Overview

Rillsoft Project is a planning and control system for coordinating schedules, people, capacity and costs across projects. It is best suited to industrial and engineering teams, technical and IT service providers, manufacturers and PMOs that need shared resource planning alongside project schedules. Its strongest case is the combination of detailed scheduling and cross-project oversight; lighter users may find the edition and deployment choices more than they need.

Gantt charts, dependencies, automatic scheduling, critical-path analysis and buffer times provide structure for deadline planning. Project controlling compares progress, effort, schedules and costs with reference plans, making variance analysis part of the same workflow rather than a separate reporting exercise. Portfolio prioritization, scenario planning, budget tracking, executive reporting and cross-project dependencies extend that view beyond individual project plans.

A central resource pool records capacity, qualifications, working time and availability across parallel projects. Capacity analysis can identify demand and bottlenecks before managers assign named employees, a useful distinction for organizations balancing workloads across projects. MS Project XML and Excel CSV import and export give teams exchange routes for existing plans and data.

Key features

Scheduling: Dependencies, automatic scheduling, critical-path analysis and buffer times help teams reason about sequence and deadline risk.
Resource and capacity planning: Shared resource records support planning across concurrent projects; capacity analysis can expose bottlenecks before staff are assigned.
Controlling: Comparing progress, effort, schedules and costs against reference plans supports variance review.
Multi-project oversight: Portfolio prioritization, scenario planning, cross-project dependencies, budget tracking and executive reporting serve organizations managing more than one plan.
Deployment and controls: The Windows desktop client can work with local files, an on-premise Integration Server or Rillsoft Cloud. The server adds role-based access, access and change logs, and timestamped project archives tied to user IDs.

The desktop-client model is a meaningful constraint for teams seeking a purely browser-based working environment. Citrix, Terminal Server and Windows Enterprise Multisession deployments require floating licenses, which are sold from five seats.

Pricing

Rillsoft offers freeware for private, non-commercial use with limited scheduling, plus a Reader edition for viewing saved projects without editing. The full-function trial runs for 30 days; when it expires, existing projects remain readable but cannot be created or edited. These are useful ways to evaluate or view plans, not substitutes for an editable commercial license.

Paid single-user licenses are priced per license, per month; listed prices are in Euro plus applicable VAT:

Light — single-user license: 357.00 EUR per month for project planning and deadline controlling. It is the narrowest paid option, suited to users focused on schedules and deadlines.
Standard — single-user license: 579.00 EUR per month adds team resource planning and multi-project planning to project planning and controlling. It fits teams that need to coordinate workloads across projects.
Professional — single-user license: 899.00 EUR per month includes resource planning, multi-project planning and staff scheduling as well as planning and controlling. It is the step up for teams that need to schedule staff, not just track shared resources.
Enterprise — single-user license: 1399.00 EUR per month adds capacity planning to the Professional scope. It is the broadest listed fit for organizations that need to assess capacity as well as assign and schedule resources.

Floating licenses are available from five licenses: Light is 413.00 EUR per month and Standard is 739.00 EUR per month. The five-license minimum makes these options a poor fit for a small deployment needing just one shared seat; only Light and Standard floating editions are included in the stated price set.

A software service agreement for feature updates, corrections and phone, remote-access and email support costs 15% of list license cost annually, with a €300 minimum. That recurring support cost should be included when comparing license budgets.

Platforms

Rillsoft Project is a Windows desktop client, with local-file, on-premise Integration Server and Rillsoft Cloud working modes. Linux and web are also among its platform categories, alongside self-hosted deployment, but the working client described for the product is Windows-based.

Who it's for

Rillsoft Project is a strong fit for mid-sized industrial companies, engineering offices, technical and IT service providers, manufacturing teams and PMOs that coordinate people and capacity across parallel projects. Its planning depth is most valuable where schedules, resource availability and cost or effort variance need to be considered together. A solo user with limited scheduling needs may be better served by freeware, while teams needing browser-first or mobile access should compare alternatives with those platforms.

Pros and cons

Pro: Scheduling and controlling sit alongside resource and capacity planning, so teams can connect deadlines to workload and compare outcomes with reference plans.
Pro: The Integration Server's role-based rights, change logs and version archives provide useful governance for shared project work.
Pro: MS Project XML and Excel CSV exchange can ease movement of plans and tabular data.
Con: The full-function trial becomes read-only after 30 days, so continued editing requires a commercial license.
Con: The free editions are restricted: freeware is for private, non-commercial use and the Reader cannot edit.
Con: Floating use starts at five licenses, which raises the entry commitment for shared or terminal-server deployments.

Alternatives

Choose Planforge if a no-time-limit cloud free plan for up to four users or Android and iOS access matters more than Rillsoft's Windows-client-oriented deployment.

Nimble is worth considering for teams wanting a free plan capped at 10 users and 10 projects, with web, Android and iOS platforms.

Project Insight offers a free-forever plan for three users and web, iOS and Android access; it is a clearer fit for a small team prioritizing a free entry point.

Tempo Portfolio Manager has a free tier capped at 10 members, three projects and 300 tasks, making it an option when those limits suit the portfolio.

FoxPlan offers a free plan for up to three users with unlimited portfolios, projects and programs, a useful alternative when that free scope is the priority.

ITM Platform provides a free Team Member plan with unlimited team members, timesheets, task progress reports, documentation, collaboration and an Agile panel; consider it when those team-member functions are central.

TeamDynamix DEX is another option for readers comparing paid software across Linux, macOS, web and Windows.

Planview AdaptiveWork is another paid alternative.

For broader comparisons, browse Project Portfolio Management Software, Gantt Chart Software and Project Management Software.

Verdict

Choose Rillsoft Project when your organization needs scheduling, multi-project resource coordination and project controlling in one Windows-centered system, particularly where capacity analysis and governance matter. Its main trade-offs are the substantial paid-license commitment, limited free editions and five-license minimum for floating use. Teams needing a modest free tool or broad mobile and browser access should look elsewhere.

	Merlin Project	Rillsoft Project
Free plan	No	No
Free trial	No	Yes
Paid from	—	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	macOS, iOS	Linux, self-hosted, Web, Windows
Free plan	No	Yes
Paid from	22.99 /user/mo	—

Merlin Project vs Rillsoft Project

Merlin Project

Rillsoft Project