Best Resource Booking Software Shortlist
Here’s the shortlist of the best tools that I’ll cover in this article.
Resource booking software plays a key role in helping you organize projects effectively, ensuring that you have access to the staff, equipment, and facilities needed to complete each initiative successfully.
But with so many options available in this niche, it’s hard to choose which tool is best for your needs. So I created this article to help you make the right choice quickly and easily. I researched the top-rated resource booking systems, analyzed their pros and cons, then drew up my shortlist of the top selections.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Resource Booking Software
You can use the simple overviews of each tool below to understand how each one stands out from the other. Feel free to check out how I picked the software on this list at any time.
Resource Guru
Best for simple, fast, and flexible resource management
Resource Guru offers resource management for teams seeking a system that’s simple yet fast and powerful.
Why I picked Resource Guru: This platform offers drag-and-drop scheduling and waiting lists for in-demand resources. On top of that, booking your resources is great because you can use filters that they have built into the tool. These let you find resources based on their skills, department, location, or whatever custom field you have configured.
Daily schedule emails and personal dashboards ensure that everyone is in the loop at all times. And the leave management features help you track vacations, sick days, parental leave, and other absences.
Resource Guru Standout Features and Integrations
Features include planning, resource allocation optimization, content & document controls, project management, and remote collaboration.
Integrations include Basecamp, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Gmail, Jira, Maintenance Care, Outlook, Slack, Teamwork, and Wrike.
Pros
- Clear, big-picture view
- Quality reporting
- Useful email updates
Cons
- No dark theme
- Limited search features
Forecast
Best for cutting down on non-billable work using AI
Forecast is an AI project and resource management software that uses integrated intelligence to cut down on non-billable work such as project planning, resource allocation, and filling timesheets.
Why I picked Forecast: Placeholders and tentative bookings let you plan for projects that you have in the pipeline. This can help you identify resource needs and make hiring plans if needed.
You get complete visibility into the operational and financial aspects of your portfolio, helping you make strategic decisions faster. The software can automatically calculate utilization for you at a company-wide level. Additionally, real-time reporting helps you monitor and analyze key business metrics.
Forecast Standout Features and Integrations
Features include access controls, permissions, resource availability management, capacity management, collaboration tools, data import/export, drag & drop, employee management, and employee scheduling.
Integrations include Google Drive, HubSpot, Jira, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Teams, Pipedrive, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Slack, and Xero. Additionally, the developers API can help you build custom integrations with tools you currently use.
Pros
- Real-time project information
- Good mix of Kanban and Scrum
- Regular feature updates
Cons
- Occasional bugs
- No mobile app
Ganttic
Best for resource planning using Gantt-based visual workflows
Ganttic is a resource planning tool that creates a visual workflow of all your resources, tasks, and projects.
Why I picked Ganttic: Using Ganttic, you can quickly drag and drop new work into your schedule, then adjust quickly when conflicts arise. You can get a new perspective on your data and develop a clear action plan for your team.
The flexible design makes it easy to rotate your Gantt chart and see plans from the perspective of tasks or resources. You can also use the high-level overview or separate points of view, to understand how your plans work together.
Ganttic Standout Features and Integrations
Features include Gantt chart views, resource management, customizable project templates, drag-and-drop scheduling, collaboration tools, time tracking, multiple project views, reporting, analytics, an API, and a mobile app.
Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Outlook, and OneLogin. Other integrations are available via Zapier.
Pros
- Makes it easy to see bottlenecks
- Numerous color options
- Great for planning multiple projects
Cons
- Tutorials could be improved
- Outdated UI
Float
Best to prefill timesheets with assigned tasks
Float is a resource capacity and work scheduling tool that helps you make the most effective use of the resources at your disposal.
Why I picked Float: Using Float, you can centralize all your people and projects into one live timeline, then assign work and resources according to the available capacity.
Timesheets are prefilled with scheduled tasks so team members can log their hours easily, while managers can compare estimated versus actual time. You can sync events with your preferred calendar, import tasks from your project management system, and send hours to your billing software.
Float Standout Features and Integrations
Features include Gantt views, capacity planning, due dates, forecasting, corrections, templates, and reporting.
Integrations include Asana, Google Calendar, Jira, Outlook Calendar, Slack, Teamwork, Trello, WorkflowMax, and Zapier.
Pros
- Single, comprehensive dashboard
- Automatic reporting
- Powerful team manager
Cons
- Limited customization options
- No self-hosted solution
Dayshape
Best for professional services firms
Dayshape is an AI-powered planning and project scheduling platform that helps you maintain an optimal workforce and ensure it supports your business objectives.
