Microsoft Planner vs. Microsoft Project

Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Project

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Microsoft Planner	Score 7.6 out of 10	N/A	Microsoft Planner is presented as a solution to organize teamwork with intuitive, collaborative, visual task management. With it, users can create Kanban boards using task cards with files, checklists, and labels. Users can collaborate in Planner and Microsoft Teams and check visual status charts—all in the Microsoft cloud.	N/A
Microsoft Project	Score 8.0 out of 10	N/A	Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.	$0

Pricing

Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Project

Editions & Modules

No answers on this topic

Project Server: $0
Planner Plan 1: $10
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 3: $30
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 5: $55
per month per user
Project Standard 2024: $679.99
one-time fee per installation
Project Professional 2024: $1,129.99
one-time fee per installation

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Planner	Microsoft Project
Free Trial
No	Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

—

Plans are billed annually.

More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	Microsoft Planner	Microsoft Project
Considered Both Products	Microsoft Planner Brandon Stokes Global Revenue Enablement Manager Chose Microsoft Planner Our organization chose MS Planner because it is an included tool in the MS Suite, and since we are unfortunately replacing our current and much better project management tool due to a consolidation of the tech stack. However, it doesn't appear that any of the teams using the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner In my experience, Microsoft Planner has much less features and less effective than other project management tools. But, it's free and included as part of Microsoft 365, so senior management may think it's saving them money. However, the poor productivity and the inefficient … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner The Planner has a more straightforward and intuitive interface, making it ideal for teams that want to get started quickly without a steep learning curve. Additionally, Planner is more budget-friendly, making it a better option for smaller teams like mine. Additionally, … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner We used Microsoft Planner because it was free to our organization but ended up paying for Asana for more features we needed for our team. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner stands out for its seamless integration with Microsoft 365, making collaboration with tools like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint effortless. Its user-friendly interface, with drag-and-drop features and color-coded labels, simplifies task management. Microsoft … Incentivized Helpful? Matt Aldridge Learning Analytics Lead Chose Microsoft Planner Compared to the other options, we already had access to Microsoft Planner, preconfigured accounts, and support and ordination from tech internally to use it. We previously used Wrike, I wanted to use Asana, and other people in the organisation either used Microsoft Project, or … Incentivized Helpful? francesca turra Project Manager Chose Microsoft Planner The integration with Microsoft Teams is a must that other platform doesn't have. Incentivized Helpful? DA Deepika Arora Digital Marketer Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner was included in our package of Microsoft email. Thus, we [don't] have to pay anything separately. This is was the main reason. However, the functionality we required was similar. [Microsoft] Planner also gives a schedule calendar where we can add tasks as per … Incentivized Helpful? Quratulain Habib, PMP Partner / Director / Head of Projects Chose Microsoft Planner While Asana and Trello are mature products, Planner is getting there pretty quickly. Since our organization is on the Microsoft ecosystem, it helps to use SSO for most of the apps that are within the same license. It helps save money and does the work. For proper project … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner won out over Todoist due to it's ability to integrate other software and allow us to be able to do more work in one software. The project management functions were superior as well. Probably the biggest advantage was the task management. We liked how it worked … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Have moved to JIRA in my recent project. I can say Microsoft plan is a good option but JIRA is more powerful compare to this tool. The only thing is its integration and easy communication feature between teams or assigned groups stand it out while comparing with the similar … Incentivized Helpful? DS Darshil S Assistant Manager Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner has a clear cut edge over all the other project planning software of having its native and extensive capability of integrating with the Office 365 apps which everyone uses heavily. Also, it is highly accessible and usable to a large extent through PDAs and … Incentivized Helpful? Christie Carbone Digital Marketing Analyst Chose Microsoft Planner Pros: Communicating with all members of the plan is easy since it’s part of the Office 365 suite. This allows you to easily communicate via Outlook. You can quickly view all the tasks everyone is working across Boards Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Planner provides better integration