Find the best Project Planning Software
Compare Products
Showing 1 - 20 of 267 products
Sort by
Reviews: Sorts listings by the number of user reviews we have published, greatest to least.
Sponsored: Sorts listings by software vendors running active bidding campaigns, from the highest to lowest bid. Vendors who have paid for placement have a ‘Visit Website’ button, whereas unpaid vendors have a ‘Learn More’ button.
Avg Rating: Sorts listings by overall star rating based on user reviews, highest to lowest.
A to Z: Sorts listings by product name from A to Z.
eWay-CRM
eWay-CRM
CRM tools within e-Way CRM are integrated with Outlook, allowing for further use and expansion of the system. With this software, marketing is done easily and efficiently because it can assist in creating strategic plans, sending ...Read more about eWay-CRM
monday.com
monday.com
monday.com is an award-winning work and project management platform that helps teams of all sizes plan, prioritize, manage, and execute their work more effectively. The platform offers solutions for a wide range of use-cases such...Read more about monday.com
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects
Right from 2006, Zoho Projects has been a major contributor to every project management need. Automating workflows, allocating tasks, recording time logs, relaying project updates, effective team collaboration, gathering analytica...Read more about Zoho Projects
Runn
Runn
Runn is a real-time resource management platform with integrated time tracking and powerful forecasting capabilities. With visibility of your plans and business health, Runn streamlines your business and keeps your teams on the sa...Read more about Runn
Jira
Jira
Jira Software is a business process management tool used by agile teams to plan, track and release software. Jira Software supports Scrum, Kanban, a hybrid model or another unique workflow. Jira enables users to create project r...Read more about Jira
Confluence
Confluence
Confluence is a project management solution that enables organizations to create, collaborate, organize and review project documents. The system offers both cloud-based and on-premise deployment. Confluence’s editor feature a...Read more about Confluence
Ravetree
Ravetree
Ravetree is a cloud-based project management solution with integrated resource planning, customer relationship management and time and expense tracking capabilities. The solution helps users manage project workflows, task assignme...Read more about Ravetree
SmartPM
SmartPM
SmartPM is an AI-driven Automated Project Controls™ and Schedule Analytics solution built for construction. From handling intricate project portfolios to drilling down into simple, actionable insights, the platform provides auto...Read more about SmartPM
Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com is the only platform with best-in-class client operations combined with easy-to-use project management that teams love. Deliver work on time and on budget, eliminate client chaos, and understand profitability in one p...Read more about Teamwork.com
Kantata
Kantata
The Kantata Professional Services Cloud is purpose-built to help organizations with 50 to 5000+ employees unify resource management, project management, financial management, business intelligence and team collaboration all in one...Read more about Kantata
Visual Planning
Visual Planning
Visual Planning is a hybrid resource management and scheduling platform that helps businesses to manage their assets and day-to-day operations. The solution can be deployed on-premise or hosted in the cloud. Visual Planning o...Read more about Visual Planning
Wrike
Wrike
Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload view f...Read more about Wrike
LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner is a transformative project management solution for teams that want to plan, predict, and perform beyond expectations. It was designed to align your people, projects, and priorities to ensure the right people are wo...Read more about LiquidPlanner
Smartsheet
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a range of project management to...Read more about Smartsheet
Workzone
Workzone
Workzone is a project management solution that offers document management, project collaboration, customizable reporting, resource and task management and time tracking. The software is cloud-based and offers automated emailed rep...Read more about Workzone
Asana
Asana
Asana is a comprehensive project management tool that offers a range of technical features to streamline workflows and enhance collaboration within teams. With its user-friendly interface and robust capabilities, Asana provides or...Read more about Asana
InLoox
InLoox
InLoox is the modern project and portfolio management platform that enables teams and departments throughout the company to reliably plan, monitor and evaluate their projects - convenient, simple and integrated into the Microsoft...Read more about InLoox
Celoxis
Celoxis
Tired of spreadsheets posing as PPM tools? Switch to Celoxis: the all-in-one solution to streamline portfolios, optimize resources, and enhance decision-making with advanced analytics & dashboards. New: native Jira connector. Cel...Read more about Celoxis
ProofHub
ProofHub
ProofHub is a cloud-based solution for teams in numerous industries. The solution provides applications for project management, project collaboration, resource management, task management, plus more. Key features include discussi...Read more about ProofHub
ProjectManager.com
ProjectManager.com
ProjectManager is an innovative project management software solution designed to help you navigate your project with ease. Say goodbye to roadblocks with features like: project planning, budgeting, time tracking, task and documen...Read more about ProjectManager.com
Popular Comparisons
Buyers Guide
Last Updated: March 16, 2023Whether or not a project is successful largely depends on how well the project is planned. In fact, in a recent analysis of project management (PM) software buyers who contacted Software Advice in the past year, 66% requested systems with project scheduling and resource management capabilities.*
We've created this guide to help buyers better understand project planning solutions and how they factor into the larger PM software market.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What is project planning software?
