A Teamwork alternative for small studios
Teamwork.com is project management for client-service teams: tasks, time tracking, budgets and invoicing from logged time. OIO is project management for small studios: projects, tasks, files, freelancers and the client in one place, with the quote and the invoice on the same project. If you run a small 3D, CGI or motion studio and want it set up the same day, this is the comparison.
What Teamwork is good at
Teamwork.com is built for agencies and professional services firms, and it takes client work seriously. Clients join projects at no extra cost and can comment, add tasks and log time. Time tracking and Gantt views are on every paid plan, and from Accelerate up it adds time budgets and retainers, invoicing from logged time, workload and capacity planning, automations and a QuickBooks integration. There is a free plan for small teams, and a separate help desk, Teamwork Desk.
Where it gets heavy for a small studio
- Invoicing, budgets and capacity planning start at the Accelerate plan, which has a five-user minimum, per its pricing page. Basics needs three users.
- The free plan stops at five users and five projects, and invoicing is not part of it.
- Its billing is built on logged time: budgets and retainers in hours, invoices from timesheets. A studio that quotes a fixed price per job uses little of it.
What OIO does instead
OIO is project management for small studios. Each client job gets one project page with its tickets on a kanban or a timeline, the deadline, files, a whiteboard and team chat, and on paid plans recorded calls with transcripts. The budget, the hours and what has been paid sit on the same page.
A freelancer gets a link to a ticket. In a browser they read the brief and the feedback, upload the work and mark it done, with no account and no seat. The client gets a status link that shows where the project stands.
The quote and the invoice come from the same project, in any currency. Studio is $69 a month for five seats, and people who only view use no seat. The free plan covers 3 projects, no card.
More on how a studio runs on it: project management for studios with remote freelancers.
When Teamwork is the better fit
- If you invoice clients from logged time, Teamwork is the better fit. OIO has no time tracker.
- If you plan workload and capacity across a larger team, Teamwork is the better fit. OIO has no capacity planning.
- If you want rules that assign and move work on their own, Teamwork is the better fit. OIO has no automations.
- If you also run a client help desk, Teamwork is the better fit: Teamwork Desk sits next to the projects. OIO has no support inbox.
Feature by feature
| What you actually need | OIO | Teamwork |
|---|---|---|
| Time tracking | ||
| Workload and capacity planning | ||
| Automations | ||
| Invoices on the project | ||
| A Gantt or timeline view | ||
| Clients join without a paid seat | ||
| A free plan |
Has it Partly, or a paid add-on Does not
Teamwork's column was checked against teamwork.com on 12 October 2026. The middle mark means it starts at the Accelerate plan. Prices are left out on purpose because they change. Sources: Teamwork pricing, Teamwork client users.
Questions
Is OIO a good Teamwork alternative?
For a small studio that needs projects, tasks, files, freelancers and the client in one place, with quotes and invoices on the same project, yes. If you invoice from logged time, plan capacity across a larger team or want automations, Teamwork does that and OIO does not.
Can clients use OIO for free, like in Teamwork?
Yes. People who only view use no seat, and a client can follow the project from a status link without an account. Teamwork also lets clients into projects at no extra cost.
Can freelancers work in OIO without a seat?
Yes. You send them a ticket link. They read the brief and the feedback, upload the work and mark it done in a browser, with no account. If they want to keep a history of their work, they can create a free account later.
Try it against your own work
Free plan, no card. Set up in under a minute, and you can keep using Teamwork alongside it while you decide.
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