What Project Professional 2024 adds over Project Standard 2024
Project Professional 2024 adds team and server features to Project Standard 2024. Planning, scheduling and reporting work identically in both. Professional adds Team Planner, inactive tasks, timesheets, a connection to Project Server Subscription Edition and Teams presence. In Microsoft’s UK store, Project Professional 2024 is £1,149.99 and Project Standard 2024 is £679.99, so Professional costs £470 more per PC.
If you plan only your own work, Standard does the job. Professional starts to pay for itself once you’re sharing tasks out across a team.
What both editions do
Everything Project does for a single planner is in Standard. You can start from templates, let Project work out dates from task dependencies, follow the critical path on a Gantt chart, run several timelines in one plan, save baselines and compare progress against them, use the built-in reports, pool and level resources, try what-if changes to assignments, and copy data straight into Excel, PowerPoint and the other Office apps.
A consultant who sends clients a Gantt chart every week, or a project manager who keeps the plan to themselves, has everything they need in Standard.
Team Planner
For anyone sharing out work, Team Planner is the feature that justifies Professional. Microsoft states that “Team Planner is a feature available only with Project Professional.” It shows the plan by person, with one row for each resource and their tasks laid across a timeline, and any unassigned tasks gathered at the bottom. You move work by dragging it, and in Microsoft’s words “The easiest way to reassign a task is by dragging it to another person.”
The value is in what it shows you without any filtering. Someone booked on two jobs at once, or someone with an empty week, is visible on the screen as soon as the view opens. Open it from the View tab, in the Resource Views group, by choosing Team Planner.
Inactive tasks
Professional can switch a task off without deleting it. An inactive task stays in the plan, dimmed with a line through it, and in Microsoft’s words inactive tasks “no longer affect other tasks or the overall Project plan.” It’s useful for scope that has been cut but might come back, and for seeing how the finish date moves without a particular piece of work. Select the task and choose Task > Schedule > Inactivate.
Timesheets, Project Server and Teams presence
Timesheets in Professional let people, as Microsoft describes it, “Submit timesheets to capture time spent on project and non-project work for payroll, invoicing and more.” They run through Project Server, so they only matter if your organisation has one.
Professional connects to Project Server Subscription Edition, where a team shares enterprise resources and publishes plans to a common project database. Standard can’t connect to Project Server at all.
With Teams presence, hovering over a team member’s name in the plan shows whether they’re online and lets you start a chat or call in Microsoft Teams, which is licensed separately.
Project Online has gone
Microsoft’s product page for Project Professional 2024 still lists “Sync with Project Online and Project Server” among its features, but Project Online retired on 30 September 2026. Microsoft stopped selling it to new customers on 1 October 2025, and projects stored there are no longer accessible. The Project desktop app is unaffected.
The on-premises side narrowed too. Project Server 2016 and Project Server 2019 reached the end of extended support on 14 July 2026, which leaves Project Server Subscription Edition as the supported server. For cloud planning, Microsoft points customers to Planner.
Without Project Server Subscription Edition, timesheets and the server connection do nothing for you, and Team Planner and inactive tasks become the reasons to pay for Professional.
Choosing between them
An architect who plans one building at a time and sends the client a PDF of the programme each month has everything needed in Standard. An IT support company with eight engineers on rotating site visits, where the planner has to see who is free next Tuesday and drag a job onto them, is where Team Planner earns its keep.
Choose Standard if you plan your own work and share plans as PDFs, Excel exports or printouts. Choose Professional if you assign work across several people, run Project Server Subscription Edition, need timesheets tied to project work, or often model changes in scope. Project Professional 2024 is the edition we stock.
Before you install
Project 2024 runs on Windows only, with no Mac version. Microsoft lists Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 as its supported operating systems.
It has to match the Office already on the PC, so both must be 32-bit or both 64-bit. If you run Microsoft 365 Apps alongside it, Microsoft’s compatibility note reads “Requires Version 2408 of Microsoft 365 Apps or later for compatibility with Project 2024, Visio LTSC 2024, and Visio 2024.” Microsoft adds that “Volume licensed Project and Visio installations must be configured to use the same update channel as Microsoft 365 Apps.” The apps from our Office 365 Pro Account are Microsoft 365 Apps, so the same rules apply to them. Project Professional 2024 also works alongside Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 and Office 2024.
The volume licensed version installs with the Office Deployment Tool, using the product ID ProjectPro2024Volume and the language en-us. Microsoft notes that English UK “isn’t available in Project or Visio”, so the Project part of the configuration file needs en-us even when Office is installed in en-gb. Our Office Deployment Tool guide has a configuration file you can adapt.
Project 2024 is supported until 9 October 2029, the same date as Office LTSC 2024. Anyone still on Project 2021, which reached end of support on 13 October 2026, can read what else changed that month in our article on the Office 2021 end of support.
Professional or a Project Plan 3 subscription
Microsoft’s other route is Planner and Project Plan 3, a monthly subscription that includes the Project desktop app. On its UK store page Microsoft says “The core features of the two products are nearly identical when initially purchased.”
The difference is how you pay and what happens over time. Plan 3 always has the latest version, and “You can install Project Plan 3 on up to five PCs.” It stops working if the subscription lapses. Project Professional 2024 is a one-time purchase for one PC, and Microsoft’s page says “Project Professional is a perpetual licence, and once activated, it will not expire.”
Questions about Project Professional and Standard 2024
Can Project Standard 2024 open files saved in Project Professional 2024?
Yes. Both editions use the same .mpp file format.
Is there a Mac version of Project 2024?
No. Project 2024 runs on Windows only.
Does Project Professional 2024 include Microsoft Teams?
No. Teams presence works with Microsoft Teams, which is licensed separately.
Can I install Project 2024 next to Microsoft 365 Apps?
Yes, as long as Microsoft 365 Apps is on version 2408 or later and both use the same architecture. A volume licensed Project also has to be set to the same update channel as Microsoft 365 Apps.
How long is Project 2024 supported?
Until 9 October 2029. The app keeps working after that date without security updates.
Sources
- Project Professional 2024, Microsoft Store UK
- Microsoft Project plans and pricing, Microsoft UK
- View your team’s work with Team Planner, Microsoft Support
- Inactivate a task, Microsoft Support
- Active task field, Microsoft Support
- Project Online lifecycle, Microsoft Learn
- Project 2024 lifecycle, Microsoft Learn
- Supported scenarios for installing different versions of Office, Project, and Visio on the same computer, Microsoft Learn
- Overview of deploying languages for Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Learn