Thank you for choosing OmniPlan as your companion on the path to better project management. The app you're about to explore is packed full of tools that handle the heavy lifting, number crunching, and visualization of your projects so you're free to focus on the stuff that matters. With OmniPlan 3 we've carefully reconsidered every piece of the app from the inspectors to the Gantt chart to make it both more powerful and easier to use, and added tons of great new features to boot.
- Omniplan 3 3 1 – Robust Project Management Software Pdf
- Omniplan 3 3 1 – Robust Project Management Software Download
- Omniplan 3 3 1 – Robust Project Management Software Free
- Omniplan 3 3 1 – Robust Project Management Software Life Cycle
OmniPlan is ready to support, organize, and track your project's progress whenever and wherever you need it — both on your Mac, and beyond. On iPhone and iPad, OmniPlan for iOS offers up-to-the-minute project editing, review, and presentation.
OmniPlan 3.3.1 – Robust project management software. March 13, 2016 With OmniPlan, you can create logical, manageable project plans with Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, milestones, and critical paths. OmniPlan is not available for Windows but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on Windows with similar functionality. The most popular Windows alternative is Basecamp, which is free.If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to OmniPlan and many of them are available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement.
Note
- OmniPlan for Mac (the subject of this manual) is available both on the Mac App Store and directly from The Omni Group.
- OmniPlan for iOS is available on the App Store as a Universal app that works on all of your iOS devices.
- Sync between versions is supported via Pub/Sub with the OmniPlan Pro upgrade for OmniPlan for Mac.
- OmniPlan for Mac requires OS X Yosemite, while OmniPlan for iOS requires iOS 9.
This manual is your guide on your journey through OmniPlan for Mac. You'll learn to customize task and resource outlines to visualize, maintain, and simplify your projects. Break down tasks, optimize the required resources, control costs, and monitor your progress — all at a glance. And with the OmniPlan Pro upgrade, you'll access the features you need to take your multi-user and multi-project plans to the next level. As you go through your workday with OmniPlan you'll notice that, in dozens of little ways, the app is ready to work better right along beside you.
Created with love,
The Omni Group
What's New in OmniPlan 3.3
OmniPlan 3.3 for Mac brings updated Microsoft Project support to OmniPlan Pro, including the ability to import Microsoft Project 2016 files and export .mpp files that MS Project 2016 will understand.
In addition, both Standard and Pro benefit from a host of stability improvements and bug fixes that make your experience working with OmniPlan even better. See the Release Notes in the Help menu for a full list of these important but less-visible updates.
How This Documentation is Organized
This manual that you have before you (either in OmniPlan itself, online, or in iBooks on your Mac or iOS device—or both) has been assembled in such a way that you're provided with a complete tour of OmniPlan.
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the latest and greatest updates to OmniPlan 3, and explains just what this manual is all about. The few chapters following are a great introduction to the app, so if you're new to OmniPlan proceeding through from the start isn't a bad idea.
To help guide you through the documentation and better learn about all things OmniPlan, here's a list of the chapters that you'll find up ahead:
The chapter you're perusing right now. Here you'll find notes on the newest OmniPlan features, an introduction to the app, and guidance on how to get the most out of this manual (we think the EPUB version is a great way to read the docs).
This chapter dives right in and gives you a top-down overview of OmniPlan's user interface. You'll learn about toolbar, the app's five views (Task, Resource, Calendar, Network, and Styles), and, of course, the inspectors. Nothing too deep; just the basics to get you rolling — it's a great place to start becoming familiar with OmniPlan's various bits and pieces.
If you're eager to get your first OmniPlan project up and running, this is the place to start. The tutorial guides you through the process of setting up and maintaining a project, from creating your first task to reaching the last milestone. After you've worked through it you'll have the tools you need to build your own project from the ground up.
After your project is up and running, OmniPlan helps you keep it carefully tended — like a bonsai tree — to help it mature into its final form. When unexpected circumstances arise, adjusting the project will keep it shepherded toward the goal. This chapter explains violations, scheduling and leveling, establishing and working with baseline schedules, catching up and rescheduling tasks, and other tools for ensuring your project accurately reflects the real world.
OmniPlan Pro offers additional tools for more complex project arrangements. If you work on projects that are geographically distributed or have more than one contributor, or you're responsible for multiple simultaneous projects, the collaboration (Pub/Sub) and multi-project dashboard features are tremendously helpful for managing even the most complex project states. This chapter explains how!
