The 17 Best Resource Management Tools To Use in 2024

Resource management is not the same as project management — even though some of us get the two mixed up. Project management focuses on delivering projects within a specific time and budget, pulling from available resources to succeed.

Resource management supports project management and is used to track resources that are required to complete each task defined under the project management umbrella.

While they may overlap, they are two distinct processes that can get more complicated as businesses share company-wide resources. To help keep track of resources and to manage, plan and allocate their utility, your business should invest in a resource management tool.

A resource management tool will help your business maximize the efficiency of your resources and provide a clear overview of your resource pool, what you have used, and what you have left to offer.

Why Resource Planning Is Vital To Project Management

You never want to hear the words, “I need it by tomorrow,” and when you do, the typical gut reaction is, “do I have time and is it even possible?” The answer to an urgent timeline like this always lies in the availability of resources. While tackling an urgent project can be stressful, a resource management tool can help diffuse the stress by providing you with an immediate snapshot of available resources to complete a job.

Your supervisor, or even you, can set as many due dates for tasks and projects as possible. But, unfortunately, without knowing what resources are available, it can be extremely challenging to get it all done and to carry out proper product planning.

Resources are finite, and without knowing what resources you have at your fingertips to complete the job you are assigned to do, your project will never see the light of day or may not be completed by tomorrow. Sorry, boss.

Top Resource Management Tools

If you never want to feel the panic of not knowing what resources are available – you need a resource management tool. These tools will help keep track of your business resources from employees that do the job, equipment to get it done, and the time needed to achieve a goal.

As you start going through the roundup below and you think to yourself – “self, I’ve seen some of these programs before, but they are also used as project management platforms,” you are not wrong.

While some of these programs may be advertised for “project management,” they can also be used as a great resource management tool. Some of these tools are strictly for resources, and others can be an all-in-one option.

What you use to manage your resources and your project is strictly up to you and what works in your business flow. So let’s take a look at some of the leading resource management tools to keep your projects staffed well and within budget.

1. Hive

As one of the only resource management tools on the market built for users, by users — you can guarantee that the folks at Hive have been told to “complete projects by tomorrow.” Fortunately for them, Hive provides excellent resource management functionality with slick project management features.

This comprehensive, intuitive, all-in-one project resourcing tool offers time-tracking and resourcing planning functionality. Resources can be planned, tasked and even laid out with over 6 different layouts from Gantt, Calendar, Kanban, Portfolio, Table and Label view.

Want to see what resources you have available for the entire month? Use the Calendar view. Want to know exactly how long it is going to take your writer to complete their next ebook? Check your time-tracking history. It is easy, seamless and it also offers a native chat and e-mail function so the team can immediately reach out to the most important resources in the business — each other.

Key Features:

• Built by users, for users via feedback on the Hive Forum
• Time tracking, goal setting, and customizable workflows
• Can also be used as a project management tool and OKR management tool
• Try it for free for 14 days! Hive Teams plans start at $12/user per month.

2. Float

If you’re looking for one of those resource management tools that can make the “most of your team’s time,” check out Float. Built with teams in mind, Float is a resource management tool that helps employees set individual work hours, track time for scheduled tasks and even schedule their own personal time off.

It has the functionality to plan projects while adding in both budget and custom time constraints. This program can also get very granular with projects and present them in individual phases, taking into account every step of a project and all available resources needed to complete it.

Floats robust SaaS reporting tools provide data directly pulled from completed or ongoing projects, so your business can make any resource data-derived decisions for your business.

Built with the ability to integrate with the market’s best agile project management tools like Slack or Teamwork, Float is a simple integration with a big return.

Key Features:

• Easy to assign resources
• Customized time tracking and reporting features
• Integration with many project management systems
• Starts at $6 /month with a higher tier pricing that unlocks additional features. If you want to check it out, you can also try it for free for 14 days!

3. Saviom

If I could describe Saviom as a person, I would say that they are your business-minded older cousin who always comes to family barbecues wearing a suit. Saviom is one of those sleek, serious data-driven resource management tools built for enterprise businesses.

