Dynamics 365 Project Operations alternatives for Dataverse-first firms.
If your CRM, security and admins already live on Dataverse, only two of the alternatives below keep your project data there. The rest are good products that live somewhere else and connect in. That one fact sorts most of the market.
The short answer. For a Dataverse-first firm, the realistic alternatives to Dynamics 365 Project Operations split in two. TekStack and PSA Hub run inside your own Dataverse. Progressus runs inside Business Central. Kantata, BigTime and Certinia are separate platforms that integrate with Dynamics. Choose by where you want the data to live first, and by price second.
Disclosure. We build PSA Hub, one of the options below, and Simple Smooth Safe sells both products and consultancy. Weigh this page as a vendor’s page. Every third-party fact is linked to the page we read it on, checked 25 September 2026; where a vendor does not publish something, the page says “not published” rather than guessing. Prices are quoted in the currency each vendor publishes and are never converted. Verify everything with the vendor before you decide.
If the question is specifically PSA Hub against Project Operations, module by module, read PSA Hub vs Dynamics 365 Project Operations instead. This page is the wider map.
The comparison at a glance
| Option | Where it runs | Price and licensing | Time / expense / invoicing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Project Operations | In your Dataverse Dataverse (Core); plus Dynamics 365 Finance for ERP deployments | $135 per user per month (US list) Per user, paid yearly | Yes; Core stops at proforma invoicing | Firms heading for Dynamics 365 Finance, or needing a first-party vendor |
| TekStack | In your Dataverse Dataverse, in your Microsoft tenant | From $2,995 per month (20 users) Monthly plan with bundled users, two-year term; Power Apps licence extra Minimum: 20 users in the smallest plan | Time entry and invoicing listed; expense not itemised on the pricing page | B2B tech and services firms wanting CRM, PSA and implementation in one subscription |
| Progressus | Not in your Dataverse Dynamics 365 Business Central | Not published | Timesheets, expense sheets and project accounting | Firms whose finance system is Business Central |
| Kantata | Not in your Dataverse Kantata’s own hosted service | Not published Tailored quote | Not itemised on the pages we read | Larger services firms prepared to run a separate PSA with connectors |
| Certinia | Not in your Dataverse Salesforce Platform | Not published | Time tracking, expenses, automated invoicing | Firms whose CRM is Salesforce |
| BigTime | Not in your Dataverse BigTime’s own cloud (SaaS) | Essentials from $20 per user per month; other tiers quoted Per user per month, tiered | Yes, on every plan | Smaller firms wanting a self-serve PSA; Enterprise PSA for Business Central or Dynamics GP ledgers |
| PSA Hub (ours) | In your Dataverse Dataverse, in your tenant (Power Apps code app) | €39 per user per month Per user, billed annually; DocGen required per environment Minimum: 15 users | Yes; invoices rendered through DocGen | Dataverse-first firms with 15+ billable people and no general-ledger requirement |
Sources for every cell are linked in the sections below. “Not published” means we could not find it on the vendor’s own pages, not that it does not exist.
Why where the data lives decides most of this
A firm that already runs Dynamics 365 Sales or Power Platform has its clients, contacts, users and security roles in Dataverse. A PSA product that stores its projects and timesheets in the same Dataverse can use those records directly. A product that stores them anywhere else needs a connector, and then someone owns the sync, the mapping and the month-end conversation about why the two systems disagree.
That is not automatically a reason to avoid a separate platform. Kantata, BigTime and Certinia all have genuine strengths, and a connector is a solved problem for many firms. It is a cost to count, not a verdict.
Dynamics 365 Project Operations (Microsoft)
Microsoft’s own product. Microsoft Learn describes Project Operations as a Dataverse application, and it comes in three deployment types. The Core deployment covers project sales, planning, pricing, resource management, time tracking, basic expense, budgeting and proforma invoicing; customer-facing invoicing and revenue recognition arrive with the Integrated with ERP deployment. The US list price is $135 per user per month, paid yearly, with Copilot Credits sold separately for agents. Users who only enter time and expenses can use the Team Member app with a Dynamics 365 Team Members licence.