Why I picked Dayshape: The tool has three levels of AI resource scheduling automation. You can be the one in control by selecting resources based on their skill, location, or availability, or you can let AI choose the best resources and ask you for confirmation.
The AI-powered software gives you all the information you need to achieve the most efficient capacity planning. You can set performance parameters, quickly identify the best people for each project, and activate to bring poor-performing engagements to your attention.
Dayshape Standout Features and Integrations
Features include resource management, resource scheduling, engagement financials, governance & quality controls, reporting, milestones, management information, and people first planning.
Integrations include Salesforce, SAP Cloud Platform, and Workday. The company also offers an integration service so the software can work with your systems and preferred method of data extraction.
Pros
- Sync with your resource/skills database
- Powerful time tracking
- AI-powered resource management
Cons
- Significant learning curve
- Few native integrations
monday.com
Best for its color-coded workload view
monday.com aims to be the work operating system that lets you shape workflows the way that suits your organization best. It helps you boost your team’s alignment, efficiency, and productivity.
Why I picked monday.com: This software centralizes all your work, processes, tools and files in one system with customizable dashboards. The workload view displays real-time information on how your resources are booked and if anyone is overallocated.
Your team members can collaborate effectively, staying in the loop through easy-to-use automations and real-time notifications.
monday.com Standout Features and Integrations
Features include an intuitive visual interface, timeline planning, project templates, progress tracking, collaboration tools, and customizable dashboards.
Integrations include Dropbox, Excel, Gmail, Google Calendar, LinkedIn, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, Slack, and Zoom.
Pros
- Visual representation of progress
- Real-time collaboration
- Flexible and customizable
Cons
- No offline mode
- High cost compared to alternatives
ClickUp
Best for importing from other resource management tools
ClickUp is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool suitable for all kinds of organizations.
Why I picked ClickUp: ClickUp helps you plan, track, and manage any type of work or resources to increase business productivity. The box view displays resource information on workload and resource-specific task progress information to help you make quick decisions.
Additionally, you can assign comments and tasks to specific team members, mark comments and tasks as resolved or in progress, or create custom statuses. You can view projects from an Agile dashboard, or organize them by assignee.
ClickUp Standout Features and Integrations
Features include communication tools, collaboration features, task assignments, custom statuses, alerts, task toolbars, task management, recurring checklists and reminders.
Integrations include Dropbox, Gmail, Google Calendar, Harvest, HubSpot, Loom, Make, Slack, Unito, and Zoom. You can also use ClickUp’s API to build custom integrations with your current tech stack.
Pros
- Informative dashboards
- Available on multiple devices
- Clear notification system
Cons
- Occasionally slow
- Can be overwhelming
Productive
Best resource planning tool to track plans against budget
Productive is a resource management software solution for agencies of all types and sizes, designed to give you a strong grip on operations and profitability.
Why I picked Productive: Productive acts as a scalable platform that helps agencies consolidate data, run projects, budget effectively, and plan the optimal use of resources.
The software lets you manage your resources, set project budgets, and see how each resource allocation impacts project financials. You can monitor budgets and profit margins, keep team members focused on priorities, and generate accurate invoices.
Productive Standout Features and Integrations
Features include time-off management, placeholders for capacity planning, sales pipeline, project management, time tracking, profitability tracking, and customer relations management.
Integrations include Exact, Fortnox, Google Calendar, Harvest Import, Jira, Outlook, Personio, Quickbooks, Slack, and Xero.
Pros
- Continually improving roadmap
- Flexible views
- All-in-one agency solution
Cons
- Occasional glitches
- More filters required
Wrike
Best for an all-in-one resource and work management platform
Wrike is an all-in-one platform for managing projects, organizing work, enhancing collaboration and accelerating execution across your entire organization.
Why I picked Wrike: Wrike streamlines resource management to maximize productivity. It allows you to see your team’s workload and quickly reallocate tasks to prevent burnout. It empowers teams to collaborate, manage projects, drive strategic initiatives, and achieve goals.
You can focus priorities and adapt workflows, using Wrike as your central hub. It’s easy to outline targets for your team, and increase visibility across teams and departments with fully-customizable dashboards.
Wrike Standout Features and Integrations
Features include workspaces, anticipated resource demand, custom fields, dynamic request forms, templates, time tracking, blueprints, and AI work integration.
Integrations include Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Jira, Microsoft Sharepoint, Miro, Salesforce , Slack, and Zoom.
