The 10 best Planful competitors and alternatives in 2025

In the early days, FP&A software was little more than a structured alternative to spreadsheets, good for budgeting, decent for reporting, and mostly adopted by finance teams tired of version control issues. But as businesses became more complex and planning cycles more dynamic, the category evolved quickly.

Now, there’s a growing divide: some tools cater to smaller companies with basic planning and forecasting needs, while others aim to support the layered, cross-functional financial planning and analysis required by mid-market and enterprise teams. Most modern platforms fall into the latter camp, especially those built for fast-growing SaaS companies and global finance teams managing multi-entity operations.

The fundamental distinction between these groups isn't just scale; it's complexity. Mid-market finance teams tend to be lean, having to balance headcount planning, revenue planning, and investor reporting with minimal tooling and time.

Enterprises, however, require more nuanced controls: multi-currency rollups, audit trails, granular access, and connectivity with current tooling systems.

Top FP&A tools aren't simply feature-rich; they have the flexibility to manage both operating realities.

In this article, we’ll take a look at Planful, one of many modern FP&A solutions, to see how well it meets the needs of both enterprises and mid-market businesses, including growth-stage SaaS companies.

Then we'll compare it with 10 other solutions so you can see how each one stacks up, whether you're orchestrating your first scale-up cycle or managing finance for a multi-entity company with global complexity.

Planful software review

Planful has been around for a long time. Founded in 2001, it is a corporate performance management platform with a strong focus on FP&A. 

Planful caters to both mid-market businesses and enterprises with complex planning needs. While Planful offers structured consolidation and reporting workflows, it has significant limitations in multi-dimensional modeling capabilities that constrain complex planning scenarios. These dimensional restrictions force finance teams to work within rigid structural constraints that may not align with their business complexity.

The platform’s steep learning curve, combined with heavy dependence on third-party implementation partners, results in extended onboarding timelines that delay ROI realization and frustrate finance teams expecting more intuitive user experiences. 

Beyond its operational and structural limitations, Planful's integration processes often create delays due to technical complications that require additional support resources. This makes the platform’s connectivity more complex than it might appear during initial evaluations. 

While Planful provides functional value for organizations with straightforward planning requirements and tolerance for dimensional constraints, the combination of modeling restrictions, performance issues, and third-party integrations setup creates compelling reasons for organizations to evaluate more flexible alternatives.

Key features:

• Streamlines the FP&A process by automating data collection and analysis and reducing manual processes
• Speeds up the process of closing financial accounts, eliminating manual errors in data entry
• Allows users to engage in detailed scenario planning and assess the potential impact of business performance metrics and market conditions on long-term outcomes

How does Planful use AI?

• Query financial insights in plain English and instantly get charts, tables, and narratives
• Automatically flags unusual transactions, formula errors, or input anomalies
• Helps teams build accurate, driver-based scenario models and test assumptions quickly

Why choose Planful?

• Robust collaboration framework helps to democratize planning processes
• Strong consolidation capabilities serve complex enterprise structures effectively
• Serves a host of use cases and industries from finance to marketing

What should you be aware of before choosing Planful?

• Performance issues with large datasets requiring manual refreshes
• Limited native integrations leading to delays
• Difficult to set up report templates
• User setup is confusing, with complex configurations resulting in longer time-to-value
• Steep learning curve
• Limited to 8 reporting dimensions

What are the best Planful alternatives for enterprise businesses?

Enterprise finance teams evaluating $natives need tools that can handle the complexity of modern business without the operational headaches that drive platform migrations in the first place. 

The ability to model across multiple dimensions becomes essential when organizations need to analyze performance by region, product line, customer segment, and periods simultaneously—something many legacy platforms struggle to deliver effectively.

Scenario planning capabilities matter, too, because finance teams are constantly battling requests from leadership about potential outcomes, whether that's modeling the impact of a new product launch, economic downturn, or market expansion. 

Predictive analytics help move beyond simple trend extrapolation to identify patterns that humans might miss, while proper access controls and audit trails become non-negotiable when dealing with sensitive financial data across large organizations.

