Running an agency is a lot to keep up with. Every client has different priorities. Projects are moving at different speeds. Someone’s waiting for feedback, another client wants an update, and there’s always another report to put together.
It’s easy to spend more time chasing information than doing the work itself. The right tools keep everything in one place, so your team can stay focused, keep projects moving, and spend more time delivering great work instead of hunting for updates.
How We Picked These Tools
Plenty of tools promise to save agencies time. Not all of them follow through, so we set clear criteria before adding anything to this list.
We looked at whether a tool removes a real recurring task, like manual reporting or chasing approvals over email, rather than just adding another dashboard to check.
We also weighed how fast a team can actually start using it. A tool that takes weeks to learn eats into the time it’s supposed to save.
Pricing had to make sense for small and mid-sized agency teams, not just enterprise budgets.
Finally, we only kept tools built for real agency workflows, like client communication, reporting, creative reviews, and resourcing, not generic apps stretched to fit.
Here’s what made the cut.
The 12 Tools Agencies Use to Save Real Time Every Week
1. ProofHub: Project Management and Team Collaboration
For agencies managing several client accounts at once, ProofHub acts as a single home for project management and team collaboration, tasks, timelines, files, discussions, and approvals, all in one shared space the whole team can see. That matters because these teams often lose hours just tracking down status updates, and ProofHub removes that friction by giving everyone visibility into where a project stands without anyone having to ask.
The built-in proofing tool stands out. Team members and clients can leave comments directly on the exact spot in an image, PDF, or document, so feedback doesn’t get lost across email threads.
Custom workflows let teams set stages that match their process, like requirement, assigned, ongoing, review, and approved. Built-in time tracking also removes the need for a separate billing tool.
Flat-rate pricing is a key differentiator. The cost stays fixed as the team grows, unlike tools that charge per user, which can matter a lot once an agency crosses 15 or 20 people.
Pros:
- Custom workflow stages adapt to how the team already works, without needing outside setup help
- Built-in chat keeps quick questions inside the project, not scattered elsewhere
- Onboarding takes a day or two, not weeks, since the layout is fairly intuitive
Cons:
- Interface can feel dense for small teams
- Fewer integrations
Agencies that have outgrown a shared inbox but aren’t ready for a heavier, pricier system tend to land on ProofHub for exactly this reason.
2. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is a productivity anchor for agencies that want to keep client work, communication, and pipeline in one place. It automates contact management, tracks deals, logs emails, and centralizes interactions so teams don’t lose time switching tools.
Built-in reporting and integrations help surface what needs attention next, making follow-ups faster and more consistent, without anyone digging through inboxes to figure out where a deal stands.
For agencies juggling multiple clients, it reduces manual work and keeps revenue-driving activities moving without friction.
Pros:
- Saves time through automation: automatically logs emails, tracks interactions, and updates deal stages, reducing repetitive manual work
- Centralizes client information: keeps contacts, communication history, and pipeline data in one place, making collaboration smoother
- Improves follow-ups and conversions: built-in reminders and insights help teams stay on top of leads and move deals forward consistently
Cons:
- Advanced features gate behind paid tiers
- Contact limits on the free plan can sneak up on agencies with a large prospect list
For a five- or six-person agency that’s outgrown spreadsheets. But isn’t ready to pay for Salesforce, this is usually the first real CRM they land on.
3. Slack
Client and internal conversations scattered across email, texts, and random DMs make it easy to lose track of decisions and approvals. Slack organizes communication into channels by client, project, or team, so conversations stay in one searchable place instead of buried across inboxes.
Old messages, files, and approvals stay searchable for a while, cutting down on the “can someone resend that” requests that waste time mid-project. On the free plan, though, search only covers the last 90 days, and anything older is hidden, then permanently deleted after a year. Integrations with tools like Google Drive, HubSpot, and Zoom bring updates directly into Slack, so teams check fewer separate apps to stay informed.
Huddles let team members hop on a quick audio or video call without leaving the app, useful for fast client questions that don’t need a full scheduled meeting. Workflow Builder can automate routine messages, like daily check-ins or alerts when a form is submitted, without needing separate automation software.
Pros:
- Threaded replies keep long discussions from burying other conversations in a channel
- Slack Connect lets you loop a client into one shared channel instead of a group email
- Status setting (in a call, at lunch, heads-down) cuts down on “are you around” pings
Cons:
- Can become noisy without channel discipline
- Free tier limits message history
Most agencies that adopt this well end up cutting their internal meeting count within a month or two, simply because half of what used to be a meeting now happens in a thread.
4. Notion
Every agency ends up with scattered docs: onboarding notes in one place, brand guidelines in another, meeting notes nowhere at all. Notion fixes that by giving teams one flexible workspace for docs, wikis, and client-facing pages.
Each client can get their own workspace page, with briefs, assets, and timelines linked together instead of scattered across Google Docs and email attachments. Templates make it fast to spin up a new client workspace without rebuilding structure from scratch every time.
Databases inside Notion double as lightweight trackers, useful for smaller teams who don’t need a full project management tool but still want a single source of truth for who owns what.
