One of the key features of today’s best project management software solutions is that the system can be accessed from different devices. Even in the instance that you prefer to use a Mac-specific system for your projects, the options are wide open. There are two ways to go around this though. One is get a with a Mac app and do a local install; or, two, go for SaaS and access the system from a browser.

Which means you need to decide, too, if you want. Some users prefer an app because they tire of opening plenty of browser tabs. It is easier to find the project management app in the desktop taskbar, after all, than guess where among the twenty Safari tabs you’ve opened is the system on. Mindful of these users, we have listed the first five apps for having a Mac app, while the rest are cloud-hosted that’s accessible to Mac users from a browser. Be aware though that choosing a Mac app shouldn’t be around the trivial reason that you simply just want to use your new MacBook.

Installing an app, you may lose the: flexibility, accessibility and scalability. Likewise, using a Mac with a team of PC-based members may pose compatibility issues. Past these worries, you should do just fine choosing any of these best project management software for Mac. Wrike Did you know that, a popular cloud-hosted project management solution, is available as a desktop app?

Cloud solutions have plenty of benefits, foremost accessibility and flexibility, but if you feel more comfortable with a desktop platform, or simply want to break free from the browser, you can still enjoy this software. The installed version works for Mac OS Mavericks (version 10.9 or later) and Windows 7 and up. It has a number of practical tools for desktop dynamics, including creating quick links to tasks and enabling multiple tabs in the app. The vendor regularly updates the desktop app; hence, it’s recommended to set for auto updates (you can disable this). The Mac app is free, so to start enjoying it you can easily. Wrike won our Best Project Management Software Award for 2018 The Mac app has all the essentials of cloud-hosted Wrike: 3-Pane visibility; multiple workflows and methodologies; cross-industry uses; scalable features; and intuitive navigation.

As with the cloud platform, the app helps you break goals into manageable tasks using various project management tools like Gantt Chart, kanban board and waterfall schematic. It also integrates key features that many project management software leave out, such as time tracking, resource management and document versioning. Wrike pricing: Starting price for Wrike is $9.80 per user/month, which includes full project planning and collaboration.

A freemium is available for five users, but it only covers task listing. Monday.com also features a Mac app. The solution is another popular project management software, specifically for its clean dashboard where you can monitor all team activities and tasks. The desktop app comes free when you. Monday.com is ideal for large teams where tracking tasks and identifying accountability on each of them can turn complex. A cross-functional team, for example, needs visibility on what other departments are doing that may impact on its deliverables.

This said, Monday.com’s single board keeps everyone in the loop. You can add tasks, projects, goals and to-dos on a single board. Then add task owners and track their progress from the same location. The intuitiveness of this single-dashboard design helps you plan your workload and spot potential bottlenecks ahead.

A small team, on the other hand, will find the solution ideal to invite third-party users like clients and stakeholders. A board can be shared and permission set for external users. Just a note though, if you’re using the Mac app, you may be losing out on real-time accessibility over the internet, which deters remote team collaboration. It’s still best to use a cloud-hosted plan, which works just as fine with Safari anyway. Monday.com pricing: Monday.com starts at $25 per user/month for five users, which includes unlimited boards, 5 GB storage and iOS and Android apps. Basecamp Basecamp is popular as a cloud collaboration tool, but it’s also available as a downloadable Mac app. That, on top of its Android and iOS apps, plus accessibility via popular browsers, makes Basecamp one of the most ideal tools for remote collaboration.

It is, arguably, a popular choice among outsourced projects: handy, easy to set up across devices, highly integrated with popular email clients and has got an all-in pricing. A novice project leader will have no problem using its features from the get-go. Having argued for its simplicity, Basecamp is evidently for small to medium teams. The tools are rudimentary and the interface tends to create a confusing, compartmentalized messages for more complex projects. Weighing these, you can get a tool that helps you keep tab of tasks, a basic message board to keep everyone in the loop and a chat room. Basecamp pricing: Pricing is universal at $99 per month and includes all features. It allows unlimited users, unlimited projects and 500 GB storage.

