Compare
Zenoba vs Microsoft Project / Planner
Microsoft Project trained a generation of project managers; Planner Premium carries its essentials into Microsoft 365. Zenoba keeps the rigor, adds the AI that plans, and keeps your data in Québec.
- For whom — Microsoft Project / Planner
- Organizations already on Microsoft 365 whose project managers know Project and need neither planning AI nor industry context.
- For whom — Zenoba
- Organizations running real projects — migrations, deployments, construction sites, compliance — with an accountable project manager, who want an accurate plan, an AI that knows their context, and their data in Canada.
Where they are strong — Microsoft Project / Planner
- A proven scheduling engine: critical path, resources, baselines
- Microsoft 365 integration: Teams, SharePoint, Power BI, Copilot to summarize
- A huge installed base: skills are easy to find
Where Zenoba stands out
- The plan is born from the document: requirements → tasks, milestones, dependencies, risks; Copilot summarizes, it does not plan
- The assistant knows your organization (15 records), your industry and your jurisdiction — Law 25 included
- Priced per project manager, hosted in Québec, on-premise possible — Project Server no longer exists
When to stay with Microsoft Project / Planner
- If your organization mandates Microsoft 365 everywhere and Power BI is your reporting tool: native integration will weigh more than planning AI.
- If your project managers refuse to change tools: Project’s learning curve is an asset, not a cost.
Reference price — Surveyed 2026-08
Microsoft Project / Planner
Planner Premium US$10/user/month; Copilot US$21/user/month on top
Planner Premium alone has no planning AI; Copilot is added per user. A team of thirty pays thirty licenses.
Zenoba
CA$59 per project manager per month (Pro); users, observers and guests are free
Starter CA$10, Pro CA$59, Team CA$129, Enterprise CA$249 per project manager per month; on-premise as an annual license on quote. People who execute, observe or approve pay nothing.
Public prices surveyed in August 2026 in the vendor’s currency, annual billing unless stated; they vary by country and volume and change often — the source is the price that counts. Zenoba bills per project manager: a team of thirty with three project managers pays three seats.
The seventeen criteria, side by side
Yes = native; Partial = through an add-on, a paid module or on request; No = absent
| Criterion | Microsoft Project / Planner | Zenoba |
|---|---|---|
| A complete plan from a document | No | Yes |
| AI that knows the organization and the project | PartialCopilot on Microsoft 365, not on the project | Yes |
| Automatic PMBOK quality review | No | Yes |
| Knowledge base per industry | No | Yes8 industries, 700 sections |
| Compliance per jurisdiction (Law 25 / GDPR) | No | Yes |
| Critical path, baselines, four link types | Yes | Yes |
| Resource leveling | Yes | Yes |
| Earned value (EVM), S-curve | Partial | Yes |
| Persistent seven-day undo, scenarios | No | Yes |
| Governance reports (steering committee, PowerPoint) | Partial | Yes11 reports, PowerPoint |
| Timesheets, expenses, budget | Partial | Yes |
| Forms, workflows, fields, lists | Partial | Yes |
| Project templates, “create from” | Yes | Yes |
| Hosted in Canada | PartialCanada region on request | YesQuébec (OVH Beauharnois) |
| On-premise installation | No | YesDocker, on quote |
| Sovereign AI or customer key | No | Yes |
| Complete native French | Partial | Yes+ English + Spanish |
See Zenoba next to Microsoft Project / Planner
Thirty minutes, your requirements document: you see the plan Zenoba draws from it, and you decide.
Sources — 2026-08
The capabilities of the products cited change every quarter; this page is a dated snapshot that we correct as soon as a reader reports an error: contact@zenoba.ai. “To our knowledge” applies to every “no” attributed to a competitor.