Microsoft Project in 2026: desktop, Planner, and Project Online retired

Ask five people what "MS Project" means in 2026 and you may get five answers: a Windows app, a web app, a Teams tab, a server, or something that was switched off in September. This first lesson sorts out the Microsoft Project family as it stands today, so you know which product this track teaches, which ones have been retired, and which one an owner should use for a construction master schedule.

Learning outcomes

• Name the current members of the Microsoft Project family and say which ones are desktop, cloud, on-premises or retired.
• State what the Project Online retirement on September 30, 2026 did and did not affect.
• Explain the difference between Planner basic plans, Planner premium plans and Microsoft Project desktop, and which licences unlock each.
• Choose the right tool for an owner's construction master schedule, using the Northgate case study.

The lesson

One brand, several products

Microsoft Project started as a single Windows program. Over the past decade Microsoft added a hosted server product, a web app, and a set of premium features inside Planner, and it reused the "Project" name for most of them. The result is a family where the name on the licence does not always match the app on the screen. Figure 1 groups the members by where they run.

Four groups matter:

• Microsoft Project desktop. The Windows application most schedulers mean when they say "MS Project". It comes in two forms: the Project Online Desktop Client, which is installed through a subscription such as Planner and Project Plan 3, and the one-time-purchase releases Project Standard 2024 and Project Professional 2024. Microsoft's product page states that each Plan 3 licence allows the desktop client on up to five computers at once. This is the tool this track teaches.
• Planner. Microsoft's cloud work-management app, in the browser and in Teams. Basic plans (buckets, task cards, due dates, checklists) come with most Microsoft 365 suites. Premium plans add project features and need a separate licence: Planner Plan 1, Planner and Project Plan 3, or Planner and Project Plan 5. The former Project for the web now lives inside Planner as premium plans.
• Project Server Subscription Edition. The on-premises server for organizations that host their own project and portfolio management. Microsoft lists it as an option for advanced needs or as a bridge.
• Retired products. Project Online, the hosted service built on Project Web App (PWA), was retired on September 30, 2026. Separately, the 2016 and 2019 desktop releases reached end of support on October 14, 2025.

What the Project Online retirement did, and did not, do

Microsoft announced the retirement through Message Center post MC1148537 on September 5, 2025. The notice is narrow. It retires Project Online, the hosted PWA service that organizations used for shared project sites, timesheets and portfolio reports. After the retirement date, projects and data stored there are no longer accessible, which is why Microsoft told administrators to migrate or export before the end of September.

The same notice says the change does not affect Project desktop, Project Server, or Planner. So a scheduler who builds files in Project desktop and saves them as .mpp files on a drive or in SharePoint carries on exactly as before. The confusing part is the licence name: the desktop client is still called the "Project Online Desktop Client" even though Project Online itself is gone. The name describes how the app is licensed and updated, not where your schedule is stored.

Figure 2 puts the key dates in order.

View the data

Date	Event
Sept 5, 2025	Microsoft announces the Project Online retirement (MC1148537)
Oct 1, 2025	Project Online no longer sold to new customers
Oct 14, 2025	Project 2016 and Project 2019 reach end of support
Apr 1, 2026	New Project Web App sites can no longer be created
Sept 30, 2026	Project Online retired
Oct 10, 2029	Project 2024 retirement date (Modern Lifecycle Policy)

Where the former Project Online customers went

Microsoft's notice gives three destinations. The first is the new Planner, where premium features such as portfolios, baselines, dependencies and Gantt charts come with Planner and Project Plan 3 or Plan 5. The second is Project Server Subscription Edition, for organizations that need advanced portfolio management on their own servers or want a bridge. The third is Dynamics 365 Project Operations, aimed at organizations already on Dynamics ERP that care most about timesheets and resource scheduling.

For most owners on capital projects, none of those three is the main scheduling tool. They used Project Online mainly to store and share files that schedulers built in the desktop app anyway. Those owners lost the shared site, not the scheduling engine.

Planner basic, Planner premium and Project desktop compared

The table below compares the three tools an owner is most likely to choose between. The licence details come from Microsoft's Planner pricing page and service descriptions as of November 2026. Microsoft changes them often, so check before you buy.

