Adobe Workfront review
Rating3.2/5
Starting priceSee sales
Key features
  • Automation
  • Reporting
  • Budgeting
  • Scenario planning

If you’re looking for a project management tool that specializes in marketing campaigns and helps you deliver the best experiences for clients and consumers, then the juggernaut software company Adobe has a solution worth considering. Adobe Workfront is an impressive software developed with the demands of complex projects with fast-moving parts in mind. In this Adobe Workfront review, we explore their offerings and major benefits.

What is Adobe Workfront?

Adobe Experience Cloud logo.
Image: Adobe Experience Cloud

Adobe Workfront is part of the Adobe Experience Cloud. It’s a project management tool engineered for enterprise-level work management, automation, data visualization and performance management. It has simple project management features like workflow management and more intense capabilities like budgeting and expense management.

CriteriaScore
Features4.9/5
Pricing1/5
Ease of use4/5
Service and support3.3/5

Adobe Workfront pricing: 1/5

Adobe Workfront doesn’t offer upfront pricing for their different plans. To obtain pricing, you will need to fill out a contact form (Figure A) asking for your business email, phone, department and so on.

Figure A

Contact form to get customized pricing.
Contact form to get customized pricing.

Select

The Select subscription has access to work management, resource management, reporting, customization and collaboration features. It doesn’t have full enterprise security features or include add-ons.

Prime

In Prime, you have most features, including enterprise security and compliance.

Ultimate

The highest tier, Ultimate, includes automation, scenario planning and add-on products without an extra fee.

Adobe offers a PDF for a more nuanced breakdown of plans.

Core Adobe Workfront features: 4.9/5

Adobe Workfront has a number of advanced features to upgrade your team’s workflows. Below, we review a couple of their capabilities that teams will love for project workflows.

Work automation

One of the best solutions for project development and progress is being able to offload tasks and free up time. Adobe Workfront provides no-code automation for system tasks. Using Workfront Fusion, teams can connect web applications in one place (Figure B), making it easier to automate work between them. This means that changes to projects are reflected in all relevant places as well.

Figure B

Connecting web applications through Workfront Fusion.
Connecting web applications through Workfront Fusion.

Reporting and dashboards

Work visualizations are possibly the best feature in project management software because they offer alternate ways to see your data and evaluate insights (Figure C). Adobe Workfront dashboards (Figure D) offer teams custom views, filtering to meet individual needs and real-time reports to stay on track of progress.

Figure C

Work visualization interface.
Work visualization interface.

Figure D

Adobe Workfront dashboard.
Adobe Workfront dashboard.

Budget and expense management

While budgeting tools aren’t always included in project management solutions, it’s a huge advantage for advertising and marketing goals. In the software, you can see real-time budgets, forecasting and performance. Teams can connect the budget with plans and spending to compare. Also available is the integration with the budgeting platform Anaplan and the ability to connect records with Workfront Fusion.

Figure E

Workfront timesheet.
Workfront timesheet.

Scenario Planning

In Adobe Workfront, you can accommodate your deadlines with their flexible scenario planning tool. It allows you to make changes faster and more efficiently. If your budget changes, you can update all relevant projects, deadlines and resources at the same time.

It offers data-driven decision planning for potential scenarios as well as comparing other potential scenarios together. You won’t have to worry about remembering every important detail in your dynamic workflows because the software will help you account for all the loose ends that come when disaster strikes.

Figure F

Scenario Planning tool.
Scenario Planning tool.

Goal Alignment

Teams that need to stay on the same page with long-term goals will benefit from goal alignment in Adobe Workfront. It offers a unified view that breaks down the small projects contributing to your team’s huge, all-encompassing goal. It also makes it easier to comprehend both the micro and macro importance of your work and avoid skipping the small steps on your next big goal.

Figure G

Goal Alignment tool.
Goal Alignment tool.

Adobe Workfront ease of use: 4/5

The user interface isn’t as modern or customizable, but it’s still intuitive for many. Online reviews for Adobe Workfront are overall positive in terms of capabilities and user satisfaction. Some common issues noted are with the learning curve. The software isn’t suited for simple work and is a dense, robust tool that requires practice. If you have advanced workflows, the software can certainly tailor itself to your high-end needs with its no-code automation, flexible scenario planning and strong security.

Security & privacy

Adobe Workfornt promises enterprise-level security and privacy. They meet multiple data standards, including the ISO 27000 series of standards, GDPR, CCPA and AICPA’s Trust Services Principles. Your sensitive data is protected with compliance, as well as role permission that determines which internal users have access to sensitive content and projects.

