Project portfolio management (PPM) assists managers in determining which projects are meeting objectives throughout an organization. This information allows them to make data-backed judgments about which projects to break into smaller tasks, how to allocate resources, and how to prioritize competing demands on those resources.
As companies grow, the number of projects increases, with main teams and subteams managing different initiatives. To keep everyone in sync and ensure they consistently deliver quality projects, organizations need a way to consolidate these various initiatives across the company.
PPM software centralizes the management of an organization’s projects by helping managers determine which resources to allocate to a specific project.
1
Wrike
Employees per Company Size
Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+)
Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees)
Medium, Large, Enterprise
Features
Analytics / Reports, API, Billing / Invoicing, and more
2
Quickbase
Employees per Company Size
Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+)
Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees)
Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise
Features
Analytics / Reports, API, Billing / Invoicing, and more
3
Kantata (Formerly Mavenlink + Kimble)
Employees per Company Size
Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+)
Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees)
Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise
Features
Analytics / Reports, API, Billing / Invoicing, and more
Top Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Software: Comparison chart
The chart below contains a head-to-head comparison of the top project portfolio management software.
| PPM software | Free plan | PPM starting price | Mobile app | Project views | Third-party integrations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celoxis | No | $15 per user per month, annual billing | No | Board, workload, and work trend | 400+ |
| Planview PPM Pro | No | Available upon request | No | Gantt chart and kanban | 60 |
| Smartsheet | Yes | $12 per user billed monthly | Yes | Grid, Gantt chart, card, and calendar | 96 |
| monday.com | Yes | $12 per seat billed monthly | Yes | Kanban, timeline, calendar, map, and chart | 200+ |
| Wrike | Yes | $9.80 per user per month, annual billing | Yes | Gantt chart and kanban | 400+ |
| Asana | Yes | $30.49 per user, billed monthly | Yes | List, board, timeline, and calendar | 100+ |
| ClickUp | Yes | $10 per user per month | Yes | Gantt chart, table, timeline, workload, and box | 50+ |
| LiquidPlanner | No | $15 per user per month, annual billing | No | Portfolio, project, board, and grid | Mostly via Zapier |
| Easy Project | No | $5.90 per user per month | Yes | Scrum and kanban | Mostly via Zapier |
| ActiveCollab | Yes | $11 flat fee for 3 members per month | Yes | List, kanban, and Gantt chart | Mostly via Zapier |
Celoxis: Best for all-in-one PPM and resource management
Celoxis is all-in-one enterprise-level PPM software that also offers full resource management capabilities to maximize project performance. It enables managers to allocate tasks based on skills, roles, and availability while factoring in employee time zones and work shifts. Celoxis also provides a comprehensive suite of real-time dashboards, reporting capabilities, and customizable workflows to help managers measure, analyze, and optimize team performance.
Pricing
Celoxis offers a pay-per-user model for all team sizes.
- Manager: $25 per user per month, billed annually.
- Team member: $15 per user per month, billed annually.
In addition to the pay-per-user model, Celoxis provides two deployment plan options: Cloud and On-Premises. Pricing information for both On-Premises and Cloud plans is available upon request. The Cloud plan requires a minimum of five users.
Standout features
- Intake management capability automatically captures and ranks project requests from web forms, emails, and other sources.
- Resource management features to optimize resources and analytics for distributed teams.
- Customizable portfolio dashboards allow users to monitor schedules, margins, and other custom metrics.
- Project accounting provides profit and margin tracking, revenue forecasting, and custom financial KPIs.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Time tracking | Lacks a free plan |
| Multi-level approvals | Cloud user storage space is limited to 2GB per user |
| PDF option for exporting reports |
Celoxis integrations
The tool connects with over 400 third-party apps, including:
- QuickBooks
- Slack
- Microsoft
- Salesforce
- Trello
- Harvest
- Slack
Why I chose Celoxis
I selected Celoxis for its versatility. Whether you are managing complex projects with multiple dependencies and stakeholders or simple projects with a few team members, Celoxis offers PPM features that you can align to your specific needs.
See how Celoxis compares to our list of the top 10 project management software.
Planview PPM Pro: Best for capacity planning
Planview PPM Pro, formerly Planview Innotas, enables project management professionals to prioritize tasks, track workloads, and measure performance. The tool centralizes project portfolio management to establish a central information hub for all work and resources. Moreover, Planview PPM Pro includes the capability of managing project costs against budget across portfolios by providing comprehensive views into each project’s budget, actual and forecast.
