Project management software works wonders for managing multiple projects as it can help you stay on top of tasks without anything slipping through the cracks. Today we will review GanttPro, PM software primarily aimed at the needs of small teams and organizations. To determine if it meets the needs of your development team, we’ll break down GanttPro in terms of setup, user interface, task tracking, features, weaknesses, and pricing.
What is GanttPro project management software?
Before we dive into the in-depth GanttPro review, let’s take a minute to go over the background. The project management software was launched in 2015 and is currently used by over 700,000 project managers around the world. As you can tell from its name, it is heavily dependent on Gantt charts, which are charts that plot all of a project’s tasks on a timeline for two main reasons:
- To show how all tasks contribute to the end result.
- To highlight possible obstacles to achieving this end result.
Gantt charts are broken down further, helping users and project managers see:
- Which tasks have to be completed when.
- The estimated completion time for each task.
- A chronological order of tasks to get them done in a specific order.
- The team members responsible for completing each task.
Could you manage a project without the help of Gantt charts? Sure, but if you’re using basic collaboration tools or work management apps like Airtable or Trello, managing multiple complex projects could be challenging due to their limited features. You may not be able to locate potential obstacles, and some tasks may not be completed on time due to confusion between team members. This is why using Gantt charts and PM software like GanttPro is recommended as they can give you a comprehensive view of schedules, tasks and resources so you can manage more effectively.
Is GanttPro enough for every type of team? It largely depends on the size of your development team as it is geared towards small development teams looking for a project management software with all the essential features minus extras like invoicing or reports. But as you’ll see in a moment, GanttPro is a solid PM platform if you can live without those benefits.
Read: Project management software for developers
GanttPro Review
Where does GanttPro shine and lag behind? How much is it? Below is our breakdown.
GanttPro setup
It doesn’t take much to get GanttPro up and running, which is a definite plus for teams looking for PM software without a steep learning curve. You can easily create an account, set up a new project and start experimenting with the different features of the PM software in minutes.
Once you log into your account, you will be prompted to create a project. You can take the quick route and choose a template or create a project from scratch. The former might be your best bet as GanttPro offers templates for different types of businesses including construction, web design, and more.
After choosing a template or custom build, you’ll see your new project through the Gantt chart view. You can start editing the chart to add or tweak details as needed. If you’re confused, you can check out the recommended tutorials along the way. These tutorials will show you how the various features of GanttPro work and explain various project management concepts to help your team improve.
Besides the initial setup, GanttPro makes it super easy to add team members to your project. You can send email invitations through the app and assign permissions once accepted. And when you need to share a project’s status with outsiders without giving away every detail, you can do so via filtered views, public URLs, and view-only access.
Read: Best project management software for game developers
The GanttPro user interface
You can describe GanttPro’s interface as sleek and modern. After playing around with it for a day, you should feel comfortable navigating the interface as it doesn’t come up with too many complex surprises.
GanttPro task tracking
Why use PM software like GanttPro instead of a simpler tool to manage projects? Because it allows you to fully track project progress so you don’t miss your deadlines. You can do this simply by creating a project and giving it a start and end date and a description. Or you can take the more complex route, adding tasks, subtasks, milestones, and other details to make sure you cover your bases. How detailed can you get with tracking tasks in GanttPro? So detailed that you can add the following to each task:
- authorized representative
- Attachments
- Remarks
- Custom Fields
- dependencies
- description
- length of time
- Deadline
- assessment
- priority level
- progress
- start date
- status
- time
- protocol
- Type
You can track tasks with Gantt charts by default, or switch to a Kanban board view for a different perspective that uses vertical columns and cards.
What are the features of GanttPro?
GanttPro offers more than just Gantt charts and Kanban boards to track your tasks and manage projects. A nice extra in the Gantt view is the critical path feature. It highlights important tasks in red that must be completed before the project can proceed. In this way, the critical path feature lets project managers immediately see what they need to prioritize without having to think about things.
You can use the mini dashboard when you want to see a quick overview of all your projects at once. A time tracking feature automatically tracks with a timer or allows for manual entries. Speaking of time, GanttPro can make sure you don’t overload anyone’s workload. The workload management view shows how much work is delegated among team members.
If they are overloaded at a certain point, their numbers will turn red to alert the project manager to the problem.
In addition to workload management, GanttPro also offers resource management and project portfolio management. And should you make a mistake with a project you want to undo, a saved history function lets you easily revert to an earlier state.
What are the weaknesses of GanttPro?
As mentioned, GanttPro offers essential features that most small development teams are looking for, but lacks benefits that you might find in other project management software. This might be seen as a weakness for some, so here are some missing features or weaknesses worth noting:
Limited Integrations – If you want to integrate 3rd party apps via GanttPro, you are limited to basics like Zapier, Google Drive, Slack, etc.
Lack of Billing and Invoicing – While some PM software lets you connect to accounting software, GanttPro lacks such integration.
Reporting – If you want detailed reports for your projects, you won’t find them here.
Collaboration – Beyond simple comments and mentions, you won’t find a full suite of collaboration features on GanttPro.
No Proofing – Teams working with visual assets will miss out on proofing workflows or proofing tools if they make GanttPro their PM software of choice.
What is GanttPro pricing?
Unfortunately, GanttPro doesn’t offer a free plan with the most basic features.
Instead, GanttPro has three pricing plans:
- Individual – $15 per user per month – Intended for personal productivity and not for team use.
- Team – $8.90 per user per month – The most popular plan for businesses that offers unlimited functionality.
- Enterprise – Contact GanttPro for pricing information – Offers priority support, enterprise onboarding assistance, and advanced management and security.
