Best Capacity Planning Software for Agencies in 2026: 8 Tools Compared

Float is the category leader for one reason: the visual scheduling interface is the cleanest in any tool we tested. Drag a task across days, see real-time conflict detection, and watch utilization update in the sidebar. The PTO calendar reduces capacity automatically. Project budgets connect to allocations. Filters let you slice by role, department, or skill.

Pricing is $7.50/user/month for Resource Planning, $12.50 for Resource Planning + Time Tracking, and $17.50 for the full Plus tier. For a 10-person agency on Resource Planning + Time Tracking, that is $125/month — modest. Reports are presentation-quality and exportable. The biggest weakness is project-budget integration — Float tracks hours against budgets but is not a billing tool.

Resource Guru competes with Float on the same core job and undercuts on price. Grasshopper plan is $5/user/month with scheduling and dashboards. Blackbelt plan is $10/user/month with reporting and clash management. For an 8-person agency on Grasshopper, that is $40/month — half what Float costs.

The interface is slightly less polished than Float, and forecasting depth is shallower. But Resource Guru handles the core capacity workflow cleanly and the price-to-features ratio is the best in the category for small teams. Permission model is simple — Float has more nuanced role controls if you need them.

Forecast positions itself as the AI-assisted capacity tool. Its prediction engine suggests resource allocations based on past project patterns, role utilization, and current pipeline. It includes project management, time tracking, and budget tools alongside capacity — closer to an all-in-one than a pure scheduling tool.

Pricing starts at $29/user/month (Lite) with Pro at $49/user. For a 10-person team on Lite, that is $290/month — pricier than dedicated tools. The AI suggestions are useful but require 6+ months of historical data to be meaningful. For agencies with consistent project shapes, the AI value compounds. For varied or one-off project agencies, the AI is less differentiating.

Productive includes capacity planning as part of a broader agency operations platform with strong margin analytics. The differentiator is cost-rate awareness — allocations show estimated cost per hour, so you can see whether the work you are committing to is profitable before scheduling it. The capacity view is solid but not as visually clean as Float.

Pricing starts at $11/user/month (Essential) with Professional at $24/user. The platform breadth is the value — capacity, time tracking, retainers, and billing all live together. For agencies serious about margin, Productive is one of the strongest options. For agencies that just need capacity scheduling, dedicated tools are simpler.

Runn focuses on forward-looking capacity. Scenario planning lets you model different project outcomes — what happens to capacity if we win this RFP, lose that retainer, or hire two designers in Q3? Visualizations make it easy to compare scenarios side by side. For agencies making hiring decisions or evaluating new business opportunities, Runn is uniquely useful.

Pricing starts at $10/user/month (Pro). The interface is forecast-first, which makes it less immediately useful for week-to-week scheduling than Float. For agencies whose biggest capacity question is six months out (not next week), Runn is the right answer.

Formerly Resource Management by Smartsheet (and before that, 10000ft), this is the enterprise option for large services organizations. It includes portfolio-level capacity modeling, multi-region team views, and integration with Smartsheet for project management. Aimed at 100+ person services and consulting firms.

Pricing is custom (typically $20-30/user/month at enterprise scale with annual contracts). Implementation involves Smartsheet professional services. Overkill for agencies under 50 people. For services organizations integrating capacity with portfolio-level project visibility, it is one of the few credible options.

Mosaic uses AI to suggest workload rebalancing across team members — if Designer A is over 100% allocated and Designer B is under 60%, Mosaic suggests redistributing. It integrates with project management tools (Asana, Monday, Jira) and pulls allocation data automatically.

Pricing starts at $9.99/user/month (Team Member) with Manager tier higher. The AI suggestions can be useful but require trust — overriding the algorithm is common in early adoption. For agencies frustrated by manual workload balancing across larger teams, Mosaic is worth a trial. For smaller teams or simple workflows, dedicated tools handle the same job with less complexity.