See why digital services companies are choosing Parallax over Mavenlink and OpenAir to give their teams accurate, real-time insights and forecasts that accelerate their growth, with fewer disruptions to their workflows. Keep reading to discover in-depth feature comparisons and pricing for these three tools.

Table of Contents:

• Platform Comparison Overview 
• Parallax
• Mavenlink
• OpenAir
• Platform Comparison Table
• Parallax vs Mavenlink vs OpenAir: Which is best?
• Feature Comparison Table
• Platform Advantages and Potential Drawbacks
• Recommendations

Platform Comparison Overview

Overview of Parallax 

Compared to the other monolithic, all-in-one PSA tools on the market, Parallax takes a decidedly different approach. Through native integrations with the best-in-class tools agencies and development shops already use, Parallax delivers better resource management, tighter operations, and stronger performance. With this integrations-first approach, Parallax resolves common friction points and business challenges for services companies and delivers shared visibility across the business. Parallax integrations include the top CRMs, timesheet tools, and project management platforms. 

Parallax brings data together to remove the friction and emotion from decision making – especially across sales and delivery teams, helping to answer critical business questions like:

• “Do we have enough revenue to support our team size?” 
• “Do we have the capacity to take on new work, or do I need to hire?”  
• “What happens to capacity and utilization if we close certain deals in the sales pipeline?” 

Parallax makes it easy to pre-plan, schedule, and allocate resources by creating a shared view of planned utilization, making proactive resourcing planning and forecasting possible. Powerful insights and reporting curate data together to allow sales, delivery, finance, and management teams to scenario plan and make smarter decisions together. And a focused implementation and onboarding process gets Parallax customers up to speed and seeing value in the platform within 90 days.

A powerful and differentiated feature in Parallax also includes sales pipeline scenario planning and its impact on planned utilization. Within Parallax, users can see real-time sales pipeline data at any deal stage and toggle on or off certain deals in order to see their impact on future utilization. This centralized insight is the foundation for conversations on hiring, resource allocation, performance, and so much more. 

 Read more about Parallax solutions. 

Overview of Mavenlink 

The Mavenlink and Kimble PSAs recently combined under one brand called Kantata. This professional services automation platform centralizes operations and tools into one core solution to help services organizations optimize their resource planning and decision making. By offering an all-in-one automation solution or integrating components of existing tools, Mavenlink / Kantata helps organizations view and forecast their utilization and make data-driven decisions. In order to get the most out of the Mavenlink / Kantata platform, users are encouraged to migrate data from existing systems and adopt their tools and processes, meaning implementation can take six months or longer.

Overview of OpenAir

An extension of Oracle’s NetSuite ERP, OpenAir is an all-in-one cloud-based professional services automation platform for a wide array of services businesses. The platform provides integrated time tracking, project management, resource management, expense tracking, and invoicing – offering a single platform to run a services organization. OpenAir’s thousands of global customers all use the same version and codebase, with options for configurability and customization. Migration and adoption of this all-in-one ERP platform can often take 6-12 months to fully implement. 

Platform comparison table

	Parallax	Mavenlink / Kantata	OpenAir
Company Information	Founded in 2018 40+ employees	Founded in 2009 400+ employees	Founded in 1999 200+ employees
Website	getparallax.com	kantata.com	openair.com
Target Company Size	2-500+	50-5000+	2-1000+
Implementation & Adoption	Integration-first resource planning engine to curate data from across the business for smarter decisions. Rapid onboarding and implementation.	Numerous features and many reporting options, all-in-one tools or integrations offered. 3-6 month implementation.	Centralized, all-in-one platform for billing / invoicing, time / expense tracking, project management, and CRM. 6-12 month implementation.
Pricing	Pricing is per billable resource and locked for the duration of the contract, even if companies grow. No additional costs for implementation, consulting or custom reporting.	Pricing per user can change during the duration of a contract term. Integrations often cost extra.	Multiple pricing tiers, with a basic plan starting at $399/ month.
Support & Training	Live in person, online, webinars, docs, and videos	Live in person, online, webinars, docs, and videos	Live in person, online, webinars, docs, and videos
Customer Review Ratings	Parallax reviews	Mavenlink / Kantata reviews	OpenAir reviews

Parallax vs Mavenlink vs OpenAir: Which one is best? 

Resource management and forecasting tools all deliver better visibility into how your agency or studio operates. How companies achieve that visibility and the hidden costs of a consolidated toolset are what sets Parallax apart. Before taking the big bet and long implementation of an all-in-one tool, Parallax delivers resource visibility faster and keeps your teams in the tools they currently enjoy. Parallax delivers more value, faster, and locks in your price from the very beginning, even if you add more users along the way. 

Parallax is purpose-built for digital services companies: agencies and software development studios. Mavenlink and OpenAir offer a solution for a broad array of services companies which can result in an “everything for everyone” user experience. Plus, the implementation and adoption timelines for all-in-one tools can create massive disruptions to workflows and take months (or years) to get right. Parallax is committed to driving adoption and implementation in 90 days or less, so users can unlock value from their investment quickly. 

Feature Comparison

Feature	Parallax	Mavenlink	OpenAir
Focused on resource planning and capacity forecasting for digital agencies and software development shops only	✓	X	X
Automatic integration of sales pipeline data at any deal stage allowing deeper scenario planning	✓	X	X
Rapid adoption and implementation on a 90 day schedule	✓	X	X
Additive to existing tech stack without disrupting existing tools and workflows	✓	X	X

Platform advantages and potential drawbacks 

Standing up an ERP or all-in-one PSA tool can represent significant change and disruption for an organization. A single centralized tool with a long implementation and adoption timeline is a big bet that can take months or longer to reveal much value. Companies may struggle to unlock key insights tied to core elements of these tools – like resource management and planning – if time tracking and project management components aren’t properly dialed in first. 

Companies may also expect cost savings with a consolidated toolset, which can be true. However, the time, effort, and disruption required to replace core business applications can often outweigh long-term cost savings. 

Parallax advantages

• Native integrations
  • Parallax is purpose built to serve as a force multiplier for the CRM, project management and timesheet tools your team is already using. Don’t rip and replace everything when you can curate a source of truth across the platforms teams already use and love. Parallax integrates with top CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, meaning sales team members get the same experience as always, but their deal and project data flows directly into Parallax for better visibility on resource planning. 
• Predictable pricing
  • Parallax delivers a sense of pricing from the very first conversations, and there are no hidden fees for consulting or integrations. Plus, the company doesn’t charge for freelancers or non-billable users to use the tool. Parallax pricing is locked, even if companies add more employees. 
• Ongoing consulting
  • Parallax customer success champions to get customers up and running in Parallax in weeks – not months of hard slogs to implement and integrate. And the company keeps its champions connected to customers as often as they want, ensuring everyone is getting as much value as possible from the platform. 

Ready to take the next step? 

Digital services companies have a bevy of great tools to do awesome work. Resource planning solutions like Parallax utilize the best parts of an existing tech stack to be a force multiplier for stronger operations. Others take a consolidated approach to merge operations, planning, and reporting into one system. Implementation timelines can often be a barrier to adoption. 

Get in touch to learn more about the Parallax approach to resource management and forecasting and start leveling up your operations today.