Choose it if Dynamics 365 Finance is in scope now or soon, your procurement needs a first-party vendor, or you want Microsoft’s support organisation behind the product.
Look elsewhere if you need customer-facing invoices without taking on the ERP-integrated deployment, or the per-seat price is the whole argument against it. The detailed trade-off is in our head-to-head comparison.
TekStack
TekStack is the closest like-for-like alternative to PSA Hub on this list. It is built on Microsoft Dataverse with data inside your Microsoft tenant, and it bundles CRM, PSA, help desk and billing. Its pricing page publishes plans in US dollars: Starter (Sales or PSA) at $2,995 per month including 20 users, Business Edition at $3,995 per month for 50 users, and Enterprise Edition at $8,995 per month for unlimited users. Additional full users are $50 per user per month and time-entry users $20. Prices assume a two-year term paid annually in advance, and the page states that they do not include the necessary Power Apps licence. Implementation, data migration and unlimited application support are included in every plan.
Choose it if you are a B2B technology or services firm that wants CRM and PSA from one Dataverse-native vendor, with implementation folded into the subscription rather than quoted separately.
Look elsewhere if you already run Dynamics 365 Sales and only want the project side, or a two-year commitment does not suit you.
Progressus
Progressus is a project management and accounting extension for Dynamics 365 Business Central, sold by Velosio. Its documentation covers timesheet entry and approval, expense sheets, resource planning and project accounting inside Business Central. It is not a Dataverse application: Business Central keeps its own data and synchronises selected tables with Dataverse through couplings, such as customers to accounts. Pricing is not published; Velosio asks you to talk to an expert.
Choose it if Business Central is your ledger and you want projects, time and project accounting in the same system as your finance team.
Look elsewhere if your centre of gravity is Dataverse and Dynamics 365 Sales rather than Business Central, because then you are syncing again.
Kantata
Kantata is a dedicated professional services platform that runs as its own hosted service. That page lists core connectors to Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Dynamics 365 CRM and Business Central, and its integrations page cites over 1,200 prebuilt connectors. A published customer story describes Advania UK connecting Kantata to Dynamics 365 Sales and Business Central with out-of-the-box integrations, API workflows and Workato middleware. Kantata’s pricing page publishes no prices: plans are tailored.
Choose it if you want a dedicated PSA and are prepared to run it as a second system alongside Dynamics, with an integration you own.
Look elsewhere if keeping project data in your own Dataverse is a requirement, or you want a price before the first call.
Certinia
Certinia is built directly on the Salesforce Platform. Its PSA overview covers resource management, time tracking, expenses and automated invoicing with revenue recognition. The Certinia site publishes no prices, and the pages we read do not state which Salesforce licences Certinia users need.
Choose it if your CRM is Salesforce. It is the Salesforce-native answer to the same question this page asks about Dataverse.
Look elsewhere if you are Dataverse-first. Running your projects on a second CRM platform is the opposite of the reason you are reading this.
BigTime
BigTime is a cloud PSA with a published entry price. Its pricing page starts the Essentials plan at $20 per user per month, with time tracking, invoicing, expense management and payments on all plans; Advanced and Premier prices are not shown and Enterprise is custom. The accounting integrations listed on that page are QuickBooks and Sage Intacct, not Dynamics. The separate BigTime Enterprise PSA lists Microsoft Dynamics GP/365 and Business Central among its ERP integrations, built in-house without middleware; its price is not published.
Choose it if you want a self-serve, per-user PSA with a published starting price, and particularly if you have little Microsoft platform investment.
Look elsewhere if you need the Dynamics integration at the entry price, or want project data inside Dataverse rather than synced to it.
