Best Capacity Planning Software for Teams Managing Workload (2026)

Every team has a capacity problem eventually. One designer is booked solid for three weeks while another has room. A new client project gets approved before anyone checks who could work on it. Deadlines slip, and the people doing the most work burn out first.

Capacity planning software helps you see the problem before it happens. It shows how much time each person actually has, what's already committed, and where new work will fit. This guide covers what to look for, the best capacity planning tools for teams in 2026, and how to pick the right one for the way your team works.

What is capacity planning software?

Capacity planning software shows how much work your team can take on, based on each person's available hours, existing assignments and time off. Most tools let you assign people to projects or tasks by hours or percentage of their time, then show who is over- or under-allocated in a timeline or heatmap.

It overlaps with two related categories:

• Workload management focuses on balancing the work people have right now. Read our guide to workload management for the day-to-day side.

• Resource management is the broader practice of scheduling people, skills and budgets across projects. See our list of resource management tools.

Capacity planning sits between the two. It answers the forward-looking question: can we take this on, and who will do it?

The best capacity planning software at a glance

• Hive: best for teams that want capacity planning in the same place as their projects

• Float: best for visual resource scheduling

• Runn: best for forecasting and scenario planning

• Resource Guru: best for simple booking and avoiding double-booking

• Productive: best for agencies tracking capacity and profitability together

• Kantata: best for large professional services organizations

• Smartsheet Resource Management: best for teams already using Smartsheet

• Wrike: best for enterprise teams that need workload views and approvals

• monday.com: best for customizable workload dashboards

• Asana: best for teams already planning work in Asana

What to look for in capacity planning software

• Real availability. Capacity should reflect each person's working hours, holidays and time off, not an assumed 40-hour week.

• Allocation by hours or percentage. You should be able to say "Sam is on this project for 10 hours a week" or "50% of Priya's time," not just assign a name to a task.

• Placeholders for future work. Placeholder roles (such as "Designer, TBD") let you plan projects before they're staffed, and show which roles you're short on.

• A clear over- and under-allocation view. A timeline or heatmap should make it obvious who's overbooked next week and who has room.

• Planned versus actual time. Time tracking shows whether your estimates hold up, which makes the next plan more accurate.

• Connection to the work itself. When capacity lives in a separate tool from tasks and projects, the two drift apart. Look for tools that connect allocations to the actual work, or integrate tightly with your project management tool.

• Reporting. Utilization, allocation by project and planned-versus-actual reports help you make the case for hiring or saying no.

The 10 best capacity planning tools for teams

1. Hive

Hive is an AI workspace that combines project management with resourcing, time tracking and reporting, so capacity & workload planning happens where the work is already planned.

Capacity planning features:

• Set working hours for each person and add holidays and out-of-office calendars so availability is accurate

• Allocate people to projects and assign work based on skills and capacity

• Use placeholders to plan roles before a project is staffed

• Track time manually or automatically on each task, and submit and approve timesheets

• Compare planned and actual time with resourcing and time reports

• Ask Buzz, Hive's AI assistant, for summaries of project status and team workload

Best for: marketing, creative and services teams that want projects, tasks and capacity in one place instead of a separate scheduling tool. Hive has a free plan. See Hive resourcing.

2. Float

Float is a dedicated resource scheduling tool known for its drag-and-drop timeline. You can see each person's schedule, capacity and time off at a glance, schedule work in hours, and forecast capacity across projects.

Best for: agencies and studios that schedule people across many client projects.
Consider: Float focuses on scheduling, so most teams pair it with a separate project management tool.

3. Runn

Runn is a resource planning and forecasting tool. It lets you add tentative projects to see how potential work would affect capacity before it's confirmed, which helps with hiring and pipeline decisions.

Best for: teams that need to forecast capacity months ahead.
Consider: it's built for planning and forecasting, not task management.

4. Resource Guru

Resource Guru keeps scheduling simple. You book people, meeting rooms or equipment, and its clash management flags double-bookings before they happen. Leave management is built in.

Best for: teams that want straightforward booking without a lot of setup.
Consider: forecasting and reporting are lighter than in more advanced tools.

