timeghost Project Board vs. Microsoft Planner

An alternative makes sense when Planner falls short in a specific area: when you need a timeline or dependencies without a premium license, when you want to track time on the task, when individual tasks should not be visible to every member, when sub-projects should stay inside one project, or when you want to run the app in your own infrastructure. Like Planner, the timeghost Project Board runs directly in Microsoft Teams. Timeline, Flow and project storage are in the Free plan, time tracking, reports and tabs from Basic, and hidden tasks in the Premium plan. If every member may see every task and simple lists are enough, Planner is often sufficient.

Timeline and Flow are in the Project Board Free plan. In Planner, the timeline (Gantt) is a premium feature from Planner Plan 1, and there is no view like Flow. Dependent tasks are included in the Project Board from Basic. In Planner, dependencies belong to premium plans, and according to the Microsoft pricing page the baseline and critical path belong to Planner and Project Plan 3 or Plan 5. From Basic, the Project Board tracks time right on the task, with a timer or afterwards. Planner has no timer on the task. Reports as PDF or Word are included from Basic, scheduled delivery by email in Premium. Planner exports to Excel, and automatic status reports run through Planner Agent and require Microsoft 365 Copilot. Home with My work, My projects, Portfolio and My times depends on your role, not on an extra license. In Planner you view portfolios across premium plans from Plan 1 and create them with Plan 3.

With the import wizard in the timeghost Project Board. You start it in a project via Settings and Import cards, choose Microsoft Planner as the source and then select the plan. Next you map columns as well as people, statuses, priorities and labels, and decide how existing tasks are handled. Every import is saved as a batch and can be deleted in one step. The help article Import, archive and trash describes the steps in detail.

Basic plans are included in many Microsoft 365 subscriptions at no extra cost, according to Microsoft for example in Business Basic, Business Standard and Office 365 E1, E3 and E5. Premium plans with timeline (Gantt), dependencies, sprints and goals require a paid license: Planner Plan 1 or Planner and Project Plan 3/5.

According to Microsoft, basic plans offer Grid, Board, Charts and Schedule views, filtering and grouping, comments and Excel export. Premium plans add timeline (Gantt), People view, dependencies, milestones, custom fields, sprints, goals and task history, among others. Schedule view and Outlook calendar display are available in basic plans only. According to the Microsoft pricing page, baseline, critical path and creating portfolios are part of Planner and Project Plan 3 or Plan 5.

According to Microsoft, timeline, dependencies, subtasks and task history require a premium license in Planner. In the Project Board, timeline and Flow are in the Free plan, subtasks are part of task management, and time tracking, reports as PDF or Word and activity logs are in the Basic plan at €2.80 per user per month, excl. VAT. Project templates are included in the Free plan: 3 templates, 10 in Basic, unlimited in Premium.

No. According to Microsoft, access applies per plan through the Microsoft 365 group: every member can see and edit every task. In the Project Board, the Premium plan controls this with hidden tasks, roles and edit rights per task.

In the Project Board, each tab from the Basic plan holds its own sub-board, so the project stays together. In Planner you create sub-projects as separate plans and organize a plan with buckets.

Yes. For companies with their own IT infrastructure, the Project Board is available as an on-premise solution. Requirements and terms are on the on-premise page. Microsoft Planner is part of Microsoft 365 and is provided as a cloud service only.

Yes. Both are independent apps in Microsoft Teams. You can try the Project Board for free with the Free plan alongside Planner, including timeline, Flow and Home.