12 best software tools to keep your creative agency running smoothly

At the heart of every creative agency is an internal struggle: efficiency versus creativity, speed versus quality, juggling multiple clients versus creating something unique for each one.

In the right conditions — with the right tools to support the work — that tension can drive better creative results. But if you don't have the software to support your creative operations, things may fall apart instead of coming together.

Every creative agency needs software to maintain client relationships, keep projects on track, and ensure the quality of their work. They also need tech that functions across different media formats, including collaborative tools to show their ideas to clients.

We've collected the best software tools for each category and highlighted their key features for creative teams. With these in your tech stack, you can create more quality work and win that eternal creative struggle.

What we'll cover

Proof and approval software

Creative teams need a process for proofing and approval. The creative assets they produce must meet internal quality standards and win over clients by meeting and exceeding their expectations.

The most successful agencies can scale up their work without sacrificing quality (or hiring a hundred proofreaders). However, many creative, marketing, and advertising agencies still struggle to establish reliable and efficient processes.

But here’s a secret: Those successful agencies all use software to help them pull off higher volume with stellar results.

The best client proofing software and creative approval software should prioritize efficiency above all else. It should offer real-time updates, secure permissions control, and streamline collaboration to minimize unnecessary duplication of efforts.

You want to scale your operations. You want to wow clients with the best deliverables possible. You know the key to doing both those things is with proofing and approval software. But where do you start?

We’ll highlight some leading contenders below.

1. Ziflow

Ziflow is an enterprise-grade online proofing platform. Instead of sharing different versions of files and docs, everyone works with the latest version in the cloud. It's built for internal quality checking, client approval, and brand and regulatory compliance. 

One of Ziflow's greatest strengths is that it works with any type of creative project, from video to digital, web, and beyond. Its low-code API supports thousands of integrations with minimal effort. Instead of laboriously creating project tasks by hand, Ziflow allows users to set up automated templates for approval workflows.

2. Frame.io

Frame.io is another cloud-based service that lets video teams track feedback during the approval process. Users can view all comments in a single feed, including hashtags, mentions for specific team members, and even emoji reactions.

It's especially powerful for video projects, boasting "Hollywood-level" security and editing tools that work on almost any device.

However, it’s rather limited in its core capabilities for marketing campaigns. Frame.io was originally designed as a video-proofing tool for high-production films. Although they do support other file types, the primary use case and audience is video review and approval. This creates significant limitations for creative and marketing teams that work on multi-channel campaigns.

3. GoProof

GoProof is a collaborative tool built for design teams and marketing teams. It's under the same umbrella as Monday.com, so it's easy to implement for agencies that already use that project management tool.

A major selling point for GoProof is the simple user interface. Everyone, from clients and external stakeholders to team members, logs into the same dashboard. There's even a mobile app version and a Chrome extension.

However, that same simplicity can be limiting for some creative teams. For example, GoProof offers integrations across the Adobe Creative Cloud, and for several project management tools, but that's all so far.

Project management is a significant challenge for creative agencies. It's especially difficult to track time, budget, and resources across multiple clients who might have multiple marketing campaigns running at once. 

However, the best creative management software can take a lot of pain out of the process.

Project management tools should, at minimum, be internally effective. All team members should be able to see end-to-end workflows and timelines in their personal dashboards. Task allocation, task management, and time tracking should be straightforward and intuitive. In terms of agency operations, software should also support effective resource planning, resource management, time management, and forecasting. 

Management software should also be externally useful. That means including features that create audit trails for accountability, or offering integrations to make sharing progress with clients easier.

Monday.com is a management platform built for any type of work, from recruitment to digital marketing to creative projects. It offers great flexibility for workflows and project templates and comes with a suite of add-ons, like CRM and ticketed event management. 

It's a powerful solution for large agencies that need to manage many projects and timelines at once. However, if your needs are simpler, monday’s many features may be overwhelming and unnecessary.

7. Asana

Asana is a user-friendly project management system that's free to set up. It's popular with small businesses as well as larger enterprises and agencies. You can view tasks as a list, a calendar, or a project board, and house tasks under specific projects and client portfolios.

For creative agencies, Asana's most useful feature is that it makes it easy for stakeholders to follow projects and tasks in progression. It doesn’t reinvent any wheels, but it is transparent and easy to navigate.

8. Jira

Jira is a project management tool originally built for agile software teams. It focuses on breaking down projects into smaller steps, optimizing workflows, and solving bottlenecks quickly. It offers a range of customizable templates and workflow formats, such as Gantt charts. 

One feature we love for creative agencies is that teams can link individual tasks to broader objectives. Whether those objectives are internal (like agency revenue) or external (like a client's project aims), they can be useful motivators that keep projects on track.

Collaboration and communication software

Creative work is a naturally collaborative endeavor. We create better when we share expertise and bounce ideas around to see how they come together. This is especially true for creative agencies, where clients collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.

But to make collaboration work, you need the right communication tools in place.

We looked for collaboration and communication software that works internally and externally to connect team members, clients, stakeholders, contractors, and freelancers.

We also looked for tools with flexibility. Creative communication is about more than brainstorming and often requires file sharing, collecting feedback, establishing audit trails, and tracking time spent on different tasks.

Slack is a ubiquitous work chat tool used everywhere, from freelance communities to office party planning committees. It is incredibly easy to set up, invite users, and subdivide conversations into channels for different clients, projects, tasks, and specialisms. 

It's a flexible way of communicating that many creative teams and clients will already be familiar with. However, it can be difficult to keep track of conversations or sort through past messages, making it easy to overlook important alerts or reminders.

Microsoft Teams is another tool that many people will already have experience with. It's widely used for meetings and instant messaging at work, and — since it's built into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem — integrates pretty seamlessly with other Office programs.

Like many Microsoft products, it's clunky but reliable, with a lot of helpful integrations behind it.

Client management software

Acquiring and retaining clients are consistently among the top operational challenges for agencies. When creative agencies fail, it's often because they can't communicate effectively with clients.

Successful agencies get to know their clients, keep them in the loop, and have accurate information ready to share. Staying in touch with clients throughout a project isn't just for the feel-good factor: it also reduces the risk of creative work being rejected at a late stage.

We looked for agency management software that could handle basics like invoicing, pricing, billable hours, and performance metrics. But we also looked for features that help agencies stay in touch with clients: things like onboarding, outlining their target audience or content preferences, and keeping a central record of any client conversations. 

11. Agency Analytics

Agency Analytics is client management and marketing software for agencies. It collects client and project data to produce automated reports that can be shared internally or externally.

Creative agencies often do the most for clients, but lack time for their own reporting. Agency Analytics automates most of the client reporting process, so you can upgrade your internal operations without any extra effort.

12. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot started as an inbound marketing tool. However, we also rate its CRM, which is notable for supporting many different roles. The HubSpot CRM suite includes tools for sales, marketing, and customer service, plus a few other specialized roles.

You can use HubSpot to organize your communications, track customer data, and even receive notifications whenever prospects are ready for you to reach out. It's a powerful tool for agencies looking to quickly expand their client base and profitability. 

Elevate your agency’s creative operations with Ziflow

To do their best work, creative agencies need efficient software to help them create, review, and collaborate on projects — as well as keep clients in the loop and tasks on track.

Ziflow is the only online proofing platform that's designed for enterprises. It's packed with tools to streamline the creative process, including automated review and approval features.