Content Planning Software: Which Is Best in 2025?

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• ON24 made more blog posts, going from 24 to 112 each year. They saw a big jump in website traffic from search engines, 1,412% more.
• At Mangopay, using Notion meant 64% of workers helped plan content.
• Teams using CoSchedule saved over 10 hours each week because it can automate tasks.
• Scan2CAD used Trello’s kanban boards to make work clearer and people more responsible.
• Content planning software that lets people work together cuts down on mistakes in talking to each other and delays in getting things done.

In 2025, making good content all the time is not just about being creative—it’s also about how you manage things. You have many ways to share content, teams in different places, and rules from websites that keep changing. So, using spreadsheets, emails, or files all over the place doesn’t work anymore. That’s where content planning software comes in. These are strong tools that put your content calendar, to-do lists, data, and approvals all in one spot. If content helps your brand grow, then these tools are like the pipes that carry fuel. They help you get content from ideas to making an impact with fewer errors and working better. Let’s check out some of the best content calendar tools you can use now to make your plan simpler and grow your content marketing.

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What Is Content Planning Software?

Content planning software is made to make it easier to handle the often hard ways of making, arranging, and putting out content on different sites. Unlike regular project tools, these are made for marketing and content teams. They have special things to help with how content is made, planning campaigns, and making strategies.

Main Things Modern Marketing Planning Software Does

• Content Calendars: Schedules that show all your tasks, where they are in the process, and when they are due, all in one place.
• Workflow Automation: Set rules to automatically do things like move a task to the next step or tell someone on the team when feedback is needed.
• Integrated Collaboration: Places to write comments, mention people, chat quickly, and share tasks as you work.
• Performance Tracking: Dashboards that show how your content is doing, like how many views, shares, engagement, and sign-ups you get.
• Third-Party Integrations: Connects with website platforms, customer systems, SEO tools, Google Workspace, Canva, Slack, and marketing data tools.
• Access Management: Different levels of access for team members, clients, or freelancers.

As brands get bigger and use blogs, social media, emails, and videos, content calendar tools become a must. They are like the main spot for your plan. You can see the big picture and keep track of what needs to be done each day in one place.

4 Key Benefits of Using Content Calendar Tools

Centralized Organization

Maybe the clearest good thing is that content calendar tools put all your planning in one place that’s easy to see. No more missing tasks because Google Docs are lost. No more making the same content twice because people didn’t talk to each other.

Users can divide calendars by campaign, site, or type of content. This makes it simpler to plan for the week, month, or quarter ahead. This lets content managers focus more on the plan and less on looking through emails or switching between programs.

Pro Insight: Having everything in one place helped Mangopay get 64% of their team to help with content after using Notion. This almost stopped back-and-forth messages on Slack.

Smooth Team Collaboration

Content is a team effort. Writers, designers, SEO experts, social media people, and product marketers all have a part. Working together across teams is easy with built-in comment areas, shared tags, and ways to work on drafts together.

For example, teams can

• Set deadlines and tag people right on task cards
• Upload brand images for designers to use
• See the history of a piece, comments, and approvals all in one task card

This makes workplaces less separate, makes sure everyone is on the same page, and makes reviews faster, especially if teams are remote or partly remote.

Visual Workflow Tracking

Kanban boards, Gantt charts, timelines, and calendar views make it simple to see problems or tasks that are not being done. If you like to see things visually or need to give bosses a general idea, having different ways to view things keeps everyone informed.

For example, Scan2CAD saw much better workflow visibility after starting to use Trello. They could quickly see what was being worked on, what was late, or what was ready for client review—without needing more meetings.

Built-In Efficiency

Most good content planning software has things that make daily work faster—tasks that happen again, project plans you can reuse, and steps after publishing. These time savings add up, especially for small teams with lots of content to manage.

For example, by using CoSchedule’s ReQueue, Thrive Agency saved over 10 hours each week and posted more often without hiring more people. Also, ON24 used automation to grow their blog from 2 to more than 9 posts each month.

Templates for outlines, types of posts, and how-to guides cut down on doing the same thing over and over. They also help new team members learn faster—without needing constant help.

Expert-Backed Criteria to Look for in Content Planning Software

To judge content scheduling software, you need to do more than just pick the one that looks nicest. Here’s what to check

• Ease of Use — Can new people start using it in hours, not weeks?
• Customizable Views — Does it have list, board, timeline, and calendar views?
• Workflow Support — Can you make steps like draft, edit, review, publish?
• Tool Integrations — Does it work with the programs you already use?
• Mobility — Can your team update task statuses from a phone?
• Template Library — Can you make templates for processes to copy them faster?
• Content Embedding — Can you store files, outlines, and images with tasks?
• Analytics & Reporting — Can you see what content is doing well and what isn’t?
• Permissions & Sharing Options — Important when working with clients or freelancers.

Some software focuses on being simple (good for small teams), while others are for big companies (best for agencies or publishers). Think about what you need now and in the future when you choose.

Top Content Planning Software in 2025

Asana – Best for Medium Teams That Need Visual Workflow & Automation

Over 120,000 groups use Asana. It puts content work in one place and lets you change things a lot. Editors can make smaller tasks under each campaign to make sure nothing is missed. Timeline and Calendar views make planning work easier.

