Is there really a viable Microsoft Project alternative for project scheduling software to create project plans and timing plans? Find out with our newly updated article for 2018 which provides a cheaper pay as you go version of, some great new MS Project alternatives and a downloadable how-to guide for choosing a Microsoft Project alternative for your project schedules.

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If your company is feeling the pinch, your request to purchase a shiny new copy of Microsoft Project might elicit a response that goes something like; “.surely there is a free Microsoft Project alternative out there that can do the job, isn’t there?” You respond something like, “Umm, well, maybe”. And that’s the point of this article. For those of you who are on the hunt for a alternative, you’ve come to the right place. For a lot of agencies, the default project management tool for creating project plans is still Microsoft Project. If we’re really honest, though, for most of the digital projects that we manage, Microsoft Project does far more than we ever need it for – it’s got stacks of features that most people never use, hasn’t really changed that much in 30 years, and doesn’t necessarily do much to streamline process within project management. So are there any real Microsoft Project alternatives – paid, or even better, for free – that are worth using?

Wait a minute though Before looking for Microsoft Project alternatives, did you know that the real deal is actually not that expensive? Why would you use Microsoft Project? For starters, Microsoft Project is not just a fuzzy old tool that Microsoft doesn’t really care about—they’re introducing some really smart with Power BI, Internet of Things, bots and machine learning that are awesome. How much does Microsoft Project cost? It’s simple and affordable to. In fact, now you can pick up a copy of Microsoft Project on There’s also been an interesting shift in the Microsoft Project alternative world with pricing that it’s worth being aware of.

The cloud-based, online Microsoft Project alternatives are now almost all charging by the user— rather than by the number of projects—which is making MS Project alternatives on average cost about $180/user/year; much more expensive than they used to be. They’re also nearly all transitioning from being simple Gantt chart tools to trying to include project, task and resource management tools. In short, making your choice of an MS Project alternative is becoming more complex. What is Microsoft Project used for? MS Project is a project management tool used by different types of users, who have different levels of access.

The software provides tables, views, filters, fields, calendars, and a database for doing things like:. Developing project plans. Assigning resources. Tracking time & progress. Creating Gantt charts. Creating & managing budgets. Balancing workloads.

Scheduling tasks & resources. Creating graphical reports. Storing project data in a shared database Best Microsoft Project Alternatives For Project Scheduling Software. In this review of Microsoft Project alternatives, we break down the features, pricing, pros & cons of the following tools:.

GanttPRO –. Celoxis –. Clarizen –. Wrike –. Smartsheet –. ProjectLibre –.

Tom’s Planner –. Omniplan –. Merlin Project 5 –.

Team Gantt – Project Scheduling Software Selection Criteria (For A Microsoft Project Alternative) We’re project managers, right, so let’s first define the requirements. We need to properly define what our alternative needs to do. There are loads of project scheduling software alternatives out there, many of which do all kinds of things that we, as digital project managers will never make use of, so what do we actually use it for? GanttPRO – GanttPRO is online Gantt chart software with lots of useful features. If you are not new to the world of project management, you know how painful it is to find a nice looking and powerful Gantt chart and a MS Project alternative. In GanttPRO, you will find both. This Gantt chart tool looks really nice with its intuitive UX/UI design.

Besides, it offers a wide range of project management features. Here you can easily create tasks, assign them, and connect them with dependencies, set milestones, enable the critical path to see the most important tasks or create a baseline to compare a current state of your plan with what you have initially planned. Thanks to the auto-scheduling function, any change in your tasks, dates or dependencies will be automatically reflected.

GanttPRO is also a good collaboration tool. It allows users to comment on tasks, export, import and share charts with Public URL as well as get notifications, mention team members, browse History mode, etc. You can try a 14-day free trial or book a.

A plan for 1 user starts from $15 if billed annually. Team plans start from $5.90 per user if billed annually. Summary of GanttPRO:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass.

Create a project overview chart: Pass. Import and export.mpp files: Pass. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 9. Celoxis – More than just a Gantt chart tool, Celoxis is a comprehensive but easy to use, project management tool used by HBO, Deloitte and Rolex that handily comes in two flavours – as an online app or on-premise.

When compared to MS Project, it’s a lower cost, yet fuller featured product with powerful interactive Gantt charts, handy portfolio dependencies and all the keyboard shortcuts you could want. Just as you would with Microsoft Project, Celoxis allows you to create tasks, subtasks, milestones, assigned resources and dependencies to tasks. It is a comprehensive and enterprise-grade integrated solution that you can use to not only create Gantt charts but also use to manage your project portfolios, workflows, expenses, time sheets and resources. It is really a complete and full-featured project management tool with project tracking, resource management, risk management and reporting all rolled into one, together with the full-blown capabilities for collaboration with clients. Celoxis offer the option of a or a if you’re looking to take it for a test drive.

Celoxis costs $25/user/month for SaaS users and $450/user for on-premise. Summary of Celoxis:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass. Create a project overview chart: Pass. Import and export.mpp files: Pass.

Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 9. Clarizen – Companies are quickly finding that traditional, siloed, on-premises project planning and task management tools don’t work well in today’s environment. These tools are too complex and too narrowly focused and do not have the real-time information, the responsive planning and flexibility required to keep everyone in the loop and everything on track. While, it’s easy to download a simple task management tool, they do not support the collaborative interaction needed to complete process or project related tasks. By contrast, delivers secure, cloud-based collaborative work management solutions built on the vision of business agility. Discussions, tasks, projects and portfolios are all accessible from Clarizen’s scalable enterprise platform. Wrike – To illustrate the point that the crossover between cloud-based Gantt chart creating Microsoft Project alternatives and project management tools is narrowing, it’s worth considering an all in one project management and scheduling tool like While it doesn’t fall neatly into our selection criteria (it does much more than simply create Gantt charts), it’s worth including as an alternative way of approaching the challenge to create shareable project plans.