Merlin Project Merlin Project, now on version 5, is an obvious choice for Mac project management software, the one platform designed exclusively for macOS and iOS. So, why isn’t it on top of our list? Its on premise-only setup and license fees make it a tad less appealing than its SaaS-based Mac-accessible competitors and tend to dilute the many. For teams with a tech backup, Merlin Project is a logical choice. It’s easy to organize individual activities and groups in procedural structures.

You can also set duration and fixed milestones for control. Budgets and costs can easily be adjusted to time-plan changes and you get to pick your preferred template for workflow charts and reports. You can even store repeat structure templates in its Library for future standard projects. Plus Merlin Project version 5 now features kanban boards, groupings, resource pool and new style editor.

Merlin Project pricing: Merlin Project 5 starts at $149 per user/year 5. Trello The is known for its boards, lists and cards.

It is perhaps a top choice if you swear by kanban, although that’s about all you’ll get. It cannot match the flexibility of our first four choices for Mac, especially adapting to a variety of project management methodologies like waterfall, Gantt Charts and other structured hierarchies. But for agile, Trello is cool. The use of boards, lists and cards is proven in organizing task priorities and keeping all team members accountable. There’s also a fun element moving cards from to-dos to done, lending to the project a sort of race-to-the-finish-line excitement. The Trello dashboard is also one of the neatest, perhaps done only by Asana in intuitiveness.

Trello is more of a tactical tool than a strategic planning platform. It does deliver the goods for small to medium projects. You can even use this alongside fully featured but rather complex project management solutions like Smartsheet. Trello pricing: You can get Trello for free for personal projects. It’s got unlimited boards, lists and cards and 10 MB storage.

For more advanced features, pricing starts at $9.99 per user/month, which, among others, lets you integrate with important apps like Jira, Bitbucket, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Google Drive and Dropbox. (The next project management tools are purely cloud-hosted and accessible via browser from a variety of devices including MacBooks and iMacs.) 6. Smartsheet Smartsheet is fully functional on Mac via browser, it lacks for a desktop app. This isn’t a bad thing as we’ve pointed out above; the goal is simply to ensure your project management software works on your MacBook or iMac. The take after the familiar Excel spreadsheet interface. The idea is to wean users from cumbersome spreadsheets and let them experience the more powerful features of a cloud-hosted solution.

The vendor offers a comprehensive free trial to get you up to speed with the features. Smartsheet won our Expert's Choice Award for 2017 If you’re happy working with spreadsheets yet want more features, Smartsheet can be that bridge. It offers multiple views such as Gantt Charts, team availability, calendar, card view and timelines. Likewise, it allows deep automation beyond a spreadsheet’s capability, namely, set alerts, email reminders and process web forms.

Arguably, Smartsheet is more complex than most cloud project management dashboards, but if you’re familiar with spreadsheets this is a non issue. Besides, the solution has plenty of templates for a variety of project types. Smartsheet pricing: Smartsheet starts at $14 per user/month for individual users. The pacakge includes 10 sheets, reports, multiple views and forms.

An enterprise version is available by quote. Clarizen is another top-performing project management solution that works well across platforms. It’s 100% SaaS compatible with Safari, Chrome and Firefox. That means there’s no need to shift to a PC; your MacBook will handle the solution just as fine.

Even more, Clarizen’s got an iOS app (and Android), so you can shift from laptop to your iPhone with ease. The vendor has an appealing free trial where you can tinker with the features at no cost. The software is notable for its advanced tools. It is mostly liked for its comprehensive project and work management platform, which is quick to set up and easy to navigate. You also get a chat app for faster communication. You have a choice between custom and template workflows. You can also expect standard PM tools such as multiple views, reports and email integration.

What you may find unique though are its variety of timesheet and expense approval systems and cross-project visibility. These are ingredients to handling project management portfolio, Clarizen staying true to its intended audience: the enterprise. Clarizen pricing: Pricing is by quote given the variety of modules the platform provides.

The vendor will customize a plan based on your requirements. ProjectManager The run entirely via browser, meaning, you can use it on your Mac via Safari.

Moreover, ProjectManager has Android and iOS apps, affording you more flexibility when on location. Interestingly, ProjectManager can delight Mac users in another way: it helps you run Microsoft Project (a 100% Windows-based app, understandably) on Mac. The are quite simple and the integration smooth. If you want to investigate the features closely you can easily do so when you.

