Top 10 Mavenlink Alternatives (Paid & Free) – 2026 Guide

The best Kantata (former Mavenlink) alternatives in 2026 are Productive, ProWorkFlow, Hub Planner, Hive, Accelo, nTask, Asana, Smartsheet, Jira and Bitrix24.

If your main goal is project management with budgets and utilization, start with Productive. Below is out top 10 list with best for descriptions, jumplinks and free versions remarks.

Productive is an all-in-one platform for agencies and professional services teams.

It supports project management across clients, retainers, and internal work.

It brings project planning, timesheets, resourcing, budgeting, billing, and reporting into one workflow. That makes it easier to see delivery progress and financial impact in the same place.

One key difference is reporting speed. Mavenlink users mention it can take “30-40min to refresh data” (Capterra). In Productive, dashboards refresh as new data comes in.

Productive also supports financial forecasting based on your resource schedule. This helps you plan future revenue and profit margins before capacity becomes a bottleneck.

Productive’s Project Management solutions help you monitor delivery across clients and internal work. You can review status from one dashboard and drill into task-level details when something slips.

You can sort through various project views, including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, Workload, List, and more.

Set up customizable workflows so tasks move through clear stages. Teams and clients can use comments, share files, and follow progress updates. You can also automate routine steps with custom automations.

Use Docs to keep briefs, meeting notes, and decisions next to the work.

Time Tracking in Productive is built for fast entry. Use the built-in task timer with a desktop widget, or fill out timesheets manually when that suits your team.

It is a good fit if you need time tracking across projects and retainers.

Budget owners can review and approve time entries one by one or in bulk. You can also lock timesheets after a cutoff date to protect billing data.

With the Resource Planning feature, you can see who has capacity and who is at risk of burnout. This makes it easier to balance work across roles and keep delivery realistic.

With Forecasting, you can use scheduled work to forecast budget burn, revenue, and profit margins.

With Time Off Management, employees can request time off and managers can approve it. Approved time off is reflected in your resource plan.

Productive also supports HRIS connections, including BambooHR, Breathe, and Personio.

Sales tracking with an integrated deal pipeline and win loss analysis
Productive’s Sales CRM offers customizable sales pipelines, so you can manage deals through tailored stages.

With Billing, you can turn approved time and expenses into invoices. Productive also includes Xero and QuickBooks integrations.

With Reporting, you can build dashboards from widgets and share them with stakeholders. Start from templates or create custom views.

You can also schedule Pulse updates to email or Slack.

Additional features: Client Portal, Productive AI, Revenue Recognition, Purchase Orders, Permission Builder

Productive connects with tools across accounting, HR, and collaboration.

Integrations include Slack, Google Calendar, and Outlook; Xero and QuickBooks; BambooHR, Breathe, and Personio; Jira and Memtime; and more.

You can see examples in customer stories, including how ZenDev agency increased project visibility with Productive.

You can start with a free 14-day trial before you decide on a paid plan.

ProWorkFlow is a cloud-based project management software that offers features like project management, time tracking, and team collaboration.

Choose ProWorkFlow if you want basic project management plus timesheets and invoices in one place. Reviewers often mention helpful customer support and an interface that is easy to learn. The common tradeoff is lighter financial visibility than a platform built around budgets and margins.

We also covered ProWorkFlow in our guide to the best WorkflowMax alternatives, so check out that article to learn more.

Hub Planner is a solid Mavenlink competitor that focuses on scheduling and capacity planning. It helps you spot conflicts early and balance workloads across people and teams.

Choose Hub Planner if resourcing is the main problem you are trying to solve and you already use another tool for day-to-day delivery. Reviewers often mention the interface is easy to navigate and the scheduling views are clear.

The tradeoff is that you may still need budget tracking and billing workflows elsewhere.

Hive is a work management tool built around tasks, messages, and shared notes. It’s one of the more popular task tracking and planning alternatives to Mavenlink.

Choose Hive if you want an easy task hub that your team will adopt quickly, free version available. Reviewers often mention the built-in messaging and notes. The common downside is that complex delivery workflows and deeper financial controls usually require other tools.

nTask is a low-cost task tracker with basic timesheets and templates. It is usually a better fit for small teams than for larger services firms with complex resourcing.

Choose nTask if you need simple task tracking with basic time logs and invoices at a lower price point. Reviewers often mention the interface is easy to use. A common complaint is inconsistent customer support.

Accelo is a professional services automation (PSA) platform that combines projects, tickets, sales, and client management.

Choose Accelo if you want a broad PSA suite and you are ready for a more involved setup. Reviewers often mention it can cover many workflows in one place. A common downside is complexity, especially when you try to tailor it to your processes.

Read our guide to the top Accelo alternatives or our Accelo vs Scoro comparison to learn more.

Asana is a popular project management platform for tasks, approvals, and cross-team visibility.

Choose Asana if you manage most work as tasks and rely on integrations to connect the rest. Users like the flexibility and customization options. The dealbreaker for many services teams is that budgeting and billing are not built in, so Asana alternatives like Productive are a better all-in-one choice.

Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-style work platform that suits teams who plan in grids and need automation. It’s one of the more common alternatives to Kantata.

Choose Smartsheet if your team prefers spreadsheet-like planning and you need flexible automation. Customers like the integrations and customization options. The tradeoff is a steeper learning curve, especially for teams that are new to tools like this.

Jira is an issue tracking tool used for backlogs, sprints, and bug triage.

Choose Jira if you run agile delivery and want tight integration with developer tools. Customers like the powerful customization options. Common complaints include complexity and a learning curve for non-technical users.

Bitrix24 is a social intranet and collaboration tool that offers a wide range of features like task management, team collaboration, and communication. . It combines CRM, chat, and project features.

Choose Bitrix24 if you want CRM-style workflows and internal communication in the same system. Customers like that it covers many needs in one place. The tradeoff is a busier interface that can feel confusing during onboarding.

You can also check out our article on Bitrix24 alternatives to learn more.

On G2, reviewers often highlight Kantata’s ability to centralize project tracking, resource planning, and financial visibility, supported by reporting that helps teams stay on top of utilization and forecasts.

Teams still consider alternatives when the interface feels complex at first, reporting is hard to tailor, or resourcing workflows slow down as the dataset grows. For smaller teams, pricing and the effort to configure things like rate cards can also be a factor.

Start by mapping your project management workflows.

Then map your time tracking, resourcing, budget tracking, billing, and reporting needs.

Shortlist tools based on what you actually need:

Then sanity check recent reviews and the G2 rating for the workflows you care about most. A free trial can still help, but only after you confirm the tool covers your must-have workflows.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform for delivery and financial visibility, you can book a short demo call with Productive.