with Microsoft products that are used across the organization as a whole. It provides better connection to SharePoint, MS Teams, MS Office products, and even in MS Outlook, which is the company's email client. Incentivized Helpful? Fernanda Ministerio Especialista de Desenvolvimento Industrial Chose Microsoft Planner Many areas of the company still use Trello to organize their activities and tasks, but gradually Microsoft Planner must replace the activities. Users are often "attached" to familiar technologies, but Office 365 takes advantage of the more organized use of the tools. This year … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner I would recommend Planner for light project / team management with strong MS Teams integration. For a PMO / large project with resources/cost/gantt management, I would really recommend MS Project. Incentivized Helpful? John Bayerl Director of Teaching Excellence Chose Microsoft Planner I have not used any other products that serve a similar function to Microsoft Planner. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Planner, tho its user interface could be improved, was leaps and bounds better than TYA suite. Their user interface is difficult for many at our job site to use, especially the older generation. The decision to bring it in was largely a corporate decision. Individuals likely … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner I've used Asana and prefer it to Microsoft Planner. Asana has more functionalities than Planner and I think it is more user-friendly. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Trello is better as a one off product, but if you use the Microsoft suite then Planner integrates better into the rest of your day-to-day apps. The integration into team members' calendars and mail makes the ease of assigning tasks across our organization well worth using the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Project Incentivized Helpful? RH Richard (Ric) Hazel Strategy Planning Advisor Chose Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner is far superior and doesn't require expensive training to give people access to it. It is far easier to customize and allows for people to add projects and milestones without the cumbersome interface that Agility offers. I would far rather use Microsoft … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner We tried to select software from various tools, and in the end we chose Planner both for economic reasons (it is included in the Microsoft 365 license we have in the company) and for its ease of use (we have no particular or specific needs, such as advanced scheduling or ticket … Incentivized Helpful? MC Micaella Cirilo Talent Acquisition Specialist Chose Microsoft Planner Main reason is that it is cost efficient because we're already using Microsoft 365 and it's literally part of the ecosystem. No need to purchase any other software. Microsoft is also a well known company, credible for providing business solutions and has a strong enterprise … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Planner Planner is free and integrated with other Microsoft products that we use. We don't have a need for something more sophisticated given the price it would have cost to purchase licenses for a dedicated task/project mgmt tool. Incentivized Helpful?	Microsoft Project EG Edgar Garcia GCM Project manager Chose Microsoft Project Jira and Miro are very visual, they provide us a very friendly interface (specially Miro), and in the case of Jira, it give us very customizable workflows that suit team needs. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Our company already has our client and tracking database in microsoft 365 so it was the logical step to stay with microsoft although it is a bit lacking compared to other offerings. If our team was on the go one of these other products might work better. We needed something … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Honestly, I am not really using those platforms, but I am familiar with them. Thing is, I know that Microsoft platforms is game changer for everyone not just the Microsoft Project, that's why I chose this platform because I have been using it for a longer time even when I still … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project provided more robust, collaborative solution to Turnkey Project Management. With Excel like sheets for Project Task Schedules are used for contractors and users it was well accepted i.e good UI UX. Integration capability of Microsoft Project Online with Power … Incentivized Helpful? Aybuke Aynur Business Development Architect Chose Microsoft Project I do not use any other software Incentivized Helpful? Suvit Ahuja Project Manager - Digital Chose Microsoft Project Dependency tracking and automated task management helped its raking above other competitors in the usage. Microsoft support and updates are also reliable. Security is also good for this tool. UI is also good and task management is very effective. Integrations are also easy. Incentivized Helpful? Javier Silva SR MGR MFG & SC IT Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project will continue to be my tool of choice for high stakes high complexity projects with over 100 tasks and many requirements to control costs and delivery but the assumption is that a dedicated PM is needed to keep the file updated and manage communication with … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Better suited for everyone in the team due to an existing partnership with Microsoft for access to other software suite provided by them. