Best Liquidplanner Alternatives 2023 (Top 10 Similar Competitors)

LiquidPlanner is a great SaaS project management app.

It allows you to manage the uncertainties of projects, and adapt to changes. To track team availability and set priorities. To build a macro pipeline for managing all your projects. 

But LiquidPlanner might not suit your business. 

For one, the app’s pricing (starting at $45 per user/per month) may be a deterrent for budget-conscious startups. You might want a free app to begin with. You might want something simpler or more complex. You may want to look at this project management software comparison article.

With that in mind, you might want to have a look at tools like LiquidPlanner.

What are the best LiquidPlanner alternatives?

Top 10 LiquidPlanner competitors with similar products

Here are the apps like LiquidPlanner that we think are the best options. Although they are all fairly similar, some will be better suited to your circumstances than others. So read more about each option in the sections below.

Here’s our full list of the best LiquidPlanner alternatives 2023:

Here are the top 10 good alternatives to LiquidPlanner. 

We’ve presented a “top” option overall, based on features and value for money. The most similar alternative, the cheaper alternative, the best free alternative, and more. That way you can weigh considerations like budget, tools, and desired app integrations.

If you're not sure what exactly does Liquidplanner offer, make sure to read our Liquidplanner review first.

1. Wrike (best LiquidPlanner alternative overall)

Benefits:

Wrike is an all-in-one project management solution. It’s targeted at co-located and remotely distributed teams.

The platform is designed to create full visibility and transparency on projects and tasks. To improve team collaboration, speed up approvals, and handle incoming work requests.  You can track workflows and see who did what, and monitor everything that’s going on. 

Print reports for individual team members and determine project hours. With task and time management tools, compliance and auditing are made easy. Create custom scrum workflows for agile project management.

There are strong data reporting tools as well. You can also add business intelligence features for more involved reporting and analytics. 

It has good integration with Outlook and Microsoft Teams. So Microsoft projects can be managed in the app with ease. 

Drawbacks:

The user interface is not as intuitive as it might be. Setting up the app for daily operations is likewise quite involved.

Pricing:

• Free plan for up to 5 users is available. 

• Professional plan for 5,10, and 15 users is $9.80 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Business plan for 5-200 users is $24.80 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Enterprise plan for 5-Unlimited users requires contact with the Wrike sales team.

A 14-day free trial is available for the Professional, Business, and Enterprise plans.

Website: wrike.com

2. Trello (best free LiquidPlanner alternative)

Benefits:

Trello takes the cake for free LiquidPlanner alternatives. 

Why? Because the free version of the project management app is full-featured. The one caveat is the limit of 10MB for file attachment size. 

Trello offers simple, visual web-based project organizing software. It’s flexible and easy-to-use. Built around Kanban boards for managing productivity workflows. 

Information is visible on cards at a glance. You can add comments, attach files, and set due dates on each card. Create useful lists too.

The app also goes beyond task management and project planning boards. There’s workflow automation provided by the “Butler” tool too. Set rules, trigger events, and schedule commands. 

Trello integrates with Slack, Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Drive. As well as many more third-party apps. This allows you to sync it with all the tools you already use. 

The app’s long been a favorite of freelancers, startups, and small teams. It’s even touted as a way to organize your upcoming family vacation. That’s the level of simplicity we’re talking about.

Drawbacks:

Trello is just not a heavyweight project management tool. If your project has many moving parts (like say software development), it might not be able to keep up. Particularly if you’re looking for detailed analytics and metrics.

Pricing:

• Free plan is available, with unlimited cards and 10MB limit per attachment. 

• Business Class plan is $9.99 per user/per month billed annually, and $12.50 per user/per month billed monthly.

• Enterprise Class plan for 20+ users is $17.50 per user/per month, billed annually. Price per user drops as the number of users increases.

A 14-day free trial is available for the Business Class plan. 

Website: trello.com

3. Monday.com (most similar to LiquidPlanner)

Benefits:

monday.com is overall the most similar competitor app. 

LiquidPlanner and Wrike serve a similar kind of audience. In other words, businesses small to midsize (somewhere between 1 to 1,000 people). 

Both software products do agile project management, resource management, and document management. Project tracking with Gantt charts, Kanban boards, budget tools, and milestones.

They also both have Windows, Mac, and web-based apps for desktop. And mobile apps for Android and iOS. 

Monday.com is fêted for having a neat, user-friendly interface. One that puts collaboration tools front and center. 

The app lets you collate workflows and streamline tasks. And sync information across work applications. There’s a project portfolio management system too, for keeping tabs on all projects. 

Monday.com incentivizes productivity and gives everyone a heads up on what they need to do.

The platform lets team members click around and see all the pieces of the bigger picture. That's great for project alignment, not to mention morale.

Drawbacks:

The mobile version has been described by some users as “clunky.” It lacks some of the desktop app’s features. Lacks a call recording feature. 

