- Free Project Planning Software For Mac Software
- Project Management Software
- Freeware Project Planning Software
It’s no secret that most of us feel the pressure of living in our 21st century environment: anxiety and stress levels are at an all-time high, and with every aspect of our lives demanding increasingly more of our time and attention, staying on top of things is more difficult than ever before. Whether at work or at home, most of us can relate to the feeling of being trapped in a fast-paced cycle of tasks that seem to have no end or pause in between them.
But what if doesn’t have to be that way?
The free project management software for Mac trial is free, but after that you need to pay some €145.00 to purchase the full product. There are numerous features, which means that it will take some time to get used to the interface. User Review/Comments: “Merlin has everything we need to plan our projects. Download ProjectLibre - Project Mangement for free. Project Management software: #1 alternative to Microsoft Project. ProjectLibre is the #1 alternative to Microsoft Project. This is Project Management desktop software, we are releasing a cloud version in the future.
Well, while there isn’t a magical solution to all of these problems (and we’re still a long way to go from becoming all-powerful cyborgs), it all really comes down to proper planning and organization. With so many tasks to keep up with, it’s crucial to be able to bring order to all this chaos. This is where personal project management software comes in – a messiah for the busy modern human.
From walking the dog to planning your nephew’s birthday party – personal project management is an important part of your everyday life, even if you don’t make a conscious effort to track your everyday “tasks.” By integrating personal project management software into your life, staying organized and on track will become a lot easier. No matter the scale of your tasks, by keeping them organized and within reach, you’ll find yourself more focused – and much less overwhelmed.
There are lots of different personal project management apps out there, but in this article, we’ll go through five of the most popular free personal project management tools.
TOP-5 personal project management tools with Apps
Whether you prefer the simplicity of a Kanban board to organize your tasks or a classic Gantt chart is more up your street, you’ll find a project planning app that will work for you in this article. Read on to find out which would work best for your needs, as well as advantages and potential drawbacks to keep in mind when choosing the right software for your personal projects.
Bitrix24 provides an all-in-one solution to all your project management needs – personal and otherwise.
You can use different tools to view, plan, and manage your tasks, making this an incredibly convenient choice for pretty much any kind of project. Bitrix24 includes the full package when it comes to project management, featuring key tools such as the following:
- Kanban board
- Gantt charts
These make Bitrix24 a great choice not just for personal project management, but all kinds of projects, including more complex work-related tasks. Bitrix24 has it all – so you can go from managing your household to running a large corporation.
Bitrix24 provides you with multiple view options for your projects. The Kanban board gives you a simple bird's eye overview and organizes your tasks – so you can forget about those pesky post-it notes when planning projects. And if you want to visualize the timeline of your projects, as well as specify any dependencies between the tasks within these projects, you can do this with the help of the Gantt chart. Switching between list, calendar, Kanban and Gantt views is easy, so you can use the one that works best for you.
Bitrix24 will never let you miss a deadline, and you can rely on it to keep you organized and on track. You can be sure all your important projects will be completed on time thanks to reminders.
Best of all is that its free to use, and for those looking for personal project management software, the free features provide more than enough functionality – you get totally unlimited access to tasks and projects. You can add up to 12 users to your account, should you have the need to invite more people to work on your personal projects.
Here are just a few of the great features that you’ll get with the free version:
- 5GB of online storage
- Unlimited projects and subtasks
- Different project views: list, Kanban, Gantt
- Task time tracking
Bitrix24 is also available as an app on iOS and Android, so you can keep your personal projects exactly where they need to be – on your person.
Asana
Asana’s sleek and simple interface has made it a popular choice amongst those looking for a personal project management solution.
Essentially, Asana is a kind of virtual to-do list and planner, which makes it a good choice for simple everyday tasks and organizing your life, whether you want to create a chore calendar for your household or plan your next trip.
Asana is a great tool for personal (and work) project management. However, those looking for a free app will find it quite limiting, as the Basic plan is just that – very basic, and restricts access to the majority of tools that you’d need. For example, you can’t create custom fields, add a start date or specify dependencies for tasks, features which are often available in ‘basic’ free plans of other software. Most importantly, you don’t get access to the Timeline (Gantt view) feature, so visualizing projects and tasks is made more difficult.
You can, however, add up to 15 users if your personal projects require this. Asana is available as an app on iPhone, iPad and Android. It also supports other languages, though this is once again, more limited than other software.
Wrike
For complex project management software, Wrike is definitely one to consider.
