7 Best Microsoft Project Alternative for 2025 (Free & Paid)

Looking for a Best Microsoft Project Alternative that suits your needs without the steep learning curve? As a seasoned professional, I know how crucial it is to find a reliable project management tool. This guide explores the top alternatives to Microsoft Project, offering solutions for various industries. Understanding the right tool for your specific needs can increase productivity and ease project management. Stay ahead with these emerging trends in customizable project management tools.

After spending over 158 hours testing and reviewing 36+ project management tools, I’ve compiled this list of top Microsoft Project alternatives. From comprehensive free tools to professional paid options, each offers unique features, pros and cons, and transparent pricing. This in-depth guide provides an honest, unbiased breakdown to help you make the best choice based on your needs, whether you are new to project management or a seasoned expert. Read more…

Top Microsoft Project Alternatives (Free & Open Source)

Name	Zoho Projects	Monday.com	Smartsheet	Wrike
Features	✔️ Create an issue and track them as they get fixed and tested ✔️ Integrated easily with Third party apps like Google, Zapier, GitHub, Dropbox	✔️ Manage everything in one workspace ✔️ Set up in minutes	✔️ Smartsheet allows automating actions using simple rules ✔️ Helps to simplify budget and planning	✔️ Enables you to view real-time reports ✔️ It helps you to turn strategies into actionable plans to achieve success.
Price	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	30 Day Free Trial	14 Days Free Trial
Review/Rating	4.7	4.7	4.6	4.5
Link	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website

1) Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a powerful project management tool that I have found exceptionally useful for organizing tasks and collaborating with teams. It offers a range of features that make it an ideal alternative to MS Project. I particularly appreciate its intuitive interface, which makes navigating through different project stages easy. The integration with timesheets is a huge benefit, helping me log billable hours without hassle. With Zoho Projects, everything from task assignments to progress tracking is streamlined, giving me the tools to handle complex projects efficiently.

Features:

• Task Management: Zoho Projects offers versatile task management with multiple views, including lists, boards, and Gantt charts. You can track and monitor your progress in real-time, ensuring everything stays organized. While testing this feature, I found the board view especially useful for teams collaborating on creative projects. It simplifies visualizing who is doing what and when.
• Milestone Tracking: Easily set milestones to mark significant project phases. You can visualize deadlines and dependencies, making it simpler to ensure your project stays on schedule. I recommend using milestone tracking early on in your project to highlight key goals and keep your team focused on achieving them.
• Workflow Automation: Zoho Projects streamlines processes by automating repetitive tasks such as assigning tasks, sending reminders, and updating statuses. This reduces manual work and saves time. One thing I noticed while using this feature is how it significantly speeds up project handoffs without missing any important updates.
• Project Templates: You can kickstart your projects with industry-specific templates, making the planning phase quicker and more efficient. Customizable templates ensure consistency across all projects, helping you meet specific business needs. I suggest creating a few template variations for different project types to save time and provide flexibility in how projects are initiated.
• Integrations: Zoho Projects integrates with widely used apps like Slack, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Teams, enabling seamless collaboration. This ensures that your workflows stay smooth and your tools stay connected. The integration with Slack is fantastic for keeping communication within your team transparent and in real-time.
• Budget Management: Keep track of your project finances with built-in expense tracking and set up billing rates to manage your budgets efficiently. This helps maintain financial control throughout the project. I have used this feature for client projects and found it effective in keeping track of billing and preventing budget overruns.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user license is $4.
• Free Trial: 10 day trial

Visit Zoho Projects >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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2) Monday.com

Monday.com allowed me to streamline my workflow while evaluating tools for teams shifting away from traditional software. Monday.com, launched in 2014, is a powerful project management tool known for its intuitive interface and collaboration features. The customizable dashboards and visual timelines made it easier to handle multiple stakeholders.

I particularly liked how I could organize tasks in Kanban, calendar, or timeline views. It is important to highlight that these features not only offer clarity but also support smarter, quicker decisions. Music producers have been using Monday.com to coordinate production schedules and collaborate across multiple studios without any communication breakdowns.

