10 Best Resource Management Software
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
Get free help from our HR software advisors to find your match.
Human resources are at the core of resource management software. Project managers use it to keep tabs on what the team is doing and if they are free to take on more tasks. This is especially useful, considering most project managers are running 2-5 projects at the same time!
However, if you are currently on the fence about whether you should invest or not in software like this, let me give you a quick thought. Resource management software can help you create a culture of retention. How? It gives you information on the workload of your team. Having a view that shows you allocation percentages can help you control workloads and make sure your resources are not on the brink of burnout.
So keep your team at healthy (not 100%) levels of allocation, give them time to develop their skills, and enjoy a more committed and efficient team.
How We Picked The Best Resource Management Software
I evaluated and compared the most popular resource management tools on the market, both for their reviews and user interface. Then I weighed factors that make workforce management software a good option for resource management specifically, such as the ones that follow.
- User Interface (UI): The amount of information related to resources can be overwhelming, especially as our projects grow. Therefore, the software we use must make good use of white spaces and have easy-to-navigate toolbars and menus so we can find our way through the tool.
- Range of features: I looked at all the different angles from which you can see your resources. Whether that is from a timesheet, workload view, capacity hours, time reports, or project views by resource.
- Integrations: Some software on this list might not have the level of depth required to be excellent resource management software, but they use integrations to compensate for that. Integrations extend the functionality of a platform by connecting it to external tools.
- Pricing: I searched through pricing information to find if there are free versions of the software, free trials, and the starting price of paid plans. There should be a balance between price and value.
The Best Resource Management Software Comparison Chart
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the baffling array of resource planning software out there. Below, we’ve put together a reader-friendly table neatly summarizing basic info about the tools described in this article.
Tool | Best For | Trial Info | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Best for intuitive resource management | 30-day free trial available | From $6/scheduled user/month | Website | |
2 | Best for real-time resource utilization | Not available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
3 | Best for hassle-free resource booking | 30-day free trial | From $4.16/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
4 | Best for simple workload planning | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
5 | Best for midsize and large companies | 14-day free trial + free demo available | From $7/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
6 | Best for project portfolio resource management | 15-day free trial | From $599/month | Website | |
7 | Best for enterprise resource management | 60-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Website | |
8 | Best for Microsoft users | 30-day free trial | From $10/user/month (billed annually) | Website | |
9 | Best for scenario planning | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Website | |
10 | Best for resource monitoring through project dashboards | 30-day free trial | From $13/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
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HiThrive
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6 -
Willo
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.8 -
ClearCompany
This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.6
Reviews Of The Best Resource Management Software
Have a look and sign up for some trials to test-drive and find the best resource management software for your case.
Float is a resource management software that helps professional services teams allocate, scope, and report on client work to improve their profitability.
Why I picked Float: Float deserves its spot on my list because its scheduling functionality is easy and intuitive, and it’s purpose-built for professional services. On the scheduling front, you can quickly create and assign new allocations to your team within seconds. The schedule view gives you an accurate, high-level overview of your team’s availability and capacity, and you can drill down deeper using Float’s search and filter functionality. I especially love that you can set custom work hours, assign localized public holidays, schedule time off, and add custom tags like location and skills to your people and projects. The platform also includes individual and team-wide utilization rates, rate tracking, and budgeting by hours, all of which are beneficial in the professional services world.
Float Standout Features and Integrations
Features include Float's time-tracking functionality. When added, you can access pre-filled timesheets and compare your team’s scheduled hours with the actual time spent on tasks to maximize future resource allocation. Real-time reporting lets you track your resource utilization, monitor project budgets, and forecast your team’s capacity. Further features that I think are notable include capacity management, project planning, and estimations.
Integrations include Jira, Asana, Teamwork, Trello, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Slack, and thousands more using Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Mobile app for iOS and Android
- 99.5% uptime
- 24-hour support with 30 min response time
Cons:
- Time tracking requires you to get a higher plan
- Updating staff/personnel list takes time
Kantata is a well-rounded tool that bridges the core planning, execution, project accounting, and analysis systems in a single operating environment. It has modules for project management, accounting, resource management, business intelligence, and team collaboration for services teams and agencies.