For companies operating internationally, multi-currency functionality isn't just a convenience— it's a must-have for accurate consolidation and reporting. 

The challenge lies in finding solutions that deliver these non-negotiable capabilities without requiring months of implementation, extensive training programs, or ongoing dependency on expensive consultants.

Drivetrain

Drivetrain takes the top spot as a Planful alternative because it addresses all of the operational challenges finance teams experience with traditional FP&A software. Drivetrain makes planning, forecasting, and reporting faster and more responsive, adapting smoothly as the business scales and becomes more complex.

The platform automates data consolidation, giving finance teams real-time visibility into the business without the wait. With 800+ native integrations across ERPs, CRMs, HRIS tools, and data warehouses, Drivetrain connects easily with all of your existing systems, keeping your models and reports always up to date.

Teams can collaborate in an interface that feels familiar and intuitive. You get the flexibility of spreadsheets, but without the manual work, data issues, or version control headaches.

Drivetrain also makes it easier to spot what’s working and what’s not. One-click root-cause analysis helps you get to the “why” behind the numbers, while built-in model templates let you spin up and compare multiple scenarios quickly for more accurate forecasts.

With plain-English formulas, support for common Excel functions, and a fast and dedicated in-house onboarding team, finance teams can build and update models at the pace their business demands, without needing to start from scratch or ask for engineering bandwidth.

To put it in simple terms, Drivetrain provides all the capabilities that Planful provides and a whole lot more. 

Key Features

• Powerful, multi-dimensional calculation engine with plain-English formula syntax
• 800+ native integrations for automated data consolidation
• Real-time collaboration with role-based access controls
• Extensive library of pre-built templates and modeling accelerators

How does Drivetrain use AI?

• Clean, map, and restructure data using plain English without using any scripts or formulas.
• Ask finance questions in plain language (e.g., “Why did revenue dip in Q1?”) and get instant, chart-ready answers.
• AI continuously monitors data flows and models for inconsistencies, notifying users via Slack or email.
• AI supports forecasting, variance analysis, scenario planning, reporting, and data prep, all natively built into the platform.

Why choose Drivetrain?

• Exceptional balance of sophistication and accessibility without requiring consultants
• Rapid implementation timeline significantly accelerates time-to-value
• Intuitive design enables complex modeling without technical expertise.

What should you be aware of before choosing Drivetrain?

• Serves mostly the B2B industry

Anaplan

Anaplan is a business planning tool for enterprises. Anaplan takes a more expansive approach than Planful, offering powerful modeling through its Hyperblock calculation engine and greater flexibility across dimensions. But with implementation timelines that often stretch past six months combined with a steep learning curve, Anaplan demands significant upfront investment, both in time and resources, before teams see value.

While the modeling depth is a clear upgrade from Planful, the trade-offs are real: limited integrations, rising costs with large data sets, and ongoing dependence on specialist support. For finance teams already struggling with Planful’s complexity and lagging usability, Anaplan may feel like more of the same, just with a heavier lift and a longer wait.

Key Features

• Hyperblock calculation engine with unlimited dimensional modeling
• Real-time collaborative planning across multiple business functions
• Extensive workflow capabilities with automated process management

How does Anaplan use AI?

• AI-powered model building to facilitate faster, better, and more accurate models
• Enables natural-language conversations for scenario planning and KPI analysis, embedded directly within planning workflows
• Monitors models in real time to flag anomalies and data inconsistencies proactively

Why choose Anaplan?

• Proven ability to handle the most complex enterprise planning scenarios
• Unlimited scalability across dimensions and organizational complexity
• Mature feature set with extensive partner ecosystem support

What should you be aware of before choosing Anaplan?

• Extended implementation timelines often exceed six months
• Steep learning curves and complexity requiring specialized expertise
• Cost structure becomes prohibitive with large data volumes or user bases

Pigment

Pigment positions itself as a more flexible, enterprise-grade alternative to Planful, with stronger scenario modeling and deeper access controls. It helps finance teams with forecasting, data modeling, and report generation. Pigment is well-suited for workforce and financial planning and is ideal for businesses in rapidly changing industries.