Adobe Workfront customer service and support: 3.3/5

Adobe Workfront has a few support offerings for self-service and direct help.

Community

All users can explore the community for the software. There you will find question threads, updates, expiring features and questions about user experience from the company. You can also gain a lot of insight into user satisfaction and common issues by visiting before buying.

Documentation

In the Workfront documentation section, users can find instructions for getting started and set up within the application. You can also find instructions for help with specific capabilities like reporting and integrations.

Training

Training available for users includes video tutorials for specific use cases. It can be for admin, project managers or normal users.

Adobe Workfront pros and cons

ProsCons
Great for enterprise teams.No upfront pricing and requires giving your contact info to get it.
Extremely advanced capabilities for expensive and high-tier projects.A very complex software that may not be as intuitive as its competitors.
A combination solution for budgeting, automation, project management and project planning.No free plan and not suited for small teams and startups.
Generally favorable reviews across the board.Alternatives offer more transparency.

Adobe Workfront integrations

Figure H

Workfront integrations.
Workfront integrations.
  • Adobe Creative Cloud — an all-in-one content creation bundle.
  • Adobe Experience Manager — streamline work and get real-time reports on experiences.
  • Google Drive — collaborate fast and virtually by connecting to Google Workspace.
  • Microsoft OneDrive — keep important data moving back and forth by connecting your Microsoft tech stack.
  • Slack — communicate effectively and easily about project changes and deadlines.
  • Salesforce — integrate your favorite sales tool so you can focus on the customer journey.
  • Jira — connect your project management and software development workloads for unified communication.

Best uses for Adobe Workfront

The software may not have an upfront pricing model, but its capabilities are for enterprises with large teams and complex projects.

Established businesses

Enterprise or medium-sized established teams are the most common users. Small businesses and startups either do not need as complex a solution or prefer more transparent pricing. The software is still good for high-growth environments and teams with large workloads.

Customer service

The software is well-suited for groups that work in advertising, customer or client experience and marketing. They have enterprise-level security to protect customer data and an array of features to streamline agile workflows and planning, so you can keep track of all important goals, like long-term campaigns.

Advanced workflows

The software is beneficial to teams with complex project management needs such as automation, budgeting and scenario planning. Other competitors may not have as many powerful features in one tool, especially budgeting, automation and proofing processes. It’s certainly designed to scale with intricate or large projects and offer tools to handle changes or issues that can be overwhelming with fewer resources.

Adobe Workfront alternatives and competitors

While Adobe business software solutions are known for being incredibly powerful, it’s still good to shop around. The selections below are all powerful, affordable and popular project management applications.

Adobe WorkfrontAsanamonday.comSmartsheet
Free planNoYesYesYes
ProofingYesYesNoYes
IntegrationsYesYesLimited accessYes
Budgeting and expensesYesTemplatesTemplatesLimited
Aigle workflowsYesYesYesYes
Starting priceConsult sales$10.99 user/month$9 user/month$7 user/month
Asana icon.
Image: Asana

Asana

Asana — both a popular and affordable project management tool — is an awesome solution to manage workloads. All plans have unlimited tasks, projects and messaging. The software includes multiple work views, task management, automation, integrations and project reporting. Advanced integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau and Salesforce. You can learn more in our Asana review.

monday.com icon.
Image: monday.com

monday.com

Monday is one of the most popular business project management solutions for a reason. It’s feature-rich and has multiple plan options and a variety of work views, such as maps, charts, timelines and workloads. Teams can benefit from over 200 templates, automation, integrations and plenty of file storage. The Enterprise tier provides the company with 1,000GB of storage and access to premium integrations such as Salesforce and NetSuite. You can learn more in our monday.com review.

Smartsheet icon.
Image: Smartsheet

Smartsheet

If your project requires visualizing extensive data, then Smartsheet is a great option. It has multiple work views, advanced reporting and a massive library of templates for unique use cases. You can organize information in spreadsheets that can handle complex formulas and functions, automate workflows and collaborate easily. Integrations are available, including Tableau, Slack, Salesforce, Jira, Adobe Creative Cloud, Zapier and many more. You can learn more in our Smartsheet review.

Adobe Workfront review methodology

The software was evaluated from a buyer’s perspective and critically examined with cost, the information available, features, benefits and issues in mind. Third-party customer reviews were taken into account for insights about overall user satisfaction. With respect to buyers’ time, highlights of the software were considered, along with alternatives that offer pricing and transparent feature breakdowns.

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