15 Best Project Scheduling Software To Stay on Track In 2024

monday.com is a project management platform with intuitive collaboration features that are easy to learn and quickly understand. It’s a highly customizable tool that helps you clarify the sequence of work and see the progress and status of your projects at a glance.

Why I picked monday.com: Most of the project scheduling features in monday.com are in the “timeline” feature—this is where you can plan projects, set deadlines, assign team members, break down tasks, and set dependencies. I find it super handy that you can reassign tasks by simply clicking and dragging. I also like that you can view your timelines as spreadsheets, as lists, on a map, on a Kanban board, and other views.

With monday.com you can create summary charts and export and share project plans in a variety of formats (XML, PDF, etc). Apart from that, the platform enables big-picture views using reporting dashboards that collect data from multiple boards, allowing better progress tracking. In my opinion, all of this is helpful for being more data-driven in your business.

All said and done, monday.com technically doesn’t enable you to make Gantt charts in the very traditional sense (nor can you import or export MPP files). However, it’s a flexible, intuitive schedule management software tool that helps you see where tasks are bottlenecking, understand who’s currently working on what, etc. What’s more, the customizable fields and the drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to quickly set up and start using. So for those reasons, I decided to include it in my roundup.

monday.com Standout Features & Integrations

Features include automations, shared documents for real-time collaboration, file management, dashboards, Gantt charts, and 5+ views so you can see your project information the way you want to.

Integrations include apps like Slack, Excel, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform, and thousands more accessible via Zapier.

Parallax is a project scheduling software that offers an intuitive way to create project plans quickly and easily by connecting tasks with timelines. It uses data points to connect tasks with dates, helping users make more accurate plans without manual calculations. I find that it simplifies task management by providing users with a detailed schedule that can be customized.

You can adjust tasks based on start and end dates, budget constraints, or other variables. In my opinion, this allows teams to execute their projects more efficiently while avoiding costly delays or overruns. The software also offers features like task view and resource view, which provide a real-time overview of the project's progress. I also like that the task view shows who is responsible for each task and who needs the task completed first or last. Meanwhile, the resource view shows who has been assigned the most tasks or requests for additional resources if needed.

Why I Picked Parallax: With Parallax’s forecasting feature, users can track their current project activities, establish and modify future tasks, and understand the overall trajectory of their projects—all in one comprehensive view. Additionally, the software leverages predictive analytics to adjust timelines and cost estimates as changes occur. This feature seemed particularly helpful to me, because it can help organizations stay proactive and minimize risk.

Parallax’s capacity management system lets users easily create profiles for each resource and use them to plan for week-by-week workloads as projects are created. I also appreciate that the software allows users to compare proposed changes against the exact resource capacity, eliminating the possibility of overloading resources and improving on-time delivery. Additionally, it provides strategic planning tools so that adjustments in workloads can be made accordingly when necessary.

Parallax Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource management, budgeting, dashboards, notifications, API, data visualizations, external integrations, forecasting, multi-user, and scheduling.

Integrations include Harvest, Clockify, Toggl, Kimai, Evenhour, Netsuite, Noko, Tempo, Replicon, Hubspot, Salesforce, Copper, and Pipedrive.

Kantata is a resource management & PSA software with modules for project scheduling and management, accounting, resource management, business intelligence, and team collaboration.

Why I picked Kantata: I chose this software because it offers a system of dashboards, live time and expense tracking features, and a great document management system. All of these best-in-class features are delivered through straightforward and minimalistic design.

For project scheduling specifically, I find that Kantata offers a comprehensive set of useful features. As you make detailed project plans, the tool support a multi-level work breakdown structure that lets you define the project by a series of granular tasks and subtasks. Other scheduling features I noticed include: Gantt chart-based project plan capabilities, schedule management, multi-level WBS, workflow planning, task assignment and scheduling, and critical path and variance analysis.

It also has some good contextual collaboration features to communicate around tasks, projects, and many other project objects. All of this combined makes it a full suite. It takes some time to truly master, but the simple, streamlined UI shortens the learning curve significantly in my experience.

Kantata Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource management features (real-time utilization, resource forecasting, capacity management), analytics (built-in reports, custom reporting, trend analysis) and accounting tools (project costing, budget management, invoicing).

Integrations include pre-built integrations with tools like Expensify, G Suite, Xero, Salesforce, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Slack, Concur, Dynamics 365, Qualtrics, and Quickbooks. They also provide an integration platform called M-Bridge to help you build your own integrations.

Resource Management by Smartsheet is a high-level resource management and scheduling software that helps modern teams make confident decisions about project planning, team capacity, budget forecasting, team utilization, and hiring needs in real time.

