What is a Product Roadmap?
Product roadmaps are carefully designed plans depicting how a certain product will be finished by reaching a series of objectives. It's a great way to organize the objectives and it reveals the overall progress.
Today, every project manager needs a roadmap, usually to show the team where they stand at the moment. However, not all tools are created as effectively, so it's best to find the one for your team and business.
1. GanttPRO
Pricing:
- Individual: $15/month/user.
- Team 15: $5.90/month/user.
- Team 10: $6.90/month/user.
- Team 5: $7.90/month/user.
Free 14-day trial is included, with all the features available.
GanttPRO is a top project management software that offers efficient team management solutions for companies and startups.
Based on Gantt charts, it's quick to learn and is praised for the great user interface. It is widely used in many industries, including construction companies, marketing and creative agencies, event planning, manufacturing, software development, etc. There are multiple free-to-use templates available, including a product roadmap for immediate use.
On the downside, there aren't many app integrations available and no mobile apps.
Still, their roadmap template allows project managers to start creating tasks and milestones straight away, without interruptions. As for sharing, anyone can be given the link to view the document, review changes history, and track every member's current progress. Baselines are also available to create so that managers can compare past and present task completion and gain insights on which member has task difficulties so far.
2. Aha!
Pricing:
- Startup: Huge discount for 5 users.
- Premium: $59/user/month.
- Enterprise: $99/owner/month.
- Enterprise+: $149/owner/year.
Free 30-day trial is included, with the majority of features available.
An original product of two Silicon Valley veterans, Aha! was made to organize project management using product roadmaps, Kanban tools, Gantt charts, and over 30 app integrations.
You can choose from six different roadmapping templates incorporated with Aha's unique data model. Start with a simple roadmap, input tasks and other elements, and customize it to your liking.
What's so positive (and negative) about it is the flexibility with workflow patterns. Users have complete creative freedom to do as they see it. However, it takes time to try out all the features and use the right ones.
Once you master Aha!, you can create the perfect product roadmap and even share it as a PDF document, image, or even a complete web page. It's a great tool to keep everyone updated, including those paying for product development.
3. Proofhub
Pricing:
- Essential: $45/month/unlimited users.
- Ultimate control: $89/month/unlimited users.
Free 30-day trial is included, with all features available.
How is ProofHub different from the rest? In short, it's an all-in-one project management software for remote teams, with an amazing set of features to choose from.
The list of features is long, while the most important ones consist of “drag-and-drop” files, project overview, improved mobile experience, discussions, task management, Kanban and Gantt roadmaps, and role management.
There are still many things to be improved, and users experience various setbacks such as wasting too much time on Gantt charts or app integration being limited to only 8 apps. However, they constantly try to improve its features and in time, it will be acknowledged as a great project management tool for companies of all sizes.
Due to its simplified UI, ProofHub is good for beginners and project managers willing to learn how to create roadmaps at a slower pace.
4. ProductPlan
Pricing:
- Business: $49/month/editor.
Free 14-day trial is included. Larger plans are available per request.
Officially released back in 2013, ProductPlan has improved a lot since then. The company offers a highly visual roadmap software that is also focused on team communication.
Main features include roadmaps creation, task prioritization, milestone tracking, and drag & drop options. While they based roadmaps on the effective Gantt charts, there are other unique features to choose from such as project monitoring, diagrams, and task labeling.
However, it might not be the best solution for startups, since plans begin at $49 per month, and there are much more affordable options, such as GanttPRO.
Even beginners can create roadmaps without much effort, thanks to the user-friendly interface. Overall, it's a simple and easy tool to use for product roadmaps, although pricing might be an issue, at least for smaller companies.
5. Roadmunk
Pricing:
- Starter: $19/month.
- Business: $49/month.
- Professional: $99/month.
- Enterprise: contact sales.
All three plans have a free 14-day trial.
Roadmunk is a roadmap software for visualizing projects, deadlines, and milestones.
What makes Roadmunk different from the rest is that users are allowed to choose between timeline and swimlane viewing, as well as master roadmapping. As for planning, it's easily integrated with Jira, with many drag-and-drop options available, such as importing CSV files directly in the roadmap.
While it's very organized and abundant in options, some of its cons include a somewhat slow performance at times, lack of ability to create image files, and is limited to making presentations for clients.
Nevertheless, it's a great tool overall, as it's easy and flexible to use, and it can be shown anywhere and shared with anyone without performing complex steps.
6. Hygger
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month.
- Standard: $7/month/user.
- Enterprise: $14/month/user.
All paid plans have a trial period included.
This Agile-based software lets users create, fill, and share product roadmaps for any project. In case you're short on time, there are several unique templates for various roadmaps.
Some of its cons include using either Scrum or Kanban boards to visualize work, then import tasks right in your roadmap. Finally, users can easily share completed roadmaps with clients and customers.
However, users complain about the lack of design, native Mac client, and the inability to create bulk actions, among the rest. Also, many users have eye-related illnesses, thus a dark theme would be part of the solution.
To summarize, Hygger might be lacking a few options, but it is exceptionally good when it comes to creating product roadmaps and the user interface has simple design and is rather easy to use. It's highly recommended by project managers worldwide.
7. Hive
Pricing:
- Standard: $12/month/user.
- Workspace Add-Ons: Start at $3/month/user.
All plans have a free 14-day trial included. After the free trial, plans begin at $12/month per user.
Hive is all about "fast". This top project management tool allows users to create action cards for each member, sort out tasks, and send forms to external members for valuable feedback.
Project managers can choose between boards, charts, and roadmaps and customize layouts with ease. More importantly, they can select pre-made templates that best suit the purpose. It's praised for its user-friendly interface and the instant visibility of the overall team progress.
While the desktop version works wonders for remote teams, Hive's mobile app still needs to be developed before it can reach its full potential. Furthermore, clients are always interested in detailed budgets, which is why the company should focus on developing more financial insights.
Still, they have a product roadmap template that is perfect to use until the very official launch of that product. It can be viewed either as a table, Kanban board, or a Gantt chart. Every team will select the option that is most appropriate to their line of work.
Conclusion
To summarize, this is probably an optimal list of the best roadmap tools available nowadays.
Which one will you choose, or do you already have a favourite?
Remember, if you're having difficulties with organizing and delegating tasks, deadlines, and showing your clients what has been done so far, one of these apps is a must.
By comparing all of them, which one you think would suit you the most?
I'd appreciate hearing your opinion in the comments.