But while it solves some of Planful’s rigidity, it introduces a new set of challenges. The learning curve is steep, finance teams often need months to get fully up to speed, and real-time performance issues can slow down workflows when it matters most.

Its limited integration ecosystem also means that connectivity gaps may persist, especially for teams moving away from siloed, hard-to-maintain systems. For organizations considering Pigment as a Planful replacement, it’s worth weighing whether you’re solving the original problem or just replacing it with a different one.

Key Features

• Real-time scenario modeling with intuitive syntax and autocomplete formulas
• Granular access rights with dimensional-level security controls
• Business-specific visualization tools and interactive dashboards

How does Pigment use AI?

• Builds and maintains models automatically, updating formulas and checking data quality in real time
• Offers forecast updates, scenario modeling, and actionable recommendations tailored to goals and market trends
• Detects trends, anomalies, and performance drivers using internal and external data

Why choose Pigment?

• Handles sophisticated planning requirements for large enterprise organizations
• Real-time collaboration enables effective cross-departmental planning
• Enables rapid scenario evaluation without rebuilding models from scratch

What should you be aware of before choosing Pigment?

• Steep learning curve requires months for technical users to achieve proficiency
• Performance issues with real-time processing can disrupt workflows
• Limited integration ecosystem compared to competitors constrains connectivity

Read our in-depth review of Pigment and possible alternatives here.

Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday offers a suite of different applications for managing enterprise businesses, including Workday Adaptive Planning for FP&A. Workday Adaptive Planning offers tighter integration with other areas of the business already in the Workday ecosystem, but as a standalone alternative to Planful, it’s a mixed bag. 

While Workday Adaptive Planning includes solid scenario planning features and prebuilt templates, the platform comes with heavy setup requirements and a 22-month average time-to-ROI, making it a tough sell for organizations seeking faster wins.

Its primary advantage is that it enables vendor consolidation, not flexible planning. For teams prioritizing usability, speed, or advanced modeling over ecosystem alignment, Workday’s rigid framework and limited scenario capabilities may feel like a lateral move rather than a step up.

Key Features

• Multi-dimensional modeling with Elastic Hypercube Technology
• Industry-specific templates and pre-built planning frameworks
• Seamless integration with Workday HR and ERP solutions
• Automated workflows with real-time dashboards and reporting

How does Workday Adaptive Planning use AI?

• Generates accurate dynamic projections and supports “what-if” scenario planning
• Automatically highlights unusual patterns in journal entries and planning data, flagging potential errors or risk areas proactively

Why choose Workday Adaptive Planning?

• Strong integration value for existing Workday ecosystem users
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance features
• The template library accelerates implementation for standard use cases

What should you be aware of before choosing Workday Adaptive Planning?

• Substantial setup and customization investment requirements
• Steep learning curves require comprehensive training programs
• 22-month average time-to-ROI 

SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) positions itself as a unified planning and analytics platform tightly integrated with the broader SAP ecosystem, particularly S/4HANA, its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. 

On paper, SAC checks many of the boxes enterprise finance teams look for: predictive forecasting, real-time variance analysis, and driver-based modeling. In practice, however, organizations often run into the same roadblocks that have historically limited adoption of traditional enterprise software—complex deployments, rigid requirements limiting customization, and a learning curve that requires extensive internal training and/or external consulting.

While SAC supports robust planning logic and predictive capabilities, performance issues around large data volumes, limited non-SAP integrations, and reliance on SAP-specific methodologies can create friction. For teams hoping to modernize planning workflows and improve user experience, SAP may replicate some of the same constraints they’re trying to move away from.

Key Features

• Integrated planning and analytics platform with embedded predictive capabilities
• Driver-based planning with flexible allocation and automated planning logic
• Real-time integration with SAP S/4HANA for seamless actuals-to-plan analysis
• Cross-functional collaboration tools with workflow support and task management

How does SAP use AI?

• Enables users to ask questions and receive instant charts, tables, and explanations
• Continuously monitors planning data and journal entries to flag unusual patterns or errors in real time, ensuring data integrity and compliance
• Facilitates predictive forecasting

Why choose SAP?

