Think about the lifecycle of your projects or products. You go through multiple phases – brainstorming and conception, infrastructure, security, approvals and edits, testing phases—the list goes on. New projects also consider a learning curve, where you might flow back and forth between different stages.
How do you track these developments while setting deadlines that align with deliverables? Enter roadmap software tool: bringing the life cycle of your project from white boards and notebooks to an interactive platform. Seeing it laid out on a user-friendly interface makes maintaining time-tracking and other developments easier.
Think about the lifecycle of your projects or products. You go through multiple phases – brainstorming and conception, infrastructure, security, approvals and edits, testing phases—the list goes on. New projects also consider a learning curve, where you might flow back and forth between different stages.
The end goal? A completed project or product done efficiently, on time, and with a lot less stress.
So, what are the best roadmap software tools for your business? Read on to learn about different types of roadmap software, how to use it, and pick the one best for your unique needs!
What is a roadmap software tool?
A roadmap software tool keeps you and your team on track with completing a project or delivering a product. The best roadmap software tool are interactive and integrative, equipped with various project management features and easy collaboration and time-tracking capabilities.
Roadmap software shows you a bird’s eye view of your product life cycle, helping you catch inefficiencies or backlogs as you go through all the tasks needed for completion.
Product roadmap guide example.
Bottom line? The best roadmap software tools make it easy to track, plan, and map out a product strategy to propel your business goals forward.
How to use roadmap software platforms
Consider these few steps and factors before using roadmap software:
- Define your strategy: What is the end goal of your product roadmap? With a clear, defined goal, you and your team can ensure that the process aligns with your plan.
- Prioritize: Goals, features, steps, everything – your roadmap should clearly indicate what’s important and what’s less urgent. Setting deadlines and using prioritization features and color-coding are great ways to prioritize.
- Experiment with templates: The best roadmap software tools offer you options in how to view your roadmap. Try out different templates and decide which is most user-friendly and intuitive for your product.
- Make it flexible: Business goals and scenarios change all the time. Your roadmap should be flexible enough to adapt to changes as they come.
Best Roadmap Software Tools
Almanac
Almanac builds knowledge management systems from the ground up with ease. Remote or distributed teams have access to easy collaboration on projects and documents with real-time editing, notifications, and so much more. Similar to but with more features than Google Drive, Almanac keeps documents available with cloud storage.
But Almanac is dynamic in its business efficiency offerings, including roadmap software. Product roadmaps help businesses identify goals and map out product delivery and the issues they solve.
Almanac offers great online roadmap templates. One of these templates, coda.io is a great high-level roadmap view. It displays the roadmap as a visual timeline, documenting strategic descriptions for every goal in each stage. Customizable score points describe how much effort (hours and work) goes into each stage before completion.
Their Airtable template adds a lot of detail and is better suited for specific product goals. You can easily identify goals, requirements, and to-dos with this template, and even view your entire roadmap on one page as a summary.
Almanac is rich in features and integration and was designed with the idea of replacing some other common applications that, while familiar, do not offer the comprehensive async collaboration abilities of Almanac. Built-in version control, as well as the ability to request review and feedback, make finishing tasks a breeze.
Features:
- 2 customizable roadmap templates
- Analytics to gain insight into the current state of your projects
- Custom, enterprise-level reports
- Instant messaging and push notifications
- Email and social media integration
- Easy collaboration
Pros:
- Groups share documents with multiple people while controlling permission levels
- Great permission functions
- User-friendly, drag-and-drop functionalities
- Backlog of features to meet business objectives
- Customizable fonts and colors
- Fast and easy to use
Cons:
- Almanac is still in its early years so has new developments regularly
Wrike
Wrike stands apart with its customizable Gantt chart roadmap templates. It’s especially great for remote teams, with unique permissions and collaboration features to enable real-time and secure viewing.
Teams also love Wrike’s productivity boost seen by customizable workflows and personalized dashboards.
