A Comprehensive Review and Comparison of Top Gantt Chart Software to help you Select the Best Free or Commercial Online Gantt Chart Tool For Your Business:
For any software project, handling each step right from requirement gathering up to the deployment and maintenance can be tracked using the Gantt chart. It is used in project management which is a systematic representation of activities against time.
In this tutorial, we will learn more about the Gantt chart along with the various tools that are used to create them.
Table of Contents:
What is the Gantt Chart?
Gantt chart is a way of showing tasks involved in the process against time. Basically, it’s a type of bar chart that is a horizontal representation of the project schedule. The left (vertical) of the chart shows the list of tasks and the adjacent (horizontal) top is the time scale.
It is used for planning and scheduling the project and helps you have information about the project duration, resources, and order of task completion. They are also helpful to define and manage task dependencies.
While creating a Gantt chart you need to think about all the aspects of the project that can help you understand whether the prepared schedule is workable or not, whether the right resource has been assigned to each task, what can be the potential risks before you push the project to start, etc.
You can simply put the entire team on track and be well informed about the changes in the project schedule and their implications. You can also identify the critical path to determine the sequence of individual tasks to be completed on time towards the on-time delivery of the whole project.
Gantt Chart includes:
- Various activities involved in the process.
- The start and end schedule of the activity.
- Duration of each activity.
- State where overlapping might occur.
- The start and end schedule of the entire project.
Let’s learn some interesting facts about the Gantt chart from its history.
- Karol Adameicki the Polish engineer designed the Gantt chart for the very first time in the mid of 1890.
- Around 15 years later Henry Gantt an American engineer and Project management consultant developed his own version of this chart, from then on it became popular as Gantt Chart after his name.
- It was popular in western countries because of its usefulness in keeping track of the project schedule.
- They were prepared manually by hand and it became a tedious task to make project-based changes each time, here there was a need to make this job easy and efficient. Today many software tools are being used to create them.
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List of the Top Gantt Chart Software
- monday.com
- Visor
- Teamgantt
- Office Timeline
- SmartDraw
- GanttPro
- Project Manager
- Gantt Projects
- Bitrix24
- Tom’s planner
- Redbooth
- Paymo
Comparison Table of Best Gantt Chart Tools
| Tool name | License | Revenue | Ratings | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
monday.com | Proprietary | $50M – $120M | 4.5/5 | Flexible project planning and tracking, Team Collaboration. |
Visor | Proprietary | Less than $ 5 million approx. | 4.5/5 | Spreadsheet and Gantt chart creation |
Teamgantt | Proprietary | $5M – $20M | 4.2/5 | Project scheduling, team collaboration, resource management, Project management, and timeline tracking. |
Office Timeline | Proprietary | $200K – $390K | 4/5 | Project planning and communication, timeline management. |
SmartDraw | Proprietary | $300K – $5.9M | 4/5 | Collaborative diagramming, team collaboration. |
GanttPro | Proprietary | $2M – $5.25M | 4.6/5 | Project management efficiency, Real-time collaboration. |
Project Manager | Software as a Service (SaaS) | $4.5K – $7.5K | 4/5 | Project Tracking, team collaboration. |
Gantt Project  | GNU License | Non-Profit tool | 4/5 | Project scheduling and management. |
Bitrix24 | Proprietary | $13M | 4/5 | Task management, campaign management, cloud communication, team collaboration, CRM. |
Tom’s Planner | Proprietary | $320K – $1M | 4.3/5 | Project planning, management and collaboration. |
Redbooth | Software as a Service (SaaS) | $10M – $10.5M | 4.5/5 | Workplace collaboration and communication, project timeline management. |
Workzone | Proprietary | $1.2M | 4.6/5 | Web-based project management, document management. |
Easy Projects | Proprietary | $2M – $5M | 4.4/5 | Project management |
Gantter | Commercial | $2.7M – $8.8M | 4.3/5 | Cloud-based project management with Google Drive and G – Suite integration. |
#1) monday.com
Best for Project planning and tracking, Team Collaboration, etc.
Pricing: The basic plan starts from $39 based on the number of users. For more pricing details, you need to contact them.
License: Proprietary (Free trial is available)
monday.com is a team management application founded in 2012. It is used for Managing tasks, Team collaboration, Tracking projects, etc. This tool is also helpful to manage large business processes like R&D, sales, product and customer management, etc.
Annual revenue: $50M – $120M
#2) Visor
Best for: Spreadsheet and Gantt chart creation
Pricing: Visor offers the following plans
- A forever-free plan is available
- Pro: $12/editor/month
- Ultimate: $24/editor/month
License: Proprietary
Founded in 2016, Visor offers a tool with impeccable project management, data integration, and team collaboration capabilities. The software stands out for its ability to import and visualize data from popular SaaS apps like Jira.
