What's the best software to plan your marketing campaigns in 2026?
The right tool isn't the one with the most features. It's the one your team updates.
A marketing calendar that works answers three questions without a meeting: what ships this week, who owns it, and what's waiting on approval. The catch is that this search mixes three kinds of tools. Dedicated marketing calendars like CoSchedule. Work management tools with a calendar view like Asana, monday.com, ClickUp, Notion and Trello. And social schedulers like Planable. Most of the lists ranking on Google lump them together, often with pricing that's two years old.
We compared seven tools using their official pricing pages, help docs and hundreds of user reviews. The short answer: CoSchedule if you're a small marketing team that wants a real campaign calendar, blog and social included, with nothing to build. Asana or monday.com if marketing has to line up with the rest of the company. ClickUp for the best features per dollar. Planable if your calendar is mostly posts that need sign-off. Notion or Trello to start for free with two or three people.
One rule above the rest: pick the tool where your briefs already live. A calendar that sits apart from the briefs turns into wallpaper within three weeks.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored placement is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best marketing planning software for your situation
Blog, social and campaigns in one view, from $29 a month.
Best for syncing marketing with the companyTimeline and request forms from Starter.
Best for a team that wants clarity on day oneEasiest to read, calendar and Gantt from Standard.
Best features per dollarCalendar view even on the free plan, Core at $9.
Best for post approvalsUnlimited users, priced per workspace.
Best free starting pointCalendar, briefs and brand guide in one database.
7 marketing planning tools side by side
Rank follows the needs of a 2 to 20 person marketing team planning campaigns across several channels. The score is the one each tool carries everywhere on the site, which is why ClickUp scores higher but doesn't rank first here. Price is the first paid plan that unlocks a real calendar or timeline view, billed annually.
| Best for | What it does best | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CoSchedule | Dedicated marketing calendar | Blog and social on one calendar | 3.9/5 | $29/mo (1 user) | ✓ | 1 to 3 people | Visit → |
| 2 | Asana | Marketing in sync with the company | Request forms and timeline | 3.9/5 | $10.99/user/mo | ✓ | 5 to 50 people | Visit → |
| 3 | monday.com | Easiest to read | Clean calendar, Gantt and dashboards | 4.0/5 | $12/seat/mo (Standard) | ✓ | 3 to 50 people | Visit → |
| 4 | ClickUp | Best features per dollar | Calendar included on free | 4.2/5 | $9/user/mo | ✓ | 2 to 50 people | Visit → |
| 5 | Planable | Post approvals | Unlimited users per workspace | 3.9/5 | $33/workspace/mo | ✓ | Social teams and agencies | Visit → |
| 6 | Notion | Free starting point | Calendar and briefs in one database | 4.0/5 | $10/member/mo | ✓ | 1 to 10 people | Visit → |
| 7 | Trello | Simplest | A board anyone gets in 5 minutes | 3.9/5 | $10/user/mo (Premium) | ✓ | 1 to 5 people | Visit → |
Prices before tax, read on each vendor's official pricing page in 2026, billed annually, except Planable ($33 billed monthly, two months free on annual).
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
Marketing planning software comes down to one question: can your team open a single page and see what's shipping, when, and who's on it? Feature depth matters less than adoption. That's why rank follows how a marketing team works, not the score alone.
We read every tool's official pricing page, its help docs on calendar and timeline views, and user reviews, with a focus on complaints (billing, cancellation, seats). We also read the lists ranking on Google: two out of three are written by a vendor that ranks itself first, and several still quote plans that no longer exist, like ClickUp's old Unlimited plan.
Seven tools are missing on purpose. Hootsuite, Buffer, Metricool and Publer schedule posts, not campaigns: they belong in our social media management ranking. Marmind and Marketplan.io show up in roundups, but we couldn't confirm their pricing on an official page. Wrike is solid for large teams, but its 3.4 score and seat bundles make it heavy for a small marketing team.
Every tool keeps the same score across the site. monday.com, ClickUp and Notion carry the score from their review pages; Asana and Trello the one from our project management rankings.