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project As our IT is based on Microsft Office 365, we have privileged access to MS Project licences, resources, training and support, so we didn't use any other PM software. Incentivized Helpful? Quratulain Habib, PMP Partner / Director / Head of Projects Chose Microsoft Project Initially, I tried using Smartsheet and then Wrike, all for Gantt Chart availability and task management. They don't come close to the flexibility or depth of features that Microsoft Project provides. Wrike does have better collaboration amongst team members and provides an … Incentivized Helpful? JJ Jiho Joung Director, IT and Operations Chose Microsoft Project Mostly I chose Microsoft Project due to the usage we're using for our clients. The primary reason for using Microsoft Project is because it's working well with our legacy in-house applications/solutions for our project management. We have many users who have multiple different … Incentivized Helpful? AS Alfredo Sanchez It Director Chose Microsoft Project Because is a powerful tool that include everything that you need to manage your projects also are on-line on cloud. On app very easy to use the other vendor offer minimal support and upgrades for the tool MS project is always improvement, new features a lots of information … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project was the most expensive project management software that we utilized aside from the costs associated with developing and in-house service. Microsoft Project provide a wealth of features for managing a large scale project like planning all of the tasks … Incentivized Helpful? Darrell Dunavan Project Manager / Document Control Chose Microsoft Project We picked Microsoft Project instead of Proofhub due to us already using Office 365. Microsoft Project was the cheaper of the two options and seemed to fit our needs better than Proofhub. It seemed to be easier to use on the front end since some of our less technology-savvy … Incentivized Helpful? Russell Voigt, PE Project Manager Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project is a reasonable price and provides all of the functions we need, and even more. The fancier tools will be more expensive but not necessarily be more effective, so sticking with the industry standard seems to be the reasonable choice. Incentivized Helpful? Fernanda Ministerio Especialista de Desenvolvimento Industrial Chose Microsoft Project I can't remember because it was many years ago. But Microsoft Project was very affordable and had a much larger set of features. Also the stability of its technology, as well as the number of existing users, the abundant documentation and the possibility of having well-defined … Incentivized Helpful? Matthew Smith Estimator and Project Manager Chose Microsoft Project ProjectLibre is a free or open source version of MS Project. It’s supported by a community of programmers that maintain its versions. It’s definitely not MS Project but definitely gives you a good idea what to expect from MS Project. I would recommend trying it first to see if … Incentivized Helpful? Kristen Silvan Project Manager & Chief Estimator Chose Microsoft Project Procore allows Microsoft Project schedules to be uploaded into it. It is not an easy feature to use. The uploading is a piece of cake, but changing anything after that is challenging and never seems to track correctly for me. Maybe I need more practice but it is not a feature I … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project had the strongest integrations and Gantt chart qualities. As a team that uses Outlook, Skype, DevOps and the Office Suite, it became clear that Project suited our needs best. Additionally, testing found that the user interface and security features pleased … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project seems more intuitive and user friendly than Agiliti. It helps with organization and planning. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Project is comprehensive and many project professionals are familiar with it, however the other tools are more business user friendly. Little training needed, Airtable and Trello are more intuitive so anyone can make updates and understand progress. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project needs to do better job on the flexibility and user interface of the software. The colors used by Monday.com and shortcuts they have provided are much smoother. However, Microsoft project is more compatible with other Microsoft products like excel which gives … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project is similar in its setup, but as with other Microsoft products there are many features buried in the tabs. You have to know what you are looking for. Incentivized Helpful? Christian Oquendo Personal Trainer Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project is an excellent tool for most businesses to help visualize company progress. This software compares to many others out there, however it doesn't offer anything extra or "different". Since it is Microsoft brand, I will say it runs extremely smooth and you know … Incentivized Helpful? Henry Winchonlong Jefe de sistemas de información Chose Microsoft Project Microsoft Project has all the functionalities of the others and Microsoft Project responds to all our needs to control the projects. Additionally, Microsoft Project is part of our licensing of Microsoft products. This advantage is the main key to adopt Microsoft Project against … Incentivized Helpful?

