Choosing the right project management tool for engineering, R&D, and professional services teams isn't straightforward. Most popular solutions are designed for general business use—and force all departments into a single shared workspace. But what if you need multi-site resource coordination, departmental isolation, overlapping project phases, and percentage-based staff allocation?
In this guide, we compare Milestone with the most popular project management tools on the market: Microsoft Project, Asana, Monday.com, Wrike, Smartsheet, and Primavera P6. We'll focus on the features that matter most to organizations with complex project planning needs.
Quick Comparison Overview
| Feature | Milestone | MS Project | Asana | Monday.com | Wrike | Smartsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Gantt Charts | ✓ | ✓ | Premium | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drag & Drop with Live Updates | ✓ | Limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-Site Resource Management | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Limited | ✗ |
| Cross-Site Visibility Controls | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Percentage-Based Allocation | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | Add-on | Limited | Manual |
| Equipment Scheduling | ✓ | Workaround | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Manual |
| Skill-Based Resource Filtering | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Limited | ✗ |
| What-If Scenario Planning | ✓ | Complex | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Real-Time Collaboration | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Columns (Site/Global) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Auto Bank Holiday Calendars | ✓ | Manual | ✗ | ✗ | Manual | ✗ |
| Vacation → Outlook Export | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| MS Project Import/Export | ✓ | Native | ✗ | Import only | ✓ | ✓ |
| All 4 Dependency Types | ✓ | ✓ | FS only | FS only | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-Hosted Option | ✓ Native | Server | Cloud only | Cloud only | Cloud only | Cloud only |
| Multi-Tenant Workspaces | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Limited | ✗ |
| Modern Web Interface | ✓ | Desktop | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Detailed Comparisons
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project has been the industry standard for decades, offering powerful scheduling and resource management capabilities. However, it was designed in an era before cloud collaboration and multi-site operations became the norm.
Strengths
- Comprehensive scheduling features
- Deep resource management
- Industry standard file format
- Powerful reporting
Limitations for R&D Teams
- Desktop-first, dated interface
- No native multi-site support
- Complex setup for resource pooling
- No built-in What-If sandbox mode
- Steep learning curve
Milestone advantage: Full .mpp file compatibility with a modern web interface, purpose-built multi-site resource management, and intuitive drag-and-drop interactions with live updates.
Asana
Asana excels at task management and team collaboration, making it popular among marketing and software teams. Its clean interface and ease of use have earned it millions of users worldwide.
Strengths
- Excellent user experience
- Strong collaboration features
- Multiple project views
- Great for agile workflows
Limitations for R&D Teams
- Gantt charts only in Premium tier
- No percentage-based allocation
- Only Finish-to-Start dependencies
- No equipment scheduling
- Not designed for resource capacity
Milestone advantage: Built specifically for capacity planning with percentage-based allocation, all four dependency types, equipment scheduling, and skill-based resource filtering.
Monday.com
Monday.com offers a highly visual and customizable work operating system. Its flexibility makes it adaptable to many use cases, but this generalist approach means specialized features are often missing.
Strengths
- Highly customizable boards
- Visual and intuitive
- Good automation features
- Many integrations
Limitations for R&D Teams
- Resource management requires add-ons
- Only basic dependencies
- No multi-site visibility controls
- No native capacity planning
- Can become expensive at scale
Milestone advantage: Native capacity planning without add-ons, cross-site confidentiality controls, and purpose-built features for complex R&D workflows.
Wrike
Wrike positions itself as an enterprise work management platform with strong project management features. It offers more depth than Asana or Monday.com but can be complex to configure.
Strengths
- Robust Gantt charts
- All four dependency types
- Good reporting capabilities
- Workload management
Limitations for R&D Teams
- No true multi-site architecture
- Limited skill-based filtering
- No equipment scheduling
- Complex setup for cross-team visibility
- Resource features in higher tiers
Milestone advantage: Multi-site architecture from the ground up, equipment scheduling alongside staff, and What-If scenario planning for risk-free experimentation.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet combines the familiarity of spreadsheets with project management features. It's popular among teams transitioning from Excel-based planning.
Strengths
- Spreadsheet-like interface
- Easy Excel transition
- Flexible data structures
- Good automation
Limitations for R&D Teams
- Resource management is manual
- No skill-based capacity planning
- No automatic holiday calendars
- Multi-site requires workarounds
- Equipment tracking is DIY
Milestone advantage: Automated capacity calculations, automatic bank holiday retrieval by location, and integrated equipment scheduling without manual workarounds.
Primavera P6
Oracle's Primavera P6 is the heavy-duty option for large-scale construction and engineering projects. It's incredibly powerful but comes with significant complexity.
Strengths
- Enterprise-grade scheduling
- Advanced resource leveling
- Multi-project portfolios
- Industry standard for construction
Limitations for R&D Teams
- Overkill for most R&D projects
- Very steep learning curve
- Complex administration
- Dated user interface
- Requires dedicated specialists
Milestone advantage: Right-sized complexity for R&D and engineering teams, modern web interface anyone can use, and quick time-to-value without specialist training.
Key Differentiators: Why Milestone?
Built for Engineering, R&D & Professional Services
- Multi-tenant workspaces — Give each department (Engineering, R&D, Sales, Marketing, IT) their own isolated environment. One installation, complete separation. This is a key differentiator not available in most competing tools.
- True multi-site architecture — Manage resources across locations with intelligent visibility controls. See capacity without exposing confidential project details between teams.
- Intuitive drag-and-drop with live updates — Modern web interface that responds instantly. No page refreshes, no waiting—changes appear in real-time.
- Percentage-based allocation — Assign staff at 40% to Project A, 60% to Project B. See immediately when someone is overallocated. No more spreadsheet gymnastics.
- Skill-based resource planning — Filter and find staff by competencies. Know who has the right expertise for each task across your entire organization.
- Equipment scheduling — Book labs, equipment, and shared resources alongside staff. Prevent double-booking automatically.
- What-If scenario planning — Test schedule changes in a sandbox without affecting live data. Experiment freely, then apply or discard with one click.
- Automatic bank holiday calendars — Holidays are retrieved automatically based on each site's location. No manual calendar maintenance.
- One-click vacation export — Staff can schedule time off and export directly to Outlook. Vacations automatically factor into capacity calculations.
- Custom columns per site or globally — Add spreadsheet-like metadata that makes sense for your workflows. Site-specific or shared across the organization.
- Full MS Project compatibility — Import .mpp files, export in compatible formats. Work with existing project data without migration headaches.
The bottom line: Most project management tools force all departments into a single shared workspace. Milestone's multi-tenant architecture lets each team have their own isolated environment while you maintain organization-wide visibility. Combined with self-hosted deployment, multi-site coordination, and capacity planning, Milestone is purpose-built for complex organizations—without the complexity of enterprise behemoths or the limitations of task-focused tools.
Who Should Choose Milestone?
Milestone is the right choice if your organization:
- Needs departmental separation—let Engineering, R&D, Sales, Marketing, IT each have their own workspace
- Operates across multiple sites or locations and needs cross-site resource visibility
- Requires percentage-based staff allocation across concurrent projects
- Needs to schedule shared equipment (labs, devices, meeting rooms)
- Works with overlapping project phases common in engineering and R&D workflows
- Wants to migrate from MS Project without losing data or retraining everyone
- Requires self-hosted deployment for data sovereignty and compliance
- Prefers a modern, intuitive interface over legacy desktop software
Industries that benefit most include engineering firms, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, manufacturing, IT departments, professional services, and any organization managing complex projects across teams or locations.