Top Microsoft Project Alternatives

Right now, more people than ever are looking to alternatives to Microsoft Project. Project and program managers are switching to tools that have the robustness of MS Project without some of its unnecessary complexity. 

Others want to move away from Microsoft’s closed-shop approach, while some users have realized that newer, more specialized software is better suited to their specific requirements.

Whether you’ve been using MS Project for years and want to switch or you’re considering moving to MS Project and want to weigh up your options first, this blog has the information you need to make the right call for you and your organization.

What is Microsoft Project?

Microsoft Project (MS Project) is a comprehensive project management software first released in 1984. Since then, its functionality has grown considerably, making it one of the most feature-rich project management tools available. 

MS Project is particularly good at supporting the technical aspects of project management, such as:

• Resource planning and management
• Managing budgets
• Scenario planning
• Risk management
• Reporting and analytics

MS Project differs from more visual, user-friendly, and task-oriented project management tools like Monday.com or Teamgantt. 

MS Project is most commonly used in large organizations to manage complex projects or large portfolios of projects, where there is extra focus on financials, resources, and optimizing scheduling. 

Why do people look for alternatives to MS Project?

Here are the most common reasons people seek alternatives to Microsoft Project:

• Integrations: MS Project’s integrations outside the Microsoft ecosystem are extremely limited. This makes MS Project inadequate for managing project portfolios from other systems like Jira or Asana or working with teams using other systems. 
• Agile Support: Although MS Project has added some agile-friendly functionality in recent years, it’s still heavily geared towards older-fashioned Waterfall project management models.
• Dated Look and Complex UI: Compared to newer PM and PPM tools, MS Project looks old-fashioned, as does its interface, which many users find difficult to navigate.
• Overly Complex: In addition to the complex UI, sometimes MS Project really does fit the sledgehammer and nut analogy. It can make simpler project management tasks laborious and time-consuming, which are relatively quick and easy in other apps.
• Additional Functionality: MS Project has a broad range of features to support project management. However, some users may find they outgrow its capabilities in specific areas, such as resource management or project portfolio management, and feel the need for a more specialized tool.  
• Cost: Microsoft Project is expensive compared to most other project management tools, and its pricing model is not well suited to smaller organizations or teams.

Best Microsoft Project Alternatives

Below, you’ll find my breakdown of the best alternatives to Microsoft Project available right now.

I’ve seen many other lists of MS Project alternatives online that either include every project management tool available, or a pretty incoherent mix of software. 

My breakdown is more targeted. It focuses on apps that share similar core attributes as MS Project but have different strengths, such as being easier to use, better for portfolio management, or complex resource management. This will make it easier for you to identify the best MS Project alternative for you.

Here’s my list, read on or click through the table of contents to learn more about each app.

1. Visor
2. Smartsheet
3. Liquidplanner
4. Planview
5. Wrike
6. Planisware
7. Rationalplan
8. Ganticc
9. PPM express
10. TeamGantt

Visor

Visor enables you to create stunningly clear and beautiful visualizations of your projects and portfolios of projects. Visor stands apart from tools like MS Project for:

• Crystal clear visualizations, including Gantt charts, dashboards, timelines, Kanban boards, and tables
• Sophisticated and dependable two-way integrations with apps like Jira, Asana, and Salesforce
• Flexibility and versatility for different use cases

Ease of use has always been another strength of Visor. This has been enhanced with the addition of “Smart Templates,” which use AI to produce a set of visualizations that are perfectly attuned to your needs and objectives in two minutes or less, saving your team huge amounts of time and effort.

Visor has a free plan and a no-commitment free trial of its Team plan too. Try Visor for free now.

How Does Visor Compare To MS Project?

Visor is far easier to use and customize than MS Project, and its visualizations of projects and portfolios look beautiful, whereas MS Project’s look dated and uninspiring. 

Visor also has bi-directional integrations with apps like Jira and Asana, making it ideal for organizations that need an easy-to-use PPM tool to complement their existing project management setup. 

Visor doesn’t have the same depth of project management functionality as MS Project, such as dynamic and predictive scheduling. However, if you need an easy (and beautiful) way to visualize, share, and analyze your portfolio of projects, Visor is the right tool for you. 

