# RationalPlan — Project Management & Collaboration

RationalPlan by Stand By Soft SRL holds a panel rating of 2.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-11-03. Provenance: provenance unknown; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Stand By Soft SRL (https://www.rationalplan.com)
- Category: [Project Management & Collaboration](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): provenance unknown
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/rationalplan
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/rationalplan/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/rationalplan/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-04 · evaluated 2026-11-03 · oldest source captured 2026-11-03

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Stand By Soft SRL
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026

## The panel's verdict

RationalPlan is a project management suite from Stand By Soft, a Romanian company founded in 1997, sold in Single Project, Multi Project, Project Viewer and Project Server editions. It scores strongest on collaboration depth: judges credit documented task comments with automatic email notifications,.ics assignment emails, a Server edition with concurrent web access, cross-project dependencies in Multi Project, and a free viewer for stakeholders. The skeptic sits apart at 4, noting that this evidence comes from release posts dating to roughly 2013. Reporting follows at 4-6 on resource-distribution reports across assigned, actual, remaining and overtime work and cost. The sharpest genuine split is onboarding effort, spanning 4 to 0: some judges scored 4 on MS Project import and the novice positioning of Single Project, while others recorded no rating, finding no public information on trial terms or the signup-to-first-project path. Integrations score 3-4, every documented connection file-level. Sovereignty scores 4-6 — a Craiova address and a documented on-premise Server edition, set against cloud hosting on AWS with no region stated.

**Speaks for it:**
- Collaboration depth scores 6-7, on documented task comments with automatic email notifications,.ics assignment emails and concurrent multi-user access via the Server edition.
- Multi Project links interconnected projects through dependencies and shared common resources.
- Resource-distribution reports cover assigned, actual, remaining and overtime work and cost, with cost reports per resource category.
- The Project Viewer is free, giving stakeholders and team workers a window to view project details.
- The Server edition is documented as deployable on-premise as well as a cloud SAAS offering.

**Held against it:**
- Integrations score 3-4 and every documented connection is file-level, with no public information on an API, webhooks or messaging-platform hooks.
- Onboarding effort splits 4 to 0, the lower scores marking no public information on trial terms, payment details or guided setup.
- The cloud service runs on AWS with no region stated on the captured pages, and we found no public information on a data processing agreement.
- Support shows a first-level live chat plus blog release notes dated 2013, with no public information on response times or a searchable help center.
- We found no public information on prices for the paid editions; the only public price is the free Project Viewer, with online purchases routed through Avangate.

**Best for:**
- Your organization must self-host — Project Server is documented as an on-premise alternative to the cloud service.
- You are migrating off Microsoft Project —.mpp import is documented and judges single it out as the one strong connector.
- You manage interconnected projects with shared resources — Multi Project documents cross-project dependencies and common resources.
- Your stakeholders only need to view plans — the free Project Viewer is documented for stakeholders and team workers to view project details.

**Avoid if:**
- You rely on an API, webhooks or Slack/Teams connections — every documented integration is file interchange (Google Drive and Dropbox open/save, MS Project formats,.ics emails).
- You need dashboards or configurable cross-project reports — the documented reporting is fixed resource-distribution and cost-per-category report types.
- You must demonstrate a permission model for guest or client editing — the stakeholder access the pages document is the free read-only Project Viewer.
- You need current documentation and support commitments — the release posts serving as the changelog date from 2013 and the privacy statement to May 25 2018.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Data Protection Officer | The Bootstrapper | The Enterprise Architect | The UX Purist | The Integrator | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Collaboration depth | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Reporting | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 |
| Integrations | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Onboarding effort | 2/5 | n/r | n/r | 2/5 | 2/5 | n/r |
| European sovereignty | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Support & documentation | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2/5** | **2/5** |

### The judges

- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Reads the DPA before the feature list. Optimizes for GDPR posture: EU hosting, subprocessor exposure, deletion guarantees. Rejects anything that cannot answer where the data lives.
- **The Bootstrapper** (v1.2): Pays with their own card. Optimizes for price/value at 3 seats and at 30, a usable free tier, and a price page that answers instead of qualifying. Rejects hidden seat minimums and "contact sales".
- **The Enterprise Architect** (v1.0): Buys for two hundred seats and answers for it later. Optimizes for SSO/SCIM, permissions, audit trails, certifications and a clean exit. Rejects anything that cannot survive procurement.
- **The UX Purist** (v1.0): Measures time-to-first-value with a stopwatch. Optimizes for clarity, density and software that teaches itself. Rejects fourteen-step setups and empty screens that offer no way forward.
- **The Integrator** (v1.0): Lives in the API docs before the product tour. Optimizes for webhooks, import/export and a tool that plays well in a stack. Rejects closed ecosystems and CSV-only exits.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.2): Assumes the marketing is lying until the evidence says otherwise. Hunts lock-in, dark patterns, hidden cost and dead changelogs. Exists to keep the rest of the panel honest.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- GDPR: Stand By Soft as a Controller uses Processors that also implement the GDPR requirements · Stand By Soft [S2]

