Is self-hosted OpenProject cheaper than Microsoft Project for your organization?
The answer depends on user count, edition and the Microsoft infrastructure you already run. If a renewal, the retirement of Project Online or the end of support for Project Server is forcing a decision, start by listing the named users, the Microsoft agreement terms that apply to them, and any SharePoint and SQL Server capacity that exists only to support the scheduling farm. Microsoft costs are not quoted here. Pull them from your own agreement and your licensing advisor, because discounts, bundles and enterprise terms vary by customer. OpenProject's side of the comparison is more straightforward: the Community edition carries no license fee, and its per-user pricing applies only when you need Enterprise features.
OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month. The Basic plan is 5.95 euros and the Professional plan is 10.95 euros, with a 25-user minimum. The Premium plan is 15.95 euros with a 100-user minimum, and the Corporate plan is quoted on request for 250 or more users, according to the OpenProject pricing page. Single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization and custom branding sit in these paid plans, so an organization that needs directory-based access control should price Enterprise into its comparison from the start. Small teams that work without those controls may find that the Community edition covers the scheduling work they need.
Costs that do not appear on a price list still decide the outcome. On the OpenProject side, expect one-time work for installation, hardening, data migration and user training, plus recurring costs for the servers, backups, patching and any support plan you choose. OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, which keeps hosting costs modest if you already run virtualization. On the Microsoft side, ask for the current per-user price for each license you hold, the cost of the server licenses and SQL Server if you still run Project Server, and the infrastructure and administration hours that keep the farm supported. Request a written quote for both paths on the same user count and the same three-year horizon, so the figures compare like for like.
Which cost components change when you move from Microsoft Project to OpenProject
This table lists each cost component of a Microsoft Project or Project Server estate beside its OpenProject counterpart, and marks whether each cost is one-time or recurring. Use it to build your own comparison from your current invoices and a written quote, since Microsoft figures should come from your agreement and OpenProject list prices from its pricing page. The main takeaway is that licensing is only one line, and the server, migration and internal skills rows often decide the total.
| Cost component | Microsoft Project or Project Server | OpenProject self-hosted | One-time or recurring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application licensing | Project subscription or Project Server licenses per user, plus any client access licenses your agreement requires. Check the current terms with your Microsoft reseller or agreement. | Community edition is free. Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, with Basic, Professional, Premium and Corporate tiers on the OpenProject pricing page. | Recurring |
| Server, SharePoint and SQL Server farm | Project Server runs on SharePoint and SQL Server, so you pay for the server licenses, SQL Server edition and any hardware or hosting for each farm tier. Confirm the editions with your licensing advisor. | Application servers plus a PostgreSQL 16 or later database with the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions. No SharePoint or SQL Server licenses are required. | Recurring for hosting and database licenses; one-time for hardware purchase |
| Infrastructure sizing | Farm sizing depends on Microsoft's topology guidance for web front ends, application servers and databases. Ask your Microsoft partner for a written sizing for your user count. | OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, and 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. | Recurring for compute and storage |
| Implementation and configuration | Farm build, PWA configuration, custom fields, security groups and reporting setup, often done by a partner or internal team. | Installation via Docker, packages or Kubernetes with Helm charts, plus configuration of projects, custom fields, roles, SSO and LDAP group sync on Enterprise plans. | One-time |
| Migration from Project files or Project Server | Exporting schedules and resources and rebuilding them; baselines and leveling do not carry over, so budget time for re-creating status history. | Excel-based import of work packages and relations. The Jira Migrator is beta and not relevant here, so confirm your importer path before quoting. | One-time |
| Support, upgrades and internal skills | Microsoft support plans and the staff who run SharePoint, SQL Server and Project Server patches, which are often separate roles. | Community support is included with Community edition; Enterprise plans include vendor support. Upgrades, patching and Linux administration need an internal owner or a retainer. | Recurring |
| Backup and disaster recovery | Farm backup covers SQL databases, search and content databases, and configuration, often requiring separate tooling and restore testing. | Backups of the PostgreSQL database, attachments and configuration must be scheduled and restore-tested in your own environment. | Recurring |
What moves the cost comparison most
The gap between Microsoft Project and self-hosted OpenProject depends less on list prices than on a handful of drivers. Headcount sets the per-user Enterprise tier, feature needs decide whether that tier is required, and the infrastructure and skills you already have decide how much new work you take on.