Understanding tasks and the relationships between them is key to using OmniPlan to the fullest. In this chapter you'll learn — in detail — how to use Task View to model the work you need to accomplish so you can monitor and update its progress with confidence, including sections on task grouping and splitting, hammock tasks, mastery of the Gantt chart, and more.
Since they live as optional columns in Task View, this chapter also introduces OmniPlan's Earned Value Analysis tools to OmniPlan Pro users.
If tasks are a project's building blocks, resources are its lifeblood. Accurately assessing and organizing your resources will help your project run at peak efficiency, and this chapter delves into how Resource View can help you do just that with tips on creating and assigning resources, making resource groups, tracking your project from a resource-based perspective, and the concepts of duration and effort.
Tasks and resources are united in the calendar view, where schedules can be set for every aspect of the project to make sure goals are met on time. Establishing the working hours for your project, and universal and individual exceptions to them, are covered in detail here.
New in OmniPlan 3, Network View provides a way to visualize and develop your project as a node-based diagram of tasks and groups (similar to a PERT chart). It's great for rapidly iterating on a new project or getting a strong representation of the relationships between tasks, and this chapter explains how to get the most out of this new view.
OmniPlan includes a professional-grade default set of fonts and styles designed to clearly convey information about your project. The app also offers a full set of tools for customizing your document's presentation, from styles affecting the entire project down to individual bar colors in the Gantt chart. Styles View is where you'll go to customize the visual side of your project at a high level, and this chapter explains how it's done.
As you move between views in OmniPlan, the inspectors bring continuity to your experience and provide detailed access to controls for whatever aspect of the project you're working on at the moment. This chapter details the settings each inspector provides for your Project Info, Milestones, Tasks, Resources, Styles, Custom Data, and Attachments.
OmniPlan contains all the tools you need to execute projects at all levels of complexity, but sometimes external requirements call for interaction outside the OmniSphere. Luckily, OmniPlan is great at those too! Here you'll find details on all the formats the app can understand and export, as well as details on Microsoft Project support present in OmniPlan Pro.
When it comes time to share your project with colleagues or the outside world, OmniPlan Pro's new and improved reporting interface makes it stand out from the crowd. This chapter covers the finer points of generating reports using the HTML themes included with OmniPlan, and provides tips for modifying them or creating your own. Printing reports — to paper or PDF — is also fully supported.
This chapter covers a variety of customization options to get OmniPlan working the best for you. Within OmniPlan Preferences you'll find custom controls for data entry, display of times and dates, document and HTML template management, server repository account settings (in OmniPlan Pro), and options for when and how OmniPlan should check for updates to itself.
The glossary contains an alphabetical list of special terms you'll encounter throughout the app, this documentation, and other project management resources you might be familiar with. If you're just starting out in project management or you're curious about how OmniPlan implements certain concepts, this is a great chapter to check.
For the most part, you should never have to worry about your Omni license, particularly if you've purchased OmniPlan from the Mac App Store. If you purchased OmniPlan from our website, however, you need to enter specific information from the license email you received from us.
This brief chapter walks you through the process of adding your license info in OmniPlan, shows you how to remove a license, and even tells you where we 'hide' the license on your Mac just in case you ever need to send that to us or transfer it to that brand new Mac you've purchased.
If you ever get stuck when working on something in OmniPlan, or if you have a problem with the app's license, or you just want to tell our Support Humans and the DocWranglers what an awesome job they're doing, feel free to get in touch. This chapter points you to all of the resources we have available: Support Humans, Support Articles, Videos, and Documentation.
Tip
If you're currently using other versions of OmniPlan (iOS or earlier Mac versions) and want to get up to speed as quickly as possible with projects already in progress, see the Features of OmniPlan 3 section of this chapter. For projects with multiple contributors, see Collaborating with Multiple Contributors for a quick start guide to getting synced.
Features of OmniPlan 3
The newest version of OmniPlan has been redesigned from the ground up to complement the ways you work. From beginning your first project to completing its final task you'll find things throughout the app — as well as brand new features — that improve the experience over previous versions. If you're new to OmniPlan, you're in for the best app that it's ever been.
In addition to the updated look and feel of interactions throughout the app, the following brand new features have been added in OmniPlan 3:
The look of the inspectors has been updated to a clean new visual style consistent with design trends in Apple's most recent versions of OS X. And as with Omni's other Mac apps, selecting an item in your current view smartly selects the inspector most relevant to your selection.
Beyond these interaction improvements, the inspectors have been reorganized into discrete categories that live in tabs across top of the inspector sidebar. The largest change comes to the Project inspectors, with styles governing the entire project moved out of the inspectors to the new Styles View.