Key Features

• Workflow rules (like “if status is X, assign to Y”)
• Works with Google Workspace and Slack
• Supports video reviews and color-codes campaigns

Drawbacks

• Reports are basic unless you add other programs
• Not best for managing social media right away

Best for: Content managers handling SEO, long articles, and campaign schedules.

Notion – Best for Writing Down Rules, Strategy & Progress

Notion can change to fit different needs, so it’s great for many uses. You can track content calendars, think of new ideas, or make style guides and training documents for teams all in one place. It’s very useful for agencies and internal documents.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop to change things
• AI tools (summarize, outline, suggest keywords)
• Keeps track of changes and can include content from other sites

Drawbacks

• No built-in tools to publish or automate unless you connect them
• Better for planning and support than quick tasks in a post cycle

Best for: Content leaders focused on long-term planning, ideas, and team learning.

Trello – Best for Small Teams That Want Simplicity

Trello’s card system is still a simple but strong way to manage content. Teams from freelancers to charities can copy templates, use checklists, and add “Power-Ups” for more automation and tools.

Key Features

• Color labels, file attachments, mentions
• Power-Ups like Slack alerts or calendar sync
• Simple to use, no learning needed

Drawbacks

• Can get messy if you use lots of data
• Very basic reports and data

Best for: Single people working alone and small marketing teams that want quick results and simple tools.

CoSchedule – Best for Agencies and Teams That Do Lots of Social Media

CoSchedule is great for its marketing calendar and “ReQueue” feature that reuses old content. It helps schedule blogs, emails, social media, and even podcasts.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop calendar with filters for different types of content
• Automation to reshare content with ReQueue
• Team features for working together and approvals

Drawbacks

• Hard to change workflow setup
• Need more expensive plans to get everything

Best for: Agencies or internal marketing teams that focus a lot on social media and posting on many sites.

Basecamp – Best for Small Businesses That Want Everything Simple in One Place

Basecamp puts message boards, to-do lists, schedules, and storage in one simple program. It’s good for remote teams or new companies that want one dashboard to keep things easy.

Key Features

• Campfire chat for team talks
• Message boards for topics
• Client views with limited access

Drawbacks

• Can be hard to learn if you expect modern designs
• Not often used for content reports or calendars without changes

Best for: Small businesses that want to combine their communication and content planning in one place.

Planning Templates (Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc.)

Not ready to pay for software? Spreadsheets and shared calendars can still help with basic scheduling and content tracking. HubSpot’s free content calendar templates are a good way to start before using software.

Key Features:

• Template collections with spaces for title, type, keywords
• Quick to start, no cost or sign-up
• Good for trying out workflows before getting software

Drawbacks:

• Not much automation, delegation, or file storage
• Hard to manage different versions unless you are careful

Best for: New businesses testing content or freelancers handling a few things each month.

Expert Insights: Why the Right Tool Is Key to Your Strategy

Content planning software is not just “nice to have” – it’s very important when content is your main way to market. Seeing things in real-time makes people more responsible, and putting data in one place makes things faster. Notion users like Mangopay have shown that better systems = better teamwork. 91% of their 500+ internal users are active in shared workspaces each month, according to Notion’s data.

Broken workflows are not just annoying—they cost money. Long approval times, doing work twice, and missing deadlines can add up fast. Even for a small team, the right software makes your plan clearer.

Content Automation Use Case: AI-Powered Integration

The next step for content calendar tools is not just organization—it’s smart automation.

By adding AI content platforms to planning software, you can

• Automatically make blog outlines from keyword lists
• Schedule posts to go with campaign launches
• Change content for emails, social media, or image carousels
• Automatically tag content topics or sort by tone

HubSpot Content Hub shows this fully. It has a CMS, data, AI writing, workflows for different people, and CRO tools all in one. For anyone growing content as a way to get bigger, it’s like a dream of the future.

How to Choose the Right Tool for You

Start by thinking about your current problems

• Not enough visibility?
• Missing deadlines?
• Slow content making?
• Hard to reuse content?

Choose

• Asana or Trello for clear task views
• Notion for guides and plan agreement
• CoSchedule if you manage publishing on many sites
• Basecamp if you manage teams outside of marketing too
• Google Sheets if you are new and still finding your content style

Use trial versions, test connections, and let your team try demos so they agree before you start using it.

Future of Marketing Planning Software in 2025 and Beyond

Platforms of the future will keep changing with remote teams, video content, and AI helpers. Expect

• Smarter project sorting based on what you write in briefs
• Dashboards and editing on phones with voice commands
• Ways to connect audio, video, and blog workflows
• Combined dashboards that show content work and how it makes money

The future advantage is in teamwork + data + predictions.

From Scattered to Sorted Under One Roof

Strong content marketing plans don’t come from disorder—they grow from systems you can repeat. Content planning software is the link between messy ideas and good results. Whether you’re just starting or running big campaigns, choosing the right marketing planning software helps you improve your brand, get your team together, and grow your reach—with confidence and clarity.

Try things. Get aligned. Grow.

Sources

• CoSchedule. (2023). ON24 quadruples blog output with CoSchedule: From 24 to 112 blogs/year and 1,412% growth in organic traffic. Retrieved from https://coschedule.com/customer-stories/on24
• Scan2CAD. (n.d.). Case study: How Trello improved workflow visibility for a small but global team. Retrieved from: https://trello.com/customers/scan2cad
• Notion. (n.d.). MANGOPAY increases team engagement and ends Slack chaos using Notion. Retrieved from: https://www.notion.com/customers/mangopay