Show progress
The client consults the tasks, milestones and files that concern them, without waiting for an export. Most project management tools allow this, in the form of guests or dedicated licenses.
Comparison Project software with a client portal: what the client sees, what the client validates
Choosing project software with a client portal means answering three questions: what does the client see, what can the client validate, and how much does their access cost? Teamwork.com, monday.com, Asana and Kantata all let you invite a client, on very different terms. pylotik opens free access so the client can follow what concerns them and validate what is submitted to them. This comparison sets out the exact terms published by each vendor.
The need
Why open your project tool to the client.
Sharing a project with a client addresses a familiar fatigue: the progress update sent every week, the reminder to get a validation, the minutes nobody knows were read.
Collect validations
Approve a deliverable, ask for a correction, refuse with a reason. Some tools document this natively, others leave this circuit to email.
Keep a shared history
What was decided, by whom, and when. Without a shared history, each committee restarts the discussion of the previous one.
Inviting a client into a task board is not always enough. The client of a manufacturer, a construction company, an engineering firm or an integrator, whether external or a department of the same organization, wants to know whether the commitment will be kept: contractual milestones, volume consumed on their contract, committee decisions, interventions carried out. If this information stays in spreadsheets and presentations sent by email, the portal shows the work but not the commitment.
Selection guide
If your priority is…
The right tool depends on what you expect from the client: that they watch, that they work with you, or that they validate.
| Your priority | Suitable tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Having the client work in an agency's tasks, with billable time and invoices | Teamwork.com | Free Client license, time-and-materials, fixed-price or retainer budgets, proofs validated without an account. |
| Sharing highly customized work boards with guests | monday.com | Guests on Standard and above, free read-only viewers from Basic, French-language interface. |
| Collaborating with many external partners on cross-functional projects | Asana | Free, unlimited guests from Starter, native approvals from Advanced. |
| A full PSA where the client is associated with the project workspace | Kantata | "Client" side of the project workspace, within a services company's PSA. |
| Having the client validate the minutes of their contracts, projects and maintenance | pylotik | Free client access on all tiers, committees, decisions, shared maintenance contracts and, in addition, acceptance of interventions. |
The players
Four ways to invite the client.
The terms below are those published by each vendor, checked on the date shown under the table. They change: check them before signing.
Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com, an Irish vendor, targets agencies and professional services: tasks, milestones, Gantt, billable time, budgets and invoices. Its Client license is free on the Basics, Accelerate, Optimize and Enterprise offers: the client creates and edits items, completes tasks, enters time and comments. It is limited to 5 active projects per client user, reserved for external companies and without administration rights; no cap on the number of client users is indicated. A more restricted free Collaborator license also exists.
monday.com
monday.com organizes work in boards that can be shared with external guests. The published terms: no guests on the Basic offer; on Standard, four guests count as one billed seat; unlimited guests on Pro and Enterprise; free, unlimited read-only viewers from Basic. A dedicated client portal exists in a separate product, monday service. The pylotik vs monday.com comparison details these points.
Asana
Asana organizes projects and tasks in lists, boards, calendar and timeline, with portfolios linked to goals. Guests are free and unlimited from the Starter offer; the help specifies that they only exist within organizations and must use a different email domain. Approvals are native from Advanced, but whether an external guest can approve is not explicitly documented.
Kantata
Kantata is a PSA for medium to large services companies. The client can be invited on the "Client" side of the project workspace, without a dedicated portal being described. The documentation does not specify whether these participants consume a license, and does not describe validation by the client.
Feature by feature
What the client can see and do, tool by tool.
"Not documented" means the vendor's public documentation does not mention it, not that the feature is missing.