One of our goals in OmniPlan 3 is to prioritize how you want your project set up, so it'll look just as great as the precious information it holds. The new Styles View treats the overall look of your project as a peer of other views on your data, and teams up with the Style inspector to edit the appearance of the Gantt chart, text, columns, and rows of your document to your exact specifications.
Try out Styles View by clicking the rightmost button in the view switcher in the toolbar.
Network View is a new way to look at your project, showing it as a diagram that emphasizes the relationship of dependencies between tasks rather than the chronological view presented by the Gantt chart. You can try Network View by clicking the fourth button in the view switcher in the toolbar.
The new Meeting task type is useful when an entire project team (or subset of the team) is required to work on a task simultaneously. When a task is set as a meeting, it will not be scheduled until all of the resources assigned to it are available.
Whether multiple resources work on a task independently or in the meeting format is determined by a switch in the Resource Allocation section of the Task inspector.
Introducing OmniPlan Pro
Many OmniPlan users find that the tools to create, maintain, monitor, and complete a project — all features of the base app — fully encompass their needs. If your project management system requirements are more complex, we offer a package of additional tools designed to extend OmniPlan to unprecedented levels of flexibility, extensibility, and power.
The suite of OmniPlan Pro upgrade features includes:
In OmniPlan 3 Pro, get a customizable overview of multiple interconnected projects with the Multi-Project Dashboards feature. Choose File ▸ New Dashboard to create a new project group; then drag and drop OmniPlan project files onto the view, and they'll be magically added for your perusal.
Another new feature in OmniPlan 3 Pro is the ability to estimate on-time project and milestone completion using Monte Carlo simulations. These are a great aid for planning ahead, providing tip-offs for when resources should be shifted to ensure on-time project completion. The simulation package also provides a handy Auto-Estimate Effort tool for tasks where effort isn't already assigned, making completion forecasts quick and easy.
Upon running a simulation, a set of horizontal bars appears on days surrounding each milestone (represented as a small diamond); one bar equals 20 percent confidence that the milestone will be complete on that day (5 bars on a day means that according to the simulation, a milestone is 100% likely to be completed on that day). Hover over the bars on each day for greater detail.
OmniPlan 3 Pro offers several new custom column types in Task View that are useful for tracking and managing the budget of your project. This full implementation of the Earned Value Analysis method brings greater oversight and control over project expenses.
When paired with the new reports interface, keeping tabs on the cost of your project is easier than ever before.
With OmniPlan 3 Pro, we've prepared some great new reporting templates for your project that you can use to print or export your data with a more polished and easily readable look.
To preview your project with any of the available templates, use the Reports button in the toolbar or choose File ▸ Reports.. to access the new HTML reports interface. You can print your report with the chosen template directly from the interface.
- Microsoft Project Import and Export — consistently updated interoperability with Microsoft's project management software
- Publishing, Subscribing, and Change Tracking — multi-user sync and collaboration across one or many projects
- AppleScript Support — automate common actions and extend beyond the app with the OmniPlan AppleScript library
If you're an existing user of OmniPlan, you're on the Pro upgrade path already. If you're a new user considering OmniPlan, you now have the option of the Standard version with all the things you need to get started, or the Pro version that includes the features described above.
The OmniPlan Pro upgrade is available as an in-app purchase via the Mac App Store if you purchased it there, or from Omni's own online store.
How to Try Pro
You can download the trial version of OmniPlan from our website. At any time throughout the trial period you can switch between Standard and Pro using OmniPlan ▸ Free Trial Mode ▸ Try Pro/Standard Edition to compare features and see which is the right fit for your needs.
Likewise, if you purchased OmniPlan 3 Standard from the Mac App Store you can download the trial version from the Omni website and run it side by side to compare features.
If you own a Standard license from the Omni store and would like to try Pro, if you're still within the trial period you can temporarily delete your license (OmniPlan ▸ Licenses) to revert to trial mode and give Pro a try. If you're outside the trial period, contact us and we'll be happy to provide a Pro trial license.
Note
Unsure whether you have Pro installed? Check OmniPlan ▸ About OmniPlan for details on the current version and licensing status of the app.
Using This Book
One of the beauties of having OmniPlan's documentation available in electronic form is that it's always available whenever you need it. We have built the documentation right into the Help menu. We have put all of the documentation on our website where it can be searched and bookmarked. And we're continuing the ongoing trend of creating EPUB versions of the docs and making them freely available on the iBooks Store.
