Microsoft Project vs Zoho Projects

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Our analysts compared Microsoft Project vs Zoho Projects based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Project Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Microsoft Project is a robust project management software designed to assist professionals in planning, managing, and tracking projects effectively. It is particularly suitable for organizations that require detailed project planning, resource allocation, and progress monitoring. The software offers comprehensive features such as Gantt charts, task dependencies, resource leveling, and budget management.

Key benefits include improved project visibility, enhanced collaboration, streamlined task management, and efficient resource allocation. Its user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it accessible to users of all skill levels. Compared to similar products, Microsoft Project stands out with its advanced features, integration with other Microsoft applications, and extensive support resources.

Pricing varies depending on the specific version and licensing options. Microsoft Project offers flexible pricing plans, including subscription-based models and perpetual licenses, to cater to different business needs.

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Zoho Projects is a cloud-based solution that lets teams effectively plan and execute projects of any size and duration. It handles tasks, enhances collaboration, provides business intelligence for reporting and supports time tracking and issue management.

Businesses can extend it using numerous integrations and customizations to align it with their requirements. It is usable by teams of smaller than five people up to teams with thousands of users. Zoho provides robust data security and is compliant with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework. It also supports 17 different languages.
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$10/User, Monthly
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$4/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Integrations: Integrates well with other products in the Office suite, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel. 
  • Capture Work Hours: Includes timesheets where team members can fill in hours worked by day and task. Has a simple approval process that lets managers add notes if they reject a submission. Timesheets give insight into project progress and help keep it within time and budget limits.  
  • View Multiple Timelines: Get the big picture of every facet of a project with a visual layout of tasks and milestones. Customize what information appears on timelines and share them with project stakeholders. 
  • Collaborate Efficiently: Integrates with Skype for Business, keeping your team connected via video calls and chat rooms. Direct access to Skype ensures users don’t have to switch between apps.  
  • Simplify Project Planning: Supports waterfall, agile, hybrid method, Gantt charts and pulldown menus to aid project planning. Lets users work in sprints using a Kanban layout. 
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  • Automate Workflows: Automate manual tasks like updating issue details or changing an issue’s severity. Set email notifications to track different events or set up webhooks for communicating with third-party apps. 
  • Transfer from Jira or Basecamp: Migrate data when switching from Jira or Basecamp with certain restrictions. Capture data such as discussions, calendar events, projects, users, bugs, custom fields, milestones and other details, depending on the import module. 
  • Free Version: Get a forever free subscription for a small team of up to five users. It includes two projects, custom status options for tasks and projects, calendar functionality, feeds, project forums, integration with Google apps and file attachments up to 10 MB. 
  • Integrated Suite: Get abilities beyond project management to CRM, accounting, HR, BI and analytics, customer service and more. Create a unified module to handle multiple business needs. 
  • Integrations:  Integrate with several third-party modules to extend project management capabilities. Integrate with major Google and Microsoft apps as well as a host of other tools like Dropbox, GitHub and Slack. 
  • Mobile Apps: Let teams access project details, attach files, log hours and more while away from the office with its native apps for iOS, iPad and Android. View tasks via List or Kanban layouts in portrait or landscape modes. 
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  • Resource Management: Set up teams for success by requesting resources. Heat maps help identify overworked or underused resources. Lets managers project usage, monitor progress and address issues using analytics.  
  • Portfolio Optimization: Models different scenarios using tools like analysis scatter charts. Weigh project proposals against strategic business drivers with organizational cost and resource constraints in mind. 
  • Reports: Offers a number of reports that include a dashboard, progress and cost that provide insight into project metrics. Individual reports include burndowns, project overviews, critical tasks, cash flow, earned value, late tasks and more. Create a customized report from four template types: blank, chart, table and comparison.  
  • BI Capability: Connect with business intelligence apps like Power BI Pro to gain visibility across portfolios. Supports data aggregation to gain comprehensive insights. 
  • Proposal Evaluation: Gather project ideas, use standardized processes to evaluate them and funnel project charters and business cases to management for review and approval.
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  • Task Management: Control important task details, add important information such as priority or duration with tasks and subtasks. Link tasks to create dependencies. Highlight each project phase with milestones. Organize tasks using drag-and-drop Kanban boards and custom layouts. 
  • Social Project Management: Communicate and collaborate for effective project management. Create public or private chat rooms, pages for team knowledge base and forums to engage in discussion. Centralize project updates with feeds. Create new posts while adding comments to existing posts. 
  • Charts and Reports: View project details and metrics using a variety of charts. Get a high-level view of project tasks and dependencies through Gantt charts while resource utilization charts break down each team member’s workload by day. Gain insights into project performance across a wide range of KPIs with over 50 out-of-the-box reports and dashboards. 
  • Time Tracking: Let employees log their hours on a timesheet automatically or manually while allowing managers to view reports based on personnel, time or project. Transform a timesheet to an invoice with a few simple steps. Compare the expected task duration with the actual time spent on a task. Track each member’s availability, issues and milestones using calendar views. 
  • Issue Tracking: Report issues with all the relevant details and assign them for attention. Importing issues in bulk keeps them all in one place, and you can then export them as an XLS or CSV file. Track all issues according to criteria using filtered views. View committed changes with all changeset details included. 
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Product Ranking

#6

among all
Project Management Software

#9

among all
Project Management Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

