Microsoft Project has been a staple within the project management world for a few years. But, as times have modified, Microsoft Project has began to point out its age. This system is not any longer the one game on the town, and there are actually some great alternatives that provide more features and lower costs. On this blog post, we are going to explore five of those alternatives and see how they stack up against Microsoft Project.
Microsoft Project is the unique project Management tool that essentially began all of them. Developed in the early 1980s, Microsoft Project was built as a desktop application solely to trace projects internally. Back in a time when projects were tracked by pen and paper (gasp!), MP burst through the door with its digital tracking.
Because the years have passed by, MP has continued to develop, evolve and scale. But, while it remains to be widely used today, its days could also be numbered. This OG project management system tried to develop and grow to combat its competitors, nevertheless it still has competitors closing in from behind. Today, latest alternatives offer additional flexibility, features, and lower costs.
Let’s have a look at a number of the top Microsoft Project alternatives trying to take the crown.
1. Hive
Built for users by users, Hive is a Microsoft Project alternative that may create easy workflows for complex processes. A cloud-based project management tool that provides users a wide range of features, Hive is the one project management platform your large or small team needs. Built to handle resource management, time tasking, and team collaboration, this platform is beloved by project managers all over the place.
Hive offers automated workflows, task management, file sharing, storage, and team calendars. With its easy drag-and-drop interface, you possibly can easily add or remove team members from a project, assign tasks & deadlines, and upload files for quick access by all.
Hive is a wonderful alternative for corporations that value teamwork and collaboration. It may integrate with several popular applications, equivalent to Google Drive and Dropbox, offering more team connectivity and cohesiveness. These additional features and concentrate on team and collaboration set Hive other than Microsoft Project. With Hive, teams can easily communicate and work on projects in real time.
Key Features:
- 7+ project views
- Built by users and has incredible customers service and help desk
- Time tracking and resourcing
- Native email integrations
Pricing: You may try Hive free for 14 days. Hive also offers a free plan with limited functionality, with it’s hottest paid plans starting at $12 per user, per 30 days.
2. Wrike
Wrike is a favourite cloud-based project management tool that provides task collaboration, Gantt charts, and real-time activity updates. One thing that sets Wrike other than Microsoft Project is its concentrate on team collaboration. With Wrike, teams can work concurrently on tasks, share files, and leave comments for one another.
This comment tool makes Wrike a superb selection for teams that must work together closely on projects. Wrike also has a built-in activity stream that helps organizations stay organized and keep mentions and comments in a single streamlined location.
Key Features:
- Gantt charts for projects
- Shareable dashboards
- Integrations
- Customizable work stations
Pricing: Wrike’s paid plans start from $9.80 per user/month.
Comparison: Examine these top alternatives to Wrike for more information.
3. Trello
Trello couldn’t be more different than Microsoft Project, nevertheless it gives you a greater idea of what’s on the market and the way MP influenced these newer platforms. With Trello, you might have a cloud-based project management tool, nevertheless it takes a distinct approach than Microsoft Project. For instance, Trello uses a Kanban board approach to project management, which is a wonderful option to visualize progress on a project.
While Microsoft Projects remains to be relatively rigid and difficult to learn, Trello is intuitive and straightforward to know. It also offers tasks project, file sharing, and team collaboration. As well as, it’s a reasonable option for smaller teams with its flexible pricing structure. It’s beloved by individual users and small businesses on the lookout for a low-cost and straightforward to make use of project management platform.
Key Features:
- Kanban board approach
- Flexible pricing
- Integrations
- Resource Allocation
- Built-in budgeting and financial summaries
Pricing: Trello offers a free plan and paid standard plans starting at $5 per user/month.
Comparison: To learn more, try these great Trello alternatives with similar features.
4. nTask
nTask is an internet collaboration platform with an analogous look, feel and cadence to Microsoft Project. Using nTask, users can task and track projects and meetings and simply manage resources, risks, and more. nTask offers Gantt chart formatting to visualise your projects, and uses an easy drag-and-drop functionality to maneuver and set tasks.
