Microsoft Project Server vs Planview Portfolios comparison

Microsoft and Planview are both solutions in the Project Portfolio Management category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0, while Planview is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft holds a 6.3% mindshare in PPM, compared to Planview’s 7.4% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Planview users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Project Server

Read 61 Microsoft Project Server reviews

923 Views
674 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Planview Portfolios

Read 63 Planview Portfolios reviews

997 Views
576 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Microsoft Project Server

Planview Portfolios

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Planview Portfolios and Microsoft Project Server both operate in the project management space. Planview Portfolios appears to be favored for its extensive portfolio management capabilities, while Microsoft Project Server stands out for its ease of use and scheduling strength.

Features: Planview Portfolios is recognized for its robust resource planning, project execution, and strategic alignment capabilities, with strong customization and integration with tools like Power BI. It's particularly suitable for large-scale projects requiring detailed resource and financial management. Microsoft Project Server is appreciated for its scheduling capabilities and seamless integration with other Microsoft products, offering a familiar environment for Microsoft ecosystem users. It helps significantly in planning and task management with its straightforward user experience.

Room for Improvement: Planview Portfolios needs better support for visualization enhancements, more straightforward customization options for reporting, and integration with other agile tools. Users also desire enhancement in its support framework. Microsoft Project Server could improve its collaboration features and integration with modern technologies, alongside improvements in the user interface and resource management capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Planview Portfolios offers multiple cloud deployment options, although setup complexity can vary. Some users report inconsistent customer service, experiencing challenges in obtaining immediate assistance. Microsoft Project Server predominantly offers on-premises deployment with limited cloud options, providing robust support documentation but facing some integration issues. Users find contacting customer service straightforward, although resolution speed could be improved.

Pricing and ROI: Planview Portfolios is considered costly but offers substantial ROI through enhanced resource management and strategic alignment, with licensing options like FLEX for adaptable needs. Opinions on its cost-effectiveness are mixed. Microsoft Project Server's pricing is perceived as high for its capabilities, particularly due to its seamless integration with the Microsoft platform. It may be cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses despite its robust features. Planview's pricing aligns with its feature set and ROI, whereas Microsoft’s pricing is competitive, primarily benefiting from integration advantages.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview Portfolios Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview Portfolios

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Project Server

Ranking in Project Portfolio Management

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Planview Portfolios

Ranking in Project Portfolio Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Project Portfolio Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Project Server is 6.3%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 7.4%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Project Portfolio Management

Featured Reviews

Sean Achim

Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre

Unlock comprehensive reporting and management with robust data extraction

The major advantage for me in using Microsoft Project Server is the SQL Server component. Using Power BI and SQL Server, I can extract a lot more data. The combination of Microsoft Project with Project Server and SharePoint provides a perfect solution for me. This setup allows for comprehensive reporting and management across multiple projects and portfolios.

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Mark Hillman

Global Head of Portfolio Management at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

User-friendly interface, but the reporting could be improved

The reporting is poor and requires improvement. The tiles and exception-based activities in the application are sufficient to get by. However, when it comes to producing executive reports, MI reports, or any other type of reporting, we must exit Planview and work offline. We have been working with them to improve on that, as well as using some of the Power BI capabilities that have been available for a while, but it's still more difficult than it should be. In the next release, I would like to be able to use the data in the tool to gain insight much more easily.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It is well-established, reliable, and compatible."

"Microsoft Project Server is simple to use."

"SharePoint site integration"

"Capacity management and task baselining are the most valuable features of Microsoft Project Server."

"The solution is stable."

"The usability is excellent."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is easy to understand and navigate."

"It's fine to navigate for a layperson."

More Microsoft Project Server pros

"Planview has helped connect funding and strategic outcomes with work execution. That is the key use that we have for it. We use it to validate the work that we're doing and the funding that we need. The difference between the previous version and current version for us would be the ICPM and the way it gives us different scenarios. We can go in and build that out."

"Its view into resource capacity and availability helps us to manage work. In reporting, we use this facility to help with resource capacity and availability. It also helps to see how much we are using. We derive that information from the work and resource management screen. That is very helpful."

"In my opinion, the financial planning feature is the most valuable feature of Planview Enterprise One."

"We've brought our portfolio altogether. We have had multiple ways of reporting out what our portfolio is, whether it's in Excel, Word, or in different places. We brought all of our projects together in one place. That has worked out well for us. We've been able to manage the work on Gantt charts and our resources better. The big thing for us on research and development is around managing people's time, on which projects they are working on, and how much effort does it take to launch our projects."

"We're still in an early stage. Things will change as we use it more. I did program reports that are important and that will provide us with value."

"Another good thing is that we can create custom reports, which is great. If I created a custom report, a tile that tells me how many people have logged in today. We currently have a little under 2000 users, and that's only users, we actually have integrations, that we created a custom form that sends hours directly to Planview. They're not using Planview directly, but they're sending their hours to Planview through an API."

"The most valuable features are scheduling, resource management, and, from a project perspective, the functions like issues that change orders. They are valuable because, from a project management perspective, we use the workflows that we build for project management and do active risk management and issue management for the projects that we want for our agencies."