Annual Revenue: Less than $5 million (approx).
#3) Teamgantt
Best for Project scheduling, Team collaboration, Resource management, Project management, and Timeline tracking.
Pricing: The basic plan starts from $39.5 based on the number of users. For more pricing details, you need to contact them.
License: Proprietary (Free trial is available)
Teamgantt – founded in 2009 is a great tool to manage Project collaboration and Planning, team communication, resource management, etc. Helpful to save time and deliver the desired result in the specific time limit.
It allows your project to be managed by making effective use of the Gantt chart.
Annual Revenue: $5M – $20M
#4) Office Timeline
Best for Project planning & communication, Timeline management, etc.
Pricing: Pricing differs according to the version. It starts from $59 up to $99.
License: Proprietary (Free trial is available)
Office Timeline is a project schedule and timeline maker that helps to create visual project timelines. It integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint and allows the users to create effective project visuals. It offers built-in designer tools for Project managers, Consultants, etc. It is also available as an online tool.
Annual Revenue: $200K – $390K
#5) SmartDraw
Best for Collaborative diagramming, Team collaboration, etc.
Pricing: For a single user, the pricing starts from $297 and for multiple users, it starts from $595. Contact them for more details.
License: Proprietary (Free trial is available)
SmartDraw is a collaborative diagramming tool to make Organizational and Project charts, Mind maps, etc. This application is available as an online tool and in a downloadable edition for Windows. SmartDraw offers 4500+ templates, 70 different diagrams and 34000 symbols for various disciplines.
Annual revenue: $300K – $5.9M
#6) GanttPro
Best for Project management, Real-time collaboration, etc.
Pricing: Pricing starts from $15 per user/month for individual users and $6.90 per user/month for the team (depending on the number of users). Contact them for more details.
License: Proprietary (Free trial is available)
GanttPro is a Gantt chart based interactive online project management tool for efficient project management and team collaboration. Gantt Pro supports organizing and scheduling tasks accurately along with its duration and task dependencies.
It also helps with Auto-scheduling, Cost management, Resource management, etc.
Annual Revenue: $2M – $5.25M
#7) Project Manager
Best for Project Tracking, Team collaboration, etc.
Pricing: Pricing starts from $15 per user/month for individual users, $20 per user/month for the team and $25 per user/month for business purposes (depending on the number of users). Contact them for more details.
License: Software as a Service (SaaS) (Free trial is available)
Project Manager is an online project management software to manage team workload and multiple projects. It is a Software as a Service (Saas) founded in 2008. It provides a customizable online dashboard for keeping track of ongoing projects along with Team collaboration, Task management and Generating instant reports.
Annual Revenue: $4.5K- $7.5K
#8) Gantt Projects
Best for Project scheduling and Management.
Pricing: Freeware
License: GNU General Public License (Free software)
Gantt Project is a management and scheduling desktop application written in Java and was established in 2003. It can run ON any Java Runtime availed platforms.
Its major feature includes Work Breakdown Structure, Gantt chart, Generating PERT chart, Task hierarchy and dependencies, Resource management, Data exchange with spreadsheet applications, Holiday management, etc.
#9) Bitrix24
Best for Task management, Campaign management, Cloud communication, Team collaboration, CRM, etc.
Pricing: Bitrix24 is free to use with all essential features up to 12 users (small business). Then it is available in 4 paid subscription plans i.e. Standard, Professional, CRM+ and Project+, starting from Rs. 1350/month as per the plan.
License: Proprietary
Bitrix24 is a collaboration software with Ability task management, Team collaboration, and Communication. The social network, CRM, file sharing, sales management, HR management are some more features that Bitrix24 comes with. It also offers WebDAV support and visual business process construction.
Annual Revenue: $13 M
#10) Tom’s Planner
Best for Project planning, Management, and Collaboration.
Pricing: Tom’s Planner’s professional versions start at 9.95/month and the unlimited version starts at 19.95/month.
License: Proprietary (Free trial is available)
Tom’s Planner is a web-based application for Project planning, Management, and Collaboration founded in 2009. Tracking progress becomes easier with Tom’s Planner. Handling complex projects and Time management is a plus with Tom’s Planner
Annual Revenue: $320K – $1M
#11) Redbooth
Best for Workplace collaboration and Communication, Project timeline management, etc.
Pricing: Pricing for Pro version starts at $9/user/month, Business version starts at $15/user/month. Contact them for more pricing details.
