5 JavaScript Project Management Libraries to Boost Web Development

As many companies have to prolong remote working regimes, project management software becomes a necessity for doing business effectively. However, existing software solutions may seem too complex and expensive. Therefore, many companies prefer to invest in the development of custom project management apps that fully comply with their project requirements and include highly demanded tools such as a Gantt chart, scheduler, and event calendar.

Here comes the question of how to develop advanced web apps with minimum time and effort. The answer is to apply ready-made JavaScript components that make it much easier to integrate complex functionalities into any web application. Let us review five JavaScript project management libraries that help to provide remote teams with an easy but effective way to organize tasks and other business activities.

DHTMLX

DHTMLX provides JavaScript Gantt and Scheduler libraries for building advanced project management apps. These components enable you to create viable alternatives to MS Project and Primavera.

DHTMLX Gantt allows creating interactive and performant Gantt charts able to process 30,000+ tasks for planning and defining the sequence of tasks in projects of any scale. Charts can be enriched with useful functionalities such as auto-scheduling, critical path calculation, task grouping, dynamic loading, etc.

In addition to task management, DHTMLX Gantt provides great help in handling project resources via histograms and resource usage diagrams.

Apart from JavaScript Gantt, DHTMLX also provides three Gantt libraries fully written in React, Svelte, and Vue.js.

With DHTMLX Scheduler, it is possible to implement user-friendly event calendars with all needed functionality out-of-the-box. Using 10 built-in views, users can effectively arrange appointments and other daily business activities. Moreover, you can also add custom views for more productivity and an improved user experience. Recurring events, RTL mode, customizable time scales, multisection events - this is far from a full list of popular features included in this lightweight scheduling library.

Both DHTMLX Gantt and Scheduler have intuitive drag-and-drop UIs and work well in modern browsers and on devices of any size. Great customization capabilities allow adjusting components to your requirements. DHTMLX products can also be easily incorporated into applications based on popular JS frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js) and back-end technologies. Created Gantt charts and calendars can be exported to Excel, PNG, and PDF formats (plus MS Project and Primavera formats for DHTMLX Gantt). Simple APIs and numerous demos reduce the learning curve to a minimum and allow using these JS libraries in an effective way.

Bryntum

Bryntum is a Swedish company specializing in the development of UI tools for project management and resource scheduling.

Bryntum Gantt allows you to schedule and manage tasks using dependencies, filtering, constraints, customizable task editor, and other features. There is also a calendar feature for taking care of resource assignments in a project. But the most remarkable feature of this component is Chronograph - a reactive rendering engine responsible for high performance with big data.

Bryntum Scheduler is a scheduling component based on the Bryntum Grid. It ships with a lot of features required for planning utilization of available project resources. For instance, you can benefit from such features as grouping, dependency lines, animated UI updates, summaries, validation of editing actions, etc. But if you need a UI component that provides automatic scheduling and allows you to accurately define resource shifts, Bryntum offers Scheduler Pro. It is based on the Gantt scheduling engine and can be used in pair with Bryntum Gantt. Bryntum Scheduler and Gantt support export to Excel, PDF, and PNG formats.

Bryntum Calendar is one more product originating from the Bryntum Grid component. This tool is designed specifically for organizing daily business pursuits in the form of an event calendar with multiple views. This component can be a nice addition to the apps that already use Bryntum Gantt or Scheduler.

Bryntum’s project management components are framework agnostic i.e. they can be used in web apps based on any popular frontend framework. Bryntum products are fully customizable, thus you can modify their look and feel to your liking. All Bryntum project management tools come with numerous interactive examples illustrating their capabilities. 

Syncfusion

Syncfusion offers a package of JavaScript UI components (Essential JS 2 library) intended for various business purposes, including Gantt chart and Scheduler controls for project management. 

Syncfusion Gantt is a tool for visualizing and managing tasks, task relationships, and resources within a project. You can increase the informative value of the Gantt timeline by adding highlights for days and events, data markers, and context menus. More interactivity is provided by enabling election, sorting, filtering, and editing actions. Large amounts of data can be loaded and rendered in the Gantt chart without performance limitations thanks to the virtual scrolling support.

Syncfusion Scheduler is a JS calendar control aimed to deal with scheduling of project events using built-in view modes. Each view has unique configuration options and extensible view intervals i.e. the default number of displayed days. This control also supports CRUD operations. You can make use of various event handling options such as multi-event selection, time zone, recurring events, etc. The calendar data can be brought in sync with Outlook and Google Calendar in real-time.

Written in TypeScript, all Syncfusion controls can be used without any external dependencies and be integrated with top third-party frameworks. They are also notable for modular architecture, responsive design, as well as possibility to apply built-in themes. Language and culture settings help to meet the diverse needs of users from various regions. Developer-friendly APIs provide complete control over the UI and behavior of the UI components. A package of demos helps to understand what can be achieved with Syncfusion products.

DlhSoft

DlhSoft delivers development components for various platforms. Gantt Chart Hyper Library is one of the DlhSoft products designed for implementing various project management tools into custom JavaScript applications.

This library lets you build interactive Gantt charts with a customizable grid, timeline, and appearance. Apart from basic functions, Gantt charts can be complemented with complex features such as task splitting, critical path, auto-scheduling, baseline bars, resource leveling, etc.

If you need more data visualization tools for your app, you can create other types of diagrams based on the DlhSoft Gantt elements. For instance, you can generate schedule charts, load charts, PERT charts, network diagrams. Moreover, you can enrich primary charting tools included in this library with extra controls such as a monthly calendar, date and time editors, and combo box with checkboxes.

The library comes with optional TypeScript support and extensions for popular JS frameworks. By using UI virtualization and asynchronous operation, this library allows displaying 10,000 items on modern computers in less than 3 seconds. All displayed grid and chart content can be exported to PDF. Multiple samples help to become familiar with the feature set of this library.

DayPilot

DayPilot provides a  range of JavaScript components designed for achieving a variety of project management goals without forcing you to use any special JS framework. 

DayPilot Gantt chart allows you to visually present a hierarchy of project tasks scheduled over-time. It supports common project management features such as task grouping, task dependencies, task completion status. Progressive rendering facilitates displaying of large volumes of data.

DayPilot Scheduler is a tool for showing multiple project resources within a customizable timeline. Improved user experience is ensured thanks to the use of special UI helpers such as integrated message bars, status icons, event action hints. 

When it comes to scheduling business events and appointments, Daypilot offers a JS Event Calendar with Day and Week views. This component can also be utilized for displaying project resources as columns by enabling resource calendar mode. If you are missing a Month view, there is also a separate DayPilot Monthly Event Calendar. 

All DayPilot solutions mentioned above can be manipulated with drag-and-drop operations. With DayPilot, your application will work on touch devices. Support for full CSS styling allows adjusting the appearance of components or any of their elements to your needs. You also can generate custom CSS themes utilizing DayPilot Theme Designer. Another tool named UI Builder enables you to configure a UI for any DayPilot widget and build a downloadable prototype of your project in a short time. Projects managed with DayPilot products can be exported to popular formats (PNG, JPEG, SVG).

Final words

All JavaScript components reviewed in this article can provide a lot of useful things that contribute to the development of project management applications and ensure a positive user experience. Which one to choose for your project? It is up to you to decide. But you should not forget to take into account whether these libraries align with your technical requirements, budget size, and development stack.