There are two successors and the honest summary is that neither is a drop-in cloud replacement. One keeps every feature but moves you off the cloud. The other keeps you in the cloud but does not keep every feature. Which trade you can live with is the decision.
The two options
| Project Server Subscription Edition | Planner with premium capabilities | |
|---|---|---|
| Feature parity with Project Online | Full. The only feature-for-feature equivalent | Partial, and Microsoft says so plainly |
| Where it runs | Your own servers, your own infrastructure | Microsoft cloud, backed by Dataverse |
| Project Web App interface | Kept, same look and feel | No PWA |
| Project desktop client experience | Unchanged | Different model |
| Portfolios, baselines, dependencies, Gantt views | Yes | Yes, in the premium tier |
| Timesheets | Yes | Named by Microsoft as a gap |
| Resource management and complex portfolio management | Yes | Named by Microsoft as a gap |
| Custom workflows, advanced enterprise reporting | Yes | Named by Microsoft as a gap |
| Automatic migration from Project Online | Closest path, but still not push-button | None. Export and rebuild |
| Ongoing operational burden | You patch, back up and run the servers | Microsoft runs it |
Which one suits which organisation
Project Server Subscription Edition, if the features are load-bearing
This is the choice when Project Online is not a nice-to-have scheduling tool but the system your delivery function runs on. If timesheets feed payroll or client billing, if resource management drives staffing decisions, if you have custom workflows nobody wants to redesign, or if enterprise reporting is embedded in how the business is measured, then parity matters more than hosting model and this is the only option that gives it.
Understand what you are taking on. This moves you from a service Microsoft runs to software you run: servers, patching, backups, availability and the people to look after all of it. For an organisation that deliberately moved to the cloud, that is a real step backwards operationally, and it should be a conscious trade rather than a default.
Planner Premium, if the sophistication was mostly unused
A large share of Project Online tenants use a fraction of it: schedules, dependencies, a Gantt view, some reporting. If that describes yours, Planner Premium covers it, stays in the cloud, and integrates with the Microsoft 365 tools people already work in.
Test the gaps before committing rather than after. Microsoft specifically names Project Web App, complex portfolio management, resource management, timesheets, custom workflows and advanced enterprise reporting as areas where Planner should not be treated as a full replacement. Take that list, mark which ones your organisation genuinely relies on, and you have your answer to this page's question in about an hour.
The third option nobody frames as one
Some organisations will look at both columns and conclude that neither is worth it, because Project Online was never central to how they work. Exporting the history to an archive, running future projects in something simpler, and not migrating at all is a legitimate outcome. It is worth saying out loud, because a migration project justified only by a retirement date is how organisations end up paying to rebuild something nobody was using.
Whatever you choose, export first
Neither successor reaches back into a retired service to collect your history, and there is no automated path into Planner. The export is not optional and it is not quick: the documented Microsoft tooling works one user at a time, it has licence and permission prerequisites, and it does not cover the SharePoint content sitting inside your Project Web App sites.
Frequently asked questions
What replaces Microsoft Project Online?
Two options, neither a drop-in cloud replacement. Project Server Subscription Edition is the only full feature-for-feature equivalent and keeps the Project Web App interface, but it runs on your own servers. Planner with premium capabilities is the modern cloud path on Dataverse, but Microsoft is explicit that it is not a full replacement in every scenario.
Is there an automatic migration to Planner Premium?
No. Microsoft states there is no native automatic migration path, and the architectures differ, so projects are exported and rebuilt as Planner plans rather than moved.
Do I still need to export if I am moving to a successor?
Yes, and before 30 September 2026. Neither destination collects your history out of a retired service for you.
Sources
- Microsoft Project Online is retiring: what you need to know, Microsoft Tech Community, for the retirement date and the successor products.
- Export user data from Project Online, Microsoft Learn, for the export tooling and its scope.