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Zoho Projects Review: Free Plan & How It Works [2024]

Andrés Gánem

Zoho Projects definitely looks good, and it offers fantastic value for its price. It’s a particularly excellent software if you are familiar with the Zoho ecosystem  or you manage a small-to-medium-sized team.

But while there’s much to love about Zoho, it can get complicated to use if you manage large, complex projects. Read on to see what I mean.

zoho-projects-homepage

Zoho Projects is a robust and inexpensive software for project management. It can help you organize tasks, keep track of your team, and identify bottlenecks within a project. It also works together with the rest of Zoho’s ecosystem. So what’s the catch?

You’ve been on the internet long enough to know when something sounds too good to be true. And yes, there’s a reason why Zoho Projects is not my favorite project management tool.

Having tested it for weeks, I can tell you that there isn’t a lot of grey with Zoho Projects. If it’s right for you (for instance, if you manage a small to medium team), then it’s fantastic for you. If it isn’t, then it really isn’t.

Zoho Projects is available in over 20 languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Russian, and more (although the landing page only shows 13 languages). It offers a completely free plan for up to 3 users and a 10-day free trial for its highest-priced plan.

But is it a good fit for your needs? Find out below.

Zoho Projects Has an Impressive Set of Features That Really Work Together

Sure, Projects has some awesome individual features. They’re the ones that get mentioned in every commercial and placed in big, bold letters on top of the landing page. But what I liked the most was the way these features are brought together seamlessly in the same app.

Zoho might not have the most features, but what it does offer is laser-focused on improving project management and team efficiency.

Things like strict timelines, event planning, and activity streams (amongst many others) are good on their own, but when inside the same app, they can do wonders for your productivity.

Your Project Laid Out for You: Simply and Effectively

The default visualization in Zoho Projects is a Gantt chart, which helps you see every step of your project laid out before you in a timeline. You can set up four different dependencies between tasks:

  • Finish to start. Only begin a new task if you complete another.
  • Start to start. Only start a specific task if you have started another.
  • Finish to finish. Only complete a task if you have completed another.
  • Start to finish. Only end a task if you have started another.

zoho-projects-gantt-view

The Gantt chart updates automatically whenever you add a dependency, and you can set as many as you like between as many tasks as you want. If your project is complex, you can enable a “critical path,” which shows you the most effective order to complete your tasks.

If you need to get a different perspective, you can see your tasks in a Kanban view. Kanban shows your tasks as cards and lets you categorize tasks as open, in progress, in review, to be tested, on hold, and delayed. You can select plain or classic for a complete overview, which lists every task next to whatever information you choose.

Easily Keep Track of Your Team’s Work

Planning is only half of the battle in project management. You will need to keep track of the work being done and how much it will cost you. The built-in time tracking tool in Zoho Projects lets you do just that .

With Projects, you get full control over your projects’ time. You can set up timers to track whenever work on a task starts and stops, or set up time entries manually. For different tasks, you can set work-hour limits and restrict user permissions.

Zoho Projects is also one of the few project management software that lets you track multiple tasks simultaneously.

Solve Problems Faster with Issue Tracking

Any project is bound to run into a few bumps down the road. As a project manager, it’s your job to find the solution to any eventualities and get the work back on track. That’s where issue tracking comes in.

Issue tracking is a very simple idea on paper. You can associate issues to any task, assign users, set up deadlines, and even add reminders. Issues are registered automatically, so you don’t have to create a new one every time a recurring problem shows up.

Make the Most of Your Team with Resource Utilization

zoho-projects-resource-utilization

Imagine your workflow… well, like a flow. Obstructions are one thing that can slow your progress, but you also need to consider bottlenecks.

Resource utilization shows you which users are over or underworked. With the Resource utilization view, you can make smart decisions to keep workloads fair and your team happy .

Focus On What Matters and Let Blueprints Do the Rest

Any team or company has processes they need to repeat regularly. Be it a creative team going through concept reviews, a large firm hiring, or a startup communicating with potential clients. Monotony is not only boring, but it can also be dangerous.

Unless every step is properly defined and reviewed, the more a process is repeated, the more you increase your chances of making a mistake. Best-case scenario, you lose time and money; worst-case scenario, you make a crucial mistake that could cost you your entire project. Blueprints can save you from all of that.

When you make a blueprint in Zoho Projects , you define every step in a work process, from start to finish. You only need to make a blueprint once, and you can apply it as needed.

Blueprints send notifications to different members based on a process step, record and update data through your project, and alert the right people when something’s going wrong. That way, you have peace of mind to focus on the work.

Ease of use

Zoho is friendly at first, but can be frustrating later on.

You’ll see the term “difficulty curve” thrown around a lot for this kind of software. I know because I tested all the best project management software in 2024 . But for Zoho Projects, it’s more of a “difficulty floor,” followed by a “90-degree angle.” Let me explain:

Zoho Projects’ design is pretty, but not clean. In my Smartsheet review , I mentioned that the interface looks grey and a little hostile, but that once you get familiarized with the program, it becomes pleasant to use and easy to find everything you need. I would call Smartsheet’s design clean, but not pretty.

For an example of pretty and clean, you can look at monday.com . monday.com provides plenty of features, displays them intuitively, and the software itself looks fantastic.

By comparison, the user interface in Zoho Projects looks welcoming at first, with its bright colors, round-cornered buttons, and customizable design. Basic things like tasks and the Gantt view are super easy to find and use.

The advanced features are where Projects gets  frustrating. Things like blueprints, events, and resource utilization don’t have their own prominently featured section (which they absolutely should). Instead, you need to click around on various submenus to find them.

All of this is made worse because there’s no proper structure to the Knowledgebase. You can find clearly-written and really helpful tutorials, but you can’t go from topic to topic without a significant amount of effort.

Projects isn’t the hardest software to use – far from it – but I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have the time to get accustomed to it. That goes for every member of your team, not just managers.

Getting Started with Zoho Projects

If you’re interested in Zoho Projects, all you have to do is go to zoho.com/projects , click the shiny red button, and enter your information. Then, choose your timezone, language, and industry. Register a contact number, and boom, you’re done!

After that, you can choose to import a project, use a sample, view some tutorials, or skip straight to creating your first project. I recommend using the sample project and taking some time to explore it.

zoho-projects-starting-page

When you register, you get a 10-day free trial of the highest-paid plan . Use that time to decide which features you like the most and which plan is best for you.

Organize Every Detail of Your Project

Not every task is created equal. Different steps in your project will have different degrees of importance and requirements. Zoho lets you organize your project into milestones, your milestones into task lists, task lists into tasks, and even create subtasks for every task.

In other words, you can get ridiculously specific with your priorities. The milestone system lets you keep every part of your project organized and shows you the big picture along with the small details that create it.

Custom Dashboards Show You What’s Most Important

You can set up a custom dashboard for every project to show the information that matters most to you. Choose between different visualization methods and rearrange widgets however you choose.

zoho-projects-dashboards

As you work on your project, you will need to keep track of more information. Without a visual representation, too much data can become confusing and pointless. The dashboard ensures that you don’t miss anything important.

A Private Encyclopedia Just for You

In an ideal project, every member of your team knows and remembers all the information they need. But you’re not going to work on the perfect project anytime soon. That’s why Pages is such a lifesaver.

zoho-projects-pages

This feature is a concept so simple that I’m surprised it isn’t more popular. Pages in Zoho Projects lets you create your project’s own Wikipedia. The members of your team will always have the information they need at the click of a button.

Collaboration Tools

Don’t waste a single second with poor communication.

Collaboration is where Zoho really shines . Even without integrating Zoho Meetings and Google Drive, Projects has more than enough features to improve teamwork. From enabling real-time and asynchronous communication to letting you attach files pretty much anywhere you want.

Team Dashboard & Communication

There are many options for team communication in Zoho Projects. If you need to communicate with other team members right away, you can use the built-in chat function to contact individual users or entire groups within your team.

zoho-projects-forums

For long-form discussions, you can create forums. Users can ask questions, post comments, and tag each other within each forum thread. You can also restrict permissions if you need to.

File Sharing

You can attach files just about anywhere on Zoho Projects: tasks, forums, pages, you name it. You can also create specific folders for different teams within a project.

Don’t worry about privacy. You get complete control over how files are shared outside of your project or even between teams.

The mobile app is a great way to check a project’s information on the go. It’s easy to navigate, and the information is optimized for smaller displays.

Unfortunately, the app is not nearly as good for actually working on your project. You can still edit tasks and log work hours using the app, but that’s about it.

Support Was Helpful and Efficient. But Not Very In-Depth

To test the quality of Zoho Projects’ support, I contact them with two questions:

  • How to set up a project for a freelancer who’s only temporarily on board?
  • Can I change access privileges for different team members?

You can contact support through email or through the live-chat function inside of the software. Unfortunately, no one ever responded to my email, so I can only talk about the live chat.

In general, the experience was so-and-so. The support team responded to my inquiry almost immediately, though they simply directed me to “check this YouTube page.” I had to politely persist in order to obtain a comprehensive response to my question. However, once I did, the outcome proved to be satisfactory.

zoho-projects-customer-support

Customer Support was serviceable, but it could be better. A lot better.

A Quality Service at an Affordable Price

For what it offers, Zoho Projects’ prices are amazing. Projects is one of the cheapest project management software out there, and arguably offers the best quality for its price. It has three different plans:

  • You can use Zoho Projects for free if your team is under four people. I can’t imagine going through all that trouble for a 3-person team, but I recommend Zoho as an individual organizing tool. The features might be significantly less impressive with the free plan, but after doing the math, the cost sums up to about zero dollars per feature, which is excellent value.
  • The premium plan has more than enough functionality for slightly bigger teams if you don’t mind going without the dependencies between projects and custom teams.
  • The most expensive plan, enterprise, is still a lot cheaper than almost any other similar software . Though,if you’re considering enterprise, it might be worth paying a little more for a mid-tier Monday.com or Teamwork  plan.

Zoho is pretty cheap either way. But I would recommend paying annually to get the most out of your money. Before you make that commitment, use the 10-day free trial on the enterprise plan to help you decide .

How does Zoho Projects match up to the competition?

Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE

What is zoho projects used for, how much does zoho projects cost, is zoho projects good for beginners, is zoho projects better than asana.

Andrés Gánem

Keep Track of Your Projects for Free

With monday.com, it's easy to get started!

