Planner Compared to Project, Project Online

Planner is a simple planning tool compared to Microsoft’s Project line, which includes the Project and Project Server software and the Project Online Microsoft-hosted service. The Project offerings are mature and have advanced activity management, strong administration controls, automated scheduling, resource loading, multiple project integration, and custom reporting features.

Planner’s limitations, compared to Project and Project Online, include the following:

• Tasks cannot be dependent on other tasks to automatically adjust dates, which requires manual coordination of related tasks
• Plans do not have multiple user roles, and all users in a plan have the same level of control over content (so any user could inadvertently delete tasks or change the status of tasks of others)
• Task status options are limited to not started, in-progress, late, or completed and lack the ability to assign a percent complete
• Reports and charts are fixed format with no customization features