Features:

• Customizable Workflows: Monday allows you to create tailored workflows for your team, ensuring every project aligns with your specific needs. Its drag-and-drop interface makes it incredibly easy to build and modify workflows. I suggest exploring the pre-built automation options to boost team efficiency without reinventing the wheel. This flexibility supports various industries, from marketing teams to software development.
• Resource Management: Efficiently allocate resources across multiple projects with Monday’s resource management tools. These features allow you to assign tasks based on team capacity and availability, ensuring that no one is overburdened. You will notice that the visual resource allocation view makes it easy to spot any over-allocated team members and quickly adjust their workload. This is a game-changer for preventing burnout and maintaining balanced productivity.
• Visual Project Tracking: With visual project tracking tools like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and timeline views, Monday makes it easier to monitor progress in real-time. You can visualize project milestones, deadlines, and bottlenecks to ensure your team stays on track. While testing this feature, I found that using the Kanban board combined with a timeline view gave me a clearer overview of project phases and priorities. This combination significantly improved my project management.
• Time Tracking: Monday’s built-in time tracking feature helps monitor the time spent on individual tasks, providing insights into team productivity. This functionality helps you maintain control over project schedules and ensures deadlines are met. I recommend using this feature for clients or projects with strict timelines to track progress and hold team members accountable. It’s especially useful in service-oriented industries where billable hours are crucial.
• Automations: Streamline your processes by automating repetitive tasks, such as status updates, task assignments, and notifications. These automations can be set up without any coding experience, and they drastically reduce manual work. You will find that creating custom automations for routine tasks not only saves time but also eliminates the risk of human error. This is an essential tool for teams that handle high volumes of tasks daily.
• Templates: Monday offers an array of pre-built templates for a variety of use cases, including project management, sales, CRM, marketing, software development, and HR. These templates save time and help teams hit the ground running. While using these templates, I realized they can easily be customized to fit unique project needs, making them a versatile starting point for any new project. This feature is a fantastic time-saver for project managers.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user is $9.
• Free Trial: Free Forever

Visit Monday.com >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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3) Smartsheet

Smartsheet became my go-to recommendation while reviewing tools for this article. I found that its visual project tracking and dynamic reports make it a superior choice for teams looking for an ms project alternative. It is a good idea to explore its built-in integrations with popular tools like Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365. These connections enhance workflows and keep communication smooth. A nonprofit I checked with managed to improve grant tracking accuracy by using Smartsheet’s shared dashboards across departments.

Features:

• Cloud-Based Platform: Smartsheet’s cloud-based platform enables teams to manage projects from anywhere, providing the flexibility necessary for remote work. The tool ensures seamless access to project data and updates across devices. I recommend using the mobile app for quick updates on the go, especially when managing teams spread across different locations.
• Automated Workflows: Smartsheet’s workflow automation feature saves time by automating routine tasks based on preset triggers. This reduces manual effort and ensures important processes don’t fall through the cracks. While using this feature, I noticed that the key to efficiency lies in setting up detailed triggers for specific actions like task approvals or notifications.
• Gantt Chart Visualization: The Gantt chart view in Smartsheet allows users to easily visualize timelines and project progress. This tool is great for staying on track with deadlines and understanding task dependencies. I found this particularly useful when managing large projects, as it allowed me to quickly adjust timelines based on shifting priorities.
• Portfolio Management: Smartsheet’s portfolio management feature provides a comprehensive view of all ongoing projects. This centralized dashboard helps monitor progress, resource allocation, and performance across multiple projects. When I worked on a multi-project initiative, this feature helped me identify bottlenecks and reallocate resources swiftly to ensure smoother operations.
• Alerts and Notifications: Smartsheet’s alerts and notifications keep your team in the loop about critical updates, deadlines, and changes. Real-time notifications ensure that no important event is missed, keeping the project on schedule. I found it helpful to set up custom notifications to avoid information overload while still receiving timely updates on high-priority tasks.
• Document Management: With Smartsheet’s document management system, all project files from platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive can be easily uploaded and organized. This ensures that important documents are always within reach. While testing this feature, I found that organizing files into specific folders within Smartsheet significantly improved our team’s ability to find what they needed quickly.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user is $9.
• Free Trial: 30-Days Free Trial

Visit Smartsheet >>

30-Days Free Trial

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4) Wrike

While evaluating Wrike, I noticed its remarkable ability to simplify the complexities of project management. It provides a comprehensive view of all projects, whether you are looking at big-picture progress or fine details. I could easily track the status of multiple projects and create reports with various metrics, which significantly improved my team’s efficiency. Wrike helped me keep everything in one place, with its integration capabilities enhancing the overall workflow. I recommend it as a perfect alternative for MS Project for anyone seeking to optimize collaboration and productivity.