Zoho Projects

Project management, as effective as it gets

Zoho Projects, our cloud-based project management software, helps you plan your projects, track work efficiently, and collaborate with your team, wherever they are. Turn raw ideas into top-notch products with our fully featured app!

Zoho Projects

The one-stop solution for managing IT projects

Zoho Projects has an easy-to-use interface and a mobile application that facilitates your projects from anywhere. Our comprehensive set of features is sure to provide you with an all-round project management experience.

Track issues with ease

Submit and record bugs to quickly resolve them. Track their progress and automate actions by setting up business rules and escalations using SLAs. Monitor your issues easily using basic and advanced reports.

Automate tasks with blueprint

Save time by automating task workflows using Blueprint. Visualize workflows easily with our simple drag-and-drop interface. Loop in the right people at the right time and automate notifications at every step of the way.

Monitor progress with Gantt charts

The Gantt chart is a visual representation of your project timeline. With this chart, you can manage dependencies between various work items, analyze critical path and measure planned vs actual progress using baselines.

Collaborate effortlessly with your team

Avoid miscommunication by instantly collaborating over the Feed. Get feedback, share opinions and even have face-to-face conversations using Forums, in-built chats and have virtual meetings by integrating with Zoho Meeting.

Account for every minute

Record every minute of your hard work using our time tracking module. Keep a track of your work hours using both our automatic and manual timers. Generate client invoices instantly by utilizing the billable hours recorded.

Customize your experience

Depending on your team, the type of work you do, and your business needs, customize your portal with custom fields, layouts, statuses, and workflows. You can even customize your notifications, domain name and logo!

Powerful integrations for powerful teams

Zoho Projects

What our customers say

Diego Cutignola

"Zoho Projects has allowed us to grow as a company, because it allowed us to communicate efficiently without digging through thousands of emails. We have completed over 100 projects using Zoho Projects. With nearly every employee connected to it on a daily basis, Zoho Projects has become an integral part of our every day business."

Tone Williams, President & Founder

Toneee.com, IT Solutions Provider

Awards and recognitions

Won the Quality Choice badge for being a Top Ranked Solution in the Project Management category, 2020.

Featured in the Top 50 Project Management Products, 2020.

Featured as a Leader in Software Awards for Project Collaboration, 2020.

Featured as Expert's Choice in project management category, 2020.

Always stay connected with our mobile apps

Project management apps that are designed for virtual collaboration. Your projects can now always stay by your side, just a click away.

Zoho Projects

Build world-class products and turn every one of your IT projects into a success story.

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Zoho Projects Review — Best Use Cases & Testing in 2024

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what is zoho projects

In this Zoho Projects review, we showcase the results of our testing and point out why it’s the go-to choice for over 500,000 businesses . Zoho Projects has attracted millions with its dedicated issue-tracking system and interactive discussion forums, all while not breaking the bank.

So now you might be wondering – is Zoho Projects any good? Worry not, you’ll find your answer by the end of this detailed review. We delve into what it can do and whether it is worth the price , all the while exploring its good and bad sides, and what others are saying about this leading platform.

Zoho Projects Pros and Cons

Before delving into the nitty-gritty of the tool, here is a quick breakdown of its main strengths and weaknesses:

  • Zoho Projects is an inexpensive tool for small and scaling businesses
  • Good range of collaboration features, including feed, chat, and forums
  • Offers a 10-day free trial of the Enterprise plan, so you can test all of the premium features without spending a cent
  • Integrates well with other native Zoho products, such as the CRM and Helpdesk solutions
  • Strong time management tools with built-in timers and timesheets
  • Plenty of online resources so you can learn anything about the tool
  • Struggles to handle complex projects involving big teams from large businesses.
  • Comes with a steep learning curve that may prove tricky for first time users

What is Zoho Projects – Company History

Zoho is a cloud-based project management software offering various tools to improve automation and productivity in businesses.

Launched in 2006, Zoho Projects is an inexpensive tool with extensive features , all the while not compromising on simplicity. The early adoption of collaborative features in 2009 set it apart in the market, leading the way for 15 years of success and counting .

Organizations proficient in project management waste 28 times less money than their competitors. Along the same line, Zoho found an opportunity here and created Zoho Projects, a tool that streamlines and automates the project management process for businesses .

With continuous updates and releases, its current version’s single-page layout allows all the remote working teams to collaborate and work together seamlessly . You can divide a project into specific tasks, assign them to different team members, and track their individual progress on the platform.

Moreover, businesses today expect customization and reporting capabilities in their project management software. And the recent versions of Zoho Projects offer plenty of these options.

Is Zoho Projects Good?

Considering the value you get for the price you pay, Zoho Projects definitely falls on the strong side. The tool prides itself in offering built-in timesheets, native integrations, dedicated collaboration features and many others that you could expect in a perfect PM tool for small and growing businesses.

It even earns a spot on many top workflow management lists thanks to its simplified task management, issue tracking, visualization, team collaboration , and many more features.

Having a good project management software is important to plan, execute, and monitor your projects, ensuring they stay on schedule and within budget. Zoho Projects helps you streamline all these tasks.

But Monday.com has an edge over Zoho Projects when it comes to handling complex projects or larger teams. Broader functionalities such as agile templates, answering customer queries, and much more come built-in with Monday, while Zoho Projects needs external integrations to have these additional capabilities.

Zoho Project’s latest version has more than 20 unique project templates for use cases including Digital Marketing, HR, IT, SEO, Accounting, and many more.

Overall, Zoho Projects’s extensive set of features, coupled with its affordable pricing, makes it an ideal project management software for small to mid-sized businesses .

Zoho Projects Features – Key Benefits

Zoho Projects’ diverse features take the lead in every step of project management, from planning to delivering results. Some of those core features are:

Project Management

With this feature, you can break down the projects into sub-tasks and assign them to team members, making it easy to track progress and individual performance.

But what we love the most is its “milestone” feature , where you can set the start and end dates for each task. It helps to ensure that you finish the entire project on time.

Beyond this, the tool offers an issue-tracking module , which is something other competitors like ClickUp compromise on. In this tracker, you can organize issues, change the status as work progresses, and delete issues when they’re done.

Inspired by social media, Zoho Projects features dedicated sections for Feed, Chat, Forums, Pages, and Documents . It’s basically the all-in-one communication platform your global teams would ever ask for.

Resource Management

Throughout our hands-on testing, we were really impressed with Zoho’s resource utilization chart . A color bar next to each team member shows how much spare time they have to take up the next tasks.

You can use this info to make sure the work is evenly distributed among your team members, ensuring no one is under or overworked.

Moreover, a dedicated horizontal bar for each assigned task stretches over the duration dates. You can slide them to revise the dates or drag-and-drop to assign them to others on the team.

Zoho Projects dashboard

When the heatmap view is enabled, you can see how well a person’s business hours are utilized , helping you make optimal resource utilization adjustments.

To access the resource utilization chart, open your project from the home page and select “Reports” from the top menu bar. Click on the “Calendar” icon to view the daily, weekly, and monthly task schedules.

Another proud feature on offer with Zoho Projects is its reporting capabilities. The tool’s insightful reports give you an idea of any metrics you wish to focus on. For instance, get to know details on who closed the most issues, what tasks take up the most time, expensive resources, and much more.

To access this feature, go to the “Reports” section on the left sidebar, click on the drop-down panel, and select the desired report type.

Each report type has multiple viewing options. For example, under “Project Reports”, you can view a report to get the project count by status, owner, or project groups. Additionally, you can select advanced reports showing project status by owner, client, or group.

Zoho Projects reports view

Better still, the Zoho products suite includes an analytics tool that seamlessly integrates into Zoho Projects . This Zoho Analytics integration comes with 50 pre-made templates for reports and dashboards that you can customize to fit your team’s data.

Types of Views

Zoho Projects provides multiple viewing options to visualize your project’s data. Let’s explore the viewing options we’ve tested.

The three primary views of Zoho Projects are List, Kanban, and Gantt:

  • List – Presenting all the tasks of a project in a classic, straightforward list
  • Kanban – Tasks as cards are placed into columns on the Dashboard. Cards represent individual work items, while columns show the current stage of the process
  • Gantt – A bar chart showing the project schedule on a visual timeline

Like ClickUp or Monday.com, Zoho Projects also provides a Gantt chart view, visually showing you the tasks on project timelines. Milestones, task dependencies, and task lists in the Gantt charts keep you informed about your project progress and where it’s leading.

Furthermore, its critical path analysis ensures your project is on schedule and moves in the right direction.

Zoho Projects Gantt view

In the Kanban board view, issues or tasks are categorized and placed as cards in different columns on the dashboard. These columns show you open tasks, in-progress tasks, on-hold tasks, their severity, and other task tracking statuses. Drag and drop the cards between columns to update their status as work progresses.

Clicking on the Calendar section on the left panel on the homepage takes you to the calendar timeline view of your running projects. You can add events, meetings, and time-offs to the calendar or drag and drop them into different dates for quick schedule changes.

Next, the task list view displays the list of tasks, showing their completion percentage, status, priorities, start and end dates, and more .

Integrations

We’re delighted to see numerous integration options for Zoho Projects . Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho Sprints, and many other products under Zoho Umbrella integrate well with the tool.

With these native Zoho integrations options, you can bring in customer relationship management, Agile methodologies, exclusive resource management capabilities, and much more to the tool.

The tool also supports various third-party add-ons; Jira, Dropbox, Github, and ServiceNow, to name a few. And be sure to benefit from Zoho Projects integration with Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google spreadsheets, MS Excel, OneDrive, and other Google and Microsoft products.

These external integrations let you access all your personal calendars, code repositories, and project files directly within Zoho Projects.

Zoho Projects has Timesheets to track the time spent by team members on different tasks. You can get an overview of the time taken by an entire project or go granular to see who spent how much time on a specific task.

Access a project from the home page and select the “Timesheet” tab from the top menu bar. A customizable time logger will then appear on the screen, showing the hours spent by team members, daily log time, and billing type .

Zoho Projects tasks

Moreover, enabling timers in the software automatically records time spent on each task in the timesheet. Having this info at hand helps managers review the team members’ actual working hours and determine billable hours.

Overall, we found that Zoho Projects’ time management feature holds its own against ClickUp and Monday.com.

