This product assessment is based on a synthesis of 7 recent reviews analyzing Microsoft Planner's impact on business objectives. Microsoft Planner is a task management tool designed to facilitate team collaboration and project organization. While some users have experienced improved team efficiency, a notable portion of reviewers expressed concerns regarding the tool's functionality. Specifically, some users reported that the limitations of the tool led to decreased productivity, prompting them to seek alternative solutions. The reviews present a mixed view of Planner's effectiveness, suggesting that its utility is highly dependent on the specific needs and workflows of the team using it. Given the relatively small sample size of reviews, these findings should be considered directional.

Pros

Potential for improved team efficiency in some use cases
Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem

Cons

Limited functionality compared to alternative solutions
Reports of decreased productivity due to functional limitations
Inconsistent positive impact across different teams

From 7 reviews | Last Published April 23, 2026

Why it matters:

Approximately 2 of 7 reviewers cited improvements in team efficiency as a positive outcome of using Microsoft Planner. These reviewers indicated that the tool helps teams adopt Agile methodologies, contributing to a more streamlined workflow.

“Improved team efficiency.”

Why it matters:

A counterpoint raised by 2 of 7 reviewers is that Microsoft Planner's poor functionality negatively impacts productivity. These reviewers expressed frustration with unclear subtask assignments and the need to invest time in finding alternative tools, suggesting a negative return on investment due to the tool's limitations.

“because of poor functionality, we must invest time finding another tool.”

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Microsoft Planner Reviews

28 Reviews

Not a project management tool just a simple to-do list.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Planner is a software program integrated into the Microsoft Suite and costs no additional funds to use. Once logged into our Okta instance, we have access to MS Planner. Recently, we were mandated to move away from Monday.com for project management software, and our Corporate IT team suggested we replace it with MS Planner. After extensive research and experimentation, we quickly found that MS Planner is an inferior planning tool and is certainly not a project management tool. It is a very elementary task list... and I mean *really* elementary. I prefer to use sticky notes at my desk rather than MS Planner. In short, there are very few use cases for a sophisticated SaaS business to use MS Planner.

Pros

Friendly UI.
Integration with Outlook.
Simple to-do list.

Cons

Customizations of any kind.
Grouping of items in grid view.
Timeline column instead of start date/end date.
Savable templates.
Not a project management tool.

Likelihood to Recommend

There are a few examples where MS Planner would be suitable for employees at a mature organization. In my opinion, if you have Outlook or Teams, you already have built-in calendars and to-do lists. If you need a project management tool, you have two options: either pay for MS Project or use an alternative tool like Monday, Asana, or Jira. Regardless, their free versions are much more sophisticated than Microsoft's (MS Planner). Any team wishing to put together a halfway-decent project management board will need to look elsewhere, as MS Planner is only suitable for a personal to-do list.

Brandon Stokes

Global Revenue Enablement Manager in Sales at Proximus Global (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Verified on LinkedIn

In my opinion, Don't cheap out on Project Management with Microsoft Planner

Rating: 1 out of 10

Incentivized

April 29, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft Planner as a project management tool to manage projects across multiple teams within our organization. It's used for tracking purposes, assigning to different owners and communicating on the status of each project. It is used across the entire organization and all departments. It's used as the primary form of communication for project.

Pros

Creating tasks
Having different boards for different teams/purposes
Email reminders about due dates

Cons

Basic version doesn't allow assigning someone to specific subtasks
Can't see tasks assigned to someone on your team across multiple boards
People have to comment to opt in for notifications for a particular task
You can't @ someone in the comments or the notes to bring it to their attention
You can't edit a comment once it's submitted
You can't pin a comment to make it important & ensure everyone sees it
You can't click through on links in the comments (doesn't automatically hyperlink)

Likelihood to Recommend

I think the basic free version of Microsoft Planner is well suited for managing your own individual list of basic tasks. However, if you're trying to work across teams and collaborate on large scale projects with multiple parts, in my experience, it becomes very clunky to work with. If you have a large project that needs subtasks, you're only able to assign multiple people to the general task, not each subtask. So, there's a lot of confusion on who owns what part, and what subtask part is done because all the comments just goes in the general task. I would recommend upgrading to the paid version.