- Calendar and timeline viewsSee campaigns over time, with dependencies, without paying for a top-tier plan.30%
- Real cost for a teamPer seat or per workspace pricing, seat minimums, monthly vs annual gap.25%
- Approvals and requestsBrief forms, approval flows, access for outside reviewers.20%
- OnboardingHow long before the whole team updates the tool without being chased.15%
- Reviews and supportRecurring complaints about billing, cancellation and support response.10%
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored placement is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule is the only tool in this ranking built from day one as a marketing calendar. Blog posts, social posts, campaigns and events all live on the same view. You publish to WordPress and your social accounts from the calendar, and ReQueue automatically reshares your best evergreen content.
The pricing is clear but tight. The free plan keeps 15 posts queued on a single social profile: think extended trial, not team tool. Starter is $29 a month billed annually ($39 monthly) for one user and three social profiles. Professional is $49 annually ($59 monthly) with two users included and a cap of three. Each extra social profile is $5 a month, and X profiles are billed separately. Past three people you move to Suite, custom pricing from $69 a month.
The catch is that three-user cap. A team of five jumps straight to Suite, with no self-serve trial. Reviews are also split: loyal users love the calendar, unhappy ones report scheduled posts that fail and a painful cancellation.
Tip: run the 14-day trial on Professional, not Starter, so you see the calendar with two people. And if you ever leave, the Table view exports to CSV: do it before you cancel.
- Blog, social and campaigns in one view
- Automatic resharing (ReQueue)
- WordPress publishing from the calendar
- ✓Built for marketing, nothing to set up
- ✓Public, readable pricing
- ✓14-day trial
- ✗3 users max before Suite
- ✗X profiles billed separately
- ✗Mixed reviews on cancellation
The best pick for a one to three person marketing team that wants a real calendar on day one. Beyond that, the jump to Suite changes the math.
Asana
Asana isn't a marketing calendar. It's a work management tool. But it handles the real headache of an in-house marketing team better than anyone: requests coming in from everywhere. Its marketing calendar template turns each campaign into a task with a start and end date, visible in Calendar and Timeline, filterable by channel, owner or status.
Personal is free forever but capped at two users, with no timeline. Starter is $10.99 per user per month billed annually ($13.49 monthly) and adds Timeline, Gantt and forms: a design request filled in by a sales rep becomes a task with the right due date. Advanced, at $24.99, adds branching forms and portfolios to track several campaigns at once.
The catch: no social publishing, so you need a second tool. Billing reviews are harsh too: annual plans must be canceled 30 days before renewal, and the free plan went from 10 users down to 2.
Tip: build one brief form for every request to marketing, with launch date as a required field. Email briefs stop, and the timeline fills itself.
- Brief forms from Starter
- Timeline with dependencies
- Marketing calendar template
- ✓Connects marketing to other teams
- ✓Very easy to pick up
- ✓Free forever for 2
- ✗No social publishing
- ✗No timeline on free
- ✗30-day notice on annual plans
The right call when marketing takes requests from the whole company. Pair it with a social scheduler.
monday.com
monday.com is the easiest project tool in this ranking to read at a glance. A board of campaigns, color status columns, and the same data flips into a calendar, a Gantt chart or a dashboard. Someone who has never opened the tool gets where a campaign stands in minutes.
Watch the plan. Calendar and Gantt views only start at Standard, $12 per seat per month billed annually ($14 monthly). Basic at $9 doesn't include them, which makes it useless for planning. Pro at $19 ($22 monthly) adds time tracking and more automations. Every paid plan has a three-seat minimum: a team of three on Standard pays $36 a month billed annually.
The catch: its value-for-money score (2.8) is the lowest in this ranking. Seats come in tiers, and reviews flag a hard cancellation process. The free plan, capped at three boards, is just for kicking the tires.
Tip: start the 14-day Pro trial, build your calendar, then drop to Standard if you never touched time tracking. You keep calendar and Gantt.
- Calendar, Gantt and dashboard on the same data
- Readable without training
- Public pricing grid
- ✓Fastest onboarding
- ✓Dashboards for leadership
- ✓Clear pricing
- ✗No calendar on Basic
- ✗3-seat minimum
- ✗Weak value for money
The easiest tool to get adopted. Go for Standard at minimum, or you're paying for a tool with no calendar.
ClickUp
ClickUp does almost everything the other tools here do, for less. Its calendar view is included on every plan, free included, which is rare. You can drop campaigns onto it, link them to brief docs, and track everyone's workload.
