In the fast-evolving world of software development, efficient project management is critical. Whether you're running a startup with a small dev team or managing large-scale projects in a corporation, choosing the right project management tool can streamline workflows and boost team productivity. With the plethora of tools available today, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Among the most popular options are Microsoft Planner, integrated into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, and Plane, an open-source tool designed specifically with development teams in mind.

In this article, we'll compare these two tools — Microsoft Planner and Plane — in terms of their features, ease of use, collaboration capabilities and pricing. We'll take a close look at how each platform serves the needs of software development teams and, ultimately, which one is better suited for managing complex development workflows.

Overview

Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner is part of the Microsoft 365 suite and is deeply integrated with Microsoft Teams, To-Do, and Outlook. Its basic functionalities include task assignment, checklists, progress tracking, and status updates. Microsoft Planner is designed to serve a wide range of project management needs, not specifically targeted towards software projects, and works best when integrated within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

However, its integration with the broader Microsoft ecosystem can be both a blessing and a limitation. While the tool works well with other Microsoft products, it may feel restrictive for software development teams that need advanced project management features like detailed issue tracking, dependencies, or customizable workflows. Microsoft Project, a separate, premium tool, offers more advanced features such as Gantt charts and resource management, but this comes at an additional cost and its main target audience is not software development teams.

Plane

Plane is a modern, open-source project management tool specifically built with software development in mind. Unlike Microsoft Planner, Plane is highly customizable, offering flexible workflows, task boards, and the ability to manage complex issues and sprints. Its open-source nature allows for community-driven improvements and gives teams more control over their environment. Unlike MS Planner, Plane can’t lean on a huge ecosystem around it for additional features. However out of the box Plane comes with a huge feature set and awesome collaboration possibilities.

With powerful integrations for GitHub or Slack, Plane integrates seamlessly with common developer tools, making it a natural fit for tech teams. Additionally, its real-time collaboration tools and modern user interface help keep software development teams connected and productive. 

1. Feature Comparison

Plane specific features

Plane has some features which are missing in Microsoft Planner. Even with a Planner Plan 1 subscription not all features can be crafted from the possibility in Planner to create custom fields. Following is a list of unique Plane features which stand out and make Plane an awesome pick for a project management tool.

Special issue properties

Parent:

The Parent property allows you to designate a parent issue for the current issue you’re creating. This feature helps establish a clear hierarchy, enabling users to track and manage dependencies between larger, overarching tasks and their subtasks or related work items.

Blocking:

The Blocking property enables you to link the current issue to other issues that it is preventing from being completed. This helps teams easily identify blockers and manage task dependencies, ensuring smoother progress on projects.

Blocked by:

The Blocked by property connects the current issue to other issues that are preventing it from being completed. This allows teams to quickly see what tasks need to be resolved first to unblock progress, improving workflow efficiency.

Relates to:

The Relates to property links the current issue to other issues that are closely connected or associated. This helps to establish a relationship between similar or complementary tasks, improving context and collaboration across teams.

Duplicate of:

The Duplicate of property flags the current issue as a duplicate of another existing issue. This helps avoid redundancy and ensures that teams don’t waste time working on identical tasks, keeping project management streamlined.

Cycles

Cycles in Plane help teams organize their work into focused sprints or iterations, allowing for time-bound goals and task management. This feature enables teams to plan, track, and execute their work effectively over specific timeframes, promoting productivity and progress.

Modules

Modules allow teams to break down their projects into distinct areas or categories. They serve as containers for grouping related tasks, epics, and features, ensuring that work is organized and managed efficiently across different project sections.

Intake

Intake is a Plane-only feature that lets Guests create issues following which Admins and Members can move these issues inside a project. Intake can take bug reports, feature or service requests, or raise a ticket by stakeholders, customers, or clients. Issues created in Intake can then be accepted to move them to the Project’s workflow.

Pages

Pages in Plane help you record and organize information which is useful for your project just like docs. They can be used to record meeting notes or explain the technical or product requirements. Rather than having to create docs in other tools, with pages you can collaborate quickly in the context of a project.

Publish

Any project you build in Plane can be turned into a public page, creating a fully navigable website. This feature will make it easier for your users and customers to know what features you’re on or when bug fixes are rolling out. No sign-up’s required.

2. Design and User Experience (UI/UX)

Microsoft Planner UI is straightforward but is heavily inspired by the existing applications which are embedded into Microsoft Teams. While it works well for basic task management, it may not inspire creativity or provide an intuitive experience for complex project workflows.

Plane, in contrast, offers a more modern and visually appealing interface. It’s sleek and responsive, making it a pleasure to use for development teams. Features like drag-and-drop task management, customizable boards, and real-time updates enhance the user experience. This focus on user experience ensures that teams can manage their projects efficiently without struggling with clunky menus or complex navigation.

3. Pricing

Microsoft Planner is available as part of the Microsoft 365 subscription, which includes access to other Microsoft tools like Teams and Outlook. However, many advanced features required by development teams — such as advanced reporting, Gantt charts, or resource management — are only available in Planner Premium or Microsoft Project, both of which require additional subscriptions​.

Plane is free and open-source, making it highly affordable, especially for startups or small development teams. The open-source model ensures that Plane is scalable, with the flexibility to grow alongside your team without the burden of additional subscription costs. As your team and project complexity grow, you can customize Plane to fit your evolving needs, making it a more cost-effective solution in the long run​.