Project planning software is a specialized tool that helps project managers and stakeholders map out and visualize a project plan, helping to optimize resource allocation across a complex project and/or multiple projects. The project planning management tool helps plan the sequence of activities and tasks required to complete a project and identify the best project team based on availability and skills set.
This high-level "roadmapping" process helps managers:
Identify key resources
Pinpoint project tasks’ dependencies and constraints
Determine essential project milestones
Set baselines for the project’s scope, budget, and timeline (the three benchmarks used to determine project success)
Businesses can purchase stand-alone project planning/project scheduling software or invest in an integrated PM suite. A comprehensive project management software solution typically contains project planning capabilities in addition to other core PM functionality, such as:
Among the best project planning tools are Gantt charts, which are used to visualize a project's schedule and determine the critical path. These digital charts are vastly less labor-intensive to update than Gantt charts created using manual methods.
Now let's get into more detail on planning tool features.
Common features of project planning software
The following are some common capabilities of project planning tools:
Gantt charts | Used to determine the critical path of tasks, identify task dependencies, and potential risk areas. They can also help track performance and progress on tasks once projects are underway. Represented as cascading bar charts across a timeline or calendar (see screenshot below table for an example). |
Resource scheduling | Provides project managers increased visibility into team availability and skill set. Managers can schedule resources to tasks and projects or create a “placeholder resource” for roles they know they’ll need but haven’t been able to schedule yet. |
Project timeline planning | Visualize the full project timeline based on task durations and dependencies. Project managers can create a project schedule, manage employee scheduling, and track project status (see screenshot below table for an example). |
Risk identification | Allows project managers to track and manage potential risk areas, such as dependent tasks (e.g., if task B can only start once task A is complete, these tasks would be flagged). |
Automatic alerts | Provides PMs and their team the ability to schedule in-app or email alerts. These can be used to notify the team about upcoming task due dates or to alert an employee assigned to a dependent task that the preceding work item is nearing completion. |
Collaboration tools | Helps facilitate team collaboration among users via in-app comments, in-task chat streams, or discussion forums. For example, users can comment and add status updates directly to tasks or flagged risk items or loop in a team member on a question posted to a project discussion board (see screenshot below table for an example). |
Gantt chart in Zoho Projects (Source)
Project timeline planning in Microsoft Project (Source)
Project collaboration in Basecamp (Source)
Benefits of project planning software
There are many benefits of using project planning software as opposed to manual methods. These benefits include:
Increased visibility: View, track, and manage individual and team workloads, their skill sets, and current and future availability. This benefit is best realized when using a comprehensive PM suite with both project planning and resource management capabilities.
Improved communication and collaboration: Project planning tools act as a shared hub where managers, team members, and stakeholders can store all project-related communication. This provides a permanent record for important decisions and project changes.
Early risk detection: Using visual planning tools, such as Gantt charts and timelines, project managers and stakeholders can plan risk management strategies ahead of time and mitigate any potential obstacles.
Maintain historical archives: The information in project plans and status reports can influence future business decisions. Managers and stakeholders using planning software can look back on previous projects to see why decisions were made and to compare timeline and budgetary measures.
*Analysis was performed on software buyer calls asking about project management software from March 10, 2020 through March 9, 2021.
Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.