ClickUp 3.0 Review 2024: Is It Worth The Hype?
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As a long-time ClickUp user, the journey from ClickUp’s earlier versions to the much-awaited 3.0 has been an intriguing one for me. It’s been about 10 months since they announced it – and now it’s finally available for everyone to switch.
On the day the new version was released, I put aside my other tasks to explore its new features (if you knew me, you’d know I was particularly excited about AI). This review is a compilation of my experiences with ClickUp 3.0, highlighting its strengths and areas for improvement.
ClickUp 3.0 Overview
Quick summary of my experience with ClickUp 3.0
Jumping into ClickUp 3.0, I’ve got to say it’s pretty awesome. They’ve seriously stepped up their game with this update. There are minor bugs here and there, but nothing critical.
One of the coolest things is the huge range of role-based AI use cases – over 100 of them! They’re designed for different kinds of jobs, which means ClickUp really gets what different people need from their task manager.
The new look of ClickUp 3.0 is another big win. I like the location overview, the new sidebar, the global actions toolbar, and the new task view with quick access to subtasks and task activity log.
I’ve tested many task managers and never thought of ClickUp as the most intuitive, but with this update, they seem to take a step in the right direction. Plus, customizations are even more accessible now – but this was always ClickUp’s strong suit.
Finally, the whole thing just works really fast! I’ve heard concerns from other users about the app’s speed issues and lagging, but that has not been my experience. I wonder if it depends on the complexity of your projects and the size of your team.
What is ClickUp?
ClickUp is a cloud-based productivity tool designed to be an all-in-one workspace for managing tasks, documents, goals, and team collaboration. It’s versatile, catering to a variety of needs across different industries and team sizes.
With ClickUp, you can create tasks and subtasks, track deadlines, assign work to team members, and track progress on projects. It’s widely known and loved for its customizable features, allowing users to tailor the interface and workflow to fit their specific requirements.
ClickUp offers a range of views like List, Board, Box, and Calendar, and has impressive integration capabilities and workflow automations. With everything from charts to time tracking, it aims to give you a universal app so you can do all your work in one place without constant context switching.
What’s new in ClickUp 3.0?
Updated UI and better navigation
ClickUp 3.0 has rolled out an updated UI that’s all about efficiency and ease of use.
The new interface is more intuitive, designed to reduce clutter, bring forward the most important things you need to access often, and save time navigating between tasks and documents.
Many things related to task creation or daily planning require fewer clicks than before. The layout is organized in a way that makes sense, so you spend less time figuring out where things are and more time actually getting work done.
(It might take a bit to figure out where everything is after a big change like this, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll appreciate the improvement.)
Global search and quick access bar
ClickUp 3.0 introduced the new top bar with search and quick access to everything.
From here, you can search for anything you need, create new tasks, documents, chats, whiteboards, or reminders, and interact with the AI assistant.
Both your avatar menu (used to be in the bottom left corner) and Quick Action menu (previously in the bottom right corner) are also in this new bar.
Basically, it helps you be more efficient with your task management skills since it allows you to do many things instantly without navigating away from your current screen.
This feature is a huge time-saver, especially when you’re juggling multiple projects and need to quickly capture ideas or find specific tasks.
Custom task types
Custom task types in ClickUp 3.0 bring a new level of organization to your workflow. This feature allows you to create specific types of tasks that match your work style or project requirements.
For instance, as an ex-software developer, I would add ‘bug,’ ‘feature,’ and ‘improvement’ types for a SaaS project. As a content creator, I can have separate task types dedicated to writing articles, testing products, topic and keyword research, or managing emails.
If you have a bigger team, you can create task types for any typical activity, whether it’s sprint meetings or addressing customer support tickets.
This level of customization is particularly useful for teams with varied roles, as it allows each member to organize their tasks in a way that aligns with their specific duties and responsibilities.
To access this new feature, go to Settings and choose Task Types.
You can choose an icon for better visualization and write a fun description (optional).
New task view with sidebar
In ClickUp 3.0, there is more than one way to look at a task.
You can quickly switch between a default view, a full-screen task view, and a sidebar view. I mostly keep mine in the Sidebar view because it lets me utilize the screen space in a more efficient way and (again) requires less clicking.
Subtasks sidebar
Pursuing its goal of bringing us the most productive workflow, ClickUp 3.0 didn’t stop at one handy sidebar. There is another one for subtasks on the left side!
I think this is really convenient, especially if you have longer task descriptions. There is no need to scroll down and click on a subtasks tab – you can see all of the subtasks at a glance when you open the main task.
Navigating through tasks is much smoother with this sidebar. You can quickly add new subtasks, manage existing ones, or jump into the details of each task and back.
There is also a Subtasks tab in the Task view with a fully customizable column setup.
Leveraging the new custom task types, you can have multiple types of tasks on one list and create subtasks of different types for the same task.