The project management software is typical of a cloud-hosted platform, it scales to the needs of a small business and enterprise. It covers the entire range of managing projects, from planning to tracking to reporting. You can plan in sprints, waterfall or interactive Gantt Charts, for example. Drag-and-drop makes schedule adjustment easy, too. Teams can also collaborate on tasks and attach files.

The solution adapts to various project types, such as I.T. Development, construction, manufacturing, marketing and enterprise. ProjectManager pricing: It is available from $15 per user/month for five users. The plan includes free file storage and guest logins and unlimited projects.

Scoro works well with a Mac. It is that small box that packs in a bang, a solution for small and medium-sized businesses complete with modules, not just for project management, but other core business processes. These include work management, financial management and CRM. You can check the solution closely when you.

The advantage with this setup is you achieve seamless processes across operations and across teams. This setup is common in large enterprises, seldom in mid-sized companies and hardly in a small business. Scoro, in short, brings enterprise power to your growing business.

Among the notable features to mind are: sub-tasks and deadlines, real-time KPI dashboard, shared team calendar, contact management, time tracking and billing, reports and quoting-to-invoicing templates. Scoro pricing: Plans start at $22 per user/month for five users minimum.

It includes dashboard, calendar and task management and CRM. Note, there is an onboarding fee from $899.

Zoho Projects are accessible via browser. You can even use its mobile apps for iOS or Android for more flexibility. The project management app is as good as it gets for small business teams. It has the essential collaboration and communication tools, and the project management space allows you to plan, track and assess outcomes easily. You can easily and get to know the features firsthand at no cost and without commitment.

One of its key feature is in integration. As part of the Zoho suite, the project management app natively integrates with over forty business and productivity apps, including CRM, billing, help desk and I.T. Beyond its own infrastructure, Zoho Projects integrates with important apps like Google Apps, Google Docs, Gmail, MS Outlook, MS Office, QuickBooks, MailChimp and Twitter/Facebook. These are useful small business tools, thus, a small team using Zoho Projects can work with the efficiency of larger organizations. An impressive offer, it’s one of the few remaining apps that offer a free version for an unlimited period, a catch for small business in a budget tightrope. Zoho Projects pricing: Paid plans start at $20 per month for up to 15 users, 10 projects. It includes all the basics, such as five templates, time tracking, file attachment up to 5 GB, subtasks, task dependency and CRM integration.

Zoho Sprints The is the Zoho variation for agile projects. Like with Zoho products, this one is 100% online, accessible for almost all devices including Macs. It follows the in PM, the bible of agile PM leaders. Where Zoho Project is designed more for projects with a standardized approach like construction and design teams, Zoho Sprints adapt to flexible planning and implementation.

It breaks down projects into Backlog, Plan, Iteration and Product Update, the building blocks of agile. If you want to know more about the features you can easily. The noted features here, as they differ from its cousin, are customizable Scrum boards, a backlog tab and stories that run alongside estimation points. A priority rating is also thrown in to help agile managers work on tasks from the most urgent to the least. Zoho Sprints pricing: Zoho Sprints is also available for free for up to five users and five projects. Paid subscription starts from $8.30 for ten users and unlimited projects. All features are included in paid plans. Asana A has such an intuitive feature set that to leave it out of our list seems unthinkable.

The software doesn’t have a native Mac app, so you’ll also access it from Safari or other browsers. There’s a clamor from the Asana community — one of the more active ones in project management — for a Mac app, which is largely ignored by the vendor. It may sound irrational to wish for a powerful cloud app to be installed as a desktop app, but some users are fed up with multiple browser tabs opened when using a cloud solution. A native app for Asana would have allowed them to have it sit in the bottom tray.

Beyond this issue, Asana is still one of the premier tools to manage projects. It is especially useful for small and medium-sized teams and a fit for remote collaboration. The interface is well designed (colors and navigation make a difference) and there’s harmony between drilling down to details and getting the big picture. For example, you can see all tasks and their progress from a project dashboard, or click on a team member and see what are on his or her plate. Key features include an activity feed, real-time inbox updates, filter search, task dependencies and project hierarchy.

