With the retirement of Microsoft Project Online now official, there’s a lot of questions for organisations in need of a Project Online alternative. The team at Altus has put together a helpful resource to answer everything you need to know about the upcoming retirement, Project Online alternatives and your migration options.
Microsoft Project Online will officially be retired on September 30, 2026.
The question can be answered in different ways and depending on your organisational needs, you may want to explore different options.
If your organisation wants to continue utilise Microsoft Project Desktop and Microsoft Planner, Altus is the most appropriate alternative since it is the only solution on the market that matches the capabilities between Microsoft Desktop and what you were used to in Project Online.
However, Altus enables you to utilise any Microsoft schedule tool allowing your users to utilise the schedule tool most appropriate for them. By using Altus, you still can manage your global resource pool across all Schedule tools, you still can automatically synchronise your actuals via a timesheet into your schedule, without double handling and you can still manage your cost categories centrally ensuring that project financials are always accurate. If you utilise task custom fields in Project Online, you still have this ability in Altus.
Last but certainly not least, you have a modern future driven PPM solution with Altus that embarces an AI first approach allowing you to work towards the elimination of Administration.
Microsoft Project Online is a legacy project and portfolio management (PPM) solution built on SharePoint architecture. In contrast, the Power Platform (including Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse) underpins Microsoft’s modern project management tools like Planner Premium and Project for the Web.
These newer tools offer:
Altus embraces this shift by integrating natively with the Power Platform, offering a seamless experience across Planner Premium, Project Desktop, and Altus’s own scheduling tools. This means Altus customers can manage projects in the browser, on desktop, or through Planner—all unified under one intelligent platform.
Microsoft has officially announced that Project Online will be retired on 30 September 2026. From that date, users will lose access to their data and projects.
The sale of new Project Online-only licences ends on 1 October 2025.
This retirement is part of Microsoft’s shift toward a unified, AI-enhanced project management experience centred on Planner Premium and the Power Platform.
PMOs must act swiftly. The retirement signals the end of support for legacy workflows, reporting via OData, and SharePoint-based integrations. PMOs will need to reassess their tooling, governance models, and data strategies.
Altus offers a future-proof alternative that retains familiar scheduling capabilities while introducing AI-driven insights, unified resource pools, and modern governance frameworks. Migration paths are available for active projects, historical data, or hybrid approaches.
For PMOs on Microsoft Project Online, a lot of concerns for migration are centred on the loss of functionality they depend on in Project Online, and the inability to utilise MS Project Desktop, where these capabilities still exist, but can’t be centrally accessed. Fortunately, Altus offers a 1:1 Project Online replacement, and enables PMOs to work across a range of scheduling tools, while still centralising data into Altus.
There are three main migration paths:
Altus supports all three, with proven tools and add-ins to minimise disruption. We help evaluate whether historical data offers strategic value or can be archived for compliance.
Microsoft’s recommended successor is Planner Premium, for collaborative, AI-enhanced project management. Planner premium is a great option for simpler schedules, it offers a simple user interface and a way for teams to collaborate on project delivery.
If you need the full capability of Project Online, or MS Project Desktop though, Altus is the way to go. Altus provides a unified experience that supports Project Desktop, Planner, and our own schedule tool, with added benefits like global resource management, cost tracking, and real-time reporting.
