Microsoft 365 vs. Microsoft Planner

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft 365
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Microsoft Planner
Score 7.5 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
Pricing
Microsoft 365Microsoft Planner
Editions & Modules
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft 365Microsoft Planner
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft 365Microsoft Planner
Considered Both Products
Microsoft 365
Chose Microsoft 365
Microsoft has serious usability issues compared to Google products. Interfaces are cluttered, unintuitive and not easy to use. Compared to the offline version of the office products, 365 online truly disappoints.
Chose Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a complete package. If your work is business more than creative than it 100% suits your needs. The pieces it offers, the desk top apps available on demand, and the integrations are far reaching and hard to match with other products. It's clear they've been used …
Microsoft Planner
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.
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 …
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.
Chose Microsoft Planner
I have not used any other products that serve a similar function to Microsoft Planner.
Best Alternatives
Microsoft 365Microsoft Planner
Small Businesses
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
7shifts
7shifts
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Todoist
Todoist
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.9 out of 10
Notion
Notion
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft 365Microsoft Planner
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(242 ratings)
7.5
(28 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(6 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(13 ratings)
7.7
(12 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(54 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft 365Microsoft Planner
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft 365 would be well suited for medium to large enterprises. This is where there are several hundreds or thousands of people. Since most everyone has used one of the applications the learning curve would be reduced. Another reason would be the ability to implement security measures to prevent access to sensitive data. This could justify the cost of an Enterprise license.
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Microsoft
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.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Chat with teams and the integrations with the other apps, and many more smaller ones, like to-dos, news, and the recent Outlook integration.
  • Easy embedding on SharePoint to broadcast all the content created in the different tools.
  • The office package is still robust with the good things from the past and new additions.
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Microsoft
  • 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
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Forms lack comprehensive features and parameters for detailed questioning for example cannot be directly linked with Power BI
  • Outlook email filters are not handy to use and require more detailing in terms of location past emails
  • Teams requires substantially large amounts of system resources which could be finetuned
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Microsoft
  • Would be nice to see a calendar view instead of a list view
  • Permissions aren't configurable, anyone can delete any task at any time and there is no recycle bin
  • Notifications aren't great, you have to be attached as an owner to a task to see comments and be notified of changes, and even then notifications aren't shown for a lot of things
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
So far the Microsoft 365 platform provides features and tools that can cater to 100% of present organizations needs considering both technical and business necessities, however most features are not been effectively utilised at present. The current featureset is able to cover for most of the future needs of the business and technical functions.
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Microsoft
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.
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Usability
Microsoft
Microsoft 365 is the gold standard for performing project tasks in a professional environment, enabling the quick transfer and exchange of files and ideas for team members who work locally and remotely. Its suite of tools is familiar and has evolved to being cloud based, allowing for files to be updated in real time from near and far.
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Microsoft
The board-and-bucket layout makes it easy to organize tasks, track progress, and prioritize work at a glance, even for first-time users. I also appreciate how Planner seamlessly integrates with tools like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint, enabling users to collaborate, schedule tasks, and access their plans without needing to switch platforms. I also like how it’s accessible not only on desktops, but also on mobile devices.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
To-date Microsoft 365 platform has offered an amazing uptime and availability percentage per year compared to all other products which provide the stability and overall business resilience of their ecosystem which is a great relief for information technology service entitites which heavy rely on Microsoft offerings as a whole to redeliver their own custom products
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Microsoft
The Microsoft 365 tools expects and demands a substantial amount of system resources to operate at optimal level and even more when integrated with other applications which is a downside, however given that external supporting tech factors such as fibre/broadband speed bandwidth, high speed RAM and ample storage resources are allocated the tools work error free providing robust communication
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
Microsoft
The resellers involved with selling Microsoft products are reluctant to provide in person specialist trainings to consumers due to the fact of costs of economies of scale and is not provided free of charge most of the time. In Person trainings needs to be agreed to at the initiation of projects and implementations for better ROI.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Microsoft
The standard training offered with 3rd part resellers are fairly standard and covers the basic workability however the trainings needs to be specifically customised according to unique requirements of the organizations. for example an MSP would need to master specific communications verticals within Microsoft 365 whereas and online store using Microsoft 365 would needs to master a different set of tools within the suite to get the best ROI post implementation.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
The Microsoft support partners are more than capable of handling implementations and dealing with unprecedented errors during the implementations. Not part of the implementation though the setup was done with minimum misconfigurations which is evident with present live setup which works fine without any bugs and gaps at present context.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Typically I prefer working with companies with Microsoft 365 as their main tool because they're usually a fast growing company with a global presence. I like using it for work because it's easy to collaborate, share, review, comment, reply in any of the tools. The mobile app for Outlook and Teams are lifesavers when we're constantly traveling and you can join meetings on the mobile Teams to never miss a beat.
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Microsoft
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 we will not renew the Trello contract.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
Microsoft pricing is not very expensive and yet not very cheap as well, and it hovers in between the baseline. The charges are mostly based on the tier level partners who charge based on their individual reputation in the market. Power negotiation will lead to cost effective and attractive pricing
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Microsoft
Multiple tools within the same platform have been deployed successfully within different functional technical and non technical teams such as Devops, SOC, NOC, Shared services, Managed services, Global Information technology, Cloud operations, Finance, Administration, human resources and all these teams collaborate while maintaining central uniformity in terms of global standards who are dispersed in different geographical locations with ease
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Microsoft
Have not directly obtained professional services from Microsoft but rather obtained specialized services such as implementations and configurations, setting up and integration support with Microsoft authorized suppliers, 3rd parties, and resellers, which has been a pleasant experience. Again the level of delivery quality on professional services is based on the level of hands on exposure of the 3rd party
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • We have a lot of nonprofit users, so they have a good ROI.
  • I like the constant updates without having to purchase the software repeatedly.
  • I used to purchase each Office (insert year here) often, so the software was up to date and had the newest options and connectors. I think my return on investment would have been much better if Microsoft had updated those versions to keep them current; after all, we did pay for them.
  • Microsoft 365's offering a monthly fee or a discount for a year helps, and you can look at it as a free backup if you have everything set to back up to One Drive. (Cloud-based document filing you can access anywhere ( with an internet connection)—you Can't beat that!)
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Microsoft
  • In my experience, productivity is negatively impacted because assigning subtasks aren't clear on Microsoft Planner
  • Managers aren't able to track direct reports' tasks across multiple boards -- leading to poor visibility for us
  • Notifications aren't always sent to inbox, so you rely on people's own project management skills to follow the communication on tasks they're assigned to. In my experience, this leads to missed deadlines impacting customer relationships.
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