Named user count and tier thresholds
OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month, and the tiers start at 25 users for Professional, 100 for Premium and 250 for Corporate, which is quoted on request. A team just above a threshold pays for the higher tier across every seat. Count the people who will log time, edit work packages or hold a named account, not just the project managers, and ask the vendor how named users are counted before you compare totals.
Edition features that need Enterprise
Single sign-on, LDAP group synchronization, custom branding and the Jira Migrator sit in paid Enterprise plans, while portfolio and resource management also sit there. If you need these, the Community edition is not a like-for-like comparison with Project Server. Confirm which features your governance model requires, such as SAML or OIDC login, and price only those tiers, since a team that needs only Gantt charts and time tracking can stay on Community.
Data volume and attachments
Storage cost grows with attachments, comment history and the number of projects kept online for years. Schedules are small, but engineering documents, change records and scanned approvals are not. Estimate attachment volume per project and decide how long closed projects must stay searchable. Larger volumes raise disk, backup copies and restore time on your own storage, and they also affect how much of a migration you choose to move.
Availability and redundancy requirements
A single Docker host is the simplest and cheapest path, while Kubernetes with Helm charts supports horizontal scaling but adds cluster, load balancing and database high availability work. The sizing guide scales from 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users to 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Ask what recovery time the business expects, because that answer determines whether you pay for a second node and a replicated PostgreSQL database.
Existing Microsoft Entra ID and SharePoint investment
If your organization already licenses Microsoft Entra ID and SharePoint, some identity and document costs are already paid and do not disappear on migration. Moving off Project Server does not remove those licenses unless you also retire the services that use them. Separate the Project-specific spend from shared Microsoft agreements, then confirm with your account team which licenses would actually be reduced, and whether OpenProject's SSO setup reuses your existing directory.
Internal Linux, PostgreSQL and Docker skills
Self-hosting moves operating, patching, backup and upgrade work to your team or to a partner. OpenProject officially supports PostgreSQL 16 or later and needs the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions, and packaged installs target distributions such as Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12 and RHEL 9.x. Teams that already run these platforms carry lower ongoing labor. Teams without them should price training or a managed support retainer into the comparison from the start.
How to build the comparison with your own numbers
This sequence turns the cost discussion into a model built from your own user counts, Microsoft terms and written quotes, so you can compare the two options on the same basis over several years.
Inventory named users and their roles
Start by listing every person who touches Microsoft Project, Project Web App or the Project desktop client, grouped by role: schedule owners, resource managers, portfolio reviewers, timesheet submitters and read-only stakeholders. Note which roles need portfolio or resource views, because those features sit in paid OpenProject Enterprise plans. The IT owner of the Microsoft estate and the PMO lead should sign off on the list. You know this step is done when every current user is assigned one role and the counts per role add up to your total.
Pull current Microsoft agreement and renewal terms
Ask your Microsoft account team or reseller for the current licensing terms by component: Project desktop client licenses, Project Server or Project Online entitlements, SharePoint and SQL Server licenses or hosting, and any Software Assurance or subscription renewal dates. Ask each component to be shown separately, with its unit basis (per user, per device or per server core) and the term end date. You know this step is done when you hold a written table that lists each component, its unit price basis and its renewal date, with the source document named.
Size the OpenProject server tier
Use OpenProject's system requirements sizing guide to match your user count to a server tier. The guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, and 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Add the database and file storage needs separately, since PostgreSQL 16 or later is required and attachment volume depends on your project history. Ask your infrastructure team to price these tiers in your own cloud account or data center. You know this step is done when you have a chosen tier, its hardware or instance cost, and the storage estimate written down.
Price the Enterprise tier for your user count
Take your named user count per role and check it against OpenProject's Enterprise on-premises plans on the pricing page. Plans are priced per named user per month, with a 25-user minimum for Professional and a 100-user minimum for Premium, and Corporate is quoted on request for 250 or more users. Decide whether you need the Enterprise features, such as SSO, LDAP group synchronization or portfolio and resource management, or whether the Community edition covers the work. Request the Enterprise quote in writing from OpenProject or an implementation partner. You know this step is done when you have one monthly figure per plan option, with the minimum and the assumed user count stated.
Quote migration and implementation separately
Request migration and implementation as one-time quotes, separate from the recurring license lines. Migration covers exporting schedules from Microsoft Project or Project Server, rebuilding resources and custom fields in OpenProject, and deciding what does not carry over, such as baselines and leveling. Implementation covers installation, identity integration, backup configuration and user onboarding. Ask each provider to state its scope, deliverables and exclusions in writing before you compare prices. Most engagements are fixed-scope, so a written scope is the basis for a fair comparison. You know this step is done when each one-time item has its own written scope and a separate quote.