It’s a project management tool more akin to, or – based around tasks, Wrike allows you to define and assign tasks and track their progress in real-time. You can easily import your.mpp Microsoft Project plans into the interface, although exporting is limited to.XLS. The Gantt chart view works but the control of interdependencies and predecessors is a bit cumbersome so it’s not a clean like for like solution, but it’s definitely a workable solution. For the price (which they’ve priced very competitively), you can create Gantt charts and you’ve then armed with a swathe of other project management tools and potential integrations and features that you might find useful.

Wrike costs from $9.80/user/month. Summary of Wrike:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass. Create a project overview chart: Fail. Import and export mpp files: Pass. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 8.

Smartsheet – Smartsheet’s online project management tool takes some of the most useful features of Project, marries it with the ease of use of an online spreadsheet, and then layers in team collaboration and time-saving automation features. It’s a paid, cloud hosted and web-based system complete with mobile apps which enable some pretty powerful collaborative tools with alerts and reminders as the project timeline changes over time. It delivers the basics well – creating pretty drag and drop Gantt charts with tasks, subtasks, milestones, assigned resources and dependencies to tasks. It also offers a broader capability for resource management, reporting, and forms; they’ve begun to layer on a lot of features although I’m not sure how helpful they really are in the world of digital project management.

Smartsheet is one of the better-known products and with good reason – it’s a solid product. The only real snags are the inability to produce a high-level project summary and the inability to export as a.mpp; you can only export as XML.

Smartsheet costs from $14/user/month. Summary of Smartsheet:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass. Create a project overview chart: Fail. Import and export.mpp files: Fail. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 8.

ProjectLibre – ProjectLibre is a fork from OpenProj, a free, open source desktop application designed to pretty closely emulate Microsoft Project of old. It does a reasonable job of imitating the layout and interface of Project so if you’re familiar with it, you’ll be able to download it and get going with very little learning curve; it’s easy to create a simple Gantt chart with the usual workflow; creating indented work breakdown structure (WBS), set durations, create links and assign resources.

It even opens.mpp files although it can’t save them back to the same format, instead saving them as XML files which are annoying. It all sounds good, but when you try using it, you can’t help but wish you were just using Microsoft Project; it’s just very clunky, ugly, and fiddly to use. Yes, it’s free, but do yourself a favour and spend a few bucks to get something that actually works properly. ProjectLibre is free! Summary of ProjectLibre:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass.

Create a project overview chart: Fail. Import and export.mpp files: Fail. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Fail Score: 3. Tom’s Planner – Tom’s Planner is paid web-based Gantt chart software that allows anyone to create, collaborate and share Gantt Charts online with drag and drop simplicity. It’s billed as a more simple and collaborative alternative to Project, but is really aimed at replacing teams trying to collaborate using Excel.

Because of that, it looks a lot like MS Excel – there isn’t a way to define dependencies and defining non-working time (e.g. Bank holidays). That said, if you’re looking to produce a simple project plan, it’s pretty good. It’s web based, extremely intuitive and easy-to-use. A great feature is being able to publish your charts online and invite others to collaborate on projects (a free account suffices to accept invitations), add links to other websites and other online documents and embed your schedule in your own blog/website or intranet. The real selling point here is that it’s online, shareable, and collaborative, the downside is that it’s very basic. Tom’s Planner costs from $7.50/user/month.

Summary of Tom’s Planner:. Create a Gantt chart: Fail. Create a project overview chart: Fail. Import and export.mpp files: Fail. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 6. Omniplan – Alright, there you go, for you crazy digital project managers who are still holding on to your creative side, and are playing around on Macs, here’s a couple of desktop based option for you. Desktop-based Microsoft Project alternatives are important because we can’t always be on the interwebs, like when we’re on planes (yes, I know, some of them offer overpriced terribly slow WiFi but you know what I mean).

Omniplan is made by the Omni group – makers of Omnigraffle, so these peeps know what they’re doing. It delivers the basics well – creating pretty drag and drop Gantt charts with tasks, subtasks, milestones, assigned resources and dependencies to tasks. Powered by your own, or the Omni sync server, it also has some more advanced collaboration features which work pretty nicely. Keeping projects up-to-date is powered by whole-project sharing where change-tracking, automatic publishing, and instant updates notify you when changes are made to the timeline, tasks, or amount of work completed, Omniplan allows you to accept or reject the changes one by one, or en masse. Omniplan costs from $149.99/user.

Summary of Omniplan:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass.

Create a project overview chart: Fail. Import and export.mpp files: Pass. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 8. Merlin Project 5 – In its latest iteration, Merlin Project 5 works pretty well.

It’s a great Mac alternative to Microsoft Project, and looks very similar, with many of the granular controls for creating project plans that many of the other options out there gloss over. You can create tasks and subtasks with dependencies and constraints, add work and duration separately, assign resources with an option to decrease duration or increase work, see how much work each resource has assigned, and add your own fields to each task, for which you can define the field type (e.g.

Checkbox, date, etc.). Merlin Project 5 also comes with some cool new features such as Kanban board, resource pools, mind mapping and even a standalone app available in the Apple App Store.

Importing in and out of Merlin is pretty straightforward, import native MPP and export MS Project XML, but you lose a lot of formatting which is annoying. Merlin Project 5 costs $99/year. Summary of Merlin:. Create a Gantt chart: Pass. Create a project overview chart: Pass. Import and export.mpp files: Pass(ish). Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 8.5.

