Top 10 Workfront Alternatives and Competitors in 2024

Picking software for managing work can feel like a gamble, and many people took a chance on Adobe’s Workfront. 

At first, it seemed like a good bet. But then, the problems started to surface.

Maybe it’s the clunky user interface that has become more of a headache than a solution, or shady pricing that feels more like a mystery than a straightforward deal.

Or your team couldn’t quite get the hang of it despite your best efforts, leading you on a quest to find Workfront alternatives.

Sure, Workfront has some cool features like scenario planning and resource management, but from what I’ve found in my research, many users seem to be more frustrated than happy with it.

One user even called it “truly user-hostile” because it seems to create more problems than it solves. – Charles J., Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)

You need something that has the advantages of this enterprise-scale work management software, but not pain-causing limitations.

That’s exactly what I am going to help you with in this post.

Because let’s face it, there’s no point in choosing a tool your team won’t use.

10 Best Adobe Workfront Alternatives and Competitors

After spending months on research and based on my over a decade of understanding, expertise, and first-hand experience in the project management industry, I am presenting you the top 10 Workfront alternatives and competitors in 2024. 

Learn more about how I picked tools in this list here.

1. ProofHub – Best for project management & collaboration

ProofHub is the best alternative to Adobe Workfront in project management for marketing projects. 

Why is it so? 

There are mainly three reasons for that. 

First, you have all the features you need for work management in one place, and second, you can use these all features in a fairly flat pricing model. And third, is its intuitive user interface that makes it easy to use from the start. 

The biggest challenge with Workfront is that even after months teams are not confident enough to use the tool. 

Some users even reported that even after a year of use they still do not know where to find the particular function which is insane. 

But with ProofHub, your entire team hardly takes one to two weeks to get used to it. It has a simple and intuitive user interface. The tool has minimal learning and is easy to navigate. 

If I talk about work management features, ProofHub covers every important feature: task management, project planning, workflow management, resource management, goals and milestones, time tracking, project reporting, budget planning, team communication, online proofing, and client engagement.  

And that too, at a very attractive price. ProofHub charges you a flat fee. 

It means unlimited users can use this tool for a flat price. You do not have to pay per user fee. 

This financial suitability makes ProofHub the best alternative to Adobe Workfront for small and mid-sized teams. Though, you can scale it for a team of 1,000 employees as well.

Key features

• Take complete control of your projects with an all-in-one project management and collaboration tool.
• Centralized task management to create custom workflows, add tasks and subtasks, delegate tasks to team members, set priorities, attach files, and much more.
• Interactive Gantt charts to plan projects like a pro. Highlight the most critical task, set task dependencies, and adjust project schedule as priorities change

• Track project progress at a glance with Board view and Table view.
• Manage workload and plan resources using the Calendar view.
• Custom project reports to get a detailed overview of project status, resource utilization, and time utilization.

• Communicate with the team in real-time using Chat, @mentions task comments, and project discussions. 

• Easily share documents from computer and cloud storage using centralized document sharing.
• Review and edit digital assets in real-time with powerful online proofing. Use annotation tools to mark up the important changes.     
• Workflow automation to save time and effort. Schedule recurring tasks, set frequencies, and send automated notifications.
• Integration tools like Freshbooks, QuickBooks, Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, and more to help you with budget planning, project cost forecasting, file sharing, and invoicing.

Pros

• Easy to use with a simple, user-friendly, and intuitive interface.
• Minimal learning curve. Even beginners don’t need too much time to learn how to work on ProofHub.   
• Replace multiple apps. All-in-one solution for work management and team collaboration.
• Custom workflows, custom fields, custom permissions, custom reports, custom templates, IP restrictions, and activity logs for ultimate control. 
• Flat pricing. Unlimited users can use this tool for a flat fee. You don’t get charged extra for adding more users to your account.  

Cons

• The notifications can sometimes be overwhelming.
• Limited third-party integrations (we are working on improving that)

Pricing

ProofHub has two simple easy-to-understand, flat pricing plans. 

