Microsoft Project Review
The fastest path from plan to Gantt for Office-centric teams.
Pros
- Office-familiar UI — capable PMs are productive within days
- Strong resource engine and levelling for its class
- Deep Microsoft 365 integration: Teams, SharePoint, Power BI
- Far cheaper entry than enterprise alternatives
Cons
- Only 11 baselines; audit trail is weak for claims-grade work
- Multi-project/portfolio needs Project Online/Server complexity
- Task-type/effort-driven behaviour surprises untrained users
- Licensing names keep changing; plan comparison is confusing
Our review
MSP’s superpower is accessibility: it looks like Office, starts fast, and produces presentable plans quickly. The scheduling engine is genuinely capable — task types, effort-driven scheduling and a solid levelling algorithm — but its defaults trip up casual users, which is where most “MSP made a mess” stories come from. For IT programmes, internal projects and PMOs already paying for Microsoft 365, it is the pragmatic choice. Its ceiling appears on massive schedules, contractual baselining and multi-user concurrency.
Pricing
| Planner Plan 1 | Entry cloud plan, per user/month |
| Plan 3 (Project Professional) | Full desktop + cloud, per user/month |
| Plan 5 (Portfolio) | Portfolio management, per user/month |
Pricing changes often — verify on the vendor site.
Verdict
The right default for corporate PMOs and single-project delivery inside the Microsoft ecosystem. Choose P6 instead when contracts, scale or forensic rigour demand it.
Visit Microsoft Project →Best for: Single projects & Office-centric PMOs
Need help choosing or implementing?
We advise on tool selection and deliver P6/MSP implementation, migration and team training.
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