Tool comparisons

Linetrack head-to-head
with the planning tool you use today

Three head-to-head comparisons, each against the tool the planning actually happens in today: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project and Oracle Primavera P6. This page sorts out which of them fits your situation, where each tool reaches its breaking point, and when it stays the right choice.

Linetrack as one shared data foundation for schedules and capacity, next to the planning tools in common use today

In short

If you plan in Excel today, the comparison you want is Linetrack vs. Excel: it is about a file having exactly one owner, and the copies and competing versions that follow from that. If you plan in Microsoft Project, Linetrack vs. Microsoft Project draws the line between a plan with exactly one author and a shared data foundation where departments maintain their own share. If you run Oracle Primavera P6, the difference there is the operating model: P6 assumes a dedicated scheduler role, Linetrack assumes that many people keep the plan current. In all three cases the question is not which tool calculates more, but who keeps the plan up to date.

91 %

named Excel and tool sprawl
as their starting problem

56 %

had a live interface running
within the first six months

1512+

industrial projects
managed in parallel

4000+

completed
industrial projects

*Every figure on this page comes from a full survey of all live Linetrack implementations, as of August 2026. Multiple answers were possible for the starting problems.

Where to start

Which comparison applies to you?

The choice does not depend on which tool is better, it depends on where the binding schedule sits today. Each card names the breaking point in a single sentence, plus the case in which your current tool remains the right choice.

Microsoft Excel

The difference

A file has exactly one owner, which is where copies and competing versions come from; a shared data foundation has roles and rights per area of responsibility.

Excel stays right when

the same person plans, maintains and decides on a single, manageable project – or when the job is free-form calculation rather than scheduling.

Linetrack vs. Excel

Microsoft Project

The difference

The dividing line is not the scheduling maths, it is the number of people involved: a plan with exactly one author versus a data foundation where every department maintains its own share.

Microsoft Project stays right when

one person plans a single undertaking through in depth, or when variations and claims call for mature delay analytics.

Linetrack vs. Microsoft Project

Oracle Primavera P6

The difference

The difference lies in scope and operating model, not in quality: P6 assumes a scheduler role owns the plan, Linetrack assumes many people own it.

Primavera P6 stays right when

you run EPC and large plant projects, or when the schedule itself is a contractual deliverable.

Linetrack vs. Oracle Primavera P6

Trello

The difference

Trello organizes tasks on individual boards without dependencies or capacity planning; Linetrack combines scheduling, resources, and ERP in one system.

Trello stays right when

a single team tracks simple, largely independent tasks visually.

Linetrack vs. Trello

Asana

The difference

Asana offers scheduling and workload views, but without resource-aware date shifting or native ERP integration.

Asana stays right when

tasks are coordinated across departments without shared resources being the central concern.

Linetrack vs. Asana

Monday.com

The difference

Monday.com is a flexible no-code platform where scheduling and resource management have to be configured and are mostly only available on its top tier.

Monday.com stays right when

a company wants a customizable platform for many different processes, not just project management.

Linetrack vs. Monday.com

Stackfield

The difference

Stackfield is a secure all-in-one collaboration suite with a Gantt view, but without documented cross-project capacity utilization or native ERP integration.

Stackfield stays right when

a secure, encrypted communication and document hub for many industries is the priority.

Linetrack vs. Stackfield

Microsoft To Do

The difference

Microsoft To Do is a personal checklist with no project features; Linetrack runs several projects with shared resources.

Microsoft To Do stays right when

a single person manages their own tasks, without team or resource coordination.

Linetrack vs. Microsoft To Do

If your question is one level up – not which tool, but which kind of system at all – the overview of what categories of multi-project management software exist has a page of its own.

At a glance

The three tools side by side

Six rows about scope – not a feature list and not a score. Every statement comes from the individual comparison, where it is set out in full.

Aspect	Excel	MS Project	Primavera P6
Who maintains the plan	One file owner	One responsible planner	Usually a dedicated scheduler role	Every department its own share
Scheduling logic	Date values with no scheduling logic behind them	Critical path, resource levelling, baselines	Network analysis with critical path, multi-calendar	Task relationships with critical path, baselines, effect through the chain
Capacity across projects	Not provided for, a separate list	Via Project Online or Server as a second layer	Via resource assignment, upkeep on the planning role	Capacity histogram below the bar chart
Feedback from execution	Phone calls, e-mail, typed in by hand	Status reports transferred into the plan	Progress reported upward and entered	Task tracking via desktop and mobile app
Typical scope	One project, one owner	One project, one planner	Large projects in EPC, construction, infrastructure	Many parallel industrial projects
Moving data into Linetrack	Project and task lists as a standard import	Tasks, durations and dependencies as a standard import	Existing schedules as a standard import	One-off data migration, no ongoing sync

Six rows do not replace a comparison. The full picture – seven aspects each, the counter-cases and the migration path – is in Linetrack vs. Excel, Linetrack vs. Microsoft Project and Linetrack vs. Oracle Primavera P6.

Core argument

A file or a shared data foundation

Three comparisons, one and the same dividing line. Excel calculates more freely than any planning system, Microsoft Project works a single project through in greater depth, and Oracle Primavera P6 covers a methodological depth Linetrack does not reach. None of that is in dispute.

The question on this page is a different one: is planning a document owned by one person – or a shared data foundation that several areas of responsibility work on at the same time? That is decided by scope, not by feature count.

The test is a single question: who enters, on a Friday afternoon, that assembly will start two weeks later? If there is a paid role for that, a deep planning system carries the load. If there is not, what keeps the plan current is not methodological depth but whether the department looks into it itself.

