Smartsheet Contributor Joe Weller. What microsodt a CAL? Does Project Online work with Office Plans? Why do I need Project Lite? If you have wondered about these questions, and have been mystified by MS Project licensing, you have come to the right place.

This article will explain microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free various MS Project products both cloud and on-premise versions and their licensing.

MS Project offers numerous products targeted at different audiences. You licending be a project manager who prefers to manage a project in a silo, or a portfolio manager in a PMO who wants to make decisions at a portfolio level.

What if you are a team member who wants to prokect status updates? Let's look at the available options and their dependencies. Project Standard is only available on-premise and is guidee at project microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free who are managing small team projects.

Project Standard is a standalone product and does not have the capability to connect to Project Server for a portfolio-level view. As far as getting status updates from your team, you could purchase Project Standard for each team member; however, giving each of your team members a license of Project Standard can be prohibitively expensive.

In that case, project managers will typically print out copies of the project plan and get status updates on paper, or during regular team meetings, and update the project plan themself. Project Professional provides more features than Project Standard.

One of the major reasons for choosing Project Professional over Project Standard is its ability to connect to Project Server. Connecting to Project Server licensinv you to gain a portfolio-level view and give View, Update, or Edit access to project team members. In addition to delivering portfolio-level capabilities, Project Professional also provides the ability to manage resources and collaborate with your team via Skype for Business.

Project Server gives you the ability to execute your business at a project portfolio level. While Project Professional is deployed in various businesses and can operate in a 206, Project Server allows you to bring all the various projects together, and give View, Access, fres Edit rights to team members and executives across the organization.

Potentially, these two types of CALs are priced differently and might have different use rights check your licensing agreement. Typically, each user and each device needs one CAL. Discover how these two tools compare across six key factors, including: user experience, shareability, reporting, automation, integrations, and price. Watch the full comparison video.

Watch the demo to see how you can more effectively manage your team, projects, and processes with real-time work management in Smartsheet. Watch a free demo. First of all let's clarify the difference between Prkject Professional and Project Pro for Office Both are pretty similar products, except that Project Professional is an on-premise product and Project Pro for Office microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free a cloud product.

While both versions are clients installed on your PC, the major difference is how they are updated. If you have a Software Assurance agreement with Microsoft, you get new versions of Project Professional when new versions are launched by Microsoft typically, once every few years.

With Project Pro for Officeyou do not need to worry about manual updates. Microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free you've enabled automatic updates, Microsoft will keep updating the installed client on your PC microsodt a recurring basis. Another major difference frree number of installations. Typically, one license of Project Professional gives you the ability to install on one PC. One of the main reasons for choosing Project Pro for Office is the ability to connect it to Project Online.

This enables you to gain insight into the portfolio-level view, and give View, Update, or Edit access to project team members. In addition to delivering portfolio-level capabilities, Project Pro for Office provides the ability to manage resources and collaborate with your team via Skype for Business. Project Online is the product corresponding to Project Server, but in the cloud. It gives you the same abilities as Project Server with all the benefits of the cloud e.

What about CALs? You can buy subscriptions of Project Online for as many users as you want. What if you already have a Project Server deployment and you want to test the waters in the cloud? From a licensing perspective, Microsoft has made it easy for you to manage your projects in a hybrid world. You can access your existing Project Server deployment via a Project Online subscription. While Project Online is targeted at PMO and executives, how should you provide access to your many team members?

Project Lite is the product targeted at the team-level audience. In order to use Fred Lite, you must have a subscription to Project Online. From a technical standpoint, Project Lite vuide exactly the same product as Project Online, but offered at a lower price point. From a licensing standpoint, Project Lite enables you to use a subset of capabilities. These capabilities allow you to view and edit timesheets, manage tasks, add issues and risks, and collaborate on project documents.

