If your main goal is building production timelines across multiple vendors and crews, the “best” software usually depends on whether you need simple schedule tracking or full production management with dependencies, staffing, and approvals.

Best overall for complex event production timelines

Monday.com

Why it’s strong:

• Very flexible timeline/Gantt views
• Easy to assign tasks across vendors, crews, and departments
• Good for production checklists, deliverables, and status tracking
• Automations help keep vendor follow-ups moving
• Easy to customize for event workflows

Best for:
Teams that need a central hub for timelines, responsibilities, and collaboration without heavy technical setup.

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Best for enterprise-level production planning

Smartsheet

Why it’s strong:

• Excellent for Gantt charts and dependency management
• Feels closer to traditional production/project planning
• Strong for cross-vendor coordination and master schedules
• Good reporting and portfolio-level visibility
• Familiar spreadsheet-like interface for operations teams

Best for:
Large event teams, agencies, and production companies managing many moving pieces and dependencies.

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Best for creative/event operations with visual workflows

Airtable

Why it’s strong:

• Very customizable for production databases and timeline views
• Great for managing vendors, crew, assets, venues, and run-of-show details
• Strong relational structure if you want one system for contacts, tasks, and timelines
• Good interface design for non-technical teams

Best for:
Teams that want more than a task list and need a structured event production database.

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Best for larger teams needing resource and schedule management

Asana

Why it’s strong:

• Clean timeline view and task dependencies
• Good for coordinating team responsibilities
• Strong collaboration and workflow features
• Easy to use

Best for:
Event teams that care more about task coordination than highly detailed production scheduling.

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Best for high-volume vendor/crew coordination

Wrike

Why it’s strong:

• Strong project management and approval workflows
• Good for larger operations with many stakeholders
• Useful for keeping vendor deliverables organized
• More robust than many general-purpose tools

Best for:
Production teams that need formal workflows, approvals, and detailed task control.

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My short recommendation

If you want the best balance of flexibility, usability, and production timeline management, start with:

1. Monday.com — best all-around
2. Smartsheet — best for serious timeline/dependency planning
3. Airtable — best if you want a customizable production database

If you want the simplest answer:

• Small to mid-sized event teams: Monday.com
• Complex multi-vendor productions: Smartsheet
• Highly customized production tracking: Airtable

If you want, I can also give you a top 5 comparison table specifically for:

• event production timelines
• vendor management
• crew scheduling
• run-of-show planning
• budget tracking