Pros:
- Duplicate a template in seconds, so onboarding a new client stops feeling like starting from zero
- Comments and mentions on any page cut down on “did you see the doc I sent” follow-ups
- Works well as an internal wiki, which most agencies otherwise skip entirely
Cons:
- Can sprawl without a clear structure in place
- Not a full replacement for dedicated project management software
The teams that get the most out of Notion tend to be the ones who assign someone to actually maintain the structure, otherwise it turns into the same mess it was supposed to fix.
5. AgencyAnalytics
Pulling client reports by hand, screenshot by screenshot, from five different ad platforms is one of the most tedious recurring tasks in agency work. AgencyAnalytics was built specifically to remove that grind.
It connects directly to ad accounts, Google Analytics, CRM data, and social platforms, then builds a live, always-updated dashboard for each client. What used to take a few hours every reporting cycle becomes a quick review before the report goes out automatically.
White-labeling means the dashboard carries your agency’s branding, not the tool’s, which matters when clients are looking at it directly. Automated scheduling can also send reports on a set day each month without anyone needing to remember.
Pros:
- Client login portal means fewer “can you send me the latest numbers” emails
- Custom metrics let you build a scorecard around what a specific client actually cares about, not a generic template
- Support tends to respond fast when a data source disconnects, which happens occasionally with any dashboard tool
Cons:
- Pricing scales with number of client accounts
- Initial setup can take time when connecting several client data sources at once
For agencies still building reports the night before a client call, this is usually the single tool that buys back the most sleep.
6. Ahrefs
SEO research done manually, checking backlinks, keyword rankings, and competitor sites one by one, eats hours that could go toward actual strategy work. Ahrefs consolidates that research into a single platform.
Its keyword and backlink databases are large enough to spot opportunities competitors haven’t found yet, and the Site Audit tool flags technical SEO issues automatically instead of requiring a manual crawl. Rank tracking updates on its own, so weekly reporting doesn’t require re-checking every keyword by hand.
For agencies managing SEO across multiple client sites, the ability to compare domains side by side removes a significant chunk of manual competitive research.
Pros:
- Content Gap tool surfaces keywords competitors rank for that a client doesn’t, which is a fast way to build a content brief
- Alerts flag new backlinks or lost ones without anyone manually checking
- Data tends to update faster than several cheaper alternatives
Cons:
- Some features, like content grading, are less developed than in tools built specifically for content teams
- Learning curve for teams new to SEO tools
Newer SEO hires usually take a week or two to get comfortable with the interface, but once they do, it becomes the tool they open first every morning.
7. Canva
Not every creative request needs a full design team. Quick social graphics, one-off client presentation slides, or a simple flyer often just need to get done fast, and Canva is built exactly for that.
Drag-and-drop templates mean anyone on the team, not just designers, can put together a clean visual without waiting in a creative queue. Brand kit features let agencies lock in client fonts, colors, and logos, so quick assets still stay on-brand without a designer double-checking every file.
For agencies juggling dozens of small creative requests across accounts, Canva takes the small stuff off the design team’s plate entirely.
Pros:
- Multiple people can edit the same design at once, handy for last-minute client tweaks
- Resize a design for five different platforms in a couple of clicks instead of rebuilding it
- Stock photo and element library is large enough that most quick jobs don’t need outside assets
Cons:
- Not a substitute for custom design work
- Advanced features require a paid plan
Account managers who aren’t designers end up handling half their own quick-turn requests once they’re comfortable here, which frees up actual design hours for bigger projects.
8. Frame.io
Creative review cycles often stall on a single problem: feedback that doesn’t clearly point to what it’s about. A client says “fix the intro” over email, and nobody’s sure which version or which second of the video they mean.
Frame.io solves this by attaching comments directly to the exact frame or timestamp in a video or design file. Feedback becomes unambiguous, and revision rounds move faster because the team isn’t guessing what a comment refers to.
Version tracking keeps every round of a file in one place, so there’s no confusion about which draft is current. For agencies running heavy creative or video workflows, this alone can cut a multi-round revision cycle down significantly.
Pros:
- Clients can leave feedback without creating an account, which removes a real adoption barrier
- Side-by-side version comparison shows exactly what changed between drafts
- Approval stamps give a clear, timestamped record of client sign-off if a dispute ever comes up
Cons:
- Primarily built for video and visual content, less useful for text-heavy work
- Storage limits on lower-tier plans can fill up quickly with large video files
Video-heavy agencies that switch to this from email usually notice the difference by the second project; revision rounds that used to take four passes tend to settle in two.
9. Toggl Track
Manually filling out timesheets at the end of the week almost always means guessing. Toggl Track fixes this by making time tracking a one-click habit instead of an end-of-week chore.
A simple start-stop timer sits in the background while people work, tagging time to the right client and project automatically. Reports break down hours by client, project, or team member, which matters for agencies billing hourly or checking whether a fixed-fee project is actually profitable.
Because it integrates with tools like Asana, Trello, and Slack, starting a timer doesn’t require switching apps first.
