Bubble PPM vs. Microsoft Project

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Bubble PPM
Score 6.6 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Bubble PPM is a cloud-based Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) software solution from Bubble®. Founded in 1999, the company serves clients globally via offices in London, Cambridge, and Melbourne. Its cloud-based solutions help customers improve the planning, governance, and delivery of Innovation, New Product Development, Engineering, IT, and other initiatives. Their software supports Portfolio Planning, ongoing Project and Portfolio Management, and Resource management.…N/A
Microsoft Project
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
$0
Pricing
Bubble PPMMicrosoft Project
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Project Server
$0
Planner Plan 1
$10
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 3
$30
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 5
$55
per month per user
Project Standard 2024
$679.99
one-time fee per installation
Project Professional 2024
$1,129.99
one-time fee per installation
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Bubble PPMMicrosoft Project
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsElement 1: One-time fixed SaaS set-up fee One-time investment based on required configuration and deployment. Element 2: Monthly license fee Calculated on #users (per user type). Variable - According to required users/types.Plans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Bubble PPMMicrosoft Project
Features
Bubble PPMMicrosoft Project
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Bubble PPM
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
9.1
Ratings
17% above category average
Task Management00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Resource Management00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Team Collaboration00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Document Management00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Email integration00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Bubble PPM
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
10.0
Ratings
28% above category average
Quotes/estimates00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
User Ratings
Bubble PPMMicrosoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Bubble PPMMicrosoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend
No stage gate or portfolio reporting solution can overcome poor input data. The organization has to be willing to commit to consistent and rigorous updates of the information, or the reporting becomes useless. From what I've seen of competitive systems, Bubble Innovator is the easiest to use in this regard, so the excuse of not having good data because it's painful to upload or cumbersome to retrieve goes away. And the ease with which you can produce customized reports allows you to immediately find the gaps and weak points in your data, and take action to address them. That's not to say that every report and function in Bubble Innovator is perfect. But the close collaboration and responsiveness of the Bubble Innovation team has made it relatively easy to triage, prioritize, and implement improvements along the way.
Read full review
Microsoft Project is the perfect platform for medium and large companies. I do not recommend this software for small businesses, because all its functions in the work plans are high cost and this would cause the small business to not perform well in the use of MS Project in the long term. It is very easy to use software, it allows adding, modifying and eliminating all kinds of assignments and tasks for all employees, it allows monitoring the progress of all projects in real time and it also shows the gaps in the planned project. It has a very good performance, it does not take up many computer resources and all the information is stored in sync with the Office 365 service. It occasionally has crashing problems, but this is something that does not affect users as much.
Read full review
Pros
  • The Bubble team is outstanding at providing technical support, query response times are often within an hour and resolutions (depending on the level of complexity of the query) follow very quickly after this. They provide a professional, reliable service.
  • The software design is simple, intuitive and more accessible than many of the alternatives on the market. It does not require licenses, installations, internal servers, extensive training programs. It doesn't interface directly with 'business management' software which provides flexibility and development opportunities.
  • The Bubble team have a depth of knowledge for new product development processes and relevant industries, and provide much more than just the software. The teams are actively involved in process design beyond the software, and their recommendations have been invaluable when establishing a new stage-gate process across our organisation.
Read full review
  • It is part of Office365 subscription. The look and feel is similar to other tools like excel. Helps in creating project plans, Gantt charts, work break down structures etc.
  • Helps in resource allocation and tracking the projects. There is an option to use it to capture timesheets too.
  • Helps project managers in producing weekly status reports and integrates well with other collaboration tools like Skype, sharepoint etc.
Read full review
Cons
  • Only thing I can think of is almost piddly, that is having to scroll on a screen within the web browser - so that you have to scroll the screen then scroll the browser screen to get to the bottom of a chart.
Read full review
  • Remote work can be challenging - as Project must be downloaded to a specific computer.
  • Upgrading to the top of the line version can feel like a requirement. There is a lot of functionality that is not available unless in the most expensive pay-tiers.
  • Microsoft Project can be extremely expensive on a per user basis. Other tools can be much more cost-effective - especially for more basic project management needs.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
The business has been extremely satisfied with Bubble Innovator and is in support of rolling this tool out to our other businesses within the overall franchise.
Read full review
I like using Microsoft Project. It simplifies building a schedule
Read full review
Usability
The user interface is highly visual and simple. Literally within 10-15 minutes of my introduction to the software, I was up and running. Of course, deeper capabilities become apparent after additional use, but the basic functionality is very simple to grasp. Where there are consistent challenges reported by multiple users, the Bubble Innovation team is quick to connect and put plans in place to address the challenges.
Read full review
Microsoft
Project is easy to operate because data could be inserted, changed and
deleted like you are in an Excel timesheet. Besides, it provides a great
level of automation beween his fields allowing few data changes. Also, its
funcionalities are well defined and grouped in upper menus, so you can find a
funcionality quickly
Read full review
Support Rating
Outstanding response times, and solutions to issues requiring support are quickly implemented. For bigger issues or longer term developments, Bubble happily takes the time to meet in person and discuss requirements to drive detailed solutions.
Read full review
I’m giving MS Project an 8 because in general this is a solid scheduling program. It’s definitely designed with the professional in mind, and they have done well preparing the program to integrate with their other Microsoft products. The program is a workhorse so if you have serious scheduling needs then I would highly recommend MS Project.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
The number of variables made this extremely challenging (org changes, stage gate harmonization, pipeline prioritization, and new governance model). I think the implementation was handled very well in spite of this, and managed to deliver on time and on budget.
Read full review
I wasn't part of it so I don't know
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Prior to Bubble PPM we attempted use of many of the well-known project management tools to manage our product development work. Those other project management tools were met with frustration in attempts to implement them because they are more focused with the timing and scheduling of individual projects rather than capturing the full portfolio of possible candidate projects and selecting the most strategic and valuable projects to move forward. Bubble PPM was the first system we found that was purpose-built for managing product development work, and its implementation was very successful from the beginning with the personal help given by the team at Bubble.
Read full review
Microsoft Project provided more robust, collaborative solution to Turnkey Project Management. With Excel like sheets for Project Task Schedules are used for contractors and users it was well accepted i.e good UI UX. Integration capability of Microsoft Project Online with Power App and Power Automate + Share point made collaboration most useful. Security features of Microsoft Project is managed by Azure Active Directory Settings.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Bubble Innovator helped us drive new product on time deliveries to 80% on-time product launches.
  • Our corporate target was new product making up 20% of our annual revenues. Bubble Innovator helped us manage our resources to plan and exceed that goal.
  • Bubble innovator allowed us to redeploy a full time team member that was managing spreadsheets of information for monthly updates. It also saved our project managers significant amounts of time that they could dedicate back to their projects.
Read full review
  • Since it is reasonable priced and flexible and fits into our Microsoft products, it meets our objectives
  • It has prevented expensive scope creep, this has saved us money and had solid ROI
  • Project does require light training cost to use it effectively
Read full review
ScreenShots