• Essential plan: $45 per month, when billed annually, for 40 projects and unlimited users.
• Ultimate Control plan: $89 per month, when billed annually, for unlimited projects and unlimited users.

There are no hidden fees or surprising charges. 

You get a 14-day free trial to test all the features for your team. Along with that, you get free demo training on how to use ProofHub.

Ratings 

G2: 4.5 out of 5

Capterra: 4.6 out of 5

Compare the table below to see how Adobe Workfront’s hidden pricing can complicate your decision-making, while ProofHub simplifies it for you:

2. Jira – Best for issue tracking

Jira is the best alternative to Adobe Workfront in issue tracking for software development project management. This is because Jira offers an advanced level of customization and control in issue management and is bug-free.    

Jira issues are easy to create and capture a lot of information about a piece of work, such as assignee, due date, status, linked issues, and more. If you want to add some more information to the issue, you can create a custom field.

On the other hand, Workfront does not have that level of customization available, and creating and tracking issues are not easy. Workfront issue tracking is very limited and has plenty of bugs. 

Some Workfront users consistently complain that if they are not specifically tagged in a comment, but are added to the ticket, they do not receive email updates and tickets being dropped from projects for no reason. This caused massive confusion for project managers.

Key features 

• Create custom workflow, assign resources, and track progress  
• Scrum and Kanban boards for agile software development  
• Break a large project into tasks using Issues   
• Reports and dashboard for critical insights
• Roadmap to create project plan and set task dependencies
• Drag and drop automation to automate tasks   

Pros

• User-friendly interface  
• Issue tracking and ticket assignment
• Bug-free tool 

Cons 

• Limited number of software integrations
• Expensive tool. Less flexibility in add-ons  

Pricing 

Jira Standard costs $7.75 per user per month with limited storage and the Premium plan costs $15.25 per user per month with unlimited storage.    

Ratings 

G2: 4.3 out of 5

Capterra: 4.4 out of 5

If Jira also does not work for you, you can check out the top Jira alternatives here.

3. Zoho Projects – Best for App integrations

Zoho Projects is one of the best Adobe Workfront alternatives when it comes to integrations with other SAAS applications. This is because Workfront has API and UI challenges integrating with third-party apps. It works fine when it comes to integrating with native Adobe apps but poses challenges with third-party apps.

Large organizations (over 1000 employees) use on average 177 SaaS applications. You need enterprise-grade software that seamlessly integrates with third-party apps. 

Zoho Projects provides a seamless integration experience. It integrates with a suite of native Zoho apps and a large number of third-party apps, such as Microsoft Projects, GitHub, Zendesk, and 300+ apps, to provide you with an end-to-end enterprise-level work management solution.     

Key features

• Task management to help you effectively manage your projects
• Issue tracking and SLA to easily record issues and manage work 
• Zoho blueprint editor to design workflows and automate routine tasks 
• Zoho project baseline to easily identify and resolve project-related issues
• Share all kinds of files and hold discussions with the team using Post comments, @mention users, and more

Pros

• Intuitive user interface, easy to set up, and minimal learning curve 
• Integrate with most of the daily-use apps
• End-to-end work management solution  

Cons

• Lack of customization
• Custom support is not good 

Pricing 

Zoho Standard plan costs ₹800 /user/month billed annually.

Ratings 

G2: 4.3 out of 5

Capterra: 4.3 out of 5

4. Wrike – Best for enterprise-level project management

While ProofHub is the best alternative to Adobe Workfront for small and mid-sized teams, Wrike is an ideal alternative similar to Workfront for large teams. 

Wrike offers an intuitive UI than Workfront, all the work management and team collaboration features you need, and enterprise-grade security. 

You can bring all your departments together, improve alignment, and drive efficiency. However, the thing you need to keep in mind is the scaling cost of Wrike and its learning curve. 

For new businesses, it might not be a budget-friendly solution, and beginners to project management software may take time to learn to use it. In that case, going for ProofHub would be the better option due to its ease and flat pricing.