Team Gantt – TeamGantt is swanky looking and reasonably robust Project alternative. It’s a paid, web-based (and mobile-friendly) project management tool that delivers the basics of creating pretty Gantt charts, with the ability to create tasks, subtasks, milestones, assign resources and dependencies to tasks. It places considerable emphasis on individuals, giving them the ability to see what they’re scheduled to work on that week as well as an overview of all the projects they’re working on. This enables an interesting feature to support in-project conversations and file uploads for team collaboration (although I’m not really sure it does it as well as a tool like or ).

The real selling point is that it’s pretty and does the basics well. The downside is that the functionality is a bit too limited without support for import and export of.mpp files. Team Gantt costs from $29/10 x projects/month. Summary of Team Gantt:.

Create a Gantt chart: Pass. Create a project overview chart: Fail. Import and export.mpp files: Fail.

Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 8. Microsoft Project Online Professional – Well done for making it all the way down to the bottom. Here’s your prize. Not many people seem to be aware of this product, and even Microsoft keep pretty quiet about it, but there’s an alternative to spending $500 on a Microsoft Project licence, you can pay as you go. And get the control and capabilities of Project Professional 2016 from virtually anywhere as an always up-to-date desktop subscription through Office 365. The upside is that you get what you wanted from the start; you don’t need a Project alternative when you can actually pretty much have the real deal.

The downside is that all those bells and whistles and add-ons that you can get with some of the other products might actually be quite useful after all. Summary of Microsoft Project Pro for Office 365:.

Create a Gantt chart: Pass. Create a project overview chart: Pass.

Import and export.mpp files: Pass. Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Score: 10.

Microsoft Project for Mac Microsoft doesn’t produce Microsoft Project for Mac users. In fact, the last time that there was a version of Microsoft Project for Apple users was back in 1993 with Microsoft Project 4.0 for Mac.

Sadly, that doesn’t work now! So if you’re on the Apple train and you’re trying to create a Gantt chart on a Mac, the first thing to remember is that you could just use Bootcamp or to get Windows on your Mac, and then use the PC software we’ve listed above. If you can’t do that, as well as the obvious web-based alternatives, there are a few dedicated Microsoft Project for Mac, Gantt chart options that you can install on your Apple Mac or iPad. X Plan ($79) –.

Project Plan 365 ($99) –. Omniplan ($149.99) –. Merlin Project 5 ($349) – Other project scheduling software alternatives worth considering: There are some new kids on the Gantt chart block! I haven’t had a chance to review these properly, but if none of the above work for you, it’s worth checking some of these out:.

Edraw Project –. GanttProject –. ProjExec –. Rational Plan –.

Ganttology –. SmartDraw –. Creately –. Instagantt –. ProjectManager.com –.

WorkZone –. TaskRay –. Teamweek –. Hyper Plan –.

Office Timeline –. Tiemchart – The Best Microsoft Project Alternatives So what is the best to use as a Microsoft Project alternative? It really depends on whether or not you subscribe to the requirements we set out above. If you’re actually looking for something a bit more than that, then one of the cloud-based solutions like would probably work out well. As I often find myself offline, on planes and in the wilds of BC, I would miss having a desktop app to churn out my.mpp’s on the road. So in short, my preference would be for Microsoft Project Pro for Office 365 – it does everything I want it to do, in the format I need it.

Yes, it’s kind of a cop out but it works – and it’s actually no more expensive than any of the better, paid, alternatives. And if you’re a Mac user, you’re probably best off getting a PC, or failing that, try using Omniplan. So in short, my preference would be for Microsoft Project Pro for Office 365 – it does everything I want it to do, in the format I need it. Yes, it’s kind of a cop-out but it works – and it’s actually no more expensive than any of the better, paid, alternatives. What to consider But with so many options on the table, what are the things worth considering when choosing a Microsoft Project alternative? I think it’s worth thinking about three areas when choosing a Microsoft Project alternative:.

Functionality – does it do what I need it to do? (we’ve covered this already above). Workflow – how nicely does this play with my other project management toolkit?. Cost – is this actually cheaper than Microsoft Project?

Considering where the Gantt chart and project schedule is used in your workflow This is a bit of a catch-all, but in choosing a Microsoft Project alternative, it’s worth thinking about how you’re managing estimates, tasks, resources, budgets, risk, time sheets and project reporting. There are features within Microsoft Project that support this, and many of the alternatives include them too.

What do you do with your project plans and schedules? If they are just Gantt charts that get created at the beginning of a project and are then not updated, it’s very different from the requirement for a tool that needs daily updates. Consider what you actually use project timelines for; do you print them off every day and baseline progress?

How do you share that information with the project team and executive? Consider too how you’ll be updating the timeline throughout the project. Who will be using it? It’s worth considering if it will be just the project manager updating the project plan, or if the team will need to do it too. If the project timeline needs to be actively updated by the project team, it’s worth considering tools which are easy to use, and require minimal onboarding. What other tools are you using?

Microsoft Project integrates and plays nicely with its Microsoft buddies, SharePoint and Project Server which are enterprise based solutions capable of some incredibly smart things with Power BI, Internet of Things, bots and machine learning. Microsoft Project integrates with a lot of other applications and tools too, including JIRA using the Ceptah Plugin and Daptiv PPM. Are you always online? Cloud-based project timeline apps can be great, and they can be kept more up to date with ‘live’ information but consider that they require an active internet connection to work. If you’re ever working offline, and got no cell reception, for example on a plane, you’ll be hooped and want a desktop application instead. Considering the cost of MS Project Alternatives The cost of Microsoft project tends to be one of the primary reasons that people look for an alternative.