• Seamless integration within SAP ecosystem eliminates data silos
• Built-in predictive analytics and machine learning capabilities
• Real-time variance analysis without batch processing delays

What should you be aware of before choosing SAP?

• Extended 12-month implementation timelines requiring extensive consulting support
• Data import limitations requiring splitting large datasets across multiple jobs
• Platform complexity mirrors traditional enterprise software rather than modern cloud solutions

What are the top Planful alternatives for mid-market businesses?

Switching FP&A tools isn’t a decision mid-market teams take lightly. It's usually triggered by frustration, models breaking every time the business shifts, forecasts that can’t keep up, or tools that feel like they were built for someone else's org chart. For teams outgrowing Planful, the goal isn't just “more features,” it’s fewer bottlenecks, better clarity, and faster turns on planning cycles.

So, what are mid-market businesses looking for when they need a better solution than Planful? First and foremost, they want modeling flexibility. They need to be able to slice performance by product, team, or territory without having to rework their entire model.

Scenario planning has to be quick and fluid; leaders want fast answers, not rebuilds. Permissions, version control, audit trails, all of that needs to just work if multiple people are working with the model.

But features alone aren’t enough.

Many mid-market teams have been burned by Planful’s long implementations, rising license costs, and ongoing consultant dependency. That’s why total cost of ownership (TCO) and scalability should be part of the evaluation too, because the tool you choose needs to work today, and still fit your needs two years from now.

Drivetrain

Drivetrain is a strategic finance platform loved by mid-market companies. Unlike Planful, it solves the core challenge mid-market finance teams face: getting sophisticated planning capabilities without the pain that usually comes with enterprise FP&A software. Most tools force you into a lose-lose situation: either use a lightweight platform that breaks as your business grows, or take on a complex enterprise system that needs consultants, custom builds, and months of onboarding.

Drivetrain eliminates that trade-off. It provides powerful, multi-dimensional modeling that enables planning across products, teams, markets—whatever makes sense for your business. Built-in scenario planning makes it easy to stress-test assumptions, adjust drivers, and respond to change without having to rebuild models from scratch. AI agents help you spot anomalies, drill down into root causes, and generate live reports or forecasts. All you have to do is ask your questions the same way you would ask someone on your team. 

The platform connects to more than 800 ERP, CRM, billing, HRIS, and other business systems. So no matter what your tech stack looks like, your actuals are always current, and your team isn’t stuck chasing down CSVs. And because the interface is built with finance users in mind, you can start building and adjusting models on day one. Without any long training or dependence on engineering bandwidth.

As your business grows and gets more complex, Drivetrain scales with you. You don’t hit walls with restrictions or limitations on the number of dimensions you can look at,  reporting capabilities, or speed, and you don’t have to think about switching platforms every time your org structure changes.

Key Features

• Unlimited multi-dimensional modeling with plain-English formula syntax
• 800+ native integrations for comprehensive, automated data consolidation
• Real-time collaboration with granular role-based access controls
• Built-in what-if analysis and scenario planning capabilities, allowing you to easily run advanced business models with as many scenarios as you need with as many variables as you want

How does Drivetrain use AI?

• Instantly build 3-statement, pipeline, and headcount models from ERP/CRM/HRIS data using AI prompts.
• Clean, map, and restructure data using plain English without using any scripts or formulas.
• AI continuously monitors data flows and models for inconsistencies, notifying users via Slack or email.
• AI supports forecasting, variance analysis, scenario planning, reporting, and data prep, natively built into the platform.

Why choose Drivetrain?

• Fast implementation without consultants fits mid-market timelines and budgets
• Scales seamlessly from startup to enterprise without platform migrations
• Intuitive design enables immediate productivity for lean finance teams

What should you be aware of before choosing Drivetrain?

• Specializing in serving the needs of B2B businesses primarily

Cube

Cube positions itself as a spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that maintains familiar Excel and Google Sheets workflows while adding centralized data management and collaboration capabilities. 

