Forum Discussion
Project Online licensing for external users
Hi,
Everyone thought Office 365 External user access is free of cost. I have found a different statement from Microsoft, If you using project online then Project Online licensing for external users follows the same policy as that for internal users. Any interaction on a Project Online site requires a Project Online license.
Ref : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/project-online-service-description.aspx
Could you please some one clarify this.
My requirement :
Internal users creating and managing Projects in Project online.
They need to share the documents to external users they can edit as well and also update the issues and risks. (i.e project site under project, they required access to external users) not projects.
Could you please share me the licensing part for this project online SharePoint site.
Regards
Jenkins NS
4 Replies
Based on the information provided and what I have seen elsewhere, that is correct any interaction on a Project Site requires a Project Online license, it doesn't matter whether it's an internal or external user, they require the appropriate licencing irrespectively.
https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Using-Project-Online-with-external-users-F305A365-3D81-48BC-A3D0-4260E7326899
That means Project Online Essentials is the minimum requirement, that also covers the other bits that are part of the service - Microsoft Forms, Office Online, SharePoint Online & Sway (see the related screenshot in the link below). This article provides a lot of information including on licencing, with further details:
https://www.senseiprojectsolutions.com/2018/01/10/external-users-support-for-project-online/
Going back to the service description, you can see a breakdown of what each licence type provides to match with your requirements.
Thank you Cian Allner
One more query, If I create a separate Site collection(Communication site template) for external users to share documents/files, then it come under free of cost or still required "Project Online Essentials" license?
I'd check out the following article and the differences with Authenticated users vs. Anonymous users:
https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/external-sharing-overview-c8a462eb-0723-4b0b-8d0a-70feafe4be85
The key point is that Authenticated users are limited to basic collaboration tasks without requiring a licence, you can share sites and documents with these users who can use Office Online for viewing and editing documents. If they need greater capabilities you can assign a licence accordingly.