Microsoft Project isn’t cheap, but did you know that if you do a quick search on Amazon you can find the latest version of Projects vs users Most of the Microsoft Project alternatives are priced on a cost per user basis. So in working out which solution is the most affordable, consider what makes most sense for you; is it a tool that many people in the organization will need to use, or will it be used principally by the project manager? Lifetime cost of ownership While web-based apps might seem affordable in the short run, typically costing around $15/user/month, the cost of ownership over 3 years is actually the same as. About Ben Aston I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager. I've been in the industry for more than 10 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from video virals to CMS’, flash games to banner ads and eCRM to eCommerce sites.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. You got right list of Microsoft alternatives and summarized in detail. As you said you will love to hear about any other alternative 🙂 I want to share proofhub. Its a feature rich tool and we are using it since 2012, we are quite happy with their service so i thought sharing can help your post to keep it refreshing ProofHub costs from $49/ Unlimited USERS /month Summary of ProofHub: Create a Gantt chart: Pass Create a project overview chart: Pass Import and export mpp files: Fail Export PDF’s or shareable project plans: Pass Overall score: 4/5 I will share more if i found more competitive alternative! Also please let me know where I am wrong. Ben, Really liked the article and the brief listing format for the comparisons, proved very useful and timely, just had the experience you open with.

Is there nothing else out there etc? As a result, found your article.

Coming from an equipment manufacturing environment, dealing with large scale consultants & Construction companies, the ability to develop, share and reiterate schedules in a consistent format, that they can readily import and export in and out of the clients larger project databases is important. (in some cases it’s a contractual, project communications requirement).

Hence the ability to import & export in.mpp is critical, it’s a shame that the developers for some of the online packages don’t provide this as a defacto standard feature. If there was consistent import/export format across multiple platforms, I think more of these smaller packages would be used more readily, especially by smaller contractors/equipment suppliers supplying into larger projects, where MS Project is simply not cost effective solution. Having said that, from this same perspective, Primavera Project scheduling software is also prevalent on these larger projects and having a similar capability would be useful. I know Excel data can be imported and passed around, but it can be a bit of nightmare, trying to maintain the spreadsheet structure, maintaining the correct data types in fields etc. I’d be interested to hear back from readers, if there are any workable, or proven standard file formats for transferring data between these smaller scheduling software packages, into the larger Project schedule software systems. Thanks again for a clear and informative article. Thank you, Ben, for your review.

I just start experimenting after using MS Project for a long time. How do you think is Arike good for small projects?

I can also share with you my personal discovery – GanttPRO – user-friendly online project planning soft which is free and will stay free forever for everyone who sign up now (well, developers promise it 🙂 ). For me I’ve found 5 features: – extremely untuitive interface – after using MS Project GanttPRO is like a child toy) – 360 view of my projects with a critical path and zooming – export to pdf, jpg, xlsx, ical – possibility to share my project plans with colleagues and clients giving the right to edit or the right to view project – perfect visibility – graphic interface is hotsy totsy)). Hi Ben, Great list! We’re a small company and we’ve found that our main criteria is we need “fixed work” resource allocation (versus “fixed duration”). Other than Project 365 and OmniPlan, it seems all the other solutions use the fixed duration model.

We’re trying to get away from Project because we don’t want to continue having to use an outside solution like Basecamp for file sharing and discussions, and we don’t have Macs (OmniPlan also requires an outside platform for file sharing). We signed up for Wrike because we loved the feature set, only to find they are fixed duration only.

Do you (or anyone else reading this thread) have any recommendations for a cloud-based DPM platform that uses/allows a fixed work model and also integrates discussions, file sharing, etc. So we don’t have to run on two separate platforms like we are now? I just used Gantter.com and man did love the intuitive old time feel. It worked beautifully for a basic 12 item 56 point steel construction schedule. Thanks for the Recommendation. I like bells and whistles as much as the next person but simplicity is also a wonderful thing sometimes. It was straight forward and quite like using MS project 2003.

I also took a look at the Rational plan that is suggested above and as far as I can tell that too looks very good for a good price. I would likely purchase that if I did these schedules more often. I am not sure if that really works but a possible solution would be to use a PM tool from a provider that runs on an AWS GovCloud (US). The service seems to be in compliance with ITAR: That would mean that instead of hosting the program on your internal server and handle version updates, the software producer would do it for you on a dedicated AWS GovCloud (US) machine and you would have the exact same benefits of a cloud/web-based PM tool. We haven’t tried that yet with RationalPlan but it could be a viable solution Interesting point of view, thanks!

Fantastic review, thank you! I was just a bit surprised about the Merlin evaluation though. I use a Mac and found it to be the best Microsoft Project alternative I have tried. It looks very much like Project, and is sufficiently advanced. That is: you can create tasks and subtasks with dependencies and constraints, add work and duration separately, assign resources with an option to decrease duration or increase work, see how much work each resource has assigned, and add your own fields to each task, for which you can define the field type (e.g. Checkbox, date, etc.) This last feature is why I dropped Omniplan – the devil’s in the detail!

I needed to add, and filter by, a number of checkboxes and custom dates next to each task (like “urgent” flag, “important” flag, date task was requested etc.). The only downside I found was being unable to save straight to mpp – you can save to xml and whoever has the latest Project version can open it, but older versions don’t. And a quick note about Omniplan: a great feature for those who frequently change task dates and assignments is that you can define whether to adjust duration or work in a clear option button, rather than indirectly by adjusting dates and work/duration values. Hope you find this helpful! HI Ben, Interesting review but not quite sure how you missed Planner from PROJECT in a box. Now quite a mature product and completely free for ever for all organisations to download. We found in our commercial products that 80+percent of the plans people created in MS Project used a very basic set of functions, tasks, dependencies, groupings, resources etc so we provided these in a simple to use tool five years ago and now there are well over 100,000 users.

