Merlyn Shelley
Saas is the acronym for the Software-as-a-Service model. It’s a software delivery and licensing standard available on an on-demand basis and hosted centrally on a cloud platform regardless of the industry size. SaaS Project Management platform is nothing but the delivery of the project management solutions that are designed to improve the efficiency of project management teams in the subscription-based or on-demand cloud environment.
What is all about the SaaS project management industry?
The fundamental purpose of project management software is to ease the project management process flow, accelerate the efficacy of the team through comprehensive tracking and collaboration solutions. So, when it comes to SaaS-based project development software, it does offer a whole lot of comforts that include the flexibility in paying the price of the service with the much lower initial cost, scalability of the system and cross-platform compatibility. The SaaS project management industry is gaining more momentum in this age of digital transformation and technological evolution. SaaS-based PM solution has got multiple functional benefits. Apart from being on-demand service and flexible deployment, let’s look into the industry-specific windfalls.
Benefits of SaaS Project Management Solutions
- Enhanced Security facilities like encryption, data recovery and disaster management at a minimum affordable cost.
- Accelerated network speed.
- Compatible on multiple platforms with the utmost installation flexibility.Â
- Low maintenance cost along with the pay-as-you-go model.
- API integration with a higher adaptation rate.
- Free trial periods and customized pricing plans.
- Businesses can upgrade to higher standards as they grow with the product’s scalability feature.
- Work-from-home or Remote jobs are winning over the market because of the product’s highly collaborative feature.
- Utmost “Transparency” between the stakeholders and the team can be established in a SaaS-based project management system regardless of the physical location of the people in the team.
- The system would assist in every task of the project management team without any hassle.
Statistics on SaaS-based PM platforms
Gartner foresees that there will be a sudden surge in revenue generation with SaaS-based PM solutions of about USD 105 billion in 2020. By 2021, across the world, 73% of the organization would adopt the SaaS project management technique. Also, according to the latest PMI research, 77% of high-performing companies got to know the importance of project management solutions. SaaS project management software solutions are leaving no stones unturned when it comes to business. Below is a list of top SaaS project management systems that are reigning in the market, why are they so popular and what are their unique selling points and capabilities.
Top project management SaaS applications for Startups
These SaaS project management solutions are preferred based on the requirements of the project or business, evaluation of the cost, availability of free-trial period, method of project management practice, customized features for varied user factors and compared with other products in the market.
Jira
Jira is a robust platform with flexible API integration and customizable workflows. It is the most prominent SaaS PM solution because of its enterprise-grade security with a connection to over 3000 applications. Jira has got the kanban board, scrum board, roadmap and inbuilt agile reporting system.Â
Pricing: The Starter plan is about $10/month with a team of ten users.
The Standard plan costs $7/user/month with a team capacity of 11–100 users.
The Premium plan sums up to $14/user/month for a team with 1–100 users. If the team exceeds more than 101 users, business discounts are available.
Website: Â https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
Wrike
Wrike comes with focused team collaboration and real-time work transparency. It has got context-based conversation, resource management tool, Gantt charts, automatic task assignment on agile teamwork, and Kanban board under fully customized workflows. Wrike for marketers facilitates custom templates with extensions to Adobe and proofing solutions. Â
Pricing: The Starter plan is free with a team of five users.
The professional plan costs $9.8/user/month with a team capacity of 5-15 users.
 The business plan sums up to $24.8/user/month of a team with 5–200 users. The pricing plan for the marketing team can be available on the requisition of the quote.
Website: Â https://www.wrike.com/
Zoho Projects
Zoho is a cost-effective project management solution for small teams. It comes with a Gantt chart, tracking the time, issue tracking, CRM integration with invoices and books. It also supports Kanban board, timesheet approval and can deal with complex project requirements. Zoho is famous for feature-based flat pricing.
Pricing: The Standard plan is about $18/month plus $3 for additional uses for the team of 10 users/10 projects/client users.
