ProjectLibre — The Complete Guide: Free Scheduling and Gantt Charts Instead of MS Project
ProjectLibre is open-source project management and scheduling software that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It was deliberately built to look and work like MS Project: a task table on the left, a Gantt chart on the right, and the same concepts — dependencies, milestones, resources and critical path. Most importantly, it opens and saves .mpp files.
ProjectLibre
ProjectLibre
An open-source alternative to Microsoft Project — Gantt, critical path and resource management.
Get it from the vendorWhat you can do in ProjectLibre
- Scheduling — tasks, subtasks, durations, dependencies (FS, SS, FF, SF) and lags.
- Critical path — automatic highlighting of the tasks where any delay delays the project.
- Resources and costs — assigning people and equipment, rates and cost per task.
- Tracking — baseline, percent complete and earned value analysis.
- Views — Gantt, network (PERT) diagram, WBS, resource histogram and reports.
A construction schedule — step by step
1. Build a work breakdown structure (WBS): earthworks, foundations, frame, envelope, services, finishes. 2. Enter tasks with realistic durations. 3. Link dependencies — don't set dates by hand. 4. Define a calendar with working days and holidays. 5. Save a baseline before execution starts. 6. Update progress weekly and check the critical path.
What's missing
No real-time collaboration and no cloud. Resource levelling is more limited, and very complex MS Project files may lose some settings in the transfer. No support for Primavera P6 (XER) files.
Who it suits
Project managers and site engineers, supervisors who need to open the contractor's schedule, subcontractors, and project management students.
Alternatives by need
For a simpler schedule — GanttProject. For a team working in the browser — OpenProject. For tracking defects and tasks — Redmine.
GanttProject
GanttProject
A simple, fast Gantt chart with resources and PDF export.
Get it from the vendorOpenProject — Community Edition
OpenProject GmbH
Team project management in the browser — Gantt, tasks, documents and time tracking, self-hosted.
Get it from the vendorRedmine
Redmine Project
Task and issue tracking for an engineering project — with Gantt, time tracking and documentation.
Get it from the vendorBottom line
If you need to build, open or update an MS Project-style schedule, ProjectLibre does most of the work for free.