Zoho Projects vs. Microsoft Project

If you and your team are looking for a reliable project management platform, you’ve probably heard of Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project. Both platforms are known for their exceptional features, versatility, and affordable prices. While the two platforms are similar in a way, they differ in many aspects. Since making the wrong choice can affect productivity and team collaboration, you need to learn more about Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project and make an informed decision.

If you’re interested in learning the similarities and differences between Zoho Projects and Microsoft Project, look no further. This article will discuss the platforms and their most important features and see how they compare.

What Is Zoho Projects?

Zoho Projects is a project management platform that was first launched in 2006. Over the years, the platform has become one of the most popular options for project tracking, organization, collaboration, and achieving goals. Zoho Projects offers a wide range of features for visualizing tasks, syncing calendars, automating tasks, customizing views, integrating other apps and programs, etc.

What Is Microsoft Project?

Microsoft Project is a project management platform developed by Microsoft. It was initially released in 1984, making it one of the oldest project management platforms in the world. Microsoft Project is great for creating schedules, keeping track of projects, assigning resources to tasks, managing the budget, analyzing workloads, and much more.

Zoho Projects vs. Microsoft Project

Let’s see how these two platforms compare:

Task Management

Both platforms are packed with task management features. Zoho Projects lets you create projects and break them down into smaller units for easier management. For example, you can add tasks, subtasks, milestones, bugs, and task lists to organize your work, enhance productivity, and lower the risk of errors.

You can prioritize tasks on Zoho Projects based on their urgency and color-code them for easier visualization. With Zoho Projects, you can track how many hours each team member has spent on a task or project and optimize the budget accordingly.

With Microsoft Project, you can also create projects and break them into tasks. You can choose the name, duration, start, finish, and predecessors, add notes and comments, highlight specific assignments, etc.

Although Microsoft Project doesn’t offer as many task management features as Zoho Projects, it’s valuable for budget planning. As you may know, every project has a particular budget, and it’s vital to ensure you don’t spend more than you have. With Microsoft Project, you can assign resources to tasks and set conditions, and the program will easily calculate the total cost.

Customer Support

People often don’t think about customer support when considering which project management platform to use. Every platform should be backed up by staff who can help you resolve potential problems in no time. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. If you check online reviews for some project management platforms, many users complain they couldn’t reach customer support teams.

Zoho Projects is a platform with impeccable customer support. You can reach customer support via phone, email, or live chat and get a response in 24 hours or sooner. The platform also features numerous video tutorials showing how to resolve the most common issues or use different options. Finally, you can find plenty of helpful information regarding the platform in the Zoho knowledge base.

Microsoft Project also has good customer support. You can reach a representative via a forum or chat. Unfortunately, Microsoft Project doesn’t offer email or live chat support. This could be a problem if you have an issue you need to resolve as soon as possible.

Ease of Use

Ease of use is one of the vital factors to consider when selecting a project management tool.

Thousands of users agree that Zoho Projects features a simple, intuitive interface with clearly-displayed options. The developers did a great job at creating a platform that doesn’t have a steep learning curve. Even those who haven’t used a similar tool before will learn the ropes quickly.

The situation is a bit different with Microsoft Project. It’s undeniable that the platform has amazing features. However, many users state using it is quite complicated, and the options aren’t as intuitive.

Microsoft Project has an interface similar to Microsoft Excel. While some users like this, others say this is the reason the platform is so confusing.

Pricing

When choosing a project management platform, you need to consider pricing.

Zoho Projects offers a free version with limited options. Plus, the platform lets you take advantage of a free trial, explore the features, and see whether it’s a good fit without spending your money.

When it comes to paid plans, Zoho Projects offers two options: Premium and Enterprise. The Premium plan is the most popular one, costing $4 per month. It comes with 20 project templates and 100 GB of storage space and lets you manage unlimited projects. The Enterprise version costs $9 per month and features 30 project templates and 120 GB of storage space.

Microsoft Project offers three pricing plans. The first costs $10 per month and offers limited features. For example, you can’t use resource management or install the desktop client.

The second plan costs $30 per month and gives you access to these options. However, you still won’t have access to portfolio selection and optimization, demand management, or enterprise resource planning. These options are available only when you subscribe to the third plan, which costs $55 per month.

Microsoft Project doesn’t offer a free version.

Availability

Zoho Projects is available on computers as a cloud-based service. You can also install the Zoho Projects app on Android and iOS devices and keep track of your projects on the go.

Microsoft Project can also be used as a cloud-based service. Moreover, you can use the desktop app for Windows or on-premise software for Windows and Linux. At the time of writing, Microsoft Project doesn’t have a mobile app, which can be a problem for some users.

Which One Should You Choose?

Since both platforms offer many options that make project management much easier, you may have trouble choosing one. If you want impeccable customer support, availability, and a wide range of task management options, consider Zoho Projects. On the other hand, if you’re more concerned with budget planning and resource management, Microsoft Project could be the right choice.

Have you ever used a project management platform before? What features did you like best? Tell us in the comments section below.