Features:
- Resource management insights
- Project workflows
- Instant messaging
- Push notifications
- Rich analytics and reporting
Pros:
- 400+ integrations to link with other business tools
- Easy visual prioritization functionalities to stay on track
- Real-time collaboration to promote teamwork
- Easy automation to boost productivity
Cons:
- Overwhelming interface
- Limited visual customization features
- Limited prioritization
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Professional: $9.80
- Business: $24.80
- Enterprise-level: Custom pricing
airfocus
airfocus is a great option for high-level project views and teams that value a quick roadmap creation. To boost efficiency, you can easily integrate airfocus with other project management tools like Trello.
Customer reviews cite satisfaction with the platform’s easy drag-and-drop interface but say that its limited scoring leaves more to be desired.
Features:
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Integrations with Github, Trello, and more
- Multiple template views with customization, including Kanban Board and Gantt Charts
- Multidimensional charts
Pros:
- Priority Poker - Prioritization features with multidimensional charts
- Easy, real-time collaboration
- 24/7 customer support
- Quickest roadmap creation
Cons:
- Limited scoring with criteria
- No option to vote on comments or tasks
Pricing:
- Starter: $24/month
- Team: $39/month
- Pro: $79/month
- Enterprise-level: Custom
Roadmap Planner
Roadmap Planner is one of the best roadmap software tools with Gantt Chart template views. Businesses especially love its user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface and its easy permissions and assignment functionalities. However, some reviewers find the platform’s synchronization features unstable.
Features:
- Resource management
- Real-time collaboration
- Push notifications
- Task management functionalities
- Easy integration
- Data synchronization
Pros:
- Easily identify backlogs to improve efficiency
- Predefined templates for extra customization
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Drag-and-drop interface
Cons:
- Steeper learning curve
- Inconsistent synchronization
- Continuously has new versions that you must update to
- Lacks some standard tools you see on other roadmap software
Pricing:
- 1-29 team members: $7.99
- Over 30 team members: Custom pricing
Trello
Founded in 2014, Trello is a popular project management platform with product roadmapping views to reach your business goals. Its unique roadmap software offers organization and prioritization functionalities through story cards.
Customers also love its easy checklist feature, though the platform’s dependence on internet connection might sometimes make data access difficult.
Features:
- User feedback organization with quick reference cards
- Real-time collaboration
- Timeline, Kanban, Calendar, Table, and other views
- Custom card and board buttons that perform series of actions
- Intelligent automation tips
Pros:
- Easy prioritization for feature requests
- Story points make planning seamless
- App integrations with Twitter, Zendesk, Intercom, and more
Cons:
- Lack of rich reporting
- Data access dependencies on the Internet
- Some features add additional costs
- Best for larger enterprises
- Slightly outdated UI
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month
- Standard: $5 per user, per month
- Premium: $10 per user, per month
- Enterprise-Level: $17.50 per user per month.
Roadmunk
Roadmunk is an adaptable roadmap software tool with robust commenting and collaboration features and easy prioritization functionalities. The platform offers 12 different, customizable roadmaps to meet various business needs.
Features:
- Real-time editing and collaboration
- Task tracking
- Milestone visualization
- Time organization
Pros:
- 12 customizable templates, including agile, portfolio, and product
- Simple, user-friendly interface
- Multiple features and views
- Flexible data tagging
Cons:
- Lacking color customization
- No tracking changes or comments
- Basic design
Pricing:
- Starter: $19
- Business: $49
- Professional: $99
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Product Plan
Product Plan offers unlimited roadmaps and viewers in every one of their plans, including their most basic package. The platform values security, as seen by its SOC 2 certification.
Many customers cite satisfaction with the platform’s support in solving business issues with a comprehensively detailed roadmap for their products.
Features:
- Seamless collaboration with @ mentions and comments
- Private links for security
- Import functionalities
- Unlimited viewers
Pros:
- Appealing graphics
- User-friendly interface
- Easy stakeholder updates
- Customizable tasks and views
- Free trial version
Cons:
- Limited sharing options
- Somewhat limited features compared to other roadmap tools
- Lack of customizable views
Pricing:
- Basic: $39/editor/month
- Professional: $69/editor/month
- Enterprise-level: Custom pricing
Aha!
Aha! Is one of the top roadmap software tools for customer feedback and user stories. Its easy drag-and-drop features and six templates make it easy to customize initiatives and goals for your business.
Some customers find the learning curve steep, needing a few months to get the hang of the platform.
