Mavenlink (now Kantata) is a project management software that goes beyond creating tasks and assigning deadlines. It is known to be a reliable project management software that helps in reducing risks, cutting costs, and streamlining work processes.
Is it worth all the hype around it? Should you consider looking for Mavenlink alternatives? What are the popular alternatives to Mavenlink, competitors, and related software?
Before we get there, we must highlight and appreciate the good things and great features that Mavenlink offers.
Strong features of Mavenlink (now Kantata)
Kantata (formerly Mavenlink) is a solid modern collaborative platform that works perfectly for both small and large teams. If yours is a remote team, it brings distributed team members to a centralized place with easy collaboration and total transparency along the way.
It goes beyond the usual needs of the business and unifies various business facets into one project management software such as selling, planning, delivery, collaboration, accounts, and optimization.
The biggest USP of Mavenlink is the intuitiveness it offers and the ability to forecast resources based on actual data.
Mavenlink uncovers every part of the services platform:
- Resource management
- Project management
- Team collaboration
- Project accounting
- Business intelligence
Using Mavenlink, you can:
- Create tasks and share new files
- Plan for new projects, see what’s left in the pipeline, and optimize resource capacity
- Track time, expenses, and invoice reports
- Know the status of every task and see to-the-minute progress against the timeline and budget
- Make strategic decisions with accurate data-enabled reports
- Integrate with popular CRM, ERP, and document-collaboration software
Other good things about Mavenlink include greater business agility, improved operational execution, and better financial performance. Plus, it offers useful insights to help you deliver projects with more finesse and profitability.
Mavenlink comes with a ‘big’ cost
| Plans | Teams ($19 per month for 5 users, paid annually) | Professional($39 per user per month) | Premier (Contact for pricing) | Enterprise(Contact for pricing) |
| Storage | 10 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB | 1 TB |
| Project management | Create and manage project activities, milestones, deliverables, set task start dates, priority levels, Gantt charts to visualize project tasks and timeline, build reusable project templates | Task management and assignment, schedule management, Gantt charts, task dependencies, project variance analysis | Task management, schedule management, Gantt charts, task dependencies, critical analysis | Task management, Gantt charts, project baseline and variance analysis, change request management |
| Team collaboration | Dashboard to see latest posts, files, tasks in one cohesive space, upload files, mention specific users, public and private messages, access permissions | Dashboard, project spaces, activity feed, file-sharing, access permissions, public and private messages | Project workspaces, activity feed, file-sharing, proofing, access permissions | Dashboard, activity feed, proofing, public and private messages |
| Integrations and API | Share Google Drive files. Syncs with Google Calendar | Share Google Drive files. Syncs with Google Calendar and Google Tasks | Google app integrations. API access, advanced integrations | API access, advanced integrations, SAML SSO support |
| Services and support | 24/7 live support, knowledge base | 24/7 live support, knowledge base, training video library | 24/7 live support, training video library, professional services | Live support, professional services, Uptime SLA |
| Usage and configuration | Custom branding and custom subdomain | Custom branding and custom subdomain | Custom branding, custom subdomain, custom fields | Custom branding, custom subdomain, custom fields |
| Project accounting | – | Budgeted projects, tasks, time cards, expense reports | Time and expense tracking, invoicing and online payments, project/job costing | Time and expense tracking, project costing, rate cards |
| Resource planning | – | – | Resource scheduling, real-time availability forecasting | Resource scheduling, real-time availability forecasting, resource shaping |
| Business intelligence | – | – | – | Real-time analytics, expert built-in reports, data visualization |
Why you need an alternative to Mavenlink
Now the big-buck question is why you need a Mavenlink alternative. Mavenlink might be a good project management software but stays behind other alternatives offering tons of innovative features at a cheaper price.
When we researched Mavenlink, many reviewing websites and users highlighted the following things that it can do much better.
Below are some areas where Mavenlink needs to work on:
- Fails to offer a greater level of visibility
- Gantt charts need a lot of work
- The interface is slow and clunky
- Takes time to post activity, log time, and manage projects from the mobile app
- Difficult to trace archived projects
- Complex (learning curve required)
- Slow mobile app
Best Mavenlink Alternatives and Competitors
1. ProofHub
If you’re looking for project management software that has a neat interface, simple design, and advanced features, you need not look any further than ProofHub.
Here are 10 reasons that make ProofHub the best Mavenlink alternative in the market:
- Task management: Create personal tasks or assign tasks to multiple people. You can also create subtasks, add labels, set dates, create recurring tasks, and attach files to ensure a clear distribution of responsibilities.
- Workflows and Kanban boards: Simplify the way you manage tasks by defining their flow. You get the option to choose from basic (To-do and done) and Kanban workflow as per your requirements.
- Announcements and @mentions: ProofHub comes with many features enabling you to communicate and collaborate faster. Directly mention fellow teammates to grab their attention.
- Improved filters: There are filters in every section giving you the ability and control over what you choose to see. Starting from seeing tasks assigned to a particular person to check what’s due, you can easily sort tasks in ProofHub with filters.
