Upland PSA vs Polaris PSA

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Our analysts compared Upland PSA vs Polaris PSA based on data from our 400+ point analysis of PSA Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Upland PSA Software Tool

Product Basics

Upland PSA is a professional service automation tool that helps businesses use remote management tools that improve the profitability and growth of service businesses. It helps users manage capacity utilization and planning strategies for profitability and workload management. Users can change how projects are delivered with expense and timesheet capture with workforce and project management, project financials and billing.

Some of its key features include knowledge management, proposal automation and customer surveys. It has a host of webinars, case studies, e-books and articles to help users navigate its various modules.
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Polaris PSA streamlines professional services workflows for project-based businesses. Its core strength lies in automating administrative tasks like time tracking, invoicing, and project reporting, freeing up valuable time for client work. While ideal for agencies of all sizes, it particularly caters to those juggling multiple projects and juggling complex client billing structures. Users praise its intuitive interface, powerful reporting tools, and seamless integrations with popular accounting software. Compared to similar offerings, Polaris PSA stands out for its focus on scalability and customization, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs. Pricing follows a tiered model based on the number of users and project complexity, ensuring cost-effectiveness for growing companies.

Pros
  • Intuitive interface
  • Comprehensive features
  • Strong integrations
  • Robust reporting
  • Reliable support
Cons
  • Steeper learning curve
  • Occasional bugs
  • Limited customization
  • Higher pricing
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$20 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$49/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Integrations: Facilitates data from and to existing systems like HCM, finance, CRM, payroll and ERP by connecting the entire enterprise ecosystem to Upland PSA using the integration platform.  
  • Capacity Planning: Facilitates efficient utilization strategies and capacity planning to increase profitability and manage workloads.  
  • Monitor Performance: Make data-driven and informed decisions to manage operations and ensure financial health with analytics and insights.  
  • Customer Centric: Makes businesses customer-centric and brings together service automation with customer sentiment, knowledge management and proposal automation.  
  • Lower Revenue Leakage: Accelerates invoicing and lowers revenue leakage with a centralized billing and time management system that tracks expenses and time. Configurable workflows accelerate approvals.  
  • Automate Engagement: Helps businesses align service and sales departments to deliver consistency in customer experience delivery, reducing the chances of misaligned goals, communication gaps and dissatisfied customers.  
  • Forecast Resources: Track services pipelines to ensure project delivery within budget and on time by allocating people suited to deliver.  
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  • Enhanced Project Visibility and Control: Gain real-time insights into project status, resource allocation, budgets, and timelines. Identify potential risks and bottlenecks early on, allowing for proactive adjustments and course corrections to ensure projects stay on track and within budget.
  • Improved Resource Utilization and Optimization: Effectively match the right people with the right projects based on skills, availability, and workload. Streamline time tracking and approval processes to ensure accurate billing and payroll. Optimize resource allocation to maximize productivity and efficiency.
  • Streamlined Financial Management and Reporting: Automate invoicing, billing, and revenue recognition processes, reducing errors and accelerating cash flow. Generate comprehensive financial reports and analytics to track project profitability, identify trends, and make informed business decisions.
  • Boosted Collaboration and Teamwork: Foster seamless communication and collaboration among project teams, clients, and stakeholders through centralized project information, shared workspaces, and real-time updates. Break down silos and enhance knowledge sharing to improve decision-making and project outcomes.
  • Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Retention: Deliver projects on time and within budget, while maintaining high levels of quality and customer satisfaction. Establish a single source of truth for project information, fostering transparency and trust with clients. Strengthen client relationships and increase the likelihood of repeat business.
  • Data-Driven Insights for Strategic Decision-Making: Leverage the power of real-time data and analytics to uncover actionable insights, identify areas for improvement, and make informed strategic decisions. Improve project outcomes, optimize resource utilization, and drive overall business growth.
