Planview Alternatives for Consulting Firms by Size, Billing Model and Budget
Most consulting firms on Planview run Changepoint, its professional services product, and they leave for one of two reasons. Either the suite is heavier than a 30 to 200 person firm can administer, or the real problem was never billing at all, it was knowing who is free next quarter. The right replacement depends on which of those you have.
Portfolio Hub is priced per workspace in US dollars, from $24.50 a month billed yearly or $49 monthly. The demo portfolio opens on signup with a capacity plan by role already built.
The best Planview alternative for a consulting firm is a professional services automation (PSA) suite when time, billing and project margin must live in one system, and a focused capacity planning tool when they already live in your accounting stack. For a firm of around 100 people the usual PSA shortlist is Kantata, Certinia (if the firm runs on Salesforce), BigTime and Projectworks. If the pain is staffing the pipeline rather than invoicing it, a capacity plan by role does the job at a fraction of a suite's cost and rollout.
Which Planview product you are actually replacing
Planview is a family of products, several of them acquired. The alternative that makes sense depends on which one is on your invoice, because they solve different jobs.
| Planview product | Where it came from | The job it does at a consulting firm | Compare it against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Changepoint | Acquired with Changepoint in 2021 | Professional services automation: time, billing, contracts, project financials and skills-based staffing for client work | Kantata, Certinia, BigTime, Projectworks |
| Daptiv | Came with Changepoint in the same 2021 deal | Project portfolio management for internal work, resource requests and timesheets | Mid-market PPM tools and capacity planners |
| PPM Pro | Innotas, acquired in 2016 | Mid-market IT portfolio and resource management | Mid-market PPM tools; see our Planview PPM Pro alternatives |
| AdaptiveWork | Clarizen, acquired in 2021 | Configurable project and work management with portfolio views | Our Clarizen alternatives comparison |
| Portfolios | Planview's original flagship | Enterprise portfolio and resource management, rarely bought by firms under several hundred people | Enterprise suites; see Planview alternatives and competitors |
If the line item says Changepoint, you are replacing a PSA and the shortlist below applies in full. If it says Daptiv or PPM Pro, the firm bought a portfolio tool for internal projects, and the honest comparison is usually with a lighter planner.
Why consulting firms outgrow or undergrow Planview
A firm scaling from 30 to 100 people usually reaches Planview through an acquisition, a new COO who used it before, or a PSA that came bundled with a portfolio module. Two years later the same complaints come up: configuration that needs a dedicated administrator, reports that need a consultant to change, and a renewal priced for a larger company.
The opposite case is just as common. A 300 person firm bought a PSA for invoicing, then found that partners still staff engagements from a spreadsheet because nobody trusts the availability view. That firm does not need a different PSA. It needs a capacity plan the partners will actually open on Monday.
Planview alternatives for consulting firms compared
Every row comes from what the vendors publish about themselves. None of them publishes a full price list for every tier, so the table describes the pricing model, which is what you can compare before a sales call.
| Tool | What it is | Best for | Where it beats Planview | Where Planview still wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kantata | PSA formed in 2022 from Mavenlink (now Kantata OX) and Kimble (now Kantata SX, built on Salesforce) | Mid-sized and larger consultancies that want one services platform | Built only for professional services, with resourcing, time and margin in one model | Breadth beyond services work, such as IT portfolio or product pipelines |
| Certinia | Formerly FinancialForce, renamed in May 2023; PSA, services ERP and customer success on Salesforce | Firms whose CRM and sales pipeline already run in Salesforce | Opportunity to project to invoice inside the same Salesforce org | Firms that do not run Salesforce get far less from it |
| BigTime | PSA for small and mid-sized professional services firms | Smaller consulting, accounting, engineering and IT services firms | Lighter rollout, and an official Intuit integration that pushes time, expenses and invoices to QuickBooks | Enterprise resource management and multi-entity scale |
| Projectworks | PSA aimed at consulting and other project-based firms | Project-based firms that bill by the hour and watch utilization weekly | A narrower product with less to configure | Depth of portfolio governance and enterprise reporting |
| Epicflow | Multi-project resource management | Firms whose constraint is a few scarce specialists across many engagements | Load forecasting on shared specialists | Billing and project financials, which Epicflow does not try to cover |
| Portfolio Hub | Portfolio workspace with a twelve month capacity plan by role, scoring and a funding line | Firms that already bill from accounting software and need to staff the pipeline and rank internal initiatives | Published price per workspace and a first capacity plan on the day you load the roles | No time tracking, no invoicing, no live CRM sync |
Two more names to know. Planview itself will offer to move you from one of its products to another, which is a renewal conversation, not an exit. And if resource load across shared specialists is the whole problem, our Epicflow alternatives and Tempus Resource alternatives pages cover that category in depth.
Which alternative fits which consulting firm
Firm size matters less than where the money is tracked and who staffs the work. These four situations cover most of the firms that end up comparing replacements.
A firm of 30 to 100 people on QuickBooks
Time and invoices are the core, and the finance team is two or three people. A lighter PSA such as BigTime or Projectworks is usually the right size, provided the accounting sync is tested on your own chart of accounts during the trial.
A 100 to 500 person firm on Salesforce
Opportunities already live in Salesforce and partners want staffing tied to the deal stage. Certinia and Kantata SX are the natural comparison, because both work inside the same org rather than beside it.
A firm with a separate finance stack
Billing runs in the ERP and works. What is missing is a trustworthy view of who is free and which engagements the bench can take. Buy capacity planning, not another PSA.
A firm with an internal transformation portfolio
Partners also approve internal projects (a new practice, a systems change, an acquisition integration) competing for the same people. Rank those initiatives against the same capacity plan, so client work and internal work stop colliding in the same week.
