Planview Portfolios vs iServer comparison

Orbus Software and Planview are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Orbus Software is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Planview is ranked #11 with an average rating of 9.0. Orbus Software holds a 4.3% mindshare in AM, compared to Planview’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Orbus Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Planview users who would recommend it.

iServer

Read 18 iServer reviews

2,253 Views
1,577 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Planview Portfolios

Read 63 Planview Portfolios reviews

2,633 Views
658 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

iServer

Planview Portfolios

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Planview Portfolios and iServer are competitive players in the project management and enterprise architecture categories. While Planview shines in areas of resource management and reporting, iServer gains an edge with its strong data integration capabilities and user adaptability, especially with Microsoft products.

Features: Planview Portfolios integrates strategy with execution, offering a comprehensive view of demand and resources, customizable architecture, and robust resource planning capabilities. iServer stands out with strong integration capabilities, especially with Microsoft Office, customizable architecture modeling, and intuitive UI that aligns with Microsoft applications.

Room for Improvement: Planview Portfolios could improve its agile integration and reduce the steep learning curve. Enhancements in intuitive interface design and customizability are desired. iServer could improve its visualization techniques, performance speed, and integrate more options while enhancing UI usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Planview Portfolios provides flexible deployment options across cloud solutions but garner mixed customer service reviews, where technical support consistency is a concern. iServer mainly offers on-premises solutions indicating stability and control with favorable customer service reviews, praised for quick responsiveness and expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Planview Portfolios is seen as costly but provides flexible licensing options like FLEX, offering value in strategic alignment and resource management. iServer, moderately priced, is perceived as offering a substantial ROI with competitive pricing, improving process efficiency and integration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Planview Portfolios vs. iServer Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios vs. iServer

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iServer

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

8th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (16th)

Planview Portfolios

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of iServer is 4.3%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 2.3%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
iServer	4.3%
Planview Portfolios	2.3%
Other	93.4%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Antonios Lazanakis

Senior IT Solution Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Flexible, easy to use, and easy to import data

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization iServer is a very flexible platform for defining your own enterprise architecture model. It is very easy to import data, and we also have good integration with Visual Drawing Tools and SharePoint. The solution is…

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it_user1684173

PM Systems Analyst at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Increases our on-time completion rate and helps in managing the demand and capacity, and we get excellent service in terms of feature requests and support

We've been encouraging our users to manage their schedules directly in the Work and Assignments module. So far, it has been good, but we've been in conversation with the vendor product team to improve the performance of the Work and Assignments module. Right now, it is a bit slower. We don't use the Progression feature. We will use it at some point in time. Until then, we want to have a way to set time to help decide what's in the past, present, and future. It is one of the things we've been discussing with Planview. It provides flexibility for configuring assignments, but one of the things about which we've been talking to Planview is related to certain resources that are associated with a project. When the project extends, their demand also equally goes up. There are also resources where if a particular task has to crash, it may need additional effort. So, it is between the fixed effort versus fixed duration. Planview is more duration-based. For example, if you crash a task, the system rightly thinks that you're crashing the task, and you need to finish the work by doing overtime or working additional hours. If you are taking 30 hours to finish a task in three weeks, and for whatever reason, you have to crash the task into two weeks, 30 hours need to be fulfilled within those two weeks. If the task moves to four weeks, instead of three weeks, you still have 30 hours that get distributed among four weeks, so you will be able to finish the task. That makes sense for those resources that are associated with the task, but there are certain resources, such as a project manager or project administrator, for whom when a project extends, the demand also equally goes up. So, if somebody is assigned 50% for a project, and assuming that the project is moving out by a month or two or three months, the effort shouldn't go down. Currently, the allocation goes down, and our resource managers have to go and update the effort back up to 50% or whatever the demand is. We are interacting with Planview to provide a solution. Right now, we have to go and update the additional demand because of the change in the project.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I have to think less with this solution. It's simple."

"We like the governance."

"The most valuable feature is its reporting capability. It offers various packages for different types of reports, such as business and project management reporting packs."

"Integrating the Microsoft documents to the product and visualization matrix where we can see the end-to-end relationship of the network is of great importance to our company."

"iServer is a solution that helps catalog enterprise architect solutions and catalog information."