Features:
- Customer feedback and user stories
- Easy sharing via PDF or web links
- Customizable roadmap details
Pros:
- User-friendly drag-and-drop interface
- Quick roadmap creation
Cons:
- Lack of features and enhancements
- Outdated UI
- Less intuitive, creating a higher learning curve
Pricing:
- Startup: Custom
- Premium: $59/user/month
- Enterprise-level:$99/user/month
- Enterprise-level+: $149/user/month
Product Board
Product Board offers customizable roadmaps based on customer feedback and stakeholder insights. Customers love Product Board’s customer centralization and easy prioritization with easy sorting and ranking features.
Features:
- Agile release plans
- Time-line based roadmap views
- Date-based milestones
- Integrations with other project management tools
Pros:
- Easy, flexible organization by team, theme, and organization
- Live, cross-team collaboration
- Great customer feedback management
Cons:
- Lack of scoring functionalities
- Expensive compared to other roadmap software tools
Pricing:
- Essential: $25/month
- Pro: $60/month
- Scale: $120/month
Monday.com
Monday.com offers easy activity tracking to help you stay on track with every stage of your roadmap. The platform has a user-friendly interface and offers the option to use a Gantt chart view and other customizable templates.
Features:
- Setting deadlines
- Easy milestone reporting
- Prioritization categories of tasks
- File uploads
- Progress monitoring
Pros:
- 5 customizable templates
- Workflow automation to improve productivity
- Instant messaging and notifications to keep you on track
Cons:
- Limited reporting
- The app version has some bugs
- Higher learning curve
- Lacking in some granularity and tracking abilities
Pricing:
- Individual: $0 (free!)
- Basic: $24/month
- Standard: $30/month
- Pro: $48/month
- Enterprise-level: Custom
Craft.io
Craft.io offers multiple roadmap views and the option to see KPIs and progress. The platform also provides a unique collaboration section where you can update and communicate with team members. Unfortunately, many reviewers cite frequent bug issues with the platform.
Features:
- Helpful @ mentions
- Notifications
- Drag-and-drop platform
- Time-tracking functionalities
- Rich reporting and analytics
- Stakeholder customizable roadmap views
Pros:
- Two-way sync integration
- Clean, user-friendly interface
Cons:
- Frequent bugs
- JIRA integration can be challenging
- Higher learning curve at the start
Pricing:
- Essential: $39/month
- Pro: $89/month
- Enterprise-level: Custom pricing
Best free roadmap software tool?
Quite a few of the best roadmap software tools on this list offer a free version. Namely:
- Almanac
- Monday.com
- Wrike
- Trello
However, free versions are usually limited for big projects and large teams. For best results, you might consider a basic paid option that’s still affordable. For example, Almanac pricing includes a free version, but you get way more bang for your buck with the affordable Pro version (only $12/month!).
How to create a product roadmap
The best roadmap software tools make building a roadmap seamless and simple. But before you get started, you should have a general structure in place. Follow these simple steps to create a product roadmap:
- Prep, prep, and prep: A roadmap won’t solve your business issues if you don’t have a clear direction and documented ideas, no matter how many functionalities the software has.
- Define goals: Decide what you want your roadmap to solve. Do you want it to increase engagement? Reduce financial debts? Acquire more customers? Think about these goals so that you make the best use of the best roadmap software tool features.
- Decide on features and collaborators: Assess which features you’ll need for your specific roadmap. Assign tasks and ensure every collaborator has access to the roadmap.
- Build releases upon each other: Use your roadmap to tell a dynamic story about your product. Try to build each release upon the previous, showing a coherent timeline towards your end goal.
- Review regularly: Most businesses experience some change, especially in agile environments. Ensure you regularly update and adjust your roadmap accordingly, ideally every month or every quarter.
Conclusion: what is the best roadmap software tool?
The best roadmap software tool should be flexible enough to change with your dynamic business needs. Some essential qualifications should be affordability, roadmap customization, collaboration functionalities, and integrations with other business tools that you already use.
Our advice? Try out free trials to see which tool fits best. Almanac offers a self-guided demo to help you get a feel for its features before you invest.
Ready to tackle all of your business issues, one roadmap at a time? Contact us today for a consultation and let Almanac help you reach your business goals!
