Remember how the players in the film ‘Jumanji’ followed a map to win the game?
Well, development teams also need to follow a map to beat their competitors and win over their stakeholders. Although the Jumanji team relied on a physical map, that’s not gonna cut it for high-functioning product and project teams.
And that’s where product roadmap software drops in, literally.
In this article, we’ll cover what roadmap software is and highlight the eight best roadmapping tools that you can use to survive every level of the product development game. 🎮
*Cue the drums*
Welcome to the jungle! 🌴
What Is Roadmap Software?
Before we jump into product roadmap software, let’s take a look at what a product roadmap is.
Product roadmapping helps teams visualize the development process so that they can develop new products or projects or improve on existing ones.
Both product managers and project managers rely on roadmaps to communicate the company’s vision. This way, your agile team can align its goals with the overarching objective.
But building a great product and releasing the right product features can be super tricky.
Probably more difficult than winning a game of Jumanji.
And without a visual roadmap, teams are thrown into the deep end and have no idea what the product should do, especially for the end-user.
Leaving your team feeling like this:
Luckily, product roadmap tools have customer-centric features like customer portals and form views that’ll help you launch successful products.
Product roadmap software also helps teams manage deadlines, set practical milestones, remove roadblocks (like avatar weaknesses 😉), and track progress.
Need a more detailed walkthrough on roadmapping?
Visit the ultimate guide to roadmapping and learn about roadmaps in project management.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s look at the key players in the game:
Top 8 Roadmap Software
Here are the eight best roadmap planning tools:
1. ClickUp
ClickUp is one of the highest-rated productivity and product roadmap tools used by super-productive teams in small and large companies.
With ClickUp, your team can use task dependencies to plan your product roadmap effectively. In addition, with Goals, your team can celebrate big wins like rescuing a lost player.
Here’s why ClickUp is the best roadmap software:
- Customizable views: bring your beautiful roadmap vision to life with Gantt Charts and Kanban Boards
- Timeline view: predict the outcome of your agile product roadmap 🔮
- Mind Maps: brainstorm your team’s strategic initiative with beautiful Mind Maps
- Dashboards: your mission control center where you can keep an eye on your team and make sure everyone’s contributing to the game
- Sprints ClickApp: knock out every goal on your agile software development roadmap with a Sprint system that maximizes your engineering team’s talent
- Table Widgets: track your team’s performance with real-time reporting
- Priorities: prioritize features that customers want to see on your agile roadmap. For example, adding more avatars to the game
- Custom Fields: create unique task fields to manage your testing and development phases
- Custom Statuses: build clear workflows for everything from feature launches to issue tracking
- Milestones: celebrate the end of a large set of tasks. For example, returning the Jaguar’s Eye to the statue
- Automation: automatically assign tasks and manage multiple products at once
- Workload view: plan your team’s capacity and manage resources
Need a few game tips?
Here’s how ClickUp product managers use ClickUp!
ClickUp pros
- A powerful free plan that lets you have unlimited players (users)
- User-friendly interface with online and Offline Mode
- Arrange your projects into Workspaces, Spaces, Folders, and more with the simple Hierarchy Structure
- Add a list of criteria to your new app with Checklists
- Create a product strategy or product plan with ease and collaborate with your team members and stakeholders in real-time with Docs
- Get ahead in the game with pre-built project templates
- Collect user feedback and move submissions through a workflow using the Form view
- Granular Permissions let you keep important game hints private
- As a product manager, you need to make sure every team member is aware of their jobs. User roles are perfect for this
- Crush every bug in the jungle with the GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket integrations
- Create tasks, notes, and Docs using our powerful iOS and Android mobile apps
Yep, that last one’s for you, Bethany.
ClickUp limitations
- No Table view in the mobile app (yet)
Take a look at ClickUp’s public roadmap to see how we’re fixing such minor drawbacks.
And don’t forget to find the treasure chest of exciting features that this free product management software has for you.
ClickUp pricing
ClickUp offers numerous pricing plans to meet your needs, including:
- Free Forever Plan:
- Unlimited members
- Unlimited tasks
- Privacy and Sharing
- And more
- Unlimited Plan ($5/month per member):
- All “free” features
- Unlimited List, Board, and Calendar Views
- Custom Fields
- Goals
- Unlimited Dashboards
- And more
- Business Plan ($9/month per member):
- All unlimited features
- Sprint Automations
- Timeline view
- Personal views
- Reporting
- Gantt Charts
- Milestones
- And more
ClickUp customer ratings
- G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
2. Aha!
Aha! is a product roadmap software that helps different teams centralize customer feedback, create a product strategy, and prioritize features.
