Resource Planning and PSA · Researched comparison

Best PSA Software: 9 Platforms Compared

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Key takeaways

  • Productive Essential at $10 and Teamwork Basics at $9.99 are the cheapest published entry points, and both cover budgets, resourcing, and time from the start.
  • Kantata, Accelo, and ConnectWise PSA publish no prices, so budget for a sales call and a quote rather than a list rate.
  • Scoro Essential at $26 carries a 5-seat minimum, so the real entry cost is $130 a month even if only two people use it.
  • BigTime Premier at $45 is the honest comparison point for resource planning, since budgeting and skills management sit on the top public tier.

Comparison

How these compare
ToolBest forPrice rangeFree plan
KantataMid-market firms that need deep resource planningquote onlyNo
ScoroAgencies and consultancies that want quotes to cash in one tool$26 per user/month (billed annually)Free trial (14 days)
AcceloClient work firms that want CRM, projects, and billing togetherquote onlyNo
BigTimeAccounting and consulting firms that bill time and materials$20 per user/monthFree trial (14 days)
ProductiveAgencies under 100 people that want budgets and resourcing$10 per user/month (billed annually)Free trial (14 days)
RavetreeFirms that want every PSA module on one plan$29 per user/month (billed annually)Free trial (14 days)
HaloPSAIT service firms that want PSA with ticketing and billing£66 per agent/month (billed annually)Free trial (30 days)
ConnectWise PSAMSPs that run ticketing, projects, and billing on one platformquote onlyNo
TeamworkAgencies that bill clients and track project budgets$9.99 per user/month (billed annually)Yes (free up to 5 users)

How we choose

We compared vendor pricing pages, plan tables, and product documentation for each tool, and we checked the price on the vendor site on 11 November 2026. We looked at the entry priced plan, the free plan or trial terms, billing and resourcing features, and the limits that raise the real cost, such as seat minimums and tier-gated features. We did not claim hands-on testing, and we did not use review scores to rank the tools. Where a vendor hides its price, we wrote quote only rather than guessing. Prices change often, so confirm the current figure on the vendor pricing page before you buy.

Our full method

The shortlist

★ Best overall

The best PSA software for professional services

Professional services automation runs the business side of client work: project plans, time recording, resourcing, billing, and reporting on utilisation. The category splits into two layers: legacy enterprise suites that quote every deal, and leaner cloud tools with published prices. The nine platforms below cover both, with prices taken from each vendor pricing page on 11 November 2026.

2

Kantata

Best for Mid-market firms that need deep resource planning

Website: https://www.kantata.com/

Best for: Mid-market firms that need deep resource planning

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: Resource management is the calling card; two products cover Mavenlink and Salesforce shops

Cons: No published price, so every renewal is a negotiation; needs a dedicated operations owner

Kantata was formed in 2022 by the merger of Mavenlink and Kimble, and it is now owned by Vista. It is really two products sharing a name: Kantata OX grew out of Mavenlink and runs as its own platform, while Kantata SX came from Kimble and lives inside Salesforce. The vendor publishes no prices, so every deal is a custom quote, and the pricing page directs buyers to sales. Resource management is the reason firms buy it: capacity, skills, and project margins in one place.

The platform suits firms with 100 or more billable people and a dedicated operations owner. Below that size, buyers are paying for an enterprise implementation to solve a mid-market problem. The limit is transparency: with no list price, budgeting starts with a sales call, and renewals are negotiations rather than lookups. Firms that need a number before they commit should shortlist a tool with a published price first.

3

Scoro

Best for Agencies and consultancies that want quotes to cash in one tool

Website: https://www.scoro.com/

Best for: Agencies and consultancies that want quotes to cash in one tool

Starting price: $26 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Quotes, projects, time, and billing in one system; resource planning from Standard at $37

Cons: Five-seat minimum on every plan, so entry costs $130 a month; Ultimate tier is custom priced

Scoro is a full professional services automation platform for consultancies, agencies, architecture and engineering firms, and IT services. Essential costs $26 per user per month on annual billing, Standard costs $37, and Pro costs $63, with Ultimate priced on request. Every plan carries a 5-seat minimum, so the real entry cost is 5 times $26, or $130 a month, even if only two people use it. A 14-day trial needs no credit card.

Standard is the tier most growing teams land on, since it adds Gantt charts, phases, milestones, and detailed financial reports. Pro adds a planner, project budgets, timesheets with time locking, and a sales pipeline. The limit is the floor: a solo practitioner or a two-person team cannot use Scoro at the advertised entry price, and monthly billing adds roughly 20 percent to the annual rates.

4

Accelo

Best for Client work firms that want CRM, projects, and billing together

Website: https://www.accelo.com/

Best for: Client work firms that want CRM, projects, and billing together

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: Client work management from sales to invoices; retainer and ticket management on higher tiers

Cons: Publishes no prices at all, so budgeting needs a sales call; seat minimums apply on entry tiers

Accelo is a client work management platform that covers projects, sales, quotes, time logs, and financial insight in one system. The vendor publishes no prices: every tier says contact sales, and the pricing page was reworked several times in 2026, most recently hiding tiered plan prices behind a custom-quote page. The product itself is strong on retainers, with client retainer and ticket management, a shared request inbox, expenses, and time approvals for billing on the higher tiers.