Pros
- Powerful scheduling
- Helpful dashboards
- Flexible project management
Cons
- Limited recurring task functionality
- RM features only available on Business Plan and above
Hub Planner
Best for capacity planning and team scheduling
Hub Planner is a versatile, scalable resource management solution designed to optimize capacity planning and team scheduling.
Why I picked Hub Planner: Hub Planner allows you to view the availability and utilization of resources, schedule team members on various projects, and create accurate timesheets.
You can measure the actual time worked against the forecasted time, to get detailed insights into your teams’ performance. Using your dashboard, you can drill down to track individual resources and dig deep into project performance.
Hub Planner Standout Features and Integrations
Features include resource scheduling, project planning, timesheets, approvals, reporting, analytics, and a mobile interface.
Integrations are available through the Hub Planner API or via Zapier.
Pros
- Ability to add notes to ongoing work
- Bird’s eye view of resource utilization
- Excellent capacity planning
Cons
- Reports may be hard to customize
- No notifications for timesheet approvals
The 10 Best Resource Booking Software Comparison Chart
Here is a table where you can compare the tools we just covered in the overviews.
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resource Guru Best for simple, fast, and flexible resource management | 30-day free trial available | From $3/user/month | Visit Website |
| 2 | Forecast Best for cutting down on non-billable work using AI | 14-day free trial | From $29/user/month | Visit Website |
| 3 | Ganttic Best for resource planning using Gantt-based visual workflows | 14 days free trial | From $25 month/20 resources/ unlimited users | Visit Website |
| 4 |  Float Best to prefill timesheets with assigned tasks | Not available | Visit Website | |
| 5 |  Dayshape Best for professional services firms | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
| 6 | monday.com Best for its color-coded workload view | 14-day free trial + freemium plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats) | Visit Website |
| 7 | ClickUp Best for importing from other resource management tools | Freemium plan available | From $9/user/month | Visit Website |
| 8 | Productive Best resource planning tool to track plans against budget | 14-day free trial | From $20/user/month | Visit Website |
| 9 | Wrike Best for an all-in-one resource and work management platform | Free plan available | From $9.80/user/month | Visit Website |
| 10 | Hub Planner Best for capacity planning and team scheduling | 30-day free trial | From $7/user/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
Other Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best resource booking software list.
- Runn
Best for what-if forecasting based on tentative resources
- elapseit
Best resource planning with built-in time tracking
- Kantata
Best all-in-one resource booking for services teams and agencies
- Paymo
Best for tracking the financial aspects of resource usage
- Zoho Projects
Best for optimizing resource utilization
- Smartsheet
Best for a work management solution based on advanced spreadsheets
- Meisterplan
Best for its role-based resource allocation prior to staffing
- Silverbucket
Best for a user-friendly resource planning system
- Mosaic
Best for its AI-powered resource planning
- Saviom
Best for highly-customizable, scalable resource management
- Parallax
Best for professional services companies
- TeamGantt
Best for project scheduling based on Gantt charts
How I Picked the Best Resource Booking Software
To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of resource booking tools with positive user ratings. After determining my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by weighing factors that make resource management software good for booking resources. Finally, I drew on my years of digital project management experience to define the criteria used for the evaluation.
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best software for this article:
Resource display
I’m looking for resource booking software that’s easy to use and understand. A good tool will have an intuitive user interface, logical navigation, and color indicators to make data easy to understand.
Time tracking
I look for tools that offer you the full range of features needed for resource booking. Therefore, I see if the tools have integrated time tracking. This makes the information automatically reflected in reports and utilization statistics. Many resources such as staff members, equipment, and meeting rooms may need to be scheduled. Time tracking ensures that such resources are used optimally.
Time-off management
Where employees or freelancers are involved in a project, it’s important to track the time they spend on the job, but also on vacation or absent. Time-off management helps you schedule resources accordingly.
Software Integrations
The best resource booking software will integrate with the most popular software systems teams use every day. This maximizes efficiency and keeps everyone well organized.
Pricing
Any SaaS software tool should offer a strong return on investment. The system should be affordable for organizations of all sizes on a per-user basis.
Resource Booking Software FAQs
Here are a few popular questions other people ask about this topic.
What is resource booking?
What is resource booking software?
What are the key features of resource booking software?
How does the software handle conflicts or double-bookings?
What’s Next?
That brings us to the conclusion of my deep dive into the world of the best resource booking software. But we have much more to offer you, you may like to check out our step-by-step guide to resource allocation or our ultimate guide to project resource management plans. With the help of the best resource booking software, you can improve efficiency, save money, and get projects completed on time—and on budget.
Related tool lists:
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