Among the finest points of nTask is that it will probably be used for nearly any business or industry. Built with a strong bug-tracking tool that may track, assign, prioritize, and fix bugs & issues faster, nTask is suitable for agile project management and software-building corporations. nTask can be the right fit for creative agencies with built-in time tracking and collaboration tools.
Key Features:
- Gantt charts
- Resource management
- Built-in time tracking tool
- Bug tracking tool
- Easy drag-n-drop functionality
Pricing: Free for unlimited tasks, projects, and team members. Paid plans start at $8 per user/month.
5. Zoho Projects
This Microsoft Project alternative is a cloud-based tool for small or medium-sized corporations. With Zoho Projects, you possibly can break each project down into bite-size pieces higher suited to your team members. As well as, Zoho can task and subtask projects and keep track of who’s working on what inside the activity pipeline.
It really works to attach teams to foster productivity and efficiency. It has built-in timesheet functionality with a reporting feature so you possibly can see how long each task takes team members. Unfortunately, Zoho remains to be missing functionality to administer multiple projects at a time, so it isn’t as robust as a number of the other options on this list – but for the value, it’s pretty darn great.
Key Features:
- Resource management tools
- Page-specific project boards for communication
- A sturdy offering of charts and reports
- Timesheets and time tracking on individual tasks
- Gantt charts & Kaban boards for visualizing
Pricing: Zoho projects facilitate free and multiple paid plans. The paid plans begin at $5.
6. ClickUp
ClickUp is one other great project management alternative to Microsoft Teams, offering users streamlined project and task management, track progress, and simply communicate inside teams. It provides a user-friendly interface with intuitive navigation. As compared to Microsoft Teams, ClickUp is superior for offering the flexibleness of customer support via phone, in addition to video tutorials — two necessary services in terms of worker onboarding and adaptation.
Whether you’re managing projects, tracking tasks, or collaborating on documents, ClickUp’s robust feature set makes it suitable for various industries and business types.With flexible pricing options, including a free plan for unlimited tasks, projects, and team members, ClickUp offers an economical solution for teams of all sizes. To see how ClickUp stacks up against other tools in the marketplace, try our complete guide to ClickUp alternatives.
Key Features:
- Task and project management
- Team collaboration and communication tools
- File sharing and document management
- Time tracking and reporting capabilities
- Integration with popular tools and apps
Pricing: Free plan available for unlimited tasks, projects, and team members. Paid plans start at $5 per user/month.
7. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a powerful alternative to Microsoft Project by offering similar project management capabilities in a more intuitive, user-friendly interface. The tool uses a spreadsheet format, making it approachable to users who’re already acquainted with Excel. Nonetheless, Smartsheet’s functionality extends beyond spreadsheets and offers effective project management capabilities. It enables easy collaboration, real-time updates, and automations that may streamline your project workflows.
Smartsheet is flexible and may adapt to a wide selection of project types and industries. It gives you the flexibility to quickly view your project data in multiple ways – from grid to Gantt chart to card view – providing versatility that Microsoft Project may lack. Nonetheless, some users may find that the big set of options and suppleness may make it a bit overwhelming to establish and manage. And while it definitely offers loads of functionality for many users, Smartsheet will not be as robust in terms of complex project scheduling and management, an area where Microsoft Project is thought for having in-depth capabilities.
Key Features:
- Real-time collaboration
- Automation options
- Comprehensive reporting
- Integration with dozens of tools
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android devices
Pricing: Smartsheet offers a free plan for one user and as much as two editors. There’s a Pro plan available for as much as 10 users for $7/user/month and a Marketing strategy that offers access to unlimited users for $25/user/month.
8. Asana
In case your needs for a project management software are of a small or medium company, Asana will be an important alternative to Microsoft Project. The tool has a versatile and user friendly interface with all of the customization you desire to. It contains a “My Tasks” list, which auto-promotes tasks based on due dates, helping you prioritize and concentrate on what must be done now, and the sections and columns layout support Kanban, list, or matrix-style workflows. Asana also has a “Focus Mode” that encourages deep work by minimizing distractions, enabling you to work faster and more efficiently.