5. Productive

Productive is an agency management platform that combines resource planning with budgets, time tracking and profitability reporting, so you can see whether a fully booked team is also a profitable one.

Best for: agencies that want capacity and financials in one tool.
Consider: it's built around agency workflows, so in-house teams may not need the financial depth.

6. Kantata

Kantata, formed from Mavenlink and Kimble, is a professional services automation platform. It covers resource planning, skills-based staffing, forecasting and project financials for large services organizations.

Best for: consultancies and professional services firms with many people to staff.
Consider: it's an enterprise platform with a longer setup than lighter tools.

7. Smartsheet Resource Management

Smartsheet Resource Management, formerly 10,000ft, adds resource scheduling, utilization and forecasting to Smartsheet. It shows who's available and how much time is booked on each project.

Best for: organizations that already run projects in Smartsheet.

8. Wrike

Wrike is an enterprise work management platform with workload charts that show each person's allocated effort, so managers can drag work between people to rebalance it. Workload and resource features are on its higher-tier plans.

Best for: large teams that need workload views alongside complex projects and approvals.

9. monday.com

monday.com offers a workload view and dashboard widgets that show how much each person is assigned, based on task effort or counts. Because it's highly customizable, you can build capacity views that match your process.

Best for: teams that want to design their own workload dashboards.
Consider: workload features are on higher-tier plans, and capacity planning takes some setup.

10. Asana

Asana's workload view shows each person's assigned work over time, based on task effort or count, and lets you reassign work to balance it. It's included on Asana's higher-tier plans.

Best for: teams that already manage projects in Asana and want a quick view of who's overloaded. If you're comparing, see our guide to the best Asana alternative for marketers.

How to choose the right capacity planning tool

Start with how your team works, not the feature list:

• In-house marketing and creative teams usually need capacity planning connected to requests, projects and approvals. An all-in-one platform like Hive avoids keeping a separate schedule in sync.

• Agencies need capacity, time tracking and profitability together. Look at Hive, Productive or Float paired with a project tool.

• Professional services and PMOs planning months ahead need forecasting and skills-based staffing. Look at Runn, Kantata or Smartsheet Resource Management.

Whichever you choose, run a two-week trial with real projects and real people's schedules. Capacity tools only work if the data is accurate, so test how easy it is to keep up to date.

How to plan team capacity in 5 steps

1. Calculate available hours. For each person, start with their working hours, then subtract holidays, time off and recurring commitments like meetings and admin.

2. Leave a buffer. Don't plan to 100%. Many teams allocate around 70 to 80% of available hours to project work, leaving room for reviews, requests and the unexpected.

3. Estimate the work. Break projects into phases or tasks and estimate hours for each role. Use past time-tracking data to improve your estimates.

4. Allocate and rebalance. Assign work by hours or percentage, then look for anyone over capacity and move or reschedule work before it becomes a problem.

5. Compare planned and actual time. Review time tracked against the plan each month. If estimates are consistently off, adjust them for the next project.

For a deeper walkthrough, read our guide to resource capacity planning.

Capacity planning software FAQ

What's the difference between capacity planning and resource planning?

Capacity planning looks at how much work your team can handle based on available time. Resource planning is broader: it decides which people, skills and budgets go to which projects. Most capacity planning tools handle both.

How do you calculate team capacity?

Add up each person's working hours for the period, subtract holidays, time off and regular commitments, then multiply by the share of time you plan to give project work (for example, 75%). The total is your team's available capacity for that period.

Can project management software handle capacity planning?

Some can. Platforms like Hive include resourcing, time tracking and workload reporting, so you don't need a separate tool. Others only show task counts per person, which isn't the same as knowing how many hours someone has free.

Is there free capacity planning software?

A few tools, including Hive, have free plans or free trials, but advanced resourcing and reporting features are usually on paid plans. Check each vendor's site for current pricing.

Plan capacity where the work happens

The best capacity plan is the one your team keeps up to date. Hive connects resourcing, time tracking and reporting to the projects and tasks your team already works in, so you can see who has room before you say yes to the next project. Get started for free.

Looking for more options? See our list of workload management tools.