28 Best Timeline Software for Every Kind of Project (2023) - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

When it comes to creating a timeline, there is no shortage of timeline makers to choose from.
To make choosing a tool easier for you, we’ve searched the internet and compiled a complete list of all 28 timeline software available that you might want to consider.

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How to Choose the Right Timeline Maker

With so many tools to choose from, how should you decide which to use?

To start, ask yourself these 4 questions:

What features are non-negotiable?
For example, depending on the tool, you may or may not get collaboration, images, drag and drop, events with durations, BC dates, etc.
What platforms does the tool support?
Some tools are web-based and can be used from any device whereas some only work on Windows or Macs.
What style do I prefer?
Every tool creates a different style of timeline. A cartoon-looking timelines might be fine if you’re working on a homework assignment but may not work well if you’ll be presenting the timeline to a board of directors.
What can I afford?
Most tools, including ours (Preceden), provide a free plan or trial which may be more than enough for your timeline. If you need a paid plan (which will typically unlock additional features) you’ll want to make sure to choose a tool in your budget, which may be drastically different depending on whether the tool is for students or a project managers at Fortune 100 companies.

In addition to the differing features, pricing, and styles, be sure to check out other aspects of each offering. Some may have been neglected for years and have poor support (you can send an email to their support team to see how quickly they respond). If several tools will get the job done, the strength of their support docs and quality of their support response could be a deciding factor.

Top 10 Rated Tools for Creating Timelines in 2023

If you’re short on time, here are the top tools you should check out:

And if you have some more time, check out the our complete list of 28 timeline makers below. You can use the following filter to drill down based on your requirements:

Filter

Platform

Web App (works on both Mac and Windows)

Mac App

Windows App

Audience

Professional Use

Personal Use

Educational Use

Showing all 28 tools:

Preceden

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Preceden is an easy-to-use timeline maker and roadmapping tool that helps you quickly create professional timelines. With its intuitive web-based editor for creating interactive timelines, timeline templates, and numerous export options you’ll be able to build and share your timeline in no time at all.

Sure, this may be a bit biased, but we believe Preceden is the best timeline software on the net regardless of whether you’re using it for project management, historical timelines, or even genealogy research.

Since it’s completely web-based, Preceden is compatible with both Mac and PC computers – moreover, no download is required to use this tool.

Preceden is free to try with paid plans starting at $12/month.

Website: https://www.preceden.com
It was launched in 2009 by Matt Mazur
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PNG, CSV, Excel or PDF

What customers are saying about Preceden:

“

I tested several interactive timeline maker tools and chose Preceden because of its aesthetic and ease of use. Other tools were clunky and didn’t really have the features that I needed such as layers or templates. With Preceden, I was able to customize my timeline and create a timeline that I can insert in a presentation or have a beautiful printout to share.

”

Galina Madjaroff Rietz

ChronoFlo

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ChronoFlo is an online timeline maker created by the Alex Kearns, who also created TikiToki. It lets you create interactive timelines with multiple ways to embed media (images, videos, etc) onto the timeline.

ChronoFlo has a free plan that lets you create 1 timeline with up to 50 events. There’s also a Bronze plan ($10/month) that supports 5 timelines with up to 500 events, and a Silver plan ($29.50/month) that supports up to 25 timelines and up to 1,000 events per timeline.

Website: https://www.chronoflotimeline.com/
It was launched in 2020 by Alex Kearns
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
See also: ChronoFlo Alternatives

What customers are saying about ChronoFlo:

“

You get a tremendous amount of customization. You can change the accent color, whether it’s above or below the timeline, they style of the card and more.

”

Patrick Cauley

Timeline Maker Pro

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Timeline Maker Pro is Windows-based timeline maker software that lets you create clear, impressive scheduling charts in minutes. The program’s interface is professional and welcoming, starting with some helpful tutorials and moving on to an intuitive layout at every turn. The program feels like operating a calendar system, like the one found on Microsoft Outlook, but its results look very different. After entering in event information like start and stop times, you see a clear timeline of your event.