Saviom provides real-time insights with data analytics tools and dashboards with highly flexible reports. Available in a variety of views, from a Gant chart that makes it simple for everyone to get a snapshot of resource utilization to a scheduler that the whole business has access to and can see who is working on which project.

Savioms functionality provides excellent visibility in areas that need focus in terms of resource shortages and can help your business adjust its priorities with real-time solutions. Saviom can also pinpoint available skills within the program and help deploy the right resources for the job.

These resource predictions can help streamline your business and create additional efficiencies.

Key Features:

• Enterprise business usage
• Graphic reports provide excellent visual comparisons
• Integration with many project management systems
• Available as a free trial for 4-6 weeks, and the purchase price of the program varies depending on the size of your business and licensing requirements.

4. Resource Guru

Already have a project management tool that you love but want to choose a companion from a list of robust resource management tools? Let me introduce you to Resource Guru.

Resource Guru is a fast and simple resource management tool that can help you schedule people, equipment, and other resources. With a drag and drop scheduler and a unique “clash management system” that helps you prevent resource over-bookings, the Guru will manage your resources and keep you in control.

Want some more in-depth reporting? With Resource Guru, you can monitor your resource utilization rates and pull reporting data from other key metrics like billable vs. non-billable time, time off, or even overtime work. Keep track of the resources that matter in your business, and introduce yourself to the Guru.

Key Features:

• Unique meeting room assistant/equipment management tracking
• Personal dashboards can be customized for each user
• Integration with many project management systems
• Starting at $2.50 per person/month with higher pricing tiers that unlock functionality and users. Sign up now for a 30-day free trial.

5. Mosaic

If you are feeling techy, then you might want to check out Mosaic. Mosaic is the first of its kind, an AI-powered workforce management software that offers its users visibility into their business and provides an opportunity to improve how they manage their resources, which is why it’s one of our favorite resource management tools.

Aimed towards boosting profitability and productivity, this resource management tool integrates with both project and financial management software to gather intelligent data and provide reports and insights about specific resources.

Mosaic uses its AI functionality to optimize resources around priorities. If someone in your business has free time, Mosaic suggests projects to work on.

Whether you’re working to develop website testing services or create graphics for a web page, if you assign employees to a project together, it can suggest project members who can work on specific tasks based on the resources they provide to the company.

Mosaic helps take the guesswork out of resource management tools with its AI-powered functionality.

Key Features:

• Visual resource planning dashboard is easy to use
• AI-powered reporting helps automatically plan resources
• Integration with many project management systems
• Starting at $9.99 per person/month with higher pricing tiers that unlock functionality and users. Sign up now for a 30-day free trial.

6. Teamdeck

Teamdeck is a team and project resource management tool and a child of Apptension, a Polish software development company that cooperates with Netflix, Universal Studios, Heineken, and Uber. Teamdeck aims to make resourcing easier for HR teams and managers, with important functionality like scheduling, time tracking and timesheets, and leave management.

Resource calendars and reports give you the much-needed visibility into your team’s current, past, and future workload. All of your employees are listed there, together with their allocated projects.

In addition to being a tool for managers, Teamdeck helps employees manage their own availability, request vacation days and track their time. This is useful for all types of employees, whether they are full-time, part-time, or contract workers, which is why it’s on our list of leading resource management tools.

Key Features:

• Team scheduling, workload management, and forecasting tools
• Integrations with Google Calendar, Slack, Asana, and other common work tools
• Time-tracking and timesheet management
• Team resourcing plans start at $3.60 per user per month

7. Forecast

Forecast is one of the alternative resource management tools that allows you to have an overview for both long-term and short-term resource planning projects. The tool offers a zoom-in and zoom-out feature that captures at a glance the resources available from a daily, weekly and monthly perspective.

You can also seen in a heatmap where everyone’s working on and their progress.

Forecast makes it easier for project managers to identify who’s overbooked, available or on vacation. The financial reporting also allows monitoring resources available and consumed. In addition, the Auto Schedule tool uses an intelligent technology to match resources and tasks automatically, taking into consideration team member’s skills, availability and time to complete tasks.

