Compare · Build It Yourself in Microsoft 365
Brewix Desk vs Microsoft Lists and Planner
Plenty of one-person IT departments run on a shared mailbox, a Microsoft List and some Power Automate flows. It costs nothing extra and it lives in your own tenant. Here’s what it does well, where it runs out, and what you’d have to build yourself.
Facts about Microsoft Lists and Planner checked on October 20, 2026, from the sources listed at the end. Brewix Desk is in private development, so its column describes the prototype as built today, before it connects to real Microsoft 365 tenants.
Choose Microsoft Lists and Planner if…
- You get a handful of requests a week and a list is plenty.
- Adding any new vendor is off the table.
- You enjoy building in the Power Platform and have time to maintain the flows.
Choose Brewix Desk if…
- You want due times and SLAs tracked without building and maintaining flows.
- You want the person’s Intune device on the ticket without premium connectors.
- You want Teams messages, emails and walk-ups in one queue, with a history for every request.
What It Costs
For a team of one, three or five.
Lists, Planner, Forms and Power Automate with standard connectors come with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium. Reading Intune or Graph from a flow needs a premium connector, which needs Power Automate Premium at $15 per user a month.
| Technicians | Brewix Desk | Microsoft Lists and PlannerIncluded in Microsoft 365 Business plans |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $79 a monthor $65.83 a month billed yearly | $0 extra3 |
| 3 | $129 a monthor $107.50 a month billed yearly | $0 extra3 |
| 5 | $179 a monthor $149.17 a month billed yearly | $0 extra3 |
Brewix Desk: $79 a month includes one technician, then $25 a month for each extra, up to 10 technicians in all. Yearly billing is two months free. Prices in US dollars, before tax.
Side by Side
What each one does for a small Microsoft 365 team.
| What you need | Brewix Desk | Microsoft Lists and Planner |
|---|---|---|
| Email intake | Your help mailbox, with access scoped to that one mailbox. Replies thread onto the ticket. | A shared mailbox, free up to 50 GB. Turning emails into list items is a flow you build.5 |
| Microsoft Teams | A Teams app: people ask in Teams, and any message becomes a ticket. | No ticket intake from Teams chats out of the box; you’d build it with Power Automate.7 |
| Request portal | Forms for starters, leavers, access and equipment, plus help articles. | Microsoft Forms, or the SharePoint IT help desk site template with a Tickets list and FAQ pages.2,3 |
| Intune device on the ticket | Read from Intune when the ticket opens: model, Windows build, compliance, last check-in and warranty. | Not out of the box. Reading Intune from a flow needs a premium connector.9 |
| Devices and assets | Every Intune device, plus licenses, contracts, stock, spares and loaners. | The Asset manager list template or the help desk site’s Devices list, kept up by hand.1,2 |
| Sign in with Microsoft Entra ID | The only way to sign in, so your MFA and Conditional Access apply. | Built in: it all runs in your own tenant. |
| Approvals | A manager approves from email or Teams, without needing a Brewix account. | The Teams Approvals app.6 |
| Projects | Turn a ticket into a project with tasks, owners and dates. | Planner. Timelines and dependencies need Planner Plan 1 at $10 per user a month.4 |
| Knowledge base | Insert articles into replies, or publish them in the portal. | FAQ pages on a SharePoint site.2 |
| AI help on tickets | Fixes seen on similar devices and suggested next steps from your own history, plus Ask Claude. Included. | Nothing ticket-specific built in. |
| MCP server for AI assistants | Included, with OAuth sign-in rather than API keys. | Not applicable. |
| Where data is hosted | Microsoft Azure in the United States. | In your own Microsoft 365 tenant.2 |
| Free plan | No free plan. A 30-day trial with no card. | No extra cost on a Microsoft 365 Business plan.3 |
Where Microsoft Lists and Planner are stronger
- No extra cost, and no new vendor to approve.3
- The data never leaves your tenant.2
- Your users already know Outlook, Teams and Forms, and you can shape every column and flow.1
What to watch for
- List views slow down and warn above 3,000 items and stop at 5,000, a threshold SharePoint Online won’t let you raise.8
- There’s no due-time or SLA column in the Issue tracker template, so response and resolve times are flows you build.1
- Flows on Microsoft 365 licenses time out after 30 days, and a flow that hasn’t run for 90 days can be turned off.10
Moving from Microsoft Lists and Planner
Export the list to a CSV file and import it into Brewix Desk; keep the list as a read-only archive. Point the shared mailbox at Brewix and your existing address keeps working.
Something here out of date or unfair? Email hello@brewix.io and we’ll fix it.
Sources
All accessed on October 20, 2026. Product names are trademarks of their owners.
- Microsoft Support: list templates in Microsoft 365
- Microsoft Support: the IT help desk SharePoint site template
- Microsoft 365 for business: plans and pricing
- Microsoft Planner: business plans and pricing
- Microsoft Learn: about shared mailboxes
- Microsoft Learn: the Approvals app in Teams
- Microsoft Learn: Power Automate licensing types
- Microsoft Support: list view threshold for large lists
- Microsoft Learn: HTTP with Microsoft Entra ID connector (premium)
- Microsoft Learn: Power Automate limits and configuration
Brewix Desk is nearly ready.
It isn’t open yet. Join the waitlist for short updates as it gets closer, tell us what makes IT hard for you, and hear first when the founder price opens: $59 a month for the first 25 teams, for as long as they stay.