Why I picked Resource Management by Smartsheet: Built-in timesheets, mobile time tracking, and expense tracking enable you to create rich project reports by filtering project data with just a few clicks. I chose this software because these reports can give insight into historical data or offer a forecasted view of team utilization, actual vs. planned time reports, budget tracking, expense reports, and projects in the pipeline.

Over 1,000 companies rely on Resource Management by Smartsheet, from 10-person shops and 100-person teams within global brands to 1,000+ person professional services firms. From my perspective, that's a great indicator that this software is good at what it does. Resource Management by Smartsheet has also been recognized for its design excellence with awards from FastCo, SXSW, IxDA + IDSA, which contributed to my selecting it, too.

RM by Smartsheet Standout Features & Integrations

Features include project and resource matching, dynamic reporting, time tracking, a resource management panel, and a resource timeline for projects.

Integrations include apps like Slack, Brandfolder, Workplace, Microsoft Teams, and Facebook Ads. It additionally has a flexible API you can use to build custom integrations with the tools you use and automation through Zapier where you can connect to 1000+ apps.

Resource management is a premium add-on that you need to purchase on top of your Smartsheet plan.

Runn is a real-time project scheduling and resource planning tool with integrated time tracking and powerful forecasting capabilities.

Why I picked Runn: Scheduling is easy and intuitive in Runn, which made it an easy choice to add it to my list. You can simply drag-and-drop to create project phases and allocations. You can also create project milestones, project notes and add project budgets easily. I like how intuitive it is to flick between monthly, quarterly and half-yearly views to plan for the short and long term. If you don’t have the right person at the right time, use placeholders to define the requirements for the project.

Runn makes planning dynamic and visual, which I also appreciate. Watch the charts and reports update as you plan your projects. You can see visualizations of capacity, workload, availability, and billable and non-billable utilization. I like how you can plan out tentative projects to see how your resourcing plans might change if the work gets confirmed.

Track projects, view forecasts, and get relevant metrics within Runn. You’ll have up-to-date data in one place to keep tabs on insights like utilization, project variance, and overall financial performance. You can also use Runn’s built-in timesheets to understand how much time was worked on your projects compared to what was planned.

Runn Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource scheduling, project planning, capacity management, project forecasting, timesheets, and reporting.

Integrations include apps like Harvest, WorkflowMax, and Clockify for importing project, client, and people data and syncing time entries. With Runn’s API, you can build your own integration to send data across your favorite tools.

Silverbucket is a resource and project planning software that helps businesses allocate their people and plan their projects effectively. It helps project managers see who's working on what, when they're available, and how much time they're spending on each task.

Why I picked Silverbucket: I chose Silverbucket for my list because it not only helps you schedule your projects and manage your timelines, but it also helps you delegate work to the right people. The software gives you a project timeline, which is a clear visual representation of each project's progress. I appreciate the simplicity and functionality of the tool overall.

Projects can be planned in accordance with your available resources, and tasks can be assigned based on competency and availability, which I find to be a super useful approach. Employees can also log their hours in the system, giving you a clearer picture of how people are really spending their time on projects.

Silverbucket Standout Features and Integrations

Features include time tracking, utilization heatmap, absence management, project timelines, task management, risk and conflict management, skills mapping, and forecasting and reporting tools.

Integrations include Toggl Track, HubSpot, PowerBI, Millnet, ValueFrame, Microsoft Azure, Marathon, Parm, Planmill, Visma Severa, and Deltek. An API is also available, so you can build additional integrations as needed.

Jira is a tracking software solution designed to enable teams to schedule their software development projects efficiently. It’s primarily aimed towards software development and comes with a range of features that help make scheduling projects easier—including roadmaps, reports, and Scrum and Kanban boards that give users critical insights into the context of their work.

Why I Picked Jira: I chose this software because of its flexibility. It supports teams consisting of 1 to 35,000 users and allows them to schedule their work, set deadlines, and stay on track with the project's timeline. Managers can allocate and schedule tasks and streamline the development process and everyone involved can view the status of different tasks and change schedules when necessary.

In my opinion, the UI is intuitive; it helps managers plan projects by enabling them to break down ideas into manageable chunks, set up schedules easily, and help teams stay on track with the project even when there are changes in the schedule. Roadmaps also help team members stay on the same page and reduce friction from miscommunications. These allow teams to collaborate easily by seeing each other’s status on the projects and making changes should delays and revisions occur anywhere in the timeline.

I appreciate how the software can help teams stay on track with their projects and accomplish deadlines and handle any possible backlogs. A free plan that supports up to 10 users is available for smaller businesses and teams that first want to test whether the solution is suitable for them before spending on it. The free plan includes several of the same features available in the paid plans, with the main difference being the limited number of users per site and the unavailability of advanced automation, roadmaps, and dependency management that are only available in the Premium and Enterprise plans. Having a project scheduling solution like Jira gives businesses either a basic or advanced roadmap feature that allows people to see the progress of projects in real time and improve project scheduling.

