Best for
Best for accounting, audit and consulting firms scheduling large teams where skills and independence rules constrain who can take the work.
- Enterprise
Resource Planning Comparison
Dayshape vs. Retain
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for audit, tax, advisory and consulting firms that need skills-aware scheduling and, in some cases, the option to run it on their own servers.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Dayshape | Retain |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Quote-based Licences are priced per resource managed in the platform, plus a one-off implementation fee. Dayshape publishes no amounts; quotes come from sales. | Quote-based Retain publishes no price list; the contact form routes pricing requests to sales. |
| Free trial | Demo on request | Demo on request |
| Users | Not stated | Retain cites more than 1.5 million resources managed worldwide and over 100 large customers |
| API | Yes, an API is offered for feeding in data such as staff skill matrices, alongside prebuilt integrations | Yes, secure APIs for programmatic access to resources, bookings, jobs and operational data, plus middleware support through MuleSoft and Azure Logic Apps |
| Hosting | Cloud, hosted on Microsoft Azure within a private network behind a web application firewall, with access via single sign-on | Cloud as Retain Cloud, or on your own servers as Retain On-Premise |
| Made in | United Kingdom (Dayshape, Edinburgh) | United Kingdom (Retain International, company number 01593831, part of AdvT Group) |
| Resource planning | Yes, an optimisation engine that scores suitability by skills, availability, location and experience across the whole portfolio, plus a drag-and-drop Gantt scheduler and forward-looking capacity forecasts | Yes, bookings against jobs and engagements with capacity and availability views, recurring bookings, conflict management and AI suitability matching on skills, experience and availability |
| Task planning | No, planning stops at assigning people to work; task detail stays elsewhere | No, work is planned as bookings against jobs and engagements rather than as individual tasks |
| Time tracking | No time entry of its own; timesheet data is integrated from other systems to compare billed against budgeted resource time | Yes, built-in timesheets that capture actual time against projects and tasks and compare it with planned allocations |
| Reporting and controlling | Yes, customisable dashboards and a drag-and-drop report builder over past, present and forecast data, plus real-time project financials | Yes, utilisation dashboards, revenue and delivery cost forecasting, operational notifications and audit logs |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | Not stated | Email helpdesk, Phone |
| Onboarding | Guided onboarding, Live online demos and webinars, Personal consulting | Not stated |
| Company size | Enterprise | more entries Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Workday, SAP, SAP HANA, Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Deltek, IRIS, CCH, OpenHR, CatalystOne, Flowcase | more entries Abacus, Aderant, Access APS, BambooHR, CCH, Employment Hero, IRIS Practice Management, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Microsoft Synapse, MYOB GreatSoft, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite OpenAir, PracticePro 365, Salesforce, SAP, SugarCRM, Thomson Reuters GoFileRoom, Workday, MuleSoft, Azure Logic Apps |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Deployment Dayshape Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Retain Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise
- Company size Dayshape Enterprise Retain Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Hosting Dayshape Cloud, hosted on Microsoft Azure within a private network behind a web application firewall, with access via single sign-on Retain Cloud as Retain Cloud, or on your own servers as Retain On-Premise
- Made in Dayshape United Kingdom (Dayshape, Edinburgh) Retain United Kingdom (Retain International, company number 01593831, part of AdvT Group)
- API Dayshape Yes, an API is offered for feeding in data such as staff skill matrices, alongside prebuilt integrations Retain Yes, secure APIs for programmatic access to resources, bookings, jobs and operational data, plus middleware support through MuleSoft and Azure Logic Apps
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Dayshape
Strengths
- Suitability scoring by skills, availability, location and experience, weighed across the portfolio rather than project by project
- Resource plans and budgets are built in the same step, so financial overruns show up as the schedule changes
- Audit trails and assignment restrictions that enforce independence, supporting ISQM1 and QC1000
Limitations
- No task planning and no time entry of its own; both have to come from the systems it connects to
- No published prices, so every quote comes from sales
- Aimed squarely at professional services firms, and the audit and independence features carry little weight outside them
Retain
Strengths
- Available both as a hosted cloud platform and as an on-premise installation
- Timesheets are part of the product, so planned and actual hours sit in the same system
- Integrations cover practice management, HR, CRM and finance systems, with middleware support and secure APIs
Limitations
- No published prices, so every quote comes from sales
- No task-level planning; work is tracked as bookings against jobs
- Shaped around audit, tax, advisory and consulting work, which narrows the fit outside professional services
Plans
Pricing
Dayshape
- Quote-based Not stated Priced per managed resource, plus a one-off implementation fee. No amounts are published.
Retain
- Quote-based Not stated Retain publishes no price list; quotes come from sales.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Dayshape
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Retain
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Dayshape https://dayshape.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-30
Retain https://www.retaininternational.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-11
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.