Planitude vs Microsoft Project Online: the free alternative

Microsoft set the retirement of Project Online for September 30, 2026^[1]; according to Microsoft, after the retirement projects and their associated data in the service are no longer accessible^[4]. For those who plan with dependencies, calendars and a critical path, the question is clear: where can they keep working the same way, without starting from scratch?

This comparison examines Planitude and Project Online point by point, using only Microsoft’s official pages as sources.

Who Project Online and Planitude are for#

Project Online was designed for large organizations that manage dozens of projects on SharePoint, with a PMO that governs resources and budgets. Every interaction with a Project Online site requires at least a Project Plan 3 or Plan 5 license^[3], and its capabilities are those of a full suite: costs, leveling and earned value^[3].

Planitude is designed for those who need rigorous planning without the infrastructure of an enterprise suite:

• project managers who want the same approach as MS Project, in which dates derive from dependencies, calendars and constraints rather than from dragging bars;
• teams that inherit .mpp files and need to keep using them;
• companies and professional firms that want everyone to be able to view and comment on the plan without buying a license for each person.

Comparison at a glance#

The table uses the same data as our full comparison. Where Microsoft is more complete, we say so: Planitude does not offer resource leveling or earned value.

Scheduling: the same logic as MS Project#

Users coming from Project Online will find the concepts they use every day in Planitude:

• FS, SS, FF and SF dependencies with lead and lag;
• date constraints and deadlines;
• project and resource calendars with holidays and exceptions;
• summary tasks and multi-level subtasks, created with Tab and Shift+Tab as in MS Project;
• an automatically calculated critical path;
• baselines, showing the variance of each task against the saved plan.

Planitude also adds views that a traditional plan does not provide: a project Summary, List, Board, Calendar and Workload with an overallocation warning. The version history records the state of the plan and makes it possible to restore earlier versions without losing data.

The areas in which Project Online remains ahead are automatic resource leveling and earned value^[3]. Planitude respects the leveling delay already present in an imported .mpp file, but does not calculate it.

Import, export and migration#

This is the most important aspect at this stage. Planitude reads .mpp files created with Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project XML files, importing tasks, dependencies, calendars and baselines; assigned resources are listed in each task’s notes so they can be reassigned to project members. An import report lists every field that could not be mapped, rather than dropping it without notice.

Export remains open as well: from Planitude you can export to Microsoft Project XML, CSV for Excel and print/PDF. Your data is not locked into Planitude.

Collaboration without licenses for viewers#

In Project Online, even people who only view the plan need a license^[3]. In Planitude, you can invite anyone by link and assign a role (owner, editor, viewer) with no per-user cost. Each task has a unique key (for example CASA-110), comments with mentions and a change history. For stakeholders outside the team, a read-only public link is available.

Pricing#

The minimum plan for working in Project Online is Project Plan 3, at USD 30.00 per user per month with annual payment^[2]. Planitude is free, supported by advertising, with no limit on the number of users.

Languages, data and AI assistant#

Planitude is available in 10 languages (Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Japanese and Chinese), and projects are hosted on servers in the European Union, in Germany.

It includes an AI assistant that reads the plan, provides estimates and proposes changes that are applied only after you confirm them, and it can generate a first version of a plan from a description. Through API keys and the MCP server, Planitude integrates with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor and VS Code.

How to move from Project Online to Planitude#

1. Retrieve your projects in .mpp or XML format. With Project desktop, which is not affected by the retirement^[4], each project can be saved with File > Save As as an .mpp file or in XML format^[5]; copies exported before the retirement, as Microsoft recommended, can also be used^[4].
2. Create a free Planitude account and a workspace for your team.
3. Import the file .mpp or .xml through the guided import.
4. Review the import report: it shows precisely which items were imported and which were not.
5. Save a baseline immediately after the import, to track every subsequent variance.
6. Invite your team by link and assign roles.

Conclusion#

Project Online remains the reference for organizations that need a full portfolio management suite, but Microsoft set its retirement for September 30, 2026. If the need is to keep planning as in MS Project, with your own .mpp files and without a license for every person, Planitude makes this possible immediately, free of charge.

Frequently asked questions#