Why I picked Kantata: What appeals to me about Kantata is their system of dashboards, live time and expense tracking features, and their great documenting system. The resource management module offers real-time utilization and margins at the project and even the task level. From what I've seen, Kantata truly offers a comprehensive RM suite that even includes accounting tools like project costing, budget management, and invoicing. Despite requiring time to really master, Kantata has been widely recognized as being easy to use and learn and I believe that Kantata's benefits are worth the time.
Kantata Standout Features & Integrations
Features include dynamic margin tracking at both project and task levels that provide granular insights into profitability and allow businesses to optimize resources for maximum financial impact. Additionally, Kantata offers access to its BI Consultants, a team of experts who can design custom reports and provide tailored training to ensure your business can maximize the platform’s value while reducing implementation risks.
Integrations include pre-built integrations with tools like Expensify, G Suite, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Xero, Salesforce, Slack, Concur, Qualtrics, Dynamics 365, and Quickbooks. They also provide an integration platform called M-Bridge to help you build your own integrations.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Resourcing fully integrated with master planning
- Good reporting functionality for resource data
- Distinguish between soft and firm allocation
- Easy capacity management
Cons:
- Advanced features are available only in the Premier and Enterprise editions of the application
- Proofing solution is an add-on
- Custom reports can be difficult to create without training
Resource Guru is a dedicated resource management software that aims to make resource management user-friendly with quick scheduling tools.
Why I picked Resource Guru: I chose Resource Guru for this list because of its conflict resolution capabilities. Resource management and team collaboration are built in to make resource booking more straightforward, with clash management, leave management, and a waiting list to prevent over-booking. It helps project managers make bookings simultaneously with no chance of stepping on each other’s toes. Clashes are automatically prevented, which I hope will save you a huge headache.
Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations
Features include individual resource dashboards that allow team members to log in and view their specific tasks, bookings, and priorities in real time. The platform's 'availability bar' also visually displays resource capacity across the team, preventing overallocation and maintaining balanced workloads.
Integrations include calendar apps like Outlook calendar, Calendly, and Google calendar. Thousands of additional apps are accessible through Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Daily resource summary emails
- Attractive and flexible UI
- Very affordable per-user rate
- Availability bar for capacity planning
Cons:
- No copy-paste of resource tasks
- Unable to sort resources by experience level
monday.com is a flexible work platform to help teams communicate in context and get a big picture of outstanding projects, available resources, and projected timelines.
Why I picked monday.com: I chose monday.com primarily for its smart design and straightforward interface. In my opinion, even team members who are lacking resource management experience can quickly get started planning timelines, assigning project ownership, and managing projects. The monday.com app also gives you the flexibility and power to run your team on the go, which I think is a great feature for busy managers. You can organize your daily work, projects, and teams as well as establish workflow automations, share documents, and create Gantt charts for further clarity.
monday.com Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a dependency tracking feature that ensures task assignments and timelines are automatically adjusted when project dependencies shift. Additionally, monday.com’s time estimation column allows teams to compare planned vs. actual time spent on tasks, which can help improve forecasting accuracy and enable data-driven resource planning.
Integrations include apps like Slack, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Excel, Google Drive, Gmail, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform, and thousands more accessible via Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- New features being rolled out regularly
- Easily create boards dedicated to operational resource tracking
- Color coded status great for resource overviews
Cons:
- Comparatively complex pricing rubric
- May be too robust for small teams
- Gantt charts locked to mid-level plan
Hub Planner is a versatile solution designed for managing resources and projects at scale. It caters to companies with complex resource needs by helping teams allocate workloads and track time effectively. This software is particularly well-suited for organizations handling multiple projects and requiring detailed oversight.
Why I picked Hub Planner: Hub Planner offers advanced scheduling tools that allow you to assign tasks and visualize resource allocation effortlessly. Its timesheets feature integrates seamlessly with scheduling, helping your team track hours and analyze productivity. Additionally, the built-in reporting functionality provides actionable insights for improving project performance. These features are ideal for midsize and large companies managing diverse resources and complex projects.
Standout features & integrations:
Features include a vacation and leave management functionality that enables teams to plan around availability gaps without disrupting project timelines. The platform's resource utilization heatmaps also provide a quick visual overview of under- or over-utilized resources to ensure optimal workload distribution.