Pros:
- Idle detection flags time when a timer’s been left running with no activity, so you can discard it before it inflates a client’s bill
- Billable vs. non-billable tagging makes it easy to spot where unpaid hours are piling up
- Browser extension starts a timer straight from whatever tab someone’s working in
Cons:
- Accuracy depends on team members remembering to start and stop the timer
- Free plan reporting works for basic hour logs but lacks deeper breakdowns
Agencies that run fixed-fee projects often find this is the tool that finally answers the question of whether a project was actually profitable, instead of just assuming it was.
10. Float
Every agency has had this moment: a new project lands, and the first ten minutes go into pinging around asking who has room to take it on. Float removes that guesswork entirely.
The schedule shows every team member on one visual timeline, so anyone can see at a glance who’s free this week and who’s already stretched thin. Instead of assigning work and hoping it fits, you actually know before you ask.
It also catches problems before they turn into missed deadlines. Float compares what was planned against what people are actually logging, so if a project is quietly running over estimate, it shows up early. Utilization reports flag who’s overbooked and who has room for more, which matters for avoiding burnout as much as hitting deadlines.
Pros:
- Drag-and-drop rescheduling makes it fast to shuffle work when priorities shift mid-week
- Time-off requests live in the same calendar, so capacity planning doesn’t miss vacations
- Multiple project views help account managers plan across several client accounts at once
Cons:
- Requires the team to keep schedules updated to stay accurate
- Doesn’t track time on its own, so it’s often paired with a separate tool for logging hours
Agencies that adopt this properly tend to stop the Friday-afternoon scramble of figuring out who can start Monday’s project.
11. Zapier
Even with the right tools in place, agencies still lose time moving information between them by hand, copying a new lead into a CRM, or updating a project tool when an invoice gets paid. Zapier automates that connective work through workflow automation, linking your apps so information moves automatically between them.
It links apps together so information flows on its own: a new form submission creates a CRM record and pings Slack, without anyone touching a keyboard. Pre-built templates called Zaps make it easy to set this up without any coding knowledge.
The time saved on any single automation looks small, a minute here, two minutes there, but across a week of repeated small tasks, it adds up to real hours, and it removes the human error that comes with manual data entry.
Pros:
- Connects to thousands of apps, so almost any tool an agency already uses fits in somewhere
- Multi-step Zaps can handle a whole sequence, like lead in, task created, Slack alert sent, in one automation
- Failed automations get flagged in an activity log, so mistakes don’t go unnoticed for weeks
Cons:
- Complex multi-step automations require a paid plan
- Automations need occasional maintenance as connected apps update
Most agencies start with one or two automations for the most annoying manual task, then keep adding more once they see how much time even a small one saves.
12. Grammarly
Client-facing copy, whether it’s an email, a proposal, or campaign copy, needs a final proofread before it goes out, and catching errors manually takes time and still misses things. Grammarly checks writing in real time, right where the team is already typing.
Beyond basic spelling and grammar, it flags tone, so a message doesn’t read as harsher or more casual than intended, which matters when the same team is writing to multiple clients with different expectations. The browser extension works across Gmail, Slack, Google Docs, and most places agencies actually write, so it doesn’t require a separate app to check.
For teams producing a high volume of client communication and content, it cuts down the back-and-forth of a second person proofreading everything before it ships.
Pros:
- Suggestions appear inline, so there’s no separate step of pasting text into another tool
- Plagiarism checker on the paid plan is a quick gut-check before client-facing content goes out
- Custom style guide (on higher tiers) can enforce brand-specific terms and phrasing
Cons:
- Free version has limited suggestions compared to premium
- Occasional false positives on industry-specific terms
Copywriters tend to keep this running quietly in the background rather than treating it as a separate proofreading step, which is really where the time gets saved.
Final Takeaway
None of these tools fix a team’s workload by themselves. What they do is remove the repetitive, manual parts of agency work, chasing updates, building reports by hand, guessing at capacity, so that time goes back into the work that actually matters to clients.
Most agencies find it easiest to start with whichever bottleneck costs the most hours right now. For teams still relying on scattered spreadsheets and email threads for project tracking, a tool like ProofHub is often the first practical step, simply because it replaces several of those habits at once. From there, add the rest as new gaps show up. A smaller, well-used stack will always save more time than a large one nobody fully adopts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Decide Which Of These To Start With?
Start with whatever’s costing your team the most hours right now, status chasing, manual reporting, or unclear creative feedback, and add tools as new bottlenecks show up. Most agencies build up to a full stack over a few months rather than adopting everything on day one.
Which Tool Is The Fastest To Set Up If We Only Try One This Week?
Slack and Canva both take minutes to set up and show value almost immediately. Tools like AgencyAnalytics or Ahrefs take a bit longer since they connect to existing client accounts and data sources.
Can Smaller Agencies Use These Tools Too, Or Are They Built For Bigger Teams?
Most of these scale down well. Tools like ProofHub, Notion, and Canva have free or low-cost tiers that work fine for a small team, and you can add the heavier ones, like AgencyAnalytics or Ahrefs, once you’re managing enough client accounts to need them.