72
89
57
100
97
84
0
75
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Dashboards and Reporting
Project Planning and Scheduling
Project Tracking
Platform Security
Task Management
Customizations
Task Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Time Tracking and Management
Team Collaboration

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Microsoft Project
Zoho Projects
+ Add Product + Add Product
Customizations Dashboards And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Features Project Planning And Scheduling Project Tracking Task Management Team Collaboration Time Tracking And Management 57 97 0 74 97 95 85 47 81 100 84 75 84 77 87 100 91 94 0 25 50 75 100
29%
43%
28%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
60%
40%
0%
0%
0%
100%
57%
0%
43%
63%
13%
24%
75%
13%
12%
92%
0%
8%
58%
17%
25%
86%
0%
14%
57%
43%
0%
75%
8%
17%
100%
0%
0%
33%
25%
42%
92%
0%
8%
71%
14%
15%
86%
14%
0%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

61%
6%
33%
94%
0%
6%
88%
0%
12%
88%
0%
12%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 3873 reviews
Great User Sentiment 872 reviews
84%
of users recommend this product

Microsoft Project has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 3873 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

87%
of users recommend this product

Zoho Projects has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 872 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

4.7 (21)
5.0 (34)
4.0 (1577)
4.2 (255)
4.4 (1289)
4.2 (242)
4.4 (408)
4.6 (236)
4.1 (578)
4.3 (105)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Microsoft Project and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Project Planning and Scheduling.

Project Planning and Scheduling Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Zoho Projects and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Customizations, Task Management and Integrations and Extensibility.

Customizations Award
Task Management Award
Integrations and Extensibility Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User Friendly: The platform’s functionalities are intuitive and easy to use, as noted by approximately 80% of users who mention the system’s usability.
Project Scheduling: Approximately 81% of the users find its project scheduling capabilities helpful.
Feature-Rich: Approximately 81% of the users who mentioned features said the system provides everything required for proper project handling. It can handle complex projects, create Gantt charts, project timelines and reports.
Customization: Nearly 61% of users who mentioned customization said its customization options were helpful. It integrates with ClearQuest seamlessly and 67% of users find its integrations helpful.
Support: Support is responsive, knowledgeable and helpful, as reported by 100% of reviewers who mention support.
Templates: Approximately 80% of users who mentioned templates find them to be helpful as they display data in an organized manner.
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Functionality: Zoho Projects offers robust tools to manage multiple business needs, including project management, resource allocation, efficient collaboration and timesheets, as reported by approximately 90% of the users who mention the product’s functionality.
Flexible: The system is highly flexible and can be configured for different purposes like marketing and other business requirements, noted nearly 85% of customers who talked about its flexibility.
Integrations: Approximately 75% of the reviewers who mentioned integrations observed that the solution offers multiple APIs and seamless integration with other Zoho suite products and popular external modules for project planning and implementation.
Centralized Communication: The system centralizes all project communication between teams, which makes it easy to search and fix issues, noted nearly 72% of the users who talked about its communication capabilities.
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Learning Curve: Nearly 96% of the users that mentioned accessibility think that the software has a steep learning curve.
Efficiency: About 72% of users that mentioned efficiency said the software improved their process optimization.
Collaboration: Close to 83% of the users who mention collaboration said that Project does not facilitate collaborative processes well.
Cost: Approximately 94% of the users who mention cost think that its price is prohibitive and that the software is very expensive for the features it offers.
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Not Intuitive: The system is not user-friendly with a clunky and unintuitive UI compared to its competitors, reported 88% of reviewers who mentioned the system’s usability.
Cost: Nearly 92% of the users who mentioned cost remarked that Zoho Projects is expensive for small teams looking for more features on a limited budget, doesn’t offer options to customize functionality and its package price is a costly investment for bigger teams with more users.
Data and Reporting: Data generated by the system is difficult to comprehend, and it doesn’t allow report customization using different fields and visuals, observed by about 86% of customers who mentioned reporting.
Support: Customer support is slow and doesn’t offer enough support documentation or tutorial videos to exploit the system’s capabilities fully, noted 80% of reviewers who talked about support.
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Microsoft Project remains a robust project management software, praised for its intuitive interface and comprehensive feature set. Users appreciate its Gantt charts, resource management capabilities, and integration with other Microsoft products. However, some find its advanced features overwhelming and its reporting capabilities limited compared to specialized project management tools. Project differentiates itself with its ease of use and integration with the Microsoft ecosystem. Its intuitive interface makes it accessible to users of all skill levels, while its integration with tools like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint streamlines collaboration. These strengths make it an excellent choice for teams heavily reliant on Microsoft products. Microsoft Project is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses and teams that prioritize ease of use and Microsoft integration. Its intuitive interface and comprehensive feature set make it a valuable tool for managing projects effectively, while its integration with other Microsoft products enhances collaboration and productivity.

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Zoho Projects offers comprehensive solutions for its customers to tackle multiple business needs with ease. Users have full control of their projects as they can manage every stage of project progress, allocate resources, manage tasks, record timesheets and automate workflow processes for standardization. It offers an extensive knowledge base and fosters team collaboration for efficient project completion. However, its UI is clunky and difficult to use, it requires a steep learning curve to make optimal use of its full capabilities, comes with limited features in its basic version and offers sluggish customer support.

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