5 Best Resource Scheduling Software of 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Project Management.
The best resource scheduling software helps outline, allocate, and track resources for maximum resource utilization. These platforms often offer reporting solutions, multiple calendar views, and mobile application functionality. Resource scheduling software allows teams to improve coordination, mitigate losses, and gain better accuracy when planning projects. Our article evaluates leading providers based on their use cases, pricing, and standout features.
Best Resource Scheduling Software at a Glance
Resource Scheduling Software | Monthly Starting Price (Per User) | Key Features | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|
 4.61 out of 5 | monday.com: Best Overall Resource Scheduling Software | ||
$10 |
| or | |
 4.49 out of 5 | Smartsheet: Best for Digital Asset Management | ||
$9 |
| ||
 4.42 out of 5 | ClickUp: Best for Managing Individual Tasks | ||
$10 |
| ||
 4.38 out of 5 | Wrike: Best for Risk Management | ||
$9.80 |
| ||
 4.24 out of 5 | Notion: Best for Note-taking and Record-keeping | ||
$10 |
| ||
monday.com: Best Overall Resource Scheduling Software
Overall Score:
4.61 / 5
What We Liked
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance
- Dashboard email notifications
- 99.9% uptime service level agreement (SLA)
Where It Falls Behind
- Free plan’s activity log limited to one week
- Integrations available only in the Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plans
- Unlimited free viewers only available for paid plans
monday.com Monthly Pricing Save 18% when you choose yearly billing (per User)
- Free: Free for three boards, eight column types, and up to two team members
- Basic: $10 for unlimited free viewers, 5GB file storage, prioritized customer support
- Standard: $12 for timeline and Gantt views, 250 automations, guest access, and up to five combined boards
- Pro: $20 for dependency column, up to 10 combined boards, time tracking, and 25,000 automations
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for advanced reporting and analytics, tailored onboarding, 250,000 automations, and up to 50 combined boards
When we compared popular scheduling solutions, we found that monday.com is the best overall resource scheduling software because of its affordability, ease of use, and versatility. It’s one of the best project management software providers, ideal for companies looking for a customizable solution. It has various ready-made templates that can be personalized to suit every industry, company, or team. Tailor your board with custom colors, labels, display themes, and columns.
This productivity app has a built-in calendar and smart notifications, and remote teams can use the shift scheduling feature to construct weekly schedules for shifting employees. Unfortunately, monday.com lacks robust integrations. The Free and Basic plans have no integrations; premium integrations are available through the Enterprise plan. As an alternative, try Smartsheet. The free plan supports Microsoft Office 365, Google, and Slack integrations.
monday.com Features
monday.com charts provide insights into your team’s performance. (Source: monday.com)
- Broadcast: This feature lets you showcase your board outside the monday.com resource scheduling software. Let stakeholders who don’t have a Monday account monitor your progress and project status.
- Calendar: See the timelines for individual monday.com tasks down to the last hour. Select jobs and tasks, filter details by criteria, such as deadlines, visualize your project, and see when assignments are due.
- Email to boards: Create a seamless connection between your email and monday.com account. Work efficiently and send emails directly from your inbox to your monday.com board as new updates or items.
Smartsheet: Best for Digital Asset Management
Overall Score:
4.49 / 5
What We Liked
- Offers custom email domains
- DocuSign integration
- All plans feature cross-sheet formulas
Where It Falls Behind
- Free and Pro plans include only one sheet per report
- Template sets are only available for the two highest plans
- Limited reporting capabilities
Smartsheet Monthly Pricing Annual billing for paid plans start at $7 per user, monthly (per User)
- Free: Free for one user and up to two editors, two sheets, 100 automations, dashboards, and 50MB attachment storage
- Pro: $9 for up to 10 users and unlimited viewers, 250 automations, and 20GB attachment storage
- Business: $32 for at least three users and unlimited editors, document building, unlimited automations, and 1TB attachment storage
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for directory integration and account discovery, work insights, unlimited attachment storage, and domain validation
When it comes to online resource scheduling software, Smartsheet is the best for marketing and creative teams looking for a project management platform for sharing content and digital assets. Brandfolder by Smartsheet is a digital asset management (DAM) with built-in integrations, such as Adobo, Microsoft, Google Workspace, and Salesforce. Brandfolder lets users store, manage, share, and analyze images, graphics, and document assets.
Connecting Brandfolder assets to Smartsheet’s work management platform increases project visibility for all parties and lets teams use data to create reports and dashboards to shape creative and marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, Smartsheet has a steep learning curve. If you’re looking for a resource scheduling and work management tool, consider Wrike. It’s an intuitive project management tool with a point-and-click interface.
Smartsheet Features
Customize your navbar to access your most used items quickly. (Source: Smartsheet)
- Activity log: View all changes made to an item, including who made the updates and when. Smartsheet’s activity log details sharing permission changes, recently viewed files, and deletions.
