Workfront Review

• Workfront is designed with remote teams in mind.
• Real-time collaboration and project automation are among the valuable features Workfront offers.
• Workfront is available in four service plans.
• This review is for small business owners considering using Workfront for their project management needs.

In this age of digital connection, a project management solution that accommodates freelancers is a must for many businesses. Workfront offers many valuable tools that bridge the communication gap between your in-house and remote employees. This need is especially critical now, as more and more businesses have been forced to adopt a work-from-home approach. Workfront's features and intelligent design earn it our pick as the best online project management software for remote teams.  

For a closer look at how we selected our best picks, visit our best picks page to see our methodology and a complete list of online project management software.

Pricing

Workfront is far from the cheapest solution we found in our research. Pricing is customized for each business's specific needs. You pay a yearly subscription based on the plan and type of license you choose. While you need to contact the company for a quote, we received a price estimate of $600 to $1,500 a year per license.

Here is a breakdown of the four service plans Workfront offers.

• Team: This option is for a single team and provides project team management, collaboration, support, and integrations like Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, WebDAM, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Outlook.  
  
  
• Pro: This plan works best for one department. It includes everything in the Team plan along with demand- and resource-management features, asset review and approval systems, reporting options, and customization tools. It includes integrations with Workfront Fusion, Jira, Salesforce, and Adobe Experience Manager and Creative Cloud. It also offers document webhooks and 1,500 licenses through REST API access. 
  
  
• Business: This plan provides everything in the Pro plan, but you can manage up to 10 departments on it. It offers strategic portfolio planning and 3,000 licenses through REST API access. It also provides enterprise administration and storage.  
  
  
• Enterprise: Along with advanced security and compliance features and unlimited enterprise solutions, this plan offers everything in the Business plan. Through REST API access, you get an unlimited number of licenses and event subscriptions.  

Key takeaway: Workfront offers multiple service plans and licensing options. All pricing, which requires a yearly subscription, is customized for each business, so you'll need to contact Workfront for pricing specifics.

Features

Workfront caters to teams that aren't always in the same room, such as remote teams and companies that use freelancers. It has many tools, such as its reporting features, that make it ideal for small companies. Its customization features are helpful for many companies, and the freedom to design the digital workspace is important to some companies. 

Here's a look at the other tools Workfront offers that we believe small business owners would find valuable.  

• Demand management: Through automated request queues and custom forms, you can automatically lay out a project and prioritize tasks for your entire team to view. This format is ideal in the beginning stages of a project and eliminates the need to send multiple emails about a project.  
  
  
• Resource management: Using artificial intelligence technology, you can make assignments based on team members' availability and skills. 
  
  
• Project automation: This feature helps your team automate project templates and spend less time in the planning phase. 
  
  
• Gantt charts: Workfront includes easy-to-read Gantt charts as a visual planning tool. You can make quick changes to workflow timelines, which then illustrate how the deadline of the project is affected.
  
  
• Consolidated task list: More than a to-do list, Workfront's consolidated task list displays which assignments are the most important and what's coming up, with real-time updates on project changes to help you and your team members maximize your productivity.  
  
  
• Real-time collaboration: Workfront's threaded conversations, status updates and forums for feedback operate like Facebook threads, allowing you to communicate efficiently with your team and ensure projects are managed properly.  
  
  
• Remote work: Workfront uses cloud-based software and a mobile app, so users can update tasks, assign work, submit requests and approve decisions wherever they have internet access. In other words, you are not chained to your desk, and your employees can work from anywhere.  
  
  
• Operation reporting: Workfront provides real-time updates on the status of your projects. You can track your time and budget using Workfront's standard reports or by customizing your dashboard. This eliminates the need to gather information and build reports from scratch.  
  
  
• Streamlined approvals: The software double-checks your approvals to stakeholders to help you avoid mistakes. This risk-management tool sends approvals to the right stakeholders for you.  
  
  
• Online proofing: You can track comments and version updates so you can return feedback on assignments and action items.  
  
  
• Stakeholder insights: You can automatically send reports to stakeholders or share important deadlines using calendar views.  
  
  
• Financial reporting: This information helps you stay up to date on profit margins and project financials. You can break down this data by resource hours, budget spending and contracted revenue. Workfront offers other reports that illustrate your team's work (and the financial value of that work).

Key takeaway: Workfront offers a host of valuable features and tools that remote teams in particular will find valuable. These include project automation, Gantt charts, real-time collaboration and mobile access.

Pros and Cons of Workfront

Pros

Real-time collaboration is essential for remote workers. They need to stay in the loop and receive status updates and feedback. Impromptu but critical conversations often take place in the office, so your remote workers miss out on them. Workfront's communication tools help ensure that important information is relayed to everyone. 

Workfront's Gantt charts are another beneficial tool. Not only can you track your team's progress, but the system adapts with every change to your project. If changes are made to an assignment, the Gantt chart automatically makes adjustments to accommodate a new and realistic deadline.

Workfront's automation tools lessen your team's workload. Information can be automatically placed into a project template of your choosing, which eliminates a step in the project-planning process and keeps your team moving.

Cons

Workfront is ideal for remote workers, and the benefits outweigh the downsides. That said, Workfront's pricing structure is complicated. For a small business owner who wants a realistic estimate of what they'll spend, it's hard to understand the program's cost structure, judging from the information on Workfront's website. We recommend contacting Workfront and requesting a price quote, but some other companies allow you to see an estimate online yourself without this hassle. 

The program's interface is almost like an Excel sheet, which can be cluttered and difficult to navigate. Workfront has a learning curve, but the company offers multiple customer support resources so you can get an answer to your questions.

Key takeaway: Workfront's automation tools, Gantt charts and collaboration options help to make it a valuable program. On the flip side, it is frustrating not to get any indication of pricing on the Workfront website.

Customer Support

Many customer support tools are available to help you understand the Workfront software. Within the resource section of the company's website, there is a knowledge area that guides you through operational fires and teaches you how to run projects. Workfront provides webinars, e-books, whitepapers, videos, training, and 24/7 live agent support. Workfront also provides a phone number and email address you can use to contact the company.

To gauge the quality of support Workfront offers, we contacted the company multiple times by phone and live chat. The representatives we spoke with were extremely polite and patient as we asked questions about the program. We didn't feel any pressure to sign up for the software. We got a basic understanding of the program in our initial phone call, but a second or third call is needed, because the program is a bit complicated. 

Key takeaway: Workfront provides a number of online help tools, including webinars, e-books and training videos. Support is available by live chat 24/7.