Wrike has a lot of different features that you can use for personal and work projects. Like Bitrix24, it provides users with different views, including calendar, Gantt and Kanban – though you’ll need to upgrade from the free version to access the latter.
A drawback that users often mention is that tasks can get cluttered and difficult to navigate. However, you don’t have a lot of tasks and are looking to use it for personal projects only, then this may not be much of an issue.
On the other hand, it can get too complex for personal use, and its functionality is perhaps better suited for teamwork, rather than personal projects. You'll need to study the product in some depth in order to be able to get the most out of it.
Wrike’s Free plan is available for up to 5 users, which shouldn’t be a problem if you need it for personal use.
Wrike also offers apps for iPhone, Android and iPad, so you can keep your project tools close by when on the go.
Trello
Trello is one of the most well-known project management software solutions out there, and it’s not hard to see why. It offers a simple, intuitive interface, and could pretty much be seen as a digital version of a standard to-do list on post-it notes.
Trello offers one single Kanban board project view. On this board, you’ll need to create lists, which you can edit as you see fit to suit each project. Then, you’ll create cards within these lists for each task in the project, as well as checklists within each card to give more details to each task. As your project progresses, you can drag these cards around different lists
You can create multiple boards for different projects, and the free plan allows you to create as many of these as you wish. This means that you’ll be able to stay organized, and your projects shouldn’t get too messy.
Though Trello is great for a lot of personal projects, it does have a number of limitations
First of all, many users find it too basic. And though its simplicity can sometimes be an advantage, this definitely limits the kinds of projects that you can use it for.
Building on the theme of simplicity, Trello doesn’t offer multiple views for your projects – for example, you won’t be able to view your projects as a Gantt chart, and you therefore can’t specify or visualize dependencies, which is important when working on complex projects.
Overall, Trello is best for those looking for a tool that provides a bird’s eye view, but it’s not as good for actively managing projects.
Trello is available on Mac and Windows, and you can also download the app onto iOS and Android devices.
Evernote
If you’re looking for a note-taking app or software, Evernote is definitely one to consider. If you’re used to using a notes app on your smartphone, you’ll find this to be a fantastic and much more organized upgrade. It’s a great tool for keeping all your thoughts, memos, voice notes and pretty much anything else that you can think of in a single, organized space.
You can use Evernote for to-do lists, like Trello, but that would be doing it a disservice. The biggest advantage of Evernote is that it not only provides you with a space to keep all your thoughts and plans, but has a system to help you navigate all of this information. It’s almost like having the contents of your mind digitized – and then sorted for easy filtration and search. You can do this through tags and saved searches.
Though Evernote is excellent for journaling and keeping your thoughts in one place, it’s not that great when it comes to actually managing your projects. It doesn’t provide you with a visual overview of the project, as it lacks features such as Kanban or Gantt view. Your only option for setting and viewing tasks is to create a checklist inside a note.
In addition to the desktop version, Evernote is also available on iPhone and Android. However, the Basic plan limits the number of devices per account, and you’ll only be able to connect a maximum of 2 in the free version.
Project Management Software is the backbone of many businesses in the meantime. The business environment has never been more competitive, which is pushing companies to become as efficient and productive as possible.
This is where Project Management software comes in. It helps businesses be the best they could be – productivity and efficiency wise.
Windows PCs have always been and still are the dominating breed of computers in the workplace, but this is not true anymore, and with the widespread of Macs in the business world, we have seen great choices that work with Macs as well.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of the best project management software for Mac devices, and without wasting any more time, let’s get right into it:
Best Project Management Software for Mac
- BaseCamp
- Trello
- Wrike
- Daylite
- Merlin Project 5
- iTask X3
- Monday.com
- Microsoft Project
- FastTrack Schedule
- Scoro
- Nutcache
- OmniPlan
1- BaseCamp
Free Project Planning Software For Mac Software
Basecamp is an online Collaboration and Project Management tool that is also available to download as an application for Mac OS devices. It is also available as an application for mobile devices running Android and iOS.
Basecamp has gained its place as one of the most popular choices for remote collaboration thanks to the combination of ease of setup and uses across devices, a wide range of useful features, available integrations with 3rd party applications and systems, and their excellent pricing.
Basecamp allows you to do everything from one place, from sharing ideas proposals to generating automated reports, Basecamp is much more than a project management tool.
Its simplicity makes Basecamp one of the best choices for small to mid-sized teams, and the interface is easy to navigate by anyone without experience in project management.
The 24/7 technical assistant and the large user’s community also mean you will always find answers and solutions easily, too.
