The Best Productivity Tools For SMEs

We took a close look at their AI capabilities

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Last updated

September 25th, 2025

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3 Productivity Categories

How I tested the tools

Tool Comparison

FAQ Productivity Tools

TL;DR

  • Motion emerged as the clear winner with its revolutionary AI employees that can take over repetitive tasks and manage workflows in the background, representing the future of productivity automation.

  • Established tools like Notion struggled with basic integrations - something as simple as connecting to Gmail became frustrating and time-consuming, highlighting how legacy tools haven't kept pace with user expectations.

  • Productivity tools excel in three main areas: task and project management tools provide essential workflow structure, clever email assistants automate communication tasks, and calendar scheduling tools optimize time management, working together to give productivity the comprehensive boost it deserves.

Boy, I'm glad I reviewed productivity tools because even though I've used Clickup and Notion for years, I hadn't explored their new AI features in depth yet. I was missing out on the good stuff of some, not so much of others.

As an SME, you might be managing a small team or working alone while trying to stay on top of tasks in the best way possible. AI seems like an obvious choice for keeping your team lean and efficient. The good news: some tools already have great AI features, like Motion. The bad news: not everything works perfectly yet, and you'll need some time to figure out the best use cases for automations. Where do you need to be personally involved, and what can tools easily handle for you? I remember when analytics dashboards were new in my company and I had to get used to working with them. It'll be the same with these AI agent programs - you'll need to rethink how you work and what you can delegate.

I found 3 main areas where productivity tools can help you:

  • Task and project management tools

  • Clever email assistants and

  • Calendar scheduling tools

all giving your productivity the boost it deserves. In the upcoming productivity tool reviews, you'll often see keywords like AI assistants, time tracking, team collaboration features, and AI meeting assistants.

My Personal Experience With Productivity Tools

I use Clickup with my team for this website. I have different boards for different team members and create tickets for bigger tasks (called parent tasks). Many of these have various subtasks, and the feature I use most with my team is the activity log and inbox. In my opinion, this is the biggest advantage compared to using a simple sheet, Slack, or emailing back and forth: You always know exactly which task the message is about.

I have to admit, in the beginning I worked with virtual assistants via Google Sheets and it was very messy. Keeping track of completed tasks and comments was unproductive. When I first used Clickup, I was happy to get rid of the mess. I've recommended it to many friends who love it too, only to discover during this test how good Asana is as well. Once your whole team uses one tool, it makes sense to stick with it for a while though. So if you need to watch your budget and you’ve decided on your tool, I recommend switching to yearly plans because you can often save 20-30%.

How I Tested The Best Productivity Tools

For the Tool Performance score, I looked at:

  • AI Capabilities - This was the area I’m most interested in, how useful is the integrated AI

  • Core Mission Effectiveness - How well did the tool do what it's supposed to do

  • Automation Features - Testing basic workflow automation like task assignments, status updates, and AI-powered assistance

For Setup/Onboarding I checked:

  • User Interface Navigation and general Onboarding how easy is it to get started regardless whether they're managing tasks, organizing emails, or scheduling meetings

  • Integration Setup - Testing how easily tools connect to existing email accounts, calendars, and other productivity systems

    For User Experience I mostly focused on:

  • Search Functionality - Evaluating the ability to quickly find tasks, emails, calendar events, or information within the app

  • Loading Speed - Testing app responsiveness and how quickly it loads across different productivity functions

  • Dashboard - How appealing and functional is the dashboard in general

Two big surprises were:

  1. How established tools like Notion struggle with integrations. Something that should be easy to set up can cost you a lot of nerves and start your relationship with a new tool on the wrong foot.

  2. How impressive Motion's AI employees are. I don't want to say too much about these AI-powered new colleagues, just that they are clearly the future.

