Scoro vs Accelo vs Productive: Which Is Best for You?

Accelo has been acquired. What does this mean for your agency?

According to Accelo’s former CEO*: It was going well for some time, then they made several huge mistakes in hiring key executives. Challenges that came with the pandemic and the economic environment were the final straws in the decision to sell the company.

What does this mean for your agency as a customer? Nobody knows. It’s unclear what exactly the future holds for Accelo.

Now is the best time to consider other options.  One of the top alternatives for agencies is Productive, an all-in-one tool created by industry professionals for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

In this article, we’ll do an in-depth comparison of Scoro vs Accelo vs Productive to help you make an informed decision for your agency’s success.

*The End of Chapter 3: Expert Mode

Scoro is a comprehensive work management software that offers a range of features, including project management, CRM, resource management, budgeting, and invoicing.

Accelo is a collaboration and work management tool that streamlines operations for businesses of all sizes. Some of Accelo’s features include sales support, retainers, project tracking, and billing.

Productive is an all-in-one agency management software tailored to companies of all shapes and sizes. It integrates various features for optimized business performance, including project tracking, team collaboration, financial management, and resource scheduling.

Regarding the similarities between Scoro vs Accelo vs Productive, the key one is that they can all be described as PSA software. Compared to more generalized tools for collaboration and communication, all three are best equipped for supporting agency workflows.

Regarding how each tool approaches this with its feature set, there are some smaller or more pronounced differences. We’ll take a closer look at these by examining each tool in detail, starting with Productive.

Productive is an all-in-one tool for agencies that streamlines project management, team collaboration, and financial reporting. The software offers a range of features aimed at improving productivity, increasing revenue, and simplifying workflows.

Users underline Productive’s comprehensiveness as one of its best features. By integrating various capabilities on one platform, Productive can help you streamline your day-to-day processes, standardize data, as well as reduce your tech stack to optimize costs. 

Additional features include Docs and Automations. Docs help you manage project information in one place, and you can use Automations to streamline repetitive tasks without coding.

Integrations include project accounting tools such as Xero and Quickbooks, HR integrations such as Breathe and BambooHR, and various other tools including Slack, Google Calendar, and Zapier.

Productive also includes a mobile app and a desktop version for Windows and Mac.

Productive offers a combination of features to optimize your agency operations, from financial management and project planning to resource scheduling and sales.

However, despite being a complex platform, Productive is often praised for its intuitive, user-friendly interface, as well as responsive customer support team. This helps streamline the implementation process and ensures your software solution will scale with your agency.

Read the full story: Using Productive, DotDev Has Grown 50% YoY For the Past Three Years

According to recent research, more than half of agencies don’t have integrated platforms that can provide them with real-time insights into their agency’s finances. Accordingly, only 43% track their forecasted revenue, 33% track their project gross margin, and 18% track their project budget burn rate. Consider this as one of the key benefits that a tool like Productive can bring to your professional service business.

You’re used to using various tools, and you want to integrate all of them with your platform. Although Productive does offer a varied set of integrations for project accounting, HR, and communication, it might be limited for certain agency needs. However, consider that one of the main benefits of Productive is reducing the number of apps you use to a single platform.

You can go for a free 14-day free trial before you decide to check out a paid plan.

Scoro is a comprehensive work management solution that provides a range of features, including project management, activity tracking, a customer relationship management feature, and invoicing. The software is designed to help businesses manage their operations more efficiently, boost productivity, and increase revenue.

Like Productive, Scoro is an extensive tool for agency management. It provides everything from collaboration tools, to finance tracking and resource scheduling. Capterra reviews report that Scoro can: “streamline your process from beginning to end, from estimating to managing activities”. 

See more: Top Agency Management Software: Guide to Features & User Reviews

While Scoro can be a great solution, this doesn’t mean it’s without flaws. Some of the most notable downsides include a less-than-user-friendly process for some key features. This includes project and task hierarchies, which can be more confusing to set up than with comparable tools:

Source: Capterra

Additionally, multiple users mention issues with notifications being easy to miss and unintuitive to set up at times. Finally, some users mention that Scoro’s starting price point makes it mostly inaccessible to SMEs and that it might include inadequate features for agency support.