Tell Us What You Think
We're constantly working on updates for our documentation. Whether it's CSS work, correcting the occasional typo (yeah, they do sometimes slip through), or adding details or clarification for a specific feature based on something we've heard from a customer, we're always trying to make our documentation better and more useful for you.
If you have any specific comments you'd like to send us about the documentation, please do. You can drop us an email message via our Support queue, or you can ping us on Twitter; we're @OmniWranglers.
Finally, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to read the docs.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
It's every manager's worst nightmare.
That ONE project that never seems to end. Nothing goes as planned and missed deadlines lurk around every corner. You can't remember the last time you laughed. Your boss is mad and your employees stumble around trying to figure out what to do next.
You drive home wondering what went wrong and why the universe is working against you. If only there was a better way.
It doesn't have to be this way.
By choosing the right project management software, projects won't throw you into that panic-inducing nightmare.
I've managed countless projects, hundreds of teams, and bounced around to every project management software you can think of.
From Wrike to Trello. Trello to Asana. From Asana back to Wrike.
Rinse and repeat with every possible combination of tools on the market.
OmniPlan includes a professional-grade default set of fonts and styles designed to clearly convey information about your project. The app also offers a full set of tools for customizing your document's presentation, from styles affecting the entire project down to individual bar colors in the Gantt chart. Styles View is where you'll go to customize the visual side of your project at a high level, and this chapter explains how it's done.
As you move between views in OmniPlan, the inspectors bring continuity to your experience and provide detailed access to controls for whatever aspect of the project you're working on at the moment. This chapter details the settings each inspector provides for your Project Info, Milestones, Tasks, Resources, Styles, Custom Data, and Attachments.
OmniPlan contains all the tools you need to execute projects at all levels of complexity, but sometimes external requirements call for interaction outside the OmniSphere. Luckily, OmniPlan is great at those too! Here you'll find details on all the formats the app can understand and export, as well as details on Microsoft Project support present in OmniPlan Pro.
When it comes time to share your project with colleagues or the outside world, OmniPlan Pro's new and improved reporting interface makes it stand out from the crowd. This chapter covers the finer points of generating reports using the HTML themes included with OmniPlan, and provides tips for modifying them or creating your own. Printing reports — to paper or PDF — is also fully supported.
This chapter covers a variety of customization options to get OmniPlan working the best for you. Within OmniPlan Preferences you'll find custom controls for data entry, display of times and dates, document and HTML template management, server repository account settings (in OmniPlan Pro), and options for when and how OmniPlan should check for updates to itself.
The glossary contains an alphabetical list of special terms you'll encounter throughout the app, this documentation, and other project management resources you might be familiar with. If you're just starting out in project management or you're curious about how OmniPlan implements certain concepts, this is a great chapter to check.
For the most part, you should never have to worry about your Omni license, particularly if you've purchased OmniPlan from the Mac App Store. If you purchased OmniPlan from our website, however, you need to enter specific information from the license email you received from us.
This brief chapter walks you through the process of adding your license info in OmniPlan, shows you how to remove a license, and even tells you where we 'hide' the license on your Mac just in case you ever need to send that to us or transfer it to that brand new Mac you've purchased.
If you ever get stuck when working on something in OmniPlan, or if you have a problem with the app's license, or you just want to tell our Support Humans and the DocWranglers what an awesome job they're doing, feel free to get in touch. This chapter points you to all of the resources we have available: Support Humans, Support Articles, Videos, and Documentation.
Tip
If you're currently using other versions of OmniPlan (iOS or earlier Mac versions) and want to get up to speed as quickly as possible with projects already in progress, see the Features of OmniPlan 3 section of this chapter. For projects with multiple contributors, see Collaborating with Multiple Contributors for a quick start guide to getting synced.
Features of OmniPlan 3
The newest version of OmniPlan has been redesigned from the ground up to complement the ways you work. From beginning your first project to completing its final task you'll find things throughout the app — as well as brand new features — that improve the experience over previous versions. If you're new to OmniPlan, you're in for the best app that it's ever been.
In addition to the updated look and feel of interactions throughout the app, the following brand new features have been added in OmniPlan 3:
The look of the inspectors has been updated to a clean new visual style consistent with design trends in Apple's most recent versions of OS X. And as with Omni's other Mac apps, selecting an item in your current view smartly selects the inspector most relevant to your selection.
Beyond these interaction improvements, the inspectors have been reorganized into discrete categories that live in tabs across top of the inspector sidebar. The largest change comes to the Project inspectors, with styles governing the entire project moved out of the inspectors to the new Styles View.