The Best AI -Driven Productivity Tools for Every Use Case

When selecting from the best productivity tools, consider your specific needs:

  • For AI automation: Motion offers the most advanced AI employees

  • For meeting transcription: Fireflies provides very high accuracy

  • For email management: SaneBox excels at automatic organization

  • For free plans: ClickUp offers generous features

  • For visual collaboration: Miro works best for strategy planning

  • For simple task tracking: Trello suffices for basic needs

Comparison: The Best Productivity Tools

1

Tool Performance:

4

USER EXPERIENCE:

4

SETUP:

5

Overall score:

4.75

Use Case:

Automatic meeting (re-) scheduling and AI note taker

TRY MOTION

Key Features

  • AI-powered automatic scheduling
  • Intelligent task management and prioritization
  • Project management with real-time tracking
  • Meeting scheduling and coordination
  • Dynamic calendar optimization

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Great onboarding with videos
  • AI employees with unique skill sets
  • Excellent for repetitive task automation

Cons:

  • Some connections between meetings and emails don't make sense initially
  • Requires fine-tuning for optimal performance

Price Point

Individual
$19
Team
$12
Enterprise
Custom
Free Trial
7 days

Conclusion

I was especially interested in how well the AI employees work and especially how they take over tasks and manage them in the background for me.

Overall, Motion looks like they know what they are doing: they have a great onboarding with videos, explaining how to set up AI employees with unique skill sets for your repetitive tasks. My first test creating a "Daily Meetings Brief" wasn't too useful, the connections it made from meeting to emails in my emails didn't make sense.

But I wasn't going to give up, Motion looks promising and I was right. I used the AI researcher called Spec and requested a monthly list of AI presentation AI tools with clickable URL links, sent straight to my email inbox. Spec was the right guy for this and completed the task flawlessly. And after playing around a bit more with my new friend, I was able to create more workflows with simple tasks that he can take over from me. Although not everything worked perfectly, I can see how with Motion and a little fine tuning (which is always required with AI anyway) the AI agents can be of great help and a real lever for any small business. And I can also see how this is totally the future!

2

Tool Performance:

5

USER EXPERIENCE:

4

SETUP:

5

Overall score:

4.75

Use Case:

Note taking app for meetings

TRY FIREFLIES

Key Features

  • AI meeting transcription with 95% accuracy
  • AI-powered meeting summaries and notes
  • Speaker recognition and identification
  • Platform integrations with Zoom, Teams, Google Meet
  • Searchable meeting history and recordings

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Excellent transcription accuracy (95%)
  • Fred AI answers questions about meetings accurately
  • Automatic meeting recaps sent via email
  • Simple setup and dashboard

Cons:

  • Some screens can be cluttered

Price Point

Pro
$10
Business
$19
Enterprise
$39
Free Trial
7 days

Conclusion

I've already reviewed Fireflies' end of 2024 as a note-taking app and already liked it back then. The transcription was very good already, it almost got everything right and had a well-working search function.

Today I like it even more because Fred AI let's me ask questions in natural language regarding the meeting notes and answered 100% accurately. This is a crazy time saver for busy bees and fireflies with lots of meetings. The automatic meeting recap I received per email could easily give my boss (if I had one) an excellent overview of how meetings went and what my action items were afterwards.

I also love the dashboard and simplicity of the setup.

3

Tool Performance:

5

USER EXPERIENCE:

3

SETUP:

5

Overall score:

4.25

Use Case:

Organises messy email inboxes

TRY SANEBOX

Key Features

  • AI-powered email filtering and sorting
  • SaneBlackHole permanent email blocking
  • Email reminders and follow-up tracking
  • Email snoozing functionality
  • Attachment management and cloud storage

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • 100% accurate email assessment and sorting
  • Unique unanswered email folder feature
  • Automatic organization without manual work
  • Excellent for extensive client communications

Cons:

  • Takes time to learn preferences initially
  • May require email client setup adjustments

Price Point

Snack
$4.13
Lunch
$7.04
Dinner
$20.79
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

I've tested this with my test email inbox from Gmail, and I really like it! It basically organises emails automatically in different buckets, without you having to do much. Which is the big advantage compared to Gmail itself, where you could create labels, but are still stuck with a lot of manual work.

This is especially helpful for business owners or employees who have extensive client communications. I was surprised how the tool was 100% accurate in its assessment of what email is useful and which to sort out into the SaneBlackHole folder. The reminder function sends you an email instead of just bringing the email itself up, which naturally catches your attention more.