Zoho Projects Ease of Use

For our Zoho Projects review, we found it doesn’t quite match the top-tier intuitive interfaces of industry leaders such as Monday.com and Asana, it offers a decent screen design for easy navigation throughout the tool.

The tool’s attractive modern UI is easy to use, even for beginners .

There’s a clean look at the first glance, and all its primary features are listed on the left panel with quick links to their dedicated pages. Adding new projects, a broad search engine, notification center, and account setting options are on the top right corner of the home screen.

Zoho Projects home screen

The homepage gives you an overview of all ongoing activities across all the projects. You can access overdue tasks, reported issues, and pending milestones on the main page, as well as other details like team members’ tasks, their issues, and progress.

Do they offer a similar interface experience on the mobile app too? Though mobile apps for project management aren’t a popular practice, Zoho Projects provides native iOS and Android versions, allowing you to manage your tasks even when you’re not at your desk.

We really enjoyed the mobile versions for both iOS and Android and having the ability to access all the desktop features on the go was a real plus..

Plus, as Zoho Projects is a cloud-based tool , you can access and manage projects online via a web browser.

Sure, it takes some time to get used to the tool, but the enormous selection of resources and tutorials available online ease your life and help you get settled with the tool faster.

Zoho Projects Pricing – How Much Value Do You Get?

Known for its affordability, Zoho Projects pricing comes in three variants – Free, Premium, and Enterprise. All its paid plans support both monthly and yearly billing cycles.

With access to all its paid features in the 10-day free trial, you don’t have to worry about spending your hard-earned money on a product that isn’t right for you.

Its refund policy claims you can c ancel or downgrade your account anytime you wish . In case you paid for an entire year and decide to discontinue the service within the first 45 days, you’ll get a full refund. If you have been using this tool for more than 45 days, they offer a pro-rated refund.

Choose from Visa, Mastercard, or American Express for payment. PayPal or Wise transfer are also accepted, but only for yearly subscriptions.

Let’s now get into the details of each plan in this Zoho project management review:

what is zoho projects

Zoho Projects’s free plan supports 2 projects and serves up to 3 users. This version outshines many of its competitors’ free plans by offering a generous 5 GB storage . Other features include Task Management, Feeds, Basic Reports, Document sharing, and Integrations.

However, some significant limitations make it less suitable for businesses. For instance, you don’t get access to the most loved Gannt charts and resource utilization charts . And its exclusive issue tracker is restricted from free plan users.

Zoho Sprints, Zoho CRM, and Zoho Meeting are the only in-house integrations supported by the free version. The third-party integrations include Zapier, Zendesk, Office 365, Slack, Dropbox, ServiceNow, and Teams.

Overall, this no-cost deal is perfect for individuals or freelancers who want to manage simple projects.

Moving on to the paid plans, this premium version costs $6.2 per user per month and can be used by up to 50 team members . Small businesses, startups, and remote working teams will benefit most from this plan.

It offers all the significant features that the free plan lacks , including advanced reports, Gannt views, an Issue tracker, Timesheets, and an AI chatbot.

Given the numerous template options , you can organize and manage as many projects as you want. Either customize its base project template or select from 20 plus unique template formats.

While this paid plan does give access to many project management features, it doesn’t measure up to ClickUp’s paid plans. But considering its price tag, it’s worth the price .

Zoho Projects Enterprise plan gives you 120 GB of secure storage , where you’ll only get 100 GB with ClickUp at a much higher price. Unlock the tool’s advanced issue-tracking features like SLA, custom issue email templates, and webhooks at just $13.97 per user per month .

The enterprise plan covers everything the premium plan does and more custom features. For example, its critical path analysis determines the time stamps for different tasks, supports additional read-only user add-ons with certain permissions, and more.

However, competitors like Monday and ClickUp’s top-tier versions are ahead compared to this Zoho Projects Enterprise edition. They offer scalable features for custom project management requirements.

In closing, the Zoho Projects Enterprise edition can effectively manage mid-sized teams . Its role-based permissions ensure that the right people have access to the data they need, keeping your enterprise data secure even in a big team with over a thousand employees.

Zoho Projects Scalability & Integrations

Zoho Projects is scalable with its three pricing tiers, lowest being the free one for basic users and scalable with the enterprise edition for bigger teams. The tool even offers some solid integration capabilities.

Whether for managing documents, messaging, ticketing, or importing data, Zoho Projects is likely to integrate with your current lineup of apps. For example, you can sync your Google Calendars, Excel sheets, Drive uploads, and more with Zoho Projects.

Coders and development teams can also use Zoho Projects by integrating repositories from Gitlab, Bitbucket, Gitea, and GitHub.

More importantly, if you’re already a Zoho user, combining Zoho Projects with other tools in the suite provides you with extended capabilities. For instance, if you use any of the following Zoho tools, easily combine them with Zoho Projects to welcome customer management, invoicing, video meetings, and much more into the tool:

  • Zoho People
  • Zoho Invoice
  • Zoho Sprints
  • Zoho Analytics

In short, dive into the world of possibilities with Zoho Projects – 300 plus integrations bring agile workflow management, data analytics, CRM, and more directly into the tool.

Zoho Projects vs Top Project Management Solutions

A competitive eye on Zoho Projects: Below, we’ve curated a table comparing standard features and starting prices of industry-leading project management tools with the Zoho Projects.

What’s truly impressive is to get these core standout features with Zoho Projects at an affordable price. Furthermore, competing with top tools like Monday and ClickUp at this price tag is truly commendable about Zoho Projects.

With timesheets, discussion forums, and available templates, we can say Zoho Projects is a great tool for mid-sized teams . However, the above comparison of the top 5 tools’ features and prices helps you choose the right software for your business.

ClickUp and Zoho Projects often switch places in some top lists. So the below head-to-head comparison shows where they are similar and where they differ.

Zoho Projects Vs ClickUp – Side-by-Side Comparison

What do zoho projects reviews say.

Now you know our findings from this hands-on Zoho Projects review. It’s time to see what others had to say about the tool.

Trusted by over 500,000 businesses, Zoho Projects has a large user base. So, there are numerous opinions on popular review pages like G2, TrustPilot, and Reddit. Here is the feedback from a few users.

Trustpilot review

There isn’t much that users dislike about Zoho Projects software. Many users praise how easy it is to set meetings in the calendar and plan their time using timesheets. The Zoho integrations, in particular, impress this user.

Trustpilot review

Other users loved its simple UI and customizable project templates. This person mentions their love for the tool’s agile capabilities, but our Zoho Projects review found its excellent agile capabilities come out when only integrated with Zoho Sprints.

Now let’s look at what a four-year experienced user is saying about this tool.

Trustpilot review

Most users have positive views on the tool’s UI, dashboards, reporting analytics, and customization options with an overall commendable rating of 4.3 out of 5 on G2. Overall, the tool is worth the try.

Zoho Projects Alternatives

Although our test finds Zoho Projects to be a great PM tool, there are other competitors in the market, with some even surpassing Zoho Projects. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in Zoho Projects, check out the following tools:

  • Monday.com reivew
  • ClickUp review
  • Teamwork review
  • Smartsheet review
  • Wrike review
  • Resource Guru review

Why You Can Trust Our Review of Zoho Projects

To put out an authentic Zoho Projects review, we’ve t horoughly tested the tool hands-on and compared it with dozens of different PM tools in the market . We’ve signed up for the tool’s 10-day free trial and exclusively tested all the core features expected in project management software .

We’ve delved into the tool, exploring all its primary sections from feed down to calendar. This gave us a good understanding of the tool’s templates, dashboard visibility, and collaboration facilities for this Zoho Project review.

Curious how Zoho Projects stacks up against other PM tools in this review? We already have an in-depth review on Monday.com and ClickUp . So we know what features to consider while comparing different project management tools.

Adding to that, we’ve scrolled through reputable review sites like G2 and Trustpilot and heard other users’ opinions . Most of their reviews paint a positive picture, backing up our opinions in this review. These strategies help us provide an unbiased Zoho Projects review.

Popular brands like LunchBox Asia shared how Zoho Projects helped them reduce manual work by 80% and Reflex Solutions case study highlights the tool’s robust security features.

How to Use Zoho Projects: Step-By-Step Guide

Signing up and using Zoho Projects is super simple. But, if this is your first project management software, stay tuned.

Join us as we go through the steps for signing up, creating projects, accessing views, and customizing tasks and calendars in the tool.

1. Sign up to the Tool

Enter the Zoho Projects website and fill in your email, password, and mobile number details in the signup form. Once the account is created, you can sign in to the tool on its official website.

Zoho Projects setup

2. Add New Projects

Creating a new project is the first thing you would do after signing up.

Step 1: Go to the “Projects” section on the left sidebar and click on the “New Project” button.

Zoho Projects home screen

Step 2: Select your preferred template and click “Create Project” .

Zoho Projects create a project

3. Gantt and Kanban Views

View your project’s progress in Gantt and Kanban views with Zoho Projects. Here is how you can access them:

Step 1: Click the “Projects” section on the left navigation panel of the home screen.

Step 2: Hover over a project name and click on “Access Project” .

Zoho Projects setup

Step 3: Click on the “List” drop-down in the upper right area of the screen.

Zoho Projects switch views

Step 4: Choose the Gantt or Kanban view, whatever view you want to see.

4. Task Management

Assign different tasks of a project to different team members. And you can customize the task status, start, and end dates, priority, and more. Here is how to do this:

To assign or reassign a task:

Step 1: Click on a cell in the “Associated” column of a task.

Step 2: Select your team members from the drop-down options or enter a new team member.

Zoho Projects assign tasks to teams

To change a task status:

Step 1: Click on the cell in the “Status” column of a task.

Step 2: Select the current status from the drop-down with options for in progress, in review, on hold, etc.,

Zoho Projects select status for task

In the same way, you can select and customize cells from other columns (Start Date, Due Date, End Date,..) in the sheet.

5. Customize Calendar

Follow the below steps to utilize the calendar feature of the tool.

Step 1: Click on “Calendar” in the left navigation panel of the home screen. Step 2: Click on the “Add Activity” button in the top right area of the page.

Zoho Projects calendar

Step 3: Input the project title, start and end dates, and other details into the schedule event form. Step 4: Click the “Save” button.

Zoho Projects schedule event

It’s as simple as that – the event is now added to your Calendar.

Is Zoho Projects Good For You?

