Float Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

TLDR

Float is resource planning software that lets agencies schedule who works on which project, spot overbooked people, and forecast budgets. We found the scheduling the fastest in its class and the pricing fair, but it is a planner, not a full project manager. Best for: agencies billing people across client work. Price: from $7/person/mo, no free plan. Rating: 7.8/10.

What is Float?

Float is a resource planning and capacity scheduling tool. Its job is to answer one question for service businesses: who is working on what, and when. You drag people onto projects on a visual timeline, set how many hours a day they are allocated, and instantly see who is overbooked and who has free capacity. Time off, public holidays, and part-time schedules all fold into the same view, so you are never planning against people who are not actually available.

Float has been around since 2012 and is built specifically for agencies, studios, and professional services teams rather than general project work. That narrow focus shows. Where tools like Asana or monday.com try to do everything, Float does scheduling and forecasting and does them cleanly. It matters now because agencies run thinner margins than ever, and the difference between a profitable project and a loss is often just knowing whether your senior designer is double-booked next week.

The problem Float solves is one almost every growing agency hits. In the early days a spreadsheet works fine for tracking who is on what. Then you cross 10 or 15 people, projects start overlapping, and the spreadsheet becomes a daily source of conflict and missed deadlines. Float replaces that mess with a single live view everyone trusts, and that shift from guesswork to a shared source of truth is the real reason teams adopt it.

What Are Float’s Key Features?

Visual Resource Scheduling

The heart of Float is a drag-and-drop schedule that shows every person as a row and every day as a column. You assign work in seconds, drag to extend it, and split allocations across projects. We found it the fastest scheduler we tested, with none of the lag or clutter that bogs down all-in-one tools. Color-coded utilization makes overbooking obvious at a glance, which is the whole point.

Capacity and Time-Off Management

Float tracks each person’s working hours, part-time arrangements, and time off, then factors all of it into capacity. So when someone is on holiday or only works three days a week, the schedule reflects real availability rather than an idealized 40 hours. You can also add placeholders for roles you have not hired yet, one on Starter and five on Pro, to plan around future headcount.

Forecasting and Project Budgets

This is where Float earns its keep for agencies. You set project budgets and estimated hours, then track planned versus actual time and billable versus non-billable work. The finance dashboard on the Pro plan shows project margins and whether you are on track to make money. It is not as deep as a dedicated finance tool, but for most agencies it is enough to catch a project going over before it is too late.

Built-In Time Tracking (Pro)

Pro adds time tracking so people can log hours against the same projects they are scheduled on, feeding the estimates-versus-actuals reports. It is a clean loop: plan the work, track the work, compare the two. Because the schedule pre-fills what each person was expected to work on, logging actuals takes seconds rather than forcing people to rebuild their day from memory. The downside is that time tracking only exists on the $12 Pro plan, so teams that need it cannot use the cheaper Starter tier.

Integrations and Project Sync

Float connects to the tools agencies already run, syncing projects from Asana, Trello, and Jira, and pushing schedules into Google Calendar and Outlook so people see their assignments where they already look. There is also a Slack integration for notifications and a public API for custom workflows. This matters because Float is meant to sit beside your project manager, not replace it, and the sync keeps the two views from drifting apart.

How Much Does Float Cost?

Float starts at $7 per scheduled person per month on the Starter plan, which covers scheduling, capacity, time off, unlimited projects, and margin tracking. The Pro plan is $12 per scheduled person per month and adds time tracking, estimates versus actuals, the finance dashboard, and SSO. Enterprise is custom-priced for large orgs that need dedicated support and SLAs.

The clever part is the pricing model: you only pay for people you actually schedule, and anyone who just needs to view or be a guest is free. That is fairer than seat-based rivals. Resource Guru is cheaper for basic scheduling at $5 per person per month on its Grasshopper tier, but you climb to $8 (Blackbelt) or $12 (Master) for timesheets and budgets, landing right alongside Float. Runn offers a free plan for up to 5 people and pushes harder on financial forecasting, which appeals to finance-first agencies.

There is no permanent free plan on Float. You get a full 30-day Pro trial with no credit card required, which is generous and lets you test the finance features before committing. For a 10-person agency on Pro that works out to $120/mo, reasonable for software that prevents the overbooking and budget overruns that quietly kill agency profit. One avoided over-budget project usually covers a full year of the subscription, which is the kind of math that makes resource tools an easy sell internally.

The pay-per-scheduled-person model also keeps the bill honest as you grow. You are not paying for the freelancer who joins for one sprint and leaves, or for stakeholders who only want to glance at the schedule, since both can be guests for free. Compared to seat-based competitors that charge for every login, that structure tends to save real money for agencies with a fluctuating roster, and it removes the temptation to under-license your team.

Who is Float Best For?

Use Float if you run an agency, design studio, consultancy, or software team and you bill people out across multiple client projects. If your core problem is knowing who has capacity, preventing double-booking, and forecasting whether projects will land on budget, Float solves it better and faster than almost anything else. The clean interface means your project managers will actually keep the schedule up to date, which is half the battle.

Skip Float if you want an all-in-one project manager. There are no task lists, no comments, no file sharing, and no team chat. It assumes you run the actual project work somewhere else, like Asana, Jira, or Trello, and use Float purely for the people-planning layer. Also skip the cheap Starter tier if you need time tracking, because that feature is Pro-only and effectively sets your floor at $12 per person.

Best Float Alternatives

Resource Guru

Resource Guru is the most direct cheaper rival. Its Grasshopper plan is $5 per person per month for clean, simple scheduling, undercutting Float’s $7 Starter. It also schedules equipment and meeting rooms, not just people, which Float does not. The catch is you need the $8 Blackbelt or $12 Master tiers to match Float’s budgets and timesheets, so the price gap narrows fast once you want forecasting.

Runn

Runn is the finance-first alternative. It does the same capacity planning as Float but leans harder into profitability forecasting, scenario planning, and financial reporting, which makes it a favorite for agencies obsessed with margins. It also has a free tier for up to 5 people, so very small teams can start at no cost. The trade-off is a steeper learning curve than Float’s breezy interface.

monday.com

monday.com is the all-in-one option for teams that want scheduling, tasks, and collaboration in one platform rather than bolting Float onto a separate project tool. Its Work Management plans start around $9 per seat per month, and resourcing is one feature among many. It is the better pick if you would rather pay for one broad tool than run a dedicated scheduler, though its resource views are less specialized than Float’s.

Final Verdict: Is Float Worth It?

Float earns a 7.8 because it nails the one job it sets out to do. The scheduling is the fastest and clearest we tested, the pay-per-scheduled-person pricing is genuinely fair, and the forecasting is strong enough to keep agency projects profitable. For any service business juggling people across client work, it is one of the easiest tools to recommend at $7 to $12 per person.

The reason it is not higher is scope. Float is a planner, not a project manager, so you will run it alongside another tool for tasks and communication, and the time tracking you may need is gated behind the pricier Pro plan. If you want deeper finance forecasting, look at Runn; if you want everything in one place, look at monday.com. But if resource scheduling is your actual pain, Float is the specialist worth buying.