Is The Free Tier any Good?

The Free Tier Mode allows teams with up to seven developers to use The PlanMinder for free. The caveat is that in Free Tier Mode, Monte Carlo simulations and thus uncertainty calculations are not available. Is The PlanMinder still useful?

Most project planning software does not have this feature available at all. Compared with other alternatives, you are not missing out at all. You still get a powerful planning tool built around automatic scheduling, making changing plans and keeping them up to date easy.

For smaller teams that do not need to plan that far into the future, Free Tier may be a perfect option.

What is the difference?

The PlanMinder will schedule all activities using the expected duration. This is what is always shown in the Gantt chart of the Chronos view. The box and whiskers plot that indicates the uncertainty of when a milestone will be reached will, however, be missing. Both in the Chronos view and in the Priority view. Without Monte Carlo simulations, The PlanMinder can’t calculate the probability of reaching a deadline on time either. Only one date is calculated, based on the expected outcome of each activity.

Milestone Priority List in Free Tier Mode

Milestone Priority List in Licensed Mode

For a single activity, the model predicts a 63% chance of finishing before the scheduled date. When activities are scheduled in parallel, the probability drops slightly. When using Free Tier, you must keep this in mind, and not be overly confident in the projected dates.

Discrete Risks

You can still use discrete risks in Free Tier Mode, but they become less meaningful. Discrete risks are a way to incorporate known project risks in the uncertainty analysis for project plans. Without uncertainty analysis, there is no way to visualize their effect.

If a risk has a probability of 50% or higher, it’s fully included in the scheduled plan. Otherwise, it will be ignored by the scheduler.

Answer: Yes!

The PlanMinder in Free Tier Mode is a powerful tool, that will save you time when planning, help you keep your plans up to date at all times, empower your team with the information it provides and help you get better at estimating.

The fully licensed version of The PlanMinder is a great tool that also lets you monitor, plan for, and mitigate risks, optimize your plans and seize opportunities.

The choice is yours, and you can always change your mind. With the 60-day trial period you have time to explore the full experience.