The unanswered email folder is my favorite feature, because this is so useful and I couldn't find it anywhere else.

4

Tool Performance:

3

USER EXPERIENCE:

4

SETUP:

5

Overall score:

4.0

Use Case:

Task and project management system

TRY CLICKUP

Key Features

  • Hierarchical organization system with Spaces, Folders, and Lists
  • 35+ ClickApps for task management customization
  • AI-powered automations and ClickUp Brain assistant
  • Advanced dashboards and reporting tools
  • Real-time collaboration with Docs, Whiteboards, and Comments

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Excellent clarity and loading speed
  • Strong project management features
  • Robust automation capabilities
  • Free plan with generous features
  • Integrates well with Slack and other tools

Cons:

  • Time tracker limitations on free plan (100 uses)
  • AI capabilities are good but not mind-blowing
  • Can be overwhelming for new users

Price Point

Unlimited
$7
Business
$12
Enterprise
Custom
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

To be fair I should disclose that ClickUp is the tool I use with my team for task management. I really like it for its clarity, loading speed and solid project management features. My team can easily inquire about details and I can clearly communicate delivery times, priorities and assign team members.

As mentioned in the intro of this comparison, we are using ClickUp on the free plan and the only limitation we bumped into was the time tracker, which can only be used for 100 uses of basic time tracking features and can't be deleted once created (I'm sure we were not the only ones trying to work around it). Also, if you like instant messaging, ClickUp offers a chat function, but I prefer to write in each task. Alternatively you can simply connect ClickUp to Slack.

Plus, you can set up automations like automatically assigning certain team members for certain tasks or automatically moving tickets once they are done to a location. The AI capabilities were ok but not mind blowing. ClickUp Brain succeeded prioritizing my urgent tasks correctly by status group (To do, In Progress, etc.) but failed to provide me with a list of tasks which will be overdue by tomorrow. Still, nice that this feature is free.

5

Tool Performance:

4

USER EXPERIENCE:

4

SETUP:

4

Overall score:

4.0

Use Case:

Organise and track individual and team to dos

Key Features

  • AI-powered workflow automation
  • Multiple project views (Timeline, Gantt, Kanban)
  • Task and project management
  • Team collaboration tools
  • Advanced reporting & analytics

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Excellent goal feature similar to workflow planning tools
  • AI can create tasks in bulk with realistic timelines
  • Multiple project view options
  • Strong collaboration tools
  • 30-day free trial

Cons:

  • AI can't handle simple tasks like bulk name changes
  • Still a rather simple tool with simple AI
  • May not offer enough advantages over competitors

Price Point

Starter
$11
Advanced
$25
Enterprise
Custom
Free Trial
30 days

Conclusion

Honestly, I'm surprised by how much I like Asana now. A couple of years ago, I worked with a client on a project using it and I wasn't a fan back then, but now it almost comes up to ClickUp for simple task management. I really like their goal feature, which is similar to workflow planning tools like Miro boards that let you sketch out dependencies and set up strategies.

The AI was helpful, but not flawless. Some simple tasks, like changing names in bulk, it couldn't handle. But the fact that I can create tasks in bulk, assign them to the same person, and have the AI create a realistic timeline is really nice. But overall it's still a rather simple tool with simple AI.

I'm almost thinking about moving my team to Asana from ClickUp, but I think in the end, the advantages aren't big enough. Since all tools are in the AI race right now, the reality might look completely different tomorrow anyway.

6

Tool Performance:

4

USER EXPERIENCE:

4

SETUP:

4

Overall score:

4.0

Use Case:

Workflows and creating strategies

Key Features

  • AI-powered content generation
  • Visual collaboration platform
  • Real-time team collaboration
  • Third-party integrations with 100+ tools
  • Templates and diagramming tools

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Excellent for sketching workflows and strategic planning
  • Outstanding onboarding guide (even asks about trackpad vs mouse)
  • Easy task assignment and team collaboration
  • Comments and video recording features
  • Step-by-step planning capabilities

Cons:

  • AI features still in beta and work "so so"
  • Can be overwhelming for simple tasks

Price Point

Starter
$8
Business
$16
Enterprise
Custom
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

Miro is great for sketching out workflows and becoming clearer on a strategic setup. I used Miro, for example, to understand when setting automations for my second website, www.whichaitool.com. It allows step-by-step planning, which helps provide clarity on team responsibilities as well.