Four checks to run in every vendor demo
Bring your real role list, three live engagements and the next quarter's pipeline. A scripted demo firm always has clean data and nobody on two engagements at once.
- Staff a won deal. Mark one pipeline opportunity as won and ask the tool to show who can start it in three weeks, by role, and who it takes away from.
- Break the bench. Move a senior consultant onto a second engagement at half time and watch what happens to the first engagement's dates and margin.
- Close a month. Push approved time and expenses to your accounting system and reconcile one invoice without a spreadsheet in between.
- Price the scope you saw. Ask which tier carried every feature in the demo and get that list with the quote, plus the implementation estimate as its own line.
The first two checks decide most consulting purchases and you can run them before any demo. Our resource capacity planning tool builds the twelve month gap by role from your roster and pipeline, and the project prioritization tool ranks internal initiatives against the same capacity. Take that output into each demo and ask the vendor to reproduce it.
What a Planview replacement costs a consulting firm
Planview does not publish prices for Changepoint, and buyers who report Planview deals on the Vendr marketplace put the median contract near $72,000 a year across its products. The alternatives price on different units, so normalize them before comparing.
| Cost line | What to expect | Ask every vendor for |
|---|---|---|
| License unit | PSA suites price per named user, often with a cheaper tier for people who only log time | The price of a time-entry-only user, since that is most of a consulting firm's headcount |
| Implementation | Suites built on Salesforce usually need a partner; lighter PSAs often onboard with vendor staff | A fixed-price implementation line, separate from the license |
| Accounting integration | Native QuickBooks, NetSuite or Intacct connectors vary by vendor and tier | Which tier carries your accounting connector, in writing |
| Data migration | Years of time entries and rate cards are the slowest data to move | How much history they will load, and at what price |
| Renewal | Multi-year terms are common, with an annual uplift | The uplift cap in the first contract |
Our Planview pricing and license cost breakdown lists every buyer-reported Planview figure we could source, product by product.
Where Portfolio Hub fits for a consulting firm
We sell this product, so treat the last column as our view and test it on your own roster. It does not log time and it does not invoice. It answers the staffing and prioritization question that firms often bought Planview to answer and never did.
| Job | Planview Changepoint | A lighter PSA | Portfolio Hub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time entry and invoicing | Yes | Yes | No. Keep them in your PSA or accounting system |
| Capacity by role for the next twelve months | Yes, with configuration | Usually shorter horizons, varies by vendor | Yes. FTE demand against FTE available, month by month |
| Rank internal initiatives | Through the portfolio products | Rarely | Yes. Weighted scoring from 0 to 100 and a funding line |
| Import existing data | Services-led migration | Vendor onboarding | Spreadsheet import, including a Planview export, CSV or XLSX |
| Price | Quoted | Per user, partly published | Published, per workspace, from $24.50 a month billed yearly |
Many firms run a workspace like this beside their accounting system for one planning cycle, then decide whether a full PSA is still worth buying. The whole category, with every shape it sells in, is on our PMO software page.
Questions consulting firms ask about replacing Planview
What is the best Planview alternative for a 100-person consulting firm?
For a firm of about 100 people, the best Planview alternative is usually a professional services automation suite sized for the mid-market: Kantata, Certinia if the firm runs on Salesforce, BigTime or Projectworks. If billing already works in the accounting system and the real problem is staffing the pipeline, a capacity plan by role is the cheaper and faster answer.
Is Planview good for consulting firms?
Planview Changepoint is built for consulting and professional services work, with time, billing, contracts and skills-based staffing in one product, so it can fit well. The common complaints from firms under a few hundred people are the configuration effort, the need for a dedicated administrator and pricing set for larger companies.
Planview vs BigTime, which fits a firm scaling from 30 to 100 employees?
BigTime usually fits a firm growing from 30 to 100 employees better, because it is built for smaller professional services firms, rolls out with less configuration and has an official Intuit integration for QuickBooks. Planview Changepoint makes more sense once the firm needs multi-entity finance, enterprise resource management and a dedicated system administrator.
What does Planview Changepoint do?
Planview Changepoint is a professional services automation product. It covers opportunity and demand forecasting, contracts with several billing methods, project work breakdown, skills-based resource matching, time and expense capture, and project financials such as budgets, margins and revenue. Planview acquired it with Changepoint in 2021.
Is there a Planview alternative for a firm with a 3-person finance team?
Yes. A small finance team is the strongest argument for a lighter PSA that pushes approved time, expenses and invoices into the accounting system you already close the month in, such as QuickBooks. Ask each vendor to reconcile one real invoice in the trial, because that integration is where a three person team feels every gap.
Do consulting firms need PSA software or capacity planning software?
It depends on where the pain is. If invoicing, utilization reporting and project margin are unreliable, you need PSA software. If billing works and partners still staff engagements from a spreadsheet because nobody trusts the availability view, you need capacity planning by role, which costs far less and is live in days rather than months.
Pick the plan that matches the size of the firm
Starter
$24.50/mo
Billed $294 a year, or $49 monthly
- 20 initiatives
- 8 delivery roles
- 5 stage gate packs a month
- Excel and CSV export
Team
$74.50/mo
Billed $894 a year, or $149 monthly
- 100 initiatives
- 40 delivery roles
- 40 stage gate packs a month
- Excel and CSV export
Portfolio Office
$199.50/mo
Billed $2,394 a year, or $399 monthly
- Unlimited initiatives
- Unlimited delivery roles
- Unlimited stage gate packs
- Excel and CSV export
See the bench before the renewal call
Create your account, load your roles and the pipeline, and take a twelve month capacity gap by role into the Planview renewal and every replacement demo. You will know which job you are buying software for.