With Planview PPM Pro, managers can measure the team’s performance and view key performance indicators to determine if efforts align with company goals.
Pricing
Planview PPM Pro pricing information is unavailable on the vendor’s website. Potential buyers can request a product demo to learn more about this tool’s capabilities and receive a custom quote.
Standout features
- Project planning and scheduling, including project phases, tasks, and milestones.
- Management of project financials, including in-flight expense tracking to help teams stay on budget.
- Variance reporting of performance measurement against baselines to determine the differences between forecasted and actual efforts.
- Optimized resource allocation and risk management.
- Automated notifications for new and out-of-tolerance assignments.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Improves team collaboration | Users report that this tool is pricey |
| Promotes lean and agile work | There is a complex initial setup process |
| Time and expense management capabilities |
SEE: What is lean project management?
Planview PPM Pro Integrations
Planview PPM Pro integrates with over 60 third-party services, including:
- Jira
- ServiceNow
- Asana
- Microsoft Azure DevOps
- Git
- BMC Remedy
- Trello
- Zendesk
- Xray
Why I chose Planview PPM Pro
I picked Planview PPM Pro for its advanced PPM features that allow you to manage all aspects of your project portfolio on one centralized platform. It helps managers make knowledgeable decisions on projects and tasks based on resource availability, capacity, and utilization to meet the organization’s current and future demands.
Smartsheet: Best for reporting
Smartsheet allows users to create formulas, manage projects, track progress, automate manual processes, and customize workflows. Project teams and managers familiar with spreadsheets will find Smartsheet easy to use due to its spreadsheet-style dashboard.
Smartsheet’s project and portfolio reporting capability allows users to visualize and report on portfolio data with configurable widget-based views. Smartsheet automatically adds data from new projects to the team’s portfolio reports and dashboards. Project teams can also track projects, budgets, and resources to ensure they align with the organization’s goals.
Pricing
The Smartsheet Advanced Work Management plan is the only tier option that includes project portfolio management. Smartsheet doesn’t advertise the rate for this plan on the website, but instead encourages potential buyers to contact its sales team for quotes. The Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise versions lack the PPM feature.
- Free: No cost for one user and up to two editors.
- Pro: $9 per user per month, billed annually, or $12 per user billed monthly.
- Business: $19 per user per month, billed annually, or $24 per user billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Contact sales for a custom quote.
- Advanced Work Management: Custom quote. This plan includes portfolio management.
Standout features
- Captures and compares variances between planned and actual schedules.
- Provides report grouping into logical categories or classifications.
- Offers grid, Gantt chart, card, and calendar views.
- Automates repetitive tasks and processes.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent reporting capabilities | Can be expensive for small businesses |
| Team workload tracking capacities | Users report that Smartsheet is sometimes slow when running large projects |
| Enable you to visualize key trends, activities and bottlenecks | AI tools are only available to Enterprise and Advanced Work Management plan users |
Smartsheet integrations
Smartsheet connects with 96 third-party services. Some of the popular integrations include:
- Slack
- Quip
- Tibco Spotfire
- Google Docs
- Microsoft Teams
- Dropbox
- Easy Insight
- Jira
- Okta
Why I chose Smartsheet
I selected Smartsheet for its strong reporting capabilities in project portfolio management. The platform offers interactive dashboards that allow you to drill down into specific project details for a comprehensive view of your portfolio.
For more information, check out our full Smartsheet review.
Standout features
- Resource utilization and capacity planning.
- Advanced reporting and analytics.
- Over 200 templates available.
- 99.9% uptime service-level agreement.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Built-in time tracking | Limited reporting capabilities |
| Highly flexible and customizable | The user interface may take time to learn for first-time users |
| Budget-friendly |
monday.com integrations
monday.com integrates with over 200 third-party services, including:
- Pipedrive
- Slack
- Jira
- Trello
- Mailchimp
- Zendesk
- HubSpot
- Zoom
- Gitlab
- Stripe
Why I chose monday.com
monday.com combines flexibility and customization with advanced features, making it an excellent choice for project portfolio management. As a PPM platform, it provides quality tools for managing projects, tasks, and resources, giving you value for your money.