Jira Standout Features & Integrations

Features include product management, project management, issue tracking, collaboration, customizable workflows, reporting & analytics, mobile support, permission & access management, time tracking, custom data fields, and third-party integrations/add-ons.

Integrations include Confluence, Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Bitbucket, GitHub, Salesforce, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.

Jira Pricing & Plans

A free plan is also available for up to 10 users. Pricing for Jira starts at $10/user/month with the Standard plan, which includes a 7-day free trial.

Productive is a comprehensive, all-in-one work management software for agencies. It covers project management, resource scheduling, time tracking, budgeting, and collaboration.

Why I picked Productive: This software is intuitive, easy to use, and designed specifically with agencies in mind, all of which are reasons why I decided to add it to my list. Not only can you manage your project schedules using the timeline and calendar views, but you can also effectively allocate your resources and manage your project budgets. I also appreciate that work can be assigned based on capacity, skills, and other factors.

Time tracking is built into the platform, helping you understand how long specific tasks take so you can plan better in the future. I found this to be super helpful for accurate billing and invoicing. Speaking of which, billing is also included in the platform. In my opinion, it's a robust all-in-one solution.

Productive Standout Features & Integrations

Features include multiple views (list, calendar, board, timeline, and table), resource planning, project budgeting, document management, time tracking, billing, and reporting tools.

Integrations include Dropbox, Exact, Google Workplace, Jira, Harvest Economic, Outlook, Microsoft Calendar, Slack, QuickBooks, and Xero. A Zapier integration is also available, which can unlock more integrations with a paid account.

ClickTime is a comprehensive project time tracking system designed to help businesses effectively manage their resources. It helps thousands of organizations achieve smarter time management, greater profitability, and happier clients—all while maintaining a human touch.

Why I picked ClickTime: I chose this software because it allows users to track time spent on various tasks and projects, either through manual entry or by using timers. It also provides real-time visibility into project progress, allowing managers to monitor and allocate resources efficiently. 

I also appreciate that users can summarize and visualize operations at a glance with manager and executive dashboards for streamlined insights into current and future scheduling. You can analyze project schedules and progress by people or by project, giving you flexibility to view and manage your organization however you prefer.

Users can also view a capacity management heatmap to visualize available and assigned staff hours. I find it especially useful that you can view capacity up to six months out, allowing you to take control of scheduling and utilization while avoiding individual overloading and burnout.

Features include expense tracking, time-off management, resource management, project management, and business intelligence. Custom dashboard views and automated reports additionally get all stakeholders on the same page, rather than relying on the inflexible nature of canned, out-of-the-box reports.

Integrations include Sage, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Jira, BambooHR, HiBob, ADP, Zenefits, Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoho, Box, Google Drive, Slack, and task management tools like ClickUp. ClickTime also boasts an award-winning API that makes any connection possible.

Resource Guru is a dedicated resource management software. The tool allows team members to visualize tasks on calendars, shows what everyone is working on, and clearly displays availability so project managers can maximize utilization.

Why I picked Resource Guru: Project managers can make resource bookings simultaneously while ensuring they aren’t overbooking resources—a handy functionality that earned this software a spot on my list! Because of this, resource and project clashes are automatically prevented, which I really appreciate.

Another capability of the software that I like is that bookings can be added to a waiting list and used for capacity planning later. Each staff member gets their own resource dashboard so they can log in and know exactly what they should be working on. Finally, I love how the powerful reporting features allow users to monitor utilization and business performance, as well as help with capacity planning.

Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource scheduling, resource management, leave management, project scheduling, capacity planning, and forecasting reports.

Integrations include calendar apps like Outlook calendar, Calendly, and Google calendar. Thousands of additional apps are accessible through Zapier.

Hub Planner is a resource management software with a full suite of project scheduling, time entry, and reporting features.

Why I picked Hub Planner: The core feature that stood out to me is the simple and usable Scheduler, which allows for project and resource planning and visualization. I like how users can drag and drop to plan projects and schedule resources. The tool also offers a multi-function menu, powerful filtering, and a dynamic team capacity bar. Multiple view modes allow for both high-level birds-eye views and granular views of projects.

Hub Planner has a powerful reporting engine with 70+ pre-formatted templates, which I really appreciate as the templates save you a lot of time. If you can't find what you're looking for in a template, you can create reports from scratch.

The software also has a number of inline workflows for timesheets, requesting vacation time, and a slick resource requesting & approval option. The Unassigned Work feature is great for scheduling and forecasting ahead of the pipeline, and users can create custom fields at the resource or project level. Another thing I appreciate is that you can customize schedule notifications and reminders.