"iServer has valuable features for workflow and document management."

"The solution has wide use within Microsoft products. The integration with Microsoft products, and, in particular, Microsoft Office, is great."

"This flexibility is the most helpful part in the standard version."

More iServer pros

"We use expenditures quite a bit. We put in forecast expenditures and then we actualize them below the line in the little box in the bottom tray. Being able to track the project with relevant milestones is also valuable. Milestones are valuable because it helps us to keep the project on track. The expenditures are valuable because we need to be able to understand expenses that are beyond the regular resources in the projects."

"I like that the data that we store is available for everybody. We're not trying to hide anything. Being an administrator, I know a lot about the tool. It is very easy to show somebody how to use the tool and get used to it. Hopefully that user doesn't come back and ask the same question twice is really what it is about. It's a very intuitive product as well. For what we use the tool for today, it's easy to learn and pick up."

"We can view a project both at the top level and dig into the particularities. It's given us greater visibility into the work itself."

"We can easily see which functions are overcapacity. Before, we did not have visibility into that."

"The integration stuff from tool to tool, like Projectplace to Planview, to manage projects is the most valuable feature. It keeps all our tasks up-to-date. It closely follows up with everything, which is really cool."

"Our reporting is much better. There is much more visibility on projects, schedules, tasks, and in our milestones. Now, we have a consistent way of reporting out to the committees and getting all of our schedules and milestones."

"In my opinion, the financial planning feature is the most valuable feature of Planview Enterprise One."

"The resource management and assignment features are valuable. The timesheet management is also valuable because that is a requirement for us. So, the ability to see timesheet forecasting and timesheet actual submission from resources has been very useful and valuable to us."

More Planview Portfolios pros

Cons

"There could be features for process mining, process simulation, and analytics."

"There are other solutions out there that have a better user interface."

"It runs relatively slowly."

"The product is more expensive than Spark."

"Enhancing integration options with ERP or ITSM-related solutions for triggering automated requests for process definitions, changes, and tracking them in the iServer."

"iServer should invest in enhancing the capabilities of the embedded drawing tool, draw.io."

"The migration tool needs to be included in the main package, and not as a separate license."

"Requirements management needs to be improved."

More iServer cons

"The solution out-of-the-box that we established was insufficient. We had to purchase and set up OData. I don't believe that it's a great solution out-of-the-box but eventually you can get there."

"I think that the user interface needs some getting used to. It's not immediately intuitive. That's potentially room for improvement. I think also that an organization needs to have good support from some senior management to get something like Planview established."

"We've been using it for a while, so it's about maturity. It's about being able to build out things in Agile groups and teams and some of that. Then really trying to drive into the direction of Lean Portfolio Management and more Agile program management, I think is where we're heading."

"The solution is stable. However, it's so robust, there's so much data, that it has the tendency to lag."

"When it comes to reporting there are some challenges with integration."

"The content management definitely needs to improve. We don't really use content management for projects inside Enterprise One. We have actually switched to a SharePoint site. We have a feed from Enterprise One every night of all the projects that are created."

"I would like a bit more flexibility, as far as the configuration, and have additional capabilities to configure, making it more flexible for our use."

"The solution needs to be better at accepting new ideas for upcoming releases."

More Planview Portfolios cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's about 13K to set up and 9K for the license for three months. I think it's about 20K a year, but we haven't firmed up on pricing yet because the price depends on how long we commit to the solution."

"They offer annual subscriptions for developing countries, which are not affordable for small or medium businesses."

"The price of iServer is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"The product has a moderate pricing."

"The solution is cheaper than its competitors."

"Aim for the exact number of people who shall define/review approve and view the processes, as it will impact the cost."

"We overbought our licenses. We looked at our needs three to four years down the road and tried based our contract on that. However, we were over aggressive. We use about a third of the licenses that we have. We're looking to adjust the makeup so we can start utilizing the amount of money that we are spending. Right now, we're overspending, and my organization is not seeing the value in Planview because we are paying so much for licenses that we're not using."

"Our licensing costs are about a quarter of a million dollars per year."