For more information, check out our full monday.com review.
Wrike: Best for task tracking
Wrike is primarily a project management service provider, with the addition of PPM capabilities that help teams manage multiple projects and prioritize resources for a better workflow. The tool has a ready-to-use PPM template and project portfolio analysis capabilities. These features help teams manage multiple projects, track progress, and manage resources efficiently.
Wrike’s collaboration features also help teams collaborate, communicate, and coordinate tasks. Wrike is available as a cloud-based, desktop, and/or mobile app solution for businesses of all sizes.
Pricing
Wrike’s project portfolio management features are only available in the Business, Enterprise, and Pinnacle pricing tiers:
- Free: Free for unlimited users with access to basic features.
- Team: $10 per user per month for two to twenty-five users.
- Business: $24.80 per user per month for five to 200 users.
- Enterprise: Contact sales for a custom quote.
- Pinnacle: Contact sales for a custom quote.
Standout features
- Advanced resource and capacity planning.
- Workflow automation to eliminate manual processes.
- Drag-and-drop capabilities.
- Time tracking capability.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Enhanced collaboration, especially among distributed teams | Complex initial setup process |
| Visual proofing capability | Steep learning curve |
Wrike Integrations
Wrike integrates with 400+ third-party applications. Some of their top integrations, include:
- Tableau
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
- Jira
- HubSpot
- Power BI
Why I chose Wrike
During my research, I found that Wrike uses AI to minimize your project portfolio’s risk and it maintains a risk log to ensure consistently high standards across your portfolio. Wrike also ranks highly for resource utilization—it evaluates capacities and distribution of work by visualizing upcoming requirements, ultimately helping to avoid employee burnout.
For more information, check out our full Wrike review.
Asana: Best for small businesses and contractors
Asana PPM helps project managers monitor their team’s initiatives, such as project status, progress and resource allocation, in a unified dashboard. Asana provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s project portfolio, enabling managers to prioritize projects, allocate resources, and manage budgets more effectively.
With Asana, teams can track project progress, collaborate on tasks and set up reminders and deadlines. It also includes a workload view, which helps managers identify team members’ capacity and balance their workloads.
Pricing
Asana’s PPM features are only available in its Advanced plan, which is priced at $24.99 per user per month when billed annually, or $30.49 per user when billed monthly.
Standout features
- Project views for timeline, list, board, and calendar.
- Custom workflow automation.
- Project planning, task management, risk management, and issue management.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Short learning curve | Asana can be expensive for teams looking for more advanced features |
| Excellent collaboration features | PPM features only available in the Advanced plan |
| Highly customizable | |
| Unlimited storage |
Asana integrations
Asana integrates with over 100 third-party apps, including:
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Okta
- Tableau
- Google Drive
- ServiceNow
- Looker
- Canva
- OneDrive
- InVision
- GitHub
- Trello
Why I chose Asana
I chose Asana for its ability to manage multiple projects and large-scale initiatives, while easily visualizing progress across initiatives for executive stakeholders. Asana Portfolios can also help you monitor project timelines and dependencies, allowing you to prioritize and allocate resources effectively.
For more information, check out our full Asana review.
ClickUp: Best for customization
ClickUp consolidates productivity, project management, work management, document collaboration, and communication on a unified platform. It is designed to be an all-in-one platform that can be customized to suit the needs of various teams and industries, from small businesses to large enterprises. ClickUp provides stakeholders with insights into all projects’ progress and reports on milestones.
ClickUp has over 15 customizable project views and an extensive template library for various use cases. The tool has over 50 native integrations, making it easy for teams to connect with existing apps in their toolkits.
Pricing
- Free Forever: No cost for 100MB storage and unlimited tasks.
- Unlimited: $7 per user per month, billed annually, or $10 per user billed monthly.
- Business: $12 per user per month, billed annually, or $19 per user billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Contact sales for a custom quote.
Standout features
- Advanced task views, such as Gantt chart, table, timeline, workload, box, activity, mind map, list, and calendar.
- Task dependencies capability.
- Natural language processing.
- Work in progress limits.
- ClickApp mobile application.