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  • Modular Platform: Designed to grow along with users’ business by implementing in a modular fashion, enabling change management, increased internal adoption and services maturity.  
  • Advanced Workflows: Use flexible workflows and visual workflow editors to configure processes to match user requirements. 
  • Timesheets: Customizable timesheets at task and project level, create approval workflows and leave time for optimal operational efficiency.  
  • Customer Engagement: Brings best practice principles and high touch to all engagements.  
  • Mobile Engagement: Lets users engage with their audience by delivering messages via text, mobile wallets or apps, or use a combination of methods. Upland PSA grows with the business.  
  • Apps and Push: Helps design marketing campaigns and provides insight into customer preferences and behavior with rich audience segmentation, push notifications and location triggered messaging.  
  • Wallet Pass: Enables contactless payment using wallet apps like Google Pay and Apple Pay. Lets users store gift cards, coupons, tickets, offers, loyalty cards or memberships on mobile devices.  
  • Resource Management: Helps manage project workforces with control and visibility. Supports functions like scheduling, forecasting and managing remote or local workforces.
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  • Live Intelligence: Harvest live information through its SmartBeats interface that provides a 360 degree view of how actions impact business. Visualize and filter data within MissionControl and display recommendations relevant to a user’s role. 
  • Project Management: Reference historical metrics to create pipelines and budgets for new clients. Oversee beats in each stage or improve collaboration with instant updates and feedback. Push notifications to manage project statuses and expenses. 
  • Financial Forecasting: Track resource costs, billing rates and finance benchmarks using SmartBudget. Simulate prices, revenue and other factors to strategically bid on accounts. 
  • Client Management: Organize customers, vendors, funding institutions or sales partners under the client entity. Share workload reports and presentations to define project metrics. Deliver account support in the consolidated view to assess project recommendations, billing and client profiles. 
  • Governance:  Achieve compliance by setting validation rules for forms and attachments. Simplify complex workflows by creating checklists and forming breakdown structures to monitor process adherence. Adapt to users in different time zones, currencies and languages. 
  • Time and Expense Tracking: Create customized or pre-populated timesheets for faster submission. Track time and expenses from a desktop or mobile device with built-in GPS tracking and geofencing capabilities. Enable automatic approvals, upload receipts or manage availability and budgets. 
  • Resource Allocation: Configure dimensional reports to determine availability and pinpoint underutilized resources. Reduce training time and create positions based on skills needed or assign placeholders to account for pending projects. Leverage the recommendation engine Smartmatch to analyze talent and recommend applicants based on skill rating to expedite hiring efforts. 
  • Billing and Invoicing: Create rate structures to accommodate versatile contracts and eliminate invoice discrepancies. Offer flexible billing plans specific to the user level, role or other combinations. Manage invoices, track delinquencies and monitor financial health in real-time. 
  • Integrations: Connect platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Quickbooks for seamless workflows. Increase revenue and engagement with the use of its open APIs. 
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Product Ranking

#32

among all
PSA Software

#15

among all
PSA Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

72
88
77
58
100
100
67
89
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Dashboard and Reporting
Project Collaboration
Time and Expense Management
Project Financials
Resource Management
Dashboard and Reporting
Project Financials
Resource Management
Time and Expense Management
Platform Capabilities

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Upland PSA
Polaris PSA
+ Add Product + Add Product
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Dashboard And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Project Collaboration Project Financials Project Management Resource Management Time And Expense Management 77 100 67 75 90 86 65 85 88 58 100 89 93 87 100 85 100 100 0 25 50 75 100
55%
0%
45%
27%
0%
73%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
40%
0%
60%
80%
0%
20%
73%
0%
27%
93%
0%
7%
80%
0%
20%
80%
0%
20%
86%
0%
14%
100%
0%
0%
67%
0%
33%
83%
0%
17%
86%
0%
14%
100%
0%
0%
89%
0%
11%
100%
0%
0%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

30%
0%
70%
70%
0%
30%

User Sentiment Summary

Good User Sentiment 193 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 202 reviews
79%
of users recommend this product