We find many people ditching MS Project to use this instead at an organisation wide level as well as on a new user at a time basis. Over the years we have added a lot to Planner so it now includes project accounting and costing model and uniquely is also a risk and issue/RAID tool so users can collect all their key project controls data in one place. Of course we also provide reports and all data and charts etc can be exported and dropped to clip board.

We even provide two way exchange with MS Project and Excel. We know of other customers who transfer to Primavera through this interface. Planner is used by many of our biggest global customers on some huge projects and also by the complete novice to create there first ever plans. A full set of training videos and free technical support is also provided.

Although it is free forever it doesn’t mean it is some simple trial tool, we continue to add interesting new features to it based on the dialog with our many customers. Hope your readers find this a helpful update. Regards Malcolm West MD PROJECT in a box. Hi, Ben It is a great article and a rich collection of MS project alternatives. Like you said you would like to hear about others too. I would like to represent TIEMCHART Tiemchart have been helping some of the largest organisation where were initially on MS Project. We have delivered a system that is also taking into account for Human, Material and Assets to account for project progress.

Please visit our website to understand bit more about how we are helping the industry. We would love to hear back from you and also will be thankful if you can kindly include our name in your list.

Thanks & Regards.

Last Updated: September 18, 2018 The last version of Microsoft Project on Mac died way back in 1994. Since then, Microsoft has never released its flagship project management software on Mac but the good news is, there are some superb alternatives available nowadays. We’ve looked at the best alternatives to Microsoft Project for Mac that support Gantt charts and Kanban boards. We’ve covered all needs and budgets here ranging from powerful Cloud based solutions to Mac desktop tools. All of them allow you to create effective Gantt charts on your Mac and some even have Kanban boards for agile project management. Here then is our list of the best project management software for Mac that work as excellent replacements for MS Project.

Really pushes the boat out when it comes to project management. From the way it looks on macOS to the way it accurately imports and exports MS Project files, it’s so much better to use than MS Project in almost every way. Teamwork Projects is all about helping employees, teams and PMs be more organized, cooperative and informed without getting in the way. Teamwork Projects features the best integration with Microsoft Project of any project management software we’ve tried.

The Teamwork Microsoft Office add-on not only allows you to import and export to MS Project but even integrate with it too. Combined with clear, color coordinated Gantt Chart and Kanban project views, automated Triggers and Webhooks to alert others when work is complete and Zoho Reports integration, Teamwork Projects is an excellent project management tool. Although Teamwork is an enterprise project management tool, private individuals or freelancers can use it for free but note that free accounts are limited to just 2 projects and 100MB of storage. Professional Plans start at $9 per user/month or $15 per user/month for the enhanced Premium Plan with MS Project integration. You can find full details here on.

You can try a with no credit card required. You can also read our full for a more in-depth look. Pricing: Free/$9+ per month. Is a powerful online alternative to Microsoft Project which puts making Gantt charts easy at the center of its design.

It’s incredibly easy to get up and running with SmartSheet as the learning curve is minimal compared to most project management software but it does not skimp on features and capabilities. SmartSheet is very easy to use and makes it simple to create timelines, calendars and share or collaborate on projects with other users. If you need to work with Microsoft Project users, SmartSheet can import and export Microsoft Project files as well as PDF, PNG and other major formats. Managing timelines is also easy allowing you to drag and drop tasks to change duration or completion dates and enter more information. You can also add Milestones and choose whether you want them to have a knock-on effect on the rest of your tasks or not.

$10 a month for single users or $15 per month for team users of more than three people. You can also try before deciding whether it’s for you. Pricing: $10+/month is easily the most popular native desktop project management app for macOS. OmniPlan is from Omni Group, the same team that created the excellent diagramming software OmniGraffle, probably the most popular native Mac alternative to Visio on Mac.

OmniPlan is easier to use than Microsoft Project, imports MS Project files and looks great on a Mac because it’s designed specifically for macOS. OmniPlan uses a clear Gantt chart layout which gives you a very clear overview of what needs to be done. The smart thing is OmniPlan adjusts itself according to the resources you drag and drop into the project bars. OmniPlan supports importing and exporting of Microsoft Project files. You can read our full for a more in-depth look. You can also download and try a fully featured.

Pricing: $149.99 Mac App Store is one of the most popular cloud based project management apps available and used by over 10,000 organizations worldwide. Wrike is like a mix between project management tools Trello and Jira but in a slicker and more intuitive interface.

Wrike is very flexible and suitable for everything from creative projects, to business project management and marketing campaigns. When it comes to scheduling and project overviews, Wrike uses a classic Gantt chart timeline to help you see how you’re doing and make adjustments to project estimates. Wrike is also one of the most well-integrated apps we’ve seen and works with over 30 major apps such as Microsoft Office 365 including Microsoft Project, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and OneDrive.

You can import MS Project files into the Professional and Business versions of Wrike as long as they are in MPP, MPX and XML format. There are 4 main versions of Wrike, Free, Professional, Business and Enterprise plus an extra version Wrike for Marketeers which is designed specifically for marketing professionals.

You can get more information on. You can try it for yourself as all plans have a.

Pricing: $9.80+/month – Free Trial. Is one of the few project managements apps that includes Fixed Duration, Fixed Work and Fixed Units including Dependency Driven Durations for complex projects. RationalPlan can import files from Microsoft Project and displays projects using Gantt charts. RationalPlan also has a Mac desktop client but you can collaborate with other users in real-time using the web app. RationalPlan comes in two versions: is suitable for those that just need to manage one project and allows you to manage several projects at once. The trial versions of both can be used for an unlimited period of time although there is a limitation of 20 tasks (apart from on Linux where the Single version is completely free). After that, it’s $57 for the Single version or $98 for the multi version.

