awork Review: Who Is This PM Tool Actually For?
awork looks great and makes project management easy. But invoicing, quotes, and finances are completely missing. I tested the Hamburg-based tool and break down where it shines, where it falls short, and what alternatives exist.
The Short Version
awork is a solid project management tool with one of the cleanest interfaces on the German-speaking market. Time tracking works well, hosting is in Germany, and for teams that need to coordinate projects, it gets the job done. But awork cannot create invoices, send quotes, or handle payment reminders. If you're a freelancer or small agency looking for one tool to run your business, you'll need at least one more subscription on top of awork. Value for money: fair for pure project coordination. Less fair once you factor in the cost of the invoicing tool you'll inevitably need alongside it.
What Is awork?
awork is a project management tool based in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 2019 by Tobias Hagenau, Lucas Bauche, and Nils Czernig. The three met during university and had previously built HQLabs together, a software company that has existed since 2012. awork grew out of that experience as a standalone product. The team now numbers over 50 people, spread across Hamburg and international locations including London, Vienna, and Rome.
The target audience is primarily agencies and teams that need to plan, coordinate, and time-track client projects. awork positions itself as "the project management tool for agencies" and emphasizes the connection between task planning and time tracking.
Core features: create projects and view them in multiple layouts (kanban board, list, timeline, calendar). Since 2025, there is also a Gantt view with task bars and drag-and-drop. On top of that, you get built-in time tracking, capacity planning, absence management, and a recently launched AI assistant in beta. Hosting runs on Microsoft servers in Germany, ISO 27001-certified and GDPR-compliant.
Sounds like a complete package. It's not quite. One entire category is missing: everything that involves money.
Where awork Shines
Interface and Usability
This comes up in almost every review. On Capterra, users describe awork as "extremely intuitive" and say it "barely requires onboarding." On G2, teams praise the "clean interface" and "modern design." That matches my experience: awork doesn't feel like typical German B2B software. It feels like something built by people who care about design. Creating projects, assigning tasks, changing statuses: it's fast and straightforward. For teams that previously managed work with spreadsheets or email threads, the difference is immediately noticeable.
The multiple project views are another plus. You can switch between kanban, list, timeline, and calendar without re-entering data. That helps because project managers often need a different perspective than team members.
Time Tracking Built Into the Project
Time tracking in awork isn't an afterthought. It's integrated at the core. Start a timer, log hours against tasks and projects, pull reports per person or project. It works reliably. Users on OMR Reviews highlight that the connection between time tracking and project structure has "significantly improved the billability of hours."
For agencies that need to distribute hours across different client projects, this is valuable. You can see at a glance how many hours went into which project, then pass that data to an invoicing tool. Although this "passing data" part is exactly where things get complicated, which I'll get to.
Hosting in Germany and Data Privacy
For teams in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), this matters: awork hosts on servers in Germany, is ISO 27001-certified, and is GDPR-compliant. When clients or contractors ask where their data lives, the answer is clear. That's a real differentiator compared to US tools like Asana, Monday, or ClickUp, which typically store data in the US or Ireland.
For industries with strict data privacy requirements, such as healthcare, the public sector, or legal consulting, this can be a deciding factor.
Where awork Falls Short
No Built-In Invoicing
This is the biggest and most important point. awork cannot create invoices. Cannot send quotes. Cannot handle payment reminders. Cannot generate e-invoices. No GoBD compliance. No ZUGFeRD. No DATEV export. For everything related to finances, you need a separate tool.
awork offers integrations with sevDesk, Lexware Office, MOCO, helloHQ, and bexio. The idea: you track time in awork and transfer it to your invoicing tool via integration. That works in principle, but it has several catches.
First, the integrations aren't available on every plan. Second, you're still working in two different systems with two different interfaces. Third, data only flows in one direction. What happens in sevDesk (payment received, reminder sent) doesn't show up in awork.
For freelancers, this is particularly frustrating. You track your hours in awork, switch to Lexware, create the invoice there, and have to manually make sure everything lines up. That's exactly the kind of tool-switching you wanted to get rid of.
Missing Features for Complex Projects
Users on G2, Capterra, and the awork Community consistently report the same gaps. No milestones. No task tagging. Limited task dependencies: when one task is completed, the next one doesn't automatically start with the correct date. Recurring tasks are cumbersome to set up and hard to modify after the fact.
One user in the awork Community describes how task deadlines in new projects start immediately, even when the project itself hasn't kicked off yet. That forces manual corrections, which eat up significant time on larger projects.
For simple task lists, awork works fine. For projects with many dependencies, phases, and milestones, it lacks depth.
Performance and Technical Issues
Multiple users on Capterra and GetApp report occasional slow loading times and delays. The desktop app sometimes fails to start, forcing a switch to the web version. The web version, in turn, reportedly drains noticeably more battery on Mac than a native app would.
Offline functionality is essentially nonexistent. If you regularly work on trains, at job sites, or in areas with spotty connectivity, awork won't be usable there.
Mobile App Lags Behind the Web Version
The mobile app is regularly described in reviews as less polished than the web interface. App Store ratings average 3 out of 5 stars (120 reviews) and Google Play sits at 3 out of 5 (123 reviews). Features are missing or harder to reach. For teams that rely heavily on their phones, that's a meaningful drawback.
