Microsoft Project Alternatives for 2020

Microsoft project has been around forever. It has been updated occasionally, but it is still an old-style project management tool. Lots of people who used Microsoft projects are looking for Microsoft project alternatives.

To say the market for project management software is crowded in 2020 is the understatement of the century.

By the last count, there are around 120 vendors who sell some type of project management software.

That is a huge number! How a potential customer can evaluate so many applications in a timely fashion? 

The truth is that most people can’t evaluate so many applications, so they rely on vendors’ marketing schemes delivered by Google ads, review sites that compare biz app for a fee, or recommendations from colleagues and friends.

So how do you find the best Microsoft project alternatives which fit your team’s workflow and requirements?

To start with you need to choose a SaaS application that enables true collaboration. Lack of collaboration features was the biggest drawback of the Microsoft project.

Desktop apps like the Microsoft project don’t cut it anymore!   

The second requirement for good Microsoft project alternatives is integration with other apps like Google Drive, Google Calendar, Dropbox, Gmail, etc.

Integration with other apps extends the feasibility and usefulness of any business application including project management apps.      

Another must-have requirement is reasonable pricing. One of the biggest pain points about the Microsoft project was the exuberant pricing Microsoft charged for its project management software.

Best Microsoft project alternatives

We have evaluated the top project management apps in the market today. Of course, we are biased toward our own product but have tried very hard to take an even-handed approach for this evaluation.

For this evaluation, we have considered the following features for the applications we have covered here.

1. Ease of use
2. Cloud-based (SaaS)  
3. Ability to add subtasks
4. Recursive Tasks
5. Dependency
6. Milestones
7. List View
8. Due Time in addition to the start date and Due date   
9. Kanban Boards
10. Calendar
11. Custom fields  
12. Interactive Gantt/Timeline 
13. User select Dashboard views
14. Admin Console
15. Approvals
16. Rules 
17. Conversation and collaboration
18. Native cloud Storage
19. Resource planning
20. File Versioning
21. Portfolios
22. Data export
23. Data Import
24. Activity Log
25. Tags
26. Custom Links
27. Mentions (@name)
28. Templates
29. Markup/proofing
30. Interactive Whiteboard
31. Time tracking   
32. Support Agile methods
33. Support Waterfall method
34. Support Hybrid PM method 
35. Third-party Integration(Google Drive, Google Calendar, Dropbox, etc.)
36. Support for freelancers and small teams 

List of Microsoft project alternatives

We have selected 6 of the leading project management apps in the market for this comparison study. 

Binfire-  Established in 2010, Binfire is a provider work management app for both traditional and remote teams. All plans in Binfire include all features listed. The pricing varies only based on Storage and the level of support customers get.  

Asana- Was established in 2008 by ex-Facebook employees. The app was designed as a task manager first but migrated to a full project management app over the years.

Wrike-  Founded in 2003, it is one of the oldest cloud-based project management app. It provides a full set of project management tools for small to medium size companies. 

Monday- An Israeli-based project management founded in 2015. Monday used to be called DePuls but changed their name to Monday in 2018.

Basecamp- Was established in 1999 by Jason Fried is the oldest task management app and has a huge following due to its ethical practices.

Zoho- An Indian-based company providing a wide suite of business applications including project management.

SmartSheet- Was established in 2006 to create a task management application that is similar to Microsoft excel. 

                                                            Microsft project alternatives Table

We will update the Microsoft project alternatives table as vendors update their software and new features are introduced. If you know of any changes in these apps or inaccuracies in this table please let us know.

FAQ Section

 [sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h3″ question-0=”Is Microsoft project still relevant?” answer-0=”Yes, it is! The Microsoft project has a wealth of features only used for big and complicated projects. It is still the gold standard in project management software.” image-0=”” headline-1=”h3″ question-1=”Is Microsoft project hard to use?” answer-1=”Yes, Microsoft project is hard to use and for a good reason. Due its sheer number of features (most of them advanced concepts), it takes many months to learn to use it effectively.” image-1=”” headline-2=”h3″ question-2=”Does Microsoft project include communication features?” answer-2=”No, Microsoft project was not designed around collaboration and is lacking proper collaboration features.” image-2=”” headline-3=”h3″ question-3=”Is Microsoft project expensive” answer-3=”yes, like everything else from Microsoft, each seat costs hundreds of Dollars.” image-3=”” headline-4=”h3″ question-4=”Can all projects use Microsoft project?” answer-4=”Yes, but not recommended. The learning curve, cost, lack of collaboration, and complexity of Microsoft project makes it not suitable for most projects. ” image-4=”” count=”5″ html=”true” css_class=””]