Best Mavenlink Alternative Shortlist
Have a quick glance at the tools I review in this article:
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If you’re considering alternatives to Mavenlink, you’re not alone. Maybe its pricing doesn’t align with your budget, or its features feel like a poor fit for your team’s needs. Either way, it’s frustrating when the tools you rely on don’t deliver the results you expect.
In this article, I’ll share the top Mavenlink alternatives I’ve tested. Each one offers unique features that will hopefully better match your business goals. By the end, you’ll should have a clearer idea of which tool might be the right fit for your team.
What Are Mavenlink Alternatives?
Mavenlink alternatives are project management and team collaboration software options. They offer functionalities akin to Mavenlink, but vary in features, user interfaces, and pricing models. These tools assist in managing projects, tracking tasks, and facilitating team communication and resource management.
The benefits and uses of Mavenlink alternatives include customizable options to meet specific project and team requirements, a range of features suited for various project types, and often more cost-effective solutions. They enhance team collaboration, are scalable to fit business growth, and typically offer diverse integration capabilities with other business tools.
Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a well-rounded project management tool that bridges the core planning, execution, project accounting, and analysis systems in a single operating environment. It has modules for project management, accounting, resource management, business intelligence, and team collaboration. On top of this, it offers a system of dashboards, live time and expense tracking features, a great documenting system. And all of these best-in-class features are delivered through straightforward and minimalistic design.
Mavenlink ticks off all the boxes when it comes to RM features. The resource management module offers real-time utilization and margins at the project and even the task level. Some key features include resource forecasting, capacity management, skills management, scenario planning, and role-based planning.
Drilling down into its other features, the BI suite module supplies built-in reports, custom reporting, trend analysis, data visualization, as well as data integration with other systems. The software also provides more accounting tools than many others, with project costing, project and task budget management, real-time utilization and margin tracking, invoicing, rate cards, and robust integrations into back-end financial systems. It also has some good contextual collaboration features to communicate in both provide and public discussions around tasks, projects, and many other project objects.
I could go on and on about Mavenlink’s features because there really are too many to list—it’s a comprehensive RM suite, that, despite requiring time to truly master, has been recognized as being easy to use and learn. What’s more, the company leverages its professional services expertise as part of their offering, making available their Mavenlink BI Consultants who can build reports specifically for your business. As well, they provide some great training resources that can help mitigate the risks and costs of implementation.
Mavenlink takes a unique approach to integrations. As part of their “API-first strategy”, they’ve built a solution that doesn’t require a third party in order to integrate with any apps. They provide an integration platform (called M-Bridge) that’s designed to simplify integration between Mavenlink and other business apps like CRM, HCM, and financial software. On top of the M-Bridge platform, Mavelink provides several pre-built integrations with these tools: Expensify, G Suite, Xero, Salesforce, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Slack, Concur, Dynamics 365, Qualtrics, Quickbooks, and Sage Intacct.
Mavenlink costs from $19/user/month and offers a 10-day free trial.
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monday.com
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6 -
Miro
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.8 -
Ravetree
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.1
10 Best Mavenlink Alternatives Compared
I’ve filtered through multiple project management tools and chose the top Mavenlink alternatives that come close to the app’s capabilities. For each one of them, I’m going through some pros and cons, trial information, and cost, as well as providing expert feedback on each.
Why Wrike is a great Mavenlink alternative
While Mavenlink doesn’t offer a free plan, Wrike’s free forever plan is not so bad to work with. Both tools have just the right features for enterprise-level companies but Wrike also has a free subscription for smaller agile teams who want to make use of functionalities like Kanban boards, desktop and mobile apps, task and subtask management—all for unlimited users.
Why monday.com is a great Mavenlink alternative
monday.com‘s biggest asset is its user interface. Whether you’re switching from another tool or just getting new users onboarded, the fast learning curve lets both employees and external collaborators adapt in a matter of minutes. Compared to monday.com, Mavenlink’s interface isn’t as inviting, colorful, or customizable, making it a poor choice for day-to-day use.
Why Screendragon is a great Mavenlink alternative
Screendragon is a work management platform tailored for marketing, agency, and professional services teams. It makes a great alternative to Mavenlink because it offers advanced workflow automation features. The platform allows you to design and implement custom workflows that align with your team's specific processes, such as approval and proofing flows. Another notable feature is Screendragon's resource management and forecasting tools. These tools provide real-time visibility into your team's capacity, helping you allocate resources effectively and anticipate future needs.
Why Rocketlane is a great Mavenlink alternative
Many teams need to collaborate with external contractors, customers, or stakeholders as often as (or more often then) their own team members. Rocketlane is designed as a project management tool for these types of situations. They prioritize guest account access, robust permissions settings, and customer onboarding in order to get users who are external to your primary team up and running as quickly as possible.
