Data and Tech
Vena vs. Planful: Compare Features, Integrations, Reviews & More
What’s the best CPM platform for your business—Vena or Planful? Our in-depth and objective analysis of both can help you decide.
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The right financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform can make or break a finance team. Armed with a complete, robust platform, you can boost your productivity, deliver critical insights on the business's financial performance to stakeholders, and find ways to cut costs or boost revenue.
But the wrong platform can cause inefficiencies and create more manual work than you started with. That adds up—a 2022 study found that those inefficiencies may cost companies more than $6 billion every year. Accordingly, it’s important to make sure your finance team is working with an FP&A platform that best fits your needs—now and as your business scales.
Fortunately for CFOs and finance teams, there are many FP&A systems to choose from, one of the most popular being Planful.
If you’re currently evaluating Planful as your potential FP&A software and are curious what alternatives are out there, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you in this guide based on real customer reviews.
Planful is a cloud-based FP&A platform that's billed as a comprehensive suite used by teams, including finance and accounting. It’s used by some big-name businesses, including Zappos and Bose, as well as educational institutions like Temple University.
Planful streamlines FP&A processes by combining data across a business’s many systems and bringing it all into a single platform to support financial reporting and planning. From there, finance teams can create scenario analyses, forecasts and financial performance dashboards.
It also boasts some automation and collaboration features, managed workflows and templates. Its main strengths as a platform lie in its ability to act as a cohesive system for finance teams, which it pairs with features like Planful Predict, an AI-powered forecasting tool that generates insights or recommendations in real time, while also flagging data anomalies.
Planful can tick a lot of boxes for finance teams. But it isn’t without its potential drawbacks.
For instance, some Planful users highlight difficulties in implementing the platform and learning how it works. As a result, you may have to go through a period of hand-holding from Planful’s team to get the ball rolling. Additionally, Planful’s platform is actually split into two modules: structured and dynamic planning. That adds yet another layer of complexity to the mix.
“As a beginner, understanding how to create dimensions, cross-check figures, and design report views is quite challenging at the beginning, especially without sufficient straightforward guidance,” writes one G2 reviewer.
Another point of contention centers around Planful’s Excel functionality. Specifically, most finance teams are well-versed in Excel, but Planful requires that users learn a new proprietary spreadsheet environment, despite having an Excel connection. Planful’s Excel integration is only a plug-in, rather than a native integration, which means you don’t get access to Excel’s full functionality. Users report this fact can eat up time and cause some bottlenecks within workflows.
“There is no great tool to get your pieces currently in Excel or others into Planful, so setup time is mostly spent replicating instead of learning to use features or improving your reports along the way,” writes one reviewer.
For those considering an alternative to Planful, especially if a steep learning curve and limited Excel integration have you nervous, there are plenty of options to check out.
Here are some of the top Planful alternatives on the market, including a brief overview of each platform, its key features, and more.
Vena is an FP&A platform with an Excel-native interface, offering a complete and comprehensive financial planning suite. Vena’s centralized database (CubeFLEX), powered by OLAP technology, combines data from all your sources (including ERP, HRIS and CRM systems) into one place, allowing you to flexibly carry out scenario modeling with all the dimensions and inputs you need. Vena’s agentic AI capabilities let you speed up decision making even further by allowing you to surface insights and build reports with a simple prompt.
Vena works natively with Microsoft products and services like Power BI and PowerPoint, and excels as a tool to support data storytelling. It also has pre-built templates, audit trails, and much more.
AI capabilities and insights
Budgeting and planning
Forecasting and financial modeling
Financial close management
Workforce planning
Data analysis and reporting
Vena may be a good alternative for small and mid-size businesses, all the way to enterprise teams. It may also be particularly advantageous for businesses looking for providers with deep expertise in industries such as financial services, SaaS, manufacturing, healthcare, not-for-profit, professional sports and more. Core uses for Vena include budgeting, forecasting, scenario planning, financial close management, financial reporting, and analysis.
Vena is also a powerful tool for finance teams looking to support extended and operational planning, too, for instance, workforce planning, capital expense planning, incentive compensation management, marketing planning and sales and revenue planning.
In all, Vena is a solid, comprehensive choice for finance teams looking for a flexible but powerful FP&A platform that allows them to continue using Excel while getting best-in-class AI capabilities.
Here is what some users have had to say about Vena:
“Vena does a great job at organizing your data into a simple database format. Your data can be complex, but with Vena, it's easy to draw it down and organize it into ways that make sense. FP&A is now easier, and our processes have sped up.”