Zoho Projects might not be the best advanced project management tool in the market, but its robust features and intuitive interface make it a good choice for small to mid-sized businesses .

With its diverse template gallery, the tool suits almost all companies in any industry. What makes this even unique is its ability to seamlessly integrate with other Zoho Products.

Considering a switch to Zoho Projects? The tool offers a hassle-free migration from Salesforce, Monday, Wrike, Hubspot, and many other platforms .

Overall, it excels in providing clear dashboard visuals, time-tracking, and task management features, making it a top choice for teams looking for inexpensive project management software.

So try its free plan now and upgrade if the tool meets your needs.

Is Zoho Projects any good?

Yes, Zoho Projects is a cloud-based platform that’s got everything a mid-sized team would ever need: task management, resource management, time management, collaboration, and visualization features.

What is Zoho projects used for?

Zoho Projects can be used for the entire project management process, including task management, time management, resource management, budget management, collaboration, and issue tracking.

Which companies use Zoho projects?

The tool is popular among businesses of up to 500 employees. Companies from various industries employ Zoho Projects for project management, with IT companies taking the major share. A few companies using Zoho Projects include Fazenda, CIS agency, Lunchbox, and Toneee LLC.

Does Zoho projects have time tracking?

Zoho time tracking tool features calculating time spent on tasks, counting billable hours, timesheets tracking task durations, creating invoices, and exporting timesheets to your preferred format.

what is zoho projects

Srujana Maddula

Srujana kicked off her tech writing journey back in college. It’s been several years since she began writing about software reviews, how-tos, and listicles. When she isn't inking the page, you'll find her coding or playing foosball.

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  • Project Management

Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Project: 2024 Project Management Comparison

Cloudwards.net may earn a small commission from some purchases made through our site. However, any earnings do not affect how we review services. Learn more about our editorial integrity and research process .

Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Projects

Microsoft Project and Zoho Project are project management platforms used by Agile teams. They can help you work on simple and complex tasks, but that doesn't mean they're equal. In this Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Project comparison, we'll show you which is the better tool.

Brett Day

Last Updated: 14 Feb'24 2024-02-14T16:44:00+00:00

All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.

Key Takeaways: Zoho vs Microsoft

  • The main difference between Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project is that Zoho Projects is an affordable, intuitive project management tool, while Microsoft Project suffers from laggy performance and lack of integrations makes it a challenging tool.
  • Zoho Projects is easier to learn and use, offers many integrations, has a free version and is far cheaper than Microsoft Project.
  • Microsoft Project has nice workflow tools, but a poor interface lets it down, with a lack of overall features and ridiculous pricing further sinking its ship.

Finding new project management software for remote and locally based teams can be difficult. Zoho Projects made our list of the best project management software , but Microsoft Project is still popular with many organizations. Our Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Projects guide examines both so that the decision you need to make can be less stressful.

Stick around and we’ll show you the strengths and weaknesses of these online project management software solutions. When we’re done, you’ll know which way to turn.

Logo: Microsoft Project Review

How Did We Rate Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Project?

We have reviewed lots of project management software at Cloudwards, including Zoho Projects (here’s our Zoho Projects review ) and Microsoft Project (here’s our Microsoft Project review ).

When reviewing, we use the software in real-world scenarios to fairly rate each tool so that you can make a more informed purchasing decision. We use that same first-hand experience to compare software options.

Microsoft Project vs Zoho Projects: Similarities & Differences

If you’d like to quickly look at the similarities and differences between Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project, our handy table below will show you exactly what you need to know.

Similarities

There will always be similarities between project management tools, because they’re designed to do the same thing. Below, we’ll cover the key features that Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project have in common.

Core Features

It doesn’t matter whether you choose Zoho Projects or Microsoft Project; you’ll find similar core features to help you create projects and manage them. Both platforms offer users similar workflow tools, time-tracking functionality and reporting features (here’s an overview of Zoho Projects’ time-tracking tool). Microsoft Project offers portfolio management, as well.

zoho features

In addition, each piece of software has the usual gamut of admin features that can help you manage teams. You can integrate each platform with other applications and rest easy knowing that security features are in place to help keep data secure.

microsoft project features

Zoho Projects and Microsoft Projects are not as feature dense as monday.com (here’s our monday.com review ), Asana (check out our Asana review and Zoho Projects vs Asana comparison) or ClickUp (we have a ClickUp review and Zoho Projects vs ClickUp comparison, too), but you’ll find enough tools in each to help you plan projects, create, organize and track tasks, and manage your teams.

Task Management Tools

Microsoft Project and Zoho Projects have very similar workflow tools. Fire up either platform, and you’ll find kanban boards, Gantt charts and lists. There are also dashboards that can display task-related items and reports. Both have calendars, but Microsoft Project’s is, oddly, only in the desktop app, not the web version.

zoho kanban

The workflow tools in each platform are self-explanatory. The kanban boards work via dragging and dropping. Gantt charts can be pulled and dragged to extend or reduce dates, and lists work as expected. You can create custom fields, milestones, dependencies and subtasks. Both also support issue tracking.

microsoft project gantt

Microsoft Project and Zoho Projects have enough views to support many Agile workflows, along with other project management methodologies like Waterfall and the critical path method. There will not be many complaints about the robust tools for task management on either platform.

Differences

In this section, we will address some significant differences between Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project, so you can better understand what these platforms are (or aren’t) about.

Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project have taken two different approaches to pricing and plans. Zoho Projects pricing offers a free plan with limited features and two affordable paid options. Microsoft Project has no free version, and its paid plans ask for crazy money.

zoho pricing

Zoho Projects Pricing

The two paid options Zoho Projects has are Premium and Enterprise. The Premium plan, which has many features, costs $4 per user per month if you opt for annual payments and $5 per user per month if you pay monthly. The loaded Enterprise plan jumps to $9 per user per month if you pay for a year upfront and $10 per user with monthly payments.

Microsoft Project Pricing

microsoft project pricing

Microsoft offers three paid plans: Project Plan One, Three and Five. Project Plan One costs $10 per user per month. On the surface, this price doesn’t seem unreasonable, but you only get a basic suite of workflow tools (kanban, Gantt and list views), limited scheduling and reporting tools, and a time sheet submission feature. This plan amounts to the free plan on other services.

Project Plan Three includes more tools, like resource management features and access to the desktop client, but jumps to $30 per user per month. Project Plan Five, which includes Enterprise resource planning and demand and portfolio management, costs an eye-watering $55 per user per month. Microsoft offers no discounts for purchasing a year upfront.

Microsoft Projects isn’t just poorly priced compared to Zoho Projects — it’s poorly priced within the industry, and no free plan is just another kick in the teeth. Zoho Projects’ free plan isn’t exactly great, either, so, if you’re looking for a project management tool with a robust free plan, check out our best free project management software roundup.

User-Friendliness and Training

If software isn’t easy to learn and use, it’s already lost half the battle. Microsoft Project is not at all user-friendly. For the longest time, we thought Wrike (here’s our Wrike review ) was hit with the large end of the ugly stick, but Microsoft Project proves otherwise. Additionally, to say Microsoft Project has a steep learning curve would be an understatement.

microsoft project learning

Navigating Microsoft Project is problematic due to poor menus. The interface is bland and infuriatingly slow. The only saving grace is that the tools (kanban boards and Gantt charts) are intuitive. Microsoft Project offers a searchable knowledgebase, where you’ll find well-thought-out articles that have videos embedded in them. There’s also a forum where you can ask questions.

zoho learning

On the other hand, Zoho Projects has an intuitive interface and is one of the cleanest, snappiest pieces of project management software you’ll find. Navigating is easy. You can get where you need to be in just a click or two. All of the tools are simple to use, too. Overall, Zoho Projects is just effortless to use .

Should you find yourself in a pickle, there’s a comprehensive knowledgebase with plenty of articles and informative videos, as well as a community where you can seek help. If you want to hit the ground running, Zoho Projects is the way to go.

Integrations

If you want to integrate many other platforms, choosing between Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project will be easy. While both platforms allow integrations, Microsoft keeps it all in the family with first-party offerings. Zoho Projects allows first- and third-party tools to connect natively or through Zapier.

zoho integrations

Microsoft Project links to very few tools. You can integrate with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft OneDrive, and that’s it. Once you connect Teams and OneDrive (here’s our OneDrive review ), those tools can integrate with other platforms, so there is a workaround, but it’s messy. You can’t even use Zapier for integrations unless you connect it to your Office 365 account and try to slip through a loophole.

Zoho Projects is different. You’ll find nearly 50 first- and third-party integrations for tools like Slack, many Google tools, some of the best cloud storage solutions and Microsoft tools, including Microsoft Project, Teams, Sharepoint and more. Zoho Projects also connects with other tools from Zoho, like Zoho CRM, Zoho Sprints, Zoho People and 11 others .

Collaboration Tools

Zoho Projects isn’t flush with collaboration tools, but it still offers more than Microsoft Project. In Zoho Projects, you’ll find a nifty chat app that allows you to send voice and text messages, images and documents, and fun emojis. You can also leave @mentions for team members in comment cards.

While not included in the base software, you can integrate Zoho Projects with Zoho Meetings for video calls and collaborative whiteboards. You can also work with your team on documents in real time with Zoho Writer.

zoho collaboration

Microsoft Project has no built-in communication tools. You can’t leave comments on task cards natively, and there’s no chat app. Instead, you must connect to Microsoft Teams for any communication. There is a co-authoring tool that lets you work with your team and external stakeholders on documents, but only in the web app, and it requires integrations with Excel or Powerpoint.

If team collaboration is important, forget about Microsoft Project entirely and stick with Zoho Projects. If you need even more robust collaboration tools, check out Notion app review or Basecamp (here’s our Basecamp review ).

Mobile and Desktop Applications

If you want to work on the road, Zoho Projects is the way to go. Microsoft Project does not offer mobile applications, and the desktop app is a hideous mess that does not sync with your online Project account. It’s quite possibly the worst desktop app we’ve used — and for obvious reasons, won’t be making our list of the best project management software for Windows soon.

zoho apps

Zoho Projects’ apps for iOS, iPadOS and Android are feature-packed. You’ll find Zoho Projects kanban and list views, as well as the ability to create and assign new tasks, add due dates, attach files, comment on tasks and keep on top of things with the calendar view. The iPadOS version fills the larger screen and has pencil support. Everything needed for project tracking can be found in the app.

While Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project offer security features, we place security in the differences section because only one company is forthcoming with data handling information. After reaching out to Microsoft, our team of experts discovered that they use AES 256-bit encryption , but that’s all Microsoft would tell us.

zoho security

Meanwhile, Zoho Projects lays everything out. It uses AES-256 and TLS encryption methods, has multiple ISO certifications and is SOC 2 compliant. We also know that data is stored on Amazon Web Services servers.

Both platforms offer two-factor authentication tools for added security, and Zoho expands on that with SAML and single sign-on options. With so many unknowns about Microsoft Project, we recommend Zoho Projects over Microsoft Project for the security conscious.

Which Is Better: Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Project?

Zoho Projects is easily the better of the two options we have covered in this comparison guide. Generally, at this point, we would say that only you can decide which platform is better for you, but in 99.9% of cases, the answer will be Zoho Projects unless you absolutely must use Microsoft’s ecosystem of products.

We Recommend Zoho Projects If You Want…

  • A versatile project management tool : Zoho Projects has enough tools and features to suit numerous work styles.
  • Powerful collaboration tools : Team communication is effortless in Zoho Projects.
  • To save money : Zoho Projects has a free version and offers two affordable paid plans.

We Recommend Microsoft Project If You Want…

  • To work in Microsoft’s ecosystem : If you’re heavily vested in Microsoft products, staying with Microsoft Project might make sense.
  • A simple task management tool : Microsoft Project’s boards and Gantt charts are easy to use, making them ideal for simple tasks.
  • Comprehensive training materials : Microsoft’s knowledgebase might be a little dated, but it’s still packed with helpful information for newcomers.

If You Want to Consider Other Services, Check Out…

The verdict: why we think zoho projects wins overall.

Zoho Projects is the better project management tool. Microsoft Project is fine for simple tasks, but its lack of built-in collaboration tools, laggy performance and lack of integrations put it behind Zoho Projects, which is slick, intuitive, integration-friendly and easy on the wallet .

Have you used Zoho Projects, Microsoft Project or a different project management tool? What do you love or dislike about them? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always, thanks for reading.

FAQ: Microsoft Project vs Zoho Projects

Microsoft Project isn’t being replaced, but Microsoft is pushing the web-based version of MS Project more than the desktop version.

Zoho Projects is easy to learn and use, with plenty of task management tools and collaboration features. You can also expand its capabilities by integrating Zoho Projects with many other Zoho products.

Yes. Zoho Projects has an import function that enables you to import timesheets, tasks and entire projects.

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How to choose a project management tool

Find the project management tool that's right for you

Man holding a pen to paper

What is project management?

Step 1: what are your business needs, step 2: what is your budget, step 3: what are the challenges, step 4: what features will you need, step 5: how will you measure success, step 6: take part in a trial, step 7: final research, step 8: make your decision.

A good way to think about the average workday is to break it down into a series of projects. Some of these projects will be big, taking place over a series of weeks or months, and some can be completed in a few hours. Some will be worked on by entire teams and others will be personal endeavors. The best project management software can be used across a variety of different tasks and work for a number of different industries.

But with a broad spectrum of project management tools available and a variety of different use cases, picking the right one for your requirements isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve put together this guide on how to choose a project management tool. There’s also bound to be some overlap with a CRM solution, so don’t forget to check out our list of the best CRM software available too. But if project management is your focus, this article should answer a few questions.

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Preferred partner ( What does this mean? )  

A guide to choosing the right project management tool

First of all, it’s important to set out exactly what we mean by project management . Project management is the application of methodologies, processes, skills, and software to a particular project . This project will have clearly defined goals and a set time frame. This separates it from just management, which is an indefinite, ongoing process.

Project managers require a wide range of skills in order to drive and organize the skills of their team towards a particular outcome. Crucially, there are a number of software solutions that can help with this. We’ve outlined eight step to ensure you pick the right one. 

As with all forms of business software, it’s difficult to know exactly what type of solution you need unless you’ve got clear goals that you want to achieve. Projects can focus on a number of different industries, so you should start by outlining your objectives. That way, you can confidently say why you need project management software.

Although it’s fine to start with broad, big-picture goals like increasing revenue or boosting customer numbers, don’t forget to drill down into greater detail regarding your projects. These more specific project goals include improving communication between teams, meaning deadlines, acting on customer feedback, or improving collaboration .

Once you’ve outlined your business goals, it will become easier to rule out certain project management tools that aren’t relevant. This will make it leave you with a smaller pool of solutions to choose from, focusing your search and making it more likely that you’ll find a tool that suits your needs.

Before you commit to any business tool, whether it’s a an online marketing service or a cloud storage solution, you need to be clear around how much you have to spend. When working out your budget, remember to think long-term, not focusing too much on what your initial costs will be. This is especially important with cloud computing services , which often involve subscription costs paid out monthly or annually. 

With a cloud-based project management tool, your initial outgoings are likely to be small, but it’s important to consider what your ongoing costs might be. These can add up over time and make any solution expensive in the long-term. Also consider if your payment terms grant you access to the entire range of functionality that comes with your chosen project management tool. Some features may only be available to the higher payment tiers, for example. 

Furthermore, don’t discount the great free project management software on the market. These aren’t necessarily inferior for being free of charge. Many solutions, from Trello to Zoho Projects , won’t cost a thing but still provide useful features like scheduling and automation.

There’s no point in pretending that the adoption of a completely new business tool will be without any issues. Getting to grips with your new project management solution could be scuppered by any number of roadblocks. If you make a note of what these might be in advance, you’ll be better prepared for them. 

For example, do your employees have the skills to use your project management tool without additional training or support? If not, what sort of investment can you commit to here - in terms of finances and time? How will your chosen project management tool fit with your existing IT stack? It’s likely that your employees are already used to certain ways of working and particular tools. Will your new project management fit in with these seamlessly or is there likely to be a bedding in period?

Integration is another potential challenge. Some project management tools, like Miro , cite their third-party integrations as one of their core strengths but you might find some issues with others. Often these integrations can be crucial to smooth-running projects including with well-known tools like Slack , Dropbox , and many others.  

The features on offer with a project management tool can vary significantly, so it’s a good idea to compare your needs to the functionality of your prospective tool. Some of the more common features that come with a project management tool include timeline management, collaboration tools, progress tracking and analytics. 

It’s important to remember, however, that you might not necessarily have access to a feature just because it is part of your chosen project management tool. It could be that the feature you’re interested in is only available if you commit to the higher pricing tiers. Automation, for example, is normally considered to be one of the more advance features with any project management tool - but it is also one of the most useful in terms of boosting productivity . It’s a feature that can free your employees of the most repetitive manual tasks so they can focus on adding value to your projects.

Before you choose a project management tool, it’s a good idea to have an idea of how you will determine if it’s meeting your needs. Come up with some metrics to measure how successful your project management implementation is. KPIs you may want to focus on include time to completion, budget variance, customer satisfaction, and risk management effectiveness. 

You also need to make sure you’re collecting enough data so you can be sure whether you’re meeting your KPIs or not. Don’t be too despondent if you don’t manage to meet them with the first project you assign to your project management software. It might mean that you need some more time to become familiar with the tool and it should still serve as a great oppiortunity to learn more about your ways of working.

The best way to be sure you are choosing the right project management tool is to gain first-hand experience. The best way of doing this while protecting your finances is to sign up for a free trial. Many project management tools offer this, such as Liquid Planner , which allows users to enjoy the platform for 14 days before they commit to a longer contract. 

Most of the time, the full range of features are available with the trial version of the project management tool. This means you can try the solution against a number of different scenarios to test its suitability for your business. Note whether the free trial is an opt-in or opt-out service as this will determine if you’ll automatically be charged when the trial period finishes. And make sure you have a way of evaluating whether the trial has been a success or nor before you start.

You’re getting close to choosing your project management tool so it’s time to conduct some final bits of research. A good way to conclude your seearch is to ask individuals and businesses what they think of your prospective solution. Ask them to be as candid as possible, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. 

As well as reaching out directly, have a look at online forums and review sites to gauge the general opinion around the project management platform. Make sure you seek detailed feedback too - not simply whether a solution gets the thumbs up or not. What doesn’t work well? Have you seen many updates or advancements since you began using the platform? These are all questions that could help inform your choice of project management solution.

Once you've completed all the necessary due diligence is time to take the plunge and pick a project management tool. Take all your research, internal evaluations, stakeholder opinions, and more, collating everything so you can determine which platform is the best fit for your needs. 

However, the decision you make doesn’t need to be a long-term commitment. Monitor how the project management solution is performing and don’t be afraid to switch to another platform if you start failing to meet your KPIs. The right project management tool may change based on your evolving aims. Make an informed decision but always leave it up for review.

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Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. 

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5 best Notion alternatives in 2024

Sarah Li Cain

Alana Rudder

Alana Rudder

“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.

Updated 11:58 a.m. UTC Nov. 29, 2023

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There are many great options to choose from when looking for project management software with Notion being one of them. While the app offers plenty of benefits, such as a high level of customization and access to automation tools, Notion isn’t the best fit for all businesses.

Instead, consider choosing any of the alternatives we’ve selected and test it out before committing.

Featured project management software offers

what is zoho projects

Via Monday.com’s site

Monthly fee

$10 per user, with a minimum of three users

Free version

Yes, for two users

24/7 customer support

Yes, with paid plans

what is zoho projects

Via Clickup’s website

$10 per user

Yes, for unlimited members

5 best Notion alternatives

  • Zoho Projects : Best for freelancers and solopreneurs.
  • Asana : Best for remote team management.
  • Teamwork : Best for client-facing agencies.
  • Todoist : Best for freelancers and solopreneurs.
  • Confluence : Best for growing organizations.

Why trust our small business experts

Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.

  • 22 companies reviewed.
  • 20 hours of product testing.
  • 689 data points analyzed.

Best for freelancers and solopreneurs

Zoho projects.

Zoho Projects

24/7 support

What you should know.

Zoho Projects offers a higher level of customization when it comes to collaborating across multiple team members. One feature Notion doesn’t have (or you will need to spend time creating a custom solution for) is managing issues that crop up during projects. Zoho Projects allows users to create “support tickets” or tasks to report and address issues, as well as note its severity.

