Last updated: June 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.
QUICK VERDICT
Bottom line: If you want a job-ready credential, start with Microsoft’s own Microsoft Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera (built by Microsoft, 75,000+ enrolled). If you just need to learn the software fast, the best-value pick is “Microsoft Project ALL: Beginner to Expert” on Udemy (4.6, 109,000+ students, updated December 2025) — it even carries 10 PMI PDUs.
- Best for: project managers, schedulers, and PMO staff who need to plan, track, and report on projects in MS Project
- Pricing: Udemy courses ~$15–20 on sale; Coursera ~$49/month (the certificate takes ~4 months); Pluralsight ~$299/year
- Skip if: your team has moved entirely to Planner, Asana, or Jira — learn that tool instead
Microsoft Project is still the default scheduling tool inside large project management offices, government agencies, and engineering and construction firms — the places where Gantt charts, critical paths, and resource-leveling actually matter. It has a real learning curve, which is exactly why a good course pays for itself: you stop fighting the interface and start producing schedules people trust.
We checked every pick below in a live browser in June 2026 to confirm it is still published, current, and well-rated — and we dropped the stale 2013- and 2016-era courses that still clutter most “best MS Project” lists. Here is what is actually worth your time and money, followed by an honest look at the “Microsoft Project certification” question and which version of the software you should learn.
The best Microsoft Project courses in 2026, at a glance
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| Course | Best for | Rating / size | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Project Management Professional Certificate | A job-ready credential + PMP prep | 75,383 enrolled | Coursera (by Microsoft) |
| Microsoft Project ALL: Beginner to Expert (10 PDU) | Best overall value | 4.6 · 109,457 students | Udemy |
| Microsoft Project 2024: Complete Beginner Course | The newest desktop version | 4.7 · 975 students | Udemy |
| Microsoft Project for the Web Essentials | The modern cloud version | 4.6 · 4,741 students | Udemy |
| A Comprehensive Introduction to Microsoft Project 2019 | Subscription learners | Live · library access | Pluralsight |
1. Microsoft Project Management Professional Certificate — Coursera (best credential)
This is the pick to start with if you want a line on your résumé, not just software skills. It is built and taught by Microsoft, runs about four months at a few hours a week, and has already pulled in 75,000+ learners with strong reviews. It teaches Microsoft Project alongside the broader discipline of project management — scheduling, budgets, stakeholders, Agile basics — and is explicitly designed to prepare you for the PMP certification exam. No prior experience is required, which makes it a genuine career-changer entry point rather than a software tutorial.
The trade-off: it is broader than the tool itself, so if you only need to learn the MS Project interface this week, it is more than you need. For anyone aiming at a project-management role, though, it is the highest-leverage option on this page — and because it is delivered through Coursera, you can audit much of the material before committing to the certificate.
View the Coursera Certificate →
2. Microsoft Project ALL: Beginner to Expert (10 PDU) — Udemy (best overall value)
If your goal is simply to become fluent in the software, this is the one we recommend to most people. It is the most-enrolled MS Project course on Udemy by a wide margin — 4.6 stars across 23,504 ratings, 109,457 students, and refreshed in December 2025 — and it walks you from a blank project file to building, tracking, and reporting on a full schedule across ten hands-on projects. A practical bonus for working PMs: it carries 10 PMI PDUs, which count toward maintaining a PMP or CAPM credential. At the usual ~$15–20 sale price, nothing here offers more skill per dollar. The sheer size of the student base also means an unusually deep Q&A archive — whatever you get stuck on, someone has already asked.
3. Microsoft Project 2024: Complete Beginner Course — Udemy (newest version)
Microsoft ships Project on a perpetual-license cycle, and Project 2024 is the current desktop release. If your workplace just upgraded and you want a course built on the exact ribbon and menus you are looking at, this is the freshest option — 4.7 stars, updated October 2025, and scoped tightly for beginners. It is a newer, smaller course (under 1,000 students at the time of writing), so it lacks the deep back-catalogue of Q&A you get from the lead pick, but the on-screen steps match Project 2024 exactly, which beginners on the new version will appreciate.
4. Microsoft Project for the Web Essentials — Udemy (modern cloud version)
Here is the part most outdated guides miss: the desktop app is no longer the whole story. Project for the Web is Microsoft’s browser-based, Microsoft 365–integrated planning tool (closely tied to Planner and Power Platform), and it works very differently from classic desktop Project. If your organisation runs on Microsoft 365 rather than the installed desktop client, learn this instead. The course is current (updated December 2025, 4.6 stars) and focused squarely on the web experience — boards, grids, timelines, and the Planner crossover — so you are not wasting time on desktop-only features your team will never touch.
5. A Comprehensive Introduction to Microsoft Project 2019 — Pluralsight (subscription path)
If you already pay for Pluralsight — or your employer does — this is a clean, well-structured introduction that takes you through tasks, dependencies, resources, tracking, and stakeholder reporting. It is built on Project 2019, so the interface is a version behind the desktop 2024 release, but the core mechanics of scheduling have barely changed and the teaching is solid. The economics only make sense if you will use the wider Pluralsight library; for a one-off purchase, the Udemy picks are better value.
What a good Microsoft Project course should cover
Before you buy, check the curriculum against the skills that actually matter on the job. A course worth your money should take you confidently through:
- Building a schedule: entering tasks, durations, and milestones, and setting a project calendar.
- Dependencies and the critical path: linking tasks (finish-to-start and the rest), spotting the critical path, and adding lead/lag time.
