Best Microsoft Project Alternatives 2022
Here’s my list of the best MS Project Alternatives for 2022:
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monday.comBest for integrating with other tools
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ClickUpMore features, nice visuals, and colorful boards with loads of information.
- Smartsheet
Best built-in critical path feature
- Wrike
Best Microsoft Project alternative for team collaboration
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GanttPROBest Microsoft Project alternative for creating powerful Gantt charts
- Zoho Projects
Best for project visualization
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CeloxisComprehensive project and portfolio management features
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ForecastBest Microsoft Project alternative for resource management
- Nifty
Best for cross-departmental and cross-functional teams
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ProjectManager.comBest MS Project alternative for progress tracking and reporting
Microsoft Project remains one of the most popular project management software. However, loads of companies are moving away from it and onto products that are updated more frequently. Long gone are the days when we had to wait a year for a product upgrade, plus Microsoft Project alternatives are more robust nowadays.
Having said that, Microsoft has released an online version of its software and is making strides to make it a competitive product. While we wait for it to be better, here are a few options to consider and the features that make them a great alternative to MS Project.
Selection Criteria
The following are the criteria I used to evaluate the alternatives after carefully selecting them from the wide range of options available in the market.
- User Interface (UI): I look at the tool from a designer's perspective. Therefore, every element on the screen is part of the analysis of its visual appeal. Although you might think it’s secondary to functionality, a pretty tool affects our mood and performance if we see it every day.
- Usability: Is it intuitive and user-friendly? Similar to the criterion above, the elements on the screen and their distribution must make sense to the user. A pretty tool without a good user experience is equal to having a Ferrari without an engine. Something that boosts this category is the availability of tutorials, detailed documentation, and training.
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? I look into the available pre-built connections with other tools that extend its functionality. Further, I fetch details on available APIs in case your team wants to jump in and build their own integrations.
- Pricing: Here, I go into their pricing structure, analyze plans, starting costs, free trials or even a free version that you can use.
Key Features
A great alternative to software must at least match the features in the one you are trying to replace. Here’s what to look for in your new software.
- Import and export .mpp files: The tool should be able to open and import MS Project files, either natively or through a .csv file. Then, export PDFs or shareable project plans.
- Resource management: The tool should have a module that handles workload and resource scheduling and supports capacity planning.
- Time tracking: From simple to complex projects, the software needs a time tracking tool so the team can record the time they invest in activities. This can be built into the tool itself or handled through an add-on (like an integration).
- Roadmap: The ability to track multiple projects in one view, display goals, and overall progress. This specific feature might be available only on higher-tier plans.
- Reporting: The tool must have a reporting module that lets you track progress on your projects, portfolios, programs, and resources.
- Views: The ability to see information in diverse formats. The minimum required is a Gantt and a Kanban view. Modern tools will have more, such as calendar, table, box, and list views, for example.
Disclaimer, I left a couple of features that belong to the Enterprise plan out. This is on purpose because, if you are at that level, almost any of the tools on this list will out-feature MS Project anyway.
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Best Microsoft Project Alternatives
In the overview of Microsoft Project alternatives below, I break down the features, pricing, and main benefits of the best MS Project alternatives.
monday.com
Best for integrating with other tools
![monday.com screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/8caaa5bdfb6f2e6e05821cfd20341f4d.png)
monday.com is one of the few tools that prides itself in ‘not being a project management tool’! They’ve done away with a lot of the trimmings of typical tools and focused on simple structures that help clarify the sequence of work that needs to be done.
This tool is a great Microsoft Project alternative in that it functions a lot like a spreadsheet—but one that’s more intuitive to use and modify without having to mess around with formulas. Likewise, it offers more than a basic spreadsheet by giving you various views of your projects—view as spreadsheets or as lists, on a map, on a Kanban board, and other views. Users can upload and attach files to cards, make comments, mention teammates, and more.
It offers the ability to create summary charts as well as export and share project plans. However, one downside is that it doesn’t allow you to make Gantt charts in the traditional sense (they have a feature that serves the same purpose and works just as well, called “timelines”), nor can you import or export MPP files. That said, monday.com is designed as a true alternative to MS Project, not something to be used in tandem with it.
monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Excel, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform, and many more, accessible via Zapier.
monday.com costs from $6/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.
ClickUp
More features, nice visuals, and colorful boards with loads of information.
![ClickUp screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/701490860750868717f55e4d17278014.png)
Clickup is definitely a tool that you can get as an alternative to Microsoft Project. It has features like task management, time management, collaboration documents, whiteboards, and reporting tools that make it a viable option if you want a strong performance and low cost solution.
