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Microsoft Project Server vs Planview Portfolios comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.1
Microsoft Project Server offers positive ROI, varying by organization type, with benefits of time savings and improved reporting.
Sentiment score
6.4
Planview Portfolios boosts visibility, efficiency, and decision-making, supporting strategic alignment and enhancing collaboration and operational performance.
Microsoft Project provides significant return on investment through time savings, enhanced visibility, real-time reporting, and risk mitigation for projects.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
It also delivers a set of shared metrics focused on customer value, such as speed and quality, to achieve business results while being able to roll up objectives and key results in the system where work gets done to ensure strategy informs execution and vice versa.
Project Manager at 3M
Reports and real-time analytics enhance real-time data-driven decision making.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
I also love the ability to provide visibility and transparency across an organization; it allows us to create custom reports and dashboards for easy data analysis, hence making data-driven decisions easily.
Project Manager at AT&T
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.4
Microsoft Project Server support is decent but inconsistent; users rely on external resources and partners for comprehensive assistance.
Sentiment score
8.3
Planview Portfolios customer service is mixed, with proactive support but occasional slow resolutions and varying assistance quality.
It's challenging to navigate, often making it necessary to search for solutions externally.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Their support tends to decline when not supporting cloud solutions.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
Communication with two people, one was knowledgeable while the other was learning.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
The customer support for Planview Portfolios has been quick to respond and very proactive since I have reached out to them several times.
Project Manager at AT&T
The customer support for Planview Portfolios is very proactive and responsive.
System Engineer at BNY
The customer support for Planview Portfolios is very proactive and responsive.
Project Manager at AT&T
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Project Server is scalable for large projects, though performance may vary based on version and infrastructure costs.
Sentiment score
8.1
Planview Portfolios scales effectively for enterprise use, integrating well with tools, despite performance issues with large data loads.
The desktop version does not have scalability.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
Microsoft Project Server is fully scalable and is widely used in many industries.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
The scalability of Planview Portfolios is very effective, and it handles all of my organization's projects and tasks.
System Engineer at BNY
Planview Portfolios is very scalable because it grows with the organization.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
Planview Portfolios is very scalable because it handles my organization's growth, allowing us to work with both small projects and big projects at the same time.
Project Manager at AT&T
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Project Server is stable and robust, with minor delays, improved in newer versions, especially the cloud version.
Sentiment score
9.1
Planview Portfolios is reliable and stable, with minor performance issues often linked to external factors or large configurations.
I have never had to reach out to their support because the product works as expected.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Planview Portfolios is very stable; I have not experienced any downtime.
Project Manager at 3M
Planview Portfolios is very stable.
Project Manager at AT&T
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Project Server requires better integration, customization, user-friendliness, cloud functionality, and agile methodologies to compete with alternatives.
Improving Planview Portfolios' integration, customization, automation, documentation, metrics, and UI could enhance user adoption and streamline management.
Exporting data from Microsoft Project, especially Gantt charts, is overly complex and not user-friendly.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
The lack of collaboration capabilities on the desktop version, unlike the cloud version, is a limitation.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
Microsoft has become increasingly expensive, and there seems to be a push towards cloud solutions which can be challenging for some.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
An important improvement would be to add more automation features and provide more online documentation videos that would make it much easier to use for non-technical users.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
Additionally, there should be plenty of resources online, such as tutorials and videos on how to guide and how to use Planview Portfolios, especially with its robust features, explaining each feature and how it works.
Project Manager at 3M
Reporting flexibility is needed so that end users can create their own quick ad hoc reports for analysis and for better data-driven decisions.
Project Manager at AT&T
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Project Server offers flexible pricing, with on-premise and cloud options, potentially costing enterprises $120,000 to $150,000 annually.
Planview Portfolios is costly but valued for large enterprises; the FLEX model offers flexibility, benefiting strategic alignment.
