Microsoft Planner
Microsoft Planner Review and Pricing: Basic, Plan 1 and 3
Microsoft Planner gives teams a shared place to assign tasks, organize a board and review progress, with paid options for more detailed scheduling. Basic Planner is included in qualifying Microsoft 365 subscriptions, so teams already working in that environment may have a starting point available. Premium planning adds tools for connecting task dates, viewing people and managing more structured projects.
Look at Planner's current plan comparison with your everyday coordination needs in mind. The main decision is which planning behaviors you need alongside your existing Microsoft tools.
Everyday tasks and more detailed schedules
Both basic and premium plans provide grid, board and chart views, assignment, filtering and Excel export. A team can see its work as a list or board, divide responsibility and review status without maintaining a separate progress spreadsheet for every conversation.
Premium adds dependencies, Timeline, People, goals and custom fields; critical-path features depend on the subscription. These become useful when a delayed task affects the work that follows, or a manager needs to examine the schedule beyond individual due dates. Plan 1 also lists subtasks and templates.
Portfolio access is a separate distinction. Plan 3 and legacy Plan 5 users can manage portfolios, while Microsoft 365 and Plan 1 users can view shared portfolios read-only. Being able to see an overview therefore does not mean a user has the license to maintain it.
Microsoft Planner pricing: included access, Plan 1 and Plan 3
Planner Plan 1 costs USD $10 per user per month paid yearly. Plan 3 costs $30 per user per month paid yearly and includes Project desktop on up to five PCs alongside Planner. Copilot has separate pricing and licensing; it should not be added to the expected Plan 1 feature set without checking that purchase.
Basic and premium are not interchangeable versions of the same plan. Microsoft's comparison lists recurring tasks, Outlook calendar, SharePoint web parts and Loop integration for basic without showing those capabilities for premium. Basic permits 9,000 tasks per plan; premium permits 3,000. Workflows built against basic require modification for premium. A scheduling upgrade can therefore involve changing other parts of the team's working process.
List the recurring work, calendar connections and custom automations you rely on before converting a plan. Paid scheduling is useful when you need it, but it is not a reason to assume that every existing basic-plan feature will carry over.
Guests, setup and the Microsoft environment
Guest participation depends on Microsoft 365 Groups guest settings and an invitation from a group owner. Guests can work with tasks and buckets, but assignment emails are not supported and attachment access depends on administrator settings. A plan-specific or tenant-domain Planner URL is the documented access route.
These are meaningful administration requirements for client or supplier collaboration. The general Groups model does not settle every premium guest licensing case, so have the tenant administrator check the intended roles and permissions before promising outside participants access.
Teams provides shared context for planning, while Microsoft also lists connections involving Outlook and Loop with app licensing conditions. Match each connection to the actual basic or premium plan rather than treating the product family as one feature bundle. Existing Power Automate or Graph workflows deserve particular attention when moving to premium.
Microsoft Planner vs Project: which do you need?
Choose basic Planner for shared task boards when your qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription already covers the work. Choose Planner Plan 1 when dependencies and more detailed web or Teams scheduling are required. Choose Plan 3 when you also need Project desktop or to manage portfolios; it includes the desktop application on up to five PCs.
Project for the web has moved into Planner, so it is not a separate new-purchase alternative. That transition is distinct from Project Online, and neither means every product named Project has retired. The Microsoft Planner FAQ explains the move into Planner.
If you already use Project Online
Plan 5 reached end of sale on May 1, 2026, so it should not be treated as a normal new-purchase option. Separately, Project Online retires September 30, 2026. That retirement does not retire Planner, and it does not establish that existing Project Online portfolios automatically transfer or that Planner matches Project desktop.
If you use Project Online, inventory the portfolios, reporting and workflows you need to preserve and obtain a specific migration approach. A new Planner license alone does not answer that transition question.
Verdict and alternatives
Planner is especially worth evaluating when your team already coordinates through Microsoft 365 and wants to connect that environment with shared task ownership. Basic may suit everyday boards; premium becomes relevant when dependency-driven scheduling is central to delivery.
For a dedicated coordination system, Asana combines assigned projects with My Tasks and Inbox, and adds timelines and rules on paid plans. ClickUp offers tasks, Docs, chat and dashboards in a configurable workspace. The project management category comparison can help you assess those approaches alongside Planner.
Start with a representative plan and compare its required behaviors against Microsoft's current basic and premium table. Then choose the licenses for the people who will edit schedules and portfolios, with your administrator involved in guest access and existing integrations.