Onplana vs Microsoft Project
Keep Microsoft Project desktop for the schedule. Give the team Onplana, with no Project licence each. The plan goes back to Project with its baselines and its summary row.
Microsoft Project is the right tool for the person who builds the schedule. Onplana is for the people who work on it: they update their tasks, log time and talk in one place, and the scheduler takes the plan back into Project when it is time.
Who this is for
The project manager who keeps Project desktop
Your schedule lives in a .mpp and your sponsors expect Project's Gantt and baselines. You keep both. Onplana takes the file, shows the team their part, and hands it back as Project XML.
The team with no Project licence
Engineers, designers and subcontractors who need to see their tasks and say where they are, without a desktop app on Windows or a per-user Microsoft licence. They work in the browser, in Teams or on their phone.
The round trip, row by row
What comes into Onplana from the file, what the team does there, and what goes back out to Microsoft Project. Each row is something the product does today, or says when it does not.
| Step | What | How it works | Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| In | Open the .mpp or Project XML Yes | Upload a .mpp (Project 2007 to 2024), a Project XML file, .mpx or a Primavera P6 .xer, up to 50 MB, on every plan, including Free. | Yes |
| In | Dependencies Yes | All four link types (FS, SS, FF, SF) with their lag. | Yes |
| In | Constraints Yes | The eight Project constraint types with their dates: as soon or as late as possible, must start or finish on, start or finish no earlier or no later than. | Yes |
| In | Resources Yes | Matched to your members by email. A resource with no match is named in a warning, never created as a user. | Yes |
| In | Costs Yes | Each task's cost, fixed cost and baseline cost. The top-level total becomes the project budget. | Yes |
| In | Baseline Yes | Into a new project, the file's baseline becomes a project baseline: the Baseline tab, the overlay on the Gantt and the variance read it. | Yes |
| In | Custom fields Yes | Project's custom fields become Onplana custom fields with their values. | Yes |
| In | Working calendars No | Not carried. The project uses your organization's working calendar. | No |
| Team | The team updates status in Onplana Yes | Status, progress, comments and @mentions on the task, with no Project licence. Free covers 5 members and 2 projects; timesheets with approval are on the Professional plan and up. | Yes |
| Out | Export Project XML Yes | A Project XML file Microsoft Project opens, on every plan. Each task keeps its duration as the schedule has it, and its effort as the assignment's work. | Yes |
| Out | Baselines per task Yes | Each task's baseline start, finish, duration and work from the project's latest baseline, with its baseline cost. | Yes |
| Out | The project summary row Yes | Written with its baseline cost, so Project shows Baseline Cost and Cost Variance on the project row. | Yes |
| Out | Retained logic and manual summaries Yes | Where the project uses them, the file carries the retained-logic setting and each summary task's manual mode. | Yes |
| Out | Actual work from timesheets Coming | Approved timesheet hours written as each assignment's actual work, day by day, so Project reconciles them. Built, in review. | Coming |
Every format the import reads and the step-by-step import guide. Baselines and variance are on every plan, including Free.
What Microsoft Project does that Onplana does not
If the schedule needs any of these, keep building it in Project. That is the point of the round trip.
Schedules in hours and minutes
Project schedules to the minute. In Onplana, the free Onplana Schedule app plans to the minute (type 2h or 90m); the web app schedules in whole working days.
Calendars per task and per resource
Project keeps a calendar for each resource and task. Onplana imports none of them and schedules on the organization's working calendar.
Eleven baselines
Project stores up to eleven baselines on every task. Onplana captures project baselines, and its export writes the latest one as Project's Baseline 0.
Levelling in place
Project levels resources inside the plan with its own priority and split rules. Onplana's levelling analyses one schedule and proposes moves that you apply.
Macros, add-ins and its own reports
VBA macros, COM add-ins and Project's built-in visual reports have no equivalent in Onplana. Onplana has an API, webhooks and an MCP server instead.
No Project licence at all? Onplana Schedule is the free offline editor
Onplana Schedule opens .mpp, Project XML and P6 files, shows the grid beside a Gantt with the critical path, reschedules as you edit, works offline and saves Project XML that Microsoft Project opens. Free, for Windows, Mac and Android (Google Play).
Get Onplana SchedulePrice, and what comes with it
List prices in US dollars. Microsoft's are read from its own pricing pages; yours may differ under a Microsoft agreement.
Microsoft Project
- Planner and Project Plan 3: $30.00 per user a month, paid yearly. Includes the Project desktop app.
- Planner Plan 1: $10.00 per user a month, paid yearly. Web and Teams only, no desktop app.
- Project Standard 2024: $679.99, one-time purchase.
- Project Professional 2024: $1,129.99, one-time purchase.
Read on on Microsoft's Planner and Project plans page and Project desktop page.
Onplana
- Free: 5 members and 2 projects, with .mpp import, Project XML export, the Gantt with critical path and baselines.
- Professional: $12/seat/mo, with timesheets and approval.
- Every self-serve plan: Free, $12, $20 and $29 per seat a month.
From the pricing page.
A team of 10, for a year
- Everyone on Planner and Project Plan 3: $3,600.
- The scheduler on Plan 3, all 10 on Onplana Professional: $1,800.
- A team of up to 5: the scheduler on Plan 3, everyone on Onplana Free: $360.
At list price, Onplana at its monthly price; paying yearly costs less.
Included with every Onplana plan, each in a store today
Onplana Schedule
Windows, Mac and Android (Google Play)
Opens, edits and reschedules Microsoft Project files offline, and saves Project XML.
Onplana Tasks
Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, Android, Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari
The work assigned to you, on your phone, desktop and browser toolbar.
Microsoft Teams app and Copilot agent
Microsoft AppSource
Projects in Teams tabs with single sign-on, on every plan, including Free.
Onplana Tasks on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets; Onplana Schedule from the Microsoft Store, the Mac App Store and Google Play. All free.
Comments, @mentions and sharing with people outside the team are in team collaboration.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep Microsoft Project desktop and still use Onplana?
Does my team need a Microsoft Project licence to update their tasks?
How much does Microsoft Project cost?
Do timesheet hours go back into Microsoft Project?
Is there a free way to open a .mpp file without Microsoft Project?
Thinking of leaving Project altogether? Read Onplana as a Microsoft Project alternative.
Bring your .mpp, keep your Project
Free plan, no credit card. Import a schedule, invite the team, and export it back to Microsoft Project the same day.