Verified User

Director in Marketing (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Microsoft Planner Seamless integration and maximum efficiency.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 27, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I primarily use it for my recurring tasks and occasionally for cross-team projects. This is a very user-friendly tool that allows me to stay on top of my assigned tasks and complete my work promptly. The automatic reminder feature is beneficial, especially on days when I’m too busy with my overall workload.

Pros

Task Management.
Collaboration Features.
Integration with Microsoft 365.

Cons

User experience enhancements.
Advanced customization.
Offline access.

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.

Verified User

Employee in Marketing (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Good product, could use more features to make it better

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

January 27, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Planner was used to track action items and provide visibility across the organization of team members workload capacity. It was helpful in prioritizing daily tasks, keeping the team organized and focused, and preventing things from “slipping through the cracks”. It was very helpful to managers to see what the team had accomplished in a given day/week and what outstanding items remained.

Pros

Being able to assign/reassign a task to a particular team member was super helpful. Sometimes when a particular person has too much to do, it was easy to move it to someone else with more availability.
The customizable board view was also very helpful so that a pipeline could be created to prioritize tasks based on multiple factors like due date, priority level, or what sub tasks remained.
Being able to add a collaborator on tasks was also super helpful so that each of us could work on individual subtasks but know that we have visibility on the main task that we’re both responsible for.

Cons

Being able to add custom tags to be able to sort the tasks more easily would be helpful
A “search function” within the tasks feels like a pretty basic need that wasn’t provided
Being able to set more complex “rules” for tasks like other softwares provide

Likelihood to Recommend

Great for organizing daily tasks but works better for a small team. As our team started to grow, we ultimately decided to purchase a software that could be customized to accommodate our specific needs.

Verified User

Employee in Product Management (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Microsoft Planner: Boosting Team Productivity with Efficient Task Management

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

January 6, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Planner is very useful at planning stage of the Project. Since we are ed-tech company, we keep on launching new products frequently ,there we need to ensure that all stakeholders understand the project objective and working flow. Microsoft Planner is very convenient to make the project plan and distribute the responsibilities.

Pros

Project Planning
Work distribution
Project actions tracking

Cons

More options for flow chart
Better visual representations
No Gantt chart

Likelihood to Recommend

Here are some scenarios where Microsoft Planner is well suited:1) Project Planning Stage2) Integration with Outlook, which helps in notifying stakeholders.

Here are some scenarios where Microsoft Planner is well suited:
1) There is missing calendar view, which could have been incorporated.
2) If we have a big team , then task allocation and explanation won't be so easy with it.

Verified User

Program Manager in Marketing (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Great product for individual or collaborative work

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 27, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Microsoft Planner daily. I use it to organize my projects throughout the year and on an individual project basis as well. It allows me to have a big picture view of the years projects but can also be break down individual projects to help stay on track or delegate tasks.

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

Cons

I wish there were more color options for labels or that they were customizable beyond the ones given
I wish the comments section of the task card could be edited even for typos
When there is more than one label, I would like to be able to choose the labels that appears first by dragging and dropping

Likelihood to Recommend

I think the planner is well suited for collaborative projects where multiple people would benefit from having eyes on the status of a project. Or in the instance that multiple people are dividing the workload to ensure that duplicate work isn't being completed. I also think that it's valuable for a single individual to keep track of their competing priorities.

Verified User

Employee in Corporate (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Basic, but great value for your whole organisation

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

December 21, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Planner fits those looking to implement basic kanban style project planning and delivery. Because it typically comes with the Microsoft 365 suite and doesn't require additional licensing cost, it allows organisations already embedded in the Microsoft eco-systems to enable collaboration across individuals, teams and cross-team. It has all the features needed for a basic planning board, without unnecessary bloat.

