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Microsoft Project vs Planview Daptiv comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Microsoft Project
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Project Management Software (7th)
Planview Daptiv
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (14th)
 

Featured Reviews

Jacob-George - PeerSpot reviewer
Domain Consultant at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Improved project scheduling has maximized resource utilization and has reduced delays
I think the licensing structure presents a significant area for improvement. The full features are not offered on the standard E4 license. This becomes problematic when distributing the project plan. I can export the plan as Excel and CSV files, but then I lose all the rich features, including dependency mapping. To recreate all that functionality without proper licensing is challenging. Microsoft Project offers a light version available for free, but when I try to distribute a project plan, it requires separate licensing. Microsoft Project Central used to be more of an enterprise product. Microsoft Project currently focuses on very low-level task management, and it could do much more. I do not see significant advancement happening because there is confusion about where Microsoft Project is heading. I believe Microsoft should bundle the license with Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This approach would result in more people using Microsoft Project. That is my opinion on how to improve adoption and the product offering.
reviewer2068344 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Operations at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Useful project management capabilities, beneficial dashboards, but project planning could improve
The areas that should be improved in Planview Daptiv are a subject that can be viewed differently depending on who you ask. I feel they should focus on excelling in one specific area rather than providing average capabilities in many areas. For example, their project planning software is satisfactory but not as advanced as Microsoft Projects. The same goes for the capacity planning tool and reporting capabilities, which can be improved upon by using custom Excel spreadsheets or by hiring a business analyst for additional support. In short, the biggest weakness of Daptiv is that it does not excel in any one area and only provides average performance. In a future release, it would be beneficial to have a undo button.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The reporting and national resource capacity planning are the most valuable features."
"The most valuable features of this solution are dependency management, milestone progress, multiple resource rates, and RAG views."
"Being able to get a milestone schedule or a breakdown out of it is valuable. It can integrate into Visio, which is helpful."
"The solution is very complete. It makes it a great option for project managers and they can use it extensively in almost any organizational setup."
"In my experience, this solution is one of the best for the waterfall management model."
"I like using it just because it is easy to use, it is pretty user-friendly and easy to figure out, and it is definitely one of the better ones out there."
"We've seen an ROI from the aspect of efficiencies and having information in one central location."
"This solution probably does everything that I need it to do, but I just don't know how to do it yet."
"Consequently, it is the single point of truth for both our project managers and our senior leadership."
"Changepoint gives us a view of the project status and needs very clearly, which are things that we used to miss with MS Project and Excel."
"The timekeeping features are great and very helpful."
"The most valuable features are resource allocation and capacity planning."
"The powerful collaboration is definitely the most valuable and the fact that you can adjust flexibility to almost any methodology, and the easy creation of complete new functionalities without programming code."
"I like the reporting engine, IBM Cognos, especially the analytics. That's a good tool. It's quite strong on the ideation and capacity-planning side, which is a huge plus."
"I implemented for a large client of mine and saw them quickly get up and running and leverage Daptiv to help them manage their IT demand from their internal customers."
"Reporting of IT capacity available for first time, time sheets available for first time."
 

Cons

"The setup and scalability can be somewhat difficult for new users until they gain knowledge."
"Its user interface could be a little bit more intuitive. Not everybody has the luxury of going to training and understanding which button does what and the functionality. The user interface should be improved to make it a little bit more intuitive. It is not user-friendly. I've dealt with it for a number of years, so it is not hard for me to figure it out, but you would need a quick reference guide or something to say, "Here are the basics. This is how you do X.""
"The dashboard could be improved."
"The tool's most valuable feature is scheduling."
"The tech support needs improvement."
"Microsoft Project has much room for improvement. The solution is still stuck where it was in 2013. Not much has changed since then. There is a lot that can be changed in the enterprise segment."
"I find the setup a little bit cumbersome."
"The new version has made it a bit more complicated."
"Expense management, simulation scenarios, and budget control could be great and useful features to include."
"This solution needs more standard connectors to other solutions i.e. to Infor ERP, Confluence, ..."
"I find the solution has an excessive amount of features. Many aren't even kept current. Some aren't useful at all. There's an overall lack of coherence within the solution. It can make the execution difficult. Many features can easily be eliminated and it would help streamline the solution. They should get rid of 80% of the features and then really focus on the leftover 20% to make it a really great product."
"The user interface is quirky and does not always conform to the expected Microsoft UI standards."
"The areas that should be improved in Planview Daptiv are a subject that can be viewed differently depending on who you ask. I feel they should focus on excelling in one specific area rather than providing average capabilities in many areas. For example, their project planning software is satisfactory but not as advanced as Microsoft Projects. The same goes for the capacity planning tool and reporting capabilities, which can be improved upon by using custom Excel spreadsheets or by hiring a business analyst for additional support. In short, the biggest weakness of Daptiv is that it does not excel in any one area and only provides average performance."
"Limited unless you purchase additional support hours."
"I would say there is too much work that has to go into the configuration up front and for the first 6 months to 1 year after, which costs time, money, and resources, and it is not a very advanced tool and seems interface-wise to be behind the times."
"Accessing some functions is a bit obscure and requires some knowledge of how the product works, but the upgrade from v2012 to 2014 improved that situation and I expect the upcoming upgrade to 2017 to further streamline operations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have to pay for a yearly license for Microsoft Project."
"The solution is expensive."
"Licensing costs vary depending on the user volume. The pricing is good, I'd rate it four out of five."
"It gets expensive when having to add all of the plugins and everything that you need."
"Microsoft Project is an expensive solution."
"The product is not expensive. My company has opted for an annual subscription."
"The license is a one-time payment but it is expensive."
"You only need a Team's license in order to use Microsoft Project within Teams, which is very helpful."
"It's a yearly license, but it's not an open license. It's based on users and their roles. So your administrator is priced differently from your timesheet user."
"The licensing is pretty complex. Each kind of user is a different price. It's approximately $300 per year. They charge additional fees for technical support and other additional services."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
7%
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Has anyone moved from Microsoft Project to Smartsheet? How has your experience been with Smartsheet?
Hi @Eire Zimmermann, I helped an organization evaluate both MS-Project and Smartsheet when they were conducting their PM tool RFP. The short of it is this, MS Project is not caught up with the mo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project?
I would say Microsoft Project is affordable, but the standalone Project license should be included in the Office price to increase adoption.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Project?
I am not expert enough to explain areas of improvement for Microsoft Project because I have not explored it extensively or used it enough, so I am not the right person to comment on this. I have no...
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Also Known As

Project Pro, MS Project
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aston Martin, ABANCA, Airbus Group, Capita, Cardiff University, City of Saskatoon, Intel, Pegasus Airlines, South Australia Power Network (SAPN), Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing
AOS Studley, Austrian Airlines, bpost bank, Employees Provident Fund, Stena Metall, VitalityHealth, Precor
Find out what your peers are saying about monday.com, Planisware, Broadcom and others in Project Portfolio Management. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.