Visor Pros

• The most user-friendly PPM tool on the market
• Easy to use and customize
• Beautiful, crystal-clear visualizations of projects and portfolios
• Two-way integrations with popular SaaS apps like Jira and Asana
• AI Smart Templates automate the creation of project/portfolio views
• All view types are fully customizable and easy to share

Visor Cons

• Lacks core project management functionality
• Doesn’t integrate with some project management tools (e.g. Monday.com)

A Gantt chart in Visor, with tasks from multiple Jira projects, grouped by assignee:

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a highly configurable tool that’s typically used to manage projects and portfolios of projects, but it can also be used for other business processes too.

Smartsheet’s main strength is its versatility. As the name suggests, it aims to offer the blank canvas flexibility of a spreadsheet with additional (smart) functionality. 

How Does Smartsheet Compare To MS Project?

Smartsheet is a much more flexible option than MS Project, and it has many more integration options. 

The inverse drawback of Smartsheet’s blank canvas personality is that you need to do a huge amount of configuration and workarounds to get the same kind of functionality that comes ready to use in MS Project. 

Generally MS Project’s built-in resource management, reporting, and PPM functionality are more advanced than Smartsheet’s.

Smartsheet used to be a more affordable option than MS Project, but this changed with Smartsheet’s acquisition and subsequent changes to its pricing model. 

Smartsheet pros:

• Powerful and versatile automation features
• Highly configurable to different use cases
• Familiar spreadsheet style interface
• Wide range of integrations with other SaaS apps

Smartsheet cons:

• Steep learning curve
• Time-consuming and complex configuration
• Lacks some advanced resource management capabilities 
• Weaker project portfolio management functionality

Tempo Portfolio Manager (Formerly: LiquidPlanner)

Image: Liquid-planner-Gantt-MS-Project-Alternative

Tempo is a project management tool with an emphasis on resource management. Standout features include:

• Predictive scheduling
• Integrated time tracking
• Automatic resource distribution
• Automated priority-based scheduling 

This advanced functionality for resourcing and scheduling can be utilized across one or multiple projects simultaneously, making it very useful for program managers in large and complex organizations with competing resource demands.

How Does Tempo Compare To MS Project?

Tempo is a better fit for you if resourcing and scheduling is particularly complicated and time-consuming in your organization. It is slightly easier to use than MS Project and is a better fit for agile teams too. MS Project surpasses Tempo in reporting and analytics. 

Tempo Pros

• Sophisticated resource management and scheduling tools
• Highly customizable and configurable
• Integrated time-tracking
• Dated UI and uninspiring visualizations – not great for sharing with others

Tempo Cons

• Not many integrations
• Complex initial setup
• Pricing can be prohibitive for small teams/organizations
• Limited built in reports and dashboards

Planview

Planview is a project portfolio management tool, and could be the right pick for you if you are looking for more advanced portfolio management functionality than MS Project offers.

You will typically find Planview used by individuals or teams that have dedicated program management or project portfolio management roles. It has comprehensive, robust features to handle the resource management, project selection, and strategic alignment tasks that are necessary for large-scale, strategic portfolio management. 

How Does Planview Compare To MS Project?

Planview is better suited to strategic portfolio management, particularly in very large organizations that have a vast range of projects and want to enforce strict procedures around project selection and performance monitoring.

MS Project has some strategic portfolio management functionality but nothing as comprehensive as Planview. MS Project is more suitable if you need a balance between direct project management and some basic project portfolio management.

Planview Pros

• Comprehensive project portfolio management features
• Advanced organizational level resource management
• Strong reporting suite

Planview Cons

• Lacks core project management features
• Only suitable and in-budget for large enterprises
• Steep learning curve
• May require extensive data-entry or reconciliation with other systems
• Some users report it can feel sluggish and slow

Wrike

Wrike is a well-rounded project management tool with all the view types you would expect to find in a broadly-positioned project management system (Gantt charts, Kanban board, calendar view etc.) 

Wrike is comprehensive and scalable, and should fit well with teams of all sizes that want one tool to cover all their project management needs. It has especially strong automation features, giving the users the ability to use existing workflow automation and create their own too. 

How Does Wrike Compare To MS Project?

Most users will find Wrike much easier to use than MS Project. It’s a more modern tool, and this shows both in its ease of use and the look and feel of its visualizations. Wrike also comes with many project management-related features that you would expect from modern PM software, such as strong collaboration tools.

Wrike becomes weaker when you try to use it to manage portfolios of projects or a large, complex spectrum of projects and gain oversight over all of them. Microsoft Project and similar tools that are more PPM-inclined will be much stronger here. 