Bubble PPM Screenshots

Screenshot of an example of the Portfolio Management Dashboards (Fully Configurable)Screenshot of an example of the Project Management Dashboards (Fully Configurable)Screenshot of the real-time metrics and automated project reporting, presented in editable dashboard tiles that display project status indicators, tabulated data, and summary overviews, as well as metric ratios, KPIs, and calculated metrics. The reporting module makes it possible to quickly share summaries for any number of selected projects and automation tools can facilitate the generation of reports that need to be shared at fixed intervals. And because the very latest information is always available, senior management can obtain a presentation-ready report at any time (without adding to the workload of your team)Screenshot of the program and project management tools that allow portfolio managers to manage many processes or projects in tandem. Users can track delivery according to priorities, dependencies, or other drivers. This provides the ability to create and link parent and child projects provides an oversight of all project activity while, at the same time, focusing on higher-level program goals. Line extensions, annual updates, or other Projects can be duplicated in whole or in part and required elements are copied across, saving valuable time and effort. Process measurement tools allow users to spot, analyze, and continuously refine process blockers and bottlenecks.Screenshot of where any number of project management processes can be added to the system and automated, meaning it's easy to accommodate all projects and project types (e.g. New Product Development (NPD), Innovation, Reserach, IT, Project Management Office (PMO) projects).Screenshot of where users can get a view of organization wide, department, team, or person views, of resource allocation and total capacity. They can also assign time to projects by hours, days, percentage, etc. Assigned and required resources can be viewed together or separately. Assignment summaries can be used to see precisely who’s working on what, where the pressure points are, when there’s a risk of becoming overloaded. Where resource gaps could be filled is discovered by assigning underutilized capacity from elsewhere. Automatic charts that graphically flag where total available resources are overtaken by the number of projects required help to support long-term planning.