LivePlan vs PlanGuru
LivePlan
liveplan.comPlanGuru
planguru.comSide by side
| Figure | LivePlan | PlanGuru |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $15/mo | $6.92/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 6 | 11 |
| Spec score · Financial Forecasting Software | 8.4 (#6) | 7.8 (#32) |
| Spec score · Scenario Planning Software | 8.4 (#11) | 7.8 (#37) |
| Spec score · Financial Modeling Software | 8.5 (#5) | 7.9 (#14) |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Headquarters | Eugene, Oregon, United States | PlanGuru lists its corporate mailing address as 1 S. Main St, 3rd Floor, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18701. |
| Intended users | The pricing page describes uses for startups and established companies, and lists offerings for advisors, educators, and SBA partners. | The company describes its audience as small businesses, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, accountants, and advisers. |
| Purpose | LivePlan is a web-based service for writing and managing business plans and tracking financial performance. | PlanGuru provides budgeting, forecasting, and financial analytics tools to help small and midsize businesses make decisions using projected financial results and KPIs. |
| Security | LivePlan says data is written to multiple disks immediately, backed up daily and stored in multiple locations. | PlanGuru Analytics requires SSL, states that passwords and company-identifying information are encrypted, and says card transactions go directly to Recurly and PayPal, which it identifies as PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant. |
| Support | LivePlan provides weekday live chat and email support plus group onboarding and a help center. | Technical support is included with subscriptions, and the company lists support tickets, email, and phone as contact options. |
Plans
LivePlan
- Standard$15 a month
- Premium$30 a month
- LivePlan Expert$30 a month
- LivePlan Expert (add-on)$30 a month
- Standard$180 a year
- Premium$360 a year
PlanGuru
- Single Entity$83 a month
- Single Entity with Analytics$166 a month
- Multi-Unit Consolidations$333 a month
- Single Entity (annual)$83 a year
- Single Entity (monthly)$99 a month
- Advisor Plan (annual)$133 a year
- Advisor Plan (monthly)$159 a month
- Single Entity with Analytics (annual)$166 a year
- Single Entity with Analytics (monthly)$199 a month
- Multi-Unit Consolidations (annual)$333 a year
In their own words
LivePlan
LivePlan is a web-based service for creating business plans and monitoring financial performance. Its income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet forecasts are connected, so changing an assumption updates them together. The service includes AI-based idea validation and geography-specific market research that LivePlan says draws on more than 50 verified sources. Users can turn plans into presentations, edit them in LivePlan, and export them as PDF or PowerPoint files. QuickBooks Online and Xero connections bring accounting data into forecasts and dashboards, and the service includes more than 550 sample plans. Standard and Premium each list one active company, five contributors, and unlimited guests; only one company may be active at a time. LivePlan works on Android, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows, but requires an internet connection for all functions and has no mobile app. It lists chat and weekday email support. There is no free trial; LivePlan advertises a 35-day money-back guarantee. Standard is $20 a month and Premium is $40 a month, both billed monthly.
PlanGuru
PlanGuru provides budgeting, forecasting and financial analytics for small and midsize businesses, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, accountants and advisers. It supports rolling forecasts, variance analysis, revenue and expense models, and projections extending up to 10 years. Plans include unlimited scenarios per company, a prebuilt three-way forecasting structure and more than 20 standard forecasting methods. Modeling tools include a formula builder, assumption- and KPI-based forecasting, workforce planning, notes payable, line of credit tools, ratios and KPIs. PlanGuru imports from QuickBooks Online, Xero and Excel, including financial and nonfinancial Excel data, and supports up to five years of actual results. An Advanced Reporting Excel add-in provides custom layouts, financial statement and KPI reports, multi-analysis reports, and dynamic report books and dashboards. Multi-Unit Consolidations supports separate forecasts for multiple entities or business units before consolidation. Plans start at $83/mo (annual); a monthly Single Entity plan is $99 a month. The browser-based App and separate Desktop product do not share or synchronize data.