Configuration and Automation Limits
Despite the generally good usability, some areas are unnecessarily tedious. Team members have to be manually added to every project, even when defined teams already exist. In the awork Community, this is a frequently requested improvement: automatic project assignment based on team membership.
Automations are not available at all on the Basic plan. On the Standard plan, you get exactly one automation per project. Only the Professional plan (EUR 22 per user monthly) unlocks unlimited automations. That's a real limitation for teams that want to automate recurring workflows without paying for the most expensive tier.
Pricing and What You Actually Get
awork charges per user, per month. There are four plans:
| Plan | Monthly | Annually (per month) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | EUR 7 | EUR 5 |
| Standard | EUR 14 | EUR 11 |
| Professional | EUR 22 | EUR 19 |
| Enterprise | On request | On request |
There is a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What Each Plan Includes
The Basic plan is stripped down. You get projects, the app, time tracking, and time reports. But no automations, no capacity planning, no docs, no custom fields, no templates. Fine for getting started, but the moment you need more than simple task lists, you'll feel the limits.
The Standard plan adds project-level docs, capacity planning, team structure, three custom fields, six templates, one automation per project, absence management, advanced permissions, and the awork AI in beta. This is the plan most small teams will need.
The Professional plan brings unlimited docs, a custom subdomain, advanced time tracking settings, comprehensive reports, private projects, and unlimited automations. Aimed at larger agencies of roughly 10 or more people.
Cost Example: 3-Person Team, Annual Billing
You pick the Standard plan with annual billing. Three users at EUR 11 per user per month comes to EUR 33 per month, or EUR 396 per year.
On top of that, you need an invoicing tool. sevDesk starts at roughly EUR 7.90 per month, Lexware Office at roughly EUR 7.90. Call it EUR 8 per month, that's EUR 96 per year.
Total cost: at least EUR 492 per year. And you're still working across two separate systems, with two logins, and no continuous data flow from task to invoice.
For comparison: an all-in-one tool like dVersum costs EUR 39 per month on the Professional plan, including 3 users. That's EUR 468 per year. Projects, time tracking, invoices, quotes, DATEV: everything included, one login.
Who Should Use awork?
awork is a good fit if you...
...run a mid-sized agency (5 to 20 people) and already have an established accounting tool like sevDesk or Lexware Office in place. In that case, awork complements the project side well. Distribute tasks, track time, plan capacity, manage absences. The integration transfers tracked time to your invoicing tool, and you have a functional (if split) workflow.
...coordinate an internal team that doesn't send its own client invoices. For example, a marketing department, an internal dev team, or a project group within a larger company. You need task management and time tracking, but not invoicing. awork covers that.
awork is a weaker fit if you...
...are a freelancer looking for one tool to handle everything. As a solo operator, you'll pay at least EUR 7 per month for awork's Basic plan (no automations, no docs). Add an invoicing tool for another EUR 8 or more. You end up with two subscriptions, two interfaces, two data sources. For freelancers who want projects, time, and invoices in one place, there are better options.
...are a small agency (2 to 5 people) and want the entire workflow covered: from quote to project to invoice. awork only handles the middle. The ends, quotes, invoices, GoBD compliance, ZUGFeRD, DATEV export, have to happen somewhere else.
Alternatives Worth Considering
dVersum
If you need projects, time tracking, and invoicing in a single tool, dVersum is worth a look. Kanban boards, Gantt view, built-in time tracking that flows directly into invoices: you log hours on a task and turn them into a GoBD-compliant invoice with ZUGFeRD or XRechnung in a few clicks. On top of that, quotes (convertible to invoices with one click), contracts with digital signatures, DATEV export, a Notion-style page editor for documentation, and the AI assistant Vero with 67 business tools. Hosted in Germany (Hetzner, Nuremberg), GDPR-compliant, built by a German team. Plans start at EUR 19 per month, 7-day free trial, no credit card required.
MOCO
For established agencies of 10 or more people that need detailed project controlling and capacity planning. Stronger than awork in agency management and lead tracking, but more expensive (starting at roughly EUR 15 per user per month) and offers no AI assistant, no docs, and no whiteboards.
Asana
If pure task management is enough and you don't need invoicing. Asana has a strong free tier for up to 10 users and is hard to beat for task organization. But no time tracking (integration-only), no invoicing, no European data hosting standard. A compromise solution for the DACH market.
Monday.com
For larger teams that want maximum customizability. Many project views, strong automations, dashboards. But expensive (minimum 3 users starting at USD 9 per person), no invoicing, and no German compliance. Typically oversized for freelancers and small agencies.
The Bottom Line
awork does a lot right in its core area. The interface is pleasant, time tracking delivers, and German hosting provides peace of mind. For pure project coordination within a team, it's a good tool.
What's missing is everything related to money. Invoices, quotes, payment reminders, e-invoicing, DATEV. Anyone who needs those things, and as a freelancer or agency owner you do, will inevitably end up with a second tool. And that means double the cost, double the setup, and the constant switching between systems.
Whether awork is worth it depends on where you stand. If you already use sevDesk or Lexware and just want to cover the project side, awork can be a sensible addition. But if you're building your setup from scratch or want to finally stop switching between project management and finances, it's worth looking at tools that handle both.