For these reasons, you might want to consider some Scoro alternatives.

Accelo is a client work management platform meant to help streamline and automate business operations. It offers features such as project management, time tracking, invoicing, status tracking, and more. 

Users underline that one of Accelo’s best features is its collaborative workspace with communication tools for streamlined workflows. As with Productive and Scoro, Accelo combines useful features for agency workflows that promote alignment between multiple departments and support improved business outcomes.

There are two frequently mentioned downsides of Accelo: the design of the user interface and the customizability of the tool.

When it comes to the first point, users mention that getting used to Accelo can be a daunting task. This is mostly due to the tool’s complexity, but also its specific terminology that isn’t intuitive to all users. Additionally, a review mentions that the presentation of the tool is modern in some ways, but also shows Accelo’s age in others:

Source: G2

Regarding customization and personalization, some users comment that the platform lacks “wiggle room” for specific projects.

While agencies with complex and unusual projects might certainly see this as a downside, consider that more structured solutions can be beneficial for standardizing your processes. They can also enable easier set-up and team adoption.

See more: 15 Top Accelo Alternatives & Competitors for Agencies

Scoro, Accelo and Productive all share key project management features.

These include:

However, multiple reviews mention difficulties with the way Scoro’s hierarchies are managed, as well as some additional issues with notifications and the Gantt chart feature. When it comes to time tracking, all three tools provide multiple ways of managing entries and streamlining this process for employees and managers.

Productive offers a notable feature in time off management, allowing employees to schedule their leave — managers can determine agency-specific categories of leave and approve requests through the platform.

You can also create, manage, and share documentation with Productive’s Docs. Taking this into consideration, it’s a close race with Productive at the forefront. 

When it comes to resource planning, all three tools provide features for managing your capacity. With Scoro, you can get a capacity overview that is based on planned activities to gauge your team’s availability. With both Accelo and Scoro, you can get utilization insights based on time-tracking data. In Accelo, you can also use the Gantt chart for high-level planning.

When it comes to Productive, resource planning is one of its core capabilities. It provides powerful features such as profit, revenue, and utilization forecasting. It also has great additional features such as tentative bookings for scenario planning and placeholders for external staff.

Additionally, Productive helps you get the real picture of your agency’s resources thanks to its integrated leave management. Due to all of this, our vote for resource planning goes to Productive.

Find out more about managing your utilization rate with Productive:

With Scoro, Accelo, and Productive, you can manage your retainers and project financial management in one platform. All three tools simplify retainer management, provide key agency insights such as revenue and profitability across projects, and help you track expenses with purchase orders.

When it comes to billing features, all three tools help you create brand-friendly invoices and set up reminders for payments. You can also view your payments and unpaid invoices to ensure nothing slips through the cracks. However, Scoro and Accelo offer more extensive integrations, such as payment gateways like Stripe. 

Therefore, when it comes to specialized project accounting features, Scoro and Accelo take the lead. For managing your budgets and integrating this process into project and resource planning, Productive is your best pick.

See more: Project Budget Management 101: Manage Your Finances Successfully 

Integrations are important because they allow you to connect your agency management software to other tools you use, such as your email marketing software, project management tool, and more.

Due to this, the integrations category is a tie between Scoro and Accelo.

After evaluating the core features of each software, it’s clear that each tool has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Both Scoro and Accelo are comprehensive tools, but they are also pricey when comparing them to similar solutions on the market. On the other hand, Productive is a great option for smaller and mid-sized businesses that want to manage a suite of agency processes in one platform, but it might not be able to integrate your entire tech stack.

In the end, it all depends on your agency’s specific needs and what you think would work best for your teams.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one business management solution, consider booking a demo with Productive.

You can also read about other Productive competitors and their pros and cons.