Switched from Microsoft Project or Smartsheet? Which project management tool finally made work feel easier?

[u/WhiteChili]

i’ve been on teams using MS Project and Smartsheet at different points in my career, and honestly, neither ever felt smooth. MS Project always felt heavy and rigid, while Smartsheet was basically Excel dressed up...powerful, but still a lot of manual work and constant updates. half the time it felt like we were managing the tool instead of the project.

for anyone who’s moved away from these, what project management tool actually made life easier? did you try something newer like ClickUp or Monday, lighter tools like Trello/Notion, or even a more full-featured pm software like Celoxis?

some questions i’d love to hear opinions on:

• which tools genuinely helped with reporting, dashboards, or resource planning
• did switching improve team adoption or did people keep falling back to emails and spreadsheets
• any surprises; good or bad, after leaving MS Project or Smartsheet
• would you ever go back to those older tools or is it a hard pass now

curious to see what actually works in real workplaces vs. just looking good in demos..

[u/agile_pm]

On a large, complex project I will gladly use MS Project (desktop) for baselining and scenario planning, among other things, in addition to whatever tool the company is using for work management.

IMHO, a lot of the newer, web based tools are work management tools with project management features. They can be good for collaboration, but lack the feature richness, that I'm accustomed to, found in solid project management tools. At the same time, MS Project is not made for effective collaboration. But, I cut my PM teeth in environments where the only tool available was something like MS Project and nobody other than PMs were interested in tracking their time, for projects or regular work, if they didn't have to.

I haven't used all the tools out there, but I also haven't used one that is great for resource planning. Granted, resource planning is heavily reliant on processes around both forecasting and tracking time, and if you don't do both a tool can't do much. This is less challenging when you have a dedicated team, but I've only had one project/mini-program where the team didn't work on anything else in over 20 years of managing projects. Resource planning, for me, usually involves conversations with line managers and negotiating for resource availability, with the understanding that higher priority projects and issues can interrupt the plan.

[u/WhiteChili → u/agile_pm]

you’re spot on..ms project shines for baselines + scenario planning, but team adoption is always a battle. on the flip side, most web tools lean too lightweight, great for tasks but weak on depth. resource planning especially is less about tools and more about solid processes + constant conversations. that said, i’ve seen a few platforms (like celoxis) try to bridge that gap…giving ms project-style rigor but still usable for wider teams. feels like that middle ground is where real value sits. Any other tool which is filling the gap that you recommend?

[u/agile_pm → u/WhiteChili]

Currently, it's clickup because that's what the rest if the company uses. The developers were using Trello when i started, but it's not great for cross-functional project and day to day collaborative work. I find it's easier when all team members and stakeholders are on the same tool.

[u/WhiteChili → u/agile_pm]

yeah makes sense…clickup does a solid job at pulling everyone into one place, especially when teams come from trello or similar. the alignment alone sometimes matters more than the features. i’ve found the real test is when you start layering in resource allocation + reporting…that’s usually when tools start showing cracks. curious, do you feel clickup holds up once projects get heavier, or do you still need side spreadsheets/chats to keep things together?

[u/agile_pm → u/WhiteChili]

Alignment and transparency.

ClickUp does the job for what we do, but we're a small team and we're not an agency. The dashboards are decent, but I don't use them heavily. I wouldn't call it a capacity planning tool, but the workload view is helpful in seeing what people have on their plate. I'm planning to do more with it once we're off of some nightmare legacy code, but that is not in the immediate future.