Zoho Projects is a better fit for new companies or software development startups, especially ones that are attempting to best allocate projects and tasks to team members. Its other strengths, compared to Notion, are tools to help handle human resources and custom reports on projects that are in progress or completed.

Pros and cons

  • Most affordable enterprise version for DevOps.
  • Project forums for organized discussions.
  • Blueprints for custom workflows.
  • Limited project templates.
  • File storage tops out at 120 GB.
  • Fewer integrations than Asana.

Best for remote team management

Asana

Asana is a better fit for businesses that prefer a more intuitive interface for managing projects, with calendar views, lists, databases and kanban boards. Users can assign tasks to members of the team, track its progress and check tasks off as they’re completed.

While you can do that with Notion, Asana makes it more intuitive to leave comments, tag other users and members and can keep each other accountable by providing status updates on tasks and projects. Although Notion offers users templates in its resources section on its website, Asana organizes its templates in a way that is better suited to remote teams. Examples of templates include sprint planning, employee onboarding and one when employees transition out of the company or to a different team.

  • Drag-and-drop workflow builder.
  • Unlimited file storage, even with the free version.
  • Centralized inbox and task management.
  • Fewer views than ClickUp.
  • No native client billing tools.
  • No real-time chat support options.

Best for client-facing agencies

Teamwork

Whereas Notion can be used for various purposes, Teamwork is meant to help users with managing client work. All of its features are meant to help businesses prioritize projects and milestones for client work. Teamwork also helps users to track time to determine what tasks are being completed during billable hours.

Businesses are also able to create custom reports such as tracking the profitability of projects, planned versus actual time spent on projects and what teams have been working on.

  • Billable time tracking with all plans.
  • Centralized client views in all plans.
  • Team chat and collaboration tools.
  • More limited file storage than Asana.
  • Lacks the issue management tools that Zoho Projects offers.
  • Limited support options.

Todoist

Todoist is a better fit for those looking for a simpler tool to organize and track tasks. Since the software is mainly focused on managing and prioritizing tasks, there is no lengthy setup or customization compared to Notion.

It may be a great fit for solo business owners or very small teams to organize tasks and assign due dates. Users can also change how tasks are laid out (such as in a list or on boards) and sorted by customized filters, such as due dates, project, assignee and priority.

  • Supports workspaces for work, personal and team use.
  • Offers productivity visualization tools.
  • Includes automated project task reminders.
  • No expense or time tracking.
  • Offers fewer integrations than Asana or Confluence.
  • Lacks native support for scrum or agile workflows.

Best for growing organizations

Confluence is a better fit for growing companies since it offers over 3,000 integrations through the software. As your organization grows, the need for different software can grow. Using Confluence can help you use them all together seamlessly.

Users can create and group tasks or projects for different workflows and team members. Macros also add a level of interactivity to the software, where users can integrate live updates to projects or any issues as they crop up. Tracking changes for any aspect of Confluence allows users to revert back to previous versions.

  • Unlimited storage with the Premium and Enterprise plans.
  • Over 3,000 integrations.
  • Workforce engagement analytics.
  • Does not support agile or scrum workflows.
  • Lacks client billing and time-tracking tools.
  • No portfolio or resource management features.

What is Notion?

Notion is a project and task management app where users can take advantage of many customization features to cater it to their needs. Users can create items like to-do lists or a place to capture notes and ideas all in place. 

Customizing Notion is done using blocks, to which users can add content and rearrange them to their liking. Content is organized using subpages instead of folders like you would on your computer. 

Pros and cons of Notion

Methodology

We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.

We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the best project management software .

Overall, Notion is a great tool for those who are looking for a place to organize their to-do lists, organize notes and track their projects. There are around 80 software integrations, including Zoom, Zapier, Google Drive, Canva and Calendly. This feature is in addition to other ones, such as the ability to:

  • Customize blocks. 
  • Create calendars. 
  • Create subpages to capture notes and thoughts. 

From there, you can input your content into Notion AI, an add-on, to help you do more instantly. You can, for example, tap into artificial intelligence to help you make meeting note summaries, generate to-do lists, generate campaign ideas and tweak content to fit your audience. 

However, there are some downsides to Notion. If you want to get set up and running quickly, it may not be possible to do so. Although Notion offers robust resources, it can take some time to understand all its features and integrations in order to customize it to fit your needs. 

Notion also lacks a few features, notably invoicing, budgeting and time-tracking tools. 

Choosing the best project management system

Choosing the best project management tool should take into consideration your budget and the needs you and your team members have. Take some time to look at what tasks you want to track based on your business’s workflow and processes and the challenges you’re currently facing in tracking them. 

Talk to your team to learn their task management challenges, needs and preferred features. Look at the solutions you already use and ask your team what they lack or do well. Then, compile that feedback into goals and a features list. 

Next, signing up for free trials of different project management systems will help you assess which is the best fit. Consider testing features such as:

  • Ease of use tools for setting up the software. 
  • To-do lists.
  • Task assignment and prioritization features and processes.
  • Tracking subtasks or milestones within projects.
  • Assigning tasks. 
  • Controlling who can access tasks or content.
  • Integrating existing apps you currently use.
  • Updating and managing tasks on mobile and desktop devices.
  • Automating tasks. 
  • Using templates to streamline task setup. 
  • Reaching out to the software’s customer support options and availability. 
  • The availability of complementary tools such as time tracking, project budgeting, automation and invoicing tools. 

Once you’ve tested a few, compare the pricing and features against your budget and features list to see which best fits your business’s needs. Then, ask your key team members (such as department leads) for their opinions on which one best fits their needs. Narrow down your decision from there to one solution. 

Finally, if you want to upgrade to a paid plan, if possible, take advantage of the software’s free trial to roll out the software to your management team. Make sure they are comfortable with its functionality, usability and customized features before having them champion the software before their respective teams. 

Why you may choose Notion

Notion is a great fit for those who are working by themselves or a small team and want a solution to organize their to-do lists, brainstorm campaign or business ideas and integrate other apps to create an all-in-one solution for their product management needs. 

Several reasons you may want to choose Notion include:

  • The ability to quickly design simple websites: Whether you want to create a public version of an employee handbook or keep track of client work in a portfolio, Notion gives you the ability to build a website using its tools, then publish it. The productivity management tool offers tutorials and examples of what you can create. Notion also has templates you can use, so you’re not starting from scratch. 
  • Access to tools to organize different types of content on one page: Notion allows you to create blocks of content and drag and drop them in a way that makes sense, whether it’s displaying lists, text or images, embedding a database or creating a content table to better navigate long pages. 
  • Access to automation tools: Notion AI, an add-on available through Notion, gives you the ability to automate tasks that would otherwise hinder progress. For example, it can instantly create next-step to-do lists from meeting notes, brainstorm marketing campaigns or adjust the tone of content to speak to the executive suite.
  • Access to tools for customizing tasks and to-do lists: With paid plans, you can create as many content blocks as you wish, including subpages, which can then be linked to block groups. There is also a sidebar where you can navigate all the blocks you’ve created. 
  • Access to training resources: Notion offers help with its product through webinars, tutorials, API docs and an online community. You can choose from these options based on how you learn best. 

Why you may want an alternative

Several reasons may want to stay away from Notion include:

  • You need to track employees’ or clients’ time: While you can manually track time and individually connect apps to see how long you work on certain tasks, Notion is most likely not robust enough for multiple people to track time spent. If you’re a staffing agency, for example, you may want to consider an alternative. 
  • You need to invoice or manage business budgets: Notion doesn’t offer tools for managing client or business expenses, such as those offered by Teamwork. 
  • You need more integration options: You may not be able to integrate all the apps you use into Notion. For example, while you can integrate Google Drive and Google Workspace, there isn’t an integration available for Google Analytics. 
  • You need a quick setup solution: While it can be beneficial to customize blocks however you want, it can feel overwhelming. Plus, creating to-do lists and other methods for productivity management that suit your needs may take some trial and error. Other tools may feel more intuitive and have less of a learning curve. 
  • You need included advanced automations: While Notion AI offers some impressive automation tools, you must pay extra to use these features. 
  • Issue management: You want to be able to raise issues through a support ticket workflow. 

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

There is already a free tier to Notion, but there are other free project management software that exist. Some alternatives that are free or offer free paid tiers include:

Learn about these and other free Notion alternatives by reading our best free project management list. 

Google Workspace is a close alternative to Notion. It has features such as project management tools, a place to write and document notes, collaboration tools and to-do lists, a calendar view and mobile access. 

Airtable and Notion are both popular and capable project management tools — neither one is better than the other. There are differences between the two that could make it a better choice depending on your needs. 

For example, Airtable and Notion offer features such as calendars, timelines and custom reports, However, Notion doesn’t have time tracking or invoicing features, features Airtable has. And, Notion has the ability to tap into AI to brainstorm campaign ideas, a feature Airtable lacks. 

As such, while Airtable may be better for client-facing companies, Notion may be best for content creators. 

Coda and Notion offer project management features fit for different needs. Both offer free and paid tiers and similar features for all users. However, Coda offers slightly more advanced features such as more integrations like Salesforce and Quickbooks, interactive RPD (rapid product development) templates and product roadmaps. The software also allows you to collaborate with other users. 

To determine whether one is a better fit than another for your needs, consider signing up for a free trial and testing out both Notion and Coda. 

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy . The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Sarah Li Cain

Sarah Li Cain is a finance and small business writer currently based in Jacksonville, Florida whose articles have been published with outlets such as Fortune, CNBC Select, the Financial Planning Association and Zillow.

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Zoho CRM Review 2024: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

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Zoho CRM is a leading customer relationship management software offering multichannel marketing, intelligent sales tools and a variety of customizable assets. The platform itself is flexible, with a focus on data and profile transparency with tools like their 360-customer view and contextual team collaboration.

Considering the diverse CRM features it offers, Zoho CRM is affordably priced compared to its competitors. This can be a major attraction for startups and small businesses. However, if you specifically want a CRM tool that’s simple to use or offers hyper-specific industry-related features, there are better options available.

Zoho CRM Pricing

  • Free CRM: Free for up to three users and comes with lead and document management and a mobile app.
  • Standard: $14 per user per month, billed annually, or $20 per user when billed monthly.
  • Professional: $23 per user per month, billed annually, or $35 per user when billed monthly.
  • Enterprise: $40 per user per month, billed annually, or $50 per user when billed monthly.
  • Ultimate: $52 per user per month, billed annually, or $65 per user when billed monthly.

