Microsoft Project isn’t available for Mac so we’ve looked at the best free project planning tools out there for Mac users.
Firstly though, if you need something that can genuinely compare with a professional tool like MS Project, then first we strongly recommend checking out our look at the Best Alternatives To Microsoft Project on Mac.
Many of them have free versions for those on a budget, and pretty much all of them allow you to at least try a free trial.
If you’re on a really tight budget though and want something 100% free to create Gantt charts and Kanban boards on your Mac, read on.
All of the free project management tools reviewed here work on the latest versions of macOS including Ventura, Apple Silicon Macs.
Those that have desktop clients work on Apple Silicon Macs either natively or via Rosetta which translates Intel apps to work on Apple Silicon Macs.
Before we start, it’s important to be aware of the following:
- The majority of the top project management software nowadays is Cloud based. There are very few desktop options for Mac users and those that do exist require Java. We don’t recommend installing Java on Mac for a number of reasons, mainly due to poor performance and security but if this doesn’t worry you, you’ll find a selection of the best free project management downloads for Mac here too.
- Beware of project planning software in the Mac App Store that claims to be “free” but in actual fact require subscriptions to use them. A good example is Merlin Project Express which allows you to download it for free but then requires you to purchase a subscription to do any actual project planning.
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1. Monday.com
Monday.com is simple but unbelievably effective at helping you keep on top of projects and it’s free for individuals and freelancers.
Monday.com doesn’t try to be the ultimate project management tool but things to a bare minimum making it easy for anyone to learn.
The best thing that Monday.com does is make it crystal clear the sequence in which tasks need to be completed before the next can be done.
In fact, Monday.com feels a lot like a spreadsheet but is far easier to manage, track and modify without complicated formulas or endless numbers of cells.
You can choose various views for projects such as spreadsheets, lists, maps, Kanban boards and more.
You can easily upload attachments to cards and leave comments for colleagues. There are also specific Gantt chart views and Monday.com also has something very similar called timelines.
You can create some really slick summary charts and export them for sharing with anyone that doesn’t use Monday.com.
You can’t import or export Microsoft Project files into Monday.com but there’s lots of integration with third party products such as Jira, Google Drive, Slack, Excel and more.
The free version of Monday.com is valid for 2 users (or “Seats” as Monday calls them) and allows unlimited boards, docs and includes over 200 templates.
You can sign-up and use Monday.com for free for up to 2 users or “seats”.
If you need to add more than 2 users, pricing starts at $8 a month for 5 users although becomes increasingly more complicated the more seats you add.
You can also check out our Monday.com review for more.
Pros:
- Free version supports unlimited boards and docs
- Easy to use
- Timeline views
- Excellent summary charts
- Lots of third party integrations
Cons:
- Complex pricing structure for paid version
2. ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management software and productivity tool that offers a very generous free version.
Many of the free features in ClickUp are only available in paid plans of other project management software so it’s one of the best free alternatives to Microsoft Project on a Mac we’ve seen.
ClickUp is also an excellent alternative to Microsoft OneNote on Mac for organizing clippings, notes and other tasks.
ClickUp allows unlimited users, tasks and access to most product features in the free forever version. Some of the things we like most about ClickUp for project management are:
- Customized views from Gantt charts to Scrum boards
- Resource management views to see your team’s workload
- Lots of dashboards for sprints, projects, tasks and more
- Ability to drag and drop, resources, tasks and people
You can use the free version of ClickUp for as long as you want.
You can also check-out our ClickUp review for more.
3. Teamwork
Although Teamwork (formerly known as Teamwork Projects) is a professional project management tool, it also allows you to use a version of it for free.
Teamwork is an incredibly powerful alternative to Microsoft Project and yet the Free Forever plan allows you to manage a maximum of 2 projects with 100MB of free storage.
If you just need to manage a few projects at a time, or can delete projects once they are complete, you can easily keep using Teamwork for free for as long as you want.
Teamwork is tastefully designed with a clear, color coordinated dashboard that allows you to instantly switch between Gantt Charts and Kanban boards.
Teamwork can import and export Microsoft Project MPP files and you can even sync it with Microsoft Project ( unfortunately this isn’t available in the free version or in the Mac desktop client but you could consider running Windows on your Mac to use it).
Other great features include automatic Triggers and Webhooks to alert other stakeholders and team members when work is complete, useful mobile apps to track projects on the move and contact management.
You can even try the paid plans for free and after 30 days, it will automatically revert to the Free Forever Plan if you don’t want to subscribe.
You can start using Teamwork for free now.
You can also read more in our Teamwork review.
4. Microsoft Planner
If you already have an eligible Office 365 subscription, then did you know that you can use Microsoft Planner for free on Mac?
In June 2016, Microsoft launched Microsoft Planner (sometimes referred to as Office 365 Planner) – a free online basic project management tool for Office 365 users that works on both Mac and PC.
The slight catch is that Microsoft Planner is only available to Office 365 users on specific plans such as Enterprise E1–E5, Business Essentials, Premium and Education.
The standard Office 365 Business Plan & Pro Plus plans are not included for example so you must check your Office 365 dashboard to see if it is available to you.
Planner isn’t exactly a replacement for Microsoft Project but it is similar to web-based, easy to use Kanban oriented Project Management tools such as Trello.
Planner can be launched from the Office 365 app launcher and allows you to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, set due dates, share files, send email updates and use a whiteboard.
For Project Managers, Planner gives a simple overview of the status of tasks assigned, unassigned, not started, in progress, completed and late along with the person working on them.
Microsoft claims that one regional authority in Cascais, Portugal with over 1000 employees has moved all of it’s work planning to Planner already and claims significant improvements in collaboration between employees.
At the moment, Planner is quite basic but Microsoft plans to build on it with the ability to assign tasks to multiple users, external user access and more customizable boards among others.
5. ProjectLibre
ProjectLibre (formerly OpenProj) is a free open source desktop project management tool that you can download on Mac and other platforms.
ProjectLibre can import MS Project 2003, 2007 and 2010 files and is based on the same user experience that you get in Project.
For example, you can create resources and dependencies in ProjectLibre similar to the way you can in Project and it uses the same Gantt chart view to display your projects.
The reporting features are basic but reports are easy to generate and you can export all of them to PDF format.
The downside is that ProjectLibre uses Java which is notoriously buggy, slow and insecure on Mac. This means the the interface can be slow and unresponsive at times even when performing the most basic of functions.
If you just need something that can handle WBS, resource association and exporting to PDF, ProjectLibre does the job.
For long term use with more complex activities, it will probably end up driving you mad especially because there’s very little Help documentation when you get stuck (although there’s a very active online community).
6. Gantt Project
Like ProjectLibre, Gantt Project is another Java based desktop free projects management app for Mac which can also import and export Microsoft Project files.
As the name suggests, Gantt Project uses Gantt charts to display project details and there are more ways to customize the Gantt views than in LibreOffice.
Gantt Project does all the basics like creating tasks and milestones, breaking down tasks and it draws dependency constraints.
It has better reporting features than ProjectLibre although there are virtually no costing tools or ability to add holiday or level resources.
Gantt Project is however completely free to use for as long as you want including for commercial use with no license fees.