Hive Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons

Launched in 2016, Hive has become one of the leading project management solutions for businesses of all sizes. In our Hive review, we take a deep dive into Hive’s features, pricing, pros and cons to help you better understand the software and determine if this is the right project management software for your needs. If Hive is not a good fit for you, we have shared a few top Hive alternatives.

Jump to:

• What is Hive?
• Hands-on Hive review results
• Hive pricing
• Core Hive features
• Hive ease of use
• Hive customer service and support
• Hive pros and cons
• Best uses for Hive
• Hive alternatives
• Hive review methodology

What is Hive?

Hive is a productivity platform that allows fast-growing teams to manage projects, track tasks and collaborate. It offers an impressive portfolio of features, including automated task management, in-built messaging, templates and integrations with several third-party applications.

Hands-on Hive review results

The best project management tool is one that offers extensive features and functionalities, affordable pricing, easy to learn and use and offers quality support and services. We ranked Hive based on these criteria to help you determine if it’s the best option for your company’s productivity needs.

Hive pricing: 2.9/5

Free

Hive’s Free plan is available at no cost for up to two workspace members and unlimited storage. You get unlimited tasks, unlimited collaborative notes, custom emojis, native messaging tools and multiple views such as gantt, kanban, calendar and table views. The free version is ideal for light project management for small teams.

Team

The Team plan is $12 per user per month, billed annually, or $18 per user when billed monthly. It offers unlimited storage, unlimited users, external guest access and several other features not available in the free version. The Team version is ideal for handling multiple projects. Those interested can take advantage of Hive’s 14-day free trial.

Enterprise

The Enterprise plan includes enhanced security and permission controls, customer analytics, enterprise application programming interface and access to professional services. The Enterprise plan is best for teams that need a full suite of add-ons, enterprise security and extra support. Businesses interested in the Enterprise plan will need to contact Hive’s sales team for a custom quote. Discounts are available to nonprofits.

Core Hive features: 4.3/5

Hive offers several features to help you through your project management lifecycle, from planning to completion.

Hive milestones and reporting

The Hive Goals is a goal-setting feature that allows users to set objectives, visualize projects and keep everyone in the team aligned using a centralized dashboard (Figure A). Using this feature, users can break down complex projects into small goals, assign tasks to users and monitor progress.

Figure A

Hive has a feature where you can view project summaries to get a quick overview of project status, make meeting updates and create content calendars. The best use case for this feature is for managing multiple or complex projects, as it provides a bigger picture of the projects in real time.

Time tracking

Hive has a native time tracking feature, which makes it easy to record how long it takes to complete a task. Project managers can use this feature for resource management, while individual users can keep track of their time sheets. Third-party integrations for time tracking are available, but having a native capability provides a more seamless experience.

Communication and collaborative tools

The instant messaging app of Hive can be used for group chatting or individual use (Figure B). Whether you need to discuss a project, celebrate a milestone or set up a video chat, you can use Hive’s native messenger to collaborate with your team. You can even use Messenger to upload and share files.

Figure B

The proofing and approval tools offered by Hive make it convenient and efficient to proof and approve files. Instead of attaching files to an email, users can use Hive to simply tag their managers for approval.

Kanban boards and Gantt charts

Kanban boards help boost team efficiency by minimizing work in progress. They also help improve project visibility by allowing all team members to be aligned with the project’s status and progress. Gantt charts help users visualize project roadmaps and track project schedules. Hive offers these tools as well as a few other views, such as list view, portfolio view, table view and calendar view.

Mobile app

Through the Hive mobile app, you get access to a mobile-optimized workspace so you can manage tasks on the go. The mobile app has impressive functionality, as you can use it to share files, create new tasks or send messages. The Hive mobile app is available for Android and iOS.

Drag-and-drop tools

The drag-and-drop feature of Hive improves the navigation of the software and boosts efficiency. For example, to alert a coworker about a change in project status, you can simply drag and drop an action into the chat window. Similarly, you can use the drag-and-drop feature to share files with coworkers.

Hive integrations

Figure C

Hive offers access to over 1,000 native and non-native integrations to third-party applications (Figure C). It should be noted that non-native integration requires a Zapier account, which comes at an additional starting price of $19.99 per month. However, users can still access top native Hive integrations at no extra cost, including tools like:

• Salesforce: Hive can be integrated with Salesforce, which is one of the leading customer relationship management platforms, to help businesses manage their customers and projects.
• Slack: Although Hive has a built-in messaging app, you can integrate it with Slack for more comprehensive communication between teams.
• Zoom: With Zoom integration, Hive users can bypass the hassle of setting up meeting sessions.
• Github: Hive integrates with GitHub to provide a version control system for developers. The integration allows users to track and manage progress throughout the development life cycle.
• Google Drive: You can store, share and collaborate on any file using Google Drive integration with Hive.