The free plan is generous on members (unlimited) but not on the rest: 60 MB of storage for the whole workspace and 100 automation actions a month. Gantt is trial-only there. Core, at $9 per user per month billed annually ($12 monthly), lifts those limits and unlocks Gantt. Business, at $17 ($25 monthly), adds Gantt PDF exports and more automations.
The catch: sheer volume. ClickUp's ease-of-use score is 3.5, and a team without a tool owner gets lost fast. Reviewers also mention 30 days' notice to reduce seats.
Tip: turn on just three views for the marketing team (Calendar, List, Board) and hide the rest. With 60 MB, store visuals in your drive and paste the link.
- Calendar included even on free
- Gantt from Core
- Briefs and docs in the same place
- ✓Cheapest at equal features
- ✓Unlimited members on free
- ✓Very complete
- ✗Steeper learning curve
- ✗60 MB on free
- ✗Notice needed to cut seats
The best deal if someone on the team owns the setup. Otherwise monday.com gets adopted faster.
Planable
Planable isn't a project tool. It's a social content calendar built around approvals. You see each post exactly as it will appear, your manager or client comments right next to it, and nothing goes out until it's approved. Reviewers put it plainly: no more email back-and-forth.
Pricing is per workspace, with unlimited users. Basic is $33 a month for 60 posts, 3 campaigns and optional approval only. Pro is $49 for 150 posts, 10 campaigns and required approval, the setting that blocks an unapproved post. To get started, your first 50 posts are free, and they don't reset each month.
The catch: one workspace per client or brand, so an agency pays for as many workspaces as it has clients. Posts are capped monthly, and add-ons (analytics, inbox) cost extra. And it's not the tool for planning a trade show or a product launch.
Tip: if client sign-off is the reason you're buying, go straight to Pro. On Basic, a post can go out without approval.
- Post preview exactly as published
- Unlimited users
- Required approvals on Pro
- ✓Best approval flow here
- ✓Priced per workspace, not per person
- ✓50 posts to try
- ✗One workspace per client
- ✗Monthly post caps
- ✗Plans posts only
Unbeatable when your calendar is mostly posts that need sign-off. Pair it with a project tool for the rest of your campaigns.
Notion
Notion doesn't sell a marketing calendar. It hands you the building blocks. A content database, a date property, and the same database shows as a calendar, a timeline or a board. The upside is real: the brief, the final copy and the publish date sit on the same page, so nobody hunts for the right version.
Free works for one person. From two members, blocks are limited, uploads cap at 5 MB and page history only keeps 7 days. Plus is $10 per member per month, Business $20 with full AI. Paying yearly saves up to 20%.
The catch: you build everything, and nothing chases anyone for you. Users also report slowdowns on big databases loaded with relations and formulas. And Notion doesn't publish to social.
Tip: create one database per year instead of one giant one, and filter the calendar view to the current month. Pages load faster and the team only sees what matters.
- Calendar and briefs on the same page
- Calendar and timeline views
- Free for a solo user
- ✓Very flexible
- ✓Low price
- ✓All content in one place
- ✗You build it all
- ✗Slow on big databases
- ✗No social publishing
Perfect for one or two people who like to build. Once the team grows, a tool that sends reminders on its own saves time.
Trello
Trello is still the tool anyone gets in five minutes: columns, cards, drag and drop. For a small marketing team, an idea, writing, review, published board is often enough. Each card carries a due date, an owner and a checklist.
The trap is the calendar view. According to the pricing page, Calendar and Timeline views are Premium only, at $10 per user per month billed annually ($12.50 monthly). Standard at $5 doesn't include them. Free covers up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace.
The catch: no task dependencies, no real overview across several campaigns, and a 3.4 score on features. Growing teams usually move on to Asana or ClickUp.
Tip: before paying for Premium, add the free Calendar Power-Up to your board. It shows dated cards on a monthly calendar, and you can drag them to a new date.
- Column board
- Free up to 10 collaborators
- Free Calendar Power-Up
- ✓Simplest in this ranking
- ✓Very usable free plan
- ✓Unlimited cards on free
- ✗Native calendar on Premium only
- ✗No dependencies
- ✗Weak for multiple campaigns
A good starting point for two or three people. The day you run several campaigns at once, move to a project tool.
What the roundups won't tell you
The lists on page one line up ten or thirteen names. They don't tell you which one fits your team, or what pushes the bill up.