One-time purchases ranging from $49 for students to $535 for enterprise teams.

Website: https://www.timelinemaker.com
It was launched by Bob Thomas
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PDF, CSV, TAB, TXT, TLM or HTML
See also: Timeline Maker Pro Alternatives

What customers are saying about Timeline Maker Pro:

“

I manage the IT organization and a lot of our work is project driven so I leverage the tool to allow people to visualize all the projects that may be going on at once. Everyone who has seen me use the tool talks about how it is a nice application.

”

Ingra C

Time.Graphics

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Time.Graphics is a free online timeline maker that supports a wide variety of options for embedding content in your timeline.

Free public timelines up to 18 events. Premium plans from $4.90/day to $97.90/year.

Website: https://time.graphics/
It was launched in 2014 by Eugene Mustfinn
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a JSON, XML, Excel, docX or PNG
See also: Time.Graphics Alternatives

What customers are saying about Time.Graphics:

“

Time.Graphics has a good service providing all the timeline tools I have been looking for such as being able to add specific date entities, time periods, and customise the look of them as I desire.

”

vald0506

Tiki-Toki

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Tiki-Toki is a online timeline maker that makes it dead easy for people to create stunning timelines in their browsers.

Images, text and even videos (YouTube, Vimeo, and MP4s) can be embedded in Tiki-Toki timelines.

Thanks to this timeline maker’s ability to add images, videos, and more, it’s probably the best timeline software for historians.

Whether you want to add historic paintings, battlefield diagrams, or informational videos, this timeline maker can do it all.

Tiki-Toki’s free plan is limited to 1 timeline with paid plans starting at $9.50/month that support multiple timelines and additional features.

Website: https://www.tiki-toki.com
It was launched in 2011 by Alex Kearns
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a CSV
See also: Tiki-Toki Alternatives

What customers are saying about Tiki-Toki:

“

Can create gorgeous timelines with lots of media and different views.

”

grangerts

Aeon Timeline

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Aeon Timeline is a flexible timeline maker software tool meant for writers and other creative thinkers.

Free 14-day trial, then a one-time purchase of $64.99.

Website: https://timeline.app
It was launched in 2012 by Matthew Tobin
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a CSV, PDF, JPEG or PNG
See also: Aeon Timeline Alternatives

What customers are saying about Aeon Timeline:

“

I found Aeon while looking for a program to compile a complex legal timeline. Aeon was just what I needed. It allows the user to create a timeline using absolute times and dates, or to create one where everything is relative.

”

Glenn Jones

TimeToast

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Timetoast is an application that makes it possible for users to design and build their own interactive timelines. These timelines can then be shared on the internet by embedding them into any site. It’s possible for anyone to join Timetoast and they can start making their very own timelines straight away. It’s free and the only thing you need is an email address.

Timetoast has a free plan that lets you create unlimited public timelines, with paid plans starting at $5.99/month that add premium features.

Website: https://www.timetoast.com
It was launched in 2008 by Daniel Todd
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a JPG, PNG or GIF
See also: TimeToast Alternatives

What customers are saying about TimeToast:

“

I love to use this not only to create timelines, but also to help students organize their thoughts in advance of a presentation or writing activity, and I have students who use this resources to help keep citations organized for their research papers, and speeches, and many who collaborate on one Timetoast to uses as a basis for a group presentation.

”

Michelle P

Timeline 3D

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Timeline 3D is timeline maker software for Mac that makes it easy to create your own timelines for any subject, whether it is family photos, a historical timeline, or even to remind you of a series of meetings and work related events. Timeline 3D makes the process very easy by enabling you to create interactive timelines that you can view on your Mac and even mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad, and Android phones.

Timeline 3D is free to use.

Website: https://www.beedocs.com/timeline3D
It was launched in 2014 by Adam Behringer
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PDF
See also: Timeline 3D Alternatives

What customers are saying about Timeline 3D:

“

I have found this app to be useful for a variety of presentations both professional and personal. It’s easy to create a nice flow of information that’s not boring to look at. Timeline can be saved out in several formats but the actual movie timeline is really nice and my preference.