One of our goals in OmniPlan 3 is to prioritize how you want your project set up, so it'll look just as great as the precious information it holds. The new Styles View treats the overall look of your project as a peer of other views on your data, and teams up with the Style inspector to edit the appearance of the Gantt chart, text, columns, and rows of your document to your exact specifications.
Try out Styles View by clicking the rightmost button in the view switcher in the toolbar.
Network View is a new way to look at your project, showing it as a diagram that emphasizes the relationship of dependencies between tasks rather than the chronological view presented by the Gantt chart. You can try Network View by clicking the fourth button in the view switcher in the toolbar.
The new Meeting task type is useful when an entire project team (or subset of the team) is required to work on a task simultaneously. When a task is set as a meeting, it will not be scheduled until all of the resources assigned to it are available.
Whether multiple resources work on a task independently or in the meeting format is determined by a switch in the Resource Allocation section of the Task inspector.
Introducing OmniPlan Pro
Many OmniPlan users find that the tools to create, maintain, monitor, and complete a project — all features of the base app — fully encompass their needs. If your project management system requirements are more complex, we offer a package of additional tools designed to extend OmniPlan to unprecedented levels of flexibility, extensibility, and power.
The suite of OmniPlan Pro upgrade features includes:
In OmniPlan 3 Pro, get a customizable overview of multiple interconnected projects with the Multi-Project Dashboards feature. Choose File ▸ New Dashboard to create a new project group; then drag and drop OmniPlan project files onto the view, and they'll be magically added for your perusal.
Another new feature in OmniPlan 3 Pro is the ability to estimate on-time project and milestone completion using Monte Carlo simulations. These are a great aid for planning ahead, providing tip-offs for when resources should be shifted to ensure on-time project completion. The simulation package also provides a handy Auto-Estimate Effort tool for tasks where effort isn't already assigned, making completion forecasts quick and easy.
Upon running a simulation, a set of horizontal bars appears on days surrounding each milestone (represented as a small diamond); one bar equals 20 percent confidence that the milestone will be complete on that day (5 bars on a day means that according to the simulation, a milestone is 100% likely to be completed on that day). Hover over the bars on each day for greater detail.
OmniPlan 3 Pro offers several new custom column types in Task View that are useful for tracking and managing the budget of your project. This full implementation of the Earned Value Analysis method brings greater oversight and control over project expenses.
When paired with the new reports interface, keeping tabs on the cost of your project is easier than ever before.
With OmniPlan 3 Pro, we've prepared some great new reporting templates for your project that you can use to print or export your data with a more polished and easily readable look.
To preview your project with any of the available templates, use the Reports button in the toolbar or choose File ▸ Reports.. to access the new HTML reports interface. You can print your report with the chosen template directly from the interface.
- Microsoft Project Import and Export — consistently updated interoperability with Microsoft's project management software
- Publishing, Subscribing, and Change Tracking — multi-user sync and collaboration across one or many projects
- AppleScript Support — automate common actions and extend beyond the app with the OmniPlan AppleScript library
If you're an existing user of OmniPlan, you're on the Pro upgrade path already. If you're a new user considering OmniPlan, you now have the option of the Standard version with all the things you need to get started, or the Pro version that includes the features described above.
The OmniPlan Pro upgrade is available as an in-app purchase via the Mac App Store if you purchased it there, or from Omni's own online store.
How to Try Pro
You can download the trial version of OmniPlan from our website. At any time throughout the trial period you can switch between Standard and Pro using OmniPlan ▸ Free Trial Mode ▸ Try Pro/Standard Edition to compare features and see which is the right fit for your needs.
Likewise, if you purchased OmniPlan 3 Standard from the Mac App Store you can download the trial version from the Omni website and run it side by side to compare features.
If you own a Standard license from the Omni store and would like to try Pro, if you're still within the trial period you can temporarily delete your license (OmniPlan ▸ Licenses) to revert to trial mode and give Pro a try. If you're outside the trial period, contact us and we'll be happy to provide a Pro trial license.
Note
Unsure whether you have Pro installed? Check OmniPlan ▸ About OmniPlan for details on the current version and licensing status of the app.
Using This Book
One of the beauties of having OmniPlan's documentation available in electronic form is that it's always available whenever you need it. We have built the documentation right into the Help menu. We have put all of the documentation on our website where it can be searched and bookmarked. And we're continuing the ongoing trend of creating EPUB versions of the docs and making them freely available on the iBooks Store.
