What are PSA tools? The 5 Best PSA Tools for 2025 & Beyond

Updated on September 10, 2025

If you’re in the professional services industry, your business is probably a viable candidate for what are called PSA tools.

These software tools leverage automation and are specifically created for the daily needs of professional services organizations aka PSOs: from architectural firms to MSPs and creative agencies and all the consultants in between, 

Over the past decade or so, these service businesses have become more globalized in nature, with different team members and clients often scattered across the world. 

As such, project teams and small service business owners need software that can keep up with their work, their collaboration needs, and their admin (invoicing, analytics, time tracking, etc.,) as they grow and scale. 

In fact, growth in the professional services sector abounds in the post-COVID era of asynchronous work, with the global market reaching just over $6 trillion in 2021.

PSA tools help service-oriented businesses like MSPs, digital marketing agencies, and more to automate their business processes. The goal is to optimize the service-delivery pipeline and increase overall efficiency.

We’re going to define what PSA tools are, their benefits, and an example of how they work to give you a solid understanding:

What are PSA tools?

The acronym PSA stands for Professional Services Automation: PSA tools help businesses migrate from historically manual processes to automated workflows. More specifically, PSA tools (aka PSA software) provide online solutions to help professional services organizations automate their processes related to:

• Resource management
• Budget tracking
• Time and expense
• Invoicing
• Billing

While PSA tools come in handy with project management, they tend to be more focused on the financial aspects of managing projects versus the more granular, workflow perspective (i.e. task management and collaboration). 

That said, PSA tools can theoretically take care of many aspects of your project management, as listed above, making them a no-brainer for professional services. Automation is key, and most PSA tools will use some type of artificial intelligence or self-driving features to make it seamless.

What’s an example of a PSA tool?

To give you a better idea of how a PSA tool helps businesses on a practical level, here’s an example of a PSA tool in action.

PSOhub PSA tool example:

If you’re using a powerful PSA tool (in this case, PSOhub, your workflows will be more automated. Here’s a basic story of how that automation can work:

So, let’s say you close a deal in HubSpot. The PSA tool (PSOhub) then automatically imports your necessary information into your contract. 

At this stage there’s more opportunity to automate, as you can use contract templates or past contracts to save time on manual entry. 

From there, PSOhub automatically creates a project from this data. You can instantly start tracking time, even automate that process with self-driving time tracking, and get invoices sent automatically to your client when a milestone is triggered.

Note the frequent use of the words ‘automate’ and ‘automatically’. 

The goal of a quintessential PSA solution is to automate any processes that can benefit; so in this example, we see automation at 5 stages in the workflow–

• Automated data import from HubSpot

• Smart contract generation

• Automated project setup

• Self-driving time tracking

• Automated invoicing

The above examples of automation are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what PSA tools can streamline, especially in 2025 with many now coming with built-in AI assistants. 

You no longer have to know how to code to set up automations; In many cases, you can simply tell the best PSA tools what you need, and they can do it for you. 

What are the benefits of PSA tools?

PSA tools provide a treasure trove of benefits when they’re leveraged properly. Here are some of the advantages you can expect, according to this end-user survey and these PSA tool reviews:

• Project margin increase

• Up to 50% less revenue leakage

• Increase in projects completed on-time and on-budget

• Less time spent on menial admin 

• More efficiency

• Alignment between sales and service/project teams

• Less errors from manual entry and data migration

• More visibility and control

• Transparency

• Improves client billing experience

• Bonafide All-in-One functionality with CRM 2-way integration

Find out more about how PSA tools can automate your workflows in our Quick Guide to PSA Solutions

Top 5 PSA Tools 2025

Here are the top 5 PSA tools we’ve reviewed for 2025 and beyond. Note that we do not receive commission from any outbound links you choose to click on. 

1. Best Overall – Rocketlane

Rocketlane’s unified PSA platform includes project management, resource allocation, time tracking, financial oversight, and a branded client portal. One of the strongest reasons we rated it #1 is because of its emphasis on AI-driven efficiency: AI can auto-fill client updates, draft polished docs, capture notes, and generate real-time insights on utilization and financials. 

