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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 tools, such as document and ...Read more about Smartsheet
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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 as marketing, sales, oper...Read more about monday.com
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BigTime helps professional services firms reduce operational costs, easily align talent to the right projects, and accelerate time to get paid for completed work, all while enabling quicker decision-making by getting you the information you need. By stre...Read more about BigTime
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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 reports with up to date proje...Read more about Workzone
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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 assignment and project status upda...Read more about Ravetree
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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 for resource management, cu...Read more about Wrike
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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 solution. Elevate your pe...Read more about Kantata
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GanttPRO is a cloud-based project management solution for small to midsize companies, as well as individual users. The software offers Gantt charts, scheduling, progress tracking and more. GanttPRO enables managers to schedule projects using a visual ...Read more about GanttPRO
MeisterTask is a web-based task, project, and work management software perfect for teams of any size. Its easy-to-use interface, intuitive functionality, built-in project documentation, and seamless integration with other business tools make it the ideal...Read more about MeisterTask
Flowlu is a cloud-based all-in-one solution tailored for businesses of all sizes and industries. It streamlines processes from lead generation to sales, offering features like lead and contact management, sales pipeline tracking, and invoicing. With Flowl...Read more about Flowlu
Miro is a visual workspace for innovation that enables distributed teams of any size to dream, design, and build the future together. Miro enables distributed teams to come together to synthesize information, clarify complex ideas, and make decisions fast...Read more about Miro
WorkOtter is purpose-built, by Project Managers for Project Managers, and helps PM professionals to deliver more successful project outcomes, aligning their work to the organization's strategic objectives. Our solution is simple enough that you can easily ...Read more about WorkOtter
Everhour is a cloud-based time tracking and project management solution for teams and small to midsize businesses across various industries such as marketing and advertising, nonprofits, consultancies, and more. Track the time spent on projects using a tim...Read more about Everhour
Glasscubes offers cloud-based collaboration solution for businesses. It provides for file sharing, collaboration and document management, making it accessible from devices with an internet connection. Glasscubes’ file sharing module lets users store t...Read more about Glasscubes
ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries. Features include communication and collaboration tools, task assignments and statuses, alerts and a task toolbar. Users can assign ...Read more about ClickUp
Paymo is a work and project management software for small teams of up to 20 people. This solution supports remote work and offers project planning, resource scheduling, team collaboration, file proofing, time tracking, and project invoicing within a single...Read more about Paymo
Freedcamp is a project management solution for large organizations in markets including advertising, architecture, engineering, interior design, IT services, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, and many more. The system is offered primarily as a web...Read more about Freedcamp
Avaza is a business management solution which includes features for project management, resource scheduling, online timesheets, expense management, online invoicing, recurring invoicing, quotes and invoices and more. Avaza also integrates with third-party ...Read more about Avaza
Quire stands as the pinnacle of modern project management software, introducing a transformative approach to your workflow. It empowers you to seamlessly break down ambitious goals into manageable, actionable steps, ensuring you embark on your journey from...Read more about Quire
GoodDay is a cloud-based project management solution that caters to businesses of all sizes across various industries. Features include idea management, resource management, milestone tracking, Kanban boards, Gantt charts and more. GoodDay’s business ...Read more about GoodDay
Primetric is a cloud-based resource, project and finance management platform dedicated to IT business services. It is an internal database of developers and projects used to forecast and track individuals' availability, margins and project progress. P...Read more about Primetric
Stackby is a task management solution designed to help businesses create or automate workflows, collaborate with team members and organize operations using spreadsheets, built-in integrations, templates and more. Supervisors can build custom forms with dro...Read more about Stackby
Nifty is a new-wave project management tool that reduces project development cycles and improves team productivity by combining all of the important features of project management into one software. The end result is milestone-driven progress that keep tea...Read more about Nifty
4myRollout is a cloud-based project management software designed to help businesses manage tasks and improve workflows across the organization. Professionals can use the dashboard to gain insights into project performance and monitor employees' schedules t...Read more about Pacer
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Your Guide to Top Gantt Chart, August 2023
Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Gantt Chart products in North America.
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“Customer Satisfaction” includes user ratings for Customer Support, Likelihood to Recommend and Value for Money.
Reviews analysis period: The reviews analysis period spans two years and ends the 15th of the month prior to publication.
Buyers Guide
This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right gantt chart software for you and your business.
Last Updated on August 19, 2024Gantt charts are a valuable project management (PM) tool. Used for planning and tracking waterfall projects, Gantt charts help stakeholders coordinate and agree on baselines for scope, budget and timeline—metrics used to determine project success.
Gantt chart software automates many PM functions, allowing managers to more easily create project schedules, assign tasks to users, track the progression of work items and share updates with the team.