- Resources and assignments: creating work, material, and cost resources, assigning them, and resolving over-allocation through resource-leveling.
- Baselines and tracking: saving a baseline, recording actual progress, and reading variance — the part that separates real PMs from spreadsheet jockeys.
- Reporting: customising the Gantt chart, building dashboards, and exporting status reports stakeholders will actually read.
If a course stops at “here is how to enter tasks” and never reaches baselines, tracking, and reporting, it is an introduction, not a working skill set. All five picks above go the full distance.
Which version of Microsoft Project should you learn?
This trips up a lot of learners, because “Microsoft Project” now refers to several different products:
- Project desktop (2024, 2021, 2019): the classic installed Windows app with full Gantt charts, critical path, and resource-leveling. Bought as a one-time license. If you see complex schedules at work, this is almost certainly what you use.
- Project for the Web / Planner: the cloud, subscription version inside Microsoft 365. Lighter, more collaborative, board-and-grid based. Microsoft has been folding Project for the Web into the new Planner experience in Teams.
- Project Online (Plan 3 / Plan 5): the enterprise, portfolio-management tier for PMOs managing many projects at once.
Practical advice: find out which one your team actually opens each day and learn that. A 2019 or 2021 course transfers almost perfectly to desktop 2024 — the ribbon barely moved — so do not pay a premium just for the version number. But desktop and Project for the Web are genuinely different tools, and that is the split worth getting right.
Microsoft Project vs. Planner, Asana, and Jira
It is worth knowing where MS Project fits before you invest weeks in it. Microsoft Project is built for formal, schedule-driven work — long timelines, dependencies, baselines, and resource math. That power is overkill for a small marketing team tracking a content calendar.
For lighter collaboration, Microsoft Planner (and Project for the Web) handle task boards and simple timelines inside Microsoft 365. Asana and Monday.com own the “work management” lane for cross-functional teams that want boards, automations, and a friendly interface. Jira dominates software teams running Scrum and Kanban sprints. None of these replaces MS Project for true critical-path scheduling in construction, engineering, or large IT programmes — which is precisely why the tool endures despite its learning curve. If your work is sprint-based rather than schedule-based, our Scrum and project management guides are a better starting point.
Is there a Microsoft Project certification?
Short answer: not anymore, not a standalone one. Microsoft retired the old MOS “Managing Projects with Microsoft Project” exam (77-888) years ago, and there is no current Microsoft-badged exam dedicated solely to the Project application. So when people search for “Microsoft Project certification,” they usually want one of three things:
- A credential that includes Project: the Microsoft Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera is the closest official option — a Microsoft-issued certificate that teaches the tool and the discipline.
- A profession-wide PM certification: the PMI PMP or CAPM are the recognised credentials project managers actually hold. See our best PMP courses guide.
- A course completion certificate + PDUs: Udemy and Pluralsight issue completion certificates, and several MS Project courses carry PMI PDUs you can use to keep a PMP active.
If a listing promises an “official Microsoft Project certification” from a single exam, treat it with caution — that exam no longer exists.
How to choose the right course
- You want a career credential: the Coursera certificate (pick #1).
- You just need to learn the software well, cheaply: the Udemy “Beginner to Expert” course (pick #2).
- You are on the newest desktop release: Project 2024 Complete (pick #3).
- Your team works in Microsoft 365 / the browser: Project for the Web (pick #4).
- You already have Pluralsight: the Pluralsight intro (pick #5).
How long does it take to learn Microsoft Project?
Most people become comfortable building and managing a basic schedule — tasks, durations, dependencies, a baseline, and a Gantt view — in 8 to 12 hours of focused study, which maps neatly to a single Udemy course done over a week or two. Reaching genuine fluency with resource-leveling, custom fields, earned-value reporting, and multi-project consolidation takes longer, typically a few weeks of applying it to real work. The certificate route (Coursera) is paced over roughly four months because it covers project management broadly, not just the application.
Free ways to learn Microsoft Project
You do not have to pay to get started. Microsoft Learn and the official Project help pages cover the basics for free, and YouTube has solid full-length MS Project walk-throughs. LinkedIn Learning also has well-produced Project courses if you have access through an employer or library card (it runs on a separate subscription we do not link here). Free resources are great for orientation; the paid courses above earn their keep through structure, hands-on projects, and — for the Udemy and Coursera picks — a certificate or PDUs at the end.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Project hard to learn? The basics are approachable; the depth is where it gets tricky. Scheduling logic, task dependencies, and resource-leveling reward a structured course over trial and error. Most learners are productive within a couple of weeks.
Do I need to know project management before learning MS Project? No, but it helps. The software assumes you understand concepts like critical path and baselines. A course that teaches both the tool and the method — like the Coursera certificate — closes that gap.
What is the best Microsoft Project course for beginners? For most people, the Udemy “Microsoft Project ALL: Beginner to Expert” course — it starts from zero, is inexpensive on sale, and is the most-enrolled option with current 2025 content.
Which Microsoft Project course is best for PMP exam prep? The Coursera Microsoft Project Management Professional Certificate is explicitly built to prepare you for the PMP exam, and several Udemy picks award PMI PDUs. For dedicated exam prep, pair it with a focused PMP course.
Is Microsoft Project being discontinued? No. Microsoft continues to ship the desktop app (Project 2024 is current) while also pushing the cloud-based Project for the Web and Planner experience. Both are actively developed.
Can these courses help me earn PMP PDUs? Yes — several, including our top Udemy pick, carry PMI PDUs that count toward maintaining a PMP or CAPM credential. Always confirm the current PDU count on the course page.