Every Workflow Template You’ll Ever Need

There are more workflow template apps out there than you can throw a stick at. Most of them come with big promises, too. A lot of them even keep those promises. 

But not every workflow template app suits every situation. So how do you decide which is the best one for your business? 

You ask the experts. By which I mean us. 

At Process Street, our clients run workflows for everything from audits to onboarding – and we’ve got the templates to prove it. 

With such a varied client base, we’re pretty familiar with what different users need from their workflow templates. We’ve collected some of our favorite apps – and even some of our competitors – to make sure you choose the right app for you.

• Best workflow template software for process management
• Best workflow template software for process mapping
• Best workflow template software for creating flowcharts
• Best workflow template software for project management
• Best workflow template software for developers

What is workflow software? 

Workflow software automates your recurring processes. 

These processes can be unique to a particular company or industry, but most businesses use workflows for scenarios like:

• Employee/client onboarding
• Quality assurance
• Financial audits
• Compliance audits
• Risk assessment

What is a workflow template? 

A workflow template is a pre-made workflow that you can apply to your existing process. 

For example:

You want to create a workflow for your onboarding process. You could build that workflow completely from scratch. However, most onboarding processes are fairly similar. 

It’s easier and more efficient to use a workflow template since all the necessary tasks will be built in for you.

If a workflow is the master blueprint of your process, workflow templates are the framework. 

What makes the best workflow template?

The best workflow template has three main things:

• It’s easy to understand
• It’s easy to use
• It’s easy to customize

Workflow templates need to be intuitive. Anyone in your company should be able to use that template with minimal (or no) training. 

Each task should be clear and simple, leaving no room for confusion. A clean user interface (UI) is vital, as well. If you have to hunt for the features you need, that template isn’t going to do you any good. 

Finally, you want a template you can start using right away. You also want a template you can customize as needed. These could be small changes or big ones, but you want to have the ability to adapt your workflow template. 

Again, if the template isn’t making your work easier, the template isn’t working.

Best workflow template software for process management

Process Street

Process Street transforms your team’s recurring processes into interactive, no-code workflows that are stored in a central location. 

As the modern process management platform for teams, Process Street allows you to create standalone documentation that lives and works side-by-side with your customized workflows. It also seamlessly integrates with Slack, SalesForce, DocuSign, and all your favorite work apps so you can easily manage your tasks with minimal effort.

Request a demo to learn more about how Process Street can supercharge your workflow templates.

Use cases: 

• Employee & client onboarding
• Quality assurance
• Regulations & compliance
• Financial audits

Features:

• Conditional logic to create branching pathways in a single workflow
• Automations & integrations with over 3,000 apps
• User assignments & guest users to keep your data secure during collaborations
• Pages, which allows you to create a centralized knowledge base for all of your SOPs

Pros:

• Fully customizable templates
• No-code platform
• Ability to build templates from scratch
• Custom reports & analytics to track status of individual runs and users

Cons:

• Only 50 guest users can participate in workflow runs on the Pro plan
• Can be expensive for larger teams
• Template gallery is difficult to navigate

Pricing: 

• Pro Plan: $25 per full member/month. Custom enterprise plans available

Examples:

• High Touch Client Onboarding for SaaS Companies
• The Tiny HR Team’s Guide to Employee Onboarding
• ISO 9004:2018 Self-Audit Checklist

Check out the full Template Library with hundreds of templates for every industry!

Best workflow template software for process mapping

Miro

Use cases: 

• Strategy & planning
• Collaboration for hybrid teams
• Brainstorming & diagramming
• Mapping customer journeys

Features:

• Shareable digital whiteboard
• Integrates with over 100 popular work apps
• Ability to create custom apps & integrations in minutes
• Sticky notes, images, mind maps, videos, and a variety of chart diagrams

Pros:

• Can plan & visualize ideas & projects no matter where your team is
• Great asset for remote learning & educational demonstrations
• Team members can build a shared space for capturing insights in a central place
• Easy visibility over tasks and dependencies

Cons:

• Can’t view templates without signing up
• Templates primarily focus on brainstorming, planning, & ideation
• No accessible demo pre-sign up

Pricing: 

• Starter Plan: $8 per member/month
• Business Plan: $16 per member/month

Examples:

• Kanban Framework Template
• Mind Map Template
• Daily Stand-up Meeting Template

Check out the full Template Library!

