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Disambiguation: similar names, different categories

Onplana vs Plane.so

Both "AI-native". Different audiences. The name similarity is unfortunate; the products solve different problems.

Plane.so and Onplana sound similar but solve different problems. Plane is excellent AI-native issue tracking for software dev teams — think Linear with self-host. Onplana is AI-native PMO and portfolio management — a Microsoft Project Online alternative for organisations running formal program governance, schedules with critical path, and .mpp imports. If you're a 12-person engineering team shipping a SaaS product, Plane fits. If you're a PMO running a 30-project portfolio with stage gates, Onplana fits. Most readers landing here from "AI-native project management" searches were looking for one of these — picking the wrong one is the actual risk.

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The audience map

Pick the tool whose audience matches yours. Both are well-built; the wrong category is the actual cost.

Plane.so — software dev issue tracking

Built around the rhythm of software development teams: cycles, modules, sprint backlog, GitHub/GitLab sync, fast issue triage. Open-source friendly with a self-host option. Best when your team is shipping a SaaS product or platform.

Closer to Linear / GitHub Projects in category than to Microsoft Project.

Onplana — PMO + portfolio management

Built around the rhythm of program/portfolio management offices: native .mpp import, critical path on Gantt, saved baselines, four dependency types, formal stage-gate governance, organisation-wide resource pool. Best when your org runs formal program management.

A Microsoft Project Online alternative — replacing what's retiring Sept 30, 2026.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Where Plane is strong by design, we mark it. Where Onplana wins for PMO use cases, we mark that.

Capability
Plane.so
Dev-issue tracking
Onplana
PMO + portfolio
Primary audience
Software dev teams (issue tracking)
PMOs / portfolios (project + program management)
Native .mpp / MSPDI import
Not supported
Direct .mpp + MSPDI XML + OData feed
Stage-gate governance
Not in scope (issue-tracker model)
12-stage pipeline + multi-reviewer gates + audit
Resource pool / capacity
Limited (cycles + workspace assignment)
Org-wide pool + heatmap + 4-week forecast
Custom-field schema
Strong, dev-shape custom fields
6 typed kinds (text/number/date/picklist/multi/formula)
Critical path on Gantt
Not in scope
✓ Auto-computed + highlighted
Saved baselines
Not in scope
✓ Multiple baselines, Gantt overlay
AI architecture
✓ AI features in plan
Dual-provider (Claude + Azure OpenAI)
Dev-issue tracking primitives
✓ Cycles, modules, GitLab/GitHub sync
Issue tracking via tasks (general-purpose)
Self-host option
✓ Open-source self-host
✓ ENTERPRISE_PLUS self-host
Free tier
✓ Free for unlimited members
✓ Free plan with full Gantt + critical path
"Audience" rows mark category fit, not winner. Tie rows indicate rough parity within shared scope.

Validate the audience-fit question with your own data

PMO Maturity

Diagnostic: governance-heavy or governance-light tooling? PMOs vs dev teams answer differently.

Open

Migration Preview

Have a .mpp? Upload it; if Plane is your audience, you wouldn't need this anyway.

Open

AI capabilities

See exactly what Onplana's AI does — plan generation, risk detection, intake conversion.

Open

Frequently asked questions

Aren't Plane.so and Onplana basically the same thing?▾
No — different category. Plane.so is AI-native software dev issue tracking (cycles, modules, sprint backlog, GitHub/GitLab sync, OSS-friendly self-host). Onplana is AI-native PMO and portfolio management (.mpp import, critical path, baselines, 12-stage governance, resource pool). Both honestly use "AI-native" because both bake AI into core workflows — but the workflows are aimed at completely different teams. The name similarity is unfortunate; the products are not.
If I'm a software dev team, which one should I pick?▾
Plane, almost certainly. Plane was designed around dev-team primitives (cycles, modules, issue triage, GitHub integration, OSS self-host) that Onplana doesn't ship. Onplana works for dev teams as a general-purpose PM tool — Kanban + Gantt + sprints — but Plane will fit the daily dev-team rhythm better.
If I'm a PMO running formal program management, which one?▾
Onplana. PMO criteria — native .mpp import (Project Online migration), critical path, baselines, multi-stage governance, resource pool with capacity heatmap, 50,000-task scale — are out of scope for Plane's issue-tracker model. Plane is excellent at what it does; PMO scheduling depth isn't what it does.
Both call themselves "AI-native". What's the practical difference?▾
Plane's AI is integrated into the dev-issue workflow — auto-summarising tickets, suggesting labels, drafting descriptions. Onplana's AI is integrated into the PMO workflow — generating project plans from one-line descriptions, detecting schedule risks, summarising portfolio status, parsing intake forms into projects. Same architectural choice, different application surface.
Will name confusion hurt either tool?▾
It already creates some friction in search results — both rank for "AI-native project management" in different positions, and both have been mistakenly cited in listicle articles. Plane was first to market with the "AI-native" phrase; Onplana adopted it because it's the most accurate description of the architecture. We're not going to drop the phrase, but we acknowledge the overlap in positioning and try to be specific about audience here.

PMO audience? Onplana fits.

If you're choosing between the two for project/portfolio work — not dev-issue tracking — try Onplana free.

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