PSA Hub (ours)
PSA Hub runs time, expense, projects, billing, WIP, profitability, resourcing, utilisation and forecasting on native Dataverse tables in your own tenant, as a Power Apps code app. It is €39 per user per month, billed annually, minimum 15 users, one rate for every module. SSS DocGen is a prerequisite and is licensed separately at €7,500 per production environment per year; implementation is a fixed price quoted after scoping, from €18,000. All of this is on the pricing page.
Two honest limits. PSA Hub is not an ERP: no general ledger, no inventory. And it has no public customer reference yet — no named client, logo or case study. What we offer instead is the running build, on a scoping call, against your data.
Choose it if you are already on Dataverse, you have 15 or more billable people whose time becomes invoices, and you want the week grid, planboard and approvals built as an application rather than assembled from forms. Our reasoning on that is in when a Power Apps code app beats a model-driven form.
Look elsewhere if you have no Dynamics or Power Platform footprint (a standalone PSA will cost you less), you are under the 15-user minimum, or your procurement needs a vendor with a proven reference base. Those are real reasons, not objections to overcome.
How to choose
- Where is your CRM? Salesforce → Certinia. No Microsoft or Salesforce platform at all → a standalone PSA such as BigTime or Kantata, sized to your firm.
- Is Business Central your ledger, and is finance driving the decision? Yes → shortlist Progressus, and BigTime Enterprise or Kantata if you prefer a separate PSA with a Business Central connector.
- Is Dynamics 365 Finance in scope, or must the vendor be first-party? Yes → Project Operations.
- Must project data stay in your own Dataverse? Yes → the shortlist is Project Operations, TekStack and PSA Hub.
- Among those three: want CRM, PSA and implementation in one bundled subscription → TekStack. Want the project side only, per user, on top of the CRM you already run, with 15+ billable people → PSA Hub. Want Microsoft’s roadmap and support → Project Operations.
Whichever way it goes, price the full first year: licences, any Microsoft or Salesforce seats underneath, implementation and the integration you will own. The per-user headline is rarely the number that decides it.
Still on Project Service Automation?
Microsoft’s Project Service Automation reached end of support on 31 March 2025. According to the end-of-life FAQ, there are no further maintenance, security or compliance updates, and support tickets are answered with a request to upgrade. You can still open it, but Microsoft “highly discourages” it.
The same FAQ says existing customers should already hold Project Operations licences, so the Microsoft path needs no new purchase. It also says the only supported upgrade is to the Core deployment, that the upgrade cannot be rolled back, and that it may break customisations. If you are going to test and refactor anyway, it is a sensible moment to put the alternatives above on the same shortlist. Your accounts and contacts stay in Dataverse whichever route you take; what changes is where your projects and timesheets live next.
PSA Hub
Professional services on the Dataverse you already run
PSA Hub is €39 per user per month, billed annually, minimum 15 users, one rate for every module. SSS DocGen is a prerequisite and is licensed separately.
Sources
Vendor and Microsoft pages this article relies on (checked 25 September 2026):
- Determine your deployment type (Project Operations), Microsoft Learn
- Dynamics 365 Project Operations pricing, microsoft.com
- Project Operations Team Member app, Microsoft Learn
- Project Service Automation end of life FAQ, Microsoft Learn
- Synchronizing data in Business Central with Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Learn
- TekStack platform, tekstack.com
- TekStack pricing, tekstack.com
- Progressus Advanced Projects for Dynamics 365 Business Central, velosio.com
- Progressus pricing, velosio.com
- Progressus for Dynamics 365 Business Central documentation, docs.progressussoftware.com
- Hosted Services Specifications, kantata.com
- Kantata integrations, kantata.com
- Advania UK success story, kantata.com
- Kantata pricing, kantata.com
- Certinia home page, certinia.com
- Why Certinia is built on Salesforce, certinia.com
- PSA software overview, certinia.com
- BigTime pricing, bigtime.net
- BigTime Enterprise PSA, bigtime.net