Features:

• Work Intelligence: Wrike’s AI-powered Work Intelligence feature provides smart recommendations to optimize resource use and timelines. It identifies bottlenecks before they occur, helping you stay ahead. While using this feature one thing I noticed is that AI suggestions improved our sprint planning accuracy by 20%.
• Approval Workflows: This tool helps you automate the approval process with minimal manual follow-up. You can route documents or tasks to the right person without back-and-forth emails. I recommend setting up conditional logic to skip unnecessary approvers for smaller tasks.
• Custom Dashboards: You can create dashboards that reflect only the data relevant to you or your team. These dashboards make tracking progress much easier. I found this especially useful when managing multiple clients simultaneously.
• Risk Prediction: Wrike uses AI to flag risks based on project trends and historical performance. It highlights projects that may fall behind schedule or go over budget. I suggest checking flagged items weekly to act before minor issues become blockers.
• Task Management: With Wrike, task assignment is smooth, deadlines are clear, and priorities are visible. You can even break large projects into subtasks. This helped me reduce status meetings because everything was updated in real time.
• Custom Workflows: The tool lets you customize every stage of a workflow to match your business process. It eliminates confusion and ensures teams follow the right steps. There is also an option that lets you color-code each status, which boosted my team’s clarity on priorities.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user license is $10.
• Free Trial: 14 day trial

Visit Wrike >>

14-Days Free Trial

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5) ActivTrak

ActivTrak has proven to be a reliable solution during my evaluation of productivity tools. It offered me detailed analytics that helped me optimize my team’s output. In fact, I recommend this tool to any organization looking to boost team efficiency. The detailed insights from ActivTrak make it easy for me to assess my team’s performance and take action where necessary, improving overall business outcomes. It combines MFA and robust AES encryption, allowing customizable views like grid and list. Many business owners use ActivTrak to enhance workflow and performance tracking, resulting in higher overall productivity in just a few months.

Features:

• Real-Time Insights: This feature delivers real-time updates on team productivity, workload, and goal achievements. It helps leaders take timely actions by identifying performance gaps and improvement areas. While using this feature one thing I noticed was how quickly it flagged workload imbalance, allowing me to reassign tasks before deadlines were at risk.
• Employee Monitoring: It tracks time spent on apps, websites, and projects to provide deep insights into work habits. This helps reduce distractions and improve overall output. I used this data to coach my team on staying focused during peak hours.
• Remote Workforce Management: Managing remote teams is easier with unified monitoring tools that ensure accountability regardless of location. It shows when and where work is happening across time zones. I recommend setting usage benchmarks to identify top performers and areas needing support.
• Performance Dashboards: These dashboards present productivity metrics in a visual, easy-to-understand layout. You can analyze trends, track goals, and fine-tune team processes without digging through raw data. It gave me clarity on which workflows consistently needed adjustment.
• Alarms and Website Blocking: This lets you customize alerts for specific user behaviors like excessive browsing or file transfers. You can block distracting websites to keep focus high. There is also an option that lets you trigger alerts for risky activities, which helped me maintain security compliance across my team.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user license is $10.
• Free Trial: Free Forever

Visit ActivTrak >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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6) ClickUp

ClickUp is a powerful tool that I have found to be a remarkable best Microsoft Project alternative. I particularly appreciate its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for teams to stay on track with their projects. During my research, I noticed that ClickUp offers robust features like custom workflows and task prioritization.

This tool has helped me streamline my project management processes. I can easily track progress, collaborate with my team, and manage deadlines, making it one of my top choices for project management. A project manager in a marketing agency used ClickUp to enhance collaboration between the creative and strategy teams. As a result, they were able to reduce project timelines by 30% due to better task tracking and communication.

Features:

• Dashboards: ClickUp’s dashboards provide a visual hub to monitor everything that matters in a project. You can add widgets for time tracking, task status, or even sprints to see performance instantly. I recommend customizing widgets for each stakeholder to make the data more relevant and digestible.
• Collaboration Tools: Team members can comment on tasks, tag each other using @mentions, and attach files for clarity. These tools reduce the back-and-forth on external apps and keep everything contextually aligned. I relied heavily on comments during one remote project, and it noticeably improved turnaround time.
• Automation: ClickUp’s automation lets you streamline repetitive processes like updating task statuses or assigning owners based on triggers. This is especially useful for large projects with multiple dependencies. While using this feature one thing I noticed was that predefined automation templates saved me setup time and reduced errors.
• Machine Learning: Machine learning in ClickUp helps create better time estimates and spot inefficiencies. It adapts to your project patterns and provides data-driven recommendations. You will notice improved accuracy in workload predictions as the tool learns from your past project trends.
• Goal Tracking: You can break down broad goals into measurable targets using OKRs. This aligns individual efforts with the team’s bigger objectives. I used this feature during a product launch, and it helped keep everyone focused and motivated.
• Reporting: With ClickUp’s reports, you can dig into task progress, time logs, and team efficiency. These insights help you refine workflows and stay accountable. I suggest setting up weekly auto-reports for stakeholders to keep everyone informed without extra effort.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user license is $7.
• Free Trial: Free Foreve

Visit ClickUp >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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7) Asana

Asana is an excellent choice for small teams looking for a simple yet effective project management software. I was able to set up projects quickly and assign tasks to team members without any complications. During my research, I found that Asana provides a great way to visualize project timelines, keeping everyone in sync. It also offers a robust reporting system that helps track progress, making it easy to identify potential roadblocks.

