ZEP vs. Monton

ZEP — The new standard for projects. ZEP is the software for Management Consulting, IT Consulting and Engineering: book hours against clients and projects, steer utilization and margins, from the proposal to the invoice. Four product lines cover the path from the first booked project hour to organization-wide control — you start with the line your business needs today and move up as it grows, keeping your data. ZEP Track — Project Time Tracking: your team books hours against clients and projects, budgets and absences sit in one place, and the payroll export is included. ZEP Control — Project Management: plan tasks and capacity and see what a project earns. Revenue, costs and utilization come out of the hours your team has booked. ZEP Operations — Professional Services Automation: the entire project lifecycle in one system — proposal, booked hours, travel expenses, suppliers, invoicing and the export to project-specific financial accounting. ZEP Business — ERP for Professional Services: run the project business across several entities, with internal cost allocation, document management, HR and resource planning included. The AI chat (ZEP Assistant) is included in all four lines at no extra cost, as are all interfaces: ZEP's own REST and SOAP APIs, single sign-on and an unlimited number of third-party integrations. Get to know ZEP in an online presentation or test it free of charge for 30 days. For teams without a project business, ZEP Clock covers working hours, overtime and absences including the payroll export, with travel expense management and HR available as optional add-ons. It is a line of its own — a switch into the project-based lines is not planned. ZEP GmbH, based in Ditzingen near Stuttgart, has been developing software for project-based companies for more than 25 years. Around 3,000 companies run their project business with ZEP. ZEP is developed and hosted in Germany and certified to ISO 27001.

Monton serves as an all-encompassing agency management software tailored for agencies and professional service firms that charge clients based on the time their teams spend on projects, targeting industries like marketing, creative and digital agencies, IT service providers, software development companies, consultancies, and accounting firms. This platform combines various features such as project management, time tracking, resource planning, invoicing, and customer relationship management (CRM) into one cohesive interface. It allows for real-time assessment of project and client margins derived from logged hours, individual cost rates, and invoicing details. Project managers gain the advantage of monitoring budget usage and predicting team availability, while business owners can effectively evaluate client profitability and manage retainer contracts. Monton's pricing structure is organized by plan rather than per user, with each plan containing fundamental features, although the number of members, storage space, and levels of support vary based on the selected tier. The free plan supports up to five users and does not require a credit card during registration. Moreover, Monton’s official MCP server enables smooth integration with AI assistants like Claude and Cursor, allowing users to perform margin checks, create tasks, and log hours through chat interfaces seamlessly. Additionally, the software is offered in various languages, such as English, Spanish, Italian, and Catalan, enhancing its appeal to a broad spectrum of users, thereby fostering global accessibility.