Next is the express plan that costs $15/15 users plus $4Â for additional users with unlimited projects of 15 client users and a 20GB attachment facility.Â
Website: https://www.zoho.com/projects/
Trello by Atlassian
Trello is an easy-to-use tool that has got boards and cards featuring projects and tasks correspondingly. It has got 2-factor authorization, advanced automation and administration permissions. It allows Google apps sign-on features with custom field actions.
Pricing: The Starter plan is completely free which includes unlimited personal boards, cards, lists, 10MB/file attachment and 1 power-up per board.
Then business class plan costs $12.50/user/month
The enterprise-class plan sums up to $20.83/user/month that includes a whole lot of advanced features.
Website: https://trello.com/en
Evernote Business
Evernote Business is a kind of essential tool that boosts productivity across the teams. It facilitates real-time transparency with the utmost team collaboration. It has got AI-suggested content, single sign-on, geolocation, web clipper and workflow management solution. It does allow integration of Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Team’s, Salesforce, Outlook and a lot more.
Pricing: The basic plan is free and allows the team to take notes on a project.
 The premium plan costs $7.99/month with organizational features.
Evernote Business is a comprehensive tool that sums up to $14.99/user/month with a team of minimum of 2 users.
Website: https://evernote.com/business
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is one of the oldest and most reliable PM software that offers built-in templates, scheduling tools, timesheets, Gantt charts and advanced analytics. MS Project is capable of managing complex and large projects. Hence, it is very useful for people who need details of resources and tasks. MS project solutions are available on-premise or perpetual licensing and also as a part of Microsoft 365 for which the user has to pay extra amounts.
Pricing: Project online essentials cost around $7 per user per month.
Project professional online costs about $30 per month while the premium version costs about $55 for the same duration.
One-time licensing for standard and premium versions cost about $649 and $1279 respectively.
Basecamp
Basecamp is meant for the uncluttered user interface with the powerful search tool on a large scale customer base. It has got Hill chart, daily activity digest, real-time group chat, client access and message board features. Basecamp provides this peculiar pricing plan that forms the most suitable PM solution for larger teams as they may not have to pay on per user basis.
Pricing: It does not have any freemium version but facilitates a straight $99/month plan without regarding the total number of users and projects. The plan comprises a 500 GB file attachment or storage facility with all the advanced project management features.Â
Website: https://basecamp.com/
Confluence
Confluence is specifically designed for increasing efficiency in project planning, marketing plan, blog post, tasks tracking through an open-source, shared and easily accessible workplace where users can maintain track of their work in a single place. For better organization of software documentation and effective functioning, Confluence can be combined with Jira.
Pricing: The starter pack is about $10/month with a team of 10 users.
The standard plan costs around $5 per user per month for a team of 11-100 users.
Finally, the premium plan costs about $10 per user per month for a team of 1-100 users.
Website: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
Nifty
Pricing: Nifty’s pricing plans vary with the number of users.Â
The pricing starts from $39/month for a team of 10 members, $79/month for a team of 25 members and finally, $124/month for a team of 50 members.
Website: https://niftypm.com/
Workfront
Workfront, a user-friendly PM software that offers customizable project dashboards, real-time reporting and helps in keeping track of ongoing projects. Workfront can also be easily integrated with other applications like Google Drive and Microsoft Outlook.
Pricing: Workfront offers pricing plans based on the requirements of the customers.
Website: https://www.workfront.com/
Future Scope of SaaS project management industry
The growth and future scope of the SaaS project management industry are robust and dynamic. According to Cisco’s analysis, 4/5th of data center traffic which is 83% of the services will be using cloud-based SaaS applications in the next three years. Mobile-first SaaS solutions are on the way to disrupt the market. The adaptation of AI and ML is on the verge to bring about astounding transformation in the SaaS project management solution. According to intuit reports, 85% of small scale industries are likely to invest more in SaaS solutions in the next five years. All this evidence points to a fact that we are living in an era where SaaS is the new normal.
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