Unfortunately, this roadmapping software doesn’t let you annotate PDFs, making it challenging to collaborate with team members and other project stakeholders.
Neither can we.
Key features
- Improve your customers’ user experience with user stories
- Find out what your customers want through a custom ideas portal
- A planning board that helps your product owner manage the product backlog and prioritize features
- Workflow board view to keep track of your project roadmap progress
Pros
- Customize your workflow with custom fields and statuses
- Connect related tasks to one another with task dependencies
- Create product mockups and ask multiple teams to provide feedback
Limitations
- Can’t assign to-do’s to more than one person at a time
- No mind map for product ideation features
- Expensive pricing plans
Pricing
Aha! has two pricing options:
- Startup plan
- A heavily discounted plan for five users
- Discounted pricing for 12 months
- 40-minute best-practices session
- And more
- Premium plan ($74/user per month):
- Set an overall strategy
- Build different roadmaps
- Create plans
- Prioritize work
- And more
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (180+ reviews)
3. Productboard
Productboard is an online roadmap tool that prioritizes customer needs. For example, if your customers want the Jumanji board game instead of the console version, this collaboration tool will help you make your customers’ wishes come true.
But, be careful what you wish for. 👀
Key features
- Create a strategic roadmap with detailed release plans
- Group product features by release, sprint, broad time horizons, and more
- Mitigate risks with feature dependencies
- Plan towards important project milestones with timeline-based roadmaps
Pros
- Put all your support tickets, Slack messages, sales conversations, and more in one place
- Categorize product ideas, requests, and feedback to route it to the right product team
- Sync with product development tools like Jira, GitHub, Azure DevOps, and more
Limitations
- No mobile apps available
- Expensive pricing plans
- Doesn’t integrate with powerful software like Zoom, GitLab, and Bitbucket
Pricing
Productboard has three pricing plans:
- Essentials ($25/maker per month):
- Create and share customized roadmaps
- Plan and align product teams
- Sync roadmaps with development tools with pre-built integrations
- Column based and timeline roadmaps
- And more
- Pro ($60/maker per month):
- Portal for customer feedback
- Sort and filter customer feedback and features
- Multiple custom prioritization scores
- Chrome extension and email integration
- And more
- Scale ($120/maker per month):
- Salesforce integration
- Dependencies
- Plan and manage multi-product releases
- Multiple portals
- And more
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (100+ reviews)
4. Monday
Monday is a project management tool that has some roadmapping functionality.
However, if you’re using the free plan, you won’t get essential features like Gantt charts and timeline views.
The problem?
It’s gonna be pretty difficult for your product team to keep up with deadlines..leaving you like this:
Key features
- Build your own technology roadmap and outline milestones in a visual project timeline
- Create your own project roadmap templates or use the ready-made ones
- View data as a map, calendar, timeline, kanban, and more
- Set automatic deadline reminders to keep your project team on track and ready for the scheduled launch date
Pros
- Agile project management features like sprints and story points
- A project portfolio management template that shows you the overall health and profitability of a portfolio
- Integrates with Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, Zoom, and more
Limitations
- Limited to two users in the free plan
- No product burndown charts
- No built-in chat feature
Pricing
Monday has four pricing options:
- Free:
- Up to two team members
- Unlimited boards
- 200 templates
- iOS and Android apps
- And more
- Basic ($8/seat per month):
- Unlimited free viewers
- Unlimited items
- 5GB file storage
- Limited dashboards
- And more
- Standard: ($10/seat per month):
- Timeline view
- Gantt charts
- 250 integration actions/month
- 250 automation actions/month
- And more
- Pro: ($16/seat per month):
- Time tracking
- Private boards
- Dependency column
- Formula column
- And more
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
5. Airfocus
Airfocus is a roadmap tool free of cost that gives teams a sense of direction. With this tool, teams can create clear roadmaps and collaborate on them with ease.
But will this product roadmap tool help your product team focus?