That second situation is the one Linetrack answers: roles and rights per area of responsibility, all projects on one data foundation, and the cross-project capacity histogram directly below the bar chart. What that looks like day to day is described on the collaborative project management page.

91 %

named Excel and tool sprawl as their starting problem

1512+

industrial projects managed in parallel

Honest boundaries

When switching is not worth it

These four cases come from the three individual comparisons, where each is stated without a counter-argument. They hold regardless of which tool is in use today:

One project, one owner. When the same person plans, maintains and decides, there is no coordination loss for a shared data foundation to absorb. For a single, manageable undertaking the Excel file is the right size; for one planned through in depth by exactly one planner, Microsoft Project is.
Formal schedule analytics: claims, proof of delay. Where delays have to be demonstrated formally, variations substantiated or causes of delay reconstructed after the fact, the network analytics of Microsoft Project and Primavera P6 is the more suitable tool. Linetrack computes the critical path and compares baselines against scenarios, but it does not claim that formal analytical depth for contractual proof.
The schedule itself is a deliverable. Some clients explicitly require schedules in MS Project format, including a prescribed structure and task numbering; public clients, oil and gas and major infrastructure programmes require P6 schedules in a defined format and reporting rhythm. Where that is written into the contract, the tool question is already answered.
An established operation with its own planning role. If Project Online is already administered and mastered by the project managers, the enterprise layer exists and is paid for. Where a planning department runs the P6 methodology confidently, switching solves no problem – it removes a working foundation.

Scheduling and capacity planning in Linetrack across several departments and parallel projects

There is also a division of labour that stays in place: for ad-hoc calculations, data preparation and free-form what-if analysis, Excel is faster than any planning system – including in companies that plan with Linetrack. Switching only pays off once several departments have to maintain the same plan, or several projects compete for the same people. From that point the question moves from visualization to organization – and therefore to multi-project management.

Method

How we compare

This page is a vendor comparison. It is written by Linetrack, and Linetrack is one of the parties being compared. That belongs at the top, not in a footnote.

The Linetrack figures come from a full survey of all live Linetrack implementations, as of August 2026. Multiple answers were possible for the starting problems. It is neither a sample nor a market study, and shares are deliberately given as percentages.

The statements about Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project and Oracle Primavera P6 describe the products as their vendors publicly document them. They are not measurements and not a benchmark: nothing was run against anything else, no times were taken and no feature scope was scored.

Collaborative planning in Linetrack, with every department maintaining its own share

Where another tool can do more, this page and the individual comparisons say so explicitly – the critical path being the clearest example. No separate figures exist for replaced Primavera installations, which is why none appear here. What cannot be substantiated is better settled in a first conversation than in a chart.

Switching over

Moving off the tool you use today

The import is a finished standard function and part of the product: schedules from Microsoft Project and Primavera, project and task lists from Excel and master data from SAP are read in instead of being retyped. No separate interface development is needed – which means the existing planning is not an argument against switching.

The qualification belongs with it: this is a data migration, not an ongoing sync between two systems. What Linetrack keeps permanently in sync is ERP, time-tracking and HR data; which systems those are in detail is set out in the interfaces and integrations overview.

Work breakdown structure in Linetrack with tasks, durations and dependencies after the data migration

What matters afterwards is not the import but the first plan of your own. The median time between kick-off and the first self-planned project is ten working days, regardless of company size. The phased process behind it is described on the implementation page.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Still have questions?

Book a meeting with our team.

Which of the three comparisons is the right one for us?

The one that matches the tool holding the binding schedule today: Linetrack vs. Excel if planning happens in spreadsheets; Linetrack vs. Microsoft Project if a planner runs the schedule; Linetrack vs. Oracle Primavera P6 if a dedicated scheduler role exists. Where several tools are in use, the comparison with the project managers' tool is the right place to start.

We plan with two tools at once – what does the switch look like then?

That is the normal case, not the exception: schedules in MS Project, capacity and order lists in Excel alongside them. Both imports are standard functions and run one after the other into the same data foundation. The effort does not come from the number of source tools, it comes from agreeing how deep the planning should go and which department maintains which share. Which systems are connected permanently beyond that is covered under interfaces and integrations.

What does Linetrack cost – regardless of what we plan with today?

From 10 € per user and month, modular by number of users, roles and the functional modules booked. A planning simulation before the decision is free of charge, and suppliers receive a free collaboration licence. Linetrack does not comment on Microsoft's or Oracle's licence models – they depend on product and contract and they change. A reliable figure for your setup comes out of a first conversation.

What does Linetrack explicitly not do?

Linetrack does not record working times and does not resolve an overload by itself. It also does not replan automatically: the software calculates a shift through the chain, marks the critical path and shows the consequence – the decision is made by people. And it is not intended for schedules that are contractually owed in a particular format.

Can we keep running Linetrack alongside Microsoft Project, Primavera or Excel?

Yes. Individual plans may still be built in MS Project and imported for the cross-project view. For ad-hoc calculations and reports, companies running Linetrack still export to Excel. And needing Primavera P6 for one large project does not mean the rest of the portfolio has to be run there as well.

Where do the figures in these comparisons come from?

The Linetrack figures come from a full survey of all live Linetrack implementations, as of August 2026; multiple answers were possible for the starting problems. The statements about Excel, Microsoft Project and Primavera P6 describe the products as their vendors publicly document them – they are not measurements and not a benchmark. No separate figures exist for replaced Primavera installations.

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