Wrike Pros

• Comprehensive project management system
• Strong collaboration and workflow automation features
• Attractive set of project views
• AI functionality to assist with risk management and workflow

Wrike Cons

• Lacks advanced scheduling and resourcing features
• Limited capabilities for project portfolio management
• Basic customization options for project visualizations

Planisware

Planisware is a comprehensive project portfolio management (PPM) software that is principally used at very large and complex organizations, to select projects, balance resources, and manage portfolio performance. 

How Does Planisware Compare To MS Project?

Planisware is another project portfolio management tool that MS Project users may turn to when they feel MS Project’s own strategic portfolio management functionality is not quite good enough.

Planisware has more advanced native reporting and features to cover the whole spectrum of mature strategic portfolio management, such as project intake and scenario planning. Planisware requires a bespoke deployment, which is time consuming. 

Most users will find the already complex MS Project easier to use than Planisware, which should give you an idea of how steep a learning curve using Planisware entails.

Planisware Pros

• Comprehensive PPM features for PPM mature organizations
• Able to handle large, layered, and complex project portfolios
• Advanced native analytics and reporting
• Fully configurable to highly specific organizational requirements

Planisware Cons

• Only suitable for very large organizations with complex project portfolios
• Challenging, time consuming, expensive deployment process
• Very steep learning curve
• Lacks some ground-level project management functionality (a separate PM system will probably be required)

Rationalplan

Rationalplan is a no-frills, robust project and portfolio management tool. It’s best used by project and program managers whose focus is on managing finances, time, and performance across multiple projects. 

How Does Rationalplan Compare To MS Project?

Rationalplan certainly lacks some of the more advanced project and portfolio management capabilities of MS Project, but it is more affordable especially for smaller businesses. Many users also say that Rationalplan is much easier to use than MS Project. Neither has stunning visuals either, so if you want a tool that looks good you should try Visor or a similar modern tool instead.

Rationalplan Pros

• Budget and user friendly
• Supports critical path analysis
• Strong features for managing costs and resources across multiple projects

Rationalplan Cons

• Outdated look and feel
• Very few integrations
• Lacks collaboration features

Ganttic

Ganttic is resource planning software most commonly used in manufacturing and engineering teams due to its strong features for managing resources and equipment across multiple and voluminous projects. 

How Does Ganttic Compare To MS Project?

Although MS Project has robust resource planning functionality, it’s not as advanced as Ganttic. On the other hand, MS Project has a broader set of features across project management, making it a better all-around fit. MS Project also has advanced analytics and the ability to use custom formulas. 

In summary, if you feel MS Project’s resource management capabilities are inadequate for your needs, a specialist tool like Ganttic is a great alternative. If your requirements are a bit broader and you feel you need more general project management tools, you are better off with another app.

Ganttic Pros

• Advanced resource planning and management functionality
• Easier to use than comparable resource management software
• Easy to configure to fit your organization and resource types
• Integrated time tracking

Ganttic Cons

• Limited project management features
• Basic workflow automation
• Few integrations
• Making and changing plans can be more time consuming than other apps
• Still has a steep learning curve

PPM Express

PPM Express is a premium grade project portfolio management solution. It has a comprehensive set of PPM features, including project intake and evaluation, resource conflict management, strategic project prioritization and more. It also has integrations with most project management tools.

How Does PPM Express Compare To MS Project?

PPM Express is a pure PPM tool and lacks foundational project management functionality. MS Project, on the other hand, is more of a mix, having strong core project management functionality and some PPM capabilities layered on top. 

If your organization is large and you need a specialized tool to manage your vast and complex project portfolios, then PPM Express is a good switch from MS Project. However, bear in mind that you will need to couple it with a suitable project management tool for teams to plan and manage the projects themselves. 

PPM Express Pros

• Comprehensive, end-to-end PPM tool
• Wide range of integrations with project management apps
• Highly configurable for different organizations and scenarios
• Advanced analytics via pre-built Power BI report templates

 PPM Express Cons

• Lacks core project management features
• Only suitable for dedicated portfolio management teams
• Steep learning curve
• Configuration and customization can be overwhelming

TeamGantt

TeamGantt is one of the best Gantt chart focused project management tools on the market. It is especially well suited to small, multi-functional teams that need an easy to use Gantt chart tool that is accessible to users of different project management expertise, without compromising project plan robustness.