Unlike MS Project, ClickUp has beautiful visuals, an intuitive interface, support for sprints, goals, and workload view of your resources. Every detail in this tool has been properly designed, created, and deployed to give you a 5-star user experience on mobile, desktop and browser.
Although you can’t import your .mpp files, it does have importing capabilities for .csv files, .xlsx, and other project tools like Trello, Asana, Jira, and more.
ClickUp offers native integrations with Slack, G Suite, Dropbox, and many more tools, as well as over 1,000+ integrations through Zapier.
ClickUp is free with limited storage for an unlimited number of users. Paid plans start at $5/user/month and offer a free-trial.
Smartsheet
Best built-in critical path feature
![Smartsheet screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/cb60b51428821028f3e1401684c2ab66.png)
Smartsheet's online project management tool takes some of the most useful features of Microsoft Project, combines them with the simple use of an online spreadsheet, and then incorporates team collaboration and automation functions to save money. It offers the basics: functions such as making a schedule with tasks, subtasks, activities, assigned resources, and sections on tasks.
Smartsheet helps you organize projects, grids, calendars, dashboards, portals, forms, and more all from a unified control center. They have pre-built Gantt chart templates with customizable fonts and colors, “% Complete” and “Assigned To” columns, and more. It has useful features such as workflow automation and visualization of tasks in Gantt, calendar, and card views. Team members get notified of critical changes in real-time, and the tool provides shared views, detail history, activity logs, automated alerts, reminders, and status reports to keep everyone aligned and informed.
The Critical Path feature highlights all the tasks which directly impact your project completion date so you can keep an eye on important milestones. Reporting is a strong feature of this tool, with editable summary reports that you can easily export to Excel.
Smartsheet integrations include Microsoft and Google apps, as well as development essentials like Jira, and useful business apps like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Box, and Tableau. The platform is extensible through a REST API and webhooks.
Smartsheet costs from $7/user/month, with a minimum of 3 users and a maximum of 25 users at the base tier. Larger teams require a different plan. They also offer a 30-day free trial.
Wrike
Best Microsoft Project alternative for team collaboration
![Wrike screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/ad6a890b024c7967411779fdafc7c4d1.png)
Wrike is the most powerful work management software, trusted by 20,000+ organizations worldwide. Regularly named a leader by IDC and Forrester Wave, Wrike consistently receives the highest scores because it offers much more than single-project management.
Wrike is a full-scale platform that balances an entire set of project management features with usability, scalability, and configurability. Teams of any size can customize workflows, dashboards, reports, request forms, and more to support multiple ways of working.
Wrike and Microsoft have a ‘better together’ strategy that offers the best Microsoft Teams integration on the market. With 400+ integrations, users can also keep their favorite tools, including Google, Dropbox, and all Microsoft products.
Its award-winning user interface helps project managers get a 360° view of their workflow. Toggle between colorful Kanban boards, one-click Gantt charts, connected calendars, or detailed dashboards — all adaptable to highlight key priorities. Keep work organized, secure, and visible via distinct Spaces, folders, projects, and tasks.
Wrike’s unrivaled collaboration tools make it easy to connect cross-functionally. Communicate live, share workflows, and tag each other in tasks. Divide complex projects into lists, tasks, and sub-tasks, or use a ready-built template to get started fast.
Customer support is available 24/7, with a dedicated help center and a thriving expert community.
Wrike pricing starts at $9.80 per user per month, but users can get started for free with a 14-day trial.
GanttPRO
Best Microsoft Project alternative for creating powerful Gantt charts
![GanttPRO screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/c2dadba844854a3c093699f432b8408b.png)
You’re probably aware of how painful it is to find an MS Project alternative that is nice looking and has powerful Gantt charts. In GanttPRO, you will find both. This reliable project management software helps plan work, track tasks, set
deadlines, and collaborate with stakeholders. If you already started your plan in MS Project but need to change it, import it directly to GanttPRO, in seconds. Exporting projects is also available.
The tool looks really nice with its intuitive UX/UI design and a short learning curve. It offers a wide range of robust project management, project portfolio management, team collaboration, resource and cost management features.
In this MS Project alternative, you can create tasks with lots of settings like statuses, priorities, dates, deadlines, progress, time log, etc. Thanks to the auto-scheduling feature, any change in your tasks, dates, or dependencies will be automatically reflected.