I recommend Asana for any team looking for an easy-to-implement solution that improves collaboration and keeps projects moving forward efficiently. Sales teams find Asana ideal for managing client projects. The software’s task and deadline tracking feature helps them stay organized, ensuring no follow-up is missed and clients stay satisfied.

Features:

• Workflow Automation: Asana’s workflow automation helps eliminate repetitive tasks by using rule-based triggers and actions. You can automate assignments, due dates, or status updates without writing a single line of code. While testing this feature, one thing I noticed is that combining rules with integrations like Slack or Gmail saved my team dozens of clicks per day.
• Task Prioritization: Asana allows you to set custom priority levels to help teams tackle high-impact tasks first. You can label tasks as High, Medium, or Low to reflect urgency clearly. I suggest color-coding these priorities to visually streamline daily planning and help teammates stay focused.
• Unlimited Custom Fields: You can add unlimited custom fields to tasks, with support for 17 data types including dropdowns, numbers, dates, and formulas. It gives structure to projects by capturing the exact data your team needs. I found it especially useful while managing budget tracking fields across multiple campaigns.
• Multi-Project Management: You can assign a single task to multiple projects, which means updates automatically sync across them. This feature is valuable when a task spans multiple teams or goals. I used this while managing cross-functional product launches and it significantly reduced duplication.
• Portfolio Management: The Portfolio view offers a high-level snapshot of all ongoing projects in one place. It displays status, progress, and priority, making it easy for stakeholders to stay aligned. I recommend grouping projects by department or objective to enhance strategic clarity and simplify decision-making.

Pricing:

• Price: The cost for one user license is $10.99.
• Free Trial: Free Foreve

Download Link: https://asana.com/

Other Best Microsoft Project Alternative

1. LiquidPlanner: LiquidPlanner eliminates outdated plans and missed deadlines and streamlines your work. It is one of the free Microsoft project alternatives that offers features for IT teams, project managers, development teams, and marketing teams.
   Link: https://www.liquidplanner.com/
2. Trello: Trello is a tool designed to replace your team’s use of email and chat for task-based communication. It is one of the best MS Project alternatives that allows you to collaborate on the project from beginning to end.
   Link: https://trello.com/
3. Roadmunk: Roadmunk is a visual roadmap software that is helpful for project management. It is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft projects that offers advanced data protection to meet the needs of global enterprise clients.
   Link: https://roadmunk.com/

How Did We Choose Best Microsoft Project Alternative?

At Guru99, we are committed to providing accurate, relevant, and objective information. Our editorial focus ensures that we create and review content that is both informative and reliable. If you’re looking for the best Microsoft Project alternative that suits your needs without a steep learning curve, this guide will help. As a professional, finding a reliable project management tool is crucial. We have identified top Microsoft Project alternatives that cater to different industries, helping you improve productivity and streamline project management. We focus on the following factors while reviewing a tool based on reliability, functionality, and user experience.

• User-Friendliness: We chose based on intuitive interfaces, allowing users to manage projects without steep learning curves.
• Customization Options: Our team selected tools that offer flexible features, adapting to diverse project management requirements.
• Collaboration Features: We made sure to shortlist options that support seamless teamwork and communication among users.
• Cost-Effectiveness: We chose alternatives that provide great value for money, balancing features with pricing.
• Integration Capabilities: We considered the ability of tools to integrate with popular apps, ensuring smooth workflows.
• Support and Updates: The experts in our team selected platforms with excellent customer support and regular software updates.

Verdict

In this review, I have explored some of the best alternatives to Microsoft Project, offering various features to cater to different business needs. To help you make a well-informed decision, here’s my verdict:

• Zoho Projects: A customizable, user-friendly tool that streamlines task management and time tracking, making it a great choice for teams seeking to boost efficiency.
• Monday.com Monday.com offers a clean and intuitive interface, making it ideal for teams of any size, with features like customizable workflows and comprehensive project views.
• Smartsheet: This platform excels in offering advanced reporting and real-time visibility, making it perfect for larger teams needing robust project tracking and integration capabilities.

FAQs