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Microsoft Project vs Planview AdaptiveWork comparison

 

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
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Planview AdaptiveWork
Ranking in Project Management Software
18th
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 April 2025, in the Project Management Software category, the mindshare of Microsoft Project is 7.7%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview AdaptiveWork is 1.1%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Project Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

Nurul Asyikin Wahab - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient project management with robust data tracking and an easy setup
When I have too many elements or items in a project, it becomes cumbersome, especially during printing. Non-technical users do not need all the data, so it's primarily for technical personnel. Without guidance, it's challenging to use the app. With guidance and expert knowledge, it becomes manageable, however, it's not for non-technical teams. The worst part is handling too many items, like 1,000 items, which Microsoft Project struggles with, especially when printing. Printing on A3 size is quite burdensome, so I prefer viewing it on a tablet or computer. On a tablet or phone, I can see the full project elements depending on the screen size.
VishalSingh11 - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"It's an easy solution to set up."
"This tool is the most accurate project management tool, allowing me to run a full set of project activities without having to switch between different tools for scheduling and other tasks."
"The most valuable features are in the successor and predecessor determination and the tracking tools, such as obtaining data on the S curve financial curve."
"It can auto-connect based on the dates, which makes it easy. It auto-assigns people, and when you're starting to type in, it auto-fills and populates for you, which is great. It provides little time savers when you're typing everything out."
"The built-in dashboards are powerful because they show both project and overall progress."
"The tool helps us to check milestones. After doing tasks, our team updates them. Regarding functionalities in Microsoft Project, the number one feature is reminders. With so many projects, sometimes you forget; some projects might slip up or disappear. This feature is very useful."
"It is easy to define timelines with Microsoft Project."
"The resource allocation features, which help allocate resources to tasks, are quite valuable."
"I like the project management solution. It's really nice."
"Clarizen Slide Publisher has helped increase transparency and communication with project stakeholders for us."
"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'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."
 

Cons

"I would like to see an entire baseline, like in JIRA."
"In the next release, Microsoft should include cross-project integration."
"If Project had a better mechanism to allow those who are not the project manager to see their own work tasks, that would be of help or of value to us."
"When a project plan becomes huge, it is painful to arrange and structure the project in Microsoft Project. Currently, you require a separate product for managing agile projects, and people are using Jira and Rally to manage stories in agile. Primarily, on the software development side, people are kind of moving away from Microsoft Project."
"I would like to have more access to templates and tools that could be used to teach project management best practices."
"I would like to see both Time and Team based options improved."
"Project is not easy to scale. It isn't a cloud-based solution where everybody can utilize it at the same time without version issues when you save your file. We use it at the enterprise level, but you have to share the files to others within your organization through Teams or SharePoint. One improvement would be to transition to cloud-based functionality. However, that might limit the functionality in other ways."
"The technical support could be improved. They are okay, however, they could be much better."
"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."
"One specific area for improvement could be implementing a development environment to test workflows with live production data."
"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."
"It could be more user-friendly. I think it is too overwhelming, initially, in terms of possibilities and so on."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It was a three-year license deal that was reconciled on a quarterly basis. It is a reasonably priced product, and I consider that we got good value for money."
"Its price could be reduced a little."
"Licensing costs vary depending on the user volume. The pricing is good, I'd rate it four out of five."
"The pricing is based on a licensing model and is reasonable."
"It probably was $30 per license on a monthly basis. There is no additional fee."
"Microsoft Project is an expensive solution."
"We purchase perpetual licenses due to the high cost of subscriptions, which are about 1,000 Australian dollars."
"It gets expensive when having to add all of the plugins and everything that you need."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
68%
Computer Software Company
4%
Government
3%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Educational Organization
57%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about Microsoft Project?
The product's initial setup phase is easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project?
The issue with Microsoft is that the license is per personnel, making it expensive.
What do you like most about Planview AdaptiveWork?
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 collaborat...
What needs improvement with Planview AdaptiveWork?
One specific area for improvement could be implementing a development environment to test workflows with live production data.
What advice do you have for others considering Planview AdaptiveWork?
Integration with other tools can sometimes be a hiccup, but this isn't necessarily a limitation of Planview AdaptiveWork. It's more often a result of company policies regarding integration with oth...
 

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: April 2025.
845,589 professionals have used our research since 2012.