In contrast to Planful, the platform focuses on small to mid-sized businesses wanting to enhance their existing spreadsheet processes without abandoning familiar interfaces. Cube’s approach to facilitating that introduces inherent scalability limitations, though. Users frequently report that dimensional constraints prevent flexible reporting and complex analysis, and many organizations outgrow the platform's capabilities as they scale. Implementation typically extends 3-4 months, which delays value realization compared to more agile solutions designed for rapid deployment.

Key Features

• Spreadsheet-native integration with Excel and Google Sheets
• Multi-scenario analysis with automated data consolidation
• Customizable dashboards and reporting templates
• Version control and audit trails within familiar environments

How does Cube use AI?

• Builds baseline forecasts using historical trends and assumptions
• Ask questions in natural language via Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Cube’s web interface and get instant, data-backed answers without needing filters, formulas, or pivot tables
• Automatically highlights what changed and why in your financials, surfacing key variances with contextual explanations

Why choose Cube?

• Familiar interface reduces learning curve for Excel-dependent teams
• Suitable for organizations taking first steps in FP&A automation
• User-friendly design with strong customer support

What should you be aware of before choosing Cube?

• Limited dimensional modeling constrains complex analysis capabilities
• Scalability challenges as organizations grow beyond basic requirements
• Performance issues and slow processing with larger datasets

Datarails

Datarails is one of the many spreadsheet-based Planful alternatives on the market. It is built around a simple promise: automate reporting and planning without forcing finance teams to give up Excel. For teams that already rely heavily on spreadsheets, it can feel like a natural upgrade. The platform connects to source systems, syncs data into Excel, and adds dashboards and variance insights on top.

The tradeoff is that you’re still operating within Excel’s limits. Complex logic and edge-case scenarios often break down, requiring workarounds or full reversion to Excel. Customization is limited, especially for dynamic scenario modeling, and performance tends to dip when working with large files. Datarails is a tool that removes friction from reporting, but it doesn’t fundamentally change how planning is done. This means teams that need more flexibility or scale might hit the platform’s limitations sooner than they might expect. 

Key Features

• 200+ integrations for comprehensive data connectivity
• Automated reporting with customizable dashboards and storyboards
• Scenario modeling with real-time data synchronization
• Pre-built templates for standardized planning processes

How does Datarails use AI?

• Enables users to get fast answers to finance-related questions in plain English
• Automatically generates KPI summaries, weekly/monthly performance updates, and even presentation-ready storyboards in a couple of clicks
• Surfaces hidden trends, explains variances, predicts potential risks, and highlights growth opportunities without being prompted

Why choose Datarails?

• A well-known Excel environment reduces adoption barriers
• Strong automation capabilities for routine reporting tasks
• Comprehensive integration ecosystem for data consolidation

What should you be aware of before choosing Datarails?

• Performance limitations with large datasets impact user experience
• Complex calculations often require reverting to manual Excel processes
• Limited customization flexibility compared to specialized FP&A platforms

Mosaic

Mosaic is a cloud-based FP&A platform focused on enabling collaborative planning and consolidating data across ERP, CRM, and HR systems. In February 2025, we learned that Mosaic was acquired by Hibob, a platform that serves the HR needs of mid-market businesses.

We considered removing it from this guide, but instead decided to include our evaluation of Mosaic’s FP&A capabilities here to help its current customers find a suitable alternative—one that can meet their needs well into the future. 

While Mosaic provides pre-built components and flexible drivers for scaling financial planning, organizations often encounter extended implementation timelines and steep learning curves that require significant time investment before achieving proficiency. The platform works effectively for basic to intermediate financial planning needs but may require secondary solutions for more sophisticated modeling demands that exceed its core capabilities.

Key Features

• Automated data consolidation across multiple business systems
• Pre-configured financial components with flexible driver-based modeling
• Real-time scenario planning with stress-testing capabilities
• Collaborative planning canvas for cross-functional team coordination

How does Mosaic use AI?

Since Mosaic is currently not onboarding new customers, its AI capabilities are irrelevant to the goal of helping finance leaders evaluate potential alternatives to Planful. 

Why should you consider moving away from Mosaic?