Asana pricing: Asana starts at $9.99 per user/month. The plan includes timeline, unlimited members, unlimited dashboards, advanced search, custom fields, task dependencies, private projects and priority support. A freemium is available for teams up to fifteen members, featuring basic dashboards and search. Nutcache show that it is compatible with Mac via browser, too. It adapts to agile approaches like kanban and Scrum.

It can be set to adjust to your workflow or other methods that suit a new project. Plus it has built-in financial tools to help you monitor budget and costs. On the other hand, as a Scrum-enabled platform, it focuses on planning, committing and delivering sprints and track, measure and control overall progress. We can sort Nutcache features in nine categories: backlog management; sprint management; project management; teams and roles; kanban boards; analysis tools; story and task management; email notification; and agile planner.

With all these, agile leaders can put their management skills in full practice. Nutcache pricing: Plans start with a flat fee of $10 per month plus fees based in no. Of user tranches. For example, teams with 7 to 24 users are charged $5 per user/month, while teams with 25 to 34 users are charged $4 per user/month. Mavenlink reveals that it combines project management software with resource planning, making for a single platform for project-based events. These include project accounting, business intelligence and resource management, on top of core project management. All these cloud-hosted modules are available to Mac users via browser.

The fully featured platform fits enterprise projects, but that also means it may be quite expensive for small business. It is robust, got an open API and excellent permission levels.

Then again it lacks for a chat app or mobile apps. If you can walk past these limitations, Mavenlink is powerful and can aid project leaders handling multiple tasks at once. The solution suits a variety of project types such as I.T. Services, consulting and professional services. Mavenlink pricing: Plans start with collaboration and task management modules for $19 per month for five users. A more robust plan that includes core project management features is pegged at $39 per user/month.

Workfront Workfront is another enterprise project management solution that is cloud-hosted and, thus, accessible to Mac users. The platform also includes work management and rich customization to help you manage tasks, track project progress, monitor budget and approve works. It is notably more complex than the other solutions on this list and understandably so: it’s designed for high-level projects. It can take weeks just to set it up, custom fit to your workflows. You’ll appreciate the complexity if you have the need for capacity planning, request management, resource management and other sophisticated functionalities for handling projects. A notable feature, its proofing process for uploading, reviewing and approving files is non existent in many project management software.: Pricing is by quote and available in four plans: Team, Pro, Business and Enterprise.

The basic plan includes basic project and work management. Why is FinancesOnline free? FinancesOnline is available for free for all our business professionals interested in an efficient way to find top-notch SaaS solutions.

We are able to keep our service free of charge thanks to cooperation with some of the vendors, who are willing to pay us for traffic and sales opportunities provided by our website. Please note, that FinancesOnline lists all vendors, we’re not limited only to the ones that pay us, and all software providers have an equal opportunity to get featured in our rankings and comparisons, win awards, gather user reviews, all in our effort to give you reliable advice that will enable you to make well-informed purchase decisions. Back to top Page last modified 2018-11-16.

Jill Duffy The Best Project Management Software of 2018 If your teams juggle deadlines, resources, and deliverables, you need a dedicated project management tool. We test and compare the best project management software for helping keep it all on track. What Is Project Management Software? Teams that have to handle multiple projects can't simply rely on human memory to keep them all organized.

Furthermore, trying to keep everything together via email is a recipe for disaster. To deliver projects on time and within budget, teams must write down information, plot deadlines, and share documents. Individual members need to be in constant communication with one another. When your team needs to get serious about managing projects, the solution is to use project management software. Project management services are online systems for working and collaborating on projects. These real-time workspaces let team members and outside partners keep an eye on every detail that brings a project to fruition.

They typically provide an overview of all the projects in the pipeline, as well as the nitty-gritty details about the daily work being done to move the projects forward. Some contain tools for managing resources as well, whether those resources are workers, materials, or money. The very best project management apps help teams handle common problems, such as slipped deadlines, by automatically rescheduling tasks that are affected by them. They generate reports that give managers insight into which team members have too much—or too little—work on their plates. Many track time spent on projects and integrate with invoicing and billing systems.