Integrations include Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Slack, Zapier, Jira, Trello, Asana, Salesforce, Harvest, and Basecamp.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy toggle between user/group
- Powerful & precise built-in reporting
- Search filter for available resources with skill sets & location
- Excellent capacity planning & forecasting
Cons:
- Need an API or intermediary for MS Teams
- Editing Custom Fields requires manual input or help from Hub Planner support
- Need to click into modal for more details on events/projects bookings
Acuity PPM is a project portfolio management tool designed to help organizations track and manage their project portfolio with ease. It simplifies reporting, supports strategic planning, and assists with resource management, project scoring, and prioritization.
Why I picked Acuity PPM: Unlike many other project portfolio management (PPM) tools, Acuity PPM offers real-time adjustments and forecasting of resource allocation, which helps prevent overallocation and underutilization. This feature is particularly beneficial for organizations that manage multiple projects simultaneously, as it ensures that resources are optimally utilized. The strategic alignment scorecards further add value by helping organizations evaluate how well their projects align with strategic objectives.
Acuity PPM Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a portfolio tracking capability that centralizes all status reports to provide real-time reporting and improved visibility. The portfolio roadmap feature also supports strategic planning by visualizing the timing and sequencing of projects, helping to identify dependencies and avoid organizational conflicts. Additionally, the platform offers work intake capabilities for managing new project requests.
Integrations include Trello, Google Sheets, Asana, monday.com, and Smartsheet.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Allows for real-time adjustments and forecasting of resource allocation
- Strategic alignment scorecards and advanced scenario planning
- Detailed and customizable reports
Cons:
- New users may find the interface and functionalities complex
- Pricing may be expensive for those with limited budgets
Saviom is a resource management software that I believe is best suited to large enterprises. It's equipped to provide a visual overview of complex team needs and scheduling for projects with multiple moving pieces.
Why I picked Saviom: I chose Saviom for this list because it allows you to quickly identify which resources should be allocated where, based on factors like cost, availability, location, and competency, across the enterprise. You can easily gain high level visibility even in the presence of complicated matrices (for example, when you have verticals like domains, regions, teams, and departments, in addition to individual projects). Their project forecasting functionality helps to identify future vacancies, while keeping an eye on financials like profit margin, revenue, and costs.
Saviom Standout Features & Integrations
Features include a multidimensional resource scheduler that accommodates complex organizational structures, such as multiple verticals, regions, and departments, while maintaining a clear view of resource availability and allocation. Saviom’s highly configurable business intelligence tools can also help enterprises tailor dashboards, reports, and analytics to their unique requirements.
Integrations include Outlook, Google, Salesforce, Jira, and custom integrations you can build using its data exchange framework.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Seamless integration with other enterprise applications
- Highly flexible real-time reports, analytics & dashboards
- Real-time resource optimization, modeling & simulation
- Highly configurable & customizable RM solution
- Multidimensional resource forecasting & capacity planning
Cons:
- Pricing is available only on request
- More suitable for medium to large enterprises
- There is a learning curve as the tool comes with extensive features
Microsoft Project includes familiar management tools for assigning project tasks to team members and using different views like Grid, Board, and Timeline (Gantt chart) to oversee the resource planning. Users can view and compare how resources are used across projects to optimize assignments.
In my experience, most people have used a Microsoft platform before. If you are familiar with other Microsoft programs, in particular Excel, then the interface and navigation will be familiar to you. I believe that this can help teams on a Usability level, as familiar software makes for easier training.
However, you probably know as well as I do that Microsoft isn't always perfect. A few critiques that would make this solution better for resource management is that you can’t open different projects across different windows (for, say, easily comparing resources between the two) and PDF exports look messy, so if you use them for reports or printable projects you will need some manual design intervention.
Integrations include other Microsoft software, like Outlook, Excel, Skype, and more.
MS Projects costs from $7/user/month and has a free 30-day trial.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy integration with other Microsoft software
- Driver prioritization module for ranking strategies/objectives
- Helpful project template descriptions for guidance
- Can generate a Gantt chart from a spreadsheet
Cons:
- Few customization options
- Higher learning curve
- Limitations on collaboration tools
Anaplan is one of the best resource planning tools out there, and it’s great for project managers who love strategizing and planning to the smallest detail.