**Data**
- Cookies policy: yes · no [S2]
- No collection browsing: no [S2]
- No sharing: no [S2]

**Hosting**
- Aws: RationalPlan Cloud data hosting and processing · AWS Amazon [S2]

**Integrations**
- Dropbox: open and save project files · yes [S9]
- Google drive: open and save project files · yes [S9]
- Microsoft project 2013: yes · read MS Project 2013 .mpp files [S9]
- Spreadsheet export: Export projects and risks to spreadsheet applications [S7]

**Legal**
- Address: marketing@rationalplan.com · Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania · Lucian Ioan [S9]
- Company: Stand By Soft [S5]
- Company founded: Stand By Soft · 1997 [S7]
- Privacy last updated: 2018-05-25 [S2]

**Product**
- Article date: 2013-07-15 · Tiberiu Ghioca [S7]
- Comment email notifications: Automatic email notifications when a comment is added on a task [S5]
- Comments on tasks: Users can comment on tasks within the Cloud version [S5]
- Concurrent access server: yes [S9]
- Deadline notifications: Customizable deadline reminders in Server edition [S7]
- Ics assignments: Assignments sent by email in .ics format with task UID in Server and Cloud versions [S5]
- Microsoft project alternative: alternative to Microsoft Project [S7]
- Mpp import: Support for opening MS Project .mpp files improved [S5]
- Ms project export: Export to MS Project .xml and .xls with Vietnamese character support [S5]
- Pmbok guidelines: follows PMBOK guidelines [S1]
- Polish language: Desktop products translated into Polish [S5]
- Recurrent tasks: daily · weekly · monthly · yes [S9]
- Report types: Resource distribution reports for different types of work and cost; cost reports per categories of resources [S7]
- Server deployment: yes · yes [S7]
- Server deployment options: on-premise · cloud/SAAS [S9]
- Server email notifications: yes [S9]
- Server web interface: yes [S9]
- Solutions: portfolio management · resource management · team collaboration [S1]
- Suite editions: Single Project · Multi Project · Project Viewer · Project Server [S5]
- Suite editions: Single Project · Multi Project · Project Viewer · Project Server [S7]
- Suite products: RationalPlan Single Project · RationalPlan Multi Project · RationalPlan Project Viewer · RationalPlan Project Server [S9]
- Version release: 4.5 · better reporting capabilities, more data exports to .xls files, enhanced notification settings [S7]
- Viewer free: Project Viewer is free [S5]
- Viewer free: yes [S7]
- Viewer free: yes [S9]
- Xls export: .xls · yes [S9]

**Subprocessors**
- Avangate: Avangate · handles online purchase of Stand By Soft products [S2]
- Google analytics: Google Analytics · web analytics measuring how users interact with website content [S2]
- Hotjar: Hotjar · understand visitors, website usage and access preferences [S2]
- Tawk to: Tawk.to · live chat solution to offer an online first level support [S2]
- Wordpress: WordPress · content management system for blog articles and comments [S2]

## Questions

### Is RationalPlan European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where RationalPlan is based.

### Where does RationalPlan store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

### Does RationalPlan have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to RationalPlan?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates [awork (4/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/awork), [InLoox (4/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/inloox) and [Kantree (4/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/kantree) highest among the other 64 Project Management & Collaboration products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [awork](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/awork) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [RationalPlan alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/rationalplan/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- We found no public information on pricing on the pages we read (rationalplan.com, rationalplan.com/privacy, rationalplan.com/on-premise, rationalplan.com/home-page/collaboration100x100, rationalplan.com/projectmanagementblog/rationalplan-4-14-increased-collaboration-using-comments-on-tasks-and-support-for-polish-language, rationalplan.com/project-management/reports and 5 more). If the vendor publishes it somewhere else, send us the page.
- 25 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 legal fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor page: https://www.rationalplan.com (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S2] Privacy policy — found from the homepage: https://www.rationalplan.com/privacy/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S3] Self-hosting / on-premises installation docs — found from the homepage: https://www.rationalplan.com/on-premise/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S4] Collaboration depth — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/home-page/collaboration100x100/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S5] Collaboration depth — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/projectmanagementblog/rationalplan-4-14-increased-collaboration-using-comments-on-tasks-and-support-for-polish-language/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S6] Reporting — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/project-management/reports/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S7] Reporting — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/projectmanagementblog/rationalplan-4-5-improved-reporting-and-data-export/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S8] Integrations — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/project-management/integration/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S9] Integrations — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/projectmanagementblog/rationalplan-4-4-integration-with-google-drive-and-dropbox-storage-services/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S10] Onboarding effort — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/project-management-templates/ (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S11] Onboarding effort — found from sitemap: https://www.rationalplan.com/project-management-templates/create-a-budget-and-a-work-plan-for-your-companys-website/ (checked 2026-11-03)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "RationalPlan — Project Management & Collaboration", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-04. https://whats-best.ai/software/project-management/rationalplan

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1479?target=page