You can find start a and judge for yourself. Pricing: 20 Tasks Free then Single version $57 or Multi version $98 is definitely one of the best looking project management tools for Mac users and uses an innovative “hybrid” approach to project planning.

Merlin Project does both traditional and agile project management (Gantt meets Kanban) and has a slick interface that looks great on macOS. You can use Merlin Project with a Gantt chart layout which is excellent at showing the dependencies between multiple projects and potential problems. You can also use Kanban Boards as used by popular web-based collaboration tools like Trello.

Just move work from your backlog to in progress, verifying and completed when done. Other useful tools include resource pools, groupings and a mind mapping tool to help you brainstorm ideas which it can then automatically breakdown into a project Gantt chart. There’s plenty of with other apps including Excel, Dropbox and it can import Microsoft Project files. There’s also a lighter version which is cheaper than the full app but only allows Gantt chart views.

There’s a standalone Merlin iPad and iPhone app called that syncs with the desktop app via Merlin Server although it costs an extra $39.99. It can also be used on its own without purchasing Merlin Project if you just want a project management app for your iPad instead. If you’re new to project management, Merlin Project is attractive, innovative and user-friendly.

If you’re looking for a more modern Mac alternative to MS Project, Merlin Project is a great project management tool. You can find full details of. You can start a to see for yourself.

Pricing: $149/year. Is a very powerful software for PMs designed specifically for Mac. Although SG Project Pro is less known than OmniPlan, it has a similar Gantt chart layout and offers almost all of the same features. The one major drawback is that there’s no support for importing or exporting MS Project files but if you don’t need that, then it’s as good as OmniPlan if not better in certain areas. Managing multiple projects that are ongoing at the same time is particularly well implemented giving you a clear overview of how resources have been deployed and any potential conflicts.

SG Project Pro also has a companion which allows you to manage projects on the go although it’s limited in functionality and costs an extra $49.99 on top of the $174.99 for the Mac desktop app. There is also a which includes the basic features of SG Project Pro and costs $24.99 from the Mac App Store. SG Project Pro is packed with essential project management features but doesn’t overwhelm you with hundreds of functions and tools that you’ll never use like Microsoft Project.

Pricing: $174.99 Mac App Store is a professional project management tool featuring a huge number of reports. It allows you to add hyperlinks and files to projects and displays the current status of your projects via Gantt charts. Everything is updated in real-time so project managers and participants are always up to date on what’s happening.

One of ConceptDraw’s strongest points is how powerful it is when it comes to importing files. It can import and export files not only from Microsoft Project but also from Microsoft Word and Excel so you don’t have to tediously manually input lines of text or data. ConceptDraw products are quite rich in features and take some getting used to but you also get a free personalized 30 minute one-one-one webinar with each purchase to help you get to grips with them. You can get a project by signing-up for an account. Pricing: $199 – Free Trial. Is a well designed PM tool made specifically for Mac. It’s surprisingly powerful and imports Microsoft Project MPP files.

ITaskX supports over 60 different detailed task fields such as calculations for slack time, overtime, WBS codes and much more. Some of the features unique to iTaskX include cost rate tables for work and material resources, usage views which work similar to MS Project, support for all resource types (work, material, cost) and task types (fixed units, fixed duration, fixed work). ITaskX is highly customizable allowing you to customize fonts, bar labels and inserting graphics and images in schedules. ITaskX supports importing of MPP, MS Project XML and MS Project MPX files. Importing doesn’t always turn out perfectly – some formatting may be lost but this is the same for most replacements for Project and you can fix this manually. You can also export iTaskX files to XML, OPML, iCal and PDF format plus edit headers, footers and legends before printing. You buy for $140 for one user, $650 for 5 users, $1,200 for 10 users and $2,750 for up to 25 users.

By default, the iTaskX works as an unregistered demo for 14 days but you can also if you need more time. Pricing: Starts at $140.00 for one user. Is a no fuss, powerful project planning app that has both a Mac desktop client and a Cloud version. Project Plan 365 can open MS Project files instantly in your browser with no downloads or plugins required.

It opens MPP 2003-2016 files and you can edit, save and share files up to 2MB absolutely free but for a one-off purchase of $99, you can open and edit files of any size. Project Plan 365 doesn’t have the flashiest or slickest of interfaces but it’s incredibly good at working with MS Project files.

You can maintain Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) and project schedules, easily assign resources (including people and material) and calculate project costs just as you would in Microsoft Project. Project Plan 365 supports duration, work and unit driven scheduling and you can save projects to the cloud for access anywhere.

You can work on the same projects with clients or colleagues in other locations. You can choose from a range of views including Gantt, Calendar, Task Sheet and Network Diagram and you can color coordinate them. You can also open projects in Resource Sheet, Resource Usage, Task Sheet and Task Usage views. Project Plan 365 is a no fuss and versatile alternative to Project. You can for 30 days to find out for yourself. Pricing: 2MB Free/$129.99 per user/year.

(formerly known as xPlan and Projector) is a really tasty looking project management app that offers those on a budget a slick tool for planning and tracking projects. NobPlan certainly looks good with very smooth looking Gantt charts, integration with DropBox and iCloud and a companion iPad and iPhone app. The main strength of NobPlan is the ability to cost projects in a simple manner and it can export data into several different formats easily. It also allows you to import and export Microsoft Project files although only in the XML format that is open to developers – MPX format is not supported unfortunately. If you’ve never used Gantt charts before and just need something fairly simple which looks good on Mac and doesn’t break the bank, NobPlan is a great start.

