If you’re an experienced project manager, then you’ve likely had a project where Murphy's law reared its ugly head: where anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But you might have also dealt with Parkinson’s law without realizing it: where work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
When combined, both laws nearly guarantee disrupted workflows and missed deliveries — particularly if your agency practices Agile project management.
Rally software is a popular Agile project management tool that can help head off some of these struggles, but it’s not equipped for every possibility. Below, we’ll examine seven leading Rally competitors that may be better suited for your agency’s needs and workflows.
1. Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com simplifies complex project management by hosting all your workflows, timelines, time tracking, reporting, and communications under one roof. The platform organizes data and manages your resources so you have the information you need to complete projects on time and on budget.
Teamwork.com doesn't just meet expectations; it exceeds them with a range of superior features. Users can effortlessly create and assign tasks using templates and monitor project progress through tools like time tracking, integrations, and chat.
But Teamwork.com goes beyond the basics, giving agencies access to powerful operations capabilities – including financial management, robust reporting, and free client access. It’s also highly adaptable, enabling users to tailor their experience with views that align with their project management methodologies — whatever they happen to be.
It’s easy to get started with Teamwork.com. You can import existing tasks and projects with just one click, making the onboarding process as efficient as the platform itself.
Key features
Resource and workload management for smooth and effective short- and long-term project planning
Multiple views to give you a 360-degree understanding of each project’s progress and health, including Kanban boards, tables, Gantt charts, and more
Robust time tracking so you can see which tasks, projects, and clients require the most time
Billing and invoicing tools that connect with your accounting software for easy and accurate billing based on billable hours
Task management with sub-tasks, dependencies, tags, custom fields, files and versioning
Simplified collaboration between team members and clients with messages, comments, and centralized project areas like Notebooks and Spaces
Custom and templated reporting to easily stay on top of project health, profitability, time spent, resource utilization, and more
Time-saving automations that are easy to set up and manage (following a simple “when this happens, then perform this action” format)
Integrations
Teamwork.com integrates with tools and apps like Slack, Microsoft Outlook, Quickbooks, and Atarim, so all the data you need to stay on track is accessible in one place.
Pricing
Free plan (up to five users)
Deliver: $9.99 per user per month
Grow: $19.99 per user per month
Scale: Custom pricing
2. Jira
If you’ve worked in software development, then you’ve heard of (and probably used) Atlassian’s Jira software. Jira has been a popular issue tracker and project tracker for software agencies since 2002 — and for good reason.
Jira is another project management tool designed to work best for Agile teams. Its dashboard can be set as a Kanban board, Scrum board, or customized to meet the needs of your team. This enables project managers to get granular for sprints or zoom out and manage long-term projects.
Jira also makes collaboration easy by allowing cross-team communication, notifications, and automations that let managers spend more time managing and less time updating.
Key features
Interactive timelines that are collaborative and easily adjustable so your team stays on the same page
Detailed Scrum boards that break down complex projects into segmented tasks with detailed data fields
Reporting that delivers critical metrics and insights so you and your team are aware of trends
Pricing
Free plan
Standard: $8.15 per user per month
Premium: $16 per user per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Integrations
Jira integrates with Slack, Figma, Excel, and many other popular tools vital to modern business.
3. Digital.ai Agility
As the name suggests, Digital.ai Agility is an Agile-focus project management solution that serves as a great alternative to Rally. Digital.ai Agility combines end-to-end visibility for project managers that easily scale as your agency grows.
On top of the features you would expect in project management software like Kanban and Scrum boards, Digital.ai Agility adds data-driven analytics to make your projects more efficient and accurate while supporting agile development.
Key features
Agile-driven dashboards and reporting so that your team has all the information they need to identify and prevent issues
Portfolio planning tools that make it simple to track development across an organization
Simplified cross-team collaboration tools so that your ability to communicate is never an issue
Pricing
Free
Enterprise: $29 per user per month
Ultimate: $39 per user per month
Integrations
Digital.ai Agility integrates well with Salesforce, Jama Connect, Jira, and more.