”

Notso Fast

Timeline JS

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Timeline JS is an open source timeline software tool that allows publishers to quickly and easily create interactive, media-rich timelines using nothing more than a Google Spreadsheet.

Hundreds of thousands of news organizations around the world have used TimelineJS to tell the world’s most intriguing and important stories — from the story of a murdered Austrian boy to the French presidential race to the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of the Aurora theater shooting.

TimelineJS is free to use.

Website: https://timeline.knightlab.com
It was launched in 2012
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a HTML
See also: Timeline JS Alternatives

What customers are saying about Timeline JS:

“

I love how I can easily add contents to my website through a timeline. It is very interactive and at the same time informative. The output is visually rich in features and I love how I can easily edit the layout.

”

Sarah N

10.

Kronoli

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Kronoli is an online timeline creation software that can be shared and mixed with other timelines.

Kronoli is a free service.

Website: https://kronoli.com/
It was launched in 2020 by Andy Lee
It supports showing images on the timeline
It does not support date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
See also: Kronoli Alternatives

11.

iSpring Suite

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iSpring Suite includes a tool called Visuals which helps you create interactive timelines and three other types of interactions. The timeline tool is just a small part of the powerful capabilities included in iSpring Suite authoring toolkit. iSpring Suite allows you to create interactive timelines with images, audio, and video. You can add hyperlinks, record voice overs, and divide your timeline into periods.

iSpring offers a fully functioning free trial with paid options starting at $770/author/year.

Website: https://www.ispringsolutions.com/ispring-suite
It was launched in 2001 by Yury Uskov
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
See also: iSpring Suite Alternatives

What customers are saying about iSpring Suite:

“

iSpring Suite is a very beneficial tool to create HTML5 based video, screencasts, and other materials in seconds. The technical support team is very helpful, and they are easily approachable at any time.

”

Gurjeet Gill

12.

Venngage

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Venngage is a tool for marketers looking to create compelling visual content online. Its drag-and-drop design editor is easy to use, beginners will be up and running and no time. They also have a large collection of 100+ professionally designed & beginner-friendly timeline templates (many of which cost nothing to use) that can be customized in just a few clicks.

Plans range from free to $49/month depending on desired features, with quarterly and annual plans at a discount.

Website: https://venngage.com/features/timeline-infographics
It was launched in 2012 by Eugene Woo
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PNG, PNG, PDF or PPTX
See also: Venngage Alternatives

What customers are saying about Venngage:

“

Finally, we have a tool designed for an armature to create appealing graphics. The interactive UI of the platform makes it very easy for anyone to use this tool. With tons of templates and excellent graphics, Venngage clearly stands apart from its competitors.

”

Narayan J

13.

Creately

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Creately is an online visual workspace for team collaboration. It offers a canvas for teams to work together on planning, brainstorming or designing anything using drawings, text, visuals and diagrams. Creately supports over 50 diagram types including timeline graphic, flowcharts, mind-maps, org charts, UML and database designs, network diagrams, Gantt charts and business process diagrams.

Creately has a free plan that is limited to 3 documents with paid plans starting at $4/month.

Website: https://creately.com/lp/timeline-maker-online/
It was launched in 2008 by Chandika Jayasundara and Nick Foster
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PNG, JPEG, SVG or PDF
See also: Creately Alternatives

What customers are saying about Creately:

“

I liked the quick and easy way to create any diagram or map because it is straightforward to use. It is very easy to create any type of diagram in addition to having any type of template that you may need, in addition to that more than one person can edit your diagram if you allow it.

”

Eduardo Fabian

14.

Timestream

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Timestream is a interactive timeline maker software for organizing factual material electronically. It’s a platform for creating an organized timeline of key case events and linking electronic evidence to these events. Timesteam allows you to build complex storylines on an interactive timeline. You can collect compelling case evidence and simply drag it into Timestream.

Timesteam offers a free 30-day trial. A one year license costs $995.

