What is a Gantt chart?
A Gantt chart represents information in a comprehensive, visual way. It summarizes all the important aspects of a project and develops a clear picture of a project’s schedule, resources, and execution, by illustrating what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done. This popular methodology utilizes a progress bar to help you visualize the tasks that need to be completed within a project, next to their start and end dates.
Gantt charts will allow you to:
- Know what the different activities are
- When activities need to start, and when they need to finish.
- How long your activities were primarily scheduled to last.
- How much your activities cost, and how much your project is likely to cost.
- Which activities depend on others to be effectively completed.
- Current progress status.
- The duration of the entire project.
- Know what the different activities are
- When activities need to start, and when they need to finish.
- How long your activities were primarily scheduled to last.
- How much your activities cost, and how much your project is likely to cost.
- Which activities depend on others to be effectively completed.
- Current progress status.
- The duration of the entire project.
Nowadays there are many options when it comes to project management software. Gantt chart tools are no exception to this rule, as they are highly popular around those who love task management.
Let’s take a look at some of the best Gantt chart software available, so you can select the best fit for you and your team:
Instagantt is one of the best Gantt chart software options on the market. Why? Because it strips away the complexity associated with Gantt charts and provides an easy, drag & drop way to schedule your tasks and follow each step of a project’s progress until the very last detail. But don’t be fooled, it might be very easy to use but it can help you manage a number of complex situations thanks to its large list of options and features.
Some of Instagantt’s awesome features are:
- Timelines
- Dependencies and milestones
- Task and subtasks
- Drag & drop
- Baselines
- Critical path
- Multiple projects and workspaces
- Diverse exporting options: Excel, image and PDF
- Public snapshot sharing options
- Team collaboration options: notification and task assignment
- Custom view and custom fields
- Custom color options for progress bars
- Risk and priority
- Estimated and actual cost
- Gantt and workload view
Instagantt’s core function is scheduling and progress management but it makes a great place for your team to collaborate in your project, as it makes it easy for everyone to stay informed and up-to-date with everyone’s work. Its collaborative options allow you to assign tasks to people in your team, and for them to receive an email notifying them about the tasks and their descriptions. Also, it makes it possible to leave comments to everyone involved in any tasks or subtasks, and to attach any information or files worth sharing.
Instagantt also integrates with Asana. So, if you are an Asana user, you’re covered.
Teamgantt is a very good option when it comes to project scheduling, as it lets users manage their projects easily and visibly. With TeamGantt you get the basics: tasks, timelines, and team assignments.What makes TeamGantt great is their understanding of the project management mentality and philosophy, and they make sure to apply it to their product. This tool offers a wholesome look of every project, their tasks, next to their deadlines and resources.
Some of TeamGantt Features:
- Baselines
- Drag&Drop
- Multiple project view in one Gantt chart
- Guest permission
ProofHub is well-known for bringing together several tools that make project management an easy-breezy task. Managers can plan projects, visualize tasks, and modify schedules easily using ProofHub’s built-in Gantt charts.
As a manager, you always stay ahead of the game by having complete control over the tasks associated with a project. The Gantt chart offered by ProofHub allows you to set dependencies between different tasks, drag and drop tasks on the chart to change their durations, and much more. Additionally, the platform allows teams to stay in touch with one another and start discussions related to the project.
Click Up Features:
- Multiple calendar views
- Timesheets
- File and document sharing
- Real-time in app and desktop notifications
- Chat tool for communication
- Markup tools for reviewing and suggesting edits
- Bookmark projects, tasks, discussions, etc.
Wrike stands out for its organizational design. It serves as a table view, with assignees, task names, start and end dates; very easy to view and to understand.
This popular Gantt chart software allows you to see responsibilities and performance, thanks to its Workload View, one of its stars features. It also allows for easy communication between team members as it lets people adjust the necessary aspects within a project and to stay on top of any changes, minimizing the need for meetings.
Wrike Features:
- Critical path
- Folder hierarchy
- Collaborative team editing
Smartsheet’s focus is to offer people a platform where all project information can be kept. Expect no beautiful or techy design, as it basically focuses on providing online spreadsheets.
Smartsheet offers great, useful templates, though, so it’s very easy to input your own information into a pre-built project management template that fits your needs. It allows you to see your project tasks and then click on the different parts to connect your own tasks, expenses, dependencies, and overall project related information.
Smartsheet Features:
- Spreadsheet templates
- Predecessor tasks
- Automated workflows
GanttPro is a very neatly designed Gantt chart tool, and it’s one of the most popular options around. It’s very simple to use and it focuses on intuitive, quick work.
GanttPro allows its users to create several workspaces and projects, and as soon as they’re done creating them, its drag & drop option makes it easy to start adding tasks and setting them a start and due date. This online tool also provides management options to differentiate permissions to different team members within different projects.
GanttPro Features:
- Workload tracking and management module
- Drag & drop
- Splitting tasks and subtasks
- Merging dependencies
Who doesn’t know Microsoft Project? It’s probably the most reliable option in all things project management related. It might be the go-to option for most, as it’s developed and sold by Microsoft.
However, it lacks the flexibility an online Gantt chart software will provide for you. Yes, it is very robust when it comes to monitoring resources, budgets, and timelines, especially for large projects, but it might turn out to be just a little too hard to use for teams that just wish to keep track of their progress and to follow through simple project execution.
Microsoft Project Features:
- Lists
- Attachments
- Schedule development
- Resource assignment
- Progress tracking
- Budget analysis
- Templates
- Advanced reporting
Their Gantt chart is slotted in split screens next to task lists and due dates to give you all of your timeline details in one view. This can be overwhelming for users who aren’t used to the volume of info and only need to view a few details or attachments. MS Project is definitely built for project managers who are monitoring timelines, budgets, and progress but is not necessarily the best fit for individual contributors who just need to see their next task.
Click Up deems itself as an elegant Gantt chart software option. It allows its users to schedule, manage dependencies, and prioritize tasks into a project timeline. Its beautiful and swift interface makes it easy to manage projects by creating lists, tasks and following the overall progress of a project.
However, if you want to try the Gantt view option, you will have to have access to a Click Up paid plan.
Click Up Features:
- Multiple views
- Assigned comments
- Task tray
- Notepad
- Assigned comments
- Integrations
- Dark mode
Easy Projects is a simple, trustworthy option for you and your team. It offers a collaborative Gant chart tool, which allows team members to visualize and track team progress.
Its design provides a clear picture for each task; its start, its duration, and who was responsible for it. This tool also offers task dependencies, which is always a good feature when it comes to project management.
Easy Projects Features:
- Progress tracking
- Dependencies
- Critical path view
Clarizen is definitely more on the complex, solid side of online Gantt chart tool options. Its approach allows for baseline view, estimated and actual work progress, and standard critical path.
Clarizen offers a simple waterfall Gantt chart view, which will make it easy to view and execute a project plan. However, if you are only looking for an intuitive, no training kind of project management tool, Clarizen’s approach might not be quite for you.
Clarizen Features:
- Breakdown Structure
- Drag & drop
- Salesforce Integration
- Grid view
- Customized reporting
Conclusion time
Gantt charts are flexible tools that provide a comprehensive look at the status of every project. They allow people to really understand task duration, resource use, and team workload. So, if you are planning on implementing a Gantt chart online software for you or your team, look no further! You can start now by giving Instagantt a try. Just click on the button below and you’ll be a Gantt chart pro-user in no-time!
