Microsoft Planner vs. Whimsical

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Planner
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Planner is presented as a solution to organize teamwork with intuitive, collaborative, visual task management. With it, users can create Kanban boards using task cards with files, checklists, and labels. Users can collaborate in Planner and Microsoft Teams and check visual status charts—all in the Microsoft cloud.N/A
Whimsical
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Whimsical is a visual workspace application from the company of the same name in Denver, allowing users to create collaborative wireframes, mindmaps, flowcharts, and sticky notes.
$12
per month per editor
Pricing
Microsoft PlannerWhimsical
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Pro
$12
per month per editor
Business
$18
per month per editor
Enterprise
$240
per year per editor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft PlannerWhimsical
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details17% discount for annual billing on Pro and Business plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft PlannerWhimsical
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Microsoft PlannerWhimsical
Small Businesses
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Whimsical
Whimsical
Score 8.5 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Whimsical
Whimsical
Score 8.5 out of 10
InEight
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Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft PlannerWhimsical
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
3.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft PlannerWhimsical
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Planner is a user-friendly visual tool for organizing tasks and workflows. It’s great for team collaboration, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 tools like Teams and Outlook, and offers flexibility for projects of all sizes. Additionally, it provides mobile and web access for seamless productivity on the go. That’s a big plus right there.
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It's extremely well-suited for rapid wire-framing of concepts, as product teams can quickly collaborate on any idea and create a visual blueprint of it. Whimsical could provide more intuitive feature prioritization templates. The current templates lack the necessary detail and could be further enhanced from a UI/UX standpoint.
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Pros
  • I love the ability to tag and untag others as needed
  • I love the ability to customize the tag labels and that there are so many options
  • I love the ability to add comments and it notifies the others tagged in the task
  • I love that the task description can be changed as needed without notification to others assigned to the task
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  • Simple to use
  • Tons of uses
  • Can be customized with themeing
  • Can organize all your boards pretty much however you want
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Cons
  • Does not allow you to view all tasks and sub-tasks (checklist) in a nested view.
  • Comments have character limits that can make it harder for teams to communicate exactly what they want to share.
  • There is no way to mention a teammate in a comment and share files and documents in the conversation (collaborative tool???).
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  • It can be a little frustrating trying to line things up exactly right but that's probably more user error than anything
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Likelihood to Renew
It is a very useful tool that brings teams in sync with one another. The integration with other Microsoft products makes it an obvious choice because you don't have to purchase a license for a completely different tool that doesn't have cross-functional capabilities with the software you already use on a daily basis.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
The tool is easy to use, but it is just as easy to set up. No specific skills are required, but its usefulness in our work is immediately apparent. Colors are very helpful in creating a clear interface and providing a very precise overview of the tasks to be performed.
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Whimsical is overall very easy to learn and remember. One issue with the usability occurs when you attempt to move connected boxes around the workspace. Frequently connections break or do not add easily, causing further disconnects. You can manually fix these issues, but it's a oprobem that seems would have an easy fix
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
I reached out to support, as I was interested in possibly investing in the organization, and they quickly and happily informed me they are a bootstrap organization and do not take on investors at this time. The swift response and information readily available for my consumption was extremely helpful and shows how solid the team behind it is.
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Alternatives Considered
Our organization chose MS Planner because it is an included tool in the MS Suite, and since we are unfortunately replacing our current and much better project management tool due to a consolidation of the tech stack. However, it doesn't appear that any of the teams using the current program intend to use MS Planner due to its poor functionality. We will likely be pivoting to Jira instead.
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ClickUp's mind mapping tool was very basic and hard to use from my perspective. Whimsical was by far easier and did what I wanted for a SaaS/cloud-based mind mapping tool. Xmind is fine as a desktop app, but updating the app was a pain whereas, with Whimsical I don't have to worry about that. Also, I wanted to continue working on a mind map wherever I was, even if I didn't have my laptop or device with me and Whimsical allows me to do that.
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Return on Investment
  • Saved over $1000 each year by not having to purchase a third party tool for our content planning
  • Not sure that I can provide a hard number to this, but having the oversight to see when something is coming due and making sure everything gets executed in time
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  • We've been using free version, so it's a no brainer.
  • As it helps us focus on the information organization process, we don't lose time redoing work due to the lack of planning before doing design or code.
  • We can collaborate on the same project, so it's easier to get things done as we're working from home as well.
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ScreenShots