Monday.com Vs Microsoft Planner: A Detailed Comparison

Monday.com and Microsoft Planner sit among many other project management tools as the crème of the crop. Both options come heavily recommended for businesses, organizations, and the like. It does beg the question, how exactly do these two pieces of software differ from each other? What do they offer that sets them apart? Today, in our comparison of Monday.com vs Microsoft Planner, we hope to answer that question for you.

What is Monday.com?

Monday.com is a popular piece of project management software that’s often touted as one of the best options around. It features a bevy of functions and extras that make it to manage every employee’s workflow, as well as an incredibly attractive, modern, and functional user interface. One of the most praised aspects of Monday.com is, in fact, its excellent user interface design.

While Monday.com is a complex application with deep, in-depth options for managing projects and tasks within an organization, the user interface makes it a breeze to use. Monday.com visualizes task progress in one interface, making it so that you don’t have to swap views for more granular takes. You also get access to essential tools like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, timelines, and more.

All of these essential tools, combined with an excellent interface and lightweight build make visualizing progress painless and quick. Being able to put every task into visuals allows users to break down what needs to be finished efficiently. All of these plus points are what make Monday.com one of the biggest names in project management.

Monday.com Key Features:

1. Unique API And Integrations

Monday.com offers over 50 integrations and its API. All the essentials are here including Slack, Jira, Google Drive, and Mailchimp, among many other choices. Most organizations will find the number of integrations here to be fairly satisfactory. The included tools here are also all really good, some outperforming a lot of popular mainstream options.

2. Extra Security

In this category, Monday.com has a slight edge over many of its competitors. Not only does Monday.com offer two-factor authentication (2FA) for all plans, but it also offers SSO with popular apps like Okta and One login. This, on top of having 2FA, means that the project management tool simply offers better security than other options, including Microsoft Planner.

3. Individual and Team Workload Management

Monday.com offers a fantastic method for managing workloads. For individuals, you can assign a person to an item by firstly adding a people column. From there, you get many ways to change things that are all intuitive to the user. Meanwhile, the team column allows you to assign a whole team to a task. This mass management option is a godsend for large-scale projects with bigger numbers of teams.

4. Feedback And Collaboration Features

When assigned a task, team members can update and comment on each task item or run a Q&A for any specific item. There’s also a file-sharing feature and hyperlinks which can be used by multiple users to view and edit important files. These features result in easier communication between teams, and as a result, there’s more collaboration.

5. Unique Workflow And Interface

Monday.com has an incredibly different workflow when put next to other project management tools. Instead, Monday.com takes big features from traditional systems and gives its take on them. This comes through in a lot of their tools, which are refreshing takes on many pre-established tools. It results in a unique workflow, and if you get used to it, it’s hard to switch to a different project manager.

What is the Price of Monday.com?

Monday.com comes in at a slightly higher price compared to many of its competitors. For basic user who just wants to check their tasks and project progress, Monday.com is perfectly free. Your options are limited, though you do still get functions that allow you to make things work. You have access to unlimited docs, can add up to 2 team members to your team, and get access to all mobile apps.

If you need a greater degree of management, however, plans range from Basic at $8 a month per user, all the way to $16 a month per user for the Pro package. For project leaders, you’ll want to subscribe to the Pro package to get maximum functionality out of the tool. For most employees, however, using Monday.com for free to check on tasks should suffice.

Pros of Monday.com:

1. Excellent User Interface

We’ve raved on about Monday.com’s user interface, but it bears repeating. Every fan of Monday.com swears by its unique workflow, and it’s not a surprise as to why. The project management tool has reinvented how project management works to great effect, and you won’t find it anywhere else.

2. Aesthetically Pleasing Design

Design is not brought up enough when it comes to project management tools. Monday.com is one of the most aesthetically pleasing-looking tools on the market. Having bright, soft colors and cleaner visuals makes using tools a bit more enjoyable and mentally stimulating to use over long periods.

3. Phenomenal User Support

Monday.com scores huge points in terms of accessibility. While the tools and functionality are all easy to use and make for a good experience, customer support is also on point. It’s this customer support paired with all its other great features that make Monday.com a go-to for so many organizations.

Cons of Monday.com:

1. More Expensive Than Competitors

Monday.com is a wee bit more expensive than its competitors, with the free package not offering much. A lot of the basic functionality is tied behind the $8 subscription, though the power options on offer are also worth the higher price tags.

2. Not As Many Integrations As Some Options

While it does offer over 50 integrations, Monday.com still pales next to some options like Asana which offers over 150 integrations. On the other hand, Microsoft Planner doesn’t offer any integrations, so it’s once again a con only in the context of the bigger project managing tool market.