License: Software as a Service (SaaS) (Free trial is available)
Redbooth is a web-based collaboration and communication platform. Task management and transparency, Real-time communication, Time tracking, File management, Visual project timeline, Detailed productivity reports, etc. are some strong features that make Redbooth good to manage the projects.
Annual Revenue: $10 M – $10.5 M
#12) Paymo
Best for small to large businesses and freelancers.
Paymo Pricing: Paymo offers two pricing plans, Small Office ($8.95 per user per month) and Business ($14.25 per user per month). These mentioned prices are for annual billing. It offers a free plan. A free trial is also available for 15 days.
Paymo provides the work management software for teams that have functionalities for Gantt Charts, resource planning, time tracking, reports, Kanban boards, etc. It has experience in managing 2.12 M projects.
Annual Revenue: $1.9 M to $4 M
Additional Tools
Apart from these tools, there are some other software that may have a place in the list of most preferred tools in the upcoming future.
#13) Workzone
Workzone is a proprietary easy-to-use project management tool founded in early 2000.
It allows you to have a detailed overview of ongoing projects at a glance. Like other project management and scheduling software this tool also comes in 3 versions i.e. Team, Professional, and Enterprise (pricing differs accordingly).
#14) Birdview
Birdview is a proprietary project management software suite founded in 2003 and released in 2004. It incorporates features like Project management and Collaboration, Configurable dashboards, Integrated reporting, Request tracking, etc.
It is available in 2 versions i.e. Team and Enterprise. For Team, version pricing starts at $24.
#15) Gantter
Gantter is a commercial cloud-based project management and scheduling software with Google Drive and G-Suite integration. This tool comes with an extensive set of project management features such as Task planning, Scheduling, Collaboration, etc.
It is also known as the web-based version of Microsoft Project. The pricing is simple for all the editions of Gantter viz. $5/month/user.
Gantt Chart Features
Some key features of the Gantt chart include:
- Communication: It allows open communication channels through which the team members can have the opportunity to interact directly to have up-to-date information about the project’s current status, change, and further planning and indeed reduces the time consumption required for the long meeting to check updates.
- Time Management: Organizing and scheduling tasks are the greater ability of the Gantt chart that boots up collaboration and reduces delays in achieving milestones towards project completion.
- Accountability: Gantt supports accountability by showing which resource can work on which task and when they should complete it. Accountability is also helpful to increase team performance and motivation.
- Transparency: Transparency refers to the openness about the task and responsibilities of the team. Gantt offers this by showing each other’s responsibilities and duties in a secure manner.
- Flexibility: Even if your project is well planned, some complications might occur in the process at times. It helps the team to be kept informed about these complications quickly and decide the next move towards project completion.
Given below are some technical features of this chart that help you plan and schedule the project:
- The Timeline Table: It is the spreadsheet-like table with multiple columns of information such as; name of the tasks, duration of the task, the start and end date of the task, etc. The main tasks are further divided into subtasks and subtasks are also divided into smaller steps. All the tasks, subtasks and smaller steps should be linked to each other in an order in which they need to be performed.
- The Timeline Bar Chart: This bar chart contains Gantt symbols representing Project scheduling and Progression & Dependencies.
- Gantt Bar: It is a graphical representation of tasks. It contains information about the type of tasks (critical or milestone), planned and actual start/finish dates, slack time, etc.
- Current Date Line: The current date is highlighted in the timeline.
- Time Scale: It controls time intervals in terms of hours, days, week, years or in combination.
- Milestone: It is a checkpoint where the task or subtask gets completed towards project completion.
Gantt Chart Benefits
Gantt chart is useful in industries like software development, construction, marketing, human resources, event planning, manufacturing, etc.
This chart helps these industries with the following benefits:
- It helps to visualize the start-to-finish view of the Entire Project Timeline with real-time progression.
- Through Dependencies you can check how tasks are connected along with the minimal to a major change in the project schedule.
- Team Collaboration is one more feature served by the Gantt chart to keep all the project information accessible by each and every person working on the project.
- Resource Management in Gantt chart helps to check with the bandwidth of resources in the team who can pick up with the next task.
How to Use the Gantt Chart?
Before learning to use this tool, let’s see the important terms that are being used in the Gantt chart:
- Project Tasks: This may include task name, task status, and other information.
- Task Duration: The length of tasks such as the time between the beginning and completion of the task.
- Dependencies: The dependency among tasks and their order of execution.
Now, let us see the steps to use the Gantt chart for your projects:
- Plan your Project Workflow: Visualize all possible scenarios, workflow, resources to get the best match as per your project needs.