While Planner offers features like Sprints, Backlogs or Gantt Charts, they are locked behind a more expensive subscription for Planner. These features are available in all plans for Plane and also in the self-hosted version.

MS Planner is a subscription only service. It is possible to get a perpetual license for Microsoft Project which one user can then use. Plane also has several subscription tiers but also offers perpetual licensing for individual workspaces or even a self-hosted version which is completely free with many of the features.

Below are the pricing overviews for Microsoft Planner and Plane:

Microsoft Planner pricing

Plane pricing

The key takeaway is that Plane has a free plan which offers a lot of features and even when choosing the Pro plan will be cheaper than Microsoft Planner.

The higher subscription tiers of Microsoft Planner add many awesome features, which all come at a hefty price and may not be the most useful for software development teams.

Shared Features

• Task Management

Microsoft Planner provides basic task management features, including the ability to create tasks, assign them to team members, and track their progress using checklists and status updates. While these functionalities cover the basics of project management, they may feel limiting for development teams dealing with complex issues or sprint cycles. Advanced task tracking capabilities are available through Microsoft Project, but at a premium cost​.

Plane, on the other hand, is built with software development workflows in mind. It excels in managing more granular tasks, allowing users to create and track issues with rich text descriptions, attach files, and reference related issues. This level of detail helps development teams stay organized, especially when dealing with complex projects. Additionally, Plane’s Kanban, list, and calendar views provide multiple ways to visualize and manage tasks, offering more flexibility compared to Planner's more rigid structure.

• Views

Both Planner and Plane come with a range of different views which visualize issues and tasks in a different manner. Planner's “Grid” view is essentially a list of tasks for which Plane offers two different views: “List Layout” and “Spreadsheet Layout” with varying levels of detail and possibilities. Plane’s “Gantt Chart” is only available in MS Planner Plan 1 subscription in the “Timeline” tab. Both tools offer a “Kanban” and “Calendar” view while Plane displays way more useful information right in the card items in the individual Kanban buckets or Calendar entries.

• Customization & Flexibility

In terms of customization, Microsoft Planner is relatively limited. It offers a simple, uniform structure where tasks are organized into buckets, but there are few options for teams to customize workflows beyond this. For teams needing more advanced project tracking, integrations with Power Automate or Microsoft Project are necessary, further complicating the setup.

By contrast, Plane offers significant customization options, allowing teams to create tailored workflows that match their specific needs. You can organize tasks into Cycles (sprints), break down large projects into smaller Modules, and create Pages for documentation that sync with task boards. These features make Plane a more versatile tool, ideal for software development teams that operate in agile environments​.

• Categorization & Labels

Planner offers custom categorization of issues and tasks with labels. While it’s possible to create labels and custom fields in Planner to mimic the default issue properties of Plane, they are not as neatly integrated as in Plane. Plane comes out of the box with many useful issue/task properties which are integrated within other Plane features. Plane is also set up with many useful categories and labels which are a standard in software development, omitting the need for the user to create custom properties and labels from scratch.

• Collaboration & Teamwork

Microsoft Planner integrates tightly with Microsoft Teams, enabling team communication and collaboration. Through Teams, users can discuss tasks, share files, and track progress. However, the collaboration features within Planner itself are somewhat limited to commenting on tasks​. Even though collaboration is seamlessly integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem, it can become a hassle if you want to collaborate with people outside of your company's domain. Depending on the permission settings for Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, external people would need to first be registered with a guest account to the domain and then be able to join a specific team within MS Teams to be able to collaborate.

Plane, on the other hand, was built with collaboration at its core. Its real-time collaboration features ensure that teams can work together on issues and tasks without missing a beat. With GitHub Sync, developers can synchronize their Plane tasks with GitHub issues, streamlining collaboration between project management and code repositories​. Although not deeply integrated into another ecosystem, it is fairly easy to invite users into a workspace for collaboration.

• Integrations

Microsoft Planner integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft ecosystem — Teams, Outlook, To-Do, and more. While this is advantageous for teams already embedded in Microsoft 365, it can feel limiting for development teams using non-Microsoft tools like GitHub or Slack.

Plane offers integrations with modern developer tools such as GitHub, making it a natural fit for development teams. This flexibility allows for smoother workflows and ensures that issues are updated and managed in real-time, directly from the codebase​.

In summary- Why choose Plane over Planner?

Plane was built from the ground up with software development teams in mind. It has countless useful features that are essential in any modern software development workflow.

For modern software development teams, Plane stands out as the better choice for several reasons:

1. Flexibility & Customization: Plane allows teams to create fully customized workflows that can adapt to their specific needs, making it ideal for agile environments.

2. Collaboration: With real-time collaboration features and integrations with tools like GitHub, Plane ensures that teams stay connected and on track throughout the development process.

3. Open source & Cost Efficiency: As an open-source tool, Plane is not only free to use but also highly adaptable. This makes it an ideal choice for startups, small teams, or any team looking for a scalable solution without the high costs associated with premium Microsoft subscriptions

Plane being built from the ground up with software development teams in mind, is a perfect choice for project management that comes with many awesome features which are essential for any project and possibly even completely missing in other tools like Planner.