10 Best Project Planning Tools & Software

Elena Humeniuk

PPM Consultant

Project management planning tools are primarily used by businesses to schedule and control project schedules, project costs, and project risks, share documents, and collaborate in real-time. The primary goal of planning software is to help enterprises to keep organized so they can finish their projects on time and within their allocated budgets.

Why are project planning platforms important?

A lack of project planning tools can lead to many challenges, like spending too much time following up with others for updates, experiencing disagreements with clients over budget and agreed scope, and dealing with several spreadsheets that could all have different formats.

With so many options available, choosing which project management and planning tool to use can be challenging. In this article, we’ll go through the features and benefits of 10 of the best online tools currently available to assist you in making an informed decision.

List of 10 best project planning tools

Trello

Trello is one of the best and most popular planning software. It is a simple and user-friendly project management and planning platform that lets you group projects, and everything associated with them into boards. You can also analyze different kinds of information with Trello. The following features make it truly stand out from the rest:

• Trello employs boards, cards, and lists for project planning
• Tasks can be allocated to several members, who will then be notified of any card changes
• Tasks can have deadlines included
• An​ activity log keeps the team up to date
• The inclusion of attachments enables the efficient organization of resources
• Its built-in automation, Butler, reduces the number of tedious tasks by harnessing the power of automation

Get more information by reading Trello Review

Monday.com

When discussing the different tools for project planning, Monday.com cannot be left out. It has an excellent rating and is well-known among project managers. Any program or project manager can use Monday.com as a place for:

• Brainstorming
• Visualizing
• Planning
• Tracking
• Delivering work in an efficient manner

Monday.com can also be classified as a collaborative project management platform. Its main strengths include being highly intuitive, simple to use, and attractively designed.

Learn more about Monday.com project management system

Office 365 Planner / Microsoft Planner

Office 365 Planner (Microsoft Planner) is a project management tool that allows users to track, monitor, and collaborate on projects. Due to MS Planner seamless integration with other MS Office 365 products, it is the ideal choice for both customers and companies who are already deeply ingrained in the Microsoft ecosystem.

• MS Planner manages the working process using cards and boards.
• It provides attachment and collaboration functionality.
• The user has considerable flexibility via control of visual dashboards, the ability to establish due dates, and the receipt of email reminders.
• Microsoft Planner Kanban board is the approach used for straightforward task management.
• It allows the relevant project team members to collaborate on the board and provide updates on task progress.

Find out how to achieve more effective collaboration with Microsoft Planner

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a dynamic, spreadsheet-like online collaboration and work management platform helpful in managing different kinds of projects since it makes it simple to keep track of client information, allocate tasks, and monitor interactions and activity.

Smartsheet also contains analytics features to help process various work data. It has pre-built problem-solving templates that you can alter to suit your requirements and tastes. Among other things, you can use Smartsheet to:

• Plan projects
• Assign tasks
• Make and share calendars
• Track budgets and run cost analyses
• Visualize data
• Keep tabs on team performance to complete the work quickly and easily

Learn more about this platform by reading Smartsheet Review

Asana

Asana is project management software that helps project managers plan and structure the work at hand in the best way possible. It is a service-based product designed for collaboration on projects and tasks. Corporate communication, document sharing, and to-do lists can also be managed using Asana. This software allows users to:

• Set priorities
• Assign tasks
• Share project details
• Monitor projects
• Track the progress of work overtime
• Map out a perfect plan that meets the deadlines

Discover if Asana project management platform is right for your needs

Microsoft Project for the Web

The work management features of Project for the Web enable project managers and other team members to organize and handle activities of any complexity and size. This is the perfect tool to create and collaborate on projects quickly. Microsoft Project significant features include:

• Enabling teams to schedule projects, define tasks, and assign them to members
• Tracking in-progress assignments
• Budgeting and estimation of project costs
• Creation of insightful reports about staffing levels and project execution

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations is the next evolutionary step for the original project services automation. Using this, you can import an MS Project schedule, create a project schedule to outline the work deliverables (work packages) and keep that associated with a customer engagement or proposal. The goal of Microsoft’s Dynamics suite is to provide end-to-end coverage of a customer relationship. From submission to mapping and modeling work, scheduling, delivering, and billing for the services rendered, Dynamics can do it all.

• Enhanced deal management
• Efficient project management and collaboration
• Maximized resource utilization
• Simplified time tracking
• Streamlined project financials
• Improved portfolio visibility

Choosing Dynamics 365 Project Operations? Find out how to move your project data effortlessly

Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is another project management tool focusing on simple and efficient planning, tracking, and collaboration. You can manage simple and big projects by dividing work items into milestones, task lists, tasks, and subtasks and displaying them as Kanban boards. You can also use Zoho to:

• Drag-and-drop Gantt charts
• Schedule and plan your work
• Establish and compare various baselines
• Pinpoint crucial jobs
• Establish dependencies

Celoxis

Celoxis is a project & resource management and issue-tracking tool. Its key features include:

• Project planning
• Financial tracking
• Performance analytics
• Portfolio management
• Useful client portal

Its resource management modules provide users with more ways to do advanced capacity planning than other project management applications. These include timesheets, built-in timers, expense trackers, and shareable customizable dashboards.

Hive

Hive is a project management software built with an emphasis on workplace collaboration. This is evident in its impressive range of communication features. Within Hive, users can collaborate with the following:

• Hive Chat
• Comments
• Hive Mail
• Multiple and shared inboxes
• Project access

Hive makes it easy to collaborate with team members in ways that work best for every person.

Conclusion

Finding the best tools for project management isn’t easy, especially when you’ve got many great options. The right tool is sure to increase productivity and save you time. Evaluating all the above parameters before making any final decision is essential.