Key Features:
- Project timelines and calendars
- Pre-built templates
- Task dependencies
- Automation rules
- Integrations with over 100 other apps
- Workload view to observe and manage the workload of team members
Pricing: Free basic plan with limited features, Premium plan starts at $10.99 per user/month and Marketing strategy starts at $24.99 per user/month billed annually.
Comparison: Undecided if Asana is the appropriate tool to your company’s needs? See our list on “Best Asana Alternatives For Project Management” to see how the tool compares with others.
9. Monday
Monday.com is an important alternative to Microsoft Projects in case you are on the lookout for a functional yet clear option to manage your projects. Monday has robust collaboration features, including chat, file sharing, real-time comments and feedback while Microsoft Projects is more basic, offering only task project and commenting features. Monday can be more user-friendly and customizable than Microsoft Projects, which could be something to contemplate when switching project management software: you certainly need to have a small learning curve.
Monday also offers task management, dependency tracking and several other app integrations, equivalent to Slack, Jira, Dropbox and HubSpot CRM. Monday.com has native social media management and free educational webinars for all subscribers. The project management software has a feature called “panic button”, which allows users to lock down the complete account to guard data in case the account gets compromised. Plus, Monday has a free plan while Microsoft Project doesn’t.
Key features:
- Boards & Columns
- Tasks automation
- Checklists
- Apps Integration
- File views, kanban views, form views, chart views
Comparison: Undecided yet if Monday is one of the best alternative to your company? Try how Monday.com compares to other project management tools in the marketplace.
10. GanttPRO
GanttPRO is a project management software is an attractive alternative to Microsoft Project attributable to its flexibility, navigability and affordability. In a different way from Microsoft Project which is desktop-based, GanttPRO is cloud-based offering a greater solution for distant teams. The platform offers an excellent solution when making scheduling, and tracking complex projects. GanttPRO’s interface illustrates the timeline of a project, dependencies between tasks, and the allocation of resources in a transparent way. GanttPRO is way easier to onboard latest team members than Microsoft Projects, known for its steep learning curve. Small and medium-size businesses could be just positive with GanttPRO features and capabilities, but in case you are selecting a project management solution for a big company, you may want to contemplate one in all the opposite alternatives on this list.
Key features:
- Cloud-based platform
- Beautifully designed and affected Gantt chart Gantt views
- Time and resource tracking
- Integrations with third-party applications
Pricing: GanttPRO paid plan starts at $7.99 per users/per 30 days, and accommodates as much as 5 users with limited features.
11. Scoro
Scoro is an alternate Microsoft Projects especially in case you wish to simplify your process and onboard your entire team comfy. While Microsoft Projects is great, there’s a moderate learning curve and the tool can develop into quite complex in case you aren’t acquainted with project management capabilities. Then again, Scoro is straightforward to make use of while offering powerful features to hurry performance.
Key features:
- KPI real-time dashboard
- CRM
- Time tracking
- Gantt view and Kanban board view
- Issue management
Pricing: Scoro’s pricing begins at $26 per user/month for no less than 5 users. The Essential plan includes projects, calendars, task list & task board, contacts & customers, quotes, invoices & receipts, bills, dashboards and summary of monetary reports.
12. LiquidPlanner
When you are on the lookout for a Microsoft Project alternative for a small or mid-sized company, LiquidPlanner could be an excellent solution. It offers flexible and easy-to-use features for project management, although its scheduling capabilities and reporting capabilities aren’t as powerful as Microsoft Project. Nonetheless, LiquidPlanner offers the flexibleness of being a cloud-based project management system, which makes it appealing for hybrid and distant teams. While LiquidPlanner is an excellent selection for corporations in industries equivalent to IT, software development and marketing, Microsoft Project is a preferred selection for construction managers, engineering and manufacturing.
Key features:
- Time-tracking
- Task management
- Gantt chart view
- Budgeting
- Risk management
- Portfolio management
- Integration with other project management tools