Microsoft Project Server is on the expensive side due to high licensing costs.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
Microsoft's products are expensive for individuals.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
Considering the infrastructure commitments to SharePoint and SQL, the implementation costs are low if already set up.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Planview Portfolios has been cost effective and affordable.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Planview Portfolios has been cost-effective and fairly pocket-friendly.
Project Manager at 3M
Planview Portfolios is one of the best and a very cost-effective tool.
Project Manager at AT&T
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Project Server streamlines complex project management with resource allocation, integration, and robust tools for efficient collaboration and scheduling.
Planview Portfolios enhances productivity and decision-making through flexible reporting, resource management, and integration with Power BI.
The Gantt chart is also a very powerful tool for a visual presentation of sequences, critical paths, and execution processes, which simplifies comprehension for users.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
This setup allows for comprehensive reporting and management across multiple projects and portfolios.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
The dashboards are amazing for data crunching and provide a project focus with upcoming predictions, including burn-up and burn-down charts.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
This enhanced visibility in Planview Portfolios ensures that all users can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize workflow efficiency.
Project Manager at 3M
End-to-end visibility enables us to analyze performance data across the organization to measure the success of strategic initiatives with key performance indicators and make timely decisions to ensure outcome realization.
Project Manager at AT&T
The comprehensive set of features empowers users to allocate resources strategically, analyze costs accurately, and align project timelines with available resources seamlessly.
Project Lead at Wells Fargo
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Project Server
Ranking in Project Portfolio Management
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Planview Portfolios
Ranking in Project Portfolio Management
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Project Portfolio Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Project Server is 3.9%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 6.4%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Project Portfolio Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Planview Portfolios6.4%
Microsoft Project Server3.9%
Other89.7%
Project Portfolio Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ipsita Seth - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
Enables effective workload monitoring and data insights with powerful features
Microsoft Project Server is quite a powerful tool and offers a good way of seeing dependencies and interactions, along with baselines. The resource management feature allows us to monitor workload and resource load effectively. Additionally, the dashboards are amazing for data crunching and provide a project focus with upcoming predictions, including burn-up and burn-down charts.
Monabi Kingsley - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at 3M
Centralized planning has improved resource visibility and supports data‑driven financial decisions
The best features Planview Portfolios offers are visibility enhancement, robust system performance, and comprehensive resource management. This enhanced visibility in Planview Portfolios ensures that all users can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize workflow efficiency. When discussing robust system performance, the system's robust performance in meeting our various work requirements effectively and efficiently stands out. It is very stable and reliable, contributing to a seamless user experience, which enables users to focus on their tasks without disruptions. I also love the financial breakdown, planning and prioritization, and attribute collection on projects in Planview Portfolios. Planview Portfolios has positively impacted my organization since I started using it. It has enabled me to gain insights into the full scope of work consuming resources. I am able to know where the resources are being consumed more, especially which resources are consuming the most. I have been able to leverage resources management and resource time reporting, which enabled the generation of $90 million in annual revenue through labor billing to customers.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise33
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise66
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project Server?
The pricing for Microsoft Project Server is standard, around $200-$250, but I think it's actually $80 to $100 per year. The pricing for Microsoft Project Server is relative; I would say it is cheap.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Project Server?
In order to improve Microsoft Project Server, collaborative features could be enhanced, as it is possible to improve it in a collaborative way similar to other office products, for example, using c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Planview Portfolios?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that Planview Portfolios is one of the best and a very cost-effective tool.
What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?
Planview Portfolios can be improved as the user interface defaults to the last opened portfolio, which can waste a lot of time loading a large portfolio if that is not what I need at that moment. J...
What is your primary use case for Planview Portfolios?
My main use case for Planview Portfolios is to ensure governance and decision auditability by incorporating embedded workflows, approval management, and key document retention supporting a single c...
 

Also Known As

MS Project Server
Planview Enterprise One, Troux
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Project Server vs. Planview Portfolios and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.