GanttProject Review

No pricing page, no changelog, no blog. That's not a red flag for a $0 desktop app, but it means there's no evidence of active investment beyond the GPL3 codebase itself.

Two things matter here. One: does it do the job? Yes — Gantt scheduling, resource costing, MS Project import/export, PDF export, all present. Two: does it advance us anywhere? No. It saves cost on what Microsoft Project or TeamGantt already do, nothing more.

This isn't a board conversation. It's an IT approval for a free tool a PM wants on their laptop. GanttProject Cloud exists for collaboration but pricing is unconfirmed, which tells me the commercial side is thin.

As COO I run status through a single system every leadership and client checks weekly. GanttProject is a desktop app — file-based, offline, no account. WebDAV locking and a separate GanttProject Cloud add-on exist for multi-user work, but that's a bolt-on to a tool built local-first, not collaboration by design like TeamGantt or OpenProject.

The scheduling craft is genuinely solid: task hierarchy with lag constraints, resource load charts, baselines to track plan drift, PERT chart generation. That's PM-textbook depth, comparable to Microsoft Project's core engine, at zero license cost. Ceiling is real for a single planner.

Over three years the constraint shows up organizationally: file-passing or a Cloud subscription of unconfirmed price, no API, no docs, no changelog per this evidence. If my org needs one shared source of truth across 30 stakeholders, this creates workarounds, not infrastructure. Fine for a solo PM or small construction/engineering shop; wrong bet as company-wide PM infrastructure.

$0 desktop app. Pay-what-you-wish. No SSO tax, no seat tax — there's no seat model at all. 50 users, 3 years: $0 licensing, versus TeamGantt or Microsoft Project charging per-seat monthly.

GanttProject Cloud is the catch. Listed as 'Free' in the pricing table, but the plan description admits exact subscription pricing wasn't confirmed publicly. That's a real gap for procurement — you can't budget an unknown line item. Desktop tier is fully transparent: Gantt charts, resource costing, MS Project import/export, PDF/CSV/PNG output, all included, no upsell wall.

Contract terms: none, because there's no contract on desktop. No auto-renewal, no term length, no cancellation process to negotiate. GPL3 means you can fork it if the vendor vanishes — rare insurance in this category. TCO risk isn't the software. It's training time on a desktop-only tool when your team wants Slack-native collaboration. Cloud add-on cost is the one unresolved number here.

Setup-to-chart in minutes, task hierarchy with lag constraints auto-enforced, resource load charts for cost tracking — the core PM loop is all there, free, GPL3, no account wall. That's real. But day 3 is when the WebDAV file-locking model shows its age: concurrent editing exists, but it's not Asana or TeamGantt's live multiplayer feel, it's checking a file in and out like 2008 SharePoint.

MS Project import/export works, which matters if you're inheriting a legacy .mpp schedule from a client. PERT chart auto-generation and baselines are genuinely useful for EVM-style status reporting, and they're discoverable in the menu rather than hidden behind a paywall.

No docs/API/changelog surfaced in evidence — for a tool this deep, that's a gap for anyone troubleshooting dependency logic alone at 11pm. GanttProject Cloud pricing is unconfirmed, which is its own red flag for budget approval.

Zero dollars, works offline, no login wall. That alone puts it ahead of half the trial-then-paywall project tools out there. You install it, you get a Gantt chart with tasks, dependencies, resources, cost tracking, and you can export to Microsoft Project format if your client is stuck in 2015. No setup tax, no 'invite your team to unlock this feature' nonsense.

But day three is where it gets quiet. There's no mobile app at all, which for a PM tool in 2024 is a real gap — you're chained to whatever desktop you installed it on. Collaboration means WebDAV file locking or the separate paid Cloud add-on, neither of which feels like Slack-era teamwork, more like 2008-era shared drives.

Compared to TeamGantt or OpenProject, this thing looks and feels dated, and there's no mobile parity story whatsoever. But if you just need a real Gantt chart, free, that opens .mpp files, it does that without complaint.

Three tells I look for: superlative headline, missing pricing page, no funding data. Two of three are here. No pricing page, no changelog listed, no docs link. That's normal for a volunteer open-source project — abnormal for anything claiming category leadership.

But the pitch is modest. 'Free desktop project management software' is not aspirational marketing. It doesn't oversell. Pay-what-you-wish plus GPL3 licensing checks out against what's delivered: MS Project import/export, CSV/PDF/PNG export, task dependencies, PERT charts. Compare to TeamGantt or OpenProject — those have hosted infra and roadmaps you can watch. GanttProject's cloud tier has no confirmed pricing at all.

Exit portability is the strongest part of this story. Local files, open format, GPL3 source. If the project stalls, you're not locked into anything. I've seen this pattern before with jEdit, with early Blender — open source outlives its own hype cycle more often than SaaS does. Long-term viability is the real unknown here: no visible team, no cadence signals.