People often assume Project and Visio are two flavours of the same thing because they sit side by side in the Microsoft catalog. They aren't. Here's the simplest way to remember it: Project answers "when?" and "who?". Visio answers "how does this fit together?"
Microsoft Project is for running work
You give it tasks, how long they take, and who's doing them. It then works out your schedule and shows you what happens when something slips.
That last part is where it earns its keep. Move one task back a week, and everything depending on it moves too, so you can see the real finish date instead of the hopeful one.
You probably want Project if you:
- Manage work with dependencies, where B can't start until A is finished.
- Juggle people across several tasks and need to spot who's overloaded.
- Produce Gantt charts or report progress against a baseline.
Microsoft Visio is for explaining things
Visio makes diagrams: flowcharts, floor plans, network layouts, org charts. It comes with large libraries of shapes that stay connected when you rearrange them, which beats nudging arrows around in a slide.
You probably want Visio if you:
- Document how a process works.
- Map out a network, an office layout or a system.
- Regularly need diagrams clearer than a drawing in PowerPoint.
| You need to... | Use |
|---|---|
| Work out when a project will finish | Project |
| Draw how an approval process works | Visio |
| See who has too much work next month | Project |
| Plan where the desks and network points go | Visio |
Do you need them at all?
Honestly, maybe not. If your project is a short list of tasks, a spreadsheet will do, and you'll be happier for it. Likewise, the occasional simple flowchart doesn't justify dedicated software. These tools pay off when the work is complex or when you do it often.
2019 or 2021?
Both do the core job well, and neither version receives security updates from Microsoft any more. The 2021 versions are newer, so they're the natural pick unless you need to match what your colleagues are already using, in which case matching them will make sharing files easier.
You'll find both in our Office category.