The lack of a published price is the main drawback. Buyers cannot model the cost before a sales call, and review sites report seat minimums on entry tiers, which raises the floor further. Accelo suits firms that want CRM, project management, and automated billing in one place and are willing to negotiate. Firms that need a firm number up front should compare it against Scoro or Productive, which publish their rates.

5

BigTime

Best for Accounting and consulting firms that bill time and materials

Website: https://www.bigtime.net/

Best for: Accounting and consulting firms that bill time and materials

Starting price: $20 per user/month

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Deep QuickBooks integration; DCAA compliance on Advanced for government contractors

Cons: Resource planning and skills management wait for Premier at $45; interface flagged as unintuitive

BigTime comes from the time-and-billing side of the market, and it shows. Essentials costs $20 per user per month, Advanced costs $35, and Premier costs $45, with a separately quoted Foresight tier for forecasting and plan-versus-actual reporting. The product covers time tracking, billing, invoicing, expense management, and a deep QuickBooks integration, which is why accounting, engineering, and consulting firms pick it. Advanced adds a client portal and DCAA compliance, which matters for government contractors.

The honest comparison is against Premier, not Essentials, because project budgeting, standard resource planning, and skills management sit in Premier. A firm that buys Essentials for resource planning will pay to upgrade within months. The interface draws the most common complaint in reviews, with setup flagged as a challenge, so budget time for onboarding.

6

Productive

Best for Agencies under 100 people that want budgets and resourcing

Website: https://productive.io/

Best for: Agencies under 100 people that want budgets and resourcing

Starting price: $10 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: Budgets and resource planning start on the entry plan; lowest published PSA entry price here

Cons: Invoicing integrations start on Professional at $25; billable time approvals need Professional too

Productive is an agency-focused PSA covering budgets, resource scheduling, a sales pipeline, time, and invoicing. Essential costs $10 per user per month on annual billing, or $12 billed monthly, and Professional costs $25, or $29 monthly, with Ultimate priced on request. Every plan has a 3-seat minimum, and a 14-day trial needs no credit card. Essential covers budgeting, resource planning, project and task management, time tracking, expense management, reporting, and time off.

The $15 gap between the first two tiers deserves attention during the trial: invoicing integrations and billable time approvals start on Professional, so a firm that invoices from tracked time should price $25, not $10. Even so, Productive has the lowest published entry price in this list for budgets and resourcing, which makes a small pilot easy to model before committing the whole firm.

7

Ravetree

Best for Firms that want every PSA module on one plan

Website: https://www.ravetree.com/

Best for: Firms that want every PSA module on one plan

Starting price: $29 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (14 days)

Pros: One plan with every module, so no tier guessing; onboarding and training included

Cons: No cheap entry tier, so small firms pay the full rate; single-plan model leaves no room to trim features

Ravetree is a PSA platform for agencies, consultancies, IT services, accounting, and architecture and engineering firms. There is one plan with every module: $29 per user per month billed yearly, $34 quarterly, or $39 month to month, with onboarding and training included. That single price covers projects, resourcing, time, budgets, invoicing, and reporting, so buyers never have to guess which tier carries the feature they need.

The model is simple to compare: against BigTime Premier at $45, Ravetree saves $16 per seat a month, and against Scoro Pro at $63, the gap is wider still. The limit is the floor: a five-person firm pays $145 a month with no cheaper tier to start on. Ravetree suits firms that want the full PSA set from day one and would rather pay one rate than manage a tier ladder.

8

HaloPSA

Best for IT service firms that want PSA with ticketing and billing

Website: https://halopsa.com/

Best for: IT service firms that want PSA with ticketing and billing

Starting price: £66 per agent/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Free trial (30 days)

Pros: Built for MSPs and IT services, with ticketing, projects, and billing together; 30-day trial

Cons: Priced per agent in pounds, so the dollar cost moves with the exchange rate; setup is involved for small teams

HaloPSA is a PSA platform aimed at managed service providers and IT service firms, combining ticketing, project management, billing, and CRM in one system. The vendor lists £66 per agent per month on annual billing, a UK price, with a 30-day free trial. The per-agent model means only staff who work tickets and projects need a licence, while read-only users and clients can access portals without a full seat.

The pound pricing matters for US buyers, since the dollar cost moves with the exchange rate, so the budget should carry a margin for currency movement. Setup is also involved: HaloPSA is a deep system, and small teams should expect onboarding effort before the first ticket flows cleanly. For an MSP that lives in tickets and service contracts, it is one of the few PSA tools built for that shape of work.

