Prompt
Can you recommend editorial workflow software for assigning drafts and approvals in a multi-user publishing team?
Latest observation
Yes — for a multi-user publishing team, you’ll want workflow software that handles:
- Draft assignment
- Review / approval stages
- Role-based permissions
- Content calendars
- Versioning and comments
- Notifications / reminders
Here are solid options, grouped by use case:
Best all-around editorial workflow tools
1) Airtable
- Very flexible for editorial pipelines
- Easy to build custom stages like Draft → Edit → Legal → Approve → Publish
- Good for assigning owners, due dates, and approval status
- Strong automation and integrations
Best for: Teams that want a customizable editorial system without heavy engineering.
2) Notion
- Great for planning and collaboration
- Can use databases for editorial calendars and draft tracking
- Simple approvals via status fields and comments
Best for: Smaller teams or teams already using Notion for docs and planning.
3) Monday.com
- Strong workflow automation and task assignments
- Easy to visualize draft progress
- Good notifications and approval routing
Best for: Teams that want a structured, user-friendly project management approach.
4) Asana
- Excellent for assigning drafts and tracking approvals
- Easy to set dependencies and approvals
- Good for cross-functional publishing teams
Best for: Teams that need clear task ownership and deadline tracking.
5) ClickUp
- Highly configurable editorial workflows
- Docs, tasks, approvals, and automations in one place
- Good if you want everything centralized
Best for: Teams that want a lot of features at a relatively low cost.
More content-focused / publishing-specific
6) Contentful + workflows
- More CMS-oriented than project-management-oriented
- Good for structured content and publishing pipelines
- Works well if your team publishes to websites/apps
Best for: Digital publishing teams with technical needs.
7) WordPress editorial plugins
Examples:
- Edit Flow
- PublishPress
- CoSchedule for WordPress
These add editorial calendars, custom statuses, and content approvals inside WordPress.
Best for: Teams already publishing in WordPress.
8) Wrike
- Strong workflow and approval management
- Good proofing and review features
- Useful for content teams managing a high volume of assets
Best for: Larger teams or content operations groups.
If approvals are a major priority
Look closely at:
- ProofHub
- Wrike
- Monday.com
- Asana
These tend to be better for structured review and sign-off processes.
If you need editorial calendar + publishing
Look closely at:
- Airtable
- CoSchedule
- PublishPress
- ClickUp
My quick recommendations by team size
- Small team: Notion, Airtable, ClickUp
- Mid-size team: Asana, Monday.com, Wrike
- WordPress-based team: PublishPress, Edit Flow, CoSchedule
- More technical publishing operation: Contentful, Airtable + automation
What I’d choose in practice
- Airtable if you want a flexible editorial operations hub
- Asana if you want straightforward assignment and approvals
- Monday.com if you want easy workflow visibility
- PublishPress if you’re in WordPress
If you want, I can also give you:
- a comparison table,
- the best tool based on your team size and budget, or
- a sample editorial workflow setup for assigning drafts and approvals.