We performed a comparison between Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Project Management Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Technical support has been very helpful."
"I have found that the chart reporting feature is very helpful for us currently."
"The tool has a simple and excellent approach."
"Being able to get a milestone schedule or a breakdown out of it is valuable. It can integrate into Visio, which is helpful."
"The project tracking, resource utilization and the cost are the most beneficial aspects of this solution."
"It comes with our Office 365."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Project is the reminder feature. This feature allows for the system to send notifications or reminders to individuals who have a task to complete once someone has finished their task. This has been especially useful in situations where multiple people are involved in a task. For example, if I have completed my task and the next person is just beginning, the system will send them a reminder to notify them of my completion. This feature has proven to be very beneficial and convenient for me in my tasks."
"They now have MS project Online and they have two levels, so it's easier to access what you need and to choose specifically what you'll use. You can start at a lower level, for example, and be more cost-effective and move up if it suits you."
"The solution has easy integration with Excel."
"The solution, overall, is excellent for project planning."
"The most valuable features are the gantt charts. It's easy to use for me."
"I like being able to manage the capacity in terms of the resources. I also like being able to share documents and information between teams. It's the best solution for collaboration."
"A single place for all our organisation's project records."
"The most valuable feature of the Microsoft Project Server is the level of detail with which I can break down a task and check the dependencies."
"It is well-established, reliable, and compatible."
"The scheduling feature is the most useful."
"When moving resources between projects, it could be a bit more clear."
"We'd like to have more resource allocation and monitoring features."
"The Gantt set needs to be improved. The grid lines needs to be more interactive."
"The scalability is co-dependent on the stability of the product. We have 4000 users, and at times the product is slow."
"I have no idea about the cost because it is a corporate decision."
"We need more integration with Microsoft Teams and other collaboration tools."
"It needs to be more comprehensive."
"There are some things about it that I've always hated, and they haven't really changed them. It makes a lot of assumptions. It is also difficult to put business rules in it. You have to de-link it from the consecutive task if you don't want to do a What-If analysis, and sometimes, if you forget to do that, it changes everything. It is a pain in the neck to undo it. I would also like to see better integration with graphics. The graphics are primitive, and they need some major work. I would like to have the ability to do some small macros within the project for fuzzy logic. For example, if you're not sure how long a task takes, you can get the earliest guess. It is very time and manpower intensive to keep it up to date. You need to constantly update it. You will find that you are spending more time working on the Microsoft Project file rather than working on your project. I don't want to devote a person to just do that. That's silly. You can link it to some more modern applications so that it is dynamic when a real-time resource schedule changes, but it is not at all dynamic. It is only as dynamic as the person using it. It would be nice if we could plug it in real time for each project, subproject, or task. If something is going on, I want to see it in real time. Sometimes we have international clients, and they don't use the same calendar. They have a Thursday and Friday weekend, and we have a Saturday and Sunday weekend. I can change it in Microsoft Project, but I would like to be able to do it globally. There may be a way to do it, but I just haven't figured it out yet. I would like to be able to specify globally what weekend we want or what we want to call a weekend. We might have a project that works seven days a week. Some tasks are automated outside, like manufacturing processes. Embedding external processes is almost impossible because, in a practical sense, we don't have people who can do a lot of programming here, and also the interface of Microsoft Project is not the easiest because a lot of it is proprietary. It would be nice if we can link different tasks to external sources of inputs and outputs so that we could integrate them with a master project plan and see in real time what's going on. For example, you are manufacturing a batch of a chemical, and I have to rely on if a customer is making some type of complex chemical. Their system does not interfere with ours. We have to get the outputs from their system and enter them manually into the project to see the effect. That takes time. If you're talking about hours, you going to spend three to four hours, but there is the risk of getting it wrong or making a mistake. On tight projects, every minute counts. I would like to see some control system interfaces with Microsoft Project. A modern machine shop has a lot of computer numerical control (CNC) computers. In fact, virtually all machining is done with a CNC machine. Even 3D additive manufacturing is made with CNC. That data can go to a computer, and that computer can spit it out to a project so that you can see in real time whether you are going to finish a day ahead. If you had to finish a day ahead, you could talk to the systems' software, which can say that if I have this machine working for another hour and this one for one hour or less, I would be able to meet the schedule. It can then make those changes, but it can't do that. Everything needs to be done manually, which takes more time, and there's a risk of mistakes. It requires smarter automation and more machine learning. There is no machine learning capability in Microsoft Project. It just doesn't exist. That's why I say it is only suitable for small-sized to medium-sized companies and small projects. Most people don't have the problems that I have. I don't have them all the time, but when I have them, they're big. When you're bidding on a project that has to get done, you find yourself spending most of the time working on Microsoft Project, whereas you should be spending these hours managing the project. Thinking on a bigger scale, I would like better integration with Office, Visio, and Access. If you make a change in one, it should cascade to others and vice versa. It doesn't do that. It is not a dynamic program. I would like to see a dynamic program or at least the capability of being dynamic, that is, even if it is close to real time where it outputs to a module, and the module then talks to real-time things. The real-time data goes back into the module, and the module updates the project plan. Such dynamic capability would be nice. It may not be real time, but it is at least close. I would like to be able to link directly to the data in an Excel spreadsheet so that I don't have to keep going back and forth updating it. I don't want to have to create a dynamic link library. Whenever I change the data in Excel, it should update in Visio or PowerPoint. If I'm doing a pie chart or any kind of graphic, I don't want to constantly update my graphics. I want to link them together, and I want them updated automatically. I know it is a wishful thing. They don't make major changes every time they come out with a new version. They don't fix the issue. They just add a few features."
"We sometimes need support from the IT department for installing and deploying the Microsoft Project Server. It is not user-friendly, and users cannot install it themselves."
"The solution's synchronization with Jira Projects should be improved."
"The initial setup was complex."
"We want to expand to the local level where we lack strong IT expertise, we are considering making it more user-friendly."
"In terms of tech support, it took a long time for them to resolve a ticket."
"The user interface looks quite old and needs to be improved."
"Microsoft is going to integrate the Co-Pilot features into Microsoft Project. The AI feature is an additional feature. It can look at the plan and identify risks early on from any part of your project."
"The product's UI is not very user-friendly."
Microsoft Project is ranked 2nd in Project Management Software with 77 reviews while Microsoft Project Server is ranked 5th in Project Portfolio Management with 56 reviews. Microsoft Project is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Project Server is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Microsoft Project writes "A stable solution that very accurately runs projects". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Project Server writes "Provides holistic reporting and allows us to keep track of what's going on with projects". Microsoft Project is most compared with Asana, Jira, Smartsheet, Broadcom Clarity and monday.com, whereas Microsoft Project Server is most compared with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management, Planisware, Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management, JIRA Portfolio and Broadcom Clarity . See our Microsoft Project vs. Microsoft Project Server report.
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