Two points need spelling out. First, Planner Plan 1 is not a scheduling licence. Microsoft's pricing page lists no critical path and no baselines for Plan 1; it is a step up from basic task lists. Second, premium plans have closed much of the gap with the desktop app on paper, but a construction master schedule asks more of a tool than a feature list shows. It has to handle a few hundred logic-linked activities, a custom calendar with Ontario statutory holidays, constraint and deadline dates, and a clean monthly record. Lessons 4 to 25 of this track build those skills in the desktop app.

Which desktop version should you have?

If your organization already pays for Planner and Project Plan 3 or Plan 5, you have the Project Online Desktop Client. It updates automatically with new features, and it is what this track uses for its examples. If you prefer to buy once, Project Standard 2024 and Project Professional 2024 are the current one-time-purchase releases. Microsoft's lifecycle page gives Project 2024 a retirement date of October 10, 2029. Professional adds features for working with Project Server and resource sharing; for a single-file owner's master schedule, either edition works.

If anyone on your team still runs Project 2016 or 2019, it opens files and calculates schedules, but it has had no security updates since October 14, 2025. Plan the upgrade.

Screenshot to come

Northgate worked example

Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional) is building the Northgate Distribution Centre, a 12,000 m² tilt-up warehouse in Vaughan, under a CCDC 2-2020 stipulated price contract with Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional). The owner needs two kinds of schedule:

• The contractor's construction schedule, which Halvorsen builds and updates in Oracle Primavera P6 and submits as an XER file. Under CCDC 2-2020, the contractor prepares and maintains the construction schedule (GC 3.4). The owner reviews it, but does not own it.
• The owner's master schedule, which runs from contract execution on Mon Jan 11, 2027 to final completion on Fri Mar 31, 2028. It holds what the contractor's schedule does not: the owner's decisions, the permit, owner-supplied racking, IT and security fit-out, and the move-in.

Northgate's owner's PM asked a fair question: the company already has Microsoft 365, so why not build the master schedule as a Planner premium plan?

The owner's team tested Figure 3's questions against the job.

1. Does it need CPM logic, a critical path and a defensible baseline? Yes. Ready-for-Takeover and Substantial Performance on Fri Jan 14, 2028 is a contract date, and the owner's racking install starts the next working day, Mon Jan 17, 2028. The owner must see whether its own work, like racking, sits on the critical path. That rules out Planner basic and Planner Plan 1.
2. Must it read the contractor's P6 file, or keep monthly copies? Yes to both. The owner's scheduler will compare Halvorsen's monthly XER against the master schedule and keep a frozen copy of the master every month as a record. If a delay claim ever arises, those dated file copies are evidence. Project desktop keeps each month as a separate .mpp file that can be archived, and it can exchange schedules in XML, which P6 also reads and writes (covered in lesson 53). We found no documented way to bring a P6 schedule into a Planner premium plan.
3. Buy or subscribe? Northgate already has Microsoft 365, and its scheduler needs the desktop app on a laptop and an office machine, so one Planner and Project Plan 3 licence for the scheduler covers both. The rest of the owner's team views PDFs and the monthly report; they do not need a Project licence.

Decision: the owner's master schedule is built in Microsoft Project desktop. The file is NDC_OwnerMaster_2027-01-11.mpp, scheduled forward from contract execution, as lesson 3 shows. Planner basic, which Northgate already has, holds the owner's action list from site meetings, where a simple task board is all that is needed.

Screenshot to come

Screenshot to come

Owner's move

• Decide where the master schedule lives before the contract is signed. Write it into the owner's project execution plan: tool, version, file naming and where monthly copies are archived.
• Specify the contractor's format separately. On Northgate, the Supplementary Conditions and the schedule specification require Halvorsen to submit native P6 XER files plus PDFs. Do not let "we use MS Project too" become a reason to receive only PDFs.
• Check every licence on the team. Ask each scheduler and consultant for their product name and version under File > Account. Reject Project 2016 or 2019 for any new work; those versions get no more security updates.
• If you used Project Online, confirm your export. Data in the retired service is no longer accessible. If your organization has old project sites, confirm with IT what was exported and where it is kept, because past schedules can matter in claims and audits.
• Keep Planner for what it does well. Action items, deficiency follow-up and meeting tasks fit a Planner board. A contractual schedule does not.

