In your opinion, which software is better than MS projects for project planning, and why?

Many great and useful software exist on the market like MS project, ZOHO projects, FastTrack schedule9, Primavera p6, WorkFront (previously @task) and so on.. i could spend all day analyzing pros and cons of every software out there but the truth is, for a certain task, there are tools to help with that task; it is like buying a new cellphone, I identify my needs and decide on the phone that accommodates them to a satisfactory level. In "my" opinion, I identity my needs to perform my tasks and narrow down the search and finally choose the one software that has the best price.

I think that Primavera is the best one for project managment and planning;

Today, Primavera services project-intensive industries such as engineering and construction, aerospace and defense, utilities, oil and gas, chemicals, industrial manufacturing, automotive, financial services, communications, travel and transportation, healthcare, and government.

There are lots of tools available even customized software are also available but as a standard software apart from MS Project in my opinion Primavera is a better monitoring tool. The major difference which appealed me was multiple people can access the same project file at the same time, where as MS project doesnt allow this. 

I have used MS-Project, PPM Optics but I find PLANVIEW to be more quantifiable.

Primavera P6 is incredible project management software. It allows you to easily plan, manage, monitor and track your company’s projects, whether they are IT, Civil, Mechanical or any other types of projects.  Primavera P6 is meant for you by planners, planning engineers, schedulers and it is equally beneficial for managers, and any stakeholder involved in a project. Primavera P6 has benefited every industry from aerospace to manufacturing, electronics to IT, Telecom to Civil, and list goes on.

Primavera P6 has been in use for decades. It’s benefits to the organizations are many, including the following:1.  It reduces the risk of project slippage.2.  It reduces the risk of project cost overrun.3.  It helps you easily plan and manage your project activities.4.  It helps you optimize your project plan, costs and resource utilization.5.  It gives you clear visibility of what is going on in the project.6.  You can forecast costs, schedule.7. It gives you project schedule and cost variance information.8.  You can keep track of project period performance and view past period performances.9.  It enables organizations to standardize method of planning their projects, generate reports, for better collaboration and communication..  It helps you breakdown project activities for better understandability..  You can plan and track budget and actual costs of resources and other project expenses.

MS Project is a good software for planning but it don't consider many other variable that might effect our project baselines.  

I consider primavera to be move effective because it is based on WBS which helps you to keep all the variables  (that can effect our scope and cost) of a project in view and it also helps you in running different analysis like schedule variance,cost variance analysis to assure that your project is sticking to its Project charter .

MS Project has become the best project management software which every IT professional and manager loves to work with. So, it solely depends on why someone needs the replacement of MS project. 

For example if cost is the main reason of finding the replacement then Openproj is so far the best free and open source alternative to MS Project.