Tell Us What You Think
We're constantly working on updates for our documentation. Whether it's CSS work, correcting the occasional typo (yeah, they do sometimes slip through), or adding details or clarification for a specific feature based on something we've heard from a customer, we're always trying to make our documentation better and more useful for you.
If you have any specific comments you'd like to send us about the documentation, please do. You can drop us an email message via our Support queue, or you can ping us on Twitter; we're @OmniWranglers.
Finally, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to read the docs.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
It's every manager's worst nightmare.
That ONE project that never seems to end. Nothing goes as planned and missed deadlines lurk around every corner. You can't remember the last time you laughed. Your boss is mad and your employees stumble around trying to figure out what to do next.
You drive home wondering what went wrong and why the universe is working against you. If only there was a better way.
It doesn't have to be this way.
By choosing the right project management software, projects won't throw you into that panic-inducing nightmare.
I've managed countless projects, hundreds of teams, and bounced around to every project management software you can think of.
From Wrike to Trello. Trello to Asana. From Asana back to Wrike.
Rinse and repeat with every possible combination of tools on the market.
And you want to know a secret? It doesn't matter which project management tool you use as long as you pick the right one and stick to it.
But to help make your decision easier, I reviewed six of my favorite options and put together a list of what to consider as you go through the process of choosing the right software.
The top 6 options for project management software
- Zoho Projects – Best for versatility
- Wrike – Best for marketing teams
- Teamwork – Best for remote teams
- Asana – Best for small teams
- Smartsheet – Best for large teams
- Trello – Best free project management software
How to choose the project management software for you
The best project management software for you depends on your projects' complexity, the size of your team, and the features you need.
And choosing the right one can feel impossible because there are thousands of different tools.
So before we dive into my top recommendations, let's talk about what to look for as you go through the process of finding the right software.
Number of users
Most project management software is charged on a per user per month basis. So, it's crucial to understand how many seats you need and your budget.
If you have a large team with hundreds of users, you're better off choosing an enterprise plan with custom pricing to get the most bang for your buck.
However, if you have less than 15 people, Asana is an excellent choice (free for up to 15 users).
And if you have fewer than three users, you can use Zoho Projects for free as well.
Project complexity
For simple and straightforward projects, basic project management software is all you need.
And you can probably get by using a free forever plan with Trello, Asana, or Zoho Projects.
However, as your projects get more complex, you need more robust features. So, you may need to upgrade to a paid plan if you go with a basic project management software.
On the other hand, tools like Wrike and Smartsheet offer more advanced and industry-specific capabilities. But they come with a higher price tag.
Task management
Task management is one of the most important features to pay attention to.
While most project management software includes basic task management, it's important to consider the advanced capabilities you need.
Do you need to create task dependencies? Maybe you need to create recurring tasks on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. Or perhaps you want to assign multiple people to the same task.
This also includes things like:
- Checklists and due dates
- File attachments
- Task archiving/deleting
- Task prioritization
- Automation
- Subtasks
So, carefully consider how you plan to manage projects and the task management features you need before making any decisions.
Discussion features
The best project management software includes internal discussion features like comments, forums, or instant messaging.
This is an essential feature that lets you keep discussions streamlined and intact with the different tasks or phases of your project. Rather than searching through thousands of emails, you can open the task and see everything related to it right away.
All of my top recommendations include this in some capacity. But make sure the software you choose includes robust discussion features as well.
Customization
Every project and team is different.
So it's important that your project management software can adapt to meet your needs. Whether that's a fully branded dashboard, the flexibility to scale, or improved functionality with the right integrations.
Furthermore, think about how you want to view and share project progress. Different software offers different project views, reporting, and analytics.
Start by creating a complete list of required features and integrations.
Lastly, consider everything you need your software to do and speak to a sales team to make sure their tool can handle your top priorities within your budget.
The different types of project management software
There are various different types of project management software. Some are much better than others while some are reserved specifically for developers or enterprises with a large budget.
Let's walk through them together.
Cloud-based
All of my top recommendations are cloud-based software. This means that the software lives on a cloud server and you can access it from any web browser on any device.
This is the preferred type for most users because it's easy to use, doesn't require any infrastructure on your part, and you can access everything regardless of where you are.
You typically pay for this type of software on a per user per month basis.
Industry-specific
Different types of projects may require industry-specific solutions.
These make your life easier with pre-made templates, automated workflows, and more features specific to the types of projects you're managing.