Pricing: $29.99 is a Cloud project management tool which provides an easy to use and colorful way to plan and track projects. ProjectManager is a powerful Gantt chart software with major corporate customers such as Volvo, NASA and Nike using it. You can import MPP files and although it’s web-based, there is a free iPad and iPhone app which syncs with it so you can edit projects anywhere. The useful thing about ProjectManager.com is that multiple members of a team can log onto it at the same time and update tasks, roadmaps and reports in real-time. There’s a 30 day free trial of ProjectManager.com and then pricing plans start from $25 a month for 1-5 users up to $45 a month for more than 10 users.

Pricing: $25+/month is a slick project management tool that has lots of project templates, useful reports and even works on older PPC Macs. FastTrack Schedule has been around a long time on Mac and over the years more and more features have been added to make it an excellent PM tool. There are so many different tools and reports that it can be intimidating at first but from the minute you open it, there lots of to help you get to grips with all of FastTrack Schedule’s features. If you need something really high-end, we recommend trying the because at $349, it’s one of the most expensive project management apps for macOS available.

Pricing: $349 If you’re a real Excel Junkie, then might be of interest as it has a Mac desktop client. As the name suggests, Gantt Chart Excel Template isn’t actually an application – it’s modified template for Excel that allows you to create Project Management Gantt charts very quickly.

The good thing about Gantt Chart Excel Junkie is that if you’re already a Whizz with Excel, then you’ll be up and running with it very quickly. Gantt Chart Excel Template is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Excel including 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2013. When you open Gantt Chart Excel Template it looks like a version of Excel on steroids. The Excel ribbon has been customized to include a Gantt chart tab which includes tools to add Charts, Tasks, Milestones etc. You can easily create cascading dependencies and easily see what impact new tasks will have on the final completion date. You can create detailed project timelines with information such as task names, resources, task percentage completed, costs and other important elements. There are even project completion dashboards to clearly show you the status if your projects.

And there is a cost module to help you get an overview of how your budget is doing. There are several other useful things you can do with Gantt Chart Excel Template too such as color customize projects, add holidays calendars, group tasks, filter tasks and more. The best thing is Gantt Chart is free to use although the free version isn’t practical for regular use as it does not allow unlimited Gantt charts and tasks. However, for a very modest one-off payment of $59.95, you can which offers full functionality and unlimited Gantt charts. There are also slightly cheaper Pro and Ultimate version but these do not work with Excel on Mac. Although it’s not exactly a sophisticated alternative to Microsoft Project, Gantt Chart Excel Template is ideal for anyone that loves Excel and wants a cheap, effective solution on macOS.

Pricing: Free/$59.95. Is a powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) project management application aimed at technology teams. LiquidPlanner is ideal for task management, project scheduling, and team collaboration in one application. LiquidPlanner is suitable for agile environments but could also be easily deployed in waterfall environments too. LiquidPlanner attempts to be a bit different from most software by using “predictive project management” to help identify issues, bottlenecks and problems before they arise. The idea behind this is that you end up with more realistic deadlines due to the LiquidPlanner scheduling engine which automatically calculates dates for projects and task across the entire project timeline in real-time. If you already use a, you can integrate LiquidPlanner into major CRM platforms such as Salesforce and Zapier.

If you want to integrate into a specific application, there’s a RESTful API to connect to other services. LiquidPlanner starts at $9.99 per user per month for small businesses and $39 for larger enterprises although it depends on how many users you need it for. Your best bet is to try the to judge for yourself before subscribing.

Pricing: $9.99+/month – Free Trial. Is an online project management solution that’s used by everyone from freelancers to large corporations. It’s designed for project of all size and industries and according to the developers, is already used by companies such as Netflix, Google, Disney and NASA. One of the main attractions of ProofHub is its accessibility and ease of use for all technical abilities.

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This is partly because ProofHub feels a little bit like a Google product with a navigational interface like Google Docs and an instant messenger client that’s not unlike GChat. Although you can use a Gantt chart style overview of your projects, it’s not at the center of ProofHub. You can navigate ProofHub using the different tabs at the top such as the Tasks bar which allows you to add, modify and set the priority of tasks and jobs.

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You can breakdown tasks into subtasks with ProofHub and easily assign tasks to different members of your team. If you need to switch to a Gantt chart view of your timeline, you can do using the Gantt tab.

Outside of the main taskbar across the top, the ProofHub chat client allows you to start direct chats, group chats and includes chart history and emojis. There are also such as IP restrictions, white label branding of the client and advanced search tools. The developer is also constantly updating ProofHub with new features and has recently added Kanban, third-party integrations and an iOS app.

There’s a lot more to ProofHub and you can check out the. You can but a basic Individual plan starts at $18 per month (limited to 10 project and 3GB of data) and goes up to $135 per month for Enterprise plans with no restrictions. Pricing: $18+/month – Free Trial.

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Is one of the cheapest solutions we’ve seen with the most expensive plan costing just. Redbooth is actually free for users that only need up to 2GB of storage and 5 work spaces but this includes Gantt charts, unlimited comments and conversations and free integration with Google Drive, Slack and Dropbox. Redbooth is extremely streamlined with a very simple interface that clearly shows tasks in progress and tasks to be done. You can prioritize tasks, and easily delegate and assign work by tagging members of your team. There are several ready-made project templates in Redbooth and you can customize them how you want. You can then re-use customized templates when you start a new project.

Other useful features in Redbooth include spreadsheet importing, @mentions, hashtags, external user invites, email notifications and a Google Chrome extension. One other nice touch is integration with Gmail which means you can turn emails into tasks instantly. There are also native apps for iPad, iPhone, Android and even Apple Watch to keep track of your projects.