- Conversation comments: Leave sheet comments on a row, sheet, or workspace, and see all remarks made on sheets or reports on the conversation panel. However, workspace comments are located in the Comments dialog. Users can access comments via mobile devices.
- Dashboard templates: Dashboards provide real-time visibility into critical performance data and centralize team information. It uses easy-to-configure widgets and displays live data from your reports and sheets.
ClickUp: Best for Managing Individual Tasks
Overall Score:
4.42 / 5
What We Liked
- Medical savings accounts (MSAs) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)-compliant
- Free plan includes unlimited tasks
- Free forever workspaces have unlimited members and guests
Where It Falls Behind
- ClickUp AI is a paid add-on that’s not compatible with the free plan
- Team sharing only unlocks with the Enterprise plan
- Live chat customer support only available for paid plans
ClickUp Monthly Pricing Choose annual billing and save up to 37% (per User)
- Free: Free for 100MB of storage, unlimited tasks, real-time chat, and native time tracking
- Unlimited: $10 for unlimited storage, guests with permissions, and agile reporting
- Business: $19 for unlimited teams, advanced dashboard features, and workload management
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for white labeling, team sharing for spaces, and live onboarding training
It’s best to choose a resource scheduling software that caters organizational needs, but also includes capabilities that make work easier for team members. As a wall-to-wall solution for project collaboration, it has a tray feature allowing individual users to minimize tasks or documents into a holding tray they can return to at any time. Use full document editing features and slash commands that enable team members to work faster by using “/” to access several shortcuts.
ClickUp is one of our recommended free resource planning software, thanks to its comprehensive project management and marketing tools, like task tracking to content calendar templates. Unfortunately, users on the free plan are limited to 100MB of storage. Check out Wrike’s free plan for more data space. This free resource planning software has 2GB of storage per account, AI content generation, unlimited users, and email integration and notifications.
ClickUp Features
ClickUp’s white labeling feature for enterprise users lets businesses customize their workspace. (Source: ClickUp)
- Mind maps: Draw and connect ideas and plans using the mind map feature. It is an excellent tool for mapping workflows and step-by-step project processes and can be shared with team members within your Workspace.
- Time-tracking widgets: ClickUp makes it easy for users to manage and track the time spent on specific tasks. See the details using various widgets, including time reporting, time tracking, timesheet, and billable report.
- Security compliance: Gain peace of mind with ClickUp’s multiple security compliance features, including GDPR (General Protection Data Regulation), HIPAA, and Service Organization Controls (SOC 2) Trust Services Principles. It also features encryption at rest and in transit.
Wrike: Best for Risk Management
Overall Score:
4.38 / 5
What We Liked
- All plans have multi-language support
- Advanced analytics and data visualizations available
- Free plans get enterprise-grade security
Where It Falls Behind
- Two-step verification only available with Enterprise and Pinnacle plans
- Paid plans don’t support solo user accounts
- Calendar view not available in the Free plan
Wrike Monthly Pricing (per User)
- Free: Free for unlimited users, 2GB storage space per account, use case project templates, and collaborators
- Team: $9.80 for two to 25 users, 2GB storage per user, 50 automations, personal work schedules, and dynamic Gantt chart
- Business: $24.80 for five to 200 users, 200 automations, 5GB storage, branded workspace, project portfolio management, and real-time reports
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for five to unlimited users, 10GB storage, 1,000 automations, tableau integration, and business intelligence application programming interface (API)
- Pinnacle: Custom pricing for 15GB storage, 1,500 automations, advanced analytics and data visualizations, performance dashboard, job roles, and advanced proofing
Managing risk is a critical part of project planning, and resource scheduling software like Wrike, with robust risk management solutions, helps businesses minimize losses and stay on track. Using machine learning technology, it offers timely risk predictions and gives instant alerts so your team can resolve concerns quickly. Multiple viewing options like Kanban boards and Gantt charts help users manage workloads and customize dashboards for better risk mitigation.
While Wrike offers collaboration and resource planning tools like time and budget tracking and project reporting, its paid plans do not accommodate single-user accounts. For those looking for advanced features beyond the free plan, paid plans require at least two registered users. Solopreneurs or freelancers looking for resource scheduling and project management software should try Smartsheet. It offers a free plan and has no minimum user requirement.
Wrike Features
Wrike’s mobile applications make it easy to monitor collaborative projects. (Source: Wrike)
- Dynamic request forms: Minimize project bottlenecks using AI to coordinate tasks and insert them into your team’s workflow. Users can add sub-projects or tasks to the submitted form and set up approvals for the task or project created.
- Custom workflows: Quickly see each project’s status and track every stage of your project. Identify the work order and add approvals upon a status change. All Business and Enterprise accounts have a maximum of 200 workflows, but there’s no limit on the number of statuses within a workflow.
- Email integration: Consolidate all communications within Wrike and use Gmail to create tasks. Send messages from the email address associated with your Wrike account and create or edit tasks via email. Create up to 250 tasks or comments per hour using email integration.