Key Features:

• Zoom-in and out for overview of resources by day, week or month
• Financial report 
• Auto Schedule
• 14-day free trial
• Lite plan starts at $29 seat/month, minimum 10 seats

8. Mavenlink by Kantata

Mavenlink by Kantata is a complete solution for resource management that also covers project management, business intelligence and team collaboration. When it comes to resource management, the solution offers real-time utilization and margins at the project and event at the task level.

Mavenlink by Kantata offers a good reporting functionality for resource data, although custom reports can be difficult to create without training. Another downside of the platform is that Proofing feature is available only as add-on. Plus, Mavenlink by Kantata don’t disclosure price in their website, you need to contact them to get a quota. 

Key Features: 

• Resource forecasting
• Capacity management
• Skills management
• Scenario planning
• Role-based planning

9. nTask

nTask is a tool you can use to make sure your company resources are well-taken care of. The application is also team management and project management helps to track and manage on-site and remote teams and their work. 

nTask gives you an overview of how different tasks and processes are been performed by different teams, helping you to spot any opportunities to optimize their daily work routines. 

The application also provides features like time tracking and timesheets to keep track of all of the activities of the employees. The feature is particularly useful when performing salary reviews, you will have all the data needed to make well-informed staffing decisions, which is why it’s on our list of leading resource management tools. 

Key Features:

• Task management and project management
• Team management
• Resource management
• Issue tracking and risk management
• Time tracking and timesheet management
• Kanban boarding and Gantt charting
• A free trial and a free version are available for use, and if you want to purchase the paid subscription with more premium features, you will have to pay $4/month/user

10. Smartsheet

Resource Management by Smartsheet helps to schedule the right candidates for the right projects, manage and track the time spent on projects, as well as assist with predicting hiring needs in real-time.

It has a People view that gives a quick overview of all the personnel in your organization which can be filtered by traits such as discipline, role, language and more, all in one place. There’s a schedule view, where you can see who is available for assignments, who is working on what and who is on vacation.

Under the project menu, you can see future work that is planned and assign talent based on matching roles, skills and availability.

The project view also gives you the ability to look into the scheduled resources for an individual and shows you how progress is moving along, helping to complete projects on time and within budget. 

Key Features:

• Simple resource allocation
• Project planning
• Time tracking
• Pricing starts at $7/user/month for up to 10 users after a 30-day free trial.

Other Solutions for Resource Management

11. Runn

Runn allows users to plan their resources throughout projects in real time. From staff capacity and scheduling to project timelines, everything is done with simple drag-and-drop editing and easy to use interfaces. You can view performance metrics and cost analysis to gain insight on a project’s progress and it has a project forecasting feature for planning ahead. 

It also has a scheduling tool and a time tracker for employees to use that automatically uploads to timesheets which can then be processed directly to your payroll system. Runn has several integrations with other software tools you may already be using like Quickbooks and Slack.

There is a free plan that includes all the features for up to 5 people managed with unlimited projects and it costs $8/user/month for larger teams.

Key Features:

• Resource Scheduling and Project Planning
• Capacity Management with Project Forecasting
• Timesheets and Reporting
• API & Integrations
• Import & Export Data

12. ControlHippo

ControlHippo is a resource management tool with a focus on SaaS that can help you track your portfolio, streamline licenses, manage renewals and ensure compliance. With ControlHippo, you can rationalize your portfolio to identify and eliminate underused, redundant or duplicate apps.

The app helps you to make cost-effective decisions when it comes to which applications to have in your organization’s SaaS toolkit. Manage your subscriptions, negotiate contracts, and eliminate waste with a comprehensive view of your organization’s SaaS Management. 

Key Features:

• Manage all of the SaaS apps in your business ecosystem
• Keep track of all your SaaS licenses and know what kinds of permissions they have
• Easily track your subscriptions and renewals
• Helps to optimally reduce SaaS costs

13. Paymo

Paymo is a resource management tool that helps users stay on top of tasks, track time and bill clients all in one place with a big focus on time management. It has built-in time tracking and invoicing capabilities helping to allocate resources accordingly across your projects. 

Paymo also boasts a ton of familiar features to help keep you organized, like setting task durations and commenting back and forth with other users throughout projects.

