code is then colorized for clarity.
With ClickUp’s Code block formatting, Software development or IT-related teams can now document code-related issues or bugs without switching between multiple applications, making it easier to keep track of the project’s status.
What 9,930 user reviews say about customization in ClickUp and Wrike
In this section, we will compare ClickUp and Wrike’s customization experience based on 9,930 G2 user reviews. But first, consider how market size influences our performance evaluation.
When comparing ClickUp (targeting small businesses) and Wrike (targeted at mid-market businesses), it’s important to consider the differences in the market segments they serve. Small businesses have less complex needs, budgets, and workflows than mid-market businesses.
Since G2 considered reviews where the reviewer positively rated the tools’ ease-of-use and simplicity under “Customisation”, you want to evaluate these results according to your team size and level of complexity.
Which PMS Has The Best Customisable Online Form Builder?
Whether you’re building a creative marketing brief or a support Ticket for an IT provider, ClickUp and Wrike users enjoy excellent flexibility when building online forms.
Custom Field Rating
Although ClickUp’s Custom Field feature rates higher than Wrike’s, a rating above 8.0 shows that most users also have a great experience with Wrike. That means the tools allow construction project managers to create fields for construction material specifications, while a DevOps manager can equally include software error details without feeling boxed in.
Conditional Logic Rating
Wrike users enjoy a more satisfactory experience building dynamic forms with conditional logic than ClickUp. Advanced customizations are critical for Wrike users, so a 9.1 rating is exceptional. ClickUp’s 7.8 rating indicates that the tool effectively meets the needs of most users, but they would appreciate the ability to create more adaptable forms.
Form Builder Design Rating
Wrike and ClickUp offer beautiful form templates that work for most request types. When building custom forms, users will enjoy the following features:
- intuitive drag & drop interface,
- custom branding (avatar, font type, themes, text color, etc.),
- Workflow automation
But, Wrike’s online form design edges ClickUp with its simplified proofing feature. Simplified proofing enables teams to build and compare form designs faster without the headache of exporting and sharing design drafts many times. That means you can customize a form, invite team members to view it in a purple theme, and get their comments.
Wrike and ClickUp satisfy their customers with flexible online form customization. You’ll enjoy Wrike’s conditional formatting and intuitive design better if your team requires an advanced online form-building experience.
Which PMS Has The Best Customisable Project Collaboration Software?
Flexible Workspace Search Rating
ClickUp and Wrike offer workspace search functions so that users can cut through the clutter of files and folders faster. However, Wrike’s workspace search is more advanced because it offers a Boolean search, which ClickUp doesn’t.
In fact, Wrike’s Boolean search offers logic specific to the needs of a project management software user. Aside from the basic functions, you can use:
- #notme: To search for tasks not assigned to you.
- notin: To search for tasks, folders, and projects not included in the folder.
- Priority: to search for tasks based on importance.
You can read Wrike’s workspace search controls to learn more.
Version Control Rating
Confusion & disorganization. Wasted storage space. Increased risk of errors. Those are effects of poor version control in Project management software. ClickUp and Wrike excel equally in this area, each offering a unique version control for teams.
In Wrike, teams can use the “Add new version” button to update an existing file. This button allows Wrike to rename your new file to match the initial copy automatically. This feature is great for when you batch upload new files; you don’t have to update the name tags manually– Wrike does it for you in seconds. The comparison mode also allows you to view two versions of a file at once, so you know which version has the latest modifications.
ClickUp’s Description version history allows you to see previous task descriptions even when someone deletes it. That way, teams can ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding project requirements and can easily identify any discrepancies or misunderstandings.
Custom View Rating
When it comes to project views, all PMS are equal– But some PMS are more equal than others. For example, most PMS offer the basic task view, which includes list view, board view, and Gantt. ClickUp and Wrike give you more visibility.
With ClickUp, you can customize views based on Calendar, Team, Activities, Timeline, Workload, Mindmap, Maps, and Table. You can even pin the view you use most for quick access.
Wrike offers all types of views in ClickUp, but you cannot pin your preferred view to quick access. However, Wrike allows you to create custom view settings that filter down to all folders, projects, and tasks within a specific folder. That way, you don’t have to change views for each item as you work.
In the project management world, the ability to save seconds and minutes with flexible and easy-to-use customizations can make the difference between a great and subpar PMS user experience.
Which PMS Has The Best Customisable CRM Software?
CRM Customisation and User Management Rating
Wrike’s CRM offers the most positive user experience in all areas, especially in customization and user & access management. As we’ve mentioned above, Wrike’s custom access functionality is a powerful feature– when other PMS allow Admins to share restricted access, Wrike admins share custom access to the team space.
In addition, Wrike’s CRM is considered more powerful and reliable. So, compared to ClickUp, you’d report bugs less often and rarely experience lags. Although ClickUp’s CRM has an average rating of 8.4, which is excellent, Wrike serves a larger market where team collaboration requires extremely stable software, which it delivers excellently, according to user reviews.
Which PMS Has The Best Customisable Work Management Software?
Click and Wrike’s work management feature enables excellent collaboration between teams.
Which Customisable PMS should you choose?
Choosing the right custom project management software for your team depends on a variety of factors, including team size, growth rate, and the need for scalability. For small and fresh teams, Clickup may be the best choice, as it provides the canvas to test custom processes without burning cash. However, Wrike is the better option for teams that are rapidly growing or have standardized processes. With its space-level access and custom item features, Wrike can accommodate the dynamic needs of mid-sized to large teams and can scale with them as they grow.