2- Trello
We’ve mentioned Trello many times before as being one of the best project and task management applications on the market. Trello uses an intuitive setup of boards, lists, and cards. The solution is one of the most intuitive PM tools you can find.
Project Management Software
Trello is available for free for personal use and small teams and has a reasonable pricing scheme that makes it a good option for startups and small businesses.
Trello is better for the execution of your projects than it is for project planning, as you can assign, prioritize, and set deadlines for tasks with ease.
Trello’s Dashboard is straightforward, and the solution offers excellent integration with other third-party apps and services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, MailChimp, Salesforce, and more.
Team members can easily share ideas, comments, notes, and projects files. Trello is also one of the most fun-to-use apps on this list, and its excellent mobile applications allow users to work and stay on top of their business regardless of where they are.
3- Wrike
Wrike is one of the best cloud-hosted solutions and is also available as a free Mac project management solution. Wrike offers excellent benefits to any business as it operates as an all-in-one hub for all your project management needs.
Wrike offers plenty of features that make it a great collaboration tool for businesses of all sizes, such as the 3-Pane project view that allows the project manager to view all the critical data in a glance and get clear visibility on all of their projects’ operations.
Tags and folders enable users to view and share project data in a more comfortable and more organized way. You can engage your team more using Wrike’s activity stream, and your team members will also be able to view each other’s activity progress in real time for a smoother workflow.
Some of the other features offered by Wrike include Custom fields, custom reports, critical path, custom calendars, Time Tracking, Task prioritization, workload management, email integration, and interactive timelines (Gantt Chart).
4- Daylite
Daylite is an all-in-one solution that offers project planning, project management, and customer relationship management in one package. The solution was originally designed for Apple products, so it works great on Mac OS devices.
The User Interface feels very familiar to anyone who has been using Apple products for a while and feels intuitive and fast. It serves to help the businesses that use the software become more client-focused by automating and tracking their tasks to save time and energy towards the more essential matters.
Daylite offers good customizability options that give users the chance to create their pipelines and approval processes for new projects. Daylite also offers some task management functionality to help you with day-to-day operations.
5- Merlin Project 5
Merlin Project 5 is a professional project management software that enables its users to do their project planning easily on their Macs. Users can do things like generating reports, building a work plan break down, and more.
Merlin is very intuitive, especially for those familiar with the Apple Eco System, but the simple layout doesn’t compromise the features allowed.
Merlin also doubles as a good document management system as it allows users to upload and share files. Users can also create entirely custom reports to get the exact information they need for their decision-making process to become more efficient.
Merlin also offers beautiful and useful network diagrams using the Activity on Node format, lists of all resources involved in projects, Gantt Charts with critical path, and a time-based display of resource utilization.
SEE ALSO:Best Project Management Tools for Startups
6- iTask X3
iTask X is another straightforward project management solution. Users love the solution’s intuitive interface and navigation. The solution is easy to learn and doesn’t have a steep learning curve, anyone who opens the solution can start using it immediately even if they don’t have prior experience using it.
iTask offers robust features that allow businesses to manage their projects also if they are enterprise-level projects with lots of complexities. It’s based off the Waterfall Project Management methodology and offers Gantt charts, task management, and resources.
iTask provides more than 60 different calculators depending on the task fields, and these include effort-driver scheduling, cost accruals, and many more.
Another advantage this solution offers is the fully customizable layout that enables project managers to adjust it according to their needs. They can change all the aesthetics of their projects to make it uniquely suitable for their projects.
The solution also comes with plenty of pre-designed templates for those on a hurry and don’t have the time to create their designs.
7- Monday.Com
Monday.com, as the name would indicate, is another Project management application that’s cloud-based but does offer a clean and straightforward Mac application. The solution features a clean dashboard that allows users to view and monitor the activities of all team members.
Monday.com is ideal for remote and mid-to-large sized teams that can benefit from task tracking. It helps businesses build cross-functional teams by enabling all groups to view what the other teams are currently working on. This way, everyone is kept on the loop, and it’s all done from a single, easy-to-navigate and simple-to-understand dashboard.
Monday.com allows users to add tasks, projects, to-do-lists, and goals in the dashboard. You can assign tasks, add deadlines, and track their progress directly through the same dashboard. That means that users can plan their workload more efficiently to get better results.
However, it should be noted that you only get real-time visibility and accessibility when you are using the cloud version of the solution and not the Mac one, but, in the end, it depends on your preferences.
8- Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is a project & Portfolio management solution that is available both as an on-premise option for Windows and Mac and as cloud-based software.
MS Project offers integrated project planning tools that help users get an overview and keep their projects organized and on the planned track.
Users can also use the solution to manage their projects and programs efficiently as it enables users to choose suitable deadlines, choose and provide the resources, empower their teams, and collaborate with various other parties (professionals, teams, clients, and even enterprises).
Microsoft Project also comes with pulldown menus, Gantt charts, schedule management, task management, business intelligence, timesheets, reports, and integrations with other apps and services to further extend the functionality of the solution.
SEE ALSO: 10 Benefits of Using Project Management Software
9- FastTrack Schedule
FastTrack Schedule is a project management and scheduling solution that is intuitive, easy-to-use, and results-focused. The solution aims to increase the productivity of businesses by helping them manage their projects more efficiently to be able to complete more projects with better quality in less time.
FastTrack Schedule is available for devices running Windows, Mac OS, and iOS. The dashboard is simple and gives better visibility for team members.
It allows businesses to merge their projects into a single massive schedule in which means users can create master plans for their projects, monitor them, and track them all from a single screen.
Freeware Project Planning Software
The application comes with an extensive collection of predesigned templates, and it even allows you to create schedules using Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Project files, or other applications.
Having one big schedule also has another quite large advantage; it gives users the chance to take notice and identify any scheduling conflicts and make changes to make sure the workflow stays smooth to ensure efficiency.
Similarly, FastTrack allows you to maximize other resources you might have in your business such as money usage, team members’ activity, and more. This ensures you are never giving a project too much or too few resources to be completed.
10- Scoro
Scoro is a cloud-based project management solution that works well with Mac devices. The solution is ideal for small and mid-sized businesses and comes with modules for project management, work management, financial management, and CRM.
Scoro streamlines your processes across your teams and operations for a seamless workflow. This is a setup more commonly used in enterprises but rarely in small businesses, but Scoro brings this power to the Small businesses to give them a competitive edge.
Some of the features of the solution include a real-time KPI dashboard, shared team calendar, contact management, pre-designed quoting & invoicing templates, sub-tasks, deadlines, time tracking, and more.
Unfortunately, Scoro doesn’t offer a free plan, but they provide a free trial on their paid plans so you could test out the solution and its features to see if it’s a good fit before making a decision.
11- Nutcache
Nutcache is another web-based project management solution that works with Mac devices. The solution strength comes from the fact that it adapts the agile approaches.
Nutcache can be adjusted to your projects or workflow, and the solution focuses more on planning, committing, and delivering sprints and tracks. Nutcache enables managers to track the overall progress of the project and have full control of it.
The solution comes with plenty of useful features for businesses which include sprint management, analysis tools, email notification, Kanban boards, teams and roles, backlog management, project management, agile planner, and story and task management.
All these features allow managers to focus their teams on the project at hand and guarantee the best results they can get with the available resources. Unfortunately, there is no free plan available.
12- OmniPlan
OmniPlan is a beautifully-designed project management application for small and mid-sized businesses. The solution is simple to use with powerful features that make project management more accessible for busy managers and business owners.
The simple drag-n-drop functionality allows users to drag and drop team members into tasks, set estimated time for completion easily, and the beautiful Gantt Charts makes the data easier and faster to understand.
OmniPlan’s filtering options allow managers to narrow down their task lists by resource, priority, claims, date, and more. This helps tremendously when managers get overwhelmed with all the information they have on their projects and keeps things organized.
The violation resolution features enable the software to flag the task to grab the project manager’s attention in case something goes wrong with the task, such as going over the estimated time.
Local or Cloud?
There are two different Mac Project Management Software options for deployment: Local-based (such as with an App that is installed on the device), or Cloud-hosted (can be accessed from any device with an internet connection).
These two have some pros and cons.
Why use a Local Solution?
- Don’t need an extra browser tab
- Some have more robust features (as in Microsoft Project) than the cloud-based counterparts
- Data is stored locally
Why use a cloud-based solution?
- Collaboration & Remote Work
- No installation or Maintenance Required
- Backups
The trend for the last couple of years has been towards the latter, and for obvious reasons. You can view data and work remotely, you can collaborate and share project files, notes, ideas, and more with anyone in the world, and you don’t need to worry about Hardware problems (such as corrupt hard drives destroying your data), because someone else takes care of all this stuff for you.
It’s essential to know exactly what you are getting and why are you getting it. So, take your time to make up your mind before committing.
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