9

ConnectWise PSA

Best for MSPs that run ticketing, projects, and billing on one platform

Website: https://www.connectwise.com/

Best for: MSPs that run ticketing, projects, and billing on one platform

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: No

Pros: Deep MSP feature set, from service desk to procurement; large partner and integration ecosystem

Cons: Quote only, with an enterprise sales process; implementation and onboarding can be heavy for small MSPs

ConnectWise PSA, sold as ConnectWise Manage, is the long-running PSA for managed service providers. It covers the service desk, project management, time tracking, billing, procurement, and agreements in one platform, and it sits inside a wider ConnectWise ecosystem of remote monitoring, quoting, and automation tools. The vendor publishes no prices, so every deal is quoted, and the sales process is built for firms that buy the platform as a long-term commitment.

The depth is the appeal and the cost: ConnectWise PSA can run a whole MSP, but implementation and onboarding take real effort, and small providers can find the system heavier than their operation needs. Firms that want a published price and a fast start should look at HaloPSA or BigTime first, while larger MSPs that already use ConnectWise tools get the most from the shared ecosystem.

10

Teamwork

Best for Agencies that bill clients and track project budgets

Website: https://www.teamwork.com/

Best for: Agencies that bill clients and track project budgets

Starting price: $9.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes (free up to 5 users)

Pros: Invoicing and project budgets built in; free plan covers tasks, milestones, and time tracking

Cons: Full billing and profitability picture needs Accelerate at $24.99; lighter reporting than dedicated PSA tools

Teamwork is built for client work: projects, tasks, time tracking, and invoicing sit in one system, with a free plan for up to 5 users. Basics costs $9.99 per user per month on annual billing, and Accelerate costs $24.99. The old Deliver and Grow plan names are gone, and the current ladder is Basics, Accelerate, and Scale. Invoicing, project budgets, and profitability reports are the features that set it apart from general task tools.

The catch is that the full billing and profitability picture needs the higher tiers, so a firm that invoices from tracked time should price Accelerate, not Basics. Reporting is also lighter than a dedicated PSA such as Scoro or Kantata, so firms that need deep utilisation and margin analysis may outgrow it. For a small agency that wants PSA basics without an enterprise sales call, Basics at $9.99 is the cheapest published start in this list.

What to check before you buy

Quote-only vendors change the buying process. Kantata, Accelo, and ConnectWise PSA publish no prices, so the first step is a sales call, and the renewal is a negotiation rather than a lookup. If the budget needs a firm number before sign-off, shortlist a tool with a published price and use the quote-only tools as a second round. Seat minimums matter just as much: Scoro needs 5 seats on every plan, Productive needs 3, and the real entry cost is the minimum times the per-seat price.

Check which tier carries the feature you are buying for. BigTime puts resource planning on Premier at $45, Productive puts invoicing integrations and billable time approvals on Professional at $25, and Scoro puts resource planning on Standard at $37. Pricing the entry tier and then discovering the key feature sits two tiers up is the most common budgeting mistake in this category. Trial terms also differ: most trials run 14 days, while HaloPSA runs 30 days.

FAQ

What is PSA software?

Professional services automation runs the business side of client work: project plans, time recording, resourcing, billing, and reporting on utilisation. It sits between project management and accounting, and it suits firms that sell hours or fixed-fee projects. A general task tool covers the work itself, while PSA covers whether that work makes money.

Why do some PSA tools hide their prices?

Enterprise PSA vendors sell through a sales team, and the price depends on seat count, modules, contract length, and onboarding. Kantata, Accelo, and ConnectWise PSA all use this model, so the pricing page directs buyers to sales. Smaller vendors publish prices because their buyers expect to sign up without a call, which also makes comparison easier.

How much does PSA software cost per month?

Published entry prices in this list run from $9.99 per user per month on Teamwork Basics to $29 on Ravetree, with Scoro at $26 and BigTime at $20 in between. Quote-only vendors do not publish a rate, so the budget starts with a sales call. Seat minimums raise the floor: Scoro needs 5 seats, so entry is $130 a month.

Can a small agency use PSA software?

Yes, if the tool publishes a price and a low seat minimum. Productive Essential at $10 with a 3-seat minimum and Teamwork Basics at $9.99 with a free plan for up to 5 users both suit a small agency. Kantata and ConnectWise PSA are built for larger firms, and a small team would pay for an enterprise implementation it does not need.

Do I need PSA software or just project management?

Pick project management when the work is the problem: tasks, deadlines, and files. Pick PSA when the money is the problem: budgets, utilisation, billing, and margins. An agency that bills by the hour and needs to know whether a project made money needs PSA, while a team that only needs to ship tasks on time can run on a project tool such as Asana or ClickUp.

Sources we checked

  • https://www.kantata.com/pricing
  • https://www.scoro.com/pricing
  • https://www.accelo.com/pricing
  • https://www.bigtime.net/pricing
  • https://productive.io/pricing
  • https://www.ravetree.com/pricing
  • https://halopsa.com/pricing
  • https://www.connectwise.com/software/manage/pricing
  • https://www.teamwork.com/pricing
How we score

Need the method behind these picks?

We publish the criteria and the weights, so you can disagree with them.

The best PSA software for professional services#1 PICK