Microsoft Planner
Marketing calendar software
Project collaboration software
Task management software
Work management software
Project, portfolio & program management software
Employee planner software
Team task management software
AI task management tools
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$10.00 per user per month, paid yearly
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
- Education and training
- Public sector and nonprofit organizations
- Real estate and property management
What is Microsoft Planner
Microsoft Planner is a task management and lightweight work planning application within Microsoft 365. It helps teams create plans, organize tasks into buckets, assign owners, set due dates, and track progress using board-style views and basic reporting. Planner is commonly used by business teams that already collaborate in Microsoft Teams and Outlook and want simple, shared task tracking without deploying a separate project management platform. It integrates with Microsoft 365 identity, groups, and collaboration services, and it can be extended through Power Platform and Microsoft Graph APIs.
Native Microsoft 365 integration
Planner connects directly with Microsoft 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams, which simplifies access control and team-based task visibility. Users can work with tasks alongside chats, files, and meetings in Teams rather than switching tools. Authentication and governance typically align with existing Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) policies. This is a practical advantage for organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 compared with standalone work management tools.
Simple team task boards
Planner provides a straightforward Kanban-style experience with buckets, assignments, due dates, checklists, and attachments. The UI is designed for quick adoption by non-project-management specialists. It supports common team workflows such as intake queues, campaign task lists, and operational checklists. For many departments, this covers day-to-day coordination without the overhead of full project scheduling features.
Extensible via Microsoft platform
Planner can be connected to automation and reporting through Power Automate, Power Apps, and Microsoft Graph, enabling notifications, approvals, and integrations with other systems. Organizations can build lightweight workflows (for example, task creation from forms or emails) without custom code. Data can be surfaced in broader Microsoft reporting and collaboration contexts depending on tenant configuration. This platform extensibility can reduce the need for separate point solutions in Microsoft-centric environments.
Limited project management depth
Planner does not provide advanced project controls such as dependency management, critical path, baselining, or robust resource capacity planning. Portfolio and program-level rollups are limited compared with dedicated PPM suites. Teams managing complex cross-functional initiatives often need additional tooling or a higher-tier Microsoft project solution. As a result, Planner fits best for lightweight planning rather than formal project governance.
Marketing calendar features are basic
Planner can track tasks and due dates but lacks specialized marketing calendar capabilities such as campaign-to-channel planning, content workflows, and integrated publishing or social scheduling. Calendar-style visualization and campaign metadata are not as purpose-built as tools focused on marketing operations. Teams may need to pair Planner with separate content, social, or DAM systems to manage end-to-end marketing execution. This can increase fragmentation for marketing departments seeking a single calendar hub.
AI capabilities depend on tenant
Planner itself is primarily a task tool; AI-assisted features are not uniformly available across all Microsoft 365 plans and may depend on Copilot licensing and admin configuration. Where AI is available, capabilities and data access are governed by Microsoft 365 security and compliance settings, which can limit functionality in restricted tenants. Organizations evaluating it specifically as an AI task management tool should validate feature availability by SKU and region. This variability can complicate standardization across business units.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Planner in Microsoft 365 | Included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions (no separate price) | Basic Planner features: creation and management of content-rich tasks, My Day/My Tasks/Assigned to Me views, basic plan templates, Microsoft Teams integration, Grid/Board/Schedule/Charts views. |
| Planner Plan 1 | $10.00 per user/month (paid yearly) | Task dependencies, premium plan templates, reports and dashboards, Timeline (Gantt) view, backlogs & sprints, people management, project goals. |
| Planner and Project Plan 3 | $30.00 per user/month (paid yearly) | Includes Planner Plan 1 features plus Microsoft 365 Copilot in Planner (preview), advanced dependencies with lead/lag, resource request capabilities, task history, program and demand management, Project Online and Project Online desktop client. |
| Planner and Project Plan 5 | $55.00 per user/month (paid yearly) | Includes Planner and Project Plan 3 features plus portfolio management, enterprise resource management and allocation, advanced portfolio capabilities. |
Seller details
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington, United States
1975
Public
https://www.microsoft.com/
https://x.com/Microsoft
https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/
