Microsoft Project Licensing 2026: Which SKU should you be on?

Project Plan 5 is the top SKU in Microsoft's Project Online product family (formerly Project Online Premium, renamed in 2020). It bundles Project Online cloud access, the Project Professional desktop client, Project Server, and enterprise PMO features like the resource pool, formal governance, costed timesheets, and Power BI reporting. Microsoft has confirmed that Project Online, the platform Plan 5 depends on, retires September 30, 2026. After that date, Plan 5 customers must migrate to Planner Premium (Microsoft's designated successor) or to a third-party PM platform. Microsoft has not yet published a clean Plan-5-to-Planner-Premium feature-mapping document, which is the primary reason enterprise PMOs evaluate third-party alternatives during the 2026 migration window.

Project Online is the SharePoint-backed enterprise project management platform Microsoft has shipped since 2013. Planner Premium is the Dataverse-backed cloud PM tool Microsoft is consolidating as the post-Project-Online destination (rebranded from Project for the Web during 2024-2025). The two have different data models, different feature surfaces, and different audiences. Project Online targets PMOs running portfolio management, formal governance, and resource pools at scale; Planner Premium targets teams running task management with PMO branding. The migration from Project Online to Planner Premium is not in-place, every customer picks a target and migrates data manually or via a third-party tool.

Not at the feature level, as of the current Microsoft messaging. Microsoft Planner Premium does not currently ship the enterprise resource pool, formal multi-stage governance with quorum approvals, or costed timesheets at the depth Plan 5 had. Microsoft has said feature parity is on the roadmap but has not committed to dates. Enterprise PMOs that depended on those Plan-5-specific primitives typically need to evaluate third-party platforms for the 2026 migration rather than wait. The /ms-project-alternative page covers the gap analysis in detail.

Project Server 2019 extended support ends July 14, 2026 (per Microsoft Learn). Two paths from there: upgrade to Project Server Subscription Edition + SharePoint Server SE (Microsoft's supported on-prem continuation, subscription-licensed, closest like-for-like continuation), or migrate off Microsoft's PM line to a self-hosted third-party platform. The full sovereignty-aware comparison is at /project-server-2019-end-of-life. Onplana ships a self-hosted Enterprise+ option for sovereignty-bound PMOs that want to leave Microsoft's on-prem stack.

The Long-Term Servicing Channel build of Project Professional, released in 2024. Perpetual license, locked-feature, security-only updates for the support window. No cloud sync, no Power Platform integration, no auto-updates. Microsoft's recommended path for air-gapped and sovereignty-bound workstation deployments. Suitable when you need desktop Gantt + critical path + .mpp file format for an individual project manager in a regulated environment. Not a replacement for Project Online or Project Server, which require multi-user platforms.

Yes. The desktop Project clients (Standard and Professional) are licensed separately from Project Online and continue past the cloud retirement. The Project file format (.mpp) is the industry standard for project schedules and will keep working. What changes after September 30, 2026 is that desktop Project clients lose their cloud counterpart, the team collaboration, PWA sync, and Project Server integration paths require either an on-prem Project Server Subscription Edition deployment, a Planner Premium subscription, or a third-party PM platform that imports the .mpp file format. Onplana imports .mpp + MSPDI XML natively and preserves the full dependency graph, baselines, and resource assignments.

The standalone Microsoft Planner (the lightweight task-board product included in Microsoft 365 since 2016) has been merged with Planner Premium under a single "Microsoft Planner" umbrella during 2024-2025. The unified Planner has a free tier (the classic task surface) and a Premium tier (the former Project for the Web + portfolio features). Most classic Planner users see no functional disruption; teams using classic Planner via the Microsoft Graph API or with Power Automate flows on the classic surface may need to update those integrations to the unified shape.

Microsoft renamed the cloud SKUs in 2020. The mapping: Project Online Essentials → Project Plan 1, Project Online Professional → Project Plan 3, Project Online Premium → Project Plan 5. Old contracts and renewal paperwork frequently still use the pre-2020 names. The underlying entitlements are the same, just relabeled. The retirement and migration story is identical for both naming conventions, they all depend on Project Online infrastructure that retires September 30, 2026.

Microsoft has signaled that new Plan 5 sales are being phased out in favor of Planner Premium during the 2025-2026 window, but the exact end-of-sale date for new licenses (vs. the September 30, 2026 platform retirement) has continued to shift in Microsoft's public communications. Confirm with a Microsoft licensing partner before assuming a specific date. The platform retirement date, September 30, 2026, is the firm one for existing customers; the new-sales date is the moving one.

Onplana is positioned for the cohort that needs PMO-grade depth (enterprise resource pool, formal governance, costed timesheets, AI risk detection, native .mpp import, multi-project portfolio rollup) but doesn't find that depth in Planner Premium today. The honest read is: if your Microsoft Project usage is Plan 1 or light Plan 3, Planner Premium is the right answer and Onplana is overkill. If your usage is heavy Plan 3 or Plan 5 and you can't wait on Microsoft's roadmap for feature parity, Onplana is built for that gap. Free plan covers the Gantt + dependencies + basic PM; paid plans (PRO+) add the enterprise primitives that Plan 5 carried. See /ms-project-alternative for the full positioning.