Key features of Zoho CRM

360-degree customer view.

Zoho CRM Plus offers a 360-degree customer view, providing access to important client information, such as contact information, name, location and all sales or marketing communication sales reps have engaged with ( Figure A ). This comprehensive view is accessible through one unified interface.

Zoho CRM 360-degree customer view

Omnichannel customer engagement

Omnichannel engagement acts as a hub for all customer-facing channels in the CRM dashboard ( Figure B ). After creating multichannel and multistep campaigns for engaging with clients, this tool allows for the unification of customer signals, such as real-time updates across teams and interfaces.

example of Zoho CRM omnichannel outlets.

Process management

With Zoho CRM, sales reps are able to automate entire processes across the sales and marketing teams. They can streamline processes, such as lead generation and nurturing through webforms and email campaigns. In addition, sales reps are able to create custom lead follow up workflows, which break projects into achievable tasks and subtasks, trimming ticket assignment efforts ( Figure C ).

Example lead scoring workflow in Zoho CRM

Zia AI-tool

Zia is Zoho’s AI assistant that can help monitor lead activity, forecast deals and even answer support calls on an organization’s behalf. With its Ask Zia feature, sales reps can request niche information, and the tool will search through all client records in the software and pull up the information instantly ( Figure D ).

Example question using Zoho's AI assistant.

Zoho CRM pros and cons

Alternatives to zoho crm.

The user interface of Zoho CRM is reportedly not that user-friendly, and customer support can be inconsistent. If you’re looking for a more robust free version or a software with an easier learning curve to implement in an organization, there are other CRMs to consider.

Other CRM software regularly compared to Zoho CRM include Freshsales, Insightly, Salesforce and HubSpot. These options all offer a trial or demo period, if not a free-for-life tier. Apart from the standard core features expected from a CRM, like pipeline management or data analysis, these alternatives also offer advanced technology tools and integrations.

SEE: Check out our guide to the top enterprise CRM software , where we cover these alternatives and others.

* Pricing is based on annual subscription plans. Month-to-month billing options will differ.

Freshsales logo.

Freshsales is a popular option with advanced collaboration and operation features. Sales reps are able to assign and monitor individual tasks as well as progress on entire projects or deals across departments. Freshsales’ multiview dashboards allow information to be synchronized across views with the most up-to-date activity notes.

SEE: For a full breakdown, check out our independent review of Freshsales.

Insightly logo.

After helping identify potential opportunities, Insightly’s project management tools assist users in tracking post-sale activities and follow ups. Its process automation feature reduces redundant sales tasks, like appointment scheduling and reminders and follow up emails. This streamlines productivity throughout an organization’s sales process.

Salesforce’s data features make it a great operational CRM. Users can create custom data reports, analytic pages and sales forecasts. Its integrations and communication tools help simplify complex sales processes, and its mobile app is even available offline, allowing users to access all information on the go.

SEE: For more information, check out our full Salesforce review .

HubSpot logo.

HubSpot’s robust free version allows up to 2,500 users. If an organization decides HubSpot’s paid tiers better align with their needs, those prices are still affordable. The free version of the CRM does offer an array of sales and marketing tools like contact management and email marketing, making it an easy CRM to implement across teams.

SEE: Explore this side-by-side comparison of HubSpot and Pipedrive .

Review methodology

We used our inhouse scoring tool, which consists of criteria we deem most important when evaluating a CRM software. We then compared Zoho CRM against the industry standard for each criteria in that rubric. We relied on Zoho CRM’s own resources as well as some real user feedback and scores.

The criteria we used to score Zoho CRM include:

  • Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
  • Core features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
  • Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
  • Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
  • Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
  • Customer support: Weighted 10% of the total score.

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  • HubSpot vs Salesforce: Comparing CRM tools
  • Zoho Projects Review: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons
  • Hiring kit: CRM developer
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What is project planning? How to write a project plan in 7 steps

We have a plan in place for your projects to gain the required momentum. Read on to learn how to get the most out of your project management tool.

What is a project plan?

What are the components of a project plan, how to write a project plan, what are the five phases of a project, what is project planning software, key features of project planning software, how to create a project plan with zoho projects, project planner.

A project planner allows you to visualize and plan your projects online with ease. It replicates every aspect of your project plan, from the project charter and work breakdown structure to the risk register and resource calendar.

A project plan is a critical tool for effective project management. It's a guide for project managers, team members, partners, clients, and other stakeholders and the key to ensure that all members are working together with a common objective. It captures every single detail of your project so that it's executed smoothly and can be controlled in case of any deviations.

What is project planning?

Project planning is the second phase in the project lifecycle. It lays out all the project details, including the schedule, budget, milestones, risks, resources, scope, deliverables, and deadlines.

Why are project plans important?

With a solid project plan in place, team members and stakeholders are informed of everything that goes into the project's successful completion. Quality is kept in check, critical tasks are speedily addressed, and bottlenecks are spotted from a distance for the delivery of supreme-quality projects.

As a project manager, the last thing that you want is for your project to hang in the air due to inefficient planning. It is always a good idea to plan well in advance, and an even better idea to have all your planning components ironed out to save yourself and your team the trouble of navigating through a rickety project. Here's a list of primary components that a project plan must include:

A timeline, which can be drawn up after consulting with the stakeholders, contains the task deadlines. Plotting milestones along the way ensures proper tracking of the project's journey and team productivity.

Teams perform better when they have a concrete goal and objectives to attain that goal. Objectives should be realistic and measurable for swiftly produced, stellar-quality deliverables.

In order to establish the project scope, the project goals, objectives, and the timeline need to be well-defined.

Every project has to work within its allocated budget. Note that different projects have different requirements, but the procedure of assessing the human capital, landscape, and resources stays the same for any project.

Work gets done at a rapid pace when everyone involved is consistently informed about project happenings, and when teams show up regularly for meetings. Active communication eliminates silos, bridges numerous gaps, and keeps the teams aligned.

Set quality guidelines that your team has to comply with, and your excellent project outcome will speak for itself.

Work with the team and other stakeholders to understand the potential risks you may encounter while completing your project.

Gone are the days when you needed a pen and paper to jot down your plan. Today, you can use a project planner online. Here's how:

01. Create your work breakdown structure

Once the scope is defined, you'll need to break it down into manageable portions. In a project planner, you can easily record and track these stages. The milestones, individual tasks, and sub-tasks can all be created in minutes.

break your work down using a solid project plan

02. Schedule the project using Gantt charts

The next step is to schedule the project timeline. It's also important to consider the interdependencies between different work items. This is where Gantt charts come into play. These can be used to schedule tasks, set dependencies, analyze the critical path, and set baselines to compare with the actual progress.

create a project plan today with our Gantt charts

03. Allocate resources optimally

It's now time to onboard your team and other project stakeholders. Taking into account the skills and specializations of your team, it's important to allocate work to the right people. Project planning software analyzes each user's workload for optimal task allocation.

resource allocation done right with a project planner online

04. Set a planned budget

An initial budget for your work items is important in project planning online and offline. Establish a planned budget to compare with your actual spending and expenses. Set up a budget threshold limit and track your spending closely using budget forecasting, EVM, and planned vs. actual reports.

budget well with a good project plan

05. Plan for effective communication

The major advantage of virtual tools is their wide array of interactive collaborative features. Ensure that knowledge flows to every single project stakeholder by planning regular status updates, calls, and virtual meetings. Forums and feeds also ensure that conversations happen organically.

project planning goes hand in hand with good communication

Kick-starting a project, dodging hiccups, and bringing it to its journey's end requires a structure, and breaking it up into phases can help. The five primary phases of a project are:

1) Initiation

This phase marks the beginning of a project, defined by broader project goals, objectives, and a timeline. Teams use this stage to establish the overall purpose for the project, as well as its business value. It's also the time to prove that the final outcome is feasible, as this helps secure project approval from key stakeholders.

3) Monitoring and controlling

This phase is crucial since there's a lot on the line, and the frequent monitoring of work processes goes a long way. Generally, this phase goes hand in hand with the execution phase, and the team continues monitoring work items to ensure that the deliverables coincide with the project goals. Key project indicators (KPIs) and critical success factors (CSFs) are used to monitor the project's advancement, identify potential threats, measure progress, and accommodate any changes. Frequent reviews take place to ensure that the project is on track, and any kind of issue can be thwarted.

2) Planning

Next in line is planning, where the team sets clear objectives and goals, estimates the budget, secures resources, and creates a concrete timeline. The project manager assigns specific tasks and due dates to team members, and individual accountability becomes a main focus. Good communication in meetings is key to get ideas swirling, namely when it comes to equipment, the timespan, the budget, and the team members responsible for each task.

4) Execution

In this phase, the team uses data gathered during the initiation and planning stages to work towards the project's completion. Meetings recur, team members work tirelessly, and the project manager oversees workflows.

Signifying the end of the project, this phase is when contracts are signed, products are released, and deliverables are completed. The team holds a retrospective meeting to discuss what went well and what could have gone better to amplify productivity and enhance performance in future projects.

Project planning software assists project managers in getting their projects through to their destination, without any turbulence on the way. With an array of intuitive features like dashboards, widgets, Gantt charts, and reports, the software provides a rundown of the project's overall health, along with meticulous tracking of work items.

Benefits of online project planning software

Project tracking.

Track project status by using a project planner online to ensure timely reports to management.

Scope management

Ensure a clear understanding of who does what, when, and for how much.

Schedule management

Establish proper schedules, assure uninterrupted workflows, and finish projects in time.

Resource allocation

Quickly assign tasks, allocate proper resources, and define responsibilities.

Efficient work

Eliminate the need to memorize all tasks and set timely reminders for greater productivity.

Quality assurance

Integrate all work to assure a quality project for clients at a reduced cost.

Set project baselines

The performance of the entire project is measured against the project's three starting points: the scope, the schedule, and the cost. These provide the stakes in the ground and are used to determine whether the project is on track during execution.

Develop the project scope

The scope statement is arguably the most important one in the project plan and should include business needs, objectives, scope, and benefits of completing the project. It can be treated like a contract between the project manager and stakeholders, one that can only be changed with stakeholders approval.

Schedule project baselines

Once the project deliverables are confirmed in the scope statement, they need to be developed into a work breakdown structure (WBS) of all the deliverables. The scope includes all the deliverables that need to be produced on the project and therefore identifies all the work to be done.