Why I picked Anaplan: The software's planning features enable you to create different scenarios based on forecasts, which are then updated automatically in real-time as information becomes available. With Anaplan, it’s easy to prepare for multiple scenarios with different outcomes. You can quickly generate reports for your stakeholders as each scenario unfolds.
Anaplan is a flexible project management software. You can tailor its interface to suit your needs, create custom fields and eliminate the sections you don’t use.
Anaplan Standout Features & Integrations
Features include skill gap analysis, which allows managers to identify discrepancies between current team capabilities and project requirements to enable targeted upskilling or recruitment strategies. Furthermore, Anaplan’s workforce demand forecasting integrates with financial and operational data to provide a holistic view of resource needs to support strategic decision-making.
Integrations include Microsoft Office, DocuSign, and CloudWorks. You can integrate with HyperConnect for an additional cost.
Best for resource monitoring through project dashboards
ProjectManager.com is a resource management software for scheduling and allocating project resources. As a cloud-based software, the tool runs on both Windows and Mac computers and doesn't require download or installation.
I selected ProjectManager.com for this list because of its excellent resource monitoring tools. This is a project management solution where you can plan and assign resources, track task progress, and collaborate with teams easily through in-app communication features such as commenting on tasks. Other functionalities that stood out to me include assigning tasks to team members, creating project plans, managing tasks, and creating reports within the tool, as well as switching Gantt chart, task list, and Kanban board views.
In my experience, ProjectManager.com's real-time reports are easy to use—you can use their pre-set reports, or create your own custom reports. The real-time dashboard also provides an overview of current project stats, and allows user to manage tasks, workloads, progress, and costs.
Integrations include Google Apps like Drive, Gmail, Calendar, etc. as well as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Project. More integrations are available through Zapier.
Pricing for ProjectManager.com starts at $15/user/month, with their basic “Personal” plan requiring a minimum of 5 users. They offer a 30 day free trial (a credit card is required to sign up for a free trial).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Multilingual and very flexible
- Time and expense tracking
- Customizable schedule templates
- Excellent high level view of project
Cons:
- Doesn’t output schedule files to .mpp
- No way to update partially complete tasks
- No mobile app
Other Resource Management Solutions
None of the above work for you? Check out the below list of additional tools:
- Meisterplan
For role-based resource allocation
- ActiveCollab
For built-in invoicing
- Planview Clarizen
Enterprise-grade resource management tool
- Schedule It
For scheduling work shifts
- KeyedIn
For the PMO level
- PSOhub
RM that integrates with CRMs
- elapseit
For its features that support kickstart to invoice
- Mosaic
For its recommendations based on resource skills and availability
- Primetric
For IT service companies & digital agencies
- Apache OFBiz
For commerce-based resource planning
Check out our video on resource management software here:
Resource Management Software FAQs
Find answers to common questions about resource management and resource management software.
What is resource management?
How do you create a resource plan?
What is a resource forecast?
How do you calculate project resources?
Do I need resource management software?
Should I still be using spreadsheets?
What is resource management software?
What are the benefits of using resource management software?
What features should I look for when evaluating resource management software?
What's an example of an effective resource management system?
Other resource management lists
- Enterprise resource planning software for resource management at large companies.
- Resource planning software to help you forecast required resources and their utilization on your projects.
- Resource scheduling software to help you schedule equipment, rooms, staff, and other resources.
- Resource allocation software, which is specifically designed to help you alllocated the right resources to the right projects and tasks.
- Free resource management software, in case you need a less expensive option that will still cover your primary needs.
- Marketing resource management software (MRM software) which is designed specifically for marketing teams.
- Resource tracking software, which combines resource planning with tracking to help you monitor and adapt your plan as you go.
- Open source resource management software for extra flexibility and (often) cheaper pricing.
- Web-based resource scheduling software, in case you require a SaaS solution, rather than an on-premise option.
What's Next?
Now that you know some of the best resource management tools, you might want to read our complete guide to workload capacity to get the most out of your team, boost morale, and improve output.
However, if you want to explore what you can do with Excel a little longer, here's an example and free template on resource allocation.