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Microsoft Project vs Planview AdaptiveWork comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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
Ranking in Project Management Software
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Planview AdaptiveWork
Ranking in Project Management Software
22nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Microsoft Project is 1.9%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview AdaptiveWork is 1.4%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Project Management Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Project1.9%
Planview AdaptiveWork1.4%
Other96.7%
Project Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jacob-George - PeerSpot reviewer
Domain Consultant at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Improved project scheduling has maximized resource utilization and has reduced delays
I think the licensing structure presents a significant area for improvement. The full features are not offered on the standard E4 license. This becomes problematic when distributing the project plan. I can export the plan as Excel and CSV files, but then I lose all the rich features, including dependency mapping. To recreate all that functionality without proper licensing is challenging. Microsoft Project offers a light version available for free, but when I try to distribute a project plan, it requires separate licensing. Microsoft Project Central used to be more of an enterprise product. Microsoft Project currently focuses on very low-level task management, and it could do much more. I do not see significant advancement happening because there is confusion about where Microsoft Project is heading. I believe Microsoft should bundle the license with Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This approach would result in more people using Microsoft Project. That is my opinion on how to improve adoption and the product offering.
VishalSingh11 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director BPM at a marketing services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has resources management and timesheets but could be more flexible
Compared to Broadcom Clarity, there was some flexibility with blueprints, etc. You can create a blueprint for different business groups or different customers. Planview AdaptiveWork doesn't have something like that. If they can build up something like a view price. It's still a traditional way where you have to create different instances for different customers. The PPM solution uses queries if I'm rolling out for different divisions. In that case, I have to create different instances for each region because each division may have a different look and feel. But if I have a blueprint, then it's very convenient. I can create multiple interfaces for different processes. Broadcom Clarity has some access control on those viewpoints.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The built-in dashboards are powerful because they show both project and overall progress."
"The user interface is very clean."
"The reporting features are quite strong, and being able to do team reports and find out what work is pending and what work needs to be done are key in my day-to-day management of the team, while the earned value analysis capabilities and critical path capabilities inside the tool help me make sure that I'm keeping the projects on track."
"Microsoft Project offers comprehensive project overviews and the ability to rate down what we have and what we need in terms of software."
"The solution is stable."
"The look and feel is familiar for users of the Microsoft Office Suite of applications, it is pretty straightforward to use, and its most useful feature is that it interfaces with Project Server which enables a whole portfolio or enterprise perspective across the organization."
"Microsoft Project is one of the only solutions you can use in just about any industry."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Project is the reminder feature. This feature allows for the system to send notifications or reminders to individuals who have a task to complete once someone has finished their task. This has been especially useful in situations where multiple people are involved in a task. For example, if I have completed my task and the next person is just beginning, the system will send them a reminder to notify them of my completion. This feature has proven to be very beneficial and convenient for me in my tasks."
"Clarizen's reporting features have been critical."
"I like the project management solution. It's really nice."
"Provides visibility into employee utilization, progress on specific client projects and a portfolio view of all programs."
"Clarizen's strength is reporting. Aside from reporting, I also like the ability to create customized workflow and custom actions. The workflow rules are handy. For example, you can create custom fields and dependent picklists."
"The feature that has improved our project planning the most is the ability to create custom workflows, which allows us to automate manual tasks that project managers need to perform. The collaboration feature enhances our team's productivity by allowing individuals to see the impact of their decisions on projects owned and managed by other teams."
"Clarizen Slide Publisher has helped increase transparency and communication with project stakeholders for us."
"Slide Publisher has been a lifesaver for us; it saves us five to 10 hours a week."
 

Cons

"The scalability is co-dependent on the stability of the product. We have 4000 users, and at times the product is slow."
"It is a traditional Waterfall-based solution, so it doesn't lend itself particularly well to Agile development. You can record Agile sprints within it, but it is not really an Agile-based product. It can store the basic information about budgets that an Agile set of work is looking to use, but that's about it."
"Its user experience can be improved while configuring it. Its reporting can also be better."
"In the next release, Microsoft should include cross-project integration."
"What could have been better is the integration with Office 365 so that if you're discussing a project on Teams or there's an email related to the project, it can be tagged to the project in Microsoft Project. That functionality is currently not there."
"I'd like the solution to be less expensive."
"There needs to be better integration with other Microsoft products such as SharePoint, and the like."
"The tool's most valuable feature is scheduling."
"One specific area for improvement could be implementing a development environment to test workflows with live production data."
"Have struggled with reporting and user adoption."
"It could be more user-friendly. I think it is too overwhelming, initially, in terms of possibilities and so on."
"I felt like the slide publisher isn't that user-friendly. I think it wasn't that easy to use or to figure out because of formatting constraints, or maybe we need to get better at understanding some of its limitations."
"If I start customizing too many things, Clarizen tends to get really slow in our environment and especially if I'm tunneled in an environment, like if I'm connected to my VPN."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You only need a Team's license in order to use Microsoft Project within Teams, which is very helpful."
"We have to pay for a yearly license for Microsoft Project."
"The license is a one-time payment but it is expensive."
"I believe the licensing for the solution is based on an annual fee."
"I am not involved with this."
"The product is not expensive. My company has opted for an annual subscription."
"Microsoft Project is an expensive solution."
"I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Has anyone moved from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet? How has your experience been with Smartsheet?
Hi @Eire Zimmermann, I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the mo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project?
I would say Microsoft Project is affordable, but the standalone Project license should be included in the Office price to increase adoption.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Project?
I am not expert enough to explain areas of improvement for Microsoft Project because I have not explored it extensively or used it enough, so I am not the right person to comment on this. I have no...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

Project Pro, MS Project
Planview Clarizen
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aston Martin, ABANCA, Airbus Group, Capita, Cardiff University, City of Saskatoon, Intel, Pegasus Airlines, South Australia Power Network (SAPN), Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing
Cisco Capital, JLL, Conagra Brands, Cargill, JLL, IBM, IIROC, Siemens Energy
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Project vs. Planview AdaptiveWork and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.