Tom's Planner

Tom’s Planner is an online Gantt chart maker for project planning when spreadsheets feel chaotic or larger project-management software is unnecessary. Views range from yearly schedules down to five-minute intervals. Drag-and-drop, color-coded time blocks support planning, while progress can be shown with percentages, traffic lights, icons, or colors. Tasks can have dependencies, milestones are supported, and filters narrow schedules by resource, activity, team, icon, or date. Imports include Excel, MS Project, Outlook, and Google Calendar. Paid accounts export to MS Project, Excel, CVS, PDF, or image files; JSON export is limited to Unlimited. The free Personal account provides one chart with up to 200 rows or activities and excludes sharing, printing, and export. Free users may accept collaboration invitations, but inviting collaborators requires payment. Professional costs $9.95/mo (annual), while Unlimited costs $19.95/mo (annual).

Tom’s Planner focuses on straightforward Gantt scheduling with flexible views, imports, dependencies, and progress indicators. The free tier is useful for a single limited chart; collaboration and exports require paid plans.

It suits individuals and teams wanting visual scheduling without a complex project-management system. Mobile compatibility supports consulting schedules while away from a computer.

Overview

Tom’s Planner is a browser-based Gantt chart maker for people who need to organize a project schedule without moving to heavyweight project-management software. It is best suited to individuals and small teams who want a visual timeline, flexible status markers and basic task dependencies; the free plan’s one-chart, 200-row cap makes it a limited way to try the approach.

Key features

The main strength is control over the schedule’s timescale: users can move from a year-wide view down to five-minute intervals. That range can make the same chart useful for both long-range planning and tightly timed work, while drag-and-drop, color-coded time blocks keep changes visible. Progress can be tracked with percentages, traffic lights, icons or colors, and milestones and task dependencies help convey sequence as well as status. These are practical planning tools, though the product’s stated focus is the chart itself rather than a broader project-management suite.

Filters for resources, activities, teams, icons and dates help readers narrow a busy schedule. Imports from Excel, MS Project, Outlook and Google Calendar offer a route in from tools a team may already use. Paid users can export to MS Project, Excel, CSV, PDF or an image; JSON export is reserved for Unlimited. That makes paid plans more useful when schedules need to move between tools or be shared as documents. Resource management is supported, but the available feature set does not establish how extensive it is.

Collaboration has a clear paywall: free users can accept invitations, but need a paid account to invite others. The free Personal account also lacks online sharing, printing and export, so it is better for a private trial chart than for delivering a schedule to a team. Tom’s Planner says chart data is stored securely and accessible through account credentials or credentials of collaborators the user chooses. Email support is offered to all account types, with stated weekday hours of 10 a.m.–10 p.m. CET and weekend hours of 10 a.m.–4 p.m. CET; the maker says replies typically arrive within an hour.

Pricing

Tom’s Planner is freemium. Personal costs nothing and allows one schedule with a maximum of 200 rows or activities. It cannot print or export, and free accounts cannot share online or invite collaborators. That is enough for one contained schedule, but not a complete collaboration workflow.

Professional costs $9.95 a month, billed on a yearly subscription. It raises the allowance to 20 schedules and adds collaboration invitations, printing and export. This is the sensible tier for a person or team that needs to circulate schedules, provided 20 charts are enough.

Unlimited costs $19.95 a month, billed on a yearly subscription. It removes the schedule cap, adds JSON export and lets collaborators print. Choose it when those specific limits matter; otherwise Professional costs less and already includes standard export and invitations. The pricing terms provided are annual subscriptions billed monthly at the stated rates.

The service is cloud-based and does not need installation, while users can also save a schedule offline on their own computer. The maker says it works with iPhone, iPad and Android devices without an app, but positions mobile chiefly for checking schedules on the go rather than as the main editing environment.

Platforms

Tom’s Planner is available on web, Android and iOS. Its browser-based setup avoids installation, and mobile compatibility is aimed mainly at consulting a schedule away from a computer.

Who it's for

Choose Tom’s Planner if spreadsheets have become awkward but a full project-management system would be excessive, and your work benefits from a zoomable Gantt chart with dependencies, milestones and visual progress indicators. It is less suitable when you need a free shared workspace, extensive chart output without a subscription, or a mobile-first planning workflow.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Fine-grained schedule views: the range from yearly down to five-minute intervals accommodates both broad planning and detailed timing.
• Useful visual status options: drag-and-drop blocks, dependencies, milestones and several progress indicators make schedule changes and task sequence legible.
• Multiple import and export paths: imports from four common scheduling sources and paid exports reduce friction when moving a chart between tools.

Cons

• The free plan is tightly bounded: one chart and 200 activities, with no online sharing, printing or export, limits its usefulness beyond personal planning.
• Inviting collaborators requires payment: free users can join a schedule but cannot initiate collaboration.
• Mobile use is mainly for consultation: people who need to build or revise schedules primarily on a phone may find the intended mobile role restrictive.

Alternatives

Browse Gantt Chart Software for more options in this category.

Agantty is another freemium option, with a 14-day trial of all features; its free plan is limited to one project and has no teams or support. Consider it if a trial of its full feature set matters more than Tom’s Planner’s stated schedule-view range.

Ganttic has a free tier with up to 10 resources, unlimited users and projects, plus Gantt charts, reports and Kanban boards. It is worth considering when those resource and project allowances are a closer fit.

Sinnaps is an alternative for readers comparing project-planning software.

Merlin Project is a paid alternative with Mac and iOS plans, including a small version for personal or small projects on Mac. Consider it if that platform and project scale better match your needs.

Oracle Primavera Cloud is another paid option, with hosted user services. Consider it when that hosted-service model is a better fit.

Project Plan 365 is a paid alternative with a free plan and trial across web, desktop and mobile platforms. Compare it if broad platform availability is a priority.

Autodesk Forma Schedule is included with Autodesk Build and uses flexible user-, project- and account-based pricing. Consider it if Schedule as part of Autodesk Build suits your organization.

TeamGantt offers a free Personal plan for one user, one project and 40 tasks. It may suit someone whose needs fit within those free limits.

Verdict

Tom’s Planner is a good fit for an individual or small team that wants a focused, adjustable Gantt chart without adopting a larger project-management system. Its timescale flexibility, visual progress options and familiar import formats are the strongest reasons to choose it. Look elsewhere if you need free collaboration or a mobile-first editing experience; those are the clearest limits on its otherwise practical planning focus.