Hub Planner Standout Features & Integrations

Features include timesheets and approval, vacation and lead management, reporting, skills matching, and resource management.

Integrations include apps like Basecamp, Slack, and iCal. Thousands more can be accessed using Zapier, and its REst API can help you build custom integrations.

Nifty is a project management platform that helps teams plan and track their work. Its roadmapping capabilities help you schedule your projects effectively and keep a high-level view of what's in the pipeline.

Why I picked Nifty: This software offers a comprehensive roadmapping module that helps you plan out and oversee projects at a team, department, or company level, which I really appreciate. I like that you can view your project roadmap as a traditional timeline spreadsheet (Gantt chart), or opt for the swimlane view to break up projects by focus. The software allows you to set milestones, including recurring milestones, and create custom fields for added context.

Beyond its project scheduling capabilities, the software also has task management, document and file sharing, and reporting tools. You can manage portfolios and create forms, too. Finally, employee management and collaboration tools like time tracking and in-app discussions help reduce app-switching. In my opinion, all this makes it quite a comprehensive solution.

Nifty Standout Features and Integrations

Features include Gantt charts, swimlane view, project homes, task management, document and file sharing, in-app communications, employee time tracking, form builder, and portfolio management.

Integrations include Slack, Zoom, Harvest, Github, Miro, Typeform, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Microsoft Suite, and Webex. You can also import your project data from Jira, Asana, Basecamp, Clickup, Wrike, Trello, or a .CSV file. Additional integrations can be configured with Zapier.

Zoho Projects is a project management and project scheduling software from Zoho. It offers flexibility and customizations to suit the needs of traditional project managers as well as agile teams.

Why I picked Zoho Projects: I chose this software because it has multiple ways of viewing information, like lists, Kanban, or Gantt charts. With task tags and custom views and filters, you can organize your tasks and find them with ease. In addition to timeline planning, you can plan your resources effectively with the drag-and-drop resource utilization module.

I like how easy it is to keep everyone in the loop right inside Projects via inbuilt chat, forums, and comments, or take the social route with the project portal feed. Add to that the integrated advanced analytics capabilities to generate more than 50 types of charts and reports.

The colorful dashboards are also fully customizable so that users can make Zoho Projects their own. The interface and modules are highly customizable. All aspects of the UI from theme colors to arrangement and visibility of the various modules can be changed to suit a user’s preferences. I really appreciate all of these customization options.

Zoho projects also offer free onboarding for customers and a comprehensive online help guide for all users, which I found to be super useful. The platform stands out in cases where there are multiple hand-offs involved. It is especially popular among IT companies, consultants, and education organizations.

Zoho Projects Standout Features & Integrations

Features include task management, task automation, blueprints, time tracking, team collaboration, charts, and reporting.

Integrations. Being part of Zoho’s ecosystem allows Projects to connect to several of Zoho’s own services such as Zoho Books, Zoho CRM, and Zoho’s finance suite. The new Zoho marketplace allows 3rd party integrations as well.

Microsoft Project is a project management software built over 35 years ago to help you keep track of all your work.

Why I picked Microsoft Project: I like that this software can be purchased with Office 365 (which many companies use) or as a stand-alone item. Microsoft Project has the honed functionality of an Excel file with scheduling-specific tools for project management pros, which makes it friendly and approachable, in my opinion.

If you need project scheduling help, try the intuitive and robust Gantt chart generator to navigate product timelines. And for adapting to our current needs, MS Project is available in both cloud-based and on-premise options, which I definitely think is worth mentioning.

MS Project Standout Features & Integrations

Features include three types of views, coauthoring on project schedules, pre-built reports, interactive roadmaps, resource management, portfolio modelling, and communication using MS Teams.

Integrations include other Microsoft software, like Outlook, Excel, Skype, and more.

Paymo is a project scheduling software for small and medium businesses to help creative and marketing teams own their entire project cycle. Besides planning and resource scheduling, Paymo is strong on task management, time tracking, and invoicing functionality.

Why I Picked Paymo: What stood out to me about this software is that it allows you to define the critical path by taking lead and lag time into account for project planning. Resource scheduling-wise, you can view your entire team’s workload across several projects, thanks to the multiple views by user/project/ungrouped tasks.

I like that instead of manually setting up bookings, Paymo creates them automatically (ghost bookings) based on your previously entered task details to cut the data entry process in half. The built-in leave planner can also be used to mark leave days directly from the scheduler, which could really save your company time and money in my opinion.

Paymo Standout Features & Integration

Features include time tracking, task management, budget tracking, resource management, collaboration, Gantt charts, reporting & analytics, invoicing, mobile app, customizations, and third-party integrations.

Integrations include Slack, Google Suite, QuickBooks Online, Xero, JotForm, and Shift, to name a few. Other integrations are available through Zapier or by syncing with their fully-documented API.