Most of the software on this list offer solutions for industries like:
- Digital marketing
- Manufacturing
- Education
- Real estate
- Construction
- Software development
- Remote teams
With that said, these companies also offer standard subscriptions at reasonable prices that don't include industry-specific tools.
So you don't have to use these higher-priced solutions unless you want to.
Most of these solutions come with custom pricing based on your specific needs. So they may be outside your budget, especially if you're a small company or a brand new business.
On-premise
On-premise project management software lives on your servers, rather than on the cloud. And while it's more secure, you can only access the software from devices on your network.
You also may need to install new infrastructure or hire an in-house maintenance team to update and maintain the software for you.
This is why none of the recommendations on this list are on-premise solutions.
Open API
Open API software is perfect for developers or if you're interested in hiring a developer to create a custom project management solution for your business.
Gopanel 1 9 4 – manage web servers 1 8. This type of software is highly customizable but difficult to manage if you're not a developer.
And this level of customization isn't necessary for most users. So, I didn't include any open API software on this list.
#1 – Zoho Projects Review — The best for versatility
For most users, Zoho Projects is my top recommendation.
They offer a free forever plan, and paid plans start at just $3 per user per month. So, it's incredibly affordable for small businesses and can scale as your business grows.
Whether you're managing simple or complex projects, Zoho has everything you need, including powerful features like:
- Hosted file storage
- Task dependencies
- Recurring tasks
- Visual workflow builder
- Time tracking
- Task assignments and prioritization
- Chats, forums, and feeds
- Reporting and analytics
The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create workflows and track project progress quickly. Plus, you can view projects using Kanban, Gantt, or calendar views.
Furthermore, their internal communication tools (chat, forum, and feed) streamline team collaboration where it matters most.
You can also take advantage of more than 100+ built-in integrations with business tools you're already using to run and manage your business.
These integrations include Slack, Zapier, DropBox, and more.
Zoho's plans include:
- Free — up to 3 users, two projects, and 10 MB of storage
- Standard — $3/user per month and up to 10 projects (between 6 and 10 users)
- Express — $4/user per month + unlimited projects (between 12 and 50 users)
- Premium — $5/user per month + unlimited projects (between 15 and 100 users)
- Enterprise — $6/user per month + unlimited projects (for 20+ users)
Start your 10-day free trial to take Zoho for a test drive today.
#2 – Wrike Review — The best for marketing teams
Over 20,000+ businesses, including Google, Airbnb, and Dell, use Wrike to manage marketing and sales projects worldwide.
With Wrike, your project management software adapts to meet your needs, rather than the other way around. And features like custom workflows and dashboards, automation, and real-time communication make this an excellent choice for dynamic marketing teams of all sizes.
You also get end-to-end visualization so you can hone in on problem areas while maintaining constant forward movement with each project as a whole.
Furthermore, Wrike includes powerful marketing-specific templates including
- Campaign management
- Product launching
- Marketing operations
- Content creation
- Event management
And you can combine those with standard project management features like task management, proofing and approvals, communication tools, and real-time progress visibility.
Project views include board, spreadsheet, Gantt, calendar, and custom views.
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Wrike also includes seamless integrations with 400+ business tools, like Salesforce, G Mail, and Google Drive. So, you don't have to worry about software incompatibility issues or anything like that.
You can start on their free forever plan for up to five users, but you may find it limiting. Paid plans include:
- Professional — $9.80/user per month (5 – 15 users)
- Business — $24.80/user per month (5 – 200 users)
- Enterprise — Custom (5 – unlimited users)
They also offer tailored plans for marketing teams, but you have to contact them for a custom quote. However, it includes specialty templates, Wrike Proof, and more.
Start your 14-day free trial or sign up for a free forever plan to get started today.
#3 – Teamwork Review — The best for remote teams
If you're managing a remote team (or a soon-to-be remote team), Teamwork is an excellent choice. Their remote work module is specifically for distributed teams who need a flexible way to keep work moving forward.
20,000+ teams plus big names, including Disney, Netflix, and Spotify, rely on Teamwork for their remote project management needs — and for a good reason.
The software makes collaboration, task management, and project visibility a breeze regardless of where your team lives (and works). And as Teamwork says, 'Just because you're not in the same room doesn't mean you can't be on the same page.'
This remote project management software includes excellent features like:
- Internal chat software
- Centralized workspaces
- Board views
- Custom project templates
- Workload balancing
- Time tracking
- Gantt charts
Furthermore, you can pick and choose which software you need. Or, you can save 49% by bundling all of Teamwork's software together.