Pros:

• All-in-one hub reduces SaaS sprawl and increases productivity.
• Strong AI automation for reducing busywork and improving delivery.
• Excellent visibility into resources, revenue forecasts, and margins; great for profitability optimization
• Intuitive interface with fast team adoption and quick ROI

Cons:

• Pricing requires a demo or request, so transparency is limited
• Heavy reliance on AI may introduce oversight concerns if not properly managed.

Learn more about Rocketlane

2. Best for HubSpot Users – PSOhub

PSOhub was built to integrate tightly with HubSpot (and also Salesforce, Dynamics, etc.), to the extent that users can often forget they’ve left the HubSpot environment in the first place. PSOhub has leveraged AI features since its v1 launch in 2020, and now their AI Copilot offers 24/7 assistance with automated project oversight, natural-language data analytics, and proactive alerts.

Pros:

• Strong HubSpot synergy, including customizable dashboards within HubSpot and native service ticket time tracking.
• Excellent project controls: Gantt, Kanban, budgeting, time & expense tracking, client portal access are all baked in.
• Competitive pricing starts at €25/user/month (Essentials), €35/user/month (Professional); free onboarding and highly rated support.

Cons:

• UX and depth beyond core PSA may be less extensive for large, complex orgs.

Learn more about PSOhub

3. Best for Salesforce Users – Certinia 

Certinia provides an advanced PSA suite built natively on Salesforce, offering resource management, project financials, time & expense tracking, billing, and unified dashboards. Formerly known as FinancialForce, Certinia is the PSOhub equivalent for Salesforce, with a seamless experience within the popular CRM that is completely unmatched among PSA solutions. 

Pros:

• Deep Salesforce integration for unrivaled CRM–PSA connectivity.
• Comprehensive functionality across the project and finance lifecycle.
• Highly configurable and scalable for large enterprises.

Cons:

• Pricing isn't published (you must request a quote).
• Implementation complexity is high; installing and configuring Certinia can be very time-intensive.
• Not ideal for smaller teams due to complexity and cost.

Learn more about Certinia

4. Best for MSPs – Accelo

Accelo markets itself as PSA tailored for Managed Service Providers, offering project, time, billing, and client management in one platform. Accelos has a 24/7 client service portal already built-in and offers integrations with the world’s most popular CRMs. The platform has long been established as a leader in automation and is highly rated for its resource management tools. 

Pros:

• All-in-one MSP-oriented system.
• Offers billing, time tracking, project workflows geared toward service delivery.

Cons:

• Some say the interface and workflow feel unintuitive, contracts are inflexible, and the system struggles with ticket ingestion.
• As of writing, AI features not as notable as other PSA tools on this list.

Learn more about Accelo

5. Most Affordable – Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is part of the broader Zoho ecosystem, offering project management with AI assistance via Zia and tight integration across Zoho apps. Plans start affordably: Free (up to 5 users), Premium ($4/user/month), and Enterprise ($9/user/month, billed annually). The Enterprise plan adds AI features like Zia Search, Translate, plus robust workflows, custom roles, SSO, and advanced reports.

Pros:

• Extremely budget-friendly entry pricing & value for small teams.
• Rich ecosystem integration (CRM, Desk, Books).
• AI features available even in low-tier plans.

Cons:

• Interface is a tad clunky.
• Not PSA-specific, as it lacks time/budget tracking and billing capabilities found in dedicated PSA tools.
• Best suited for general project tasks rather than full-service automation.

Learn more about Zoho Projects 

Final thought- Could your business benefit from leveraging PSA tools?

If you work in professional services and you want your business to run more efficiently, you’ll probably benefit from adopting a PSA tool. You can potentially save loads of time and money on admin. And you’ll keep more of your project data together and secure. 

With powerful automation provided by a PSA tool, most of which now offer built-in AI features, you can look forward to doing less, making more, and maintaining constant visibility into the health of your projects.