"It has been effective for our delivery. It's given us much better visibility into what is being delivered and when."

More Planview Portfolios pros

Cons

"It may be considered expensive."

"The product's UI is not very user-friendly."

"We sometimes need support from the IT department for installing and deploying the Microsoft Project Server. It is not user-friendly, and users cannot install it themselves."

"Stability of the solution is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"It should be more agile and more flexible when it comes to customization."

"The solution's desktop version is not compatible with the MacBook."

"Microsoft is going to integrate the Co-Pilot features into Microsoft Project. The AI feature is an additional feature. It can look at the plan and identify risks early on from any part of your project."

"Collaboration within the tool is lacking when you compare it to online or cloud-based tools."

More Microsoft Project Server cons

"The technical support is a little overworked. At least, they have been in the past year. We need them to focus on somethings from time to time. You can tell that they're really focusing on many things. It has gotten better, but I think they could still use some relief."

"The number one thing that needs improvement is the UI. It should be easy for a casual project manager. It should provide customizable screens that can be a choice for project managers to choose as a professional level, medium level, and a very easy level."

"I think that the user interface needs some getting used to. It's not immediately intuitive. That's potentially room for improvement. I think also that an organization needs to have good support from some senior management to get something like Planview established."

"It is not an end-user-friendly product, and that's really the biggest thing. The hardest or the biggest hurdle I've ever had to face was adoption. I did the installation of the HP product in 2011. The company used it from 2011 to 2015, and the adoption was very high. When I was given the Planview product, adoption was very low. It wasn't as extensively used. We actually had people who wanted to go back to HP PPM because the interface of Planview was so broken, and it still is to some degree. So, it is not user-friendly. It doesn't flow the way a project manager thinks. What we did with HP PPM was a lot more manual programming. It wasn't as nice in terms of the interface, and it wasn't as pretty, but you could design it and build it so that everything flows with the way you worked, but Planview doesn't quite do that. There are a lot of screens. You have to jump back and forth. There are so many different places you have to go to just to do some basic tasks. That's the biggest thing that has really hindered adoption."

"Being the IT development manager who implements the upgrades for Planview, I would love to see more thorough testing of expenditures and more thorough testing in general. When we do an upgrade, we have to do quite a bit of testing because we can affect the bottom line."

"We are not very happy with the customer service. This is one of our main pain points. It doesn't cover the entirety of customer service, as there are reps who are really great and we've had good experiences. Many times, we've had people give us attitude, there was a delay in the response, or just a lack of interest. This got to the point where if there was a problem, we would rather try to solve it ourselves then call customer support."

"Its ability to create summary reports across multiple projects is very limited. In terms of the out-of-the-box reporting for summary reports, the reporting that we typically leverage is around forecasting for resources, timesheets, and actuals, and just looking at what is the capacity. There is no real summary of what work is being done and how work is being accomplished. So, what we typically do is that we get a copy of the data files from Enterprise One daily, and then we have a team that manages the data mod outside of Enterprise One. They use data from Enterprise One as well as other additional sources to provide the reporting that we share with the management. So, we leverage a lot of Enterprise One data for reporting, but we don't use the reporting capabilities within Enterprise One. So, reporting can be improved, and they could help us make more customized reporting. I know it is very configurable out of the box, but we have to leverage an outside data mod that pulls in a lot of data from Enterprise One. So, the reporting function, and being able to customize reports, is the area that could be very beneficial."

"Recently, we have gotten on a newer version. We're currently on version 15. Some of the things that we've been running into roadblocks on, it looks like the solutions will be coming out in versions 17 or 18. So, we have to upgrade before somethings can get completed."

More Planview Portfolios cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a licensing cost."

"A standard license is cheaper, but if you want more features, then there is a premium license or professional license."

"I'm not quite sure about the licensing costs. We're probably paying somewhere in the neighborhood of about 80,000 to 90,000 a year for our current on-prem because we handle our own licensing. As far as Project Online is concerned, we're still trying to get a good handle on that. It looks like it is going to be in a neighborhood of about 120,000 to 150,000 a year, but we're getting a lot more capability out of it."

"There is a subscription model for different types of users for different types of roles."

"The licensing was procured before my involvement."

"We pay an annual licensing fee for the solution."

"I rate the pricing a one out of ten because the price is way too high."

"Microsoft Project Server is more expensive than other solutions on the market. We purchase the license annually."

More Microsoft Project Server pricing and cost advice

"We have several hundred licenses. It costs us several hundred thousand dollars a year."

"We have portfolio managers, resource managers, project managers, and time reporting licenses. These are the licenses that we have."

"I think all in we are at $33,000 a year and that includes Projectplace and Planview. We used to have the integration to JIRA, but we don't pay for that anymore."

"In the time that I've used it, we've doubled up the amount of dollars on our intended projects."

"We overbought our licenses. We looked at our needs three to four years down the road and tried based our contract on that. However, we were over aggressive. We use about a third of the licenses that we have. We're looking to adjust the makeup so we can start utilizing the amount of money that we are spending. Right now, we're overspending, and my organization is not seeing the value in Planview because we are paying so much for licenses that we're not using."