Whether you're looking to purchase your first PM Gantt chart system or update your current software, this buyer's guide can help you make a more informed decision.
Here's what we'll cover:
Common Capabilities of Gantt Chart Software
Benefits and Potential Challenges
What Is Gantt Chart Software?
A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of a project, displaying the scope (e.g., tasks and milestones) on the y-axis, against the schedule, or time, on the x-axis.
Tasks are illustrated as horizontal bars. Their position and length reflect the start date, duration and end date. Dependent tasks are connected using a physical link, e.g., the arrows in the screenshot below, and concurrent tasks are stacked according to their start dates.
A Gantt chart in Mavenlink
Gantt chart software is used to create digital Gantt charts, automating and saving time on various actions, including:
Scheduling task start and end dates
Assigning tasks to users
Identifying the critical path
Cascading changes across subsequent tasks
Sharing updates with stakeholders (e.g., task status, at-risk items and reprioritization)
The ability to cascade changes across subsequent tasks is a benefit that cannot be overstated. If Task A is late by one day, the start dates and due dates for each task following it will update accordingly. Managers receive an alert so they can schedule notifications to let team members know how the delay will impact their activities. They'll also have the option to notify stakeholders if corrective action is required.
Gantt charts act as visual aids that communicate project status at a glance. Information is centralized, which keeps stakeholders on the same page at every stage of the project life cycle, from planning to closeout.
Organizations can purchase Gantt chart software as a stand-alone or "best-of-breed" solution, or as part of a larger PM platform.
Often, when Gantt charts are included as an application within a larger platform, teams can choose from "multiple views," meaning they can view tasks in a calendar view, list format or in a Gantt chart. If your stakeholders have different preferences for how they want to receive updates, you should consider this type of solution.
Best-of-breed tools are often more specialized than integrated suites. If you have industry-specific needs, or require custom fields and templates, a stand-alone system is more suitable.
Common Features of Gantt Chart Software
Look for the following capabilities as you evaluate Gantt chart tools:
Identify project requirements, break requirements down into deliverables and individual tasks (e.g., work breakdown structure). Assign start and due dates, assign priority and cost, add task notes and assign tasks to users. Drag-and-drop: Set start and end dates by manipulating the bar length on the calendar. Reorder tasks by dragging-and-dropping them along the timeline. Critical path: Identify the critical path by highlighting the longest sequence of tasks that determine the minimum amount of time needed to complete a project. | |
See each team member's availability and workload. Assign users to tasks based on availability and skill set (recorded and saved in a skills database), or use a placeholder resource until a user with that skill becomes available. | |
Form the project initiative; create the work breakdown structure; set baselines for scope, budget and timeline; develop the risk management plan; and develop a communication strategy for stakeholders. Some tools may include project templates you can choose from, or you can create and save your own. Read more: "Project Planning Checklist: 5 Steps Every Plan Should Follow" | |
See project status at a glance. The Gantt chart acts as a live dashboard showing a bird's-eye view of project progress. Reports will vary, but can include baselines (comparing actuals to the original plan), resource forecasting, time tracking and risk reports. Color-coding: Use colors to represent task attributes such as status (e.g., all overdue tasks are red), or to indicate who the task is assigned to (e.g., all Bob's tasks are purple). Task-shading: Use shading to represent percent complete, e.g., a task that's 25 percent complete would be one-quarter shaded. | |
Upload files to tasks, share with other users and store in a centralized, searchable repository. Ask vendors about storage limits within product tiers, archive or delete tasks and documents and integrate with new or existing content management systems. |
Benefits and Potential Challenges
While there are many benefits to using Gantt chart software, small and midsize businesses considering these tools for the first time should also be aware of potential challenges.
Benefits:
Gantt charts can be used to convey a wealth of project information, from high-level scheduling to specific task details. Viewers know who is responsible for tasks, when tasks need to be completed and how individual tasks relate to larger project requirements and deliverables.
Tracking project progress publicly can be a great motivator for both individual productivity and overall team performance. Tools with time-tracking can also help users learn to better manage their time and prioritize their queue.
Visually laying out project requirements on a timeline, and breaking deliverables down into individual tasks is a great way to more accurately set baselines for scope, budget and timeline. Users can clearly see how adding items to the scope will push the project out, or how costs will increase.
Challenges:
As is true of any tool, the quality of the output is only as good as the data put into it. The value of Gantt charts is reliant on the accuracy of resource estimates used to create budget and timeline projections.
Gantt charts require upkeep. Especially if you want to use them for project tracking, you will need to assign ownership of the Gantt chart to a manager and require them to update the system accordingly.
Gantt charts don't automatically account for Murphy's law—whatever can go wrong will go wrong. So it's important to leave some cushion in the system to account for issues when you're building out project schedules.