| Feature | pylotik | Teamwork.com | monday.com | AsanaCloud Act | KantataCloud Act |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European sovereignty | France | Ireland | Non-EUIsrael | Non-EUUnited States | Non-EUUnited States |
| Project management (tasks, milestones, schedule) | YesWork packages, tasks, phases, milestones, Gantt | YesTasks, task lists, milestones, Gantt chart on all offers; number of projects limited depending on the offer (5 on the free plan). | YesBoards, items, due dates, Gantt; structured "projects" are reserved for the Pro and Enterprise plans. | YesLists, boards, calendar, timeline (Starter and above), milestones. | YesTasks, deliverables, milestones, Gantt chart and task tracking. |
| Multi-project steering | YesPortfolio steering and arbitration | YesPortfolio boards (limited number on the smaller offers). | Via modulePortfolio solution reserved for the Enterprise plan. | YesPortfolios on Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise+. | YesDashboards across the whole portfolio. |
| Time entry | YesWeekly, on web and mobile | YesTime entry from the free plan; billable time and reports from Basics. | PartialTime tracking column (timer and manual sessions) in Pro and Enterprise; no timesheet with documented validation. | Via moduleNative estimated versus actual tracking on Advanced; weekly timesheets with approval via the Timesheets and Budgets module, licensed per user, purchased from sales. | YesTime entry and approval; reserved for the Premier and Enterprise plans according to the mobile help. |
| Client contracts | YesA contract for each project | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Maintenance contracts | YesVolume, catalogue, committee | YesRecurring retainer budgets (hours or fixed amount) with carry-over of surplus or deficit; number of active retainers limited on some offers. | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Intervention scheduling | Via moduleInterventions module | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Financial tracking and margin | YesOrdered, invoiced, paid, margin | Via moduleTime budgets from Accelerate; multi-currency financial budgets, revenue, costs and profitability in Optimize (on quote). | PartialNumeric columns for budget and planned/actual effort in the portfolio template; no native margin calculation documented. | Via moduleProject budgets in cost or hours via the Timesheets and Budgets module; no margin or profitability documented. | YesBudgets, margins, revenue recognition. |
| Calendars | YesPersonal, project, client | Yes"My calendar" view cited in the help (not available to Client licenses). | YesCalendar view from the Standard plan; calendar sync (https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001362725). | Yes | Not documented |
| Meetings and minutes | YesAgenda, minutes | Not documented | PartialAI Notetaker: transcription, summary and actions from meetings; no committee or agenda management documented. | PartialProject templates for meeting agendas and actions, no dedicated function. | Not documented |
| Decision log | Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Action tracking | Yes | Not documented | PartialActions from meetings can be sent to a board; no native RAID register. | PartialMeeting actions captured as tasks via a template; no native RAID register. | Not documented |
| Risk register | YesShared or internal | YesRisk register per project (source, cost, schedule or performance impact, probability, response plan) and consolidated view across all projects. | Via moduleRisk Insights: AI-generated risk list in the portfolio solution (Enterprise), not an entered register. | PartialRisk register template (priority, probability); at-risk indicators in portfolios; no native risk object. | PartialRisk identification and health indicators; no risk register described. |
| Client access | Yes | YesNo separate portal: the client accesses the projects of their company with a Client license; without access to reports, resource planning or profitability. | PartialBoards can be shared with external guests (Standard and above); a dedicated client portal exists in the separate product monday service (https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/28270155814802). | PartialNo dedicated portal: guests only access the projects, tasks and messages shared with them. | PartialThe client can be invited on the "Client" side of the project workspace; no dedicated portal described. |
| Client access without a license | YesExternal client organizations | YesFree Client license (Basics, Accelerate, Optimize, Enterprise offers), limited to 5 active projects per client user, only in external companies, without administration rights. No cap on the number of client users indicated. A more restricted free Collaborator license (no time entry or task creation). | PartialNo guests on Basic. Standard: 4 guests = 1 billed seat (3 free). Pro and Enterprise: unlimited guests. Read-only viewers are free and unlimited from Basic (https://monday.com/pricing). | YesFree, unlimited guests from Starter. The help specifies that free guests only exist within organizations and must use an email domain different from the organization's. | Not documented |
| Client validation | YesMinutes, amendments, interventions | YesProofs: external reviewers and approvers without a Teamwork account; number of active proofs per month limited depending on the offer (former offer names in the help). | Not documented | PartialNative approvals and annotations (Advanced and above); whether an external guest can approve is not explicitly documented. | Not documented |
| Dashboards | Yes | YesBillable time reports from Basics; revenue, cost and profitability analyses in Optimize. | YesDashboards and widgets. | YesDashboards from Starter; Tableau and Power BI integrations on Advanced. | YesBI module and customizable dashboards. |
| Mobile app | YesInstallable web app | YesiOS app listed on the App Store. | YesiOS and Android, plus desktop apps. | YesiOS and Android mobile apps. | PartialMobile experience for iPhone and Android accessible through the browser; native app not confirmed. |
| French-language interface | YesAnd in English, chosen by each user | Not documented | Yes | YesFull interface in French, chosen in the profile settings. | Not documented |
Information checked in October 2026, against the vendors' public documentation. It changes: see the sources. The flag shows the vendor's country; the Cloud Act badge flags a vendor under US law, or owned by a US group, subject to the CLOUD Act; Non-EU, a vendor established outside the European Union.