Why nTask is a great Mavenlink alternative
nTask has a great customer service rating…for a reason! They offer 24/7 real time support (chat and phone), free coaching, a product tour, and free onboarding. The team at nTask understands that not every team is a project management software guru and some might just be starting their journey with apps. Therefore, nTask is the best Mavenlink alternative if you need a little bit more hand-holding with your account.
Why Ravetree is a great Mavenlink alternative
Ravetree is a comprehensive professional services software streamlining project management, finance, and team collaboration. The software provides a centralized platform for project management, allowing teams to stay organized and focused on project deliverables in a timely and efficient manner. Unlike Mavenlink, Ravetree has a customer portal feature where your clients can interact with your project. They can log in to see project progress, review files that are pending their approval, and even submit request forms for you to review.
Ravetree allows you to add an unlimited number of clients at no additional cost.
Why Dayshape is a great Mavenlink alternative
If you're looking for a Mavenlink alternative with a focus on resource management, Dayshape may be a good choice. The software has intelligent, AI-powered scheduling that helps you effectively assign the best resources to the right tasks. Assignments are based on skills, availability, and even employee preferences. A unique self-serve tool allows team members to select the work they most want to do.
Why ClickUp is a great Mavenlink alternative
ClickUp boasts many project management features (except for invoicing) similar to the ones in Mavenlink under a tool that’s considerably cheaper. If you’re a freelancer or project manager of a small team, ClickUp will be a more budget-friendly alternative that won’t force you to give up on features you love.
Why Celoxis is a great Mavenlink alternative
Celoxis is a comprehensive project portfolio management (PPM) platform. It offers not just a robust set of project management features, but also resource allocation and project expense management tools. What Celoxis specializes in that differentiates it from Mavenlink is managing a portfolio. Whether you have several complex projects, multiple products, or you work with many clients, this is where this platform will shine for you. It also has tools that are super useful for professional service providers, like request forms and client portals.
Why Smartsheet is a great Mavenlink alternative
Smartsheet has similar features to Mavenlink so the main difference between the two lies in the interface. Smartsheet resembles classic spreadsheets which some users might already be used to but, in the end, it’s all a matter of personal preference so make sure you test Smartsheet with your team before making the switch.
Smartsheet can help you manage projects, automate processes, and scale up to enterprise-level programs and portfolios.
10 Best Mavenlink Alternatives Summary
Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
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1 | Best for a fully-packed free plan | Freemium version available | From $10/user/month (min of 2 seats) | Website | |
2 | Best for ease of use | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
3 | Best for advanced workflow automation | 7-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Website | |
4 | Best for customer collaboration and onboarding | 14-day free trial | From $19/user/month | Website | |
5 | Best for customer support services | 7-day free trial | From $3/user/month | Website | |
6 | Best alternative for its client portals | 14-day free trial | From $29/user/month (billed annually, min 5 seats) | Website | |
7 | Best with AI-powered scheduling | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
8 | Best for reduced costs for similar features | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $7/user/month | Website | |
9 | Best for managing a project portfolio | 14-day free trial + free demo available | From $25/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
10 | Best for teams that want a spreadsheet-like interface | 30-day free trial | From $9/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
Why Might You Need A Mavenlink Alternative?
The design is too clunky for new users or external collaborators
Mavenlink’s cluttered interface makes for a slow learning curve that’s not suitable for a workspace where new team members or collaborators come and go. Mavenlink is definitely a tool where previous experience with project management software would be an asset.
You need stronger team collaboration capabilities
Besides leaving comments and proofing, there’s really not much you can do in Mavenlink from a collaborative perspective. Collaboration features you might miss and find with other solutions include chat, integrated email, and message boards.
It’s getting too expensive to pay for the tool
Mavenlink’s plethora of features justify its cost but the tool is on the more expensive side, which a large enterprise can comfortably cover. If you’re managing a small team or a startup, you’ll find just enough functionality with other apps at a cheaper cost. Additionally, Mavenlink doesn’t offer a free plan, unlike some of their competitors.
Key Features For A Viable Mavenlink Alternative
Time tracking
Mavenlink provides a complete time tracking suite with multiple ways of tracking time, building timesheets, and generating performance reports. Although time tracking isn’t a mandatory feature for project management software, a viable alternative should keep up with these capabilities.
Invoicing and billing
These are two features your next project management solution will need if you also plan to invoice your customers from within the app. All Mavenlink plans come with invoicing and online payment solutions, so I will be looking for software alternatives that check these boxes as well (be it out-of-the-box or through add-ons).
Resource scheduling
Resource shaping, hard and soft resource allocation, and real-time availability forecasting are just a couple of the advanced resource planning features to keep an eye on when looking at other project management tools. These options are only available with upper-tier Mavenlink plans so you’ll want to consider a cheaper solution with similar alternatives for resource management.
Advanced reporting capabilities
Reporting in Mavenlink is nothing short of incredible, fit for even the most complex projects. Any other tool you’re considering should have a reporting suite that covers tasks, projects, portfolios, time tracking, and budgeting, along with other resource types.