Improved hub navigation
ClickUp 3.0 made navigation between high-level things (hubs) much easier.
The new left sidebar serves as your gateway to different parts of the app, providing quick access to essential tools like Dashboards, Docs, Whiteboards, Inbox, or Goals.
The ability to customize this area is a significant advantage. You can pin the tools you use most frequently for quick access and hide the ones you use less often or not at all.
Customizable home hub
The Home hub in ClickUp 3.0 is a feature that brings personalization to the forefront. It allows you to customize your main workspace with drag-and-drop cards, giving you control over how you organize and access your tools and features.
This is honestly such a breath of fresh air after a clunky 2.0 home dashboard.
The process of customizing the Home hub is straightforward and enjoyable. You can rearrange the layout, resize the cards, and remove any that you don’t need.
To enable customization of the Home hub, simply toggle “Edit Layout” at the top right corner. You can also remove the cards you don’t need via Manage Cards to declutter your home view and avoid unnecessary distractions.
Location overview
The Home hub is not the only place in ClickUp 3.0 that has been redesigned for better accessibility.
The Location Overview feature is another addition that changes how you interact with your workspaces. It’s designed to provide quick and easy access to the most relevant and frequently used items in each hub.
For instance, in the Docs hub, you have immediate access to recent documents, your favorites, and the ones you’ve created.
The Location Overview doesn’t just stop at providing quick access; it also offers robust search and filter capabilities. Within the list of documents, you can search and filter using various parameters, as well as customize columns, helping you find exactly what you need in moments.
Tabs like ‘Assigned’, ‘Archived’, ‘Shared’, and ‘Private’ further enhance this experience, allowing you to quickly segment and view documents based on their status or relevance to you.
In addition to Docs and other hubs, this redesigned layout extends to Spaces, too. It gives you quick access to recent folders, documents, and resources related to your current workspace.
Redesigned Inbox
The redesigned Inbox in ClickUp 3.0 is all about keeping you informed without overwhelming you. It provides a concise and clear view of all your recent updates, including assignments, mentions, and changes on tasks and documents.
This feature ensures that you’re always up to date with what’s happening in your projects.
The layout of the new Inbox is intuitive, offering more visibility and requiring fewer clicks.
Besides the main Inbox view with all notifications, there are other tabs for convenient access, such as Important or Snoozed.
Each notification has a bunch of action buttons when you hover over it, such as Snooze, Clear, or Tray.
If you click on anything, for example, a task or a document, it opens the details in the right sidebar so you can quickly manage everything and move on to the next notification without going back and forth between views.
Custom field manager
We had custom fields in ClickUp before, but ClickUp 3.0 introduced a handy Custom Field Manager that offers a new level of customization and control.
This feature is accessible via the Quick Action menu in the top bar.
It allows you to create and manage up to 3,000 Custom Fields per Workspace, offering an unprecedented level of detail and customization, especially useful for larger, more intricate projects.
Besides creating new ones, you can edit, duplicate, or convert an existing field to a new type.
If you happen to have a Business Plus or Enterprise Plan, you’ll have additional options to merge and move Custom Fields. This is convenient in case of duplicates or hierarchy errors.
Whether it’s unique identifiers, progress markers, or specialized data points, the Custom Field Manager provides the flexibility to include these in your workspace.
With quick filters, grouping, and editing capabilities, managing these custom fields is much easier than in ClickUp 2.0. This feature is very helpful for maintaining order and clarity in projects, especially when multiple team members are involved.
Updated task tray
Tray is one of my favorite features in ClickUp – creating global bookmarks to documents and tasks you access all the time saves me a lot of unnecessary clicking. I like that they took it out of the actions menu in 3.0, saving me one extra click.
There are multiple ways to add a task or a document to the tray. The most common way I use it is by clicking on the 3-dot options menu and choosing Add To -> Add To Tray.
You can pin or unpin the tray as per your liking.
ClickUp AI assistant
Finally, we are talking about AI!
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence in 2023 (recent AI stats will blow you away!), every self-respecting tool has made an effort to add some AI-powered features.
ClickUp 3.0 took it a step further and integrated AI into all areas of the app so you can benefit from it wherever you are. It’s also in the global search bar at the top.
You’ll need to enable it first, as it’s a $5 per month add-on. It’s also only available to their customers with paid plans, although I believe you can get a free trial of it even on a free plan.
ClickUp AI assistant introduces a new level of intelligence to your task management experience. It assists in organizing, summarizing, and optimizing your workflow, making managing tasks more intuitive and less time-consuming.
You can access it from a task, from inside a document, via the AI button at the top of any screen, and some other handy places.
The AI is designed to understand your workflow and provide relevant suggestions and automations. Whether it’s generating task summaries or offering insights, ClickUp AI adapts to your working style, helping you work smarter and save time on trivial tasks.