3. No Portfolio Managing Option

Monday unfortunately doesn’t have a proper portfolio management section. It does have a feature called ‘Groups’ that you can use to group any sub-benchmark of your project. With this, you can make a sort of pseudo-portfolio-making tool, but it’s not as convenient as just having a portfolio tool.

What is Microsoft Planner?

Microsoft Planner (also known as Tasks) is another project and task management tool, but with the technological backing of Microsoft behind its development. It’s built from the ground up to work alongside the rest of the Office 365 suite, and as a result, it has deep integration with it. It’s a solid tool, and one that’s become more and more popular over time as Microsoft continues to improve it.

Above all else, Microsoft Planner is easy to use and accessible thanks to wide platform support. While it doesn’t integrate with applications and software outside of the Microsoft bubble, within said bubble it’s completely unparalleled by its competitors. So, what exactly puts Microsoft Planner above many of its contemporaries?

Microsoft Planner Key Features:

1. Microsoft Integration

Microsoft Planner is a part of Microsoft’s Office 365 package, and as a result, it works well in tandem with the rest of Microsoft’s Office suite of tools. Having direct integration with powerful applications like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint is always good, especially if your organization is already based on these tools.

2. Work Time Tracking

Work time tracking is an excellent new feature added to Microsoft Planner. It effectively allows users and team leaders to track how many hours exactly workers have been putting in. It’s very useful for workers who are paid by hours, and it’s also completely free with Microsoft Planner Hub, which brings us to our next key feature.

3. Microsoft Planner Hub

The Microsoft Planner Hub is, as the name implies, a control center of sorts for the application. Through it, you get more granular control over every aspect of your managed organization, on top of a better overview of tasks and project progress.

4. All Mainstream Organizational Tools

The Kanban boards by Microsoft Planner are a great tool to track your project and view the working process.

What is the Price of Microsoft Planner?

Because Microsoft Planner comes as part of Office 365, it, therefore, costs the same as the minimum cost for the service. For those who aren’t already subscribed to Office 365, their lowest pricing tier is $5, and that gets you full access to all of Microsoft Planner’s functionality. This includes integration with all of the other Microsoft software that comes with your subscription.

Pros of Microsoft Planner:

1. Microsoft Integration

As we’ve said, the Microsoft Integration for Planner is simply unbeatable. It’s excellent, simple, and easy to use. As we’ve already said, users who are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem will be pretty happy with what they’re getting here.

2. Extremely Simple and Easy To Use

Microsoft Planner is by and far one of the simplest task management tools around, meaning almost anyone can use it without needing to get accustomed to its features. More experienced users meanwhile will find the simplicity to be fairly convenient.

3. Features All Basic Project Management Tools

Microsoft Planner features every basic project management tool, meaning anyone with an understanding of how project management tools work will be familiar with its workflow. Features like Kanban Boards, Gantt Charts, checklists, and labels are all here, and they work exactly as you would expect them to.

Cons of Microsoft Planner:

1. Limited To Microsoft Integration

While the Microsoft Integration is nice, the fact that it’s only limited to Microsoft means companies that make use of third-party applications will struggle with workflow issues. It’s not an insurmountable issue, but it’s something to keep in mind.

2. Doesn’t Have As Many Extra Features As Competitors

Microsoft Planner is usable and more than good enough for most, but for power users, competing project managers offer more granular control and complexity with their offerings. Monday for example offers almost everything Planner does, as well as a social media-like collaboration system, a fresh take on drag and drop timelines, various automation, lists of integrations, and more.  

3. Security Features Not As Robust As Competition

While Microsoft Planner does have some security features from Microsoft themselves, it’s much less secure than options like Monday.com and other project managers on the market. On top of that, extra security options are made optional instead of being the norm.

Monday.com VS Microsoft Planner: Detailed Comparison

Monday.com VS Microsoft Planner: Which Option Is For You?

Monday.com vs Microsoft Planner is quite simple at the end of the day. If you and your team are comfortable working entirely within the Microsoft ecosystem and don’t require much more than that, then Microsoft Planner will be right up your alley. It lacks some power tools and isn’t as feature packed as Monday.com, but it’s otherwise simple, usable, and quick.

Meanwhile, if you want to take your organization or business to the next level, then Monday.com is the way to go here. With a fantastic user experience, a bevy of powerful features, strong design, and the ability to micromanage teams and employees on an international scale, Monday.com is a no-brainer.

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