Project Management tools that offer “Resource Leveling”

Tool Cost What it does What it doesn't do
Microsoft Project
https://products.office.com/en-us/project/project-online-professional		 $30 per user per month (if you pay monthly)
  • Has a lightweight online version to show workers their tasks, but for resource leveling you need the full program which requires Windows
  • Has a button "Resource > Level All" which you click to perform resource leveling
  • "What-if" scenarios can be tested by coping the file
  • No Mac/Linux version
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
LiquidPlanner
https://www.liquidplanner.com/		 $45 per project manager per month (minimum 5 users).
Free for workers to see their tasks.
  • Web-based tool
  • Has a view (costing nothing) for workers to see their tasks
  • Workers still see tasks even if they are blocked by other dependencies
  • Range estimates to capture uncertainty ("we think this will take min 1 day, max 2 days")
  • Shows resource utilization ("when will each of my employees run out of work?")
  • No view of estimated predicted costs
  • No "what-if" scenarios
Calligra Plan
https://www.calligra.org/plan/		 Free and open source
  • Desktop application, mainly for Linux (also has Windows and Mac versions)
  • Looks actively maintained (last release 6 months ago at the time of writing)
  • Not obvious how to install it on Mac or Windows
  • No view for workers to see what their tasks are
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
  • No view of estimated predicted costs
  • No view to see how long workers have work for (resource utilization)
  • No "what-if" scenarios
Gantter
https://www.gantter.com/		 $5 per user per month
  • Web-based tool
  • Use the menu option "auto-level resources" and instantly see the new plan (no wait for server-side calculations)
  • Tasks can be marked as "pinned" (you specify start/end date) or not (auto-leveling algorithm predicts start/end dates)
  • Designed to look visually similar to MS Project
  • No view for workers to see what their tasks are
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
  • No view of estimated predicted costs
  • No view to see how long workers have work for (resource utilization)
  • No "what-if" scenarios
Gantt Chart Project for Jira
http://www.jiraproject.com/confluence/display/JRAGANTT/Gantt+Chart+Project+for+Jira		 $10 per month for up to 10 users, $6 per user per month thereafter
  • A module within Jira; good if you're already using Jira
  • Can import MS Project files
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
  • No view of estimated predicted costs
  • No view to see how long workers have work for (resource utilization)
  • No "what-if" scenarios
Kelloo
https://www.kelloo.com/		 $29 per user per month for the basic version (12 month plans), $49 per user per month for 3x "what if" scenarios
  • After you make a change, click a button to recalculate, then click again to refresh the schedule once it's recalculated.
  • Allows you to ask questions like "what if I add another developer?" without actually changing the live plan.
  • Very slow and clunky!
  • No view for workers to see what their tasks are
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
  • No view of estimated predicted costs
  • No view to see how long workers have work for (resource utilization)
Merlin
https://www.projectwizards.net/en/products/merlin-project/what-is		 $13 per user per month
  • Mac-only desktop application
  • Resource utilization (view to see how long workers have work for)
  • Calculate expected costs of a project in addition to time
  • No Windows or Linux versions
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
  • No view for workers to see what their tasks are
  • No "what-if" scenarios
OmniPlan
https://www.omnigroup.com/omniplan/		 $300 one-time payment
  • Mac desktop application, or iOS app
  • Offers advanced Monte-Carlo simulation for predicting schedules
  • Click Shift-Command-L to level resources, or enable "automatic leveling' in the Project menu
  • No Windows or Linux versions
  • No view for workers to see what their tasks are
  • No range estimates to capture uncertainty
  • No view of estimated predicted costs
  • No view to see how long workers have work for (resource utilization)
  • No "what-if" scenarios
TaskJuggler
http://taskjuggler.org/		 Free and open source
  • Command-line application, no GUI (neither web nor desktop)
  • Store your plan in text files and edit them with a text editor
  • No GUI!
  • No view to see how long workers have work for (resource utilization)
  • Looks unmaintained. Most recent release was in 2016, before that 2013, lots of docs are from 2006

Please note these links here are not sponsored links. and I have not been paid in any way for this post. The opinions are my own. This page exists solely to help you, the reader of my website. They are correct as of August 2018. If you think you've found any errors, please write to me.

See also: What is Resource Leveling and Why Do You Need It?.

P.S. I recently created a nerdy privacy-respecting tool called When Will I Run Out Of Money? It's available for free if you want to check it out.

This article is © Adrian Smith.
It was originally published on 15 Aug 2018
More on: Project Management | Tools