Let’s find out:
Key features
- A prioritization chart that helps you identify high-value projects
- Keep every stakeholder involved by voting on product ideas
- A kanban roadmap that keeps all team members aligned
- Create alignment around items, goals, and milestones by visualizing your project strategy on a Gantt chart
Pros
- Share multiple roadmaps using a link or by exporting it
- Granular permissions settings that make it easier for you to collaborate with stakeholders
- Two-way integration with Jira, Trello, Asana, and more
Limitations
- Limited to one user in the free plan
- Limited to two roadmap views
- No custom fields
Pricing
Airfocus has three pricing options:
- Starter ($25/month):
- Advanced prioritization framework
- Prioritization matrix
- Kanban roadmap
- Chrome extension
- And more
- Team: ($59/month):
- Dependencies
- Priority poker
- Share links and PDF exports
- Role permissions
- And more
- Pro: ($119/month):
- A portfolio view
- Jira Server
- Unlimited viewers
- Pay by invoice (if billed yearly)
- And more
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (70+ reviews)
6. Trello
Trello is a project management and roadmap creation tool that has a built-in Butler.
Yep, you read that right.
Butler, Trello’s built-in AI reduces the number of clicks you need to make.
But will this roadmap tool serve your team’s purpose?
Key features
- Multiple project views, including a map, table, and timeline view
- Cards with task details like attachments, comments, due dates, and more
- Keep track of your roadmap progress with the product roadmap template
- Break large projects down into smaller tasks with checklists
Pros
- The kanban board feature make it a suitable app for agile teams
- Integrates with software like Slack, Adobe XD, Jira, and more
- Manage tasks on the go with the iOS and Android mobile apps
Limitations
- Its simple interface makes it difficult to manage multiple projects
- No calendar, timeline, or dashboard views in the free plan
- Need to pay extra for features like custom fields and burndown charts
Pricing
Trello offers two pricing options:
- Free:
- Unlimited activity log
- Assignee and due dates
- iOS and Android mobile apps
- 2-factor authentication
- And more
- Business class ($12.50/user per month):
- Timeline view
- Workspace Table view
- Calendar view
- Advanced checklists
- And more
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.4/5 (11,000+ reviews)
7. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a collaboration and roadmap design tool. But if you want features like access permissions and project templates, you’ll need to pay $199/month.
Strong reaction, Kevin.
But we get it.
Key features
- See which tasks are dependent on each other with project roadmap Gantt charts
- Drag tasks from one stage to another using the kanban board view
- Plan product or feature release dates using the built-in calendar
- Assign tasks to teammates and add watchers to those tasks
Pros
- You can switch between the different views with just a single click
- The task counter feature shows your project progress and if you’re in danger of falling behind the deadline
- Native time tracker feature
Limitations
- Lack of project tracking features in the free plan. You don’t get task dependencies or custom fields
- Difficult to set up. For example, users struggle to find features like default widgets
- You can only assign tasks to one team member. Extra participants are limited to the top-tier plans
Pricing
Bitrix24 offers four pricing plans:
- Free
- Product catalog
- Chat
- Calendar view
- Timeline view
- Knowledge base
- Basic ($29.40/month):
Everything in Free +
- Recurring deals
- Supervisor view
- Zoom integration
- And more
- Standard ($59.40/month):
Everything in Basic +
- Change history
- Analytics reports
- Task templates
- And more
- Professional ($119.40/month):
Everything in Standard +
- Sales intelligence
- Business process automation
- Multiple access rights
- And more
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.1/5 (300+ reviews)
8. Infinity
Infinity is a roadmap visualization tool that helps you create a clear big picture of your goals with the convenience of drag and drop.
It also lets you collaborate with your team and store project-related info in one space.
Hello focus and collaboration! 💡
However, one of the major limitations of this roadmap tool is that there’s no free plan available.
Guess not everything is infinite with Infinity.
Key features
- Multiple templates for marketing, product development, project management, etc.
- Lets you assign tasks to multiple people
- Use comments to plan and discuss ideas with your team
- Custom attributes help you add extra details about your projects
Pros
- Supports project views like list, Gantt, calendar, etc.
- Offers task prioritization
- Has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices
Limitations
- No reminder feature
- Lacks advanced permission settings
- Limited integrations
Pricing
The pricing plans for this roadmap tool start from $9/month per user.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.7/5 (5+ reviews)
The End of the Map 🗺
A product roadmap helps businesses set product goals so that teams know which direction they should be going in, literally.
In addition, innovative roadmapping tools help businesses communicate the big picture with internal and external stakeholders in a super simple way.
Remember, without product roadmaps, you’ll end up with a stagnant team and a half-baked product. The only way your team can escape stagnation is by working together to finish the game!
And with a roadmapping tool like ClickUp, your team can crush every stage of your product roadmap with ease.
Jump into ClickUp for free today to experience a game-changing roadmap tool.