- Determine Critical Path: Finding out the ‘Path of Greatest Resistance’ i.e. the quickest path towards the completion of the project where you need to find out the longest instance of task dependencies.
- Break your project into Tasks and Subtasks: Gantt charts help to break your project into manageable and smaller chunks of activities. This division helps to achieve further progress towards successful project completion.
- Set Accurate Deadlines: Start with precise planning and realistic accurate deadlines for task completion by considering small changes in the task timeline that might affect the overall project schedule.
- Monitor Project Progress: Track real-time progress of the project by observing individual tasks. Here you can have an idea about the initial project timeline and how much it would defer depending on the task/subtask completion.
We will see a small example of the usage of Gantt chart later in this tutorial. Now, let’s see the purpose of each symbol used in the tool.
| Symbol | Name | Use |
|---|---|---|
 | Summary Task | Contains other tasks as summary tasks. |
 | Task | Shows planned start and end dates. |
 | Task dependencies | Displays dependencies between tasks. |
 | Task progress | Shows completeness of tasks. |
 | Milestone | Shows general tasks properties. |
Reviewing Project Using Gantt Chart
Project review using the Gantt chart includes the following steps:
#1) Identifying essential tasks using a work breakdown structure and estimating time duration in terms of days and weeks.
#2) Identifying task dependencies or task relationships between the tasks, where differentiating between linear and parallel tasks is crucial.
There are 3 main relationships/dependencies between sequential tasks:
- Finish to Start: Starts once the previous tasks get over.
- Start to Start: Cannot start until the preceding task is over.
- Finish to Finish: Cannot end until the preceding task ends.
#3) Defining project activities into the software used to create Gantt chart.
#4) Evolving chart progress as the project moves on timeline.
#5) Updating the Gantt chart as soon as the change occurs at any stage while moving along the project schedule.
Use of Constraints
Constraints mean adding restrictions to the start and end date of the tasks involved in the project. They are helpful because of their scheduling flexibility.
There are 8 types of constraints in the Gantt chart. First two are-
- As soon as possible: When applied to an unlinked task, then the start date of the task and the project remain the same. When this is applied to the dependent task, then the task will start depending on its predecessor’s completion.
- As late as possible: When applied to an unlinked task then the end date of the task and the project remain the same. When this is applied to dependent task, then the task will get scheduled depending on its successor’s start.
Following these basic principles there are 6 other types of constraints that have been derived:
- Start no earlier than: Start task on or after the specified date.
- Start no later than: Start task on or before the specified date.
- Finish no earlier than: Finish task on or after the specified date.
- Finish no later than: Finish task on or before the specified date.
- Must start on: Task should start on the specified date.
- Must finish on: Task should finish on the specified date.
Follow the steps below and refer the given example to create a Gantt chart for your project:
Step 1: Identify all the Essential Tasks
Use Work Breakdown Structure to list out all the activities needed for a project to be completed, its start date and time estimation for project completion.
For Example: Suppose your company got the new project of building web-application, you will need to enlist all the essential activities for which your list will look as shown below:
| Activity | Duration |
|---|---|
| #1) Ideation Brainstorming ideas, Solve problems at client side. | 1 week |
| #2) Analysis On-site meetings, Discussions with the stakeholders, Analyze the current system, Analysis phase complete, | 2 Weeks |
| #3) Design Design specification, Interface design, Database design, Design phase complete. | 2 Weeks |
| #4) Development Develop system modules, Integrate system modules, Initial testing (module testing). | 3 Weeks |
| #5) Testing System Testing, Bug log, Resolve Bugs, System testing phase II, Testing phase complete. | 2 Weeks |
| #6) Deployment Deploying product, User Acceptance Testing, Bug Fixing, Product launch. | 1.5 Weeks |
| #7) Maintenance Updating and supporting the software by adding features in it. |
Step 2: Identify Task Dependencies
We have seen what is meant by task dependencies and their types. So at this step, you need to identify parallel and sequential tasks, task dependencies and scheduling.
Once you add the task type and dependencies, the table we created earlier will now look like:
| Activity | Duration | Type | Dependent on |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1) Ideation Brainstorming ideas Solve problems at client side | 1 week | ||
| #2) Analysis On-site meetings Discussions with the stakeholders Analyze the current system Analysis phase complete | 2 Weeks | Sequential | |
| #3) Design Design specification Interface design Database design Design phase complete | 2 Weeks | Sequential | Activity A |
| #4) Development Develop system modules Integrate system modules Development phase complete | 3 Weeks | Sequential, Parallel to Activity B | Activity A |
| #5) Testing System Testing Bug log Resolve Bugs System testing phase II Testing phase complete | 2 Weeks | Sequential | Activity D |
| #6) Deployment Deploying product User Acceptance Testing Bug Fixing Product launch | 1.5 Weeks | Sequential | Activity E |
| #7) Maintenance Updating and supporting the software by adding features in it |
Step 3: Input all activities into the Template
Now you can draw the Gantt chart for the above illustration of tasks, its duration, resources and dependencies between tasks. You can do it manually or make use of the Gantt chart software.
