PPM Express Alternatives and PPM Express Pricing for Microsoft and Jira PMOs
PPM Express is a portfolio layer that sits on top of the tools your teams already use and charges one flat yearly fee instead of a price per seat. Buyers compare it when Project Online is gone, when a per user quote from another platform looks too high, or when they suspect the real gap is deciding which projects to fund, not seeing them in one place.
Portfolio Hub is priced per workspace in US dollars, from $24.50 a month billed yearly or $49 monthly. The demo portfolio opens on signup, already scored, ranked and planned against capacity by role.
The best PPM Express alternative depends on whether you need a roll-up, a planning suite or a decision. If your teams live in Microsoft 365 and you want a vendor with a deep partner network, compare OnePlan. If schedules were the main job, Microsoft's Planner and Project Plan 3 may be enough on their own. If resource and financial planning must sit in one enterprise suite, look at Planview or Broadcom Clarity. If the problem is that too much work gets approved, buy a scoring model and a funding line against capacity by role first.
Why PMOs shortlist PPM Express, and why some keep looking
PPM Express connects to Azure DevOps, Jira, Microsoft Project, Planner, monday.com and Smartsheet and pulls their projects into one portfolio. Azure DevOps and Jira sync both ways; the other connectors read data in. On top of that it adds resource planning, financials and benefits tracking, roadmaps, OKRs, idea intake, time tracking and a large library of Power BI reports. The company was founded by people who implemented Microsoft PPM for years, and that shows in how closely it follows the Project Online way of working.
Its most unusual feature is the price. There is no per seat charge on any plan, so a PMO with 300 contributors pays the same as one with 30. The reasons buyers widen the search are also consistent: some need scenario modeling deeper than a roll-up tool offers, some want one enterprise suite with resources and finance in the same record, and some find that seeing every project in one place did not tell anyone which ones to stop.
PPM Express pricing and what each plan includes
PPM Express publishes its prices. On its pricing page, the Enterprise plan is $8,000 a year and the Ultra plan is $25,000 a year, both billed annually with unlimited users and guests and a 30-day trial. The two plans carry the same product; Ultra is for large and public companies that need stronger security terms, support and contract conditions. A third plan, PPM AI, is quoted and adds AI agents with implementation services. Non-profits get 50 percent off, and a full refund is offered within the first 30 days.
| PPM Express plan | Published price | Who it is for | What to ask before you sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | $8,000 a year, billed annually, unlimited users | Most PMOs, from a single department to a mid-size IT portfolio | Which connectors you need, and how often each one refreshes |
| Ultra | $25,000 a year, billed annually, unlimited users | Large enterprises and public companies with security and legal review | Exactly which security, support and contract terms the extra $17,000 buys |
| PPM AI | Custom quote | Teams that want AI agents set up for them | How much of the quote is software and how much is services days |
One warning. Several software directories still show older per user tiers for PPM Express, in the range of $8 to $20 a user a month. Those numbers are out of date. Quote from the vendor's current pricing page and ask for the figure in writing.
What the portfolio layer costs at 100 users
Flat pricing only pays off above a certain headcount. The bars show the yearly list price of the portfolio layer alone for 100 users, using each vendor's published figures. Microsoft licenses you already own are left out on purpose.
The same math at other team sizes is below. OnePlan Basic is $10 a user a month billed annually, so it matches the PPM Express Enterprise fee at about 67 users and costs more above that. The comparison is not like for like, because OnePlan's resource and financial plans sit in its quoted Enterprise edition and Planner Plan 3 is a scheduling license, not a portfolio layer. It still tells you where a flat fee starts to save money.
| Users | PPM Express Enterprise | OnePlan Basic | Planner and Project Plan 3 | Portfolio Hub |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | $8,000 | $3,000 | $9,000 | $894 (Team) |
| 50 | $8,000 | $6,000 | $18,000 | $894 (Team) |
| 100 | $8,000 | $12,000 | $36,000 | $2,394 (Portfolio Office) |
| 250 | $8,000 | $30,000 | $90,000 | $2,394 (Portfolio Office) |
Yearly list prices, before discounts and partner services. Portfolio Hub is priced per workspace, so the figure does not move with headcount; the plan changes with the number of initiatives and roles you plan, not with users.
