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
Whimsical
Score 9.2 out of 10
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Whimsical is a visual workspace application from the company of the same name in Denver, allowing users to create collaborative wireframes, mindmaps, flowcharts, and sticky notes.
$12
per month per editor
Pricing
Microsoft Planner
Whimsical
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Pro
$12
per month per editor
Business
$18
per month per editor
Enterprise
$240
per year per editor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Planner
Whimsical
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
17% discount for annual billing on Pro and Business plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Planner
Whimsical
Features
Microsoft Planner
Whimsical
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Planner
-
Ratings
Whimsical
8.0
2 Ratings
3% above category average
Task Management
00 Ratings
7.02 Ratings
Resource Management
00 Ratings
7.02 Ratings
Gantt Charts
00 Ratings
7.52 Ratings
Scheduling
00 Ratings
6.02 Ratings
Workflow Automation
00 Ratings
8.01 Ratings
Team Collaboration
00 Ratings
8.52 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology
00 Ratings
10.01 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology
00 Ratings
8.01 Ratings
Document Management
00 Ratings
7.02 Ratings
Email integration
00 Ratings
7.02 Ratings
Mobile Access
00 Ratings
9.01 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking
00 Ratings
9.01 Ratings
Change request and Case Management
00 Ratings
9.01 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management
00 Ratings
9.01 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
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.
It's extremely well-suited for rapid wire-framing of concepts, as product teams can quickly collaborate on any idea and create a visual blueprint of it. Whimsical could provide more intuitive feature prioritization templates. The current templates lack the necessary detail and could be further enhanced from a UI/UX standpoint.
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
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.
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.
It's fairly intuitive, I rarely have any problems using the app. The layout is pretty user-friendly and easy to adapt to. There's a lot of tooltips to help with the various features and functions, so it's very easy to get self-help for the most part. Overally, I'm pretty happy and satisfied with the usage of Whimsical for mind-mapping.
I reached out to support, as I was interested in possibly investing in the organization, and they quickly and happily informed me they are a bootstrap organization and do not take on investors at this time. The swift response and information readily available for my consumption was extremely helpful and shows how solid the team behind it is.
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.
Whimsical is so much easier and has a better interface, so I think it's more suited to our workflow if compared to other tools like Google Charts. I really love this tool and I'm looking to learn and use it even more, as it helps us optimize our time, planning, and delivering more efficiently.
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.
