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Ganttry vs Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is where most construction schedulers learned the craft — and Ganttry speaks its language, imports its files and keeps its habits. The difference is what happens after the schedule is built: one shared live schedule for the whole crew at $20/user/month, instead of a $30 desktop seat for the scheduler and PDFs for everyone else.

PRICE AT FEATURE PARITY
$20 vs $30 /user/mo

Baselines, critical path and lead/lag dependencies start at Plan 3 ($30, annual commitment). The $10 Planner tier has only basic links.

THE SCHEDULE LIVES
In a browser vs in a file

Ganttry is one live schedule with presence, conflict-safe saves and history. Project's full engine lives in a Windows desktop app and travels by .mpp attachment.

YOUR PROJECT SCHEDULES
Import & export

Bring schedules in as MS Project XML, re-import monthly updates in place, and export XML back whenever an owner insists on Project.

What Microsoft Project actually costs now

Microsoft folded Project into the Planner brand. As of July 2026 there are two subscription tiers you can buy, plus the old desktop licenses — and the retirements keep coming: Plan 5 left sale in May 2026, Project Online shuts down September 30, 2026.

Planner Plan 1
$10 /user/mo, paid yearly

Boards, timelines and basic dependencies — but no baselines, no critical path, no desktop app. It's a task tool, not a CPM scheduler.

THE PARITY TIER
Planner & Project Plan 3
$30 /user/mo, paid yearly

The tier with the Project desktop app, baselines, critical path and lead/lag dependencies. Annual commitment — and $10 a month more than Ganttry, per seat.

Project 2024 desktop (one-time)
$680–1,130 per PC

Standard $679.99, Professional $1,129.99 — one Windows PC each, no co-editing, and the next version is another purchase.

Microsoft list prices, July 2026 (microsoft.com). "Paid yearly" is an annual commitment that auto-renews. Planner & Project Plan 5 ($55) was retired from sale May 1, 2026; existing subscribers keep it.

Feature for feature

Compared against Plan 3 — the tier you'd actually buy for CPM work. Green means included at the quoted per-seat price; amber means included but delivered only in the Windows desktop app, or partial; gray means not available.

FEATURE
GANTTRY
MS PROJECT PLAN 3
Dependency logic with lag & lead
FS, SS, FF, SF — MS Project syntax like 12FS+3d works as typed
Included
Desktop
Critical path, float & constraints
CPM forward/backward pass, four constraint types, negative float in red
Included
Desktop
Named baselines & variance
Baseline bars, variance columns in working days, MS Project sign convention
Included
Desktop
Per-task working calendars
6-day paving crews, 4×10 weeks, winter shutdowns, holiday rules
Included
Desktop
Monthly statusing with a data date
Actuals in one dialog, retained logic, out-of-sequence flags, one-undo rounds
Included
Desktop
Live multi-user on one schedule
Presence, live selections, conflict-safe saves, per-author revision history
Included
Web only, lighter engine
Field progress updates from phones
Crews status their own tasks from an installable app — same seat price
Included
Task app, not CPM statusing
DCMA 13-point health checks
Schedule-quality audit with editable thresholds and a submittal PDF
Included
Not built in
Cost loading & cash-flow S-curves
Planned / earned / baseline curves, monthly table, Excel worksheet
Included
Desktop, deeper rates
Automatic resource leveling
Ganttry shows crew histograms; Project levels across resource pools
Histogram only
Desktop
Imports Primavera P6 XER
Open the XER your DOT, owner or GC sends — logic and calendars intact
Included
No
Imports & exports MS Project XML
Round-trip with the .mpp world; re-imports update in place
Included
Native
Runs on any OS in a browser
Mac, Windows, iPad — nothing to install or patch
Included
Full engine is Windows desktop
Published, self-serve pricing
Price on the website, card checkout, cancel anytime
Included
Published, annual commitment
"Desktop" = delivered in full in the Windows desktop app included with Plan 3, per Microsoft's plan comparison; the Planner web experience carries a lighter engine. Verified July 2026.

The per-seat math, per year

Plan 3 pricing forces a choice: license everyone at $360/user/year, or license one scheduler and let the field work from stale printouts. Ganttry's answer is that the foreman checking his week costs the same $20 as the scheduler — so everyone gets the live schedule.

Ganttry annual plan ($200/user/yr) vs Plan 3 at $30 × 12. Microsoft's $30 list price assumes an annual commitment.

5 seats
$1,000/yr
Ganttry
$1,800/yr
Plan 3
10 seats
$2,000/yr
Ganttry
$3,600/yr
Plan 3
25 seats
$5,000/yr
Ganttry
$9,000/yr
Plan 3
Published list prices, July 2026. Your negotiated rates may vary — the gap won't.

Where Microsoft Project still wins

Resource leveling depth. Automatic leveling across resource pools, effort-driven scheduling and rate tables go further than Ganttry's crew histogram and cost loading.
The Microsoft ecosystem. If your world runs on Teams, SharePoint and Power BI, Plan 3 plugs into all of it natively.
Decades of muscle memory. Custom fields, macros, third-party add-ins and a consultant ecosystem Ganttry doesn't pretend to match.
Offline desktop work. The perpetual license runs with no subscription and no internet — if solo, offline scheduling is genuinely your workflow.

Where Ganttry pulls ahead

One live schedule, whole crew. Presence, live selections, conflict-safe saves and per-author history — no .mpp attachments, no "which version is real?"
The field is included. Crews update progress from their phones — installable app, no extra license, no separate product.
P6 files too. Ganttry imports Primavera XER alongside MS Project XML — Project can't open the XER your DOT or GC sends.
DCMA health checks built in. A 13-point schedule-quality audit with a submittal-ready PDF — not built into Project.
Any OS, no installs. Mac on the laptop, Windows in the office, iPad in the truck — it's a browser tab.

Moving is an import, not a project

Export your schedule from Project as XML, drop it into Ganttry, and your tasks, logic and calendars come with it. Monthly updates re-import in place without touching your notes and colors — and when someone upstream insists on Project, export XML they can open natively.

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Sources, verified July 2026: Microsoft Planner plans & pricing and Microsoft Project enterprise pricing (microsoft.com); Project Standard/Professional 2024 pricing (Microsoft Store); Project Online retirement notice (Microsoft Lifecycle & Planner blog). Feature availability per Microsoft's published plan comparison. Microsoft, Microsoft Project and Planner are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; Ganttry is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.