- Risk management capability to assess multiple projects’ performance against strategic organizational objectives.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly customizable | Mobile app has limited project views |
| All plans including free have PPM features | Free plan is not compatible with AI |
| Support for multiple assignees |
ClickUp integrations
ClickUp offers over 50 native integrations. The popular ones include:
- Slack
- Google Drive
- GitHub
- HubSpot
- Loom
- Figma
- Vimeo
- Zoom
- Zendesk
- Tableau
Why I chose ClickUp
I picked ClickUp because it provides templates to help you manage resources, tasks, and objectives, visualize progress and performance and align your teams around goals and priorities. It allows you to organize tasks into sixteen different statuses, including new, complete, at risk and in progress.
For more information, check out our full ClickUp review.
LiquidPlanner: Best for managing shared resources
LiquidPlanner offers project and portfolio management capabilities that help teams prioritize work, manage resources, and track progress in real time. My research found that its PPM functions are available to all user tiers, allowing teams of all sizes to easily create and manage project schedules, allocate resources, and make sure everyone works on the right tasks at the right time. It also serves as a unified hub for teams to access and share documents and resources.
Pricing
- Essential: $15 per user per month, billed annually.
- Professional: $28 per user per month, billed annually.
- Ultimate: $42 per user per month, billed annually.
Standout features
- Portfolio-wide search.
- Portfolio workload views.
- Alerts and insights.
- Schedule insights and dependencies.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Automatic resource leveling | Essential plan has limited time management functions |
| Ability to add custom data to projects, tasks, and resources | Limited integrations |
| Detailed data reporting |
LiquidPlanner integrations
- Slack
- Box
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- OpenAI
- Zapier
Why I chose LiquidPlanner
I selected the tool because of its high level of customization in project and portfolio management. For instance, its custom data functionality lets you categorize your data by client, program, and risk level with various data field types. Its integration with OpenAI also lets you filter and download schedule data for analysis.
For more information, check out our full LiquidPlanner review.
Easy Project: Best for progress visibility
Easy Project is a robust project and portfolio management software that enables users to plan, monitor and track their projects centrally. It provides a comprehensive overview of project performance, resources, time, and budget.
With features such as Global Gantt for accurate project planning, Portfolio Statement for creating detailed reports and Portfolio Tree for an overview of all projects, Easy Project simplifies project and portfolio management processes, allowing users to streamline workflows, optimize resource allocation, and achieve project goals.
Pricing
Easy Project has both an on-premises edition and a cloud edition. The on-premises solution costs $5.90 per user per month.
Cloud pricing
- Essential: $5.90 per user per month.
- Business: $11.90 per user per month.
- Platform: $23.90 per user per month.
- Enterprise: Contact sales for a custom quote.
Standout features
- Resource management.
- Agile tools, including scrum boards, kanban boards, and dashboards, for product owners and scrum masters.
- Support portfolio statements for budgets, spent time, and resources.
- Time-tracking capability.
SEE: Learn more about the scrum methodology for project management.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Multiple export options (CSV, XLSX, PDF, print) | Advanced features require integration with third-party apps |
| Custom reports functionality | Essential plan lacks project budgeting and finance functionalities |
| Offers agile tools such as scrum and kanban boards |
Easy Project integrations
- Outlook plugin
- Make.com
- Jira
- Microsoft Project
Why I chose Easy Project
Straightforward project monitoring and management — the Portfolio Tree feature in Easy Project gives users a quick overview of all their projects, with color-coded indicators for important project features such as overdue tasks, time spent and current status. This feature helps users stay organized and easily track project progress.
ActiveCollab: Best for small to midsize teams
With ActiveCollab, users can track progress, allocate resources and monitor budgets to ensure successful project delivery. The platform allows for easy collaboration among team members, with features like task assignment, file sharing, and real-time updates. Additionally, ActiveCollab provides a bird’s eye view of all ongoing projects, allowing users to prioritize tasks and manage deadlines. Users can also generate detailed project profitability reports to gain insights into the financial health of their projects.
Pricing
- Free: Plan includes up to three members.
- Plus: $9.50 per month, billed annually or $11 monthly for three members.
- Pro: $8 per member per month billed annually or $9 per member monthly.
- Pro + Get Paid: $11.75 per member per month billed annually or $14 per member monthly.