Website: https://ntrepidcorp.com/products/timestream/
It was launched in 2010 by Charlie Englehart and Richard Helms
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
See also: Timestream Alternatives

15.

Teachnology Timeline Generator

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The Teachnology Timeline Generator is bare bones timeline tool that lets you create a timeline with up to 6 events.

The Teachnology timeline generator is free.

Website: http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timeline/
It was launched in 2001
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It does not support date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
See also: Teachnology Timeline Generator Alternatives

16.

SmartDraw

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SmartDraw is a timeline creator for presenting events during specific intervals chronologically along a line. These events may be historic, related to a specific criminal case or business development, or they may be important milestones in a project.

Regardless of whether you choose SmartDraw, Preceden, or some other tool, timelines can help you get organized and align your team. According to a recent study we conducted, visualization software can improve productivity of customer success team members by 18% by helping them visualize milestones to gain a deeper understanding of how their work contributes to the overall project.

SmartDraw’s Standard package costs $197, its Business package is $297 and its Enterprise edition is available for $497.

Website: https://www.smartdraw.com
It was launched in 2011 by Paul Stannard (CEO)
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PDF
See also: SmartDraw Alternatives

What customers are saying about SmartDraw:

“

I’ve looked forever for an easy way to make company org charts and SmartDraw is it! There are so many templates and it always saves the most current version. It’s easy to share and edit.

”

Cortney H

17.

Edraw Timeline

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Edraw Max can be applied as an easy vector timeline software with rich examples and timeline templates. It has the tools to make it easy to create a professional-looking timeline infographic, history, schedules, timetables and PERT diagram.

Free Timeline is simple yet very powerful – it allows entry of both events and time periods; it scales automatically; it color-codes collapsible timeline groups; it also supports links and images. It can export to PDF, PowerPoint, Word and Graphics.

If you’re looking for a great vertical timeline maker, this is the one for you.

Edraw timeline is free to download and try. A 3 year license costs $179, a lifetime license costs $245, and subscription license (yearly) costs $99 for the first year and $69 per year to renew thereafter.

Website: https://www.edrawsoft.com/timeline.php
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PDF, SVG or EPS
See also: Edraw Timeline Alternatives

What customers are saying about Edraw Timeline:

“

I can easily create my technical diagrams with the help of existing templates and eventually saves time. Also, I like its feature to import the other formats which are build on other tools.

”

Kushagra A

18.

LucidChart Timeline Maker

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Lucid Chart’s Timeline Maker makes it easy for students and educators to produce powerful visual aids. Make a timeline to better understand the chronology of historical events and how they relate. You can even use it to map out your next storyline. Our timeline software brings visual thinking to any learning process.

Lucid Chart’s Basic membership is $4.95/month, Pro (single user) membership is $8.95/month and Team (for 3 users) membership is available for $20 per month.

Website: https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/timeline-maker
It was launched in 2010 by Karl Sun
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
See also: LucidChart Timeline Maker Alternatives

What customers are saying about LucidChart Timeline Maker:

“

I employ it to support planning, process configuration, mapping and created simple content for my teams. The application is easy to use, intuitive, can be extended in ways to support off-brand usage, and provides a large virtual space to provision projects in a single place.

”

Michael C

19.

Office Timeline

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Office Timeline is a PowerPoint timeline maker for professionals who need a better way to make and present a project timeline, Gantt chart or timeline to their staff, management and clients. With Office Timeline project managers can use a timeline template or can can create a graphical project slides from scratch in the PowerPoint part of Microsoft Office. It’s heavily focused on project management and Gantt charts, but can be used for other types of timelines as well.

Office Timeline’s PowerPoint plugin ranges from $59/year (for students and home use) to $149/year (for project experts). Their cloud-based tool costs $99/year.

Website: https://www.officetimeline.com
It was launched in 2012 by Eddy Malik and Tim Stumbles
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PDF and XLS
See also: Office Timeline Alternatives

What customers are saying about Office Timeline:

“

User-friendly interface easy to use. I can download timeline to excel or PowerPoint right away. This tool helps me to be more productive when setting up timelines and plans.