Priorities, alerts and task templates are available, and there’s also the ability to toggle between weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly periods to help forecast future resource needs. 

There’s a free plan for personal use with limited features and paid plans start at $4.95/user/month, including unlimited clients, project templates, integrations, live time reports and more. And you can get two free months of service when you pay for the year upfront. 

Key Features:

• Assign multiple users to task sets
• Accessible from the web, desktop, iOS and Android apps
• “Meta Kanban Board” to view all tasks in all the projects on one board
• Employee scheduling and workload

14. eResource Scheduler

eResource Scheduler is a all-in-one resource management software that helps you “make the most of resource management.” The tool allows you to track individual work hours based on scheduled tasks.

eRS provides real-time insights through data analytics tools and dashboards. Available Gantt chart that allows everyone to quickly get an overview of resource utilization and see who is working on which project. The eResource Scheduler will manage your resources and prevent resource over-bookings with a drag-and-drop scheduler.

Real-time solutions provide excellent visibility in areas that require focus due to resource shortages. eRS can also identify available skills within the software system and assist in deploying the right resources for the job. Resource forecasting helps you to streamline your business and increase productivity. eResource Scheduler provides a 14-day free trial for users to experience the software’s benefits and various modules.

Key features:

• Enterprise-wide resource visibility
• Resource utilization tracker
• Reporting and dashboards
• Time-tracking and timesheet

15. Monday.com

Monday.com is a resource management software with robust features. The software lets you easily manage your team’s workload, track progress, and ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget.

Monday.com has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, where you can assign tasks to team members and keep track of their progress.

There’s also the ability to set custom time tracking and it includes reporting features to ensure that everyone on your team is working efficiently and effectively.

Monday.com integrates with a wide range of project management systems, including Slack, Jira, and Trello so you can blend it into your existing workflow and collaborate with team members across different platforms.

With a variety of customizable templates and workflows, you can tailor the platform to meet your needs, whether you’re managing a large-scale project or a small team. Check out some alternatives to Monday.com project management software to find the best platform for your organization.

Key Features:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
• Customizable time tracking and reporting features
• Integration with a wide range of project management systems
• Starts at $8/user/month with a higher tier pricing that unlocks additional features and you can try it for free for 14 days

16. Adobe Workfront

Adobe Workfront is one of the best resource management tools with capabilities that extend beyond just resource allocation and tracking. With a comprehensive set of features, Adobe Workfront can handle complex and large-scale projects efficiently.

Adobe Workfront allows managers to plan resources by taking into account individual skills, workloads, and availability, helping to balance workloads and prevent over-allocation or under-utilization of resources. 

Adobe Workfront integrates with other commonly used tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Drive, and Slack. With Adobe Workfront, you can also manage tasks, projects, and processes in real-time and all in one place.

Adobe Workfront is great for collaboration, giving team members clear visibility of their tasks, deadlines, and the ability to see how their work fits into the larger project context.

Key features:

• Advanced portfolio management capabilities
• Customizable dashboards
• Built-in proofing and review tools
• Security and compliance features, including data encryption and role-based access control
• Scalability and customization options

17. Deskera

Deskera is a cloud-based business management software that helps with finances, operations, human resources and resource management needs. Deskera is affordable and can be a good solution for startups, small and midsize businesses.

The platform is an all-in-one type of solution for invoicing, CRM and payroll, but can also work as a resource management solution. Deskera offers all the basic features a project management software would: you can add and assign tasks, set deadlines and monitor progress in a dashboard.

You can easily manage costs by utilizing color-coding tags and adding details to your project.

Deskera’s graphical representation of your projects lets you visualize and resolve any resource conflict and reallocate resources accordingly.

Deskera offers a free 15-day trial and different packages. Growth (5-20 employees) starts at $1,000. Mid Market (20-50 employees) starts at $2,000. For enterprise prices (more than 50 employees) you’ll need to contact their sales team.

Key features of Deskera: 

• Multi-Currency
• Automated Invoice Generation
• Budgeting
• General Ledger
• Resource Management

Do you have other resource management solutions that you think should be on this list? Comment below and share your favorite resource management software with us!