It's super easy to understand and I think their onboarding guide is so helpful, they even ask if you're using a trackpad or mouse and explain you based that how to use a Miro board.

Miro is built for collaborations with external and internal teams, you can easily assign members tasks, so they can work out the rest. Just like with other productivity tools you can leave comments, record videos explaining your setup or ask AI questions about your projects (this is still in beta and works so so).

7

Tool Performance:

3

USER EXPERIENCE:

3

SETUP:

5

Overall score:

3.75

Use Case:

Tasks and management system

Key Features

  • Visual boards with 27+ task views
  • Workflow automation with triggers and actions
  • Dashboards with 80+ custom widgets
  • AI-powered workflow solutions and assistants
  • 200+ third-party integrations marketplace

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Great for project management tasks
  • Intuitive and easy to get started with
  • Good dashboard capabilities
  • Simple automation features work well
  • Excellent for external team collaboration

Cons:

  • Dashboard less visually appealing than ClickUp
  • AI Automations with Natural Language feature not easily found
  • Sidekick AI bot struggles with answers and has long loading times
  • AI features still in beta with limitations

Price Point

Basic
$9
Standard
$12
Pro
$19
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

Monday.com is great for project management tasks. When I was working for Revolut, our external video agency implemented it for our collaboration. It's quite intuitive and easy to get started with. I like that you can build pretty cool dashboards to see the progress of things, but I personally prefer the dashboard of ClickUp, it just gives a slightly better overview and is visually more appealing.

You can create simple automations such as "When an item is created, please assign automatically to XXX", but I couldn't find the feature "AI Automations with Natural Language". I also tested their Sidekick AI bot and asked who had created a certain task, but it wasn't able to answer and it also struggled with other answers and had long loading times.

To be fair, this feature was still in beta and therefore didn't consume any AI credits.

8

Tool Performance:

3

USER EXPERIENCE:

4

SETUP:

4

Overall score:

3.75

Use Case:

AI calendar scheduling tool

TRY RECLAIM

Key Features

  • AI-powered Focus Time blocking
  • Smart Meetings scheduling
  • Task management integration
  • Calendar Sync across platforms
  • Automated Habits scheduling

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Priorities feature reduces decision fatigue
  • Straightforward calendar and scheduling app
  • No hiccups during testing
  • Clear onboarding process
  • AI is well-integrated and invisible

Cons:

  • Motion offers more attractive overall package
  • AI features less impressive compared to competitors
  • Limited advanced functionality

Price Point

Starter
$8
Business
$12
Enterprise
$18
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

I've tested the priorities and smart meetings features and they are really helpful. I've filled in my Priorities in that tab, which allows you to set different levels of urgency for your calendar events, which helps reduce decision fatigue later on. I create a priority list always at the beginning of the month, and Reclaim would help me stick to it during the days when my head is overloaded.

Reclaim is a pretty straightforward calendar and scheduling app, and everything works really well. I had no hiccups, and the onboarding is clear. The AI is rather invisible and integrated into the Priorities and Smart Meetings features.

This tool is really helpful for people who have a busy schedule, but I think Motion overall offers a much more attractive package and has incredible AI features therefore I gave it only 3 points for tool performance.

9

Tool Performance:

4

USER EXPERIENCE:

3

SETUP:

2

Overall score:

3.0

Use Case:

Organise your work and life in Kanban Boards

Key Features

  • Drag-and-drop Kanban task management
  • Butler automation without coding
  • Multiple project views (Calendar, Timeline, Table)
  • AI-powered Quick Capture inbox
  • Advanced checklists with assignees

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Simple and intuitive Kanban interface

Cons:

  • No multilayered sorting system
  • Limited filtering options beyond Kanban boards
  • Weak AI capabilities compared to competitors
  • Feels limiting for users needing organizational flexibility

Price Point

Standard
$5
Premium
$10
Enterprise
$17.50
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

Trello remains a simple tool for task management, but still feels limiting for users needing more organizational flexibility. I used to use Trello a long time ago to organize my to-dos but eventually dropped it because there is no multilayered sorting system. I changed to Notion for documentation and ClickUp for to-dos.

