Choosing sovereign project management software: comparison and 8 criteria to check
Monday, Asana, Trello, Microsoft, Excel or Gladys? The criteria for choosing project and portfolio management software, with a focus on sovereignty and AI.
3 min read
Choosing project management software is not just about comparing feature lists. It means deciding where your schedules, budgets and discussions will live for years to come, and how your teams and management will work together.
Here are the 8 criteria to check, and how the main solutions on the market compare.
The 8 criteria to check
| Criterion | The question to ask |
|---|---|
| 1. Main use | Coordinating tasks, or steering projects and portfolios? |
| 2. Planning | Gantt with dependencies and milestones, or a simple task list? |
| 3. Portfolio | Can you track several projects together, with shared indicators? |
| 4. Workload and time | Do you know who is available, and compare planned with actual time? |
| 5. Budget | Is the budget tracked in the project, or in a separate file? |
| 6. Reporting | Are management reports produced without retyping? |
| 7. Sovereignty | Where is the data hosted? Which law governs the contract? |
| 8. AI | Can you use the AI of your choice, with controlled permissions? |
The main solutions at a glance
Trello
Simple, visual Kanban. Ideal to get started; planning, workload and budget rely on add-ons.
Asana
Excellent for coordinating team tasks and goals. Less focused on budget and financial steering.
Monday.com
A highly configurable work platform for many processes. Project steering is built to your needs.
Microsoft
Planner for team tasks, Project for schedules. Project Online shut down on 30 September 2026.
Excel
Flexible and familiar to everyone, but quickly limited as soon as several people work on it or projects multiply.
Gladys
Ready-to-use project and portfolio management: Gantt, workload, budget, reports. Built and hosted in France.
Sovereignty: the right questions
For your strategic projects, ask every vendor these questions:
- Where is the data hosted, including backups?
- Which law governs the contract, and where is the vendor based?
- How do you get your data back if you change tools? (The Project Online shutdown was a reminder of how important this is.)
- Who can access the data, including connected AI tools?
Gladys is a French vendor: the solution is built and hosted in France, and your data can be exported to Excel or PDF at any time.
AI: open, but controlled
AI is changing how projects are steered: asking a question about a portfolio, creating tasks, writing up minutes. But it must not open a back door to your data.
With the Gladys MCP connector, you use the assistant of your choice (Claude, ChatGPT, Le Chat or Gemini). It acts with your permissions, you allow it tool by tool, access is revocable and every action is logged.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best project management software?
The one that matches your main use. For coordinating tasks, a simple tool is enough; to steer several projects with workload, budget and reporting, choose a portfolio management tool.
How can we test without risk?
Run a free trial on a pilot portfolio of a few real projects, with the people who will use it every day.
I'm interested and would like to know more about the solution