Common mistakes

1. Thinking the desktop app was retired. Only Project Online, the hosted PWA service, retired on September 30, 2026. Project desktop carries on.
2. Buying Planner Plan 1 for a scheduler. It does not include the desktop client, the critical path or baselines. A scheduler needs Plan 3 or Plan 5, or a Project 2024 purchase.
3. Running an unsupported release. Project 2016 and 2019 are out of support. They still open files, which is why teams forget to upgrade.
4. Treating a task board as a schedule. A list of cards with due dates has no logic, so it cannot show the critical path or the effect of a delay.
5. Keeping only the live file. Without dated monthly copies, the owner cannot show what the schedule said at the time.

Quick quiz

1. On September 30, 2026, Microsoft retired which product?

   1. Project desktop
   2. Project Online (Project Web App)
   3. Planner premium plans
   4. Project Server Subscription Edition

2. Which licence includes the Project desktop client?

   1. Planner Plan 1
   2. A Microsoft 365 suite with Planner basic
   3. Planner and Project Plan 3
   4. Teams Essentials

3. A consultant on your project still uses Project 2019. What is the main concern?

   1. It cannot open .mpp files
   2. It has had no security updates since October 14, 2025
   3. It cannot calculate the critical path
   4. It only runs in a browser

4. Why did Northgate build its owner's master schedule in Project desktop rather than a Planner premium plan?

   1. Planner cannot store dates
   2. The owner needed dated file copies and an exchange route with the contractor's P6 schedule
   3. CCDC 2-2020 requires Microsoft Project
   4. Project desktop is free

5. The desktop app is still called the "Project Online Desktop Client". What does that name tell you?

   1. Schedules must be saved in Project Online
   2. How the app is licensed and updated, through a subscription
   3. That the app stopped working on September 30, 2026
   4. That it only works with Planner

Show answers and explanations

1. B. The retirement covered Project Online only. Microsoft's notice says Project desktop, Project Server and Planner are not affected.
2. C. Planner and Project Plan 3 includes the desktop client. Plan 1 covers Planner in the web and Teams only.
3. B. Project 2016 and 2019 reached end of support on October 14, 2025. They still work but are no longer patched.
4. B. The owner keeps a frozen copy every month as a record and compares it with the contractor's P6 submissions. CCDC 2-2020 does not name any software.
5. B. The name reflects the subscription licence. Files are saved wherever you choose, and the app was not affected by the retirement.

Key terms

Project desktop

The Windows application Microsoft Project, available by subscription (Project Online Desktop Client) or one-time purchase (Project Standard or Professional 2024).

Project Online

Microsoft's hosted project and portfolio service built on Project Web App. Retired September 30, 2026.

Project Web App (PWA)

The browser interface of Project Online and Project Server for shared projects, timesheets and reports.

Planner basic plan

A task board in Planner, included with most Microsoft 365 suites, with no scheduling logic.

Planner premium plan

A Planner plan with project features such as dependencies, timelines and, with Plan 3 or 5, critical path and baselines.

Project Server Subscription Edition

Microsoft's on-premises project and portfolio server.

Owner's master schedule

The owner's schedule covering the whole project, including owner activities the contractor's schedule leaves out.

References

1. Microsoft, Message Center MC1148537, "Microsoft Project Online is retiring: What you need to know" (Sept 5, 2025), via mc.merill.net.
2. Microsoft Planner Blog, "Microsoft Project Online is retiring: What you need to know".
3. Microsoft, Planner and Project Plan 3 (product page: desktop client, five installations, PWA site creation change).
4. Microsoft, Microsoft Planner plans and pricing (Plan 1 vs Plan 3 features).
5. Microsoft Learn, Project for the web service description (features by Plan 1, 3 and 5).
6. Microsoft Learn, Planner licensing.
7. Microsoft Lifecycle, Project 2024 (retirement date Oct 10, 2029).
8. Microsoft Project Blog, "Everything you should know about Project 2016 and Project 2019 end of support".
9. The Project Group, "Project Online Retirement in 2026" (end of sale date; vendor commentary).

Verified on November 4, 2026. Microsoft licence names and features change often; check the pages above before buying.

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