4. Asana
Asana is one of the most intuitive alternatives to Rally on this list. One of Asana’s strongest features is its visual project board, which makes it easy to see important data like due dates and comments for multiple projects at a glance.
Of course, users aren’t limited to only a basic project board. Asana also offers List, Calendar, and Customizable views that you can adjust to fit your team’s needs. Asana also has tools like billing, expenses, and invoicing that can help ensure swift and accurate payment.
Key features
Powerful cross-team collaboration and communication that keeps everyone in the loop
Easy workflow creation that includes key automations
Workload reporting that informs you which team members are overburdened and which have more bandwidth
Pricing
Basic access for free
Premium: $10.99 per user per month
Business: $24.99 per user per month
Integrations
Asana integrates seamlessly with several major apps and programs, like Microsoft Teams, Splunk, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
5. ClickUp
ClickUp is another notable project planning tool that rivals Rally. In fact, ClickUp has several unique features that you need to know about.
ClickUp has all the features you would expect with a high-quality project management tool. That includes tasks, dashboards, whiteboards, and chat across your team. It also has an “Everything View” that is especially helpful for getting a high-level overview of a task or timeline.
On top of that though, ClickUp AI is specifically tailored to your needs and workstyle. In fact, ClickUp AI is up to the task of writing action items, summarizing content, as well as formatting content, and even editing copy.
Key features
Custom templates that make project kickoffs quick and effective
Well-organized hierarchies that show you the big picture without missing important details
Easy-to-use automations that simplify workflows and ensure important tasks are completed consistently
Pricing
Free version
Unlimited version: $7 per user per month
Business: $12 per user per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Integrations
ClickUp has several notable integrations, including Github, Gitlab, and HubSpot. ClickUp also has a public API that integrates with their planning tools.
6. Smartsheet
Smartsheet combines intuitive features that are quick to master along with advanced tools that will delight experienced project managers and IT professionals.
Smartsheet has dashboards, real-time reporting, and automations that will keep project managers informed while saving them time. That productivity boost is key, but it’s also notable that Smartsheet works with apps like Google Docs and Tableau to let users build apps without writing a single line of code.
Smartsheet is a favorite for IT and operations professionals since it gives them granular control of their product management systems. In fact, Smartsheet has tools designed to ease hardware management for product teams and software development for development teams.
Key features
Content collaboration that makes proofing transparent and easy to share across your entire team
Event reporting that uses passive monitoring to give you insights into where you could be more efficient as well as avoid roadblocks
Flexible workflows that are easy to code and automate to maximize efficiency
Pricing
Free plan (one user and up to two editors)
Pro: $7 per user per month
Business: $25 per user per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Integrations
Smartsheet easily integrates with several apps and programs like HubSpot, Docusign, and Webex.
7. Confluence
Confluence is another Atlassian product that offers reliable planning tools for efficient work management. It offers collaborative whiteboards, pages where users can create work, and spaces dedicated to information and discussion about your projects. And, since it’s an Atlassian product, sticky notes from Confluence’s whiteboards can automatically be converted to Jira.
Although you may think those features are standard, these are not your everyday project management tools. For example, Confluence’s whiteboards have votes, timers, and smartlinks, so project managers can be even more versatile.
Key features
Detailed content tree structure that makes finding details fast
Templates that make best practices easily repeatable across your entire organization
Page versioning that’s helpful for tracking page changes and versions as well as reverting changes
Pricing
Free (up to 2 GB of storage)
Standard: $6.05 per user per month
Premium: $11.55 per user per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Integrations
Confluence integrates with popular apps and services, including Jira, Trello, and ScriptRunner.
Find out why Teamwork.com is the leading project management software today
You don’t need a project management guide to know that things go wrong. You can’t avoid that. However, if you practice agile planning with Rally and it’s not allowing you to overcome roadblocks without missing deliveries, then now is the time to switch your project management software.
Teamwork.com has features that project managers across any client service organization can leverage to improve their workflows — from professional services to creative agencies and everyone in between.
With Teamwork.com, you no longer need to juggle multiple tools to streamline your projects; everything lives under one roof, and that versatility empowers your entire team to adapt and react to roadblocks as soon as they arise.