- G2
“The best part of Vena is that it can easily be integrated with MS Excel and even a user who doesn't have much information about Excel can work on it with huge data. It also helps to understand the overall performance of our organization and understand the market trends.”
Prophix is a platform that concentrates a business’s financial data in a central location, allowing finance teams to streamline their planning processes. One of its chief aims is to help finance teams collaborate with stakeholders company-wide. Accordingly, Prophix has numerous integration options for accounting, ERP, HRIS and CRM systems, and other tools such as Sage and Zendesk Sell. It uses OLAP technology for data manipulation, working with the platform’s “cubes,” which Prophix creates for each use case. Unlike Vena, however, Prophix does not have a native Excel interface.
Budgeting and forecasting
Financial consolidation and close
Workforce planning
Connects with various ERP systems
Prophix may be a good fit for small-to-medium-sized firms, as it’s a user-friendly platform. However, it may lack flexibility, and performance may suffer for larger, more complex use cases. With that in mind, Prophix may be a good alternative to Planful for relatively small finance teams.
“Ease of use, ease to teach to new employees, as well as the ease of reporting.”
“I really enjoy how user-friendly the system is. Onboarding new users is faster than some other software I've used in the past because of how intuitive the interface is. The financial reporting, planning and budgeting tools are what drew us to the software, and Prophix offers a complete, comprehensive suite of tools for all of these needs.”
- G2
OneStream is designed to be a centralized hub for finance teams, removing the “siloization” of data across companies and bringing it to one place. The platform aims to simplify workflows and processes for finance teams. Under the hood, it uses a mix of OLAP technology and relational databases, called “Relational Blending,” which also requires that users set up, manage, and maintain their own databases. The platform also layers in AI-powered analytics and machine learning to analyze, predict, and generate insights, to create more accurate reports, plans and forecasts faster.
Planning and budgeting
Financial close and consolidation
Forecasting
Reporting and analytics
One thing to keep in mind about OneStream is that although it’s a powerful solution, it may require some work to implement and maintain. As such, it may be a better fit for larger companies with more people and IT resources. Additionally, though some users tend to laud it for how easy the platform is to use, it can take some time to reach a certain level of proficiency with its proprietary formulas and coding languages.
“There is great out-of-the-box functionality, but what is great about OneStream is that seemingly limitless customization can be built on it. This allows for precise customization regardless of the customer and their needs. Additionally, the Marketplace is constantly evolving, expanding, and growing based on customer/consultant feedback.”
- G2
“The implementation was easy and the use of the consolidation tool has improved our close process by reducing the hours spent, but also improving the level of confidence we have in our monthly results. Finance owns the product and any changes we need to make, we can implement without IT involvement.”
- G2
Workday Adaptive Planning incorporates a range of technology and integrations to streamline finance teams’ operations. It is powered by Elastic Hypercube Technology (EHT), an in-memory modeling engine that works with its integration framework. The platform also ropes in embedded AI tools and machine learning. That combination allows the platform to add or subtract memory and computing power when needed, creating a dynamic sense of scaling and modeling.
Financial planning
Workforce planning
Sales and operations planning
Financial close and consolidation
Given that Adaptive Planning is a part of the broader suite of tools that Workday offers, it may be a good fit for companies already working within the Workday ecosystem. With that in mind, Adaptive Planning is a good alternative to Planful for relatively large companies that may want access to the broader range of tools and platforms Workday offers.
“Workday allowed us to do all of our financial planning in one central hub. We can easily budget, generate financial statements, and run many different what-if versions for all revenue and budget scenarios. Super user-friendly for all planning options!”
“One of its standout aspects is its flexibility. It allows organizations to create customized financial models and forecasts that can adapt to their unique needs. Its user-friendly interface and powerful integration capabilities also make it easier for teams to collaborate and make data-driven decisions. The ability to perform real-time analysis and scenario planning is another strong point, helping businesses stay agile and responsive to changing conditions.”
- G2
Cube Software offers users a spreadsheet-based interface, resulting in a user-friendly experience supplemented by powerful FP&A features. It integrates natively with both Excel and Google Sheets, giving FP&A teams flexibility in choosing their spreadsheet platform. The platform's technology—also built in OLAP—is designed to support planning, analysis and collaboration with speed.
