Frustrated by Resource Guru? Need more tools to keep your projects running smoothly? If you’re ready for a more advanced resource management tool, we’ve rounded up the best five Resource Guru alternatives.
If you’re using Resource Guru software to manage resources and projects online, it could be time to consider alternatives. While many users love this intuitive and affordable resource management solution, others concede it’s best suited to simple use cases. Scaling businesses find they outgrow the limited functionality fairly quickly.
A quick glance at Resource Guru reviews on Capterra uncovers the lack of features as a frequent failing of the scheduling app - especially for medium-sized organizations and upwards. If you’re using Resource Guru - but frustrated it can’t keep up - here are five alternatives we think will keep pace with your ambitions better.
Runn is resource planning and management software that makes it easier to keep people productive and projects profitable. Runn has powerful tools for resource scheduling, project planning, capacity management, project forecasting, timesheets, reporting, and more.
At a strategic level, it provides portfolio-wide insights into productivity and performance, role demand, utilization, capacity, and more - so senior managers can make confident data-based decisions on who to hire and which projects to take on.
Operationally, project managers have tools to plan, resource, and monitor individual projects or programs - with easy drag-and-drop project planning and allocations. It’s easy to surface skills and availability, to use the right resources, and to an optimum level. There are also at-a-glance real-time insights to monitor project performance against plans - in terms of time and money spent - to take corrective action before anything gets out of control.
Reviewers on Capterra have given Runn an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 (and 5 out of 5 for our customer services - go team!) They love the increased visibility into their business, control over their projects, and ease of use.
Float is pitched as a Resource Scheduling Tool for Small Teams. It has strong functionality for organizing your team’s schedule quickly and effectively. The simple interface makes it easy to pick up and use. And once you’re using it, you can create individual and team schedules, track resources, and collaborate in real-time.
Float is flexible enough to deal with the inevitable changes that crop up as your projects evolve. You can reallocate and agree on new resources in a few clicks. And the time tracking tools help stop projects from spiraling out of control, by tracking planned time against the reality of time actually worked. There’s a clear overview for capacity planning and scheduling, plus stripped-back analytics for basic reporting.
However, Float’s focus on scheduling and time management means it performs less well as a project or budget management tool. And that leaves some PMs turning to other software to manage and track what matters to them. One reviewer mentioned having to export reports as CSV to conduct the in-depth analysis they need.
Read on: Runn vs Float - Putting the Best in Resource Planning to Test ➡️
Aimed at the team and small business section of the market, Teamdeck takes its end-to-end ‘complete resource management’ pitch seriously. It aims to give a complete overview and fine control of project management - including resource scheduling, project planning, time tracking, timesheets, budgets, utilization, performance, and more - all from within one platform. It’s great for organizations that want to see a complex portfolio of projects presented simply.
With an intuitive user interface and plenty of customizable options, it covers everything from productivity and budget tracking, to resource forecasting and workload planning. Its financial and budget planning are robust, delivering clear and accurate timesheet and billing information, so you can keep track of what you’re working on and how much it has cost.
Users like the calendar and time tracking features, as well as the price. Though some find the reporting functionality a little hit-and-miss. Teamdeck comes in for some criticism over lack of integrations compared to other software, but this may be because it offers more functionality within the app itself than rivals do.
Mosaic is a web-based resource management tool that - like Runn - offers a centralized system to manage resources and plan projects for maximum efficiency and profitability. It has the features you’d expect, including drag-and-drop resource allocation, real-time reporting, staff skill profiles, and more.
What marks Mosaic out from other products is the use of AI to do some of the heavy lifting in project and capacity planning. Mosaic’s AI analyzes your team to identify project opportunities for people - and people for projects. It also uses data to forecast workload, role demand, and revenue - even making recommendations for which roles to hire and when.
Using information gathered from timesheets, the AI predicts how long future projects might take, and suggests new project schedules based on resource availability. It also automatically tracks and shows who is working on what, for real-time insights into utilization.
It’s a very visual system that aims for at-a-glance transparency into workload - and reviewers seem to appreciate the ease of use - though some complained about occasional syncing issues.
Saviom bills itself as Enterprise Resource Planning software, aiming firmly at bigger businesses, particularly professional services firms. It has been around for over twenty years, which explains the feature-rich functionality, but also a slightly dated user interface compared to newer products.
Saviom combines project management, scheduling, workforce management, project accounting, and business intelligence into a single comprehensive tool. Like most products in our list, it aims to make it easier to deliver high-quality projects on time, use your resources to optimum capacity, and increase productivity and profitability as a result.
Saviom prides itself on its extensive functional footprint and being highly customizable to any business sector. However, one reviewer complained the software had ‘sacrificed usability for extensive customization’. Another source of frustration centers on data availability, with some data being collected but not available in reports.
Although it’s pitched at bigger businesses, any firm delivering professional services will benefit from its resource management tools.
If your project-based business is growing - and growing weary of the limitations in Resource Guru - you now have five alternatives to explore. Read the reviews, check out their websites, and do some demos to get a feel for how the apps work in practice.
If you’d like to try Runn, you can have a free 14-day trial to see whether it’s right for you. Or book a demo with one of our own gurus - to find out how Runn can help you manage your people, projects, and profits in one perfect place.