Notion: Best for Note-taking & Record Keeping
Overall Score:
4.24 / 5
What We Liked
- Unlimited page histories
- Priority support for all paid plans
- Invite up to 250 guests
Where It Falls Behind
- Free plan has limited block trial for teams
- Limited team communication features
- Only the Enterprise plan has workspace analytics
Notion Monthly Pricing (per User)
- Free: Free for unlimited individual blocks, basic page analytics, seven-day page history, and 10 guests
- Plus: $10 for unlimited team blocks, unmetered file uploads, 30-day page history, and 100 guests
- Business: $18 for private team spaces, advanced page analytics, 90-day page history, and 250 guests
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for user provisioning, advanced security and controls, audit log, workspace analytics, unlimited page history, and 250 guests
Centralize and plan your resources using Notion’s connected workspace and as an all-in-one workspace, it comes with a feature-rich note-taking solution. Consolidate all your notes in one place, organize them into folders, and share them with others. Add images, code, videos, and other content using the drag-and-drop function. Tag notes with custom keywords, add team members, and set due dates to keep everyone on the same page.
This platform is great for staying organized and streamlining operations through efficient resource scheduling and project management. Notion offers AI that can write meeting summaries and note takeaways from sales calls and action items. However, this add-on service starts at $10 per user, monthly. As an alternative, consider Wrike. Its free plan includes smart search, generative AI, AI-recommended tasks, and project risk prediction.
Notion Features
See how people engage with individual pages and your workspace, in general. (Source: Notion)
- Page analytics: Find out how your content performs by monitoring page popularity and views. Analytics provides insights into how collaborators and team members interact with the platform, including topics of interest within the organization.
- File uploads: Avoid having your data, documents, and media files scattered across different applications and locations. Centralize your resources by moving everything into Notion to gain access and use everything with ease.
- Teamspaces: Streamline access to information and build a customized workspace for your team. Manage teamspace membership and add new members per individual or as a group using their email or name.
How We Evaluated the Best Resource Scheduling Software
Assessing the best resource planning software required comparing the leading platforms, specifically considering each provider’s pricing, features, and user experience. We also looked at customer support, and the evaluation also included our expert opinion on each software’s value for money and popularity.
Learn how we evaluated the best resource scheduling software by clicking on the tabs below:
20%
Pricing
25%
General Features
20%
Advanced Features
10%
Ease of Use
10%
Customer Support
15%
Expert Score
20% of Overall Score
To determine affordability, we checked if the provider offers a free version. We considered the price of the base-level plan and compared it with the prevailing rates in the market. In addition, we favored providers with subscription plans that cost less than $15 per user, monthly and those with annual billing and volume-based discounts.
25% of Overall Score
The general features we looked at were document management and task reminders, crucial to scheduling and project management. Since businesses need to ensure data privacy and security, we looked at whether providers have two-factor authentication and if they offer mobile apps for greater flexibility.
20% of Overall Score
For niche features, we looked at robust view options and milestone tracking availability. We also checked the expense management tools and third-party integrations providers offer.
10% of Overall Score
When it comes to ease of use, we evaluate user-friendliness by determining the expertise required to set up and operate the system. Providers receive higher points if they have an intuitive interface.
10% of Overall Score
We looked at the variety of customer communication channels offered by providers. Providers with email, phone, and live chat support were prioritized, and we also looked at the hours these channels are active and operational.
15% of Overall Score
The expert score includes our evaluation of each resource scheduler software’s standout features, value for money, and ease of use. We considered user ratings and feedback on popular third-party review sites to gauge the platform’s popularity.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the importance of resource scheduling and planning in project management?
Resource planning refers to the process of determining the resources required to complete a project and allocating and scheduling the work based on your team’s capacity. This process helps reduce expenses, saves time, and promotes efficient skill and asset utilization.
What are the factors that affect resource scheduling?
The most common factors or situations that impact timelines and resource schedules include changes in the project scope and the lack of resources like skilled personnel and funding. Inefficient planning also plays a role, thus the importance of using planning software that helps ensure workflow progresses smoothly.
What are the different resource scheduling techniques?
There are several resource scheduling techniques, including the critical path method (CPM), program evaluation and review technique (PERT), Gantt chart, task list, and total Float Scheduling (TFS). These approaches entail a unique set of actions and methodologies that help organizations efficiently assign and manage resources to jobs, tasks, and individuals to complete a project.
Bottom Line
The best resource scheduling software helps teams plan their use of resources in favor of cost efficiency and proper forecasting. Among the top resource scheduling providers we reviewed, monday.com ranked as the leading overall platform because of its affordability, visual design, and powerful reporting capabilities.
This platform emphasizes data visibility and collaboration, allowing teams to manage projects efficiently. It enables users to manage their work schedules effectively using features like Google calendar integration, smart notifications, and time tracking. Sign up for monday.com’s 14-day free trial to see if it suits your needs.