• Extremely rigid and unintuitive modeling
• Limited reporting functionality
• Only ~35 native integrations, with no support for Microsoft Dynamics, Slack, or open APIs
• Inflexible data architecture, requiring a steep learning curve
• Lacks root cause analysis for compound metrics like EBITDA

Why should you consider switching to Drivetrain?

• Simple to use yet powerful financial modeling capabilities, including multi-dimensional modeling, with real-time updates
• Dynamic scenario planning and what-if analysis
• Rolling budgets and forecasts, and predictive forecasting capabilities
• 800+ native integrations enable data ingestion from any system
• Collaboration features, including fine-grained role-based access controls and version control

Vena

Vena delivers a Microsoft 365-native FP&A platform that leverages Excel integration with enhanced database capabilities. It’s built for organizations that are heavily dependent on spreadsheet workflows and need additional functionality without abandoning familiar interfaces. 

The platform provides multi-dimensional scenario modeling and multi-currency support, but it has limited AI-enabled modeling capabilities, which is quickly becoming a standard for FP&A software, and often requires external system integrator assistance for complex setup scenarios. 

Implementation times frequently exceed 2-4 months, making it less agile than modern alternatives designed for rapid deployment. Like Planful, Vena’s reliance on professional services rather than in-house implementation significantly increases both the total cost of ownership and time-to-value.

Key Features

• Native Microsoft 365 integration with an Excel-based modeling environment
• Multi-dimensional planning with unlimited scenario modeling capabilities
• Workflow automation with approval processes and task management
• Comprehensive audit trails and version control within the Excel interface

How does Vena use AI?

• Ask finance questions in plain English and get immediate, contextual answers. 
• Create live, drillable reports from a single prompt
• Run instant variance and trend analysis, uncover hidden insights, and model scenarios with a few clicks

Why choose Vena?

• Seamless Excel integration reduces training requirements for existing users
• Strong workflow management and approval process capabilities
• Comprehensive Microsoft ecosystem integration for unified productivity

What should you be aware of before choosing Vena?

• Extended implementation timelines and dependency on professional services
• Steep learning curve despite Excel familiarity, requiring significant user education

Choosing the best Planful alternative

Finance leaders evaluating a Planful alternative are rarely choosing between a “mid-market” or “enterprise” tool; they’re looking for an FP&A platform that can navigate both realities. Most organizations operate in a hybrid zone. A fast-growing business may not be an enterprise today, but it already faces multi-entity planning, investor reporting, and scenario modeling requirements. At the same time, even large enterprises are under pressure to move faster, collaborate across functions, and empower finance teams to make model changes without looping in IT.

This creates a fundamental challenge: most FP&A platforms are built to serve one segment well, but not both. Excel-based tools like Cube or Datarails serve early-stage teams well but break down when dimensional complexity becomes non-negotiable. Enterprise platforms like Anaplan or SAP can handle that complexity, but bring multi-quarter implementations, steep learning curves, and ongoing dependence on technical admins. These trade-offs result in a common pattern: outgrowing the platform sooner than expected and/or spending more time managing the tool than generating insights from it.

Planful and Drivetrain are the only two platforms in this space designed to serve both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. But there are critical differences. 

Planful still depends on lengthy, partner-led implementation, limits reporting dimensions, and requires significant overhead to adapt models as the business evolves. 

Drivetrain, on the other hand, offers a modern architecture that supports unlimited dimensional modeling, native AI-powered scenario planning, and seamless integrations with more than 800 business systems. At the same time, Drivetrain offers fast onboarding with an in-house team of finance experts and a familiar modeling interface that finance teams can own from day one.

“For the first time in my finance career, I've gotten rid of the Excel model. And, most importantly, I think our forecasts are actually more accurate. - Erik Meyer, Senior VP, Finance - Blackthorn”

For finance teams evaluating alternatives, the right solution isn’t just one that works today; it scales with your business, helping you avoid another costly, disruptive migration sooner than you ever expected.  

Drivetrain stands out from the crowd as the only FP&A platform purpose-built for modern finance teams that need the modeling depth and governance of enterprise software, with the speed and usability mid-market teams expect.

Ready to [finally] work with a better FP&A solution? Request your demo of Drivetrain today!