The most important thing to know about project management apps, as opposed to other kinds of work-management apps, is that they are for projects. That might sound like a tautology, but it's important. Projects are a specific type of work. Every project has a start date, end date, and deliverable. Building a house is a project. Launching a new website is a project. Maintaining a website, however, is ongoing work with no clear beginning or end date.

Publishing a monthly magazine is a project that you complete once a month. Writing daily content for a blog is ongoing work. You could, theoretically, manage each blog post as its own project, but if the turnaround time is quick and only a few people are involved, using full-scale project management software is overkill. How Project Management Apps Work Many projects are managed by a dedicated project manager, and that's true even with software equivalent.

While a project manager might still be the person overseeing the project and helping to redirect resources as needed, she or he is not the only person touching the project management app. All kinds of people involved with the project use the app to update their progress on assigned tasks. They check into the project management app to, for example, see their designated tasks and to enter how much time they spent on an assignment. Employees, contractors, and sometimes even clients can use the project management app to share documents, sign off on plans, and so forth.

In a best-case scenario, every milestone, task, and subtask is assigned to a specific person and given a deadline. Typically, other team members can see who is responsible for what, whether that person is on track to complete it on time, and if there are any unanswered questions about the job. That level of insight is important because it alerts people who are further down the planned chain of events of possible delays before they occur.

Having visibility into every team member's task list is also useful for understanding whether people are falling behind because they're overworked. When you can see that a colleague has six task assignments all due within the next 48 hours, it's easy to spot the problem and redistribute the work before deadlines slip. By looking at a (a pretty common feature in project management apps), for example, a manager can see clearly who is doing what, and how various tasks are related, too. It helps everyone use available resources more effectively. Projects also usually have assets, which range from a detailed description of the project and its parts to a visual mockup.

Can Anyone Here Recommend Simple Task Management Software For Mac Download

People on the project team all need access to these assets, and the project management app becomes the central place where they live. Many project management solutions include storage space so that your team can upload files right into the workspace, where everyone on the team can see and discuss them.

It's also common for services to have an option to connect to third-party, such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive, so that team members can link or upload files to the project management system from the repositories they already use. Free Project Management Tools A few project management software systems have free versions, but they are generally quite limited. The primary limitation is the number of projects you can manage (think one or two), although sometimes a service might restrict the amount of storage space you get or prevent you from using certain features.

Almost all project management apps have, at a minimum, a two-week free trial. When a free trial has a time limit on it, we don't count it as having a free tier of service. To us, free means you get to use it forever with no charge, even if there are some tight restrictions. While it's helpful to try out software for free while you decide whether to upgrade, most businesses, in the end, will need (or want) the features and space allotments that come with paid accounts. Still, it's often helpful to try a product for longer than a couple weeks before deciding whether it's right for you, your team, and the work you all do. Which project management system has a free version?

Teamwork Projects, Zoho Projects, TeamGantt, and ProofHub all do (although ProofHub's free account isn't advertised online and you have to contact the company to request it). Free trials often come with other limitations, which we've listed in the Price section of the complete reviews; the reviews are linked in the table above and the in the short capsules below. Collaboration Software Although it may sound similar in concept, is a little different from true project management software. While you do collaborate in a project management app, project management software is something much more specific. Collaboration software comprises many different kinds of apps and services that handle everything from video conference calls to letting two people type on a document at the same time.

Modern project management services often include native communication and collaboration tools. They may also let you connect to the collaboration apps that your team already uses, such as or Google Docs. Whether you use the integrated communications tools or connect to an outside one, the idea is that your team can log into one workspace and have everything they need to get work done at hand, including a prioritized to-do list, all the necessary assets, notes from other colleagues, a calendar of deadlines and milestones, and a place to ask questions and find answers.

Some project management apps even offer billing and expense tools, too. Workflow Software Earlier we mentioned that project management apps are designed for managing projects, but not other kinds of work. What kind of work isn't a project? Any kind of ongoing work fits the bill, such as fixing bugs as they get reported or answering support calls. Ongoing work often is marked by recurring tasks. For ongoing work, people often talk about using workflow management tools rather than project management apps. Workflow management software and project management apps have considerable overlap in what they do from a theoretical standpoint.