The client side
What the client sees in pylotik, and what they do not see.
They follow and they validate
- Committee minutes They validate them, refuse them with a reason or ask for a correction; without an answer, they are tacitly validated at the agreed deadline.
- Shared decisions, actions and risks What was decided in a meeting stays attached to the project, with its history.
- Their contracts Maintenance contracts share their volume, their committee and their indicators with them.
- Their calendar Meetings and interventions that concern them, in a client calendar.
- In addition, interventions They accept them with their signature, in their portal, on the technician's mobile or with a physical signature, or refuse them with a reason.
They do not see your kitchen
- Neither your margins nor your costs Financial tracking stays on the supplier side.
- Neither the workload of your teams Nor their HR data.
- Nor your internal steering Internal risks stay internal.
- They do not modify your production data They follow and validate what is submitted to them.
Their access is free on all tiers, for external client organizations. A client team internal to your organization takes a seat depending on its role. The detail is on the client portal page.
Frankly
Where pylotik is relevant, and where it is not.
Relevant when…
- You expect the client to validate, not to execute Minutes, amendments and, in addition, acceptance of interventions: validation is traced, with its reason in case of refusal.
- The relationship lasts A contract, a project, then maintenance, on a structure, a production line or an information system: the same client, the same history. See project governance.
- You have many clients Access for external client organizations is free on all pylotik. tiers.
- You want the client to read the same data as you Rather than a monthly report rewritten for them.
Less relevant when…
- The client must work in your tasks Teamwork.com, monday.com and Asana let guests contribute to tasks; in pylotik, the client follows and validates without modifying your production data.
- You have annotated visuals validated Teamwork.com documents proofs validated without an account, Asana annotations on images and PDFs.
- You want to issue invoices in the same tool, without an ERP Teamwork.com and Kantata issue invoices; pylotik does not issue invoices: it connects to the ERP, through a connector built to your needs, to send it the invoicing orders.
- You need SSO or a public API pylotik has neither. Its optional connectors are built as needed according to clients' needs, for example to project ticketing tools such as Jira or to the ERP.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask about client access.
Which project management software offers free client access?
Several, on different terms. Teamwork.com offers a free Client license limited to 5 active projects per client, Asana free, unlimited guests from Starter, monday.com unlimited guests on Pro and Enterprise and free viewers from Basic. In pylotik, access for external client organizations is free on all tiers. Kantata's documentation does not specify this.
How do you share a project with a client without showing everything?
You need a tool that distinguishes what is shared from what stays internal. In pylotik, the client sees neither margins, nor workload, nor HR data, nor internal risks, nor the supplier's internal steering. In Teamwork.com, the Client license has no access to reports, resource planning or profitability.
Can the client validate meeting minutes?
In pylotik, yes: they validate, refuse with a reason or ask for a correction, and validation becomes tacit at the agreed deadline. The documentation of Teamwork.com, monday.com, Asana and Kantata does not describe a circuit for validation of minutes by the client.
Does a client team internal to the organization also get free access?
No. Free access applies to external client organizations. A client team internal to your organization takes a seat depending on its role, as the pricing page specifies.
Can the client use the mobile app?
Yes. The pylotik mobile app is an installable web app, with no app store involved, and the client can validate what is submitted to them there. It does not work offline.
Next
Going further.
- The free client portal: what your client sees, validates and never sees.
- pylotik vs monday.com: a work management tool facing steering with the client.
- The client-supplier project software guide: what such a tool must allow, and how to choose it.
- Operational commitment management: one set of data read by the supplier and by the client.
- The product tour: contracts, projects, maintenance and committees in the same tool.
- The pricing: seats, free client access and modules.
- All comparisons: PSA, PPM, work management and interventions.