"Planview is a little pricey. From a licensing perspective, for just a simple timesheet user who does nothing in the system but reports time, the licensing is a little pricey, but you have to look at it from what it is that you get. We have 6,000 users, and I don't manage the system at all. I just have to do add them to the system. The servers, maintenance, OS levels, security patching for the OS, and all other things are not something that we maintain. So, you have to look at it from an operational perspective. It is not just the product itself. A holistic view has to be taken when you look at the product and how you're going to support it. I would have to hire an entire operation staff to bring it in-house, and at the end of the day, that might cost me more."

"In the time that I've used it, we've doubled up the amount of dollars on our intended projects."

"The cost of other pieces and integrating them in needs improvement."

"I don't think we have necessarily purchased everything that I would have liked to have seen."

"I think all in we are at $33,000 a year and that includes Projectplace and Planview. We used to have the integration to JIRA, but we don't pay for that anymore."

"We are on the Flex licenses."

More Planview Portfolios pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	59

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with iServer?

iServer should invest in enhancing the capabilities of the embedded drawing tool, draw.io. draw.io is a drawing tool used to draw architectural diagrams, flow diagrams, etc. It is an alternative to...

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What is your primary use case for iServer?

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering iServer?

I would recommend the solution to other users. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

See all answers

What do you like most about Planview Portfolios?

Planview Management integrates seamlessly with other tools and systems used within the organization, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, customer relationship management (CRM) syst...

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What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?

Enhancements are needed in: Advanced reporting and analytics: While Planview Management provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities, further enhancements could include more advanced data v...

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What is your primary use case for Planview Portfolios?

We use Planview Management to assess the current project portfolio, evaluate resource availability, and prioritize projects based on strategic objectives, ROI, and risk factors. Planview Management...

See all answers

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OrbusInfinity vs iServer

Compared 9% of the time

Visio vs iServer

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

LeanIX vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 5% of the time

Planview AdaptiveWork vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2026

Download iServer product report

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios

January 2026

Download Planview Portfolios product report

Also Known As

No data available

Planview Enterprise One, Troux

Overview

iServer is a unified software platform and enterprise modeling environment that extends and enhances the familiar, market leading Microsoft Visio and Office products. Core capabilities provided by iServer include an enhanced Microsoft Visio diagramming interface, a powerful central repository for all enterprise architecture or business process models and documentation, and a range of tools for visualization, analysis and decision making.

Orbus Software

Planview Portfolios equips leaders in strategic portfolio management to enhance investment confidence and market responsiveness through seamless strategy connection, planning, delivery, and outcomes, offering both cloud and on-premises options.

Planview Portfolios supports executives and portfolio managers by improving strategic execution with automated and adaptable processes. It integrates strategy and outcomes by aligning business and technology plans to optimize funding and resource capacity. Features include end-to-end visibility, which allows tracking of strategic initiatives and the ability to analyze performance data using key metrics. It also provides dynamic planning and funding via scenario modeling, allowing businesses to adapt funding based on outcomes while ensuring balanced investments against capacity.

What are the key features of Planview Portfolios?

Strategic Alignment: Connects OKRs with execution processes.
End-to-End Visibility: Assesses performance with KPIs for strategic decision-making.
Dynamic Planning and Funding: Scenario modeling for incremental funding.
Flexible Capacity Planning: Balances resources and dependencies.
Connected Technology Strategy: Aligns tech investments with priorities.
Adaptive Program Management: Integrates planning and cross-functional teams.

What benefits do users gain from using Planview Portfolios?

Customization and Interface: Offers tailored layouts and an intuitive interface.
Centralized Management: Manages projects and resources effectively.
Robust Reporting: Features Power BI integration for comprehensive reports.
Agile Integration: Supports agile practices alongside traditional methods.
Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitates team collaboration across departments.

Planview Portfolios sees extensive use across industries like IT, financial planning, and resource management. Global companies implement it for managing projects, resource allocation, and strategic planning. It's crucial for end-to-end project management, including investment planning, capacity management, and connecting agile with traditional resource planning, supporting departments worldwide in project execution.

Planview

Sample Customers

Barclays, Cathay Pacific, Deloitte, British Gas, MasterCard

UPS, NatWest, Ingram Micro, Canadian Tire, Viessmann, Volvo, NASCO, UNESCO

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios vs. iServer

December 2025

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