Question 1

How much does Project Insight cost compared to staying with Planner?

Accepted Answer

Project Insight Pro ($9/user) delivers budgeting, time tracking, resource visibility, and dashboards that Planner Plan 1 ($10) doesn't include without additional tools.

Project Insight Business ($19/user) gives you portfolio management, program visibility, intake, approvals, and governance—capabilities Planner Plan 3 ($30) requires Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps) plus custom development to achieve.

Project Insight Enterprise (≤$30/user) includes capacity planning, integrations with Jira and Azure DevOps, and executive reporting—features Plan 3 can only deliver by adding Power BI ($10-20/user), custom development, and integration setup.

For a 20-person PMO, Planner Plan 3 plus all necessary add-ons costs $40K-60K+ in year one. Project Insight Business costs $7,200. Enterprise costs $10,800. You're not paying extra for fragmentation.

Question 2

What's the actual cost difference between Microsoft Planner and Project Insight?

Accepted Answer

Planner requires Plan 3 or 5 ($30-55/user/month) PLUS Power BI for reporting ($10-20/user), PLUS custom development for portfolio features Planner doesn't have, PLUS integration tools. Total year-one cost for a typical 20-person PMO: $40K-60K+. Project Insight covers all the same Project Online-equivalent capabilities at $30/user/month, all-in. Total year-one for the same PMO: ~$7,200.

Question 3

Is this actually a full replacement for Project Online, or are we losing critical stuff?

Accepted Answer

Project Insight replaces Project Online's core functionality and adds capabilities Project Online didn't have. Cross-project dependency management, real-time resource capacity across connected systems, portfolio roll-ups, automated reporting—all of that works the same or better. The things you won't have are Project Online's legacy constraints (like the resource pool refresh requirement). In most cases, organizations find they have MORE capability, not less.

Question 4

What does Microsoft say Planner covers that we'd actually lose?

Accepted Answer

Planner replaces individual pieces: task management in Plan 1, some project coordination in Plan 3, more reporting in Plan 5. But it doesn't cover portfolio visibility, cross-project dependencies, resource capacity planning, budget tracking, or consolidated reporting without building custom Power BI dashboards. If your PMO relies on Project Online for any of those things, Planner alone won't cut it. You'd need to add multiple tools and manage the integration yourself.

Question 5

Do we have to migrate everything or can we pick which projects to move?

Accepted Answer

You can be completely strategic. Start with your most critical projects, run a pilot, validate the data, then scale. Or migrate in phases by department. You can even run both systems in parallel for 30-60 days so teams validate everything before fully switching. Project Online stays available until September 30, 2026, so you have a safety net. Most organizations don't import legacy closed projects—just active ones.

Question 6

Can we export our project data if we need to leave Project Insight?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can export projects back to Microsoft Project XML format, export reports to Excel and PDF, and access all your raw data anytime. Your data is completely portable. That said, most organizations find they don't want to leave because of the real-time resource capacity planning and cross-project visibility they'd lose compared to Project Online. But you're never locked in—the data is yours.

Question 7

What's actually different about your resource capacity planning?

Accepted Answer

Project Online forces you to merge all projects into one giant resource pool, which kills performance. We show real-time capacity across your entire portfolio without that workaround. Better: we pull capacity data from Jira, Azure DevOps, and every connected system simultaneously, so you see someone's ACTUAL workload across all the tools they work in—not just Project Insight. AI suggests replacement resources based on skill and actual availability. That's not just better than Project Online—it's fundamentally different.

Question 8

Will we really stop manually pulling data for every report?

Accepted Answer

Completely. Project Online requires refresh buttons and offline processes, so your data is always stale by the time you report on it. Project Insight updates in real time—if someone changes a task status one minute before you pull a report, you see the new data immediately. Cross-project Gantt views, portfolio boards, RAID logs, budget tracking, capacity reports—all live. No manual Excel work. Scheduled reports deliver automatically.

Question 9

Can our teams stay in Teams, Jira, and DevOps, or do they have to switch tools?