”

Alfonso P

20.

Vizzlo

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Vizzlo allows you to create a stylish infographic timeline. Make timelines, charts, maps for presentations, documents, or the web.

Vizzlo has a free membership. Premium membership costs $11 per month and business (for teams) membership is available for $15 per month.

Website: https://vizzlo.com/create/timeline
It was launched in 2015 by Hendrik Schulze and Robert Lillack
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It does not support date ranges
It allows drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a PDF and SVG
See also: Vizzlo Alternatives

What customers are saying about Vizzlo:

“

Vizio makes creating flow charts, organizational charts and other graphics super easy! I like the ease of use with a very polished product!

”

Joanne F

21.

RFFlow

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RFFlow is a diagraming tool that allows you to create timeline infographics and many other types of charts.

$49 one-time purchase with a free trial

Website: http://www.rff.com/sample_timelines.htm
It was launched in 2002
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a GIF, JPEG, HTML, EMF or BMP
See also: RFFlow Alternatives

What customers are saying about RFFlow:

“

Product is easy to use and avoids the headache that other programs seem to cause with complicated formatting. End results are kept professional.

”

Caleb H

22.

Cascade

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Cascade Timeline Maker lets you edit a list of events and the app will automatically create a visualization from that list of events.

Cascade is free to use.

Website: https://cascade.page/
It was launched in 2021 by Rob Koch
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
See also: Cascade Alternatives

23.

The Timeline Project

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The Timeline Project is a cross-platform open-source timeline maker software for displaying and navigating events on a timeline.

The Timeline Project is a free, open-source timeline maker.

Website: http://thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net/about.html
It was launched in 2009
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
You can download your timeline as a Image
See also: The Timeline Project Alternatives

What customers are saying about The Timeline Project:

“

Although it may not look like it – certainly not fancy in any sense – it’s one of the most useful pieces of software I have come across. It’s been stable and reliable, fast and fairly easy to use and I use it almost daily in an ‘productive’ (health care) environment.

”

Livos

24.

TrialLine

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TrialLine is an online timeline maker for law firms and attorneys that want maximum insight into their cases.

$29/user/month when billed annually or $49/user/month when billed monthly.

Website: https://trialline.net/
It was launched in 2014 by Travis Luther
It supports showing images on the timeline
You can download your timeline as a DOC, XLS or PowerPoint
See also: TrialLine Alternatives

What customers are saying about TrialLine:

“

I am pleased with the ease with which the user can upload data to the chronology. I also like that the program can be used offline, or without an internet connection, as this can often be a problem in some courthouses.

”

Theodore A

25.

TimePath

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TimePath is a timeline creation web-app to enrich your blog post, news article or website.

Free supports 1 timeline with 20 events max including TimePath branding. The €4.95/month plan supports 10 timelines with unlimited events without branding.

Website: https://timepath.co/
It was launched in 2020
It supports showing images on the timeline
It does not allow drag and drop
See also: TimePath Alternatives

26.

History Timeline

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History Timeline is an interactive timeline app for historians to create a stunning historical timeline.

Free, $39/year, $74/year, or $139 one-time payment.

Website: https://www.historytimeline.com/
It supports showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
See also: History Timeline Alternatives

27.

ChronoZoom

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Use ChronoZoom to get a perspective of the extensive scale of time and historical events relative to what happened around the world.

ChronoZoom is free.

Website: http://www.chronozoom.com/
It was launched in 2015 by ChronoZoom is built and maintained by a growing community, with the support of: University of California Berkeley, Moscow State University, and Microsoft Research
It does not support showing images on the timeline
It supports date ranges
It does not allow drag and drop
See also: ChronoZoom Alternatives

What customers are saying about ChronoZoom:

“

ChronoZoom is an ambitious project that seeks to create zoomable, interactive timelines for the entire history of time.

”

Teachers First

28.

Markwhen

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Markwhen is a text-to-timeline tool. You write markdown-ish text and it gets converted into a nice looking cascading timeline.

Markwhen is free to use.