PPM Express competitors compared by the job they do
We sell one of the products in this table, so read the last row as our own view and test it on your own data. Owners are listed because portfolio software keeps consolidating, and a new parent often means a new price list.
| Tool | Owner | What it is | How it is priced | Where it beats PPM Express | Where PPM Express still wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OnePlan | Independent | Strategic portfolio and work management built around Microsoft 365 | Basic $10 per user a month annually, Enterprise quoted | Portfolio modeler and what-if scenarios, and a large Microsoft partner network | A flat fee that does not grow with every contributor |
| Planner and Project Plan 3 or Plan 5 | Microsoft | Microsoft's premium Planner plans with Project desktop | $30 and $55 per user a month on annual terms | No second vendor, and scheduling depth from Project desktop | Roll-up across Jira and DevOps, resources, financials and benefits |
| Planview | Private, backed by TPG and TA Associates | Enterprise portfolio platforms with resource and financial planning | Quoted, usually with services | Resource management depth, scale and enterprise references | Price you can see today and a rollout measured in weeks |
| Broadcom Clarity | Broadcom | Enterprise PPM with IT financial management | Quoted | Cost allocation, chargeback and very large IT portfolios | Ease of adoption and connectors to the tools teams already use |
| ServiceNow SPM | ServiceNow | Strategic portfolio management on the Now Platform | Quoted, sold with the platform | One record for IT demand, projects and services | Independence from a platform contract you may not have |
| Meisterplan | itdesign GmbH, independent | Portfolio and capacity planning built around scenarios | Per schedulable resource, quoted | Capacity scenarios a steering group can read at a glance | Time tracking and two-way delivery sync in the same tool |
| Celoxis | Independent | All-in-one project and portfolio management | Published per user tiers in US dollars | Delivery and portfolio in one tool when teams have no tracker yet | Keeping Jira, DevOps and Planner where they are |
| Portfolio Hub | Independent | A focused portfolio workspace: scoring, ranking, funding line, capacity plan by role, gate packs | Per workspace, from $24.50 a month billed yearly | Deciding which projects to fund, at a price below any roll-up tool | Live sync from Jira and DevOps, timesheets and Power BI report packs |
For the full category with the owner of every vendor, see our comparison of PPM software and project portfolio management tools. If the evaluation started because Project Online retired, the licensing side is covered in our guide to Microsoft PPM software and its pricing.
When PPM Express is the right call
PPM Express fits some PMOs very well. If two or more of these describe you, put it at the top of the shortlist.
Work runs in three or more tools
If some teams use Jira, some Azure DevOps and some Planner, a roll-up with two-way sync on the first two is the main job, and that is what PPM Express is built for.
Headcount keeps growing
Past roughly 70 contributors, a flat yearly fee is cheaper than any per user portfolio layer, and finance does not have to approve every new seat.
Your reporting lives in Power BI
A large ready-made report library saves the months a PMO usually spends rebuilding Project Online reports.
You want to start this quarter
Published prices and a 30-day trial mean no procurement cycle before you can test it on real projects.
Pick the alternative by the sentence that describes your problem
Evaluations drift when everyone agrees the portfolio needs a tool but not on what the tool has to do. Find the sentence closest to yours and start there.
| If you would say this | Start with | Because |
|---|---|---|
| We cannot see all our projects in one place | PPM Express or OnePlan | A roll-up across delivery tools is exactly their job |
| We mostly need better schedules inside Microsoft | Planner and Project Plan 3 | Microsoft sells that job directly, with no second vendor |
| Resources, timesheets and finance must sit in one suite | Planview or Broadcom Clarity | That depth is what their quotes buy |
| IT demand already runs through ServiceNow | ServiceNow SPM | Demand, projects and services share one record |
| We can see every project, and everything is still approved | A portfolio workspace with a scoring model and a funding line | The missing artifact is an agreed ranking against capacity by role |
The last row is the one roll-up tools tend to miss. Visibility shows you that 140 percent of your engineers are booked; it does not tell the steering group which three projects to stop. Our project prioritization tool scores every initiative on the same criteria and draws the funding line, and the resource capacity planning tool shows the gap by role and month.