- Time tracking: ProofHub has made time tracking simpler with features like timesheets, time estimates, multiple timers, and time reports.
- Project templates: Instead of starting from square one every time you create a project, use project templates to get going on the same kind of project.
- Dependencies: There are Gantt charts in ProofHub that allow you to set dependencies to help you work across tasks and projects. Dependencies are helpful in indicating how a change/delay is going to impact the overall progress of the project making teams more accountable.
- Integrations: ProofHub integrates with popular file management apps like Google Drive, OneDrive, QuickBooks, Box, and DropBox helping you access data from these apps with quick shareability and collaboration.
- Customizability: ProofHub gives you the power to establish your brand value by personalizing your account with its white labeling feature. Change the logo, domain preference, and theme color and give it a feel of your own.
- Mobile app: ProofHub is also available as a mobile app for both Android and iOS users.
Try ProofHub free for 14-days
All in all, there are some kickass features, a neat interface, and tight security that come along with ProofHub giving it a big edge over other Mavenlink alternatives in the market.
ProofHub pricing
ProofHub comes with two exclusive pricing plans: Essential Plan and Ultimate Control Plan.
The Essential plan offers 40 projects, unlimited users, 15 GB storage, and basic project management features. The cost of this plan is $45/month (billed annually).
In the Ultimate Control Plan, you get unlimited projects, unlimited users, 100 GB storage, and advanced features such as custom roles, white labeling, custom workflows, network control, priority support, data support, project/resource reports, and much more for just $89/month (billed annually).
Not just this, you also get heavy discounts on subscriptions for non-profits and save more. You can learn more about it here.
2. OpenProject
It is an open-source collaborative project management software offering a wide range of advanced project management features. It can help you with project planning and scheduling, task management and team collaboration, bug tracking, time tracking, cost reporting, budgeting, and whatnot.
In OpenProject, one can easily define the project deadlines and specify the work to be done. Plus, you can plan, visualize, and communicate your product roadmap and even share them with stakeholders. There are tight security features and the highest standard support from OpenProject making you even more productive.
3. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a collaboration software and one of the best CRM tools in the market. There are over 30 tools in Bitrix24 that can help your teams work better, easier, and faster helping your business grow at a fast speed. Its main features include project management, performance management, scheduling, workflow management, team management, lead generation, CRM analytics, customer support, sales dashboard, reports, etc.
Unlike other alternatives to Mavenlink, it is completely customizable. It also has a powerful document management system where you can share files, videos, and documents for better collaboration. All in all, Bitrix24 is a one-stop solution when it comes to successfully managing a business.
4. Celoxis
Celoxis is a popular Mavenlink competitor and an amazing project management tool designed for teams to interact and collaborate online. The cost-effective solution has a lot of features and customizations. From project requests to project profits, it takes care of everything effortlessly.
You get to monitor project execution visually in Celoxis so that you never get to miss anything important. Its USP is project financials. Celoxis shows the cost and revenue estimates of projects in a detailed manner.
You can track budgets, costs, and profits in real-time along with sending accurate invoices to clients without any delay. There are dashboards, insightful reports, and custom workflows making it a powerful tool in its own right.
5. Panview
Planview (formerly Clarizen) is much more than traditional project management software. It lets you manage work, automate processes, and collaborate from a centralized place. The Mavenlink alternative is designed in such a way that helps you simplify work and accomplish goals in an intuitive platform.
Its ability to bring together work management, reporting, and visibility in a unified place gives it an edge over other alternatives to Mavenlink. Real-time data and automated workflows are helping you streamline your work process and letting you do your work just the way you would like to do it.
6. SmartTask
If you’re looking for a Mavenlink alternative that is simple yet effective to manage your team’s progress, SmartTask is the right tool for you. It keeps all the information your team would need to be organized in a single place, accessible to all team members.
It is built for faster collaboration giving each team member a clear overview of their ongoing tasks and overall progress. The best part is that you can access it from anywhere via its mobile app even when you’re on the run.
Whether it is about allocating tasks, checking notifications, or comments, you can do it all with the mobile app. Some of the famous brands using SmartTask are Topsun, Reliance, and Venture Studio. UREnergy among others.
7. Wrike
Wrike is a cloud-based project management and collaboration that scales across teams of any size and nature. It is one of the best Wrike alternatives in the market. There are customizable dashboards in Wrike so that you only see what you want to see. It gives more visibility to its users with real-time reports and status for your teams’ projects.
Wrike is known to give you the flexibility you need to manage multiple projects and teams in one place. With its real-time reporting and analytics, you get the accurate information you need to make necessary adjustments in your project strategy.\
Other robust features include Gantt charts, cross-team collaboration, real-time status updates, visual dashboards, and more.
Tip: Looking for a Wrike Alternative? Here is the list of tools you can try
What would you choose?
It could be confusing to select the right Mavenlink alternative among so many options. The ultimate decision would depend on your business requirements and needs. We suggest you try ProofHub as it brings all your projects, teams, and communications to one place. You can Start your 14-day free trial and achieve better work satisfaction.
