Planisware vs Planview: The Whole vs the Sum of its Parts

Overview

Planisware and Planview are leading providers in the structured work and portfolio management space, serving enterprise and mid-market organizations seeking robust project and portfolio management (PPM) solutions. Both vendors frequently appear on shortlists due to their comprehensive feature sets and established reputations.

However, companies evaluating long-term PPM strategies should look beyond feature checklists. Planisware and Planview differ fundamentally in areas that matter most to sustained business transformation, including customer satisfaction, growth strategy, and the day-to-day experience of working with each firm. This guide provides an in-depth, side-by-side comparison to help organizations make data-driven decision about which provider to choose.

Key Takeaways for Decision Makers

• Market positioning: Understand the relative strengths and market approaches of Planisware and Planview.
• Strategic alignment: Learn which partner aligns best with your organization’s vision for digital transformation, structured work, resource optimization, and adaptive strategy execution.
• Solution buying criteria: Identify key differences and considerations, including platform scalability, integration flexibility, and support responsiveness.

Who Benefits from This Guide?

• Business executives and CXOs: Decision-makers responsible for selecting scalable, governance-focused PPM solutions for long-term growth.
• Enterprise PMO and IT leaders: Leaders tasked with cross-functional investment prioritization, resource utilization, and portfolio impact analysis seeking reliable, best practice-driven platforms.
• Project and program managers: Individuals involved in IT PPM, product development, and industry-specific workstreams, looking for a clear understanding of functional differences to support informed vendor selection.

For organizations undergoing digital transformation or seeking a sustainable competitive advantage by improving their project practices, this guide supports strategic vendor selection by highlighting Planisware and Planview’s unique differentiators, roadmap, and business model philosophy.

Vendor Market Positioning

Planisware and Planview both serve the enterprise and mid-market segments for structured work management solutions. While there is overlap in their target markets and use cases, they differ significantly in platform architecture, growth and go-to-market strategy, integration flexibility, and support structure. Understanding these differences is critical for organizations seeking scalable and sustainable project portfolio management (PPM) solutions.

At-a-Glance Comparison

Customer Satisfaction Ratings: Gartner Peer Insights

Customer feedback, industry recognition, and independent ratings provide direct insight into the real-world performance of project portfolio management (PPM) platforms. Planisware consistently outranks Planview across all major product and service categories, reflecting superior customer satisfaction, usability, and capabilities.

• According to recent Gartner Peer Insights data, Planisware has at least a 0.5-point advantage in the majority of service categories, including strategic portfolio management, end-user experience, and integration quality.
• Planisware was recognized as the 2024 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Strategic Portfolio Management - a recognition Planview has never achieved.
• Customer willingness-to-recommend scores further reflect market sentiment: Planisware scores a 90, compared to Planview’s 55.

These distinctions underscore Planisware’s leadership in customer satisfaction, support quality, and overall value for enterprise and strategic portfolio management buyers.

Notes: The above categories are where Planisware has a full half-star (0.5 point) advantage over Planview. Results data reflects the most recent data available prior to publishing this report (August 1, 2025).

Strategic Partner Considerations

Part 1: Partnering with PE-Backed Vendors

When evaluating long-term project portfolio management (PPM) partners, vendor ownership dynamics and strategic priorities matter. Planisware, as a publicly traded company, offers customers transparency and stability, with financial and product roadmaps focused on sustainable value, not short-term investor returns. By contrast, Planview is backed by private equity (PE), having changed ownership across there major PE firms since 2013 (Thoma Bravo → Vista Equity → TPG/TA). This has led to frequent acquisitions, shifting priorities, and platform complexity.

The table below lists common concerns of business customers when a strategic software supplier has been acquired by private equity firms and makes suggestions for how to protect yourself from its potential negative impacts.

Part 2: Can You Trust Planview?

In page published on its website, Planview falsely claims they support 12 key capabilities that Planisware does not. Not only does Planisware support all these capabilities, but according to customers (see Gartner® Peer Insights™ results above), Planisware provides a superior offering, by a significant margin in most cases, in every comparable product and service category.

What trust can you put in any marketing claims from Planview?

Summary & Conclusions

Planisware and Planview compete closely in the enterprise and mid-market segments for structured work and portfolio management solutions, often offering similar core functionalities. However, when organizations evaluate these vendors as strategic partners, several decisive factors favor Planisware:

• Customer Satisfaction
  According to Gartner Peer Insights, Planisware consistently earns higher satisfaction scores than Planview across all major performance and experience metrics, including a 90 willingness-to-recommend versus Planview’s 55.
• Growth Strategy
  As a public company, Planisware’s roadmap and financials are oriented toward sustainable growth and customer success, with a rational, unified platform strategy and no costly add-ons to achieve full functionality. In contrast, Planview operates six platforms and at least 13 separately licensed products, mostly acquired rather than developed organically. Its private equity-backed, M&A-driven growth strategy - focused on an exit - raises customer risks and questions:
  • Will technical debt continue to limit innovation?
  • Will stretched shared services (consulting, support, customer success) further erode the user experience?
  • Will declining customer satisfaction persist due to customer confusion over product target use cases and over-lapping functionality, as well as usability issues tied to multiple UIs/UXs?
• Trust & Ease of Doing Business
  Planisware’s reputation for trust, partnership, and responsive support is well validated in Gartner Peer Insights and user feedback. Planview’s challenges around customer alignment, support accessibility, and product clarity are recurring customer themes:
  • Understanding customer needs: Planview trails Planisware markedly in this critical metric.
  • Professionalism: Reports of misleading marketing claims and overly aggressive sales tactics.
  • Customer practices: Limited and offshore-only support, rigid pricing, charging for unused support hours, and restricted access to customer success managers (CSMs).
  • Ease of deployment and integration: Planview struggles to match Planisware’s reputation for high quality and responsive onboarding and technical support.

Next Steps

If you are actively considering Planisware or Planview as a strategic project portfolio management partner, follow these recommendations:

• Use this guide as a reference to clarify vendor fit with your business drivers and strategic objectives.
• If you have concerns about private equity ownership and its impact on future support and innovation, revisit the strategic partner considerations outlined above and seek clear contractual commitments.
• When you are ready to evaluate Planisware’s distinct advantages - including integrated, configurable solutions and proven customer experience - contact the Planisware team to discuss your requirements and arrange a demonstration tailored to your goals.

Appendix: Planview Portfolios Add-On Licensing Matrix

The table below highlights a critical differentiation: Planview Portfolios requires separate licenses for specialized capabilities, while Planisware Enterprise delivers all core features within a single, integrated platform license.