Budgeting and planning
Financial reporting
Native spreadsheet environment
Supports integrations with major ERP tools
Given its flexibility and ability to integrate with Excel and Google Sheets, Cube may be a good Planful alternative for small teams or early-stage firms that currently rely heavily on spreadsheets. Additionally, Cube only allows users to perform certain functions, such as model scenarios, across four predefined and four custom dimensions. While these limits will work fine for smaller FP&A teams, larger teams with more complex needs might find the platform limiting.
“The implementation process was very efficient. In two weeks our company was up and running with Cube thanks to the support team. Once you start using the product most of the features are intuitive and easy to learn. For areas that were pain points, the support team worked as hard as they could to provide us with a solution. Cube is working to continue to iterate on their product and provide new features.”
- G2
“Through the use of Cube, we have automated a significant number of manual processes. Data is accumulated, analyzed and reviewed more effectively, which saves the Finance team time and allows the sharing of information to business partners.”
- G2
Anaplan’s platform focuses on collaborative planning for large enterprises and businesses. The platform is built on proprietary Hyperblock technology, designed to handle complex modeling and data management needs. The Hyperblock engine is an in-memory calculation engine designed for enterprise-scale planning and analysis, allowing for real-time updates across connected data points.
Enterprise Collaboration
Multi-Dimensional Modeling
Business Intelligence
Scenario Planning and Modeling
For finance teams who lean on their Excel experience, Anaplan may not be a good fit, as it does not natively integrate with Excel and instead requires users to learn their proprietary spreadsheet formulas. And while Anaplan is notable for its scalability and flexibility, it’s also a fairly complex platform, which means it’s a better fit for enterprise-scale finance teams that need to collaborate across departments.
“Anaplan is an excellent EPM tool for business process planning. Its computing power allows you to produce real-time simulations of several scenarios based on complex sets of hypotheses defined for and by the business. Data processing is comprehensive, covering a wide range of business needs through a large number of native functions and formulas.”
- G2
“This software is great for companies looking for what-if scenario planning, forecasting and budgeting, workforce planning and tracking competitor data. It really has all-in-one functionality for companies looking for a clean overview of their business.”
The final Planful alternative on the list, Datarails, operates with relational database technology and a “Flex” add-in that allows users to connect to Excel (though it too is a plug-in, and does not fully integrate with all of Excel’s functionality). Datarails’ relational database technology (ROLAP) relies on tables, rows and columns to structure information (which can be a constraint when it comes to complex queries).
Financial Reporting
Budgeting
Forecasting and Scenario Modeling
ERP, data integrations
For small or early-stage companies looking for a financial reporting solution or platform, Datarails might be a good option to check out. It performs well as a reporting platform and boasts AI and automation capabilities that can help finance teams become more efficient. However, it can get clunkier and bogged down with more advanced use cases, such as those required by larger operations.
“Datarails is an affordable financial reporting option. Data from multiple sources can be consolidated in one system for insightful financial reporting. Multiple reporting tools are available from Dashboards to Excel and PowerPoint reports. Customer support has been excellent in my experience. Implementation was quick and it's easy to learn how to write reports.”
- G2
“Datarails has been extremely helpful in making our reporting and budgeting process dynamic and efficient. Gone are the days of having to manually download from various databases and edit separate files on a monthly basis. I love the dashboard views and flexibility. Gives FP&A and our sales team direct insight to our business that they did not have previously.”
- G2
Your business and finance teams’ needs are going to evolve as your business needs become more complex.
Given that finance teams are constantly grappling with unpredictable market conditions (like tariffs and supply chain issues, to name a few), there’s a pressing need for insights into financial performance and flexibility to contend with that complexity. Manual workflows won’t cut it anymore, and finance teams need tools to model quick-changing scenarios on the fly.
For that reason, it’s a good idea to reevaluate your FP&A platform every so often, whether you’re using Planful or another software. There are many pros, cons, and considerations to make. Give your team a platform they’ll use to its full potential, leveraging a familiar Excel interface, the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem, and that can extend into other areas of your business such as workforce planning.
Speak with a member of our team to learn more about why Vena may be a better fit for your finance team than Planful.
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Request a Demo to see how Vena can support your complete planning processes.
Schedule DemoNicole Diceman is Director, Product Marketing at Vena. With a proven track record of driving product strategy and direction, she is heavily involved in driving new product ideas and development efforts and is closely aligned with customer needs and requirements. With her extensive knowledge and experience in product marketing, FP&A and the Vena platform itself, Nicole is a regular contributor to the Vena blog and often speaks at virtual and in-person events to share her ideas. A powerful advocate for product marketing innovation, Nicole is always on the lookout for creative new ways to bring additional value to Vena customers.