How Does TeamGantt Compare to MS Project?

TeamGantt is a much easier to use, and less advanced project management system.TeamGantt lacks the advanced scheduling, resource management, and portfolio management features that you get with MS Project. 

However, TeamGantt is substantially easier to use than the steep learning curve of a tool like MS Project. It’s much more suitable for everyone in your team to use, as opposed to groups of project management pros. If this sounds like your kind of tool you can also read up on the best TeamGantt alternatives to find similar software.

TeamGantt Pros

• Integrated (native) task time tracking 
• Easy to use for all levels of user
• Highly-developed Gantt charts with a high level of customization
• Intuitive and attractive user interface

TeamGantt Cons

• Lacks advanced portfolio management functionality 
• Limited integrations with other SaaS apps
• Basic reporting and analytics
• Relatively expensive particularly for teams with multiple manager level users 

Best MS Project Alternatives for Mac

It’s probably not going to surprise anyone that Microsoft Project is not compatible with Macs. If you want an app with functionality like MS Project for your Apple machine here are the top picks:

1. Visor
2. Project Plan 365
3. Merlin Project
4. Smartsheet

Visor

Visor is the best way to analyze, visualize, and share your portfolio of projects. It doesn’t have some of the more ground-level project management functionality, but enables you to plan, understand, and improve the performance of your projects at a group level. Try Visor for free.

Project Plan 365

Project Plan 365 was specifically created as an MS Project like app that could be used outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. 

Project Plan does not have these more advanced features that you get in MS Project:

• Macros and automation
• Advanced resource management 
• Project portfolio management tools
• Powerful reporting

However, Project Plan 365 does include robust Gantt charts, resource planning, and scheduling functionality, making it a suitable MS Project alternative for Mac users.

Merlin Project

Merlin Project is little more basic than MS Project, but it has Gantt charts that are just as robust, and useful features for managing and scheduling resources both within projects and across portfolios of projects. 

Smartsheet

Smartsheet has many similarities with MS Project, and is a great tool if you want an extremely configurable method of planning projects and running other business processes. 

As I’ve written above this high-level of configurability does come with a downside, as it requires extensive work to set up, and some of the advanced functionality you get with MS Project simply isn’t replicable in Smartsheet no matter how many formulas and workarounds you try.

Best Free MS Project Alternatives

Visor and some of the other apps I’ve explored above have no-commitment free trials, so you can try them out without worrying about paying anything if you decide it’s not for you. 

Visor also has a free plan, which doesn’t include some of its more sought after features (such as the dashboard view) but many users still find it meets their needs. 

Here are some of the other best free alternatives to MS Project, generally they offer a scaled-down, less advanced imitation of MS Project, and they may have more stringent limits around usage (such as the number of projects, users, or tasks per project).

1. ProjectLibre: The closest thing to MS Project that you can get for free
2. GanttProject: A lightweight and free Gantt chart tool 
3. Ganttic: Focused on resource management, (see above for a more detailed overview) Ganttic is free for up to ten users
4. Microsoft Planner: Offers basic task planning and scheduling, far more limited than MS Project, but still integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem
5. Agantty: Another Gantt focused, fairly basic, but free tool. Includes unlimited tasks, projects, and teams too!

Rounding Up The Best Microsoft Project Alternatives

Microsoft Project is a robust project management tool with features to cover most of your project management needs, but sometimes you need something with more depth in specific areas. 

The lists above should help you find software that best fits your requirements and why you want to find an alternative to Microsoft Project.

If you want to manage, analyze, and share your portfolio of projects easily, then you should try Visor. 

Visor enables you to produce genuinely beautiful visualizations of your portfolios, ideal for sharing with your team and stakeholders.It also has two-way integrations with apps like Jira, Asana, and Salesforce.  

Unlike other PPM tools, Visor is very easy to use and customize, versatile, and doesn’t look like it belongs on Windows 95, either. 

A portfolio Gantt chart in Visor with multiple Jira projects, with issues grouped by project

If you want to do more research you can also check out my breakdown of the best PPM software.

James Taylor

James Taylor

Senior Digital Marketing Manager

James Taylor is Visor's Senior Digital Marketing Manager. Originally from the UK, he has 8+ years experience writing about all things software and technology, project management and organizational processes. When he's not working you'll find him hiking a hill, attempting to cook ambitious recipes, or gorging on hours of history podcasts and documentaries.