Free Microsoft Project Online Alternative

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What's the best online alternative to MS Project?

Are you a project manager looking for the best free alternative to MS Project?

Maybe you’re fed up with its high price tag and inefficiencies and want a light, intuitive, and easy-to-use replacement. Or perhaps you use a Mac to get work done and need a Microsoft Project equivalent that’s compatible with MacOS.

There's no shortage of Microsoft Project alternatives. The question is: What's the best Microsoft Project replacement? Sure, we’re biased, but we have an answer to that question.

TeamGantt vs. Microsoft Project

Check out this comparison of TeamGantt vs Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management—with reviews by real people—on G2.

Intuitive interface with a minimal learning curve

TeamGantt

This project management software is seriously easy to use. You’ll be up and running in no time, thanks to a minimal learning curve. No feature bloat here. TeamGantt is intuitive, making it the perfect Microsoft Project replacement. 

Most people never use a fraction of bloated project management software. So we stripped away the extraneous and front-loaded the essential. By focusing on the 90% of the most-used features, we can deliver a powerfully simple solution. An example of this is our drag and drop dependencies.

Microsoft Project

One of the biggest complaints we hear about Microsoft Project is it’s overly complex to use and has a steep learning curve. You’ve got better things to do with your time than to spend hours on training and wading through a bunch of features you may never even use. 

And if your team can’t easily figure it out, you’ll have a hard time getting everyone to actually use the tool. That means even more time wasted trying to keep projects up-to-date and people in the loop. If you’re looking for project management software you and your team can jump right into, Microsoft Project isn’t your best option. 

Collaborate and communicate with ease

TeamGantt

Communication can make or break a project. TeamGantt makes it easy for your whole team to collaborate on a project so important details—and deadlines—don’t fall through the cracks. 

Once you invite users to your project, you can trade comments and upload documents to keep tasks and milestones moving forward. That way, critical files and decisions all live in one central place.

Worried your team won’t check TeamGantt on their own every day? Simply tag a user in your comment, and they’ll get an email notification alerting them to the update. 

Microsoft Project

Because Microsoft Project doesn’t support additional users, collaboration occurs elsewhere. 

For some projects, you may use MS Project to plan and track projects and another coordination tool to keep your team up-to-date. But then that leaves clients out of the loop, so you end up communicating with them via email. 

On other projects, email may serve as your primary collaboration tool. Keeping up with all the different email threads and attachments can quickly become a headache. 

Access for the whole team (even on a Mac)

TeamGantt

TeamGantt works on any computer—no download or installation needed—so you don’t have to use workarounds to keep people in the project loop. It’s an easy MS Project alternative for Mac users on your team.

Depending on the plan you have, you can invite some or all of your team members as users on a project. TeamGantt enables you to set permissions at both the account and project levels so you can control who has access to what. 

You might want to give stakeholders view-only access to a project, while granting team members full editing abilities so they can update and collaborate on tasks. Labels give you the flexibility to assign tasks to general categories or non-critical entities without counting against your plan’s user limit.

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project can’t be installed on a Mac, so that limits both use and access to the program.

You can create resources and assign tasks. However, these resources are likely to be your team members who need to be notified about new assignments and aware of upcoming deadlines. And from time to time, you’ll need to share the timeline with external stakeholders as well. 

Unless everyone has MS Project and can open large .mpp files, your only alternative for sharing the project is either to export it out to PDF or copy and paste then format the data in Excel.

View multiple projects at once

TeamGantt

Project managers need to be able to see the full picture of all the projects they’re juggling. TeamGantt allows you to open multiple projects so you can spot conflicts and plan more easily. There’s no need to switch back and forth between projects or open/close existing project files.

Microsoft Project

There’s no easy way to view multiple projects at once in Microsoft Project. This inefficiency can really slow you down when you’re trying to avoid scheduling conflicts or report on all the different projects you manage. 

Everything in one place

TeamGantt

As a project manager, your worst enemy is being blindsided. That’s why it’s important to see everything in a single view. With TeamGantt, all your schedules, resources, and estimates live on the gantt chart so you don’t have to waste time digging around for details. 

Microsoft Project

In MS Project, all the data is scattered across many screens. That means you have to navigate far out of the way to find resources like scheduling and estimates. Bouncing back and forth between screens makes it easy to lose track of important details and is just plain inefficient.

Save time with dynamic templates

TeamGantt

Over time, some of your projects may begin to look, feel, and act the same. The structure, flow, dependencies, and timelines share characteristics. In TeamGantt, any project can be a template. As that seed project evolves, the template evolves with it. No more using outdated templates!

You’ll also have access to a library of ready-made project templates to help you save time on setup. There are templates for industries like marketing, design & creative, construction, software development & engineering, and more. And the list continues to grow!

Microsoft Project

While MS Project allows you to create templates, those templates are static snapshots. If the original project you used to create a template evolves over time, you’ll have to apply those changes to the Microsoft Project template manually. That’s just one more thing to add to your already busy to-do list.

Stay on top of deadlines with time tracking

TeamGantt

Deadlines are moving targets, right? We get it. Unfortunately, not every project management software gets it like we do. 

If you need to move a timeline, change a target, or see how far you’ve strayed from Plan A, we’ve got you covered. The multiple baseline feature allows you to toggle between plans and get things back on track. 

Also, with time tracking built in, you can view actual vs. estimated time spent on all of your tasks. That makes it easy to spot work that’s running behind before a deadline gets missed.

Microsoft Project

If you’re looking for a tool that’s responsive enough to roll with the project punches, you won’t find it here. When deadlines change, it can be tough to adjust your plan in MS Project without breaking things in other places. Trying to track projects and keep them up-to-date with a complex and rigid interface can quickly become a nightmare.

Presenting made easy

TeamGantt

Presentation matters. Looks are a thing. With TeamGantt, you’ll look good without even trying. You can send a view-only link to your project, embed your gantt chart into a webpage, download it with a couple of clicks, or print a PDF that's beautiful. 

Microsoft Project

Those who have been crying for a Microsoft Project alternative wail the loudest over tweaking their chart to print and present the right way. And if that’s the only way you have to share updates with your team or stakeholders, it complicates things. Providing a quick status update should be hassle-free—especially if a client’s waiting for your reply.  

Easily check project health across your portfolio

TeamGantt

Want to see how all your projects are tracking? TeamGantt’s Project Health Report provides an at-a-glance view of your entire portfolio so you can see what’s going well and what’s running behind schedule. Quickly identify problem areas and address risk as work progresses. It’s also perfect for sharing on screen in meetings to keep your team or other stakeholders up-to-date.

Microsoft Project

Figuring out the current state of your projects isn’t an easy task in Microsoft Project—especially if you want to spot issues before they throw your project off track. Be prepared to go on a wild goose chase to gather the latest updates and piece together a report to bring all the fractured data into a single, unified place. Even then, you still may struggle to uncover tasks that are slipping before it’s too late.