Besides the native Gantt chart timeline, there is also a board view and a tasks view, and you can switch between views to get more flexibility.
Basic plan for 1 user starts at $7.99/month if billed annually. Their free trial period lasts 14 days.
Zoho Projects
Best for project visualization
![Zoho Projects screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/94994f68be6699d4e6c97b6a697e6867.png)
Zoho Projects is a MS Project alternative that has a simple, easy-to-use interface that also comes with a mobile application. Zoho Projects has extensive Gantt chart features and capabilities at an affordable price range which creates an all-round project management experience. It has an intuitive Gantt chart that can be operated with simple drag-and-drop actions. It supports all four kinds of dependencies and contains a critical path and baseline to help avoid delays.
Zoho Projects comes with features like task management, time tracking, and resource utilization. All projects can be split into milestones that you want to reach at various time periods. Task management is easy with features like custom fields and statuses, task recurrence, reminders, and a Kanban view. You can manage your time by splitting and allocating your available hours to all your work items.
The resource utilization chart comes with simple seesaws that depict the workload of your resources. While allocating tasks, you can easily see who is over-utilized, under-utilized, or unavailable . Collaboration is possible with any of the project’s stakeholders with interactive feeds and forums, wiki pages, and built-in chat.
Zoho Projects integrates with several Zoho applications like Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho People, and other applications like Office 360, Google Drive, G Cal, GitHub, BitBucket, and Crashlytics. Zoho has a Marketplace that has several pre-built extensions. Zoho Projects also has support engineers and live chat support to help with onboarding.
Zoho Projects costs from $4/user/month (billed annually) and comes with a 10-day free trial. They have a freemium version for up to 3 users and 2 projects.
Celoxis
Comprehensive project and portfolio management features
![Celoxis screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/5809001d609eacd18f6e4cfdd4761a7f.png)
More than just a Gantt chart tool, Celoxis is a comprehensive but easy-to-use project management tool used by HBO, Deloitte, and Rolex that handily comes in two flavors: as an online app or on-premise. When compared to MS Project, it’s lower in cost yet fuller featured, and it comes with powerful interactive Gantt charts, handy portfolio dependencies, and all the keyboard shortcuts you could want.
Just as you would with Microsoft Project, Celoxis allows you to create tasks, subtasks, and milestones, as well as assign resources and dependencies to tasks. It is a comprehensive and enterprise-grade integrated solution that you can use not only to create Gantt charts but also use to manage your project portfolios, workflows, expenses, timesheets, and resources. It is really a complete and full-featured project management tool with project tracking, resource management, risk management, and reporting all rolled into one, as well as full-blown capabilities for collaboration with clients. Celoxis offers the option of a product demo or a free 30-day trial if you’re looking to take it for a test drive.
Celoxis costs $25/user/month for SaaS users and $450/user for on-premise.
Forecast
Best Microsoft Project alternative for resource management
![Forecast screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/dce753762e0057dfffefd4d389bfdd45.png)
Forecast is a powerful combination of resource management and project management built on the foundation that successful projects require a combination of short and long term planning. You can build advanced interactive Gantt charts with Forecast’s full suite of project management features.
Powered by AI, it is designed for companies that want to monitor the progress of their projects, programs, and portfolios in real-time. Forecast learns from hundreds of thousands of projects and turns a simple list of tasks into a project plan with assigned team members, estimated task duration, and precise delivery dates - allowing you to be more efficient and build project timelines in seconds.
Team members can collaborate and comment on tasks, and Forecast gives you profitability insights as well, so management can monitor revenue by project.
Forecast is currently used in 40+ countries worldwide, by agencies, consulting companies, and enterprises. The tool offers Lite, Pro, and Enterprise options that cost from $29/user/month, as well as a 14-day free trial.
Nifty
Best for cross-departmental and cross-functional teams
![Nifty screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/2b35286cf32f43090bc1a08f27b6ab41.png)
Nifty is a project management and team collaboration tool that offers robust and powerful features while remaining easy to use. Features include dependencies, reports, and portfolio management, as well as a full suite of communication tools including project discussions, chat, and docs, as well as a two-way Google suite integration.
Nifty's Gantt chart is scalable and readable for managers and non-managers alike, and allows users to create milestones that reflect project status. These milestones can be used to unlock phase-based dependencies and can be shared as a public link for presentations. Outside collaborators can join projects to collaborate in a limited capacity as guests, without being added to your subscription.
