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!
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.
Consider these few steps and factors before using roadmap software:
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Quite a few of the best roadmap software tools on this list offer a free version. Namely:
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!).
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:
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!