And just like back then, Trello still feels rather limiting. I wish I could filter my to-dos in more ways, instead of just looking at the kanban boards. As for AI capabilities: Trello AI can summarize longer cards and craft a to-do list. Compared to Motion's AI capabilities, this is a bit weak.

Trello is good for people who want the simplest of simple to-do tracking, but doesn't offer much beyond that.

10

Tool Performance:

3

USER EXPERIENCE:

3

SETUP:

2

Overall score:

2.75

Use Case:

Organise yourself in a flexible system around lists

Key Features

  • All-in-one workspace functionality
  • AI-powered text generation
  • Real-time collaboration tools
  • Database management and customization
  • Third-party integrations

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Powerful if you're willing to build everything yourself
  • Very flexible and customizable

Cons:

  • Notion AI setup is annoying and often doesn't work smoothly
  • Not ideal for users wanting ready-to-use productivity solutions
  • Gmail connection issues

Price Point

Plus
$10
Business
$20
Enterprise
Custom
Free Trial
30 days

Conclusion

I've been using Notion for a couple of years already, but so far, I haven't really used it as a productivity app, but more like a multilevel document system. I store information and data I want to be able to access over a longer time there, for example, my tax or medical history with my own insights.

For this test, I was especially interested in Notion AI and wanted to ask about some of my email content, so I tried to connect it to my Gmail inbox. First it seemed like it was able to connect, but to the workspace email only. Later, it turned out that the connection didn't work; to be honest, the setup is a bit annoying.

So instead I chose a Notion page with dates for upcoming AI courses I'll be giving, as a context source for my chat with the bot. To be fair, my notes didn't say exact dates yet so I asked in the next step to research this info online, which it didn't succeed with. I tested a few more things, but nothing was truly smooth. So to say it short: in theory Notion AI is great, but in practice it will probably take another year until it's actually helpful.

Otherwise it's a great app, if you are happy to work with templates or build everything yourself and you're hacky, Notion can be very powerful. I for my part prefer productivity apps to save me time and provide a clear set up already.

11

Tool Performance:

3

USER EXPERIENCE:

2

SETUP:

3

Overall score:

2.75

Use Case:

Helpful little add ons like automatic event scheduling based on email content

TRY GOOGLE WORKSPACE

Key Features

  • AI-powered workspace assistant
  • Real-time collaboration tools
  • Advanced security features
  • Video conferencing capabilities
  • Cloud storage integration

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Event scheduling worked perfectly
  • Email summarize feature is really helpful for longer threads
  • Super convenient automatic event creation with all info added

Cons:

  • Google wants extra money for content creation workflow feature
  • Couldn't test advanced smart scheduling, Smart Reply in Calendar, or meeting transcription
  • Wouldn't pay for Google Workspace just for the AI add-ons tested

Price Point

Business Starter
$7
Business Standard
$14
Business Plus
$22
Free Trial
14 days

Conclusion

I've been using Google Workspace for AI Tools SME already, and wanted to test some features I didn't pay attention to before like the automatic event scheduling and the content creation workflow. I was already familiar with the email summarize feature, which is really helpful for longer threads.

The event scheduling worked perfectly. When I sent myself a fake email suggesting a meeting, I found a button on top of the email from Gemini that immediately created the event. All info, like time, date, and location, was automatically added to it - super convenient!

However, when I tried to set up the content creation workflow test scenario, I realized that Google wants extra money for this feature (it's part of the Business Standard+ package). I also couldn't test several other features including: Advanced smart scheduling, Smart Reply in Calendar, Meeting transcription and recordings.