Redbooth is for anyone that wants a basic but functional project management app that won’t break the bank. You can try a fully featured version of Redbooth Pricing: Free/$5+ per month. Offers both cloud based and self hosted software that keeps things extremely simple but does not lack power. Active Collab has a clear and distraction free interface with plenty of handy features. One of the things we like most about Active Collab is the Estimated v Tracked Time feature which makes it easy to see where things are getting out of hand. There’s also a useful un-invoiced report which monitors work which hasn’t been invoiced for and a workload report which allows easy macro management of project personnel.

Other nice touches include up to 500GB of file sharing space, Gantt charts accessible to everyone and Kanban Boards for collaboration. The online version includes integration with major online storage and payment solutions such as Dropbox, Google Drive and PayPal but you can also install Active Collab locally to utilize local storage servers instead. Active Collab starts at $25 a month for the cloud hosted version but starts at $999 for the self hosted version. You can for 30 days. Pricing: $25+/month. Is an advanced Indian based online and on-premise project management tool but still remains surprisingly easy to use. Celoxis is used by companies as notable as HBO, LG and Rolex for project management indicating just how powerful it is.

One of the best features of Celoxis is the real-world scheduling engine which calculates project times automatically based on dependencies, constraints and calendars so that you don’t have to do all the number crunching yourself. Of course, there are Gantt charts which can be edited via keyboard shortcuts and a very useful portfolio report which can assimilate and report on several projects at once. Free online file storage and sharing is limited to 2GB but you can pay $10 for every extra 10GB which is quite steep but flexible. Other features include time tracking, invoicing and extensive reports. Celoxis starts at $25 per month for the online version but goes up to $450 per month for the on-premise version.

Pricing: $25+/month – Free Trial. Is a cloud based project management tool which tries to take the hard work out of project management. One way it does this is via the Project Highlight Report which automatically summarizes essential project information, status, pending issues etc. There’s also a Portfolio Optimizer which automatically suggests areas where you can make improvements including running “what-if” scenarios such as budget changes, date changes and personnel adjustments. Online storage is limited to 1GB per user although you can use Dropbox and Google Drive. Other useful tools include Gantt charts, brainstorming discussions and timesheets. Clarizen pricing is done on a per-client needs basis but you can also try a free trial.

Pricing: On Request – Free Trial. Is a highly accomplished cloud based software which is used by companies such as Buzzfeed, CocaCola and SalesForce.

Mavenlink features everything you’d expect in a PM app such as Gantt Charts, resource utilization, comprehensive customizable reports and budget status. Mavenlink is a very advanced tool designed for the needs of large enterprises with an upper online file storage limit of 1TB. However, small teams can still use it from $19 per month and if you think your organization is going to grow significantly, it’s definitely worth a looking at. Pricing: $19+/month – Free Trial Which Is The Best Alternative To MS Project? Overall, we’ve found is the best of the bunch because it’s so well thought and we really love the Microsoft Project syncing tool.

It also looks like an app that was designed for macOS which perfectly fits the Apple aesthetic. All of the solutions featured here are excellent Gantt chart tools and the best one for you depends on whether you want a cloud or desktop solution, need MPP file support and what your budget will allow. Are There Any Free Alternatives To Project On Mac? The simple answer is there’s nothing for free that can compete with an enterprise application like Microsoft Project.

However, the free versions of some of the apps featured in this article come pretty close but they all have restrictions. The Free Forever Plan of Teamwork is an excellent free alternative to MS Project but unless you upgrade to a paid plan, you can only do 2 projects and use 100MB of storage. There are also a few Java based options for Mac users which are either free or open source but we generally don’t recommend using Java on Mac unless absolutely essential. For more information, check out our look at the. Why Is There No Microsoft Project For Mac?

Quite simply Microsoft decided long ago it wasn’t worth the effort and resources to develop a version of Project for the Mac market. The market for Mac users is a lot smaller than for Windows and it would require Microsoft to develop and maintain an entirely different product on macOS. The same applies to other Windows only programs such as Access, Visio and Publisher. If after all this you feel you really can’t live without MS Project then read our guide on how to. We strongly recommend using one of the alternatives featured here though as running Windows on your Mac can be slow, inefficient and you don’t get all the same functionality as you would on Windows anyway. If you have any questions, problems or suggestions regarding the apps featured here, let us know in the comments below. Phen Very helpful article, but I wanted to clarify a few items.

First, Microsoft did create a version of Project for Mac. They terminated support after Project 4.0 back in the early 90s.

Too bad, because many project management organizations wouldn’t support Macs for years because they couldn’t run Project. Second, the reason that so many free and open source (FOSS) projects are in Java is for cross-platform support (I’m sure you know that, but just sayin’). Java doesn’t cause bad user interfaces.

Other than truly platform-unique UI capabilities (e.g. Force Touch), you can create most any user interface with native Java, just as you can with a native toolkit. The challenges are that Java apps often use Windows or Linux styles and metaphors which drive us Mac users nuts! Also, these apps are often older than native or Web-based alternatives (the Mac and Web have only gotten popular for most biz software in the past few years, but Java has been popular for FOSS for nearly 20 years), and their UIs are often just out of date. In addition, it seems that many of the “free” tools that are slick and native are just “teaser” versions of commercial products and not really FOSS. Good UI requires hard work, and that requires skilled labor and time, both of which are usually in short supply on FOSS projects.

I would also hesitate to refer to Java as bug-ridden or insecure. Java applets (via the browser plug-in) are/were very insecure, and they have been largely deprecated. Java on the desktop doesn’t appear to be any more of a security risk than any other technologies (how many times have you updated your Flash plug-in, macOS, MS Office, etc., during the last year due to security issues?).

A substantial chunk of the FOSS available for the Mac is based entirely or largely on Java (LibreOffice, NeoOffice, etc.). Again, thanks for an excellent review!