Targeted at project managers, Project Online bundled microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free Project Pro for Office enables you to add Project Online and Project Pro for Office in one transaction instead of two separate ones without any price discount. One question that comes up often is whether cloud services of Project are bundled with Office Plans.

The answer is no. None of the Office Plans include subscriptions to Micorsoft. You can either purchase subscriptions to Project standalone or you can add them to your existing Office subscription. If you have a subscription to an Office plan that is not listed above, your subscription to Project cannot be added to your existing Office subscription and will need licenxing be added separately.

What if you already microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free a Project Server deployment and want to test the waters in the licensihg From a licensing freee, Microsoft has made it easy for you to manage your projects in a hybrid setting. This visual guide provides a high-level overview of licensiny various MS Project products, their licensing options, and dependencies. You can download a PDF version of the guide using the link below to reference when determining which MS Project product is right for you and your microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free.

One prkject the major reasons microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free choosing Project Professional is the ability to connect to Project Server.

This enables you to gain insight into the portfolio-level view, and give View, Update, or Edit access to project team members via Project CAL. You will need to upgrade to Project Professional buide access Project Server.

Depending on your licensing agreement, you may be able gulde purchase ffee upgrade SKU paying the price difference and not need a new Project Professional license. If your licensing agreement does not provide an upgrade path, you will have to purchase a new Project Professional license. While Project Professional is deployed in many businesses and can operate in a silo, Project Server allows you to bring all your projects together, and give View, Access, or Edit rights to microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free team member across the organization.

This depends on the number of users and devices that mcrosoft be accessing the Project Server. Typically, each user and each device need one Fre.

It depends. When you think of cost, you should not only think of the licensing costs, but the total cost of product ownership. In addition to licensing costs, the cost of hardware, professional consulting fees, and recurring maintenance projcet should be factored in. Obviously when one uses Micrisoft Project in the cloud, some of these costs are not incurred. The answer to the question is very specific to your use licensin and should be modelled out.

Q: I am already using MS Project on-premise. How do I transition to cloud? Depending on your licensing licenaing with Microsoft, you might be able to use the transition SKUs to switch to cloud and not have to purchase new SKUs. The transition SKUs give you the ability to simply pay the cost difference. Project Pro for Licensint is not web browser based, it is a client that is installed on your PC. Project Online and Project Lite are web browser based.

You have access rights to the cloud SKU only while you are paying the subscription fee. This is different from on-premise versions where you own the license. While both versions are installed clients microsort your PC, the major difference between Project Professional and Project Pro microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free Office is how they are updated.

With Project Pro for Officemicrosoft project 2016 licensing guide free do not need to lroject about updates. If you have enabled automatic updates, Microsoft will keep updating the installed client on your PC on a recurring basis. Project can be purchased fere deployed independent of Office You can continue to use the on-premise version of Office and still deploy Project in the cloud.

If you are an Office subscriber, you can choose to add the Project cloud subscription to your current Office subscription as an add-on, or have two different subscriptions.

Q: Do cloud products of Project work with all Office Plans? Sharepoint Online is an infrastructural requirement for microsoft project 2016 licensing guide free Project Online. If you do not already have Sharepoint Online, it will be deployed for you while deploying Project Online. From a technical standpoint, Project Lite has the same capabilities as Project Online. However, from a licensing standpoint, Project Giude gives you the rights to use only a subset of functionality of Project Online.

These capabilities enable you to view and edit timesheets, manage tasks, add issues and risks, and collaborate on project documents. By bundling Project Online with Project Pro for Office it enables you to purchase both products in one transaction. However, there is no price discount for purchasing licensin bundle instead of each product separately. If you already have an on-premise deployment of Project Server, it is possible for you to continue to use the on-premise deployment in conjunction with Project Online and Project Lite.

Microsoft offers the ability to have a hybrid deployment where the on-premise version can be accessed from Project Pronect, Project Lite or Project Pro for Office Q: I am looking for MS Project alternatives. Are there any good resources?