Manage project resources

The next step of your project planning process is to break down the budget and other project resources. This also includes optimally allocating work to all team members so no one is overworked or without enough tasks. This stage works in conjunction with project scheduling and the two may influence each other.

Communicate the project plan

One important part of your project planning is the communication plan. A communication plan must state who on the project wants which reports and how often, how issues will be escalated, who will solve these issues, when, where, and in what format project information will be stored, and who can access this information.

Project planning steps

Every project, big or small, is tailored to fit the distinctive demands of every business. Yet, the various steps involved in the project remain fundamentally the same. Here's a list of seven steps to adhere to while planning a project:

Project planning steps

Scoop the scope out

The project scope serves your teams and business as a whole, as it determines what your plan of action is going to be, taking into account the project goals and objectives that you've defined. It is safe to use a scope statement or document so that you have something to turn to in case the project strays from the original plan. A project scope also helps delineate elements that are nonessential, and ensures the time goes toward generating something of value.

Goals and objectives set straight

A goal is an outcome that can be achieved, while an objective is the action performed to achieve that goal. Both of these lay the groundwork for a project. If set right, they can take the project to great heights; if not, they can cause it to come crumbling down. Make sure your teams are made aware of the goals so that they know what to expect, and what to do to get there as quickly as possible.

Connect with your stakeholders

For a smooth project journey, it is important to consult the right stakeholders. This means meeting with those who are responsible for everything that the project entails, from initiation and planning to execution. Gather insights from a variety of professionals, as different perspectives go a long way toward polishing the project and steering it towards success.

Assemble and delegate

When you have your teams ready to go, all that's left to do is assign tasks, bearing in mind the team's current workload, way of working, and skill set. Schedule meetings and brainstorm fresh ideas to see what works for your business and your team's style of working. Once this bridge is crossed, there will be more clarity as to what is at stake and what can be kept on the backburner.

Get budgeting, get resourceful

Every task demands a set of resources that needs to be procured at the time of the project's inception. This requires an apt project budget estimate that can cover all resource expenses. Team members, equipment, training material, and other miscellaneous items are resources that are necessary for a project. Ensure that you know what the task is, whether the people involved have the skills required, what the domain is, the bulk cost of resources, and whether you need a licensed contractor to source it for you.

Know your risks

Projects of any kind are bound to stumble upon risks, which is why maintaining a risk register could be helpful when you're weighing different possibilities and testing the project's risk tolerance. A risk register is a document with foreseeable risks mapped against courses of action for each. Continually tracking the project's progress and studying analytical project reports can also work in your favor, as you can recognize potential risks and constraints before they become a threat.

Communicate until the end

Scheduled calls, frequent updates on channels, and weekly meetings should be the norm for smooth communication. It's also the happenstance meetings by the corridor, the impromptu work calls that go on for hours, or the "eureka" moments that you share through networking channels that can materialize into something phenomenal and take the project to great heights. Whatever you do, keep everyone in the loop.

Turn your projects into success stories with a robust plan put together by Zoho Projects. Here's how you can get started:

Create a new project, or use an existing template

If you're creating a fresh project, you can fill in the start and end date, assign the owner, enable a strict deadline, add a description, associate a team, toggle preferred tabs, and make it a private or a public project. With a project template, you can either modify the prefilled details, or use the selected template as is.

Enable budget

Once you enable the budget toggle from setup, you will be able to plan your budget, track it, bill your clients, and acquire necessary resources.

Tasks and their assignees

After the inception of your project, you can start creating task lists, tasks, and sub-tasks, and assign an owner to each. You can also create milestones that will give your project more headway if you're in a rut; this helps you know where you are and what you need to complete to get back on track. Get your teams to log hours on timesheets to know who worked on what and for how long.

Analyze your team's performance and your project's course with custom and advance reports like timesheets, issues, tasks, and project reports. You can gather insights from your team on the data and tweak your project if needed.

Gantt charts

Stay on track with our Gantt charts, which notify you of deadlines, critical and non-critical tasks, deviations, and slack of any kind. It becomes effortless to modify the task duration when you have a visual representation of your work items in an aesthetically pleasing format. There you have it: your very own project plan.

Simple project planning templates

Templates can help you save a lot of time in project planning, especially if your organization repeatedly works on similar projects. In Zoho Projects, we provide an onboarding template for you to edit and make your own, as well as industry-specific templates for construction, software development, automobile manufacturing, and others to simplify your project planning process.

We also believe in building tools that will help boost your productivity. In Zoho Projects, you can create a project plan from scratch once and save it as a template to be reused whenever needed. This can be a simple task-breakdown template or a detailed cost breakdown—it's all up to you! Read more about project templates

Begin your project with a plan built on Zoho Projects

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COMMENTS

  1. Zoho Projects

    Zoho Projects gives you the added advantage of several other Zoho apps and third party apps through seamless integrations. More Integrations TRUST ZOHO PROJECTS 4.5 M+ Projects on Zoho Projects 50 + Integrations via marketplace ISO 27001 enterprise-grade security View customer stories "Our presence is now completely virtual.

  2. Zoho Projects: An Overview

    Zoho Projects is an online project management software that helps you run your business with ease. It stands as a comprehensive solution to your day-to-day problems in project management and adds value to your business by leaps and bounds. Here is a video for more insights into Zoho Projects. Getting started with Zoho Projects - Webinar Watch on

  3. What is a Project Management System?

    With Zoho Projects, you can juggle multiple tasks, track project metrics, collaborate with teams, and more. TRY ZOHO PROJECTS NOW Key features of project management system software Task management This provides the foundation for your project. It reflects the work breakdown structure and comes under scope management.

  4. Zoho Projects Review

    4.5 Outstanding By Jill Duffy Updated March 24, 2023 (Credit: Zoho) The Bottom Line Zoho Projects is an inexpensive project management app with an array of helpful features, making it an...

  5. Zoho Projects Tutorial [A 2024 Guide for Beginners]

    Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management software that helps you plan, track and collaborate on your projects. It offers a variety of features such as task management, time...

  6. Zoho Projects Review 2024: Features, Pricing, Ease of Use & More

    Zoho Projects is a project management solution for small businesses looking for a cost-effective tool that helps manage projects. The free version is very limited in terms of features and is ...

  7. Zoho Projects Review: Pricing, Alternatives, Pros & Cons

    Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management software that offers teams observability, collaboration and productivity capabilities. It has a range of features spanning project...

  8. How To Use Zoho Projects

    323 30K views 2 years ago Project Management Software for Small Business Today I share a Zoho Projects tutorial for small teams looking to learn how to use Zoho projects to manage,...

  9. Zoho Projects Review: Free Plan & How It Works [2024]

    Zoho Projects has everything a small team needs to get a project running. Zoho Projects is a robust and inexpensive software for project management. It can help you organize tasks, keep track of your team, and identify bottlenecks within a project. It also works together with the rest of Zoho's ecosystem.

  10. Zoho Projects review

    Zoho Projects is an inexpensive project management solution for startups and small businesses. The software boasts numerous communication and time-keeping tools, plus integration with Zoho...

  11. Zoho Projects

    Zoho Projects, our cloud-based project management software, helps you plan your projects, track work efficiently, and collaborate with your team, wherever they are. Turn raw ideas into top-notch products with our fully featured app! Get started. The one-stop solution for managing IT projects.

  12. Zoho Projects Review

    Zoho Projects is an inexpensive tool for small and scaling businesses; Good range of collaboration features, including feed, chat, and forums; Offers a 10-day free trial of the Enterprise plan, so ...

  13. A Quick Walkthrough of Zoho Projects

    Zoho Projects is a free online project management software that can help you plan, track, and collaborate easily with your team. This on-boarding video tells...

  14. What is Project Management?

    Project management is a process that helps businesses achieve their project goals while staying within the planned constraints of objectives, time, and money. Get started So, what is a project?

  15. Zoho Projects

    Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management tool that helps you plan your work, track it efficiently, and collaborate with your team wherever they are.

  16. Zoho Projects

    Zoho Projects is an online project management software that helps you run your business with ease. It stands as a comprehensive solution to your day-to-day problems in project management and adds value to your business by leaps and bounds.

  17. Zoho Projects vs Microsoft Project 2024 [Complete Comparison]

    The main difference between Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project is that Zoho Projects is an affordable, intuitive project management tool, while Microsoft Project suffers from laggy performance ...

  18. How to choose a project management tool

    Step 7: Final research. You're getting close to choosing your project management tool so it's time to conduct some final bits of research. A good way to conclude your seearch is to ask ...

  19. Introducing Projects 8.0

    Zoho Projects Community Learning Series Introducing Projects 8.0 - Focusing on Ease-of-Use and New Features Chaitanya Mella Announcement 3 months ago Hello everyone! It's time for the reveal of the 8th version of Zoho Projects!

  20. Introducing Zoho Projects 8.0: Bridging the divide between

    At Zoho Projects, this is exactly what we aim to eliminate. The newest version of Zoho Projects is built with a mission to tighten the gaps between functionality and user experience, for a platform that's a joy to work on. And we firmly believe that Zoho Projects 8.0 can do just that!

  21. 5 best Notion alternatives in 2024

    Zoho Projects is a better fit for new companies or software development startups, especially ones that are attempting to best allocate projects and tasks to team members. Its other strengths ...

  22. Zoho CRM Review 2024: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

    Zoho CRM is a leading customer relationship management software offering multichannel marketing, intelligent sales tools and a variety of customizable assets. The platform itself is flexible, with ...

  23. What is Project Plan & How to Create a Project Plan?

    A project plan is a critical tool for effective project management. It's a guide for project managers, team members, partners, clients, and other stakeholders and the key to ensure that all members are working together with a common objective.

  24. What is the difference between Zoho Sprints and Zoho Projects?

    Knowledge Base Sprints FAQs General What is the difference between Zoho Sprints and Zoho Projects? Zoho Sprints and Zoho Projects both are project management tools that helps your business manage work efficiently. If your team follows a conventional process to manage work and coordinate tasks then you can choose Zoho Projects.

  25. Top HubSpot Alternatives Of February 2024

    Zoho CRM is a powerful all-around alternative to HubSpot for businesses seeking a comprehensive customer relationship management platform with outstanding features and competitive pricing.