The chart will look as shown below:
Step 4: Track your Progress
In the image given above, you can see how the progress can be tracked based on the scenario.
Keep updating your chart as soon as the change occurs, and it will keep your entire team well informed about further planning and scheduling of the project.
Lag and Lead
Lag is the time difference between a predecessor task and its successor one.
For example: In the above chart, if task B gets completed in a single day, then task C should immediately start executing following it, but due to some reasons task C can only be started 2 days later once task B is over. So here Lag of 2 days occurs between task B (predecessor) and task C (Successor)
Lead is the amount of time by which the successor task gets overlapped with its predecessor
For Example: In the above chart, if task C gets completed in 3 days, then task D should start executing following it but task D starts 1-day advance to its predecessor. Here Lead is of 1 day between Task C (predecessor) and Task D (successor). In the above example, we can see this condition in all instances.
Adding Resources in Gantt Chart
This step has significant importance in the entire process.
Let’s see how resources are being added in this chart:
- Define the name and description of the project.
- Set the Project scheduling including start & end along with weekend and days off.
- Depending on the type and structure of the project, you can choose the resources as per their profile.
For example: If you are working on a web application project, then it is inclusive of roles such as Projects Manager, Business Analyst, Designers, Software Developers, Testers, Marketing people, Database administrator, QA Analyst, Product Support, etc.
While adding these resources in the Gantt chart you need to mention the Resources name and their role along with task dependencies and scheduling.
Protip: While choosing a tool for creating a Gantt chart, you need to consider the following key points:
- Be specific about what you want to opt-in for while choosing a tool; whether it is for planning and scheduling resources OR if it is to manage projects.
- If you are working on several projects simultaneously, then make sure that your tool is made up of Project Portfolio Management to deal with more than one project.
- The tool must generate Automatic Recurrence for tasks that are often recurring, this will reduce the time estimation required to complete the task.
- Choose such a tool that will serve Collaboration and Sharing of changes with the entire team, so that they can plan and schedule tasks accordingly.
- Make a choice as to whether you need a web application or their installed/desktop version.
- If you want to generate separate reports apart from the Gantt chart itself, then you can choose the tool which serves the Automatic Report feature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the Gantt Chart important?
This tool is useful for planning and scheduling projects. They play an important role in having a detailed outline of your project by assessing the Project timeline, resources need and the order of tasks to be executed to complete the project. They also help to define task dependencies.
What is Critical Path in the Gantt Chart?
Critical Path in the Gantt chart is the list of all essential activities to complete the project, Dependencies between activities and the estimation of time to complete the activity.
What are the limitations of the Gantt Chart?
Here are some limitations of a Gantt chart:
– Sometimes the Gantt chart might become complex, this is the case when a large number of tasks and resources get involved in the project. Small details would have left behind while working on such projects for which fewer people are enough but organizations keep on assigning more and more people to manage the tasks which may create trouble in project planning.
– The size/length of the bars does not indicate the amount of work needed. Sometimes a short bar might take more resources and more time duration when compared to a longer bar.
– Several things change once the project gets started and it needs to be updated frequently.
– It is difficult to see the entire Gantt chart at a single glance on a computer screen.
What is the difference between the Gantt chart and the PERT chart?
| Gantt chart | PERT Chart |
|---|---|
| Gantt chart is represented using a bar graph. | PERT chart is represented as a flowchart. |
| It shows the duration to complete the task. | PERT chart shows the dependencies/relationships between tasks. |
| Gantt chart is linear, all relationships between tasks are depicted with arrows. | Shows parallel or interconnection between tasks. |
| Allows overlapping tasks. | Shows parallel tasks and how the delay in one task can affect another task. |
Now, we have enough information regarding the Gantt chart. Let’s see how the various tools help us in this task.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly Gantt chart helps to keep track of all the activities involved in the ongoing project. It helps to design and execute a backup plan as well if Lag takes place somewhere while moving along the project.
Here are some tool recommendations based on the job served by them. GanttPro is the best choice for efficient project management and real-time team collaboration.
monday.com is good for flexible project planning and tracking whereas Workzone can be used for web-based project management and document management.
Bitrix24 is well-known for CRM and task management and Gantter is best for cloud-based project management with Google Drive and G-Suite integration.