Key features 

• Create custom workflows to empower cross-functional collaboration
• Use workflow automation to trigger automated workflows and actions based on rules for repetitive tasks 
• Project resource planning to compare planned costs to your actual costs
• Easily track team progress and find possible roadblocks in real-time.
• Collaborate with team using cross-tagging, live document editor, and proofing  

Pros

• End-to-end enterprise-grade work management solution  
• Onboarding support 
• Enterprise-grade security 

Cons

• The interface is not easy for beginners to understand
• Lacks budgeting and invoicing tools
• Costly paid plans 

Pricing

Wrike paid plan starts from $9.80 per user/month.

Ratings 

G2: 4.2 out of 5

Capterra: 4.3 out of 5

Confused between ProofHub and Wrike? Check out the detailed comparison between ProofHub and Wrike.

5. Smartsheet – Best for spreadsheet-based project management

Adobe Workfront markets itself as a tool to help you get out of your “packed inboxes and chat windows” to drive efficiency in managing projects. These users are often people who rely on spreadsheets for project management.

If you are someone who loves using spreadsheets for project management but wants to scale them at the enterprise level and needs advanced work management features, Smartsheet is a better alternative than Adobe Workfront to make a shift to project management software.

It is because, first, it looks exactly like spreadsheets, and second, it has all the advanced work management capabilities: project planning, project reporting, resource management, scenario planning, portfolio management, digital asset management, team collaboration, and workflow automation.

You can create workflows to streamline your business processes, connect everyone in your team, and track the work progress from a single place.

However, if you do not like Spreadsheets and are looking for work management software that is easy to migrate and get used to for beginners, you can go for ProofHub or Trello.

Key features

• Plan your projects and resources, and schedule and create workflows
• Track and visualize work with multiple views including Grid, Board, Gantt, and Calendar 
• Sync data across systems with Smartsheet Bridge
• Workflow automation to automate repetitive tasks
• Collaborate with your teams in real time with sheet comments

Pros

• Highly customizable to fit any workflow 
• Offer enterprise-level scalability and security
• Shared view and detailed history to track changes

Cons

• Limited reporting capabilities
• Steep learning curve 
• Rely on add-ons for time tracking and resource management

Pricing 

Smartsheet plans start from $ 7 Per user/month when billed yearly. Only a maximum of 10 users can edit the pages and unlimited viewers can view it. You need to upgrade to a Business plan to get unlimited editors.

Ratings 

G2: 4.4 out of 5

Capterra: 4.5 out of 5

Read more: 10 Best Smartsheet Alternatives & Competitors in 2024

6. Trello – Best for Kanban-based project management

Trello is another great alternative for Workfront users looking for a lightweight and easy-to-use tool. Trello is known for its intuitive and colorful interface and being a decluttered tool. It offers a wide range of powerful integrations, project templates, and automation features to help you with work management, but it comes with a few constraints. 

First, Trello is a Kanban-based tool. You do not have project views like the Gantt Chart out of the box from the tool. And second, it is a lightweight project management tool for small teams. It relies on integrations for advanced project management and team collaboration and does not scale well. 

But for simple project management, Trello boards can deliver value for your team unimaginably quicker than Workfront.

Key features

• Simple to use Kanban Boards 
• Drag and drop task management 
• Project templates to create workflows    
• Butler automation to automate repetitive tasks
• Seamless integration with other daily-use software 

Pros

• Intuitive user interface
• Minimum learning curve   

Cons

• Becomes costly when integrated with other tools 
• Lack of dashboard customization and limited task views

Pricing

Trello Standard plan for teams starts at $5 per user/month when billed annually.

Ratings 

G2: 4.4 out of 5

Capterra: 4.5 out of 5

7. Microsoft Projects – Best for portfolio management

Microsoft Project is one of the oldest project management tools. It is one of the best Workfront alternative tools for portfolio management. It is because of the advanced portfolio insights and management features.

Microsoft Projects allows you to model different portfolio scenarios to determine the best strategic path. You can monitor productivity across portfolios, projects, and resources, and the portfolio dashboard provides accurate project data to transform into actionable insights.

