A common hurdle that many HR teams face is tracking productivity, especially when multiple teams are involved. Tools like time tracking and management software have become practical solutions for staying organized and keeping daily operations on course.
Two popular time management tools are Time Doctor and Microsoft Planner. As the name suggests, Time Doctor specializes in time tracking and employee monitoring. In contrast, Microsoft Planner focuses on productivity management by helping teams organize tasks, create to-do lists, and manage projects more efficiently.
To help you decide between the two, we’ll be discussing all the differences between the software in this article.
Time Doctor Vs Microsoft Planner: At A Glance
Features
Time Doctor
Microsoft Planner
Task Management
Tracks tasks, monitors active minutes, and measures distraction levels
Allows its users to create plans, build task lists, assign responsibilities, and set due dates
Collaboration
Managers can monitor employees, allowing teams to identify areas for improvement
Teams can create plans, assign tasks, share files, and engage in discussions directly within tasks
Integrations
Integrates with a wide variety of third-party platforms
Integrates with other applications found within the Microsoft ecosystem
Pricing
Pricing starts at $8/user/month
Pricing starts at $10/user/month
What Is Time Doctor?
Time Doctor is a workforce monitoring platform designed to enhance productivity for distributed, remote, and in-office teams. Its main features include time tracking, attendance monitoring, distraction alerts, and payroll reporting. It also offers detailed insights into how time is allocated across tasks and projects, enabling organizations to identify inefficiencies and optimize workflows.
With over 60 integrations with enterprise tools, the platform fits quite easily into existing workflows. As such, it’s widely used by SMBs and enterprises across various industries, particularly those with remote or hybrid employees.
Unique Time Doctor Features
Web And App Usage Monitoring: Tracks which websites and applications employees use during work hours, offering usage stats
Distraction Alerts: If a user stays idle or visits unproductive sites (like social media), Time Doctor sends distraction alerts promptly
Time Doctor Pros And Cons
Pros:
Offers screenshot capability for activity monitoring
Microsoft Planner is a task management and collaboration tool within the Microsoft 365 suite, designed to help teams organize, assign, and track work. It offers a unified platform where users can manage tasks, to-do lists, plans, and projects across Microsoft 365 applications. With features such as customizable templates and multiple task views (such as lists, boards, timelines, and sprints), Microsoft Planner provides a structured approach to work.
Due to its integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft Planner is often used by teams that already use other Microsoft products. As such, it is widely used across industries like education, government, finance, and professional services—especially where teams need a project management tool with strong collaboration features.
Unique Microsoft Planner Features
Comments And In-Task Conversations: Enables threaded discussions within tasks for real-time updates
Planner Hub And Charts View: Offers dashboards showing task progress across multiple plans
Microsoft Planner Pros And Cons
Pros:
User-friendly interface simplifies task management for teams
Effective for task organization and tracking
Accessible within the Microsoft 365 suite
Cons:
Limited integrations for third party platforms, which can hamper workflow flexibility
No public view of boards and tasks means that only team members can follow progress
Time Doctor Vs Microsoft Planner – Features Comparison
Task Management
Time Doctor offers task management features that allow users to create projects and break them down into specific tasks, facilitating detailed tracking of time spent on each activity. This granular approach enables managers to monitor progress at both task and project levels, ensuring efficient allocation of resources and timely completion of work.
Additionally, Time Doctor provides real-time dashboards and automated reporting, offering insights into team performance and productivity trends.
Meanwhile, Microsoft Planner provides a collaborative platform where teams can create, assign, and organize tasks within shared plans. Users can set priorities, deadlines, and labels for tasks, and visualize them using various views such as boards and charts. These tasks can also include various items such as checklists and file attachments, allowing users to properly organize and collaborate.
Furthermore, Microsoft Planner also integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 applications, allowing for notifications and task tracking across tools like Teams and Outlook. The 'My Tasks' feature consolidates all tasks assigned to a user, providing a centralized view of individual responsibilities.
Winner: Microsoft Planner offers a more complete form of task management, making it the winner here.
Collaboration
Time Doctor focuses on providing detailed analytics and monitoring tools to enhance individual and team productivity. While it offers features like time tracking, website monitoring, and optional screenshot capture, it does not inherently include built-in collaboration tools such as shared task boards or direct communication channels.
Instead, Time Doctor integrates with various project management and communication platforms, allowing teams to utilize their preferred collaboration tools alongside Time Doctor's monitoring capabilities.
Conversely, Microsoft Planner is designed as a collaborative task management solution within the Microsoft 365 suite, enabling teams to create, assign, and organize tasks collectively. It offers features like shared task boards, file attachments, and progress tracking, facilitating seamless collaboration among team members.
Microsoft Planner also integrates with other Microsoft 365 services, such as Teams and SharePoint, allowing users to co-author documents, have discussions, and share resources directly within the platform. This integration fosters a cohesive environment where team members can collaborate effectively on projects and tasks.
Winner: Microsoft Planner handily wins this round owing to its in-built collaboration features and integrations with the Microsoft ecosystem.
Integrations
Time Doctor offers integrations with over 60 applications, including project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira, as well as payment platforms such as PayPal and Wise. These integrations allow users to track time directly within their existing workflows, facilitating seamless management of projects and payroll processing.
On the other hand, Microsoft Planner integrates with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, connecting with applications like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. This integration enables users to manage tasks and collaborate across various platforms, ensuring a unified and efficient workflow within the Microsoft environment.
Winner: Time Doctor offers more integrations with third party platforms compared to Microsoft. Hence it wins this round.
Pricing
Time Doctor offers four pricing plans as well as a 14-day free trial. These pricing plans are:
Basic - $8/user/month
Standard - $14/user/month
Premium - $20/user/month
Enterprise - Customized pricing
As one may guess, the Basic plan offers all essential features such as time tracking and activity level usage. Meanwhile the higher-tier plans offer additional features like payroll, additional integrations, and screen captures.
In contrast, Microsoft Planner is provided for free in the Microsoft 365 enterprise plans. This version comes bundled with all basic features such as task management and integration with products such as Microsoft Teams, etc.
But Microsoft Planner also comes with more additional features, such as task dependencies and portfolio management. To avail these premium features, users will have to pick a pricing plan. These pricing plans, billed annually, are as follows:
Planner Plan 1 - $10/user/month
Planner and Project Plan 3 - $30/user/month
Planner and Project Plan 5 - $55/user/month
Winner: Time Doctor wins this round since it’s more affordable overall than Microsoft Planner. That being said, users that just want a lightweight project management tool may find the free version of Microsoft Planner more suitable for their needs.
Which One To Choose – Time Doctor Or Microsoft Planner?
In the end, both Time Doctor and Microsoft Planner support productivity, but they cater to different operational needs.
Time Doctor is well-suited for businesses that prioritize employee monitoring, productivity tracking, and time-based analytics, particularly in industries like remote services, and IT.
Microsoft Planner, on the other hand, is ideal for teams already using the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, offering collaborative task management with deep integrations across tools like Teams and Outlook. It works best for organizations in sectors like finance and professional services.
Therefore, the right choice depends on whether your focus is—whether it’s on tracking individual output or promoting team collaboration within a familiar platform. However, if you have a different goal altogether in mind, then try out alternate software such as Gusto HR Software or Trello Software.