Pros

Kanban
Project planning
Collaboration
Cost and access

Cons

No ability to @ tag users
No GANTT charts
No interdependencies for tasks
Limited reporting capability

Likelihood to Recommend

Where organisations have small projects which don't require complex or advanced features such as Gantt charts. When an organisation is already committed to Microsoft 365 Licensing costs, and need a simple project planning board solution to collaborate across teams, without committing to another platform. Where there is concern about sensitive internal data being shared with external vendors, and a secure Microsoft environment has already been established.

Matt Aldridge

Learning Analytics Lead in Human Resources at Ryman Healthcare (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Verified on LinkedIn

A Management Tool for Scrum Matser

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

July 13, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Planner is used to organize activities in different projects, especially for the ones managed with Agile practice.
With Planner, the Scrum Master (but also the traditional Project Manager), has an immediate view about the different activities/objectives for every Sprint or deadlines and about the tasks assigned to every component of the group. So you can immediately understand if a team's member has more or less things to do respect the other members of the team. Moreover, you can immediately understand if there are activities with delay or with critical points that needed to rescheduled in the future.
In our company planner is integrated in MS Teams, so with only one platform we can manage projects both on the calendar point of view but also with interactions among team's members

Pros

It helps to give to every task a different priority level
It helps to check the job amount for every team's member
It gives an overall view about delays and done activities

Cons

When you mark a task as "done" it disappears from the checklist
There isn't a back up when you cancel tasks (maybe could be useful a confirm message before the cancellation)
The "note camp" can't be delete

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Planner is a good platform for manage projects especially if I think that is integrated in MS Teams so, with a unique platform you can have the control about the project, about all the documents linked to the same project and at the same time, with the possibility to chat with other team members without change platform.
I think also there are other platform (like Jira or Trello) which are better in terms of layout

francesca turra

Project Manager in Research & Development at Allianz SpA (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Tasks workflow made easier - good value tool

Rating: 8 out of 10

October 25, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Planner is the best way to manage all my team tasks and deliver everything on time. Previously, I was using Asana for the same workflow. But Microsoft offered this tool within the package of our outlook mail. The tool made it easy to list all the day, week, and month tasks so we can keep a track of everything at the time [in] a single place. Moreover, we can add our team members, add deadlines, set priorities, and even assign tasks to members. We were able to track all the work of our clients, i.e. where we have reached the tasks and goals for a particular client. Multiple board options made it easier to differentiate various clients and their work. Thus, the software was very beneficial for [the] overall workflow of our marketing team.

Pros

Team tasks management
Deadline management
Easier workflow with different boards
Priority tasks to be highlighted

Cons

Should send a notification when a task is assigned to someone
There's no option to delete comments
Notification required when a task [has a] deadline

Likelihood to Recommend

Appropriate: [Microsoft] Planner helped to remember the minor tasks that we used to forget. Helpful to manage the tasks of [the] team. Moreover, we can check the schedule of a particular board and thus know what tasks need to be done on [a] priority basis. Less appropriate: When we assign a task to someone, they do not get any email notification. Thus, have to convey [a] message through some other source.

Deepika Arora

Digital Marketer in Marketing at The Big Unit (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Planning & collaboration Software on the go

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 18, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In my company, we do a lot of web projects and work with both clients and subcontractors. The planner was a Godsend mostly because it is operated via a mobile app and integrates with MS Teams so tasks show up in the app for each member. It gets the work done and keeps it out of a chat thread with minimal disruptions to your workday.

Pros

Add as many plans as you want
Keeps tasks organized via Buckets into each plan
Ability to create a plan directly within Teams via the Tasks app

Cons

Ability to assign an existing plan to a channel in Teams that was created in the mobile app
Reminders & alerts please!

Likelihood to Recommend

You cannot use it for project management. It is suited for Kanban style task boards very much needed to keep everyone on the same page. Great for task management and operational activities It has zero ability to assign a time or integrate with a time tracking tool or calendar tasks. This means you cannot do a time & cost analysis on your ongoing projects or business operations.

Quratulain Habib, PMP

Partner / Director / Head of Projects in Information Technology at QZ Global (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

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