For full capabilities rivaling those of Microsoft Project, TurboProject Professional 4 is perfect for careful creation and control of projects and progress communication. While suitable for simple projects, TurboProject really shines at scheduling (you can create recurring activities), handling tasks and resource relationships (Task 2 starts when Task 1 completes), and tracking costs. TurboProject uses spreadsheets to display booth resources by activity, and activity by resources—a particularly versatile strength.

TurboProject is a full-featured project management package that is available at an affordable price…with its customizable reports and multiple tools for finding over-allocated resources and editing projects, it earns our nod for Smart Choice in this roundup. TurboProject offers nearly all the features found in Microsoft Project at a much lower price. TurboProject earned the Smart Choice award because of its flexible interface, solid tutorial, and low price.