Overview
LivePlan is a cloud business plan application made by Palo Alto Software, a company that says it was founded in 1988 and that its products are used by more than 1.5 million entrepreneurs and small businesses[5]. The company’s own history names Tim Berry as founder and Sabrina Parsons as chief executive, and notes that Palo Alto Software also runs Bplans, a planning content site it says draws more than a million visitors a month, and that it has supplied free software to Small Business Development Center and SCORE offices for more than 15 years[4].
The product pairs a guided plan writer with an automatically calculated financial forecast covering profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheet, and adds a one-page plan builder, milestone scheduling, a pitch-deck generator and a section-by-section plan review[3]. AI features include the LivePlan Assistant, which suggests text, and Idea Canvas, a guided validation module with market research and risk scores[3]. LivePlan advertises more than 550 sample plans[2][3].
The higher Premium tier turns the plan into a management tool: it connects to QuickBooks Online and Xero, updates profit and cash forecasts from actuals, and adds budget-versus-actual dashboards and up to 10 forecast scenarios[2]. The main limitation is that accounting sync and scenario planning are reserved for Premium, so the entry tier is a writing-and-forecast tool only, and the pricing page mentions a 35-day money-back guarantee rather than a free trial[2].
LivePlan features
- Guided business plan builder with AI writing help
- Automatic P&L, cash flow and balance sheet forecast
- 550+ sample plans
- Pitch deck and one-page plan builder
- QuickBooks Online and Xero sync (Premium)
- Budget vs actual dashboards and up to 10 scenarios (Premium)
- Export to PDF, Word-style documents, Excel and PowerPoint
LivePlan pricing
Standard: US$20/month billed monthly or US$15/month billed annually. Premium: US$40/month monthly or US$30/month annually. LivePlan Expert add-on (one-to-one video sessions): US$30/month. No free trial is listed; a 35-day money-back guarantee applies.
LivePlan strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Long-established vendor with a large sample-plan library
- Plan, forecast and pitch deck share one data set
- Accounting sync turns the plan into a budget-tracking tool
- Low entry price for annual billing
Limitations
- Accounting sync and scenarios only on Premium
- No free trial or free plan
- Expert help is a separate monthly add-on
- Forecasting depth is below dedicated FP&A tools
Appears in
LivePlan alternatives and competitors
Alternatives to LivePlan: companies ranked in the same lists.
IdeaBuddy
Bizplan
Venturekit
PrometAI
Brixx- PlanGuru
ProjectionHub
LEANSpark (LEANSTACK)
Strategyzer
Sturppy
Hemrock
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