Accepted Answer

They can stay exactly where they are. Project Insight syncs bidirectionally with all three, so your development teams keep working in DevOps, your services teams stay in Jira, and everyone can access their worklist from Teams without leaving it. Updates made anywhere flow through automatically. PMOs get a unified portfolio view across all of it without asking teams to change how they work. That's the actual win—no tool proliferation, just better visibility on top of what people already use.

Question 10

What happens to our custom fields and workflows from Project Online?

Accepted Answer

Custom fields come across in the import. For complex workflows, we work with your PMO to evaluate what's critical to keep versus what can be simplified for a cleaner system. Many organizations discover their "critical" workflows were actually workarounds for Project Online's limitations and don't need them anymore. You can also customize forms, fields, and layouts without developers—toggle fields on/off, create custom fields with checkboxes or date pickers, build intake forms exactly as you need them.

Question 11

How fast can we actually migrate our projects?

Accepted Answer

Export your project as XML, drag it into Project Insight, map your users (we usually find them automatically), and click save. That's it. Even a project with 1,000 tasks takes just a few seconds. You can do them one at a time at your own pace, or use our bulk import tool via Excel if you want to move faster. No developers needed—your project managers can do this themselves.

Area to Assess	🙂 Worry Less If Microsoft's approach is usually sufficient	😟 Worry More If this capability is important to you
Task and team-level execution	Your primary need is assigning tasks, tracking progress, and collaborating within teams.	You rely on coordinated delivery across many teams or programs.
Basic workflows and automation	Simple notifications, approvals, and updates meet your needs.	You depend on complex, governed workflows that must remain consistent.
Ad hoc reporting and dashboards	You are comfortable building and maintaining custom Power BI reports.	You expect standardized, system-managed reporting out of the box.
Portfolio visibility	You do not require a single, consolidated view across projects.	Leadership expects rollups across projects and programs.
Cross-project dependencies	Dependencies stay within individual projects.	Dependencies regularly span teams, programs, or shared milestones.
Resource capacity and availability	People are mostly dedicated to one team or project.	People are shared across multiple projects and availability matters.
Budgeting and financial tracking	Financials are managed outside Project Online.	Project Online is used for budgets, actuals, or forecasts.
Enterprise scheduling and forecasting	Planning is short-term and execution-focused.	Long-range schedules and delivery forecasts are critical.
Structured intake and prioritization	Work arrives informally and volume is low.	You rely on standardized intake and prioritization.
Governance and consistency	Teams already operate with light standards.	Standards are enforced today through the system.
Single system of record	Project data is already distributed across tools.	Project Online is considered the authoritative source of truth.
PMO operating model	There is no formal PMO or centralized oversight.	The PMO relies on Project Online for reporting and governance.

Risk	If you stay with Planner	If you migrate to Project Insight
Cost Creep	Plan 3 ($30) + Power BI ($10-20) + Power Automate + Power Apps + custom dev for portfolio, capacity, governance + integration setup. Year-one for 20-person PMO: $40K-60K+	Project Insight Enterprise at $30/user/month (or Business at $19). Year-one for 20-person PMO: $7,200 (Business) to $10,800 (Enterprise)
Capability Gaps	Portfolio visibility, dependencies, capacity, budget, governance—all missing. Build workarounds or accept blind spots.	All included out of the box
Tool Sprawl	Teams jump between Planner, Power BI, Teams, Power Platform. Data in silos. Reports manual. No standards enforcement.	One system, connected, automated, consistent
Opportunity Cost	Six months configuring Planner's limitations instead of improving delivery. PMO manages tool, not portfolio.	1-4 weeks to live and optimized. PMO manages portfolio.

Replace Microsoft Project Online
before September 2026

What's happening and when?

The problem with Microsoft's recommendation

Is Microsoft's Planner path right for you?

If you checked any items in the "Worry More" column, you need more than Planner.

If Planner won't cover it, you have options.

Portfolio and program visibility

Resource capacity planning

Cross-project planning

Financial visibility

Intake and governance

Reporting for every level

What if you stay with Planner?
Here's the risk.

Migrating your existing projects
to Project Insight

A Microsoft Partner for more than two decades.

Get started today. Migration is fast and easy.

Try for free

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Questions PMOs are asking about replacing Project Online

Replace Microsoft Project Online before September 2026