Hive ease of use: 4.2/5

Hive received an excellent score for ease of use, with a rating of 4.15 out of 5. Hive has a visually appealing user interface that makes it easy for inexperienced users to navigate. For easy accessibility, Hive offers iOS and Android apps, allowing you to check project status and comment directly on action cards. You can create new tasks and assign work to team members via Hive’s app.

Hive also offers built-in automation, which simplifies repetitive tasks – it is also highly scalable, meaning it can accommodate the needs of small teams and larger enterprises. As projects grow and evolve, Hive can adapt and scale accordingly.

Hive customer service and support: 3.7/5

We ranked Hive slightly above average for customer service and support. This indicates that there is room for improvement.

Knowledge Base/Help Center

Hive’s university offers a knowledge base to support users in learning and mastering Hive’s software. The university provides courses, tutorials and webinars to help you learn about the platform’s capabilities. The knowledge base is a central hub for all support materials, including articles, videos and FAQs organized from beginners to advanced levels. Users can easily search for specific topics or browse categories for the necessary information.

Service Channels

While Hive offers extensive knowledge-based resources, they have limited support channels. You can contact Hive’s support team via live chat or email, but response time may vary. However, they lack phone support. A dedicated customer success manager is only available to enterprise plan users or at an additional cost for team plan users.

Live Training

Hive offers live training sessions such as weekly live webinars, ongoing coaching and adoption training, and admin training to provide users with in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with Hive’s software. During these live training sessions, users can interact with an instructor who will guide them through various Hive features and functionalities.

Hive pros and cons

Best uses for Hive

The outstanding versatility and scalability make Hive work for different types of users. For example, it offers excellent collaboration tools, such as a built-in messaging app, that would work for small or large teams.

In addition, it has powerful reporting and analytics tools that work for enterprises or smaller organizations looking to gain insights from project data. The pricing of Hive makes it more expensive than some competitors, so you will decide whether you can afford Hive in your budget. Hive use cases can be categorized into team, workflow and company type.

Team

Various teams within an organization can customize Hive to suit their needs. For instance, design teams can use Hive to map out and track their design initiatives and assets, while operations teams track and optimize strategic planning and finance initiatives. NGOs can also use the tool to plan fundraising projects, while marketing teams can use Hive to manage and execute their campaigns.

Workflow

Hive offers several capabilities to help organizations manage their workflows, from project and resource management to client engagement, goals tracking and cross-company collaboration. The platform ensures that teams can streamline their processes and stay on top of their tasks and deliverables.

Company type

Your use for Hive may also vary based on your company type and size. For instance, enterprises can use the tool as a central hub for project management, while agencies can use it to streamline project intake, project execution and client communications. Nonprofits can use the software for planning, fundraising and event execution, while companies with distributed teams or remote workers can use Hive to facilitate remote collaboration and communication.

Hive alternatives and competitors

Asana

Similar to Hive, Asana is a project management solution that is versatile and flexible, which makes it work for businesses of all sizes. It offers similar core features to Hive and integrates with over 1,000 business applications. The ease of use offered by Asana is superior to Hive, so if you are looking for an easy learning curve, Asana would be a better fit.

For more information, check out our full review of Asana.

ClickUp

ClickUp is another leading project management solution. While Hive is more focused on team collaboration, ClickUp is better suited for freelancers, solopreneurs or small businesses. The feature-packed free plan of ClickUp means that some users can use the software without upgrading to a paid plan.

For more information, check out our full review of ClickUp.

Trello

Trello is well known for its simplicity, ease of use and outstanding free plan. With Trello, you get a kanban-based layout that is easy to navigate for beginners. The ease of use of Trello is a trade-off with some advanced features, as you don’t get built-in messaging or native time tracking with Trello. Trello is ideal for those looking to get up and running fast with a capable project management solution.

For more information, check out our full review of Trello.

Hive review methodology

To review Hive, we analyzed its pricing, ease of use, scalability, features, customer service, reliability and other parameters. In addition, we looked at how Hive would perform in a business environment and individual use. The review was based on information from hands-on personal use, expert reviews and customer ratings from reputable websites.

If you still think Hive isn’t right for you after this review, check out our list of the top cloud-based project management software.