However, I agree that Microsoft Projects does not have the best UI, but considering the masses’ familiarity with the Microsoft suite of tools, it gets easier for users to learn Microsoft Projects than an entirely different Adobe Workfront.

Key features:

• Project management tool to plan, manage, and deliver work effortlessly.
• Portfolio management to effectively plan, prioritize, and manage project and portfolio investments.
• Systematic resource requests and visual heat maps for resource management.
• Timelines and timetables for complicated projects can be easily tracked and managed.
• Dashboards to get an overview of crucial statistics and other important information.

Pros

• Integration with Gmail and other Microsoft Office apps like Excel and Outlook.
• Customized templates for project timetables, budgets, and more.
• Enterprise-grade security.

Cons

• MS Project is more expensive than others.
• No built-in collaboration option within the project. 

Pricing

Microsoft Project offers plans based on either “cloud-based solutions” or “on-premises solutions”. Microsoft cloud-based Project Plan 1 costs $10.00 per user/month. 

Ratings

G2: 4.0 out of 5

Capterra: 4.4 out of 5

8. Monday.com – Best for workflow management

Monday.com is a similar tool like Workfront that helps you with project management, resource management, portfolio management, goal management, and business operations. It is a feature-rich tool that provides you with a clearer layout and intuitive UI than the Workfront. 

The tool boasts of its capabilities in creating customized workflows. You can create a detailed product roadmap, set task dependencies, and automate the workflow for efficient work management.

Key features

• Create customized workflows, plan and track your projects, assign resources and tasks, set goals, measure KPIs, and monitor progress.
• Collaborate with your teams in real-time
• Portfolio management to get an overview of all the projects
• Resource management for efficient workload management

Pros

• Intuitive and user-friendly interface
• Support agile methodologies
• Provides 24/7 customer support

Cons

• Confusing pricing plans
• Limited mobile support 

Pricing

Monday.com’s Basic plan costs $8 per seat/month. It helps you manage all your teams’ work in one place.

Ratings 

G2: 4.7 out of 5

Capterra: 4.6 out of 5

9. Asana – Best for goal setting

Asana is a great alternative to Adobe Workfront for goal alignment. Teams who primarily use Workfront to connect goals with work to drive measurable business outcomes, but are not happy with the overall complexities of Workfront can switch to Asana.

The UI of Asana is simpler than Workfornt and it offers powerful capabilities to connect your company objectives to tangible goals.

Asana’s user-friendly design and configurable project views make it simple for teams to collaborate, distribute tasks, and measure progress, encouraging cooperation and increasing productivity.

Key features

• Company goals, team goals, and my goals to drive measurable business outcomes  
• Templates to create a workflow for your teams
• Comment directly on a task to collaborate 
• Organize and prioritize tasks with a dedicated Asana calendar 
• Get real-time insights with Project reports

Pros

• Intuitive and user-friendly interface 
• Seamlessly integrates with more than 200+ apps

Cons

• You can’t allocate one task to multiple users
• Expensive tool for small teams

Pricing 

Asana premium plan begins at $10.99 per user per month, billed annually. 

Business plan costs $24.99 per user per month, billed annually.

Ratings 

G2: 4.3 out of 5

Capterra: 4.5 out of 5

Asana does not suit your budget? Check out 11 Asana Alternatives & Competitors to Try for Project Management in 2024

10. ClickUp – Best for work visualization

ClickUp is among the powerful Workfront competitors known for its enhanced work visualization features. It empowers you with 15+ project views to take complete control of your work. If you like Workfornt’s scenario planner, you may also like ClickUp’s Gantt and Mind Map. 

ClickUp offers all the features you need for work management and team collaboration. You can create tasks, delegate to team members, and track the progress from one place.

ClickUp is a decent alternative to Workfront, but my research findings say you cannot rely on ClickUp support. It’s bad. If you need extensive support, in that case, I would recommend you choose ProofHub or Asana.    

