Zoho Projects is a capable, popular tool for tracking tasks and teams — and that suits a lot of businesses. Fast Project Management is built for firms that build to order, where each project needs a Bill of Resources, a cost against budget, and a milestone or RA bill. Here is a straight comparison to help you pick the right one.
Book a free demo See pricingReviewed by Vidya Kathare · July 2026 · Fast Project is our own product; we tell you where it does and does not fit.
Zoho Projects is a genuinely good cloud project tool. It tracks tasks and subtasks, milestones and dependencies, timesheets and issues, with a clean Gantt and tight links to the rest of the Zoho suite. For teams whose "project" is coordination — marketing, IT, services, internal initiatives — it is light, affordable and quick to adopt.
Fast Project Management is built for a different kind of project: the engineered order. In engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturing, fabrication and EPC, a project is not just a set of tasks — it is material, labour and machine that must be planned, costed against a budget, issued from stores, and billed by milestone or running account. That is where a task tool, however good, stops and a project execution and billing system begins.
How we put this together: this uses Zoho Projects' publicly described positioning as a cloud task-and-team project tool, and what Fast Project Management does in its real reference deployments. It is written for one buyer — an Indian ETO, fabrication or EPC firm — so "better fit" means better for that buyer, not better at everything. New to the terms? See what is project management software and Bill of Resources explained.
| What matters | Zoho Projects | Fast Project Management |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Office, IT, marketing and services teams tracking tasks, timesheets and collaboration | Indian ETO, fabrication, machine-building and EPC firms running each order as a costed, billed project |
| Work breakdown & Gantt | Strong — tasks, subtasks, milestones, dependencies and a Gantt | WBS tasks with owners, priority, progress and predecessor dependencies on an interactive Gantt |
| Bill of Resources & cost | Not the design — tasks and timesheets, no per-task material/labour/machine BOR | Per-task Bill of Resources priced from a resource master, rolled to estimated cost vs budget |
| Material issue against a task | Not applicable | Store issue against a task via the shared inventory engine, turning the plan into actual cost |
| Milestone / RA billing | Time and expense billing; not works-contract RA or resource-itemised project bills | Resource-itemised bills by project, resource or milestone, plus progress and RA bills |
| Subcontractor bill passing | Not the focus | Subcontractor and supplier bills passed and cleared against their purchase order |
| Pricing model | Per-user monthly subscription with a free tier for small teams; confirm current price with the vendor | Per user, per project or flat organisation fee; cloud subscription or on-premise licence. See pricing |
| Support & deployment | Online and email; cloud | On-site India implementation and training in your language; cloud or on-premise |
Zoho Projects is a strong, respected product — this is not about quality, it is about fit. Zoho Projects is built to coordinate tasks and teams; Fast Project Management is built to cost and bill engineered projects. Pick the one that matches the work you do. Pricing is described as a model — confirm the current figure with each vendor.
Our scoped claim: for a firm that builds to order and needs project cost and billing control — Bill of Resources, cost-vs-budget, subcontractor bill passing and RA/milestone billing — Fast Project Management is the better fit; for pure task-and-team coordination, Zoho Projects is the lighter choice.
Choose Zoho Projects when your projects are coordination rather than engineered production — marketing, IT, services or internal initiatives — when you want light, cloud collaboration with timesheets, and especially when you already run the Zoho suite. If you do not need a Bill of Resources, project material issue or RA billing, its simplicity is a genuine advantage.
Choose Fast Project Management when each order is engineered or fabricated to order and must be planned as a WBS, resourced with a per-task Bill of Resources, costed against budget, and billed by milestone or RA — and when you want one vendor to install it, train your team on-site and answer the phone. It is the same platform, resource and item master and store engine as Fast Production, Fast Inventory and Fast Billing, and it works with your existing systems including Tally. Read the ETO project management guide or compare with spreadsheets, then book a free demo.
Zoho Projects is a cloud tool for tracking tasks, teams, timesheets and milestones across office and services projects. Fast Project Management is built for firms that build to order - it runs each order as a project with a per-task Bill of Resources for material, labour and machine, cost estimation against budget, store issue against a task, and resource-itemised milestone and running-account (RA) billing with subcontractor bill passing. The gap is not task tracking; it is project cost and billing.
Zoho Projects manages tasks, milestones, timesheets and a Gantt, and it can bill time and expenses. It is not designed to plan the material, labour and machine a task consumes as a Bill of Resources, roll that into an estimated cost against budget, or issue store material against a task. Those are exactly the capabilities engineer-to-order and EPC firms need, and they are where Fast Project Management is built to be strong.
Yes. Fast Project Management raises resource-itemised bills by project, resource or milestone, including progress and running-account (RA) bills common in Indian works contracts, and passes subcontractor and supplier bills against their purchase order. Zoho Projects offers time and expense billing rather than works-contract RA or resource-itemised project bills. Fast Project bills print as documents and hand off to Fast Billing.
Zoho Projects is a good choice when your projects are task and team coordination rather than engineered production - marketing, IT, services or internal initiatives - especially if you already run the Zoho suite and want light, cloud collaboration with timesheets. If you do not need a Bill of Resources, project material issue or RA billing, its simplicity is an advantage.
Choose Fast Project Management when each order is engineered or fabricated to order and must be planned as a WBS, resourced with a per-task Bill of Resources, costed against budget and billed by milestone or RA - engineer-to-order and custom manufacturers, fabrication and job-work shops, and EPC, engineering and construction firms in India that want project cost and billing control on one system with on-site support.
It runs both cloud and on-premise, on your own server if you prefer, and is priced per user, per project or as a flat organisation fee rather than a fixed per-seat meter. Bands are indicative - ask for a quote. It is a Fast Technology product, built in Pune by Improsys on the same platform as Fast Production, Fast Inventory and Fast Billing, and integrates with your existing systems including Tally.
Book a free 30-minute demo with our team in Pune. We will show Fast Project Management on your kind of order and billing, and if Zoho Projects or a lighter tool fits you better, we will say so.
