However, if you need to manage a project (tasks), Planner would be a better fit, that’s for sure. For example, if you have a repeatable checklist you need users to complete, lists would be perfect. I personally find List to be a better fit for checklist-type use cases. So whether or not you use List or Planner depends on the use case. No granular security is possible (everyone has the same access to a plan).A variety of built-in views to organize/group tasks.Unlike Lists, it is integrated with the Microsoft 365 Groups, which manages access to a given plan. Planner, on the other hand, is a dedicated Task Management tool that allows for Kanban-style board layout and task management. Calendar View can’t be integrated with Outlook.Great for checklist but not task/project management Just a list (table) view is available (by design).Need to create/build a list first with your own columns/fields.The ability to format rows and cells based on logic/rules.Granular Security allowed (Admin/Member or Visitor).An initial list of tasks can be imported from Excel.I want to clarify, though, that these are not advantages or limitations of the applications, but rather pros and cons in relation to the Planner tool when used in the context of checklist/repeatable tasks use case. I blogged about Lists previously.īelow are some of the pros and cons related to the Lists. Lists have been around for a while, but got a significant boost and range of new features just relatively recently with the introduction of the Microsoft Lists app.

Lists allow your users to organize data that would typically be organized in Excel in the web-based table. So in this post, I would like to compare Microsoft Lists to Microsoft Planner and provide pros and cons for each option. With the overwhelming number of options we have within the Microsoft 365 eco-system, one of the common questions I get from my clients is whether they should be using Lists or Planner to manage tasks and recurring checklist items.

Planner plus app task list