Best for
Best for software teams that want planning, source control and CI/CD in one Microsoft stack.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Project Management Comparison
Azure DevOps vs. Plane
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for software teams that want a modern issue tracker they can self-host, including air-gapped.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Azure DevOps | Plane |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free for 5 users; then $6 / user / month Basic $6 per user and month after the first five, who are free; Basic + Test Plans $52. Stakeholder access is unlimited and free. Pipelines, package storage and extra parallel jobs are billed on top. | Free; Pro from $6 / seat / month Free plan for up to 12 users. Business is $13 per seat and month, Enterprise Grid is a custom quote, and the pricing page advertises a discount on annual billing. AI credits are allotted per seat and rise with the plan. |
| Free trial | Free for the first five users | Free tier for up to 12 users, plus a 14-day Business trial without payment details |
| API | Yes, REST API, service hooks, marketplace extensions and an MCP server | Yes, a REST API with more than 180 endpoints, webhooks, OAuth apps and an MCP server |
| Hosting | Not stated | Cloud, or self-hosted on Docker or Kubernetes, including air-gapped |
| Task planning | Yes, Azure Boards with work items, backlogs, sprints, Kanban boards, queries and customisable work item types and workflows | Yes, work items grouped into cycles, modules, epics and initiatives, across five layouts including board, list, spreadsheet and Gantt, with intake forms, estimates and approval workflows |
| Resource planning | Sprint capacity per team member in hours a day, with days off, activity split across teams and capacity bars against remaining work | Not a staffing planner; real-time dashboards track velocity, workload and blockers instead |
| Time tracking | Estimates rather than a timer: tasks carry Original Estimate and Remaining Work, which feed capacity and the sprint burndown | Yes, from the Pro plan up |
| Reporting and controlling | Yes, dashboards with widgets, queries and charts, plus the Analytics service and Power BI reporting | Yes, real-time dashboards for velocity, workload and blockers, with advanced dashboard widgets on Business |
| Integrations and API | Yes, REST API, service hooks and extensions from the Visual Studio Marketplace | Yes, a REST API with more than 180 endpoints, webhooks, OAuth apps, an MCP server and YAML projects-as-code, plus 50-plus integrations and migration from Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp and Monday |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| MCP-ready | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | Community forum | Not stated |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries GitHub, Visual Studio, VS Code, IntelliJ, Eclipse, Android Studio, Xcode, Power BI, Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes | GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Sentry |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Azure DevOps Free for 5 users; then $6 / user / month Plane Free; Pro from $6 / seat / month
- Free trial Azure DevOps Free for the first five users Plane Free tier for up to 12 users, plus a 14-day Business trial without payment details
- AI features Azure DevOps No Plane Yes
- API Azure DevOps Yes, REST API, service hooks, marketplace extensions and an MCP server Plane Yes, a REST API with more than 180 endpoints, webhooks, OAuth apps and an MCP server
- Task planning Azure DevOps Yes, Azure Boards with work items, backlogs, sprints, Kanban boards, queries and customisable work item types and workflows Plane Yes, work items grouped into cycles, modules, epics and initiatives, across five layouts including board, list, spreadsheet and Gantt, with intake forms, estimates and approval workflows
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Azure DevOps
Strengths
- Free for the first five users, with unlimited free stakeholder access
- Boards sit next to repositories, pipelines, test plans and packages
- Self-hosted route through Azure DevOps Server
Limitations
- Built around software delivery rather than general project work
- Pipelines, storage and test plans are billed separately from seats
Plane
Strengths
- Open source under AGPL-3.0, with self-hosting on Docker, Kubernetes or air-gapped infrastructure
- Cloud and self-hosted run the same product, so moving between them is a deployment choice
- Broad developer surface: REST API, webhooks, OAuth apps and an official MCP server
- Migration tools from Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp and Monday
- Free plan covers teams of up to twelve
Limitations
- No staffing-style resource planning and no invoicing, so client work needs a second system
- Time tracking starts on the paid Pro plan
- AI features are metered through credits rather than included outright
Plans
Pricing
Azure DevOps
- Basic, first five users $0 The first five users are free, with unlimited free stakeholder access on top.
- Basic $6 Per user and month beyond the first five.
- Basic + Test Plans $52 Per user and month. Adds Azure Test Plans.
- Azure Pipelines $40 Per extra Microsoft-hosted parallel job and month with unlimited minutes; one free job with 1,800 minutes is included. Self-hosted jobs cost $15 each, with one free.
- Azure Artifacts $2 Per GiB and month after the first 2 GiB, falling to $1 above 10 GiB, $0.50 above 100 GiB and $0.25 above 1,000 GiB.
Plane
- Free $0 Per seat and month, up to 12 users. Includes 500 AI credits per seat, projects, work items, cycles, modules, five layouts, intake forms, estimates and project pages.
- Pro $6 Per seat and month, unlimited seats. Adds 1,000 AI credits per seat, custom work item types, a workspace wiki, time tracking, templates, dashboards, initiatives and teamspaces.
- Business $13 Per seat and month, unlimited seats. Adds 2,000 AI credits per seat, project templates, recurring work items, intake by email, nested pages, workflow control, customer profiles and advanced dashboard widgets.
- Enterprise Grid Not stated Custom quote. Adds flexible AI credit allocation, managed deployments, granular access controls, multiple workflows with approvals, LDAP and API-enabled audit logs.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Azure DevOps
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Plane
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Azure DevOps https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops · checked against the official source on 2026-09-13
Plane https://plane.so · checked against the official source on 2026-09-10
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.