Top 7 product roadmap templates that startup makers prefer

Since you’re here, you’ve figured out what a roadmap is and whether you need to have one in your business. Let’s now look at the most popular paid and free product roadmap software providing ready-made product roadmap examples you can use not to build your own product roadmap from scratch.

#1. A product roadmap template – airfocus

Pros:

• Integrated prioritization tools and prioritization templates.
• Timeline and Kanban visualizations.
• Jira Cloud, Trello, Asana, MS Planner, Clubhouse, GitHub, Zapier integrations.
• PDF, CSV export available.
• Priority Poker available to easily make prioritization decisions across your team.
• Role permissions.
• Unlimited viewers to provide stakeholders with an easy way to give feedback on your Roadmap.

Cons:

• No forever free plan.
• Role permissions available only for more advanced plans.
• Priority Poker available only within more advanced plans.

#2. A product roadmap template – Roadmunk 

Pros:

• Two views: Timeline (time-based) and Swimlane (progress-based).
• Drag-n-drop editing technique for customizing a product roadmap as you need.
• Team collaboration feature.
• A free 14-day trial for any of the paid plans.
• Export of a ready-made roadmap in PNG or HTML formats (a paid option).
• Deployment of your roadmap to the Roadmunk’s domain.
• Data import from a CSV directly into your roadmap within any of the plans.
• Jira epics and issues import into the roadmap you’re building in Roadmunk.

Cons:

• No forever free plan.
• Limited third-party integrations available only within paid plans.
• Free training and support provided only within the most expensive plans.
• A private cloud offered only within the Enterprise plan.
• Custom color palettes available only within several most expensive plans.

#3. A product roadmap template – Smartsheet

Pros:

• Several product roadmap templates for various purposes (multiple products, agile products, features, etc.).
• A product roadmap export in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and Google Sheets.
• A free trial provided.
• Integrations with Google, Office 365, Slack within any plan.
• Several views: Grid, Gantt, Card, and Calendar.
• Smartsheet mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Cons:

• No forever free plan.
• Custom branding available only within paid plans.
• Connection to analytics tools like Tableau, Excel, Qlik, and Spotfire available only within the most expensive plan.
• An ability to create only 1 dashboard within the cheapest plan. 
• The number of pages you can create within one dashboard for free is limited.
• A range of integrations (Microsoft Power BI, Jira, etc.) available only either within expensive plans or at an extra cost.

#4. A product roadmap template – ProductPlan

Pros:

• An ability to reflect the strategic goals (generating more leads, increasing revenue) you need to reach within the specified time period. 
• Product roadmap export in PDF, PNG, or XLS formats. 
• Backend connection using the ProductPlan’s open API.
• An unlimited number of roadmaps you can create within any of the plans.
• A simple drag-n-drop editor to visually edit your roadmap.
• Basic integrations available regardless of the plan you choose (Jira, Trello, Slack, GitHub, etc.).
• In-app chat and email support provided within all any plan.
• A free 14-day trial period to try almost all the features.
• Several views: Timeline, List, Portfolio views, Planning board, and Table layout.
• Rich app customization opportunities.

Cons:

• No forever free plan.
• Custom integrations with REST APIs available only within the most expensive plans.
• MS Teams integration available only within the most expensive plans.

#5. A product roadmap template – UI Bakery

Pros:

• A product roadmap template reflecting upcoming features, iterations, planned & recently implemented improvements, and more. 
• A fully responsive template design. 
• Backend connection using an open API.
• Customizable with ready-made widgets and other UI components.
• App branding opportunities.
• An ability to visually integrate your product roadmap with any REST API.

Cons:

• Not so many integrations with 3rd-party systems and datasources available yet.
• Custom reusable components not available yet (coming soon).

#6. A product roadmap template – Aha!

Pros:

• A 30-day trial (with the limits in the number of features you can try though). 
• Product roadmap export in Excel, PowerPoint, PNG, PDF formats. 
• The division of the tasks into quarters, and grouping them based on the team responsible for their implementation. 
• Integration with over 30 apps (Jira, Slack, Azure DevOps, Salesforce, G Suite, and more), although the option is paid.
• Various product roadmaps types: Portfolio roadmap, Goals roadmap, Initiatives roadmap, and other.
• Aha! mobile app to easily access your roadmap from anywhere.
• App deployment within the platform.

Cons:

• No forever free plan.
• The need to pay for each user in the Premium plan.
• A limited number of viewers and reviewers at no extra cost included in the Premium plan.
• Relatively expensive compared to the other reviewed vendors.
• You may not be able to connect your own backend to the template (support help is needed).

#7. A product roadmap template – Office Timeline

Pros:

• A template including the details about the product features, iterations, upcoming releases, and more. 
• A simple drag-n-drop editor to customize your product roadmap.
• An ability to personalize a template using the Office Timeline Pro add-in in Excel or PowerPoint. 
• Data import from Excel and Project.
• Сorporate branding.
• Product roadmap export in PowerPoint, Excel, and PNG formats. 
• A forever free plan available, however with limitations (the timelines exceeding 10 rows of data are watermarked, the number of swimlanes is limited, etc.).

Cons:

• 3rd-party integrations are not available.
• Data & backend connection is not available.
• No app responsive design.

Summing up: why building from scratch?

Depending on what aspects you need to reflect on your product roadmap, your choice of a template and a product roadmap software may vary. There are ready-made solutions for those who are trying to manage several products at one time, young startups bootstrapping their way to the market, quality-focused agile teams, etc. 

Some tools allow you to download a customized product roadmap in Excel or PowerPoint, while other apps builders allow you to create a full-fledged web app with a responsive design, and an unlimited number of pages, and deploy it on a custom domain without leaving the app building platform.

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Regardless of the software you choose – value your time, do not build from scratch, choose from the plethora of the ready-made product roadmap templates.