Managers can oversee portfolio and organizational deadlines and tasks in overview, calendar, and workload views, while team members can utilize the My Tasks view to quickly identify what needs their attention in the short term.
The Nifty team can import your data from Microsoft Project so you can continue working without delay.
Nifty does not offer a free plan, but it offers a 14 day free trial and starts as low as $39/mo for up to 10 users in its bucket-based plan.
ProjectManager.com
Best MS Project alternative for progress tracking and reporting
![ProjectManager.com screenshot - 10 Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For 2022 [Expert Review]](https://thedigitalprojectmanager.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/wpraiser/70dd54adaf5a2f1941028b46d0037dd7.png)
ProjectManager combines Gantt chart functionality with many other project views—kanban boards, spreadsheets, task lists, and more—to support the needs of hybrid teams. While the project manager may prefer the Gantt view to create a detailed work breakdown structure, others team members can work in the same project through a simple task list.
Offering key project management features such as collaboration tools, reporting capabilities, and to-do lists, ProjectManager is simple enough for anyone to use, yet powerful enough for managers to make data-driven decisions and for businesses to manage projects of all levels of complexity. The tool integrates with Office 365, Jira, Slack, and Google Drive, with even more connections available through Zapier.
Gantt charts allow users to drag-and-drop to adjust deadlines, add and visualize dependencies, and set specific milestones. Users can import Gantt charts to and from other tools (including .mpp files from MS Project) to get projects up and running quickly. The tool also allows users to create reports in one click, view progress bars for quick project health checks, and create PDF versions and shareable links.
ProjectManager offers users a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. After the trial plans cost from $14/user/month or $11.50/user/month when billed annually. The tool also has a freemium plan for up to 3 users.
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The Best Microsoft Project Alternatives Comparison Chart
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the baffling array of Microsoft Project alternatives out there.
Below, we’ve put together a reader-friendly table neatly summarizing basic info about the tools described in this article. We’ve investigated the pricing and availability of free trials and demo versions for you to make a side-by-side comparison that much simpler.
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | monday.com Best for integrating with other tools | 14-day free trial | From $10/user/month | Visit Website |
| 2 |  ClickUp More features, nice visuals, and colorful boards with loads of information. | Free plan available | $9/user/month | Visit Website |
| 3 |  Smartsheet Best built-in critical path feature | 30-day free trial | From $9/user/month | Visit Website |
| 4 |  Wrike Best Microsoft Project alternative for team collaboration | 14-day free trial | From $9.80/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 |  GanttPRO Best Microsoft Project alternative for creating powerful Gantt charts | 14-day free trial | From $7.99/user/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
| 6 |  Zoho Projects Best for project visualization | 10-day free trial | From $5/user/month | Visit Website |
| 7 |  Celoxis Comprehensive project and portfolio management features | 30 days free trial | From $22.50/user/month | Visit Website |
| 8 |  Forecast Best Microsoft Project alternative for resource management | 14-day free trial | From $29/user/month | Visit Website |
| 9 |  Nifty Best for cross-departmental and cross-functional teams | 14 days free trial. No credit card required. | From $39/month | Visit Website |
| 10 |  ProjectManager.com Best MS Project alternative for progress tracking and reporting | 30-day trial | From $16/user/month | Visit Website |
Other project scheduling software alternatives worth considering:
There are some new kids on the Gantt chart block! I haven’t had a chance to review these properly, but if none of the above work for you, it’s worth checking some of these out:
- Project Plan 365
Best MS Project MPP compatibility
- Merlin Project
MS Project alternative for iOS with customization
- Moovila
Best Microsoft Project alternative for project scoring features
- Workzone
Best for project template capabilities
- Tom's Planner
Collaborative Gantt chart software for teams who use MS Excel
- TeamGantt
Best for viewing multiple projects on one Gantt chart
- Hive
Best Microsoft Project alternative for scalability
- Planview Clarizen
Best enterprise Microsoft Project alternative
- Easy Projects
Best Microsoft Project Alternative for enterprise and portfolio project management
Free Microsoft Project Alternative
If you don't have the budget to upgrade and are okay with having limited functionality, here are some options.
- Project Libre – open source project management software
- GanttProject – free project management and scheduling app to make Gantt charts on Windows, OSX, and Linux
- Ganttology – interactive Gantt chart software with basic free plan (1 chart, 50 tasks), in addition to paid plans
- Toggl Plan – simple, sleek project planning software with a free plan (5 people max) in addition to paid plan
What is Microsoft Project?