Would I pay for Google Workspace just for the AI add-ons I tested? No. But if you already have a Workspace account, you'd be silly not to use it. They definitely add value to the experience without requiring any extra effort on your part.

FAQ: Best Productivity Tools for Teams and Businesses

Which are the best productivity tools for AI-powered task management?

Motion stands out as one of the best productivity tools with its AI employees that can take over repetitive tasks. The tool offers AI-powered automatic scheduling, intelligent task management and prioritization, and project management with real-time tracking. What makes Motion unique is that you can set up AI employees with unique skill sets using natural language processing (NLP). The AI researcher called "Spec" can complete complex tasks like creating monthly lists of AI tools with clickable URL links sent directly to your email inbox.

Which AI tool is best for note taking?

Among the best productivity tools for meeting management, Fireflies excels with highly accurate AI meeting transcription and AI-powered meeting summaries. The tool's Fred AI feature allows you to ask questions in natural language about meeting notes and answers are very much on point. It includes speaker recognition, platform integrations with Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet, plus searchable meeting history and recordings. The automatic meeting recap sent via email provides excellent overviews of meetings and action items.

What’s the best AI-powered tool for email organization?

SaneBox is exceptional among productivity tools for email management, organizing emails automatically into different buckets with minimal user effort. It's accurate in assessing which emails are useful and which should go to the SaneBlackHole folder. Key features include AI-powered email filtering and sorting, permanent email blocking, email reminders and follow-up tracking, and email snoozing functionality. The "Unanswered" email folder is particularly useful and unique to this tool.

Which productivity tools offer the best free plans?

ClickUp provides one of the most generous free plans among the best productivity tools. It includes a hierarchical organization system with Spaces, Folders, and Lists, plus 35+ ClickApps for task management customization. The free plan allows solid project management features with good clarity and loading speed. Lili’s team is has been using Clickup for free and the only paid feature they would love to have is the time tracker, which is limited to 100 uses and can't be deleted once created. ClickUp Brain (AI assistant) is included as a free feature, at least as long it’s in Beta.

How do calendar and scheduling productivity tools compare?

Reclaim offers AI-powered Focus Time blocking and Smart Meetings scheduling with task management integration. It auto-schedules breaks after meetings and provides scheduling links for meeting availability, making it a time saver. However, it has confusing free plan communication and somewhat limited features.

Google Workspace provides automatic event scheduling that works perfectly - when you receive an email suggesting a meeting, Gemini creates a button that immediately creates the event with all details. However, advanced features like meeting transcriptions require plan upgrades, and the AI is limited on regular Workspace plans.

What are the limitations of simpler productivity tools?

Trello remains simple for task management but feels limiting for users needing organizational flexibility. While it offers drag-and-drop Kanban task management and Butler automation without coding, it lacks advanced filtering options and multilayered sorting systems. The AI features are not very advanced compared to other tools, only able to summarize longer cards and craft basic to-do lists.

Notion functions more as a multilevel document system than a traditional productivity tool. While it offers all-in-one workspace functionality and AI-powered text generation, the AI setup can be problematic. The tool requires significant customization and building from scratch, which may not suit users who prefer ready-to-use productivity solutions.

Which productivity tools work best for project management?

ClickUp excels for comprehensive project management with its clarity, loading speed and solid project management features. Teams can easily inquire about details while clearly communicating delivery times, priorities and team member assignments. It offers a hierarchical organization system with Spaces, Folders, and Lists, plus 35+ ClickApps for task management customization. The generous free plan and ability to record videos within the app to explain details to team members are standout features. However, ClickUp Brain (AI) was "ok but not mind blowing" - it prioritized urgent tasks correctly by status group but failed to provide lists of overdue tasks.

Asana has improved significantly and "almost comes up to ClickUp for simple task management." Its Goals feature works like workflow planning tools, allowing teams to sketch out dependencies and set up strategies. The AI helps with bulk task creation, assigning tasks to the same person while creating realistic timelines. However, the AI can't handle simple tasks like changing names in bulk, and it's still "a rather simple tool with simple AI." Despite considering moving teams from ClickUp to Asana, the advantages aren't big enough to justify the switch.