Upland PSA has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 79% when considering 193 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

92%
of users recommend this product

Polaris PSA has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 202 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

3.9 (98)
n/a
4.0 (14)
4.6 (198)
4.3 (69)
n/a
2.3 (12)
5.0 (4)

Awards

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SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Polaris PSA and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Time and Expense Management. Polaris PSA stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Time and Expense Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User Friendly: The system is easy to use and intuitive, as noted by approximately 86% of users who mention the system’s usability.
Functionality: Asana offers a robust suite of successful project management tools, as reported by 76% of the users who mention the product’s functionality.
Support: Support for the system is prompt, as reported by 88% of users who mention support.
Integrations: Available integrations help add value to the base product, as reported by 80% of reviewers who mention integrations.
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Intuitive Interface: Users consistently praise Polaris PSA's ease of use, even for those without extensive technical backgrounds.
Flexible Customization: The software allows for tailoring to specific workflows and business needs, ensuring a seamless fit within existing processes.
Comprehensive Project Management: Users appreciate the ability to manage all project aspects, from planning and scheduling to resource allocation and budgeting, within a single platform.
Accurate Time Tracking: Polaris excels at capturing billable hours precisely, streamlining timesheet submission and approval processes.
Streamlined Invoicing: Generating accurate invoices based on project data is effortless, leading to faster client billing and improved cash flow.
Robust Reporting: The software provides insightful reports on project performance, resource utilization, profitability, and other key metrics, empowering data-driven decision-making.
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Integrations: Nearly 90% of reviewers found Upland PSA’s interface to be dated and not intuitive.
Learning Curve: Nearly 100% of users who mentioned its learning curve reported that Upland PSA has a steep learning curve.
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Learning Curve: Users report a steeper learning curve compared to simpler PSA tools.
Initial Setup Complexity: Setting up Polaris PSA can be complex for smaller teams or those with limited technical expertise.
Limited Workflow Customization: While flexible, some users find it challenging to tailor the software to highly specialized workflows.
Performance Issues: Users have reported occasional lag or glitches, especially on older hardware or with large datasets.
Software Bugs: While uncommon, some users have encountered bugs that require technical support to resolve.
Pricing Concerns: Polaris PSA's pricing can be higher compared to some basic PSA tools, especially for smaller businesses.
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Upland PSA is a user-friendly PPM system, and users praise its time-sheet feature. Many users don’t have any complaints and say that Upland PSA has increased their efficiency. It ranks very high in usability and functionality. Its support team is helpful and quick to respond. Users find that Upland PSA helps organize tasks that their team members should work on. Its integration feature increases productivity. However, the interface is not intuitive and has a learning curve.

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User reviews for Polaris PSA paint a picture of a powerful, albeit demanding, PSA tool. Many praise its intuitiveness and flexibility, with one user calling it "a breath of fresh air compared to clunky legacy systems." It stands out in its comprehensive project management, effortlessly handling everything from planning to billing within one platform. Another user loved "ditching the patchwork of apps we used before and having everything in Polaris." However, Polaris' learning curve can be steep. "It's not as pick-up-and-play as some simpler tools," admitted a reviewer. The initial setup can also be complex, especially for smaller teams. This complexity, while offering deep customization, led some to feel limited in tailoring it to specific workflows. "We have a unique process, and while Polaris is flexible, it took more work than expected to get it just right," shared one user. Performance isn't always flawless, with occasional lag and bugs reported, particularly on older systems. Despite these hiccups, many appreciate Polaris' robust reporting and data-driven insights, with one user exclaiming, "Finally, we can make informed decisions based on actual data, not just gut feeling!" Ultimately, Polaris PSA shines for its comprehensiveness and power, but demands investment in training and setup. Users often compare it to Asana or Monday.com, finding it more robust but less user-friendly. If you're a growing team seeking a one-stop PSA solution with deep customization and powerful reporting, Polaris is worth a look. Just be prepared to dedicate some time to mastering its intricacies.

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