Microsoft Project is a project management tool used by different types of users, with varying levels of access. The software provides tables, views, filters, fields, calendars, and a database for doing things like:
- Developing project plans
- Assigning resources
- Tracking time & progress
- Creating Gantt charts
- Creating & managing budgets
- Balancing workloads
- Scheduling tasks & resources
- Creating graphical reports
- Storing project data in a shared database
You can learn more about Microsoft Project features, benefits, cost, and use cases in my overview of Microsoft project management software.
Is Microsoft Project useful?
For a lot of agencies, yes. In many cases, the default project management tool for creating project plans is still Microsoft Project, and it provides a lot of useful tools.
For starters, Microsoft Project is not just a fuzzy old tool that Microsoft doesn’t really care about. They’ve been in business for over 30 years, and they’re introducing some really smart integrations with Power BI, Internet of Things, bots, and machine learning that are awesome.
Questions to ask when choosing a Microsoft Project alternative
It really depends on whether or not you subscribe to the requirements we set out above. Here are some questions to ask yourself when choosing the right MS project alternative for your particular needs.
How do you use your project plans and schedules?
The software on this list is meant to keep your project plans front and center. They promote visibility and communication around the plan. Consider if this is the use you currently give your plans and schedules or if it’s what you would like to have.
Here are some common uses:
- Gantt charts exist at the beginning of the project and are never updated again.
- Timelines serve as a tool for baseline analysis.
- Schedules communicate progress to the project and executive team.
Who will use it?
Think of who needs to see the project information. Is it a team member, client, third party, or only the project manager? The more people need to be involved and collaborate, the bigger the need for a tool that has integrated chat features, the ability to export dashboard information and create external users for the tool.
What other tools are you using?
Make a list of all the tools that you currently use. Then, define which ones are, should, and you would like to be connected. Finally, go into the integrations section of your tool of choice and see if it can mimic what’s on your list.
Sometimes these integrations are already built. Other times, they have to be connected through an external party like Zapier, or programmed by your IT team using the tool’s API.
Are you always online?
Cloud-based project apps can be great, and they can be kept more up to date with ‘live’ information, but consider that they require an active internet connection to work.If you do not have a reliable internet connection or are constantly on the go, look for apps that have offline capabilities. This can be from a desktop version of the software or a mobile app.
What’s the cost?
The cost of Microsoft Project tends to be one of the primary reasons that people look for an alternative. Microsoft Project isn’t cheap, but if you do a quick search on Amazon, you can find Microsoft Project 2019 for less than $600. In addition, you should factor in the number of users and the cost of ownership of the product.
Consider Projects vs Users
Most of the Microsoft Project alternatives are priced on a cost-per-user basis. So in working out which solution is the most affordable, consider what makes the most sense for you; is it a tool that many people in the organization will need to use, or will it be used principally by the project manager?
Consider The Lifetime Cost Of Ownership
While web-based apps might seem affordable in the short run, typically costing around $15/user/month, the cost of ownership over 3 years is actually the same as buying a copy of Microsoft Project. So before deciding on subscribing to a service, consider purchasing a desktop-based non-cloud solution like:
- Rational Plan – $57
- Omniplan (Mac only) – $149.99
- Merlin Project (Mac only) – $349
Most of the cloud-based Microsoft project alternatives offer at least some paltry freemium offering which might be enough for you:
- Gantt Pro (you get one user)
- Tom’s Planner (you get one user)
- Team Gantt (you get just one project)
Summary of Microsoft Project Alternatives
While Microsoft Project might seem like an easy tool to replace, when you can subscribe to Project Online Professional for $30/user/month, it’s worth weighing up all the options before subscribing to a cloud-based option.
But if you’re not using it every day, and just need a simple Gantt project planner, there are lots of great, cheap, and even free options for you.
Just realized that you need a different type of tool? Check out these other reviews:
- Time tracking software to help track time and easily manage timesheets and invoices.
- Resource scheduling software to help you allocate equipment, rooms, staff, and other resources.
What Do You Think?
What project management tools do you think we’re missing? Any other great alternatives to Microsoft Project for project scheduling, making Gantt charts, and project plans? We’d love to hear if you’ve got any suggestions, tips, or thoughts on using this kind of project scheduling software – why not share them using the comments below?
47 Comments
I would highly recommend to take a look at Hansoft ( https://www.hansoft.com ) to which you can easily import MS Project XML. It is completely free for up to 9 users (it is intended to be used collaboratively) and then costs 28$/user/month. It is stable, super fast and very flexible.