The coolest thing is that they created a bunch of role-specific use cases, for example, writing a customer email for a marketer, brainstorming potential user journeys for a designer, or generating a meeting agenda for a manager.
So far, ClickUp AI is, in my humble opinion, one of the best AI personal assistants on the market.
Unfortunately, covering all the AI possibilities is outside of the scope of this ClickUp 3.0 review. If you are interested to learn more about it, read my detailed review of ClickUp AI where I share some useful use cases and real samples from my tests.
Should you switch to ClickUp 3.0?
Deciding whether to switch to ClickUp 3.0 from the familiar grounds of ClickUp 2.0 might feel like a big step, especially if you’re comfortable with your current routine.
I wouldn’t lie, there is a big difference in the interface and navigation, which might be frustrating until you get used to it.
However, it’s worth considering the long-term benefits that ClickUp 3.0 offers. The updated version comes with a more user-friendly UI and intuitive navigation, which can potentially streamline your workflow and make you more efficient, particularly if ClickUp is a staple in your daily work life.
If you’re in the middle of a high-pressure period or up against tight deadlines, it might be wise to stick with ClickUp 2.0 for a bit longer and not disrupt the processes.
The last thing you need is the added stress of adapting to a new interface when you’re focused on meeting critical project milestones.
Once the dust settles and you have a bit more breathing room, that would be the perfect time to explore ClickUp 3.0. Take it for a test drive when you have some spare time on your hands, and you’ll likely find that the new features and streamlined design enhance your productivity and overall experience with the platform.
How to differentiate between ClickUp 2.0 and 3.0?
If you click on your avatar in the top right corner, you’ll immediately see which version you are currently using.
You can switch back to ClickUp 2.0 at any time unless your administrator specifically prohibits it. Don’t worry – you’ll also be able to switch to 3.0 again with no problem whenever you choose.
How to switch to ClickUp 3.0
I believe everyone has been switched automatically after it got fully rolled out – at least, that’s what I saw in my account and my husband’s, too (we both use ClickUp for our projects).
You can tell right away because the UI is completely different, and there are several exciting-looking pop-up tutorials appearing on the screen to guide you into new 3.0 features.
But if you switched back to 2.0 for some reason and can’t find a way to get 3.0 again, here is what to do:
- Click on your avatar in the bottom left corner
- You’ll immediately see the bright purple ClickUp 3.0 header at the top
- Click “Switch to 3.0”
- In the pop-up that appears, click “Try ClickUp 3.0”
If you are managing a team, you’ll need to enable ClickUp 3.0 in settings for everyone to access it. It’s under Security & Permissions.
ClickUp 3.0 pricing
ClickUp pricing structure hasn’t changed much since 2.0, although they reorganized the pricing page to remove confusion and add information about the ClickUp AI add-on.
Here is the up-to-date ClickUp pricing structure:
- Free Forever Plan: This plan is best for personal use or simple projects, offering features like 100MB storage, unlimited tasks, collaborative docs, Kanban boards, sprint management, and a basic custom field manager. All for unlimited team members, which is actually rare.
- Unlimited Plan: Priced at $7 per member per month, this plan is ideal for small teams. It includes everything in the Free plan, plus unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards, Gantt charts, custom fields, and time tracking.
- Business Plan: Suitable for bigger teams, this plan costs $12 per member per month. It builds upon the Unlimited plan with features like white-labeling, onboarding training, advanced views and permissions, and more.
There are also Business Plus and Enterprise plans if you need more sophisticated features.
Every paid plan member has the option to add ClickUp AI for an extra $5 per month.
Best ClickUp alternatives
I would say that ClickUp has long cemented its place as the best project management tool on the market, but here are some planners you could use instead depending on what you’re looking for.
Final verdict: Is ClickUp 3.0 worth it?
ClickUp has always been a solid choice for project and task management, and the 3.0 version only improved its quality. The new updates, like the sleek UI and smarter navigation, really make a difference in how smoothly you can manage projects.
It takes some time to get used to, but the payoff in efficiency is huge, especially if ClickUp is a big part of your daily grind. With cool extras like the global search, task types, custom field manager, and of course, AI assistant, you’re getting more ways to optimize your workflow and save valuable time.
Overall, for anyone looking to up their productivity game and enjoy a smoother user experience, ClickUp 3.0 is definitely worth checking out.
Pros
Cons
Frequently asked questions
ClickUp 3.0 was introduced in February 2023 to a limited group of users. It had been gradually rolling out over the summer until it became available for everyone in November 2023.
ClickUp 3.0 offers a new, cleaner design and real-time updates, enhancing user experience with easier navigation and filtering. It introduces custom task types and several highly requested features like advanced custom field management, improved collaboration tools, and more robust project tracking capabilities.
Yes, you have full control and can choose which ClickUp version to use. If you click on your avatar in the top right corner of the app, you’ll immediately see your current version number and a button to change it.
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