Pricing:

• Basic plan is $25 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Standard plan is $39 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Pro plan is $59 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Enterprise plan requires contact with Monday.com.

A 14-day free trial is available without a credit card. It includes unlimited users and boards.

Website: monday.com

4. Airtable (good LiquidPlanner alternative if you want flexible spreadsheets)

Benefits:

Airtable takes spreadsheets and turns them into versatile work tools. And it goes further, providing a flexible work platform that can serve myriad business roles. 

The CEO of Airtable, Howie Liu, was a Salesforce product manager. But the digital tool his new company built is way simpler than his old company’s CRM. It can be a CRM, a project management tool, or a collaboration tool for startups and small businesses.

Airtable allows users to link data from different sets and interpret them easily. Importing and exporting data from .CSV is a cinch.

The drag-and-drop dashboard allows you to generate custom fields. And populate them with everything from attachments, run-on long-form text notes, checkboxes, links to records in other tables. Even barcodes.

And if you have any questions with the platform, you’re covered. Airtable gets good user reviews for customer support. 

Drawbacks:

More complicated work processes and task management will probably be too much for the platform to handle. 

Pricing:

• Free version provides essential features.

• Plus version is $10 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Pro version is $20 per user/per month, billed annually.

• Enterprise version requires contact with Airtable.

Website: airtable.com

5. Asana (cheaper alternative to LiquidPlanner if you’re on a budget)

Benefits:

Asana’s first tier of paid plans starts at $10.99 per user/per month. This is a significant savings when compared to LiquidPlanner’s starting cost of $45 per user/per month. 

Asana is online project management software for teams. It helps you collaborate on projects. To track tasks and communicate through the platform’s many dashboards. 

One can view all their tasks as a list form, or see them plotted onto a calendar. There’s a board view, which follows the Kanban logic of moving tasks through stages. 

Asana includes tools for conversation and file sharing, which means team members don’t need to rely on emails, other chat apps or cloud platforms to share comments and media.

The timeline feature is sort of a mix between a calendar and a vision board. Projects get mapped out according to an ideal plan. That keeps everyone involved and motivated to meet deadlines. 

It’s great for big projects like total website overhauls and new product launches, Marketing campaigns and even event planning. 

There’s a free version of the app. It’s targeted at personal work and small team project management. And it’s pretty effective. 

Drawbacks:

There’s a lot of features, so it can be confusing to set up your workflow. This is not helped by the fact the task layout view is not super intuitive. 

Asana’s inbox and assigned tasks board can quickly get filled up with bric-a-brac. It takes good housekeeping skills to prevent them from becoming cluttered.

Pricing:

• Basic plan for individuals and teams is free.

• Premium plan is $10.99 per user/per month billed annually, and $13.49 per user/per month billed monthly.

• Business plan is $24.99 per user/per month billed annually, and $30.49 per user/per month billed monthly.

• Enterprise plan requires contact with Asana.

A free trial is available for the Premium and Business plans. 

Website: app.asana.com

6. Smartsheet (best alternative if you want more Gantt chart features)

Benefits:

The idea behind Smartsheet is to align people and tech. About a third of the work day is lost looking for information or dealing with meetings. So the basic principle of the tool is to eliminate this lost time and make your business more agile.

Smartsheet is project and task management software, with easy work sharing through Gantt charts and other views. It also has automation, time tracking, and reporting tools aplenty.

There are tools set up specifically for scaling your business, while mitigating risk. The Control Center dashboard lets you build complex workflows with custom automation rules. 

Smartsheet data can be connected to Microsoft Excel with the Live Data Connector tool. This lets you consolidate multiple data sheets into one in Excel file. To format and rearrange data and get real-time insights.

Drawbacks:

Lacks a chat or a ticketing system. The interface is functional, but it’s a bit cold and un-engaging. 

Pricing:

• Individual plan is $14 per user/per month billed annually. 

• Business plan is $25 per user/per month billed annually. 

• Enterprise plan requires contact with Smartsheet.

• Premier plan (Enterprise features with premium options) requires contact with Smartsheet.

A 30-day free trial is available. No credit card required. 

Website: smartsheet.com

7. Basecamp (best alternative if you want robust communication tools)

Benefits:

Basecamp is designed to improve productivity and organization. It does this by combining communication tools with file storage and work management dashboards.

Split work into projects. Add whoever needs to be involved to each project. 

Each project has its own message board, group chat, and to-do lists. And a shared schedule too. You can also set up automatic check-ins, which prompt team members to give an update on status.

Works well as a comprehensive cloud storage platform. Upload and share documents, files, images, and spreadsheets. Organize your files to keep track of everything project-related.

There’s a free version of the app. This makes it suitable for freelancers and small nonprofits. And for personal projects.

Drawbacks:

Lacks a cohesive, quick overview for seeing what multiple team members are doing. In general, it’s not super robust as a piece of task management software.

Pricing model is nice and simple. However, the paid verison’s point is likely above the budget of some small teams and startups.

Pricing:

• Basecamp Personal is free.

