Retain
Resource planning and scheduling for professional services firms, as a cloud platform or on your own servers.
AI suitability matching ranks candidates for an open role from skills, experience, availability and past project data, and can be toggled to widen the list to near matches; it suggests only and never assigns on its own.
- Starting price
- Quote-based
- Free trial
- Demo on request
- API
- Yes, secure APIs for programmatic access to resources, bookings, jobs and operational data, plus middleware support through MuleSoft and Azure Logic Apps
Overview
Retain is resource management software from Retain International, a UK company that has been in this market for over 30 years. It comes in two forms that share the same scope: Retain Cloud as a hosted platform, and Retain On-Premise for organisations that want the system on their own servers. Planning happens as bookings against jobs and engagements, with capacity and availability views, recurring bookings and conflict management, alongside skills records, talent profiles and AI suitability matching that ranks candidates for a role. Timesheets are part of the product.
Our take
The two deployment options are what set this apart from most of the category, which is cloud only: a firm whose data cannot leave its own servers has very few alternatives with this much scheduling depth behind them. The shape of the product points at audit and advisory work, where the question is which qualified person is free rather than what the next task is, and the vendor's own industry pages and customer stories come from that world. Thirty years in one market cuts both ways, so the age of the product is worth a look alongside the feature list. Buyers who need a price before a sales call will not find one here.
Key Facts
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Starting price | Quote-based Retain publishes no price list; the contact form routes pricing requests to sales. |
| Free trial | Demo on request |
| API | Yes, secure APIs for programmatic access to resources, bookings, jobs and operational data, plus middleware support through MuleSoft and Azure Logic Apps |
| Users | Retain cites more than 1.5 million resources managed worldwide and over 100 large customers |
| Hosting | Cloud as Retain Cloud, or on your own servers as Retain On-Premise |
| Made in | United Kingdom (Retain International, company number 01593831, part of AdvT Group) |
Features
- Resource planning
- 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, work is planned as bookings against jobs and engagements rather than as individual tasks
- Time tracking
- Yes, built-in timesheets that capture actual time against projects and tasks and compare it with planned allocations
- Reporting and controlling
- Yes, utilisation dashboards, revenue and delivery cost forecasting, operational notifications and audit logs
Integrations
- 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
Deployment and Support
- Deployment
-
- Cloud (SaaS)
- Browser-based
- On-premise
- Support
-
- Email helpdesk
- Phone
- Company size
-
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Suitability
| Industry | Freelancers | Small and mid-sized | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agencies | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Architecture & Engineering | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Consulting | Not stated | Stated as a fit | Stated as a fit |
| Media & Creative | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Technology | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
The table combines the industries the vendor addresses with the company sizes the tool is aimed at. An empty cell means the combination is not stated, not that it is ruled out.
Pros and Cons
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
Pricing
-
Quote-based
Not stated
Retain publishes no price list; quotes come from sales.
Best For
Alternatives and Comparisons
FAQ
- Can Retain be hosted on our own servers?
- Yes. Alongside Retain Cloud the vendor sells Retain On-Premise, which runs the same scheduling, talent management and analytics on your own servers. Retain positions it at organisations that want full control over their data and their environment for security or compliance reasons.
- How does Retain connect to other systems?
- Retain describes its integrations as technology agnostic rather than tied to one vendor ecosystem. There is native calendar synchronisation with Outlook and Microsoft 365, prebuilt connections to practice management, HR, CRM and finance platforms including Workday, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, IRIS, CCH and Thomson Reuters GoFileRoom, and secure APIs over resources, bookings, jobs and operational data. Integrations can also be built through middleware such as MuleSoft and Azure Logic Apps.
- Does the AI decide who gets assigned?
- No. Retain states that AI suitability matching produces suggestions only and that users keep full control over every assignment decision. Candidates are ranked by a combination of suitability and availability, planners can shortlist from the suggestions pane, and the suggestions can be switched off so that only resources who fully meet the role requirements appear.
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