They both help groups of people write down what needs to be done and figure out when to do it. Project management apps, however, provide structure for ushering the work along its course, whereas workflow management apps are more flexible.

With workflow management, you often have to decide how to use the tool. That's not usually the case with project management apps, which have a more prescribed use. Workflow management is tricky to classify because sometimes it's handled as a standalone issue and sometimes it's rolled into other apps. Editors' Choice Asana, for example, handles workflow management pretty concretely, as do kanban board apps—more on these below.

But all-in-one work hubs, such as Workfront and, can include workflow management tools if you add them to your account. They can also have full-scale project management applications inside them, too.

But workflow management isn't necessarily the core of the service, and neither is project management. Those are just apps you can add to your account. Are another kind of workflow management software. Kanban can be described as a style of working. It comes from Japan, and it was traditionally used in manufacturing for just-in-time delivery.

These days, kanban apps are popular among software development teams. Kanban is typically a visually oriented system that is particularly good at controlling how much new work a team takes on before the current batch of work in progress is complete. The idea is to keep work flowing smoothly by not overloading workers with too many competing mandates.

Some businesses do use kanban to manage projects, but kanban apps aren't really project management apps. Task Management Software Task management software is slightly different from project management software. Project management apps do include task management features in them, but you can get standalone task management apps if that's the only piece you really need. One of the clearest examples of a task management app is, which, confusingly, is also a very clear example of a workflow management app, as mentioned above—one with kanban functionality, to boot. With Asana, you can assign tasks to specific individuals, and add descriptions, deadlines, and attached documents to each one, but they aren't necessarily part of a larger project.

Task-management apps work pretty well for ongoing work. You can manage a project in Asana, but it takes a little more work on your part to do so. The best way to explain it is with an analogy. Think of Asana (any kanban app) as a deck of cards. Now think of a project management app as a board game. Board games have with rules, and the game is usually the most fun when you play it as it was designed to be played. With a deck of cards, however, you can play a game someone else invented or you can make up your own game.

Before you play cards, you have to make sure everyone at the table knows the rules and plays by the same rules, because they aren't written down on a handy sheet of paper for you all to follow. The same thing happens when you start using a task management app.

You have to spend a lot of time figuring out how you're going to use it. On the one hand, it's very flexible. On the other hand, it can take considerable trial and error to get it right. That's not to imply that project management systems are inflexible.

With a board game, you could certainly make up your own rules or create variations on the rules. But you buy a board game with an understanding that it works best when you use it for its intended purposes. You use a project management app with the understanding that you are going to manage projects by assigning tasks and deadlines, monitoring work, tracking billable hours, and so forth. Project Management for Small Business Many small businesses turn to project management software because they're overwhelmed by working in email. The, but know that it won't happen overnight.

It takes time for employees to learn the software, and for your organization to figure out how best to use it for the projects you have. Small business and enterprises have very different needs, however, and it's important to find the project management tool that best fits your business.

One tip-off as to whether a project management solution is better suited for small companies or large enterprises is how they charge. Project management platforms that can support enterprises typically have a per-user-per-month fee structure, while those that cater more to very small businesses often charge a flat monthly rate for a set number of licenses or for unlimited licenses.

And it's not that a very small business can't or shouldn't use the same software that the big players use, but sometimes it's overkill, and who wants to get stuck paying for features they don't need? Another differentiating factor is whether the project management platform has many permissions levels. Workfront, for instance, has different permissions levels for executives, portfolio managers, project managers, and team members.

Having such hierarchical roles can ensure that each person in the organization has the right level of access. In a very small business, where each employee wears a lot of different hats, permission levels might not be as advantageous. There are other differences, too, aspects you'll want to consider for your particular business, team structure, and style of working. The summaries below will guide you toward finding the right service for your organization.

When you're ready to get the full story on a particular service, click through to read an in-depth review. What's Not Here? We review far more project management software than we can fit into a story like this. Plenty of great services, including the very popular, are not currently in our list.

Rest assured, however, that we update this story frequently, and the rankings change as the services themselves do. If you're looking for service that's not in this story, please visit our, which includes more services than can fit in this story.