At $35/mo per user (minimum of five users), it's more suitable for businesses with a decent budget. But, their project management module alone is much more affordable, starting at $10/mo per user.
Alternatively, you can start with a free forever plan for up to five users and two projects. This is an excellent choice for small teams or fast-growth companies.
Sign up for a 30-day free trial to try Teamwork's remote project management solution today.
#4 – Asana Review — The best for small teams
Asana is an excellent choice for teams of up to 15 people.
And with millions of users spanning 190+ countries worldwide, you can rest assured you're in good hands.
Their free forever plan includes 15 seats, unlimited tasks and projects, assignees, due dates, and everything you need (aside from a few advanced features) to manage projects of all sizes efficiently.
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With Asana, you can map out even the smallest steps of every project to ensure forward movement and track your team's progress along the way.
Furthermore, you can enjoy features like: Ableton live 10 1 47.
- Drag-and-drop board views
- Timeline views
- Automated workflows
- Work requests and forms
- Calendar view
- Portfolio overviews
- Workload balance
- Custom fields
- Reusable templates
Not only that, but the entire interface is beautiful and easy to navigate.
You can choose between pre-made industry templates or create your own to get your team on track in no time.
And with 100+ integrations including Adobe, Slack, Gmail, Chrome, Drive, and more, you can rest easy knowing Asana plays well with the tools you're already using.
Plus, you can share files, communicate, and share feedback all in one place.
With a free price tag (for up to 15 users), Asana's hard to beat. However, if you outgrow the free plan, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans, including:
- Premium — $10.99 per user per month
- Business — $24.99 per user per month
- Enterprise — custom pricing only
Sign up for a free forever plan to get started with Asana today!
#5 – Smartsheet Review — The best for large teams
Smartsheet is a dynamic project management software built for enterprises and large teams. However, the solution is flexible enough to suit businesses and projects of all sizes.
They specialize in rapid-movement projects with a ton of moving parts. So, you can trust Smartsheet for even the most complicated projects.
With Smartsheet, you can gain end-to-end project visibility with grid, card, Gantt, and calendar views. Furthermore, you can gather data from forms, automated workflows, and recurring tasks to see what you need to see, and when.
However, the software goes beyond essential project management. It's an award-winning work execution platform that's easy to implement, manage, and maintain.
Plus, 75% of fortune 500 companies use Smartsheet to get things done.
So, you're in good company.
All plans also include on-demand customer support, continuous education materials, training + certification programs, and consulting services to help you make the most of your new project management software.
And you also get collaboration tools, all four project views, and extensive mobile apps/integrations with every plan.
While Smartsheet is overkill for most small businesses, it's an excellent choice for large companies and enterprises looking to streamline their business processes.
Their paid plans include:
- Individual — $14 per month
- Business — $25 per user per month (minimum of three users)
- Enterprise — custom (enterprise-grade features and tools)
- Premier — custom (enterprise + premium features and tools)
Sign up for a 30-day free trial to try Smartsheets risk-free with no credit card required.
#6 – Trello Review — The best free project management software
If you're on a tight budget, Trello is an excellent free project management software.
Plus, millions of users, including Pinterest, Peloton, Fender, and Costco, rely on it to map out and manage projects of all shapes and sizes.
It's an excellent tool for basic visual project management for any type of project, from home improvement and side hustles to marketing campaigns and full-blown business operations as well.
Trello uses boards, cards, and lists to organize projects, making it a familiar and comfortable platform. You can drag and drop cards, move cards to new boards, and cross tasks off as you go along.
Furthermore, you can create automatic workflows with rule-based triggers, calendar commands, and more.
Plus, the free forever plan includes intuitive features like:
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- Unlimited personal boards
- Unlimited cards and lists
- 10 MB file attachments
- Up to 10 team boards
- Basic automation
- And two-factor authentication
It's an excellent solution for teams of all sizes since everyone can join for free. However, you need to upgrade to a paid plan if you need more than ten team boards.
And if you outgrow the free plan, you can upgrade to an affordable paid plan for more advanced features. Trello's paid plans include:
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- Business Class — $9.99/user per month
- Enterprise — $17.50/user per month
Sign up for a free forever plan to get started with Trello today.
Summary
Zoho Projects is my #1 recommendation for most users, starting at just $3 per user per month with an extensive free forever plan as well.
However, there isn't a one-size-fits-all project management solution.
So, make sure you understand your needs and requirements before making any decisions. And don't forget to use the criteria we talked about as you go through the process.
What's your go-to project management software?