You're solo or a team of two
CoSchedule Starter ($29 a month) if you run a blog and social. Notion or Trello for free if you just need a shared calendar. Don't pay for a per-seat tool with a three-seat minimum.
You're a 3 to 15 person team
Asana Starter or monday.com Standard if other teams send you requests. ClickUp Core if someone owns the setup. For five people billed annually, expect about $55 a month on Asana, $60 on monday.com, $45 on ClickUp.
Clients approve your posts
Planable Pro ($49 per workspace) for required approvals. Keep a project tool alongside for everything else: Planable only plans posts.
- Is the calendar view in the plan you're buying, not just the tier above?
- Is there a seat minimum, and what does an extra seat cost?
- Is the listed price annual? Monthly billing runs 17% to 35% higher.
- How much notice to cancel or cut seats before renewal?
- Can an outside reviewer approve without a paid seat?
- Can you export your calendar (CSV, ICS) the day you switch tools?
Six settings for a calendar your team keeps current
Pulled from vendor help docs and user complaints. They apply to every tool in this ranking.
Swap email briefs for a form
One form, with launch date and channel as required fields, creates the task in the right place. Asana does it from Starter, and so do ClickUp and monday.com. You stop copying emails into the calendar.
- On Asana
- Forms from Starter, $10.99
Stick to four statuses
Idea, in progress, in review, published. Add more and nobody knows where a task goes, so the calendar goes stale. Add a status only when a step has a real owner.
- Recommended statuses
- 4
One color per channel, not per person
Open the month and you instantly see three newsletters landing the same week, or an empty social calendar. Use the owner filter to check workload instead.
- Useful filters
- Channel, owner, status
Pay monthly for the first three months
Monthly costs 17% to 35% more, but annual locks you in. On Asana and ClickUp, cutting seats or canceling takes 30 days' notice before renewal. Switch to annual once the team actually uses the tool.
- Typical notice
- 30 days before renewal
Work around paid views
On Trello, the free Calendar Power-Up replaces Premium's view for a small team. On ClickUp, the calendar view is already free. On monday.com, skip Basic: it has no calendar.
- Trello savings
- $10 per user per month
Export your calendar every quarter
A CSV export or ICS feed protects you from a price change or a locked account. CoSchedule exports from its Table view. It's also what makes switching tools painless.
- Format
- CSV or ICS
Keep going
These pages pick up where this one stops.
Tools that schedule and analyze your posts.
You're an agency with clientsProject management for marketing agenciesBillable time, client portals, approvals.
Torn between the two most completeClickUp vs monday.comThe criterion-by-criterion comparison.
Marketing planning · FAQ
What is marketing planning software?
A tool that puts your campaigns, content and events on a shared calendar, each with an owner and a status. Some are built for marketing (CoSchedule), others are project tools with a calendar view (Asana, monday.com, ClickUp).
What's the best free marketing planning software?
ClickUp, because its calendar view is included on the free plan with unlimited members. The limit is storage (60 MB). For a solo marketer, Notion's free plan works too.
How much does marketing planning software cost for a team of 5?
Billed annually, before tax, about $45 a month on ClickUp Core, $55 on Asana Starter and $60 on monday.com Standard. Planable is $33 to $49 per workspace regardless of headcount.
What's the difference between a marketing calendar and a social media scheduler?
A marketing calendar plans everything (events, newsletters, launches, blog). A social scheduler publishes to social networks. CoSchedule does both; Asana and monday.com publish nothing; Planable only plans posts.
Can I build a marketing calendar in Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes, if you're on your own. From three people on, a spreadsheet chases nobody, has no reliable status and forks into email copies. A free plan like Trello or ClickUp fixes all three at no cost.
Does CoSchedule have a free plan?
Yes, but a very limited one: 15 queued posts on a single social profile. A team needs Professional ($49 a month billed annually, 3 users max) or Suite, custom pricing from $69 a month.
Should I pay monthly or annually?
Monthly until the team has adopted the tool, then annually. The gap runs from about 17% (monday.com Standard, $12 vs $14) to nearly 35% (CoSchedule Starter, $29 vs $39); ClickUp Core goes from $9 to $12, a 33% jump. Note your renewal date: most require 30 days' notice.
Which tool is best for client content approvals?
Planable Pro, which blocks a post until it's approved and includes unlimited users per workspace. For approving more than posts, Asana and monday.com handle approval flows on their paid plans.