Add recurring support and upgrade effort
List the recurring work that the self-hosted option needs: patching and upgrades (OpenProject publishes frequent releases), backup testing, monitoring, access reviews and vendor or partner support. Assign each item to an internal team or an external retainer, and estimate the staff hours from your own operations data rather than from assumptions. Do the same for the Microsoft side, including the on-premises farm maintenance if you keep Project Server. You know this step is done when every recurring task has an owner, an estimated effort figure from your own team, and a cost line in the model.
Build a three to five year view with a sensitivity check
Put all one-time and recurring costs into a spreadsheet covering three to five years, with separate rows for each Microsoft component and each OpenProject item. Add a sensitivity check on user growth: rerun the model at your current count, at a higher count and at a lower count, and note where the Enterprise plan tier or server tier changes. Keep the license terms and renewal dates visible so the timing of each cost is clear. Ask a finance partner to review the assumptions. You know this step is done when the model shows year-by-year totals for both options under at least three user scenarios, and each assumption links to a written source.
Where the Microsoft Project cost actually sits
The Microsoft Project bill is split across four places, and only some of them appear on a single invoice. The first is the per-user client or service subscription that lets people open and edit schedules. The second is Project Server licensing for on-premises deployments, which is separate from the desktop client. The third is the infrastructure underneath: the SharePoint farm that hosts Project Web App, the SQL Server databases that hold project data, the web and application servers, storage, backups, and test or disaster recovery copies. The fourth, and often the largest hidden line, is the staff who run it: farm administrators, SharePoint and SQL specialists, and the people who patch, upgrade and troubleshoot the stack. Ask your Microsoft licensing partner or account team to itemize each component per year, and separate what you own from what recurs.
Timing matters as much as the amount. Project Online retired on September 30, 2026, and Project Server 2019 extended support ended on July 14, 2026. If your organization still runs either, the cost of staying on an unsupported or retired service can include security exposure, emergency upgrade work and licenses that no longer match your deployment. Confirm your current support status, your subscription end dates and whether your agreement covers Project Server Subscription Edition with Microsoft directly, because these answers determine which costs are still avoidable. Record the date on which each component stops being supported, then price the cost of carrying it until that date.
Once the components are listed, the comparison with OpenProject becomes concrete. OpenProject Community has no license fee, so its recurring cost is the servers or Kubernetes capacity you provide, database and backup operations, and the administration time to keep it current. Enterprise plans add per-user fees for features such as single sign-on and LDAP synchronization, and the OpenProject pricing page lists them by tier. Migration and integration work is mostly one-time. Ask any implementation partner for a written split between one-time setup, recurring hosting and administration, and per-user licensing, so you can compare each line with the Microsoft components above.
How the comparison changes by starting point
If you stay on Project Server Subscription Edition, the costs are mostly recurring and Microsoft-facing. The product itself is licensed through your Microsoft agreement, but the farm it runs on adds SharePoint, SQL Server and Windows Server components, each with its own licensing and administration. Comparing against OpenProject means putting those components next to OpenProject's per-user Enterprise fees or its free Community edition, plus the servers that would run it.
- Subscription and client access licenses: Ask your reseller to break out the Project Server subscription, the user access licenses and any Enterprise-level features by user type.
- SharePoint farm: Count the farm roles, service applications and the people who patch and back them up, since these recur every year.
- SQL Server: Confirm the edition, core count and whether the database licenses are bundled with your agreement or bought separately.
- Administration labor: Patching, farm upgrades and troubleshooting are paid staff time that changes little if you stay on the same stack.
- Self-hosted OpenProject alternative: For comparison only, OpenProject Enterprise on-premises lists Basic at 5.95 euros per named user per month, with a 25-user minimum, per the OpenProject pricing page.
Before comparing totals, ask for a quote that lists every component separately, including the year in which each license renews. Confirm the current licensing terms in writing with Microsoft or your reseller.
Project Server 2019 extended support ended on July 14, 2026, so the cost question changes. Staying on an unsupported farm carries risk that is hard to price, and any plan to keep it running for a while adds one-time hardening work and isolation controls before any migration starts. The decision is then between a supported Microsoft upgrade and a move to OpenProject on your own servers, with the farm's safety as a deciding factor.
- Interim hardening: Network isolation, restricted access and extra monitoring for an unsupported farm are one-time or short-term costs that need their own quote.
