The dilemma: desktop or cloud?
With Project Online being phased out — retirement September 30, 2026,sales closedfrom 1 October 2025 — many Italian PMs find themselves faced with a choice that they thought they had already made years ago: stay on the desktop with Microsoft Project, or move to the cloud with the new Planner? The choice is not ideological: it depends on how your team works, what licenses you already have and what you mean by reporting. The honest answer is that there is no absolute right choice: there are choices that are consistent with one's constraints.
What's left of MS Project desktop
The desktop doesn't disappear. Microsoft continues to sell Project Professional 2024 and Project Standard 2024 with a single-payer perpetual license: as specified byofficial comparison page, once activated the license does not expire. The difference between Standard and Professional is substantial: the first covers scheduling and critical path, the second adds resource management, timesheets and connection to Project Server, as can be read in the Microsoft comparison matrix. For those who want to remain on-premises, there is also Project Server Subscription Edition, with portfolio analysis and demand management, which can be purchased through partners. An important detail from the same page: the Project Online Desktop Client, the client that connected to Project Online, now requires an active Planner & Project Plan 3 subscription. In practice, the "connected" desktop has become a cloud option, while the "standalone" desktop remains a perpetual product.
Operational differences: desktop vs cloud
Before the criteria, a frank discussion on the operational dimensions that really change daily work.
| I wait | Desktop (Project Professional 2024) | Cloud (Premium Planner) |
|---|---|---|
| License | Perpetual, single payment | Subscription per user (Plan 1, 3, 5) |
| Offline work | Complete | Not available: connection required |
| Collaboration | Limited, via shared files | Native in Teams: chat on tasks, comments |
| Updates | Traditional release cycles | Continue |
| Gantt, dependencies, constraints | Complete and mature | Yes, in premium plans |
| Costs and EVM | Baseline and native cost fields of the product | Not documented among the premium features: to be verified |
| Microsoft Investment Management | Maintenance of existing product | The new Planner is the declared unified platform |
The selection criteria, in practical order
If you only have one winning criterion, use that: the other four are to avoid surprises.
- Do you work offline?Construction sites, offices without a network, customers with restrictive policies: if the Gantt must open without a connection, the desktop is the only serious answer.
- How important is collaboration?If the plan lives in team meetings, Premium Planner within Teams is more convenient than .mpp files exchanged via mail or SharePoint.
- What licenses do you already have?Those who have Microsoft 365 already have the basic Planner plans; those who have already paid for Project Professional can stay where they are at no additional cost. Example (dummy data): A team of 8 PMs already using Microsoft 365 can try premium plans without immediately purchasing new licenses for everyone.
- How do you do reporting?If reports come out of Power BI on live data, the cloud helps; If you work on hand-consolidated Excel and .mpp files, the desktop won't hold you back.
- What is the horizon?If in two years your PMO will be more collaborative and distributed, starting from the cloud now avoids a second migration. In my opinion, for a PMO without offline constraints, the cloud is the most likely market direction: but the choice must be made on your constraints, not on the market.
The third scenario: dedicated project control
There is a case where neither desktop nor Planner Premium answers the real question: when the problem is not planning, but controlling. Contractual baselines, EVM, final estimates, executive reports are needs that rely poorly on a Gantt, whatever it may be. In this scenario, there are tools dedicated to project control, such as ControlRoom, with specific guides onEVM and the final estimate, oncost of projectsand onexecutive dashboard. ControlRoom does not import plans from Project Online and does not sync - access today is viafree guided demo, so you can see for yourself whether it covers the control Project Online gave you. The advantage is not in replacing the Gantt, but in having a single place where baselines, variances and forecasts remain consistent with each other.
Frequently asked questions
Will Project Professional stop working after 2026?
No. Project Professional 2024 and Project Standard 2024 perpetual licenses, once activated, do not expire. It is the Project Online cloud service that expires, not the desktop software. The point is that at that moment there will no longer be the cloud behind it: planning becomes a local activity, with all that entails.
Is the cloud after Project Online only Planner Premium?
Planner Premium is the primary path indicated for the transition. Alternatively, for project-based companies there is Dynamics 365 Project Operations, which combines sales, resourcing, project management and finance. And desktop remains a viable option for those who don't need real-time collaboration.
Can I use Project desktop together with Planner Premium?
Yes, but with one distinction: the Project Online Desktop Client requires an active Planner & Project Plan 3 subscription. The perpetual desktop (Professional or Standard) remains a separate product from the cloud.
What if I need baseline and EVM?
The desktop manages baselines and costs natively. In cloud, baseline and EVM must be verified or rebuilt. If control is the heart of your work, it is also worth comparing dedicated tools such as ControlRoom, starting frombaseline management guide.
The next step
Before you decide, get your constraints on paper — offline, licensing, reporting, collaboration — and compare the options as equals. TheControlRoom comparison pageit does exactly this: it honestly says what it replaces and what it doesn't. And therefree demoit lets you see the environment before you commit.