Key features

• Create workspaces with customized features, workflows, and tags
• Multiple project tracking views to manage projects
• Project templates to create workflows
• Real-time collaboration features
• Project reporting to track project progress

Pros

• Provide an enhanced level of customization
• Plenty of features in one place

Cons

• Poor customer support
• Glitches

Pricing

ClickUp basic plan is free for everyone. Paid plans start from $7 per user each month, billed annually.

Ratings 

G2: 4.7 out of 5

Capterra: 4.7 out of 5

Not sure about ClickUp? Check out the 15 Best ClickUp Alternatives & Competitorsin 2024

Why look for alternatives to Workfront?

I understand it is laborious to switch to a new tool. But would you like to pay a lot of money for a project management solution that has a clunky UI, a steep learning curve, no transparent pricing details, and is difficult to navigate?

Definitely No!

In addition, there are several limitations users have when using Workfront that restrict their productivity and hamper overall work organization. Let’s have a look at these limitations:

• Clunky UI & steep learning curve: Workfront has a complex interface and it took time to learn their processes and implement them. This wastes their time and delays the work they are doing.
• Not designed to handle simple tasks: Workfront is designed for large businesses. Users struggle to manage even simple tasks due to the complex workflow of Workfront. This complicates even simple projects and causes people to become confused.
• Expensive for smaller teams and businesses: Workfront is not suitable for small teams. It is enterprise-grade software and pricing is designed accordingly. That’s why you find the pricing of Workfront plans is not displayed on their website.

How I selected these Workfront alternatives

I have selected the top 10 Workfront alternatives based on five key factors: ease of use, learning curve, features and specialization, value-for-money, and scalability & security. Because I want to select the tools that offer advantages of Adobe Workfront, but not its limitations.

I enrolled in free trials, collected publicly available information, read real users’ reviews from websites like G2, Capterra, Forbes, Gartner, and more, and used critics’ insights to bring truthful and authentic information in one place to help you find the right Adobe Workfornt alternative for your organization.

Here are the five key factors I considered:

• Ease-of-use: I considered the intuitiveness and user-friendliness of the user interface and ease of navigation of the tool so that everyone in the team can use the tool.
• Learning curve: I chose tools that are easy to learn so that users can learn to use them with minimal training and a short time.
• Features and specialization: I picked the tool that has most of the work management features that Adobe Workfront offers and has an edge in a particular job function or feature.
• Value for money: I kept in mind the value for money so that a tool can be easily adopted at an enterprise scale.
• Scalability and security: All the tools in the list are scalable and secure. Whether you are using it for 1 member or 1000 members, you can use any tool for work management in your organization.

Key considerations for picking Workfront Alternatives

There are a few things you need to keep in mind while picking the right Workfront alternative so that you do not run into the same problems that are trying to avoid. Here is the checklist:

• Features: First thing first. You need to make sure the tool you are choosing has all the features you are using in Workfront and the additional features you need. Conduct an internal stakeholder meeting, write down the features that matter most to you, and start looking for alternatives.
• User-Interface & learning curve: The biggest problem with Workfront is UI and steep learning curve. Look for a tool that has a user-friendly interface and is easy to learn. It is because you and your team are unable to work together unless your tool is simple to operate.
• Scalability: Look for a tool that is capable enough to handle an expanding number of users, projects, and teams. It need not be equally good in scalability but should be enough to meet your business needs.
• Support: To understand a tool, you must get proper training and guidance whenever you need it and technical support when you face any issues. Find a tool with exceptional customer support.
• Security: Look for a Workfront alternative that adheres to the industry security standards. Examine the platform’s security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and data backup protocols, to name a few. This helps you ensure the protection of the organization’s data.

Start with ProofHub: The most user-friendly Workfront alternative for Project Management 

I can relate to the confusion and fears that come to mind while making decisions. But I can assure you if the complex UI, learning curve, and cost are your major concerns with Adobe Workfront, ProofHub is the best-suited option for you.

It is an all-in-one solution that comes with a simple interface, minimal learning curve, and powerful features at a flat price. You can streamline your workflow to operate efficiently, manage your work from one place to increase productivity, and collaborate with the team to work effortlessly.

FAQs Workfront alternatives