- Migration project work: Extracting schedules, rebuilding resources and custom fields, and validating data is one-time effort that usually costs more than the software.
- Dual running period: Keeping the old farm and the new platform live together adds server and staff costs until cutover is complete.
- OpenProject licensing: The free Community edition covers core work packages, Gantt charts and time tracking, while SSO, LDAP group synchronization and SCIM provisioning sit in paid Enterprise plans.
- Servers for OpenProject: The system requirements sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, which is a starting point that you should confirm against your own load.
Ask any implementation partner to separate the interim security work from the migration work in the quote, so you can see which costs disappear after cutover.
Project Online retired in September 2026, so the recurring Microsoft subscription is no longer the main cost to compare. The remaining costs are the one-time export and rebuild work, plus any Microsoft-side data retrieval you still need. Because Project Online data is often only partly recoverable through exports, the migration effort is usually the largest line item, and it needs to be scoped before a price can be set.
- Export and recovery: Confirm what your exports can actually return, including schedules, resources, custom fields and any reporting data your finance team uses.
- Baselines and leveling: Baselines and resource leveling typically do not carry over automatically, so plan to rebuild or document them as a one-time task.
- Self-hosted hosting: Servers for OpenProject are recurring infrastructure costs that replace a cloud subscription, so ask for hosting costs in your own cloud or data center.
- Enterprise features: If you need SSO, LDAP synchronization or portfolio and resource management, add the Enterprise plan fees to the per-user comparison.
- Support model: Community support is free, while Enterprise plans include vendor support, so choose based on the on-call expectations of your team.
Before signing a scope, ask for a written list of exported data types and the rebuild work each one requires, since that list determines most of the one-time cost.
If Project Web App is mainly a timesheet and status tool, the comparison focuses on time capture, approvals and the finance exports that read Project Server data. The software cost can be lower than full Project Server, but the work to rebuild reports and approval paths is easy to underestimate. The question is whether your finance and reporting workflows depend on Project Server tables rather than on the timesheet screens themselves.
- Time tracking in OpenProject: Time tracking against work packages is part of the Community edition, so timesheet capture alone does not require a paid plan.
- Approval workflows: Check whether your approval chain needs SSO, group-based permissions or provisioning, since those features sit in paid Enterprise plans.
- Finance exports: Reports that query Project Server data directly must be rebuilt against OpenProject's data model, which is a one-time engineering task.
- Cost and budget reporting: Confirm which cost and budget views your finance team uses today, and whether they can be reproduced in OpenProject.
- User count: Per-user Enterprise fees scale with named users, so a timesheet-only group may still need to be counted if it logs in.
Ask for the list of finance reports that read Project Server data and confirm each one will be rebuilt or retired before comparing totals.
Questions buyers ask before comparing costs
How much effort does a Microsoft Project to OpenProject migration take?
The effort depends on what you are moving: a set of Gantt schedules in Excel or Project desktop files is a different job from a Project Server farm with custom fields, resource pools and years of timesheet history. Expect the largest share of work in rebuilding resources, custom fields and hierarchy, and in checking dates and dependencies after import. Baselines and leveling results do not carry over, so you will need a decision on whether to keep archived copies of old plans. Ask the implementer to break the effort into inventory, mapping, test imports, cutover and post-cutover checks, and to state which of those steps are included in the price.
Can our own team migrate from Microsoft Project without outside help?
A small team with a clear list of schedules and a few custom fields can often handle a pilot itself, using OpenProject's Excel synchronization to upload work packages with hierarchy and relations. The harder parts are a large portfolio, many resource calendars, and any reporting that finance or PMO reads from Project Server data. Those need someone who knows both the Microsoft data model and OpenProject's data model. Decide early which schedules are worth moving at all, because archiving inactive projects can shrink the job considerably.
What does the migration need from our internal staff?
The work needs named people who own decisions, not just time. A project management office lead should confirm which projects, fields and reports matter. A Project Server administrator or an analyst who knows the existing schedules should provide exports and explain the dependencies. Someone from identity or IT operations is needed for accounts, SSO and any LDAP groups. Finally, a business owner should sign off test imports. Ask any provider how many hours of internal time they expect from each role, and ask who signs off each stage.
How long will the migration take?
No duration can be stated without a defined scope. The timeline depends on the number of projects, how many fields and resources need rebuilding, the quality of the source data and how many test cycles your reviewers need. Ask for a timeline in the written scope with milestones for inventory, a test import, user acceptance and cutover, and confirm which dependencies sit with your team, such as server provisioning or identity changes. If a provider cannot tie the timeline to a list of projects, treat the estimate as a guess.