Best workflow template software for creating flowcharts

Lucidchart

Use cases: 

• Plan & launch projects
• Build roadmaps
• Visualize technical systems
• Define & map out your processes

Features:

• Data import/export
• Third-party integrations
• Drag & drop editor
• Process modeling & design

Pros:

• Good range of pre-designed templates
• Can search for & bookmark icon groups
• Great for making flowcharts
• Makes collaboration easy

Cons:

• Templates aren’t easy to understand or use
• UX design is inefficient compared to similar services
• Difficult to cancel trial or account
• Outdated & prone to glitches

Pricing: 

• Individual: Starting at $9
• Team: Starting at $10/user

Examples:

• Production Flowchart Example
• Processing and Qualifying Leads Example
• BPMN Conversation Diagram

Check out the full Template Library!

Best workflow template software for project management

Monday

Use cases: 

• Project requests & approvals
• Portfolio management
• Project dependencies
• Resource management

Features:

• Automatic time capture
• Batch processing
• Deployment management
• KPI monitoring

Pros:

• Can monitor projects in real-time
• Easy to coordinate with external collaborators
• Integrates deadlines into the display
• Offers visibility on what entire team is working on

Cons:

• Difficult to make updates or edits to tasks
• Layout can be confusing & hard to follow
• Complicated to set up
• Expensive for individuals or small businesses

Pricing: 

• Starting from $8 per user/month

Examples:

• Project Portfolio Management
• Project Requests and Approvals
• Product Development

Check out the full Template Library!

Best workflow template software for developers

GitHub

Use cases: 

• CI/CD automation
• DevOps
• Manage code changes
• Host & manage packages

Features:

• Bug tracking
• Integrated development environment
• Reporting & project tracking
• Web-based deployment

Pros:

• Simple to use 
• Easy to integrate with other software
• Free account includes a wide range of features
• Great platform for developers to showcase their work

Cons:

• Less features than similar tools
• Pricing can be difficult to understand
• High barrier to entry (requires developer experience)
• UI could be more intuitive

Pricing: 

• Team: $44 per user/year ( first 12 months)
• Enterprise: $231 per user/year (first 12 months)

Examples:

As a developer tool, GitHub doesn’t have a template library or pre-made templates in the same sense as the other software included here. 

However, it does have several tutorials on using templates within the platform:

• Using templates to encourage useful issues and pull requests
• Creating a repository from a template

Essential features of workflow templates

Regardless of what you’re using a workflow template for, there are a few features you should always keep in mind before making your choice:

Automation

The purpose of a workflow is to automate your process. If your workflow template can’t be automated, then what is it even doing? 

Living document

Over time, your company is going to scale, and so will your needs. Your workflow template needs to be able to grow with you. 

Otherwise, it’s like buying haute couture for a baby that’s going to grow out of it in a week. 

You don’t want that.

Your workflow template should allow you to create a living document. That is: You should be able to document your processes, work that’s already been completed, and any improvements you’ve made. 

Practicing continuous improvement plays a big role in keeping your processes fit. Using your workflow template as a living document makes it that much easier to implement your incremental improvements efficiently.

Collaboration tools

No person exists in a vacuum, and neither does a team, nor a company. 

Whether internally or externally, you’re going to want to bring other users into the fold. That’s why it’s important – first of all – to choose a workflow template that makes collaboration easy. You want your employees to use it with confidence, but you also want external clients, consultants, and vendors to use it without any confusion or complication. 

Second: You need to control who has access to what. If you’re running a workflow that includes sensitive or proprietary information, you don’t necessarily want your external collaborators to see everything. 

It’s vital that a workflow template enables you to limit or expand the amount of data individual users have access to as necessary.

Analytics 

Even automated and optimized, your processes need regular tune-ups to make sure everything’s still running under the hood. 

A thorough analytics dashboard will let you know which processes are working well – and which ones aren’t. 

By keeping track of these insights, you’ll have a solid reference point for which workflow templates should be updated, replaced, or removed entirely.