Features

Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Project

Project Management

Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
	Microsoft Planner - Ratings	Microsoft Project 9.1 Ratings 17% above category average
Task Management	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Resource Management	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Gantt Charts	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Scheduling	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Team Collaboration	00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology	00 Ratings	6.00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Document Management	00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Email integration	00 Ratings	5.00 Ratings
Mobile Access	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings

Professional Services Automation

Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
	Microsoft Planner - Ratings	Microsoft Project 10.0 Ratings 28% above category average
Quotes/estimates	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Invoicing	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software	00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	Microsoft Planner	Microsoft Project
Small Businesses	7shifts Score 9.9 out of 10	Stackby Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Whimsical Score 8.5 out of 10	InEight Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises	Whimsical Score 8.5 out of 10	InEight Score 8.3 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Microsoft Planner	Microsoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend	7.5 (0 ratings)	9.6 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	3.0 (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Usability	7.8 (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Support Rating	- (0 ratings)	8.2 (0 ratings)
Implementation Rating	- (0 ratings)	5.0 (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Microsoft Planner	Microsoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend	Microsoft Planner is a user-friendly visual tool for organizing tasks and workflows. It’s great for team collaboration, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 tools like Teams and Outlook, and offers flexibility for projects of all sizes. Additionally, it provides mobile and web access for seamless productivity on the go. That’s a big plus right there. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Microsoft Project is the perfect platform for medium and large companies. I do not recommend this software for small businesses, because all its functions in the work plans are high cost and this would cause the small business to not perform well in the use of MS Project in the long term. It is very easy to use software, it allows adding, modifying and eliminating all kinds of assignments and tasks for all employees, it allows monitoring the progress of all projects in real time and it also shows the gaps in the planned project. It has a very good performance, it does not take up many computer resources and all the information is stored in sync with the Office 365 service. It occasionally has crashing problems, but this is something that does not affect users as much. Incentivized Sasha Brito Marketing Director Read full review
Pros	I love the ability to tag and untag others as needed I love the ability to customize the tag labels and that there are so many options I love the ability to add comments and it notifies the others tagged in the task I love that the task description can be changed as needed without notification to others assigned to the task Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	It is part of Office365 subscription. The look and feel is similar to other tools like excel. Helps in creating project plans, Gantt charts, work break down structures etc. Helps in resource allocation and tracking the projects. There is an option to use it to capture timesheets too. Helps project managers in producing weekly status reports and integrates well with other collaboration tools like Skype, sharepoint etc. Incentivized Shiva Krishna Oracle Cloud Procure to Pay Consultant Read full review
Cons	Does not allow you to view all tasks and sub-tasks (checklist) in a nested view. Comments have character limits that can make it harder for teams to communicate exactly what they want to share. There is no way to mention a teammate in a comment and share files and documents in the conversation (collaborative tool???). Fernanda Ministerio Especialista de Desenvolvimento Industrial Read full review	Remote work can be challenging - as Project must be downloaded to a specific computer. Upgrading to the top of the line version can feel like a requirement. There is a lot of functionality that is not available unless in the most expensive pay-tiers. Microsoft Project can be extremely expensive on a per user basis. Other tools can be much more cost-effective - especially for more basic project management needs. Incentivized Joshua Melder Process Optimization Analyst Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	It is a very useful tool that brings teams in sync with one another. The integration with other Microsoft products makes it an obvious choice because you don't have to purchase a license for a completely different tool that doesn't have cross-functional capabilities with the software you already use on a daily basis. Incentivized Richard (Ric) Hazel Strategy Planning Advisor Read full review	I like using Microsoft Project. It simplifies building a schedule Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Usability	The tool is easy to use, but it is just as easy to set up. No specific skills are required, but its usefulness in our work is immediately apparent. Colors are very helpful in creating a clear interface and providing a very precise overview of the tasks to be performed. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Microsoft Project is easy to operate because data could be inserted, changed and deleted like you are in an Excel timesheet. Besides, it provides a great level of automation beween his fields allowing few data changes. Also, its funcionalities are well defined and grouped in upper menus, so you can find a funcionality quickly Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Support Rating	No answers on this topic	I’m giving MS Project an 8 because in general this is a solid scheduling program. It’s definitely designed with the professional in mind, and they have done well preparing the program to integrate with their other Microsoft products. The program is a workhorse so if you have serious scheduling needs then I would highly recommend MS Project. Incentivized Matthew Smith Estimator and Project Manager Read full review
Implementation Rating	No answers on this topic	I wasn't part of it so I don't know Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Our organization chose MS Planner because it is an included tool in the MS Suite, and since we are unfortunately replacing our current and much better project management tool due to a consolidation of the tech stack. However, it doesn't appear that any of the teams using the current program intend to use MS Planner due to its poor functionality. We will likely be pivoting to Jira instead. Incentivized Brandon Stokes Global Revenue Enablement Manager Read full review	Microsoft Project provided more robust, collaborative solution to Turnkey Project Management. With Excel like sheets for Project Task Schedules are used for contractors and users it was well accepted i.e good UI UX. Integration capability of Microsoft Project Online with Power App and Power Automate + Share point made collaboration most useful. Security features of Microsoft Project is managed by Azure Active Directory Settings. Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Return on Investment	Saved over $1000 each year by not having to purchase a third party tool for our content planning Not sure that I can provide a hard number to this, but having the oversight to see when something is coming due and making sure everything gets executed in time Incentivized Christie Carbone Digital Marketing Analyst Read full review	Since it is reasonable priced and flexible and fits into our Microsoft products, it meets our objectives It has prevented expensive scope creep, this has saved us money and had solid ROI Project does require light training cost to use it effectively Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
ScreenShots