Is the OpenProject Community edition enough for SSO and LDAP?
Usually not. OpenProject lists single sign-on (SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos and Okta), LDAP group synchronization and custom branding among its Enterprise features, and SCIM provisioning and portfolio and resource management also sit in paid Enterprise plans. The Community edition is free and covers work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking and dashboards, with community support. If your organization requires centralized sign-in or group-based access, include the Enterprise plan in your cost model. Confirm current plan contents on the pricing page before you sign.
Does the Jira Migrator beta help with a Microsoft Project move?
No. The OpenProject Jira Migrator imports from Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x only, does not support Jira Cloud, and is in beta with documentation advising use only in test setups. It is designed for Jira data, so it does not apply to Microsoft Project files or Project Server databases. Plan the Microsoft migration around Excel-based synchronization and your own mapping work, and do not include a Jira migration tool in the cost of this project.
What should we ask for in a written quote?
Ask for a quote built from a written scope that names the source systems, the project count, the fields and resources to rebuild, and the reports to replace. Each line should show whether it is one-time (inventory, mapping, migration, testing, training, cutover) or recurring (hosting, OpenProject licenses, support and upgrades). Ask which OpenProject plan the quote assumes, how many named users it covers, and what the per-user rate and minimum are on the pricing page. Confirm acceptance criteria, what happens to data that fails validation, and how post-go-live support is billed.
What to ask for in a fixed-scope quote
A written scope is what turns a cost comparison into a number you can approve, so ask for each of the following to be listed as a separate deliverable. The migration inventory comes first: the count of projects, work packages, attachments, custom fields, users and open baselines in your Microsoft Project or Project Server estate, with a note on which items will not carry over. Next, ask for server sizing tied to your user count, using OpenProject's published sizing guide as the starting point, plus the PostgreSQL version and required extensions, the Docker or package install method, and the backup target. Ask for an Enterprise edition mapping that names which paid plan each feature need falls under, such as SSO, LDAP group synchronization and portfolio or resource management, and states the named-user count the plan is priced on. Confirm the current figures on OpenProject's pricing page before you rely on them, since licensing changes.
The scope should also cover SSO and LDAP configuration against your identity provider, including group mapping to OpenProject roles and a test of deprovisioning for a departed user. Ask for backup and restore testing with a recorded restore to a separate host, not only a statement that backups run. Ask for an upgrade plan that describes how you will move between OpenProject releases, which test environment is used first, and who signs off. Ask for handover documentation covering runbooks, administrator accounts, monitoring and the decisions behind configuration, and confirm that the documentation is delivered to and owned by your team. Finally, if you want ongoing help, ask for any retainer for ongoing support as a separate, optional line item with its own written terms, so that the one-time migration cost stays distinct from the recurring cost. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, and a quote follows from the written scope, so the more precisely these items are defined, the more precisely the quote can be assessed.
How DeployOpen scopes a fixed-price OpenProject implementation
DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up, documents and supports self-hosted OpenProject inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For a Microsoft Project cost comparison, we start by turning your licensing, server and migration numbers into a written scope so you can see what you would pay for and who does the work.
How we scope
- We inventory your current Microsoft Project licenses, Project Server farm components and the number of named users who need access.
- We agree the OpenProject edition, user count and Enterprise features such as SSO and LDAP group synchronization in writing before work starts.
- Engagements are fixed-scope, so deliverables, timelines and responsibilities are documented in the agreed scope, with ongoing support available as a retainer.
How we build
- We size and deploy OpenProject with Docker or packaged installs on your own servers, following the published system requirements for your user count.
- We configure PostgreSQL 16 or later with the required extensions, along with authentication, roles, custom fields and project templates.
- We test imported schedules, relations and user access against a sample of your real plans before any production cutover.
How we hand over
- We document the architecture, configuration, backup and restore steps, and the decisions taken for each Microsoft Project feature that does not carry over.
- We provide a written list of what was migrated and what was rebuilt manually, so your project controllers know which baselines and resource views must be recreated.
- We train your administrators on user management, upgrades and routine operations so that your team can run the platform after handover.
How we support
- We offer ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing as a retainer, scoped separately from the implementation.
- We keep backups and upgrade plans aligned with each OpenProject release, so patches are applied through a documented, tested process.
- Before you rely on a cost model, we recommend confirming current OpenProject pricing and Microsoft licensing terms with each vendor, since we do not publish a price list and quotes follow from the written scope.
