Wrike vs Teamwork.com:
give clients the access their work needs.
Separate a viewer, an editing client and a billable team member before counting seats.
The person’s job selects the role.
The role changes the bill.
Shortlist Wrike for structured task coordination and the planning depth your team needs. Shortlist Teamwork.com when organising clients, time and services delivery is central. Test the client’s real action first: reading, commenting, editing and logging time do not necessarily use the same free or paid access.
Seven differences that change the shortlist
| Buying question | Wrike | Teamwork.com |
|---|---|---|
| Free starting point | Essential tasks, board and table views | Five users, five projects and 100 MB storage |
| Current paid packages | Team, Business, Pinnacle and Apex | Basics, Accelerate, Optimize and Enterprise |
| Reading and commenting | Viewer access can be free, with limits reserved by the vendor | A free collaborator can comment and complete assigned tasks |
| Editing client | External full users are paid; Contributors are also paid | Client users on paid tiers incur no seat cost but must belong to an external company |
| Client project reach | Confirm role-specific item and workspace permissions | A client user can join at most five active projects |
| Logging time | Check the role and retained package | Collaborators cannot log time; select the appropriate paid-plan role |
| Budget and capacity depth | Pinnacle highlights advanced planning and budgeting | Accelerate time budgets; Optimize financial budgets and profitability |
Four worked buying briefs
These are hypothetical scenarios with explicit assumptions. They do not establish equal capabilities, measured usability or a negotiated price.
| Staff users | Projects | User cap | Project cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5 | Fits exactly | Fits exactly |
| 5 | 6 | Fits exactly | Exceeded |
| 6 | 5 | Exceeded | Fits exactly |
| 3 | 4 | Fits | Fits |
Five staff and five client projects
Can the free start fit the initial work?
Wrike: Evaluate Free tasks and views; its complete retained limits must be checked.
Teamwork.com: Both checked Free user and project caps fit exactly.
Zero headroom means a sixth staff member or project changes the capacity result. Required files, approvals or client actions may select a paid tier sooner.
A sixth active project with the same five staff
Does the project count alone require a change?
Wrike: Check the retained project arrangement; no numerical Free project cap is inferred.
Teamwork.com: Six exceeds the five-project Free cap.
Archive rules and active versus total project counting must be confirmed before using removal as a capacity fix. Preserve the project history needed by clients.
Three staff and four clients who edit project work
Must every client become a full paid internal user?
Wrike: An External full user is paid. Quote the appropriate editing role rather than assuming legacy Collaborators.
Teamwork.com: Evaluate Basics and eligible client users; each client is restricted to five active projects and an external company.
Wrike Contributor access is also paid, while free Viewer permissions are narrower. On Teamwork Basics, the three standard staff meet the listed minimum; the clients still need valid role and company assignments.
A contractor needs to log billable time
Will a free comment-only arrangement complete the work?
Wrike: Test the exact logging permission and quoted role on the chosen package.
Teamwork.com: A collaborator cannot log time; select a suitable user type and paid-plan workflow.
The contractor’s access requirement may change licensing even when they only join one project. Test rates, approvals and what financial information the client can see.
Assign access by action, not by email domain
Start with a permission map: staff edit, a client approves or comments, and a contractor logs time. Test one account of each required type on synthetic work. The email domain alone does not establish free access.
Wrike distinguishes paid Full Users, paid Contributors and limited free Viewer access. Its earlier Collaborator licence is unavailable to new accounts from January 2025. On current subscriptions, a client who needs to edit may need a paid role even when viewing and commenting can be free.
Teamwork client users are available on paid packages and do not incur a seat charge. They must belong to an external company and can join up to five active projects. Free collaborators are narrower: they can complete assigned tasks and comment, but cannot log time or create tasks.
Keep people, projects and files in separate limits
Teamwork’s checked Free entry is five users, five projects and 100 MB of storage. The worked table compares only the first two dimensions. A large attachment set can outgrow storage even when users and projects fit.
Record who will add projects, upload assets and retain archived client work. Check exports and the treatment of archived projects before using the cap as a migration plan. No complete Wrike Free capacity result is inferred from an incomplete set of published limits.
Quote the current package and committed seats
Teamwork now lists Basics, Accelerate, Optimize and Enterprise alongside Free. Older Deliver, Grow and Scale prices are not used here. The current table lists minimums of three Basics users and five Accelerate users. The rendered price currency is unresolved, so no official GBP fee or numerical comparison is inferred.
Wrike’s current new-purchase display uses annual-billing USD rates and packages Team, Business, Pinnacle and Apex. Its pricing FAQ also describes seat groups. Request the exact committed Full User group, limited-user fees, package and add-ons instead of treating requested headcount as a verified invoice.
Time budgets and project profitability are different outputs. Select the package by the needed output and approvals, then quote comparable work. Both vendors have separate or changing AI capacity terms; do not promise unlimited production AI from an introductory inclusion statement.
Follow one client project through delivery
Create a synthetic request, assign work, collect a client comment and log one authorised test time entry. Change the due date and inspect the workload or plan view needed by your team.
Inspect what a client can see about another client, staff rates and internal notes. Export the project and time entries, then remove the test user’s access. No Wrike or Teamwork account trial, client invitation or project migration was performed for this comparison.
Questions before you choose
Can Teamwork collaborators log time?
No. The current collaborator role cannot log time. Confirm an appropriate user role and the selected plan for that workflow.
Are Wrike external users free?
An External full user requires paid Full User access. Free Viewer access has narrower permissions; paid Contributors and legacy Collaborators are different arrangements.
Does five projects fit Teamwork Free?
Five users and five projects fit those checked caps exactly. Storage, permissions, retained features and additional users must be checked separately.
Are older Teamwork Deliver and Grow prices used here?
No. This comparison uses the current Free, Basics, Accelerate, Optimize and Enterprise package map and keeps legacy accounts separate.
Keep the assumptions with the figures
Use the date, billing cycle, units and limits with each example. Check current account terms before purchasing. Unverified prices and model costs stay unpriced.
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Use these examples when discussing the shortlist with your team.