Like most creative teams, brand teams need to manage creative operations efficiently on a daily basis. If you’re looking for a tool that will help streamline your team’s creative workflow, then you've come to the right place! 

In this blog post, we explore the best creative workflow management software for brand teams in the market today. We'll look at the features of each software, discuss their pros and cons, and provide some tips for choosing the right software for your team. But before we get into it, it’s important to clarify how a creative workflow tool can help brand teams with their operations.

Why do brand teams need a creative workflow management tool?

A creative workflow management tool helps brand teams streamline their creative operations by organizing their workflow more efficiently. It allows brand managers and the rest of the team to track tasks, documents, and resources, while providing visual cues to help teams stay on schedule. 

Effective creative workflow management also helps to keep teams on the same page with centralized communication between members, and the ability to quickly access and update project information. Leveraging workflow automation into your creative processes further ensures seamless communication, accelerates task updates, and enhances overall collaboration, leading to increased efficiency in project execution. By optimizing the creative process, these tools help save time and money and ensure brand teams can deliver better results in less time with every project.

Best solutions for creative workflow management

Let us now look at some of the top solutions in the market that can help brand teams streamline their creative workflow management and why they might be a good fit for your organization.

1. Artwork Flow

Artwork Flow is a creative collaboration and brand asset management platform that helps teams organize their creative reviews, project workflows, and key brand assets, all in one place.

Key features

• Flexible workflow builder
• AI-powered online proofing tools
• Brand asset library
• Smart tagging and filters
• Access management
• Version control
• Activity logs
• Brand and regulatory compliance management

Pricing

Artwork Flow offers three plans based on your requirements.

• Free plan for individuals and small businesses.
• Pro plan at $39/user/month for creative teams and growing brands.
• Enterprise plan with custom quotes for larger requirements.

Customer ratings

Artwork Flow is rated 4.5 stars out of 5 on average.

Recommended for

Brand teams from small, medium, and large businesses who need to reduce project timelines, ensure error-free creative reviews, and organize their brand assets effectively will find a comprehensive solution in Artwork Flow.

2. Filestage

Filestage is a collaborative creative review and approval platform that helps brand teams automate and simplify their creative workflows. 

Key features

• Automated due date reminders
• Version compare
• Access management
• Automated workflows
• File sharing
• File status

Pricing

Filestage offers three pricing options based on your requirements. 

• Standard plan at $19 per user, starting at $95 for 5 users.
• Professional plan at $39 per user, starting at $195 for 5 users. 
• Enterprise plan with custom quotes for larger requirements.

Customer ratings

Filestage has an average rating of 4.6 stars out of 5.

Recommended for

FIlestage has a number of great features that support creative workflow management, but with fewer templates available and users noting that the software tends to lag with more projects, this solution might be a better fit for brand teams with limited requirements.

3. ProofHub

ProofHub is a project and team collaboration tool that allows brand teams to plan, organize, and share assets during the creative review process.

Key features

• Creative workflows
• Task categorization
• Proofing and reviews
• Time-tracking
• Announcements
• Custom reports
• Access control

Pricing

ProofHub offers two pricing models based on your requirements. 

• Essential plan at $50/month.
• Ultimate control plan at $99/month.

Customer ratings

ProofHub has an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5.

Recommended for

While ProofHub provides an all-round solution to users, its strength lies in resource management, with time-tracking, custom reports, and other features helping users manage their resources more effectively during projects.

4. Ziflow

Ziflow is a creative collaboration and project management tool that is designed to primarily serve marketing agencies in organizing their creative projects.

Key features

• Version compare
• Autoroute project management tool
• Workflows
• Compliance management
• Email notifications 

Pricing

Ziflow offers three pricing alternatives based on your requirements.

• Free plan for personal use.
• Business plan at $40/month/user.
• Enterprise plan with custom quotes for large organizations.

Customer ratings

Ziflow has an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5.

Recommended for

Ziflow offers a host of collaborative features that make it a good choice if your brand team has a lot of review and approval requirements with internal and external collaborators.

5. Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a creative collaboration tool that allows teams to organize their workflow, manage tasks, and review creative assets with other members on the team.

Key features

• Calendar
• Dashboard
• Reports
• Activity logs
• Automation

Pricing

Smartsheet offers three pricing options based on user requirements.

• Pro plan at $7/month.
• Business plan at $25/month.
• Enterprise plan with custom quotes for larger requirements.

Customer ratings

Smartsheet has been rated 4.4 stars out of 5 on average.

Recommended for 

With a number of features that support data management and project management, Smartsheet is a good option for brand teams that need to document and analyze their operations on a regular basis.

Wrapping up

To choose the right creative workflow management software, it is important to be clear on your requirements before narrowing down your list of options. Each of the above solutions address various challenges faced by brand teams on a daily basis, so knowing what would help your team will help you find the right tool for your organization.

If you’re looking for a solution that brings all your creative operations under one roof and simplifies your creative workflows, Artwork Flow would be a good option to choose for your team. To find out how the platform would work for your team, you can start now with a free trial for 7 days.