Five checks to run in a PPM Express trial or competitor demo
Thirty days is enough if you use real data. Connect twenty live projects and your real role list, then run these checks with the people who will use the result.
| Check | What to do | What a pass looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Connector freshness | Change a date in Jira and in a Planner plan, then time how long the portfolio takes to show it | Both changes appear on the schedule you were promised |
| Write-back | Edit a field in the portfolio and look for it in Jira or Azure DevOps | The edit lands in the delivery tool without a manual copy |
| Year two cost | Price the plan, any services days and the Microsoft licenses underneath | One total finance accepts, with every license type named |
| The cut decision | Set the budget below total demand | The portfolio splits into funded and not funded, with a reason for each |
| Your data comes out | Export the register, scores and capacity plan | Excel or CSV on demand, without a reporting project |
If the steering group still argues over which projects to start, settle the method before the tool. Our guide to project prioritization frameworks compares the scoring approaches PMOs actually use.
Questions people ask when comparing PPM Express alternatives
What is PPM Express used for?
PPM Express is project portfolio management software that rolls projects from Azure DevOps, Jira, Microsoft Project, Planner, monday.com and Smartsheet into one portfolio. PMOs use it for portfolio dashboards, resource planning, financials and benefits, roadmaps, idea intake and Power BI reporting, without moving teams off the tools they already use.
How much does PPM Express cost?
PPM Express lists its Enterprise plan at $8,000 a year and its Ultra plan at $25,000 a year, both billed annually with unlimited users and guests and a 30-day trial. A PPM AI plan with AI agents and implementation is quoted. Non-profits get 50 percent off. Older per user prices shown on some directories are out of date.
What are the best PPM Express alternatives?
For a Microsoft-native portfolio layer with scenario modeling, OnePlan. For scheduling inside Microsoft only, Planner and Project Plan 3 or Plan 5. For enterprise resource and financial depth, Planview or Broadcom Clarity. For IT demand on the Now Platform, ServiceNow SPM. For ranking and funding projects against capacity by role, a portfolio decision workspace.
Is PPM Express a Project Online replacement?
PPM Express is one of the portfolio layers Microsoft shops use after Project Online. It reads Microsoft Project and Planner, syncs both ways with Azure DevOps and Jira, and ships Power BI reports. Whether it replaces your Project Web App depends on whether PWA ran your resource pool and timesheets, which PPM Express covers, or custom enterprise workflows, which need checking in the trial.
Is PPM Express cheaper than OnePlan?
It depends on headcount. OnePlan Basic is $10 per user a month billed annually, so it costs less than the $8,000 PPM Express Enterprise fee below about 67 users and more above it. OnePlan Enterprise, which carries resource and financial plans, is quoted, so ask for that figure before comparing.
Does PPM Express work with Jira and Azure DevOps?
Yes. PPM Express lists two-way synchronization with Azure DevOps and Jira, and read integrations with Microsoft Project, Planner, monday.com and Smartsheet, plus a REST API, Zapier and Power Automate. In a trial, change a date in each tool and time how long the portfolio takes to show it.
Pick the plan that matches the size of the portfolio
Starter
$24.50/mo
Billed $294 a year, or $49 monthly
- 20 initiatives
- 8 delivery roles
- 5 stage gate packs a month
- Excel and CSV export
Team
$74.50/mo
Billed $894 a year, or $149 monthly
- 100 initiatives
- 40 delivery roles
- 40 stage gate packs a month
- Excel and CSV export
Portfolio Office
$199.50/mo
Billed $2,394 a year, or $399 monthly
- Unlimited initiatives
- Unlimited delivery roles
- Unlimited stage gate packs
- Excel and CSV export
Rank the portfolio before you buy the roll-up
Create your account, load the projects you plan to connect, and take a ranking, a funding line and a capacity gap by role to the vendor demos. You will know what the platform has to do, and whether you need one at all this year.