Standout features
- Work management
- Team collaboration
- Time management
- Resource management
- Client management
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| In-app budget, time, and expense tracking | Limited storage space |
| Robust project resource tracking | Sometimes slow |
| Simple and easy-to-implement interface |
ActiveCollab integrations
- QuickBooks
- Slack
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
Why I chose ActiveCollab
I chose ActiveCollab for being easy to use, even for non-technical team members. It has a simple and intuitive interface, making it simple for team members to navigate and collaborate on projects without much training or technical knowledge.
For more information, check out our full ActiveCollab review.
Key features of project portfolio management software
Project portfolio management software provides analytics and dashboards to help managers and stakeholders gain insights into project performance. Its features include project tracking and reporting, financial management, collaboration and communication. Other key PPM software features include:
Portfolio dashboard
PPM tools often provide a dashboard that displays an organization’s project portfolio overview. It offers a real-time snapshot of the portfolio’s health, including KPIs and OKRs, project status, resource utilization, and budget, plus a forecast versus the actual baseline. With this feature, project stakeholders can identify and address potential issues, looking at resource constraints and breaking down large projects to increase success rates.
Resource management
PPM tools usually offer resource management functionality, which allows organizations to plan and allocate resources across multiple projects. Given resource constraints, this feature helps ensure resources are not under- or over-utilized and project timelines are realistic. Resource management functionality also allows organizations to identify and address resource conflicts before they become critical issues.
Project prioritization
Project prioritization enables stakeholders to make data-driven decisions about which projects to pursue and how to allocate resources. By prioritizing projects based on strategic goals and objectives, organizations can maximize the value of their project portfolios.
Risk management
The best PPM tools include functionality to help organizations identify, assess, and manage risks associated with projects and programs. When potential project risks are identified and addressed early in the project life cycle, there is an immediate increase in the project success rate.
However, if risks are not properly managed, they could delay delivery, cost the team more money and affect its overall performance.
Reporting and analytics
The ability to make decisions about project selection, resource allocation and other strategic initiatives is essential for a company’s overall health. With PPM reporting and analytics features, organizations can identify trends and patterns in project performance, enabling them to track KPIs and measure the success of their project portfolio.
How do I choose the best project portfolio management tool for my business?
Choosing the right PPM tool is crucial to your organization’s project portfolio management success. Here are some key factors to consider when selecting a PPM tool:
- Alignment with organizational goals.
- User-friendly interface.
- Integration with other tools.
- Availability of features: project tracking and reporting, resource allocation and scheduling, risk management, and portfolio analysis.
- Customization and flexibility.
- Vendor support and training.
Ultimately, the best PPM solution for you depends on your company’s requirements.
Based on my evaluation, I found that Smartsheet, Planview PPM Pro, Celoxis, and Wrike are comprehensive in terms of PPM features, covering all key areas from portfolio and resource management to risk management and budgeting. monday.com, ClickUp and Asana are excellent for task management, automation, and team collaboration.
LiquidPlanner and Easy Project offer strong support for project tracking, resource allocation, and portfolio management, while ActiveCollab is more focused on project execution and collaboration but lacks some advanced portfolio and risk management features.
Methodology
When I evaluated the best PPM software, I considered a few criteria. As a baseline, I reviewed software features to ensure each solution offers project portfolio management capabilities. I also considered the cost of the software, the ease of implementation and use and customer service and support. Finally, I examined the reviews and ratings each solution has received.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is PPM?
PPM is the centralized management of multiple projects within an organization. It allows businesses to prioritize and allocate resources and manage risks across all projects in the portfolio to align with strategic objectives.
How much do PPM tools cost?
The cost of PPM tools varies widely depending on the features, number of users, and deployment options (cloud-based or on-premises). My analyses found that ActiveCollab offers the most affordable rate at $11 flat fee for 3 members per month while Asana is the most expensive at $30.49 per user when billed monthly. Some vendors also offer custom pricing based on the size and complexity of the portfolio.
What are the benefits of PPM software?
- Centralized management.
- Better resource management.
- Risk management.
- Enhanced collaboration.
- Improved project visibility.
- Informed decision making.
- Performance monitoring.
What is the difference between project management and portfolio management?
Project management focuses on the execution of individual projects, managing tasks, timelines and resources to deliver specific outcomes or products within defined constraints (scope, time, budget).
Portfolio management, on the other hand, oversees a collection of projects, ensuring they align with the organization’s broader business goals. It is concerned with balancing priorities, resources and risks across multiple projects to maximize the overall value to the organization.
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