"We recently did a new bundle for all of Enterprise One. It includes some of the newer pieces, like Projectplace and LeanKit. It bundled our CTM in with it as well. I think the total came out to be about $900,000 a year. This is for unlimited licenses."

"We have unlimited licenses for all of our functionalities. Since we went global, we went with that model."

"Our licensing costs are about a quarter of a million dollars per year."

More Planview Portfolios pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Project Server?

The ability to track a project's progress using Microsoft Project Server is the most valuable aspect. It depends, especially when managing multiple projects.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project Server?

Microsoft Project Server is on the expensive side due to high licensing costs, but it is mainly accessible to project managers. Online tools are cheaper and present competition.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Project Server?

The main drawback of Microsoft Project Server is that it is offline. Having it online would offer better access to other managers.

See all answers

What do you like most about Planview Portfolios?

Planview Management integrates seamlessly with other tools and systems used within the organization, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, customer relationship management (CRM) syst...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Planview Portfolios?

Planview Portfolios is not too expensive. You get what you paid for.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?

Enhancements are needed in: Advanced reporting and analytics: While Planview Management provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities, further enhancements could include more advanced data v...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 23% of the time

Planisware vs Microsoft Project Server

Compared 14% of the time

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs Microsoft Project Server

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management vs Microsoft Project Server

Compared 9% of the time

Broadcom Clarity vs Microsoft Project Server

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Project Server Competitors

Broadcom Clarity vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 14% of the time

LeanIX vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 10% of the time

SAP Portfolio and Project Management vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 9% of the time

Planview PPM Pro vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 8% of the time

Smartsheet vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 5% of the time

More Planview Portfolios Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Project Server

April 2025

Download Microsoft Project Server product report

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios

April 2025

Download Planview Portfolios product report

Also Known As

MS Project Server

Planview Enterprise One, Troux

Overview

Microsoft Project Server facilitates project portfolio management and everyday collaboration, enhancing decision-making processes. Its integration with SharePoint offers a flexible solution for enterprise project management, catering to complex project needs seamlessly.

Microsoft Project Server empowers project teams and managers with enhanced communication and comprehensive project visibility. It supports dynamic resource allocation, financial tracking, and risk assessment. A cloud-ready platform, it simplifies deployment and scalability, suitable for diverse project environments and needs robust integration with leading productivity tools and services.

What are the key features of Microsoft Project Server?

Resource Management: Allocate and track resources efficiently to optimize productivity.
Portfolio Analysis: Assess and prioritize projects based on strategic alignment and constraints.
Time Reporting: Streamline time tracking and reporting for accurate project insights.
Integration with Office: Seamlessly connects with Microsoft Office applications for enhanced productivity.
Security and Compliance: Ensures data security with customizable permissions and compliance standards.

What benefits can users expect from Microsoft Project Server?

Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitates communication and collaboration among project teams.
Improved Decision Making: Offers comprehensive data analytics for strategic planning.
Efficiency Gains: Streamlines project management workflows for increased productivity.
Cost Management: Enables effective budget tracking and financial control.

Industries such as construction, IT services, and pharmaceuticals leverage Microsoft Project Server for managing large-scale projects with precision. Its adaptability to different industry standards ensures specific project requirements are met while maintaining operational control and regulatory compliance.

Microsoft

Planview Portfolios offers a comprehensive platform for managing IT, project and resource management, along with strategic planning. The tool focuses on optimizing resource allocation and financial analysis, supporting global operations.

Organizations use Planview Portfolios to streamline project tracking from inception to completion, enhancing strategic alignment with corporate objectives. The tool integrates with platforms like JIRA to provide seamless workflows and supports critical business processes, including budgeting and capacity planning. Teams benefit from customized configurations and robust reporting, further supporting effective decision-making. Despite its strengths, improvements are sought in navigation, documentation, and integration capabilities.

What are the key features?

Customizable interface: Allows personalization to meet specific needs.
Comprehensive resource and financial management: Enables detailed tracking and analysis.
Robust reporting: Provides extensive data insights.
Integration with Power BI: Enhances data access for stakeholders.
Resource and capacity planning: Optimizes workforce allocation.

What benefits should users expect?

Improved strategic alignment: Supports better decision-making.
Increased operational efficiency: Streamlines project management.
Enhanced resource optimization: Ensures optimal use of workforce.
Better financial insights: Allows precise budget tracking.

In industries like IT and project management, Planview Portfolios supports complex portfolio handling, ensuring visibility across global operations. Companies in these sectors leverage its strategic planning tools for strategic alignment and resource management, integrating with existing systems for improved process efficiency.

Planview

Sample Customers

Magnachip, Gwinnett County Schools, CLEAResult, Medbit Oy, Intelbras S.A., ETS, CORE Construction, Keller Foundations

UPS, NatWest, Ingram Micro, Canadian Tire, Viessmann, Volvo, NASCO, UNESCO

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview Portfolios

April 2025

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