• Basecamp Business with unlimited projects and users is $99 per month. There are no per user fees.

A 30-day free trial is available for the Basecamp Business plan. No credit card required. 

Website: basecamp.com

8. Zoho Projects (best alternative if you want to connect to CRM)

Benefits: 

Cloud-based tool for managing project teams. Helps plan work, track it, and collaborate over distances. Works seamlessly with Zoho CRM and other products in the Zoho suite.

Gantt charts help you build a project plan. Keep track of critical tasks. See, at a glance, if there’s a gap between planned progress and reality.

Automate routine tasks to save yourself time. Use a drag-and-drop interface to visualize and build up automation rules.

Timesheets let you log billable and non-billable hours. This is super helpful for invoicing. There’s direct integration with Zoho Invoice as well, which will auto-generate invoices from timesheets.

You can also use Zapier to connect Zoho Projects to a ton of other apps. Excel and Slack, for example. 

Drawbacks:

The user interface is not the most intuitive or aesthetically pleasing. Search function is limited to tasks within specific projects. 

Pricing:

• Free plan for up to 3 users and 2 projects is available. 

• Standard plan for 6-10 users is $2.50 per user/per month billed annually, and $3 per user/per month billed monthly. 

• Express plan for 12-50 users is $3 per user/per month billed annually, and $4 per user/per month billed monthly. 

• Premium plan for 15-100 users is $4 per user/per month billed annually, and $5 per user/per month billed monthly. 

• Enterprise plan starting at 20 users is $5 per user/per month billed annually, and $6 per user/per month billed monthly. 

A 10-day free trial is available for all paid plans. 

Website: zoho.com/projects

9. Clarizen (best alternative if you want integration with Microsoft Teams)

Benefits: 

Clarizen is an integrated PM tool for aligning teams, staying agile, and getting work done. A centralized view lets you see who’s doing what, and adjust tasks, priorities, and project timelines. 

Project management features include Gantt chart, task reporting, and milestones. Do project-based invoicing too.

You can create and customize project templates quickly. Personalize workflows with multiple boards for different projects, teams, and/or clients. Add comments, team members, and external stakeholders to tasks with ease. 

The app has direct integration with Zoom and Teams for Microsoft projects. Zapier can be used to connect it to thousands of others. 

Drawbacks: 

Pricing starts at $29.95 per user/per month, which might break some budgets. The user interface feels dated, and might be a real obstacle to full-team adoption. 

Pricing:

• Clarizen Go for Agile Teams is $29.95 per user/per month billed annually. 

• Enterprise Edition requires contact with Clarizen.

• Unlimited Edition requires contact with Clarizen.

A 30-day free trial is available for Clarizen Go.

Website: clarizen.com

10. Jira (best alternative if you want agile project management)

Benefits:

Targeted at Agile and Lean software development teams. Features knowledge management, development workflow, and continuous integration and deployment tools.

The platform is based around drag-and-drop, visual dashboards. Scrum boards, Kanban boards, and big picture roadmaps. 

Like a matryoshka doll, you can keep adding depth and complexity to projects. Assign tasks and make one task reliant upon another. Create mini projects within bigger ones.

Jira is very customizable, and there’s many ways to extend its features further.

There’s a GitHub for Jira app. So you can connect your coding work with work in Jira. 

And the app integrates readily with Jira Service Desk. This adds help desk functionality. 

Jira offers very strong data encryption and security. It has broad security compliance with ISO/IEC 27001 and the US/EU Privacy Shield. As well as many other programs.

Drawbacks:

The UI is unconventional. Finding workflows and making sense of them can be challenging. This gives the platform a moderate learning curve. 

Pricing:

• Free plan for up to 10 users is available. 

• Standard plan for up to 5,000 users is $7 per user/per month, billed annually. 

• Premium plan for up to 5,000 users is $14 per user/per month, billed annually. 

A 7-day free trial is available for the Standard and Premium plans. 

Website: atlassian.com/software/jira

What are the best LiquidPlanner free alternatives?

The 10 best free LiquidPlanner alternatives are:

• Airtable

• Asana

• Basecamp 

• Jira

• Podio

• Teamwork

• Trello

• Wrike

• Zenkit

• Zoho Projects

Which of the alternatives to LiquidPlanner is a good choice for you?

Everyone wants easy project management. An all-around tool for seeing how you’re doing on the workfront. For task and workflow management with resource planning.

What’s the best alternative to LiquidPlanner? 

In this article, we suggested it might be Wrike. Based on features. 

But with that said, it really depends. Are you looking for something similar to LiquidPlanner? Something cheaper?  

That’s why we presented 9 other options, based on major preferences. As well as a list of free alternatives.

And none of the apps presented are necessarily superior to LiquidPlanner. But they may be better for what you need.

Project managers and team members all benefit when a good, business-appropriate PM tool is implemented. We invite you to check out the above tools and narrow the list down by major feature preferences. Then do some comparison shopping with the help of free trials.