10 Best Project Management Software for Mac Users: Reviewed

So, you’ve bought a Mac — you want to take your business with you and be able to collaborate on your projects from your Mac.

But, now that you’ve opened your device, you’re not sure which project management software would work best with the capabilities of a Mac, while still being a comprehensive PM tool that serves what your organization needs.

I’ve got you covered. In this article, I brought the 10 best project management apps for Mac users into the spotlight, reviewed them, and shared my opinions — so that your choice might be a bit easier. 

The reviews are based on the free plan or free trial versions of the apps.

#1: Plaky — best overall for Mac users

Plaky is an easy-to-use, versatile project management tool that can be used for any type of project. It facilitates general management, collaboration, resource management, and anything else your project might need.

With its Free Forever plan, you can get more out of the software than with most other free plans on the market.

Plaky Pros	Plaky Cons
— Easy-to-use and intuitive interface — Unlimited users, boards, and items, even in the free plan — Plenty of templates	— Limited integrations — Limited board views

What do you get with Plaky?

From the get-go, Plaky’s UI will win you over with an appealing color scheme and a layout that doesn’t immediately overbear you with feature after feature. It’s easy to learn and intuitive, so I felt like I already knew how to use it within minutes of opening the app.

I personally use Plaky for effective communication with my coworkers for any task-relevant info. I also love the customizable status field, in which — aside from the classic “To do”, “Doing”, and “Done” options — we added a “To do next” and “On hold”. Pretty nifty for getting clear info on my tasks at first glance.

To help facilitate any type of project, Plaky has a great number of project management templates in its template center, which help new users get started on the app.

Although it lacks integrations, Plaky offers an integration that is vital for any team — a Clockify browser plug-in. This makes project time management for your team easier, as they can track the time spent on tasks with just one click of a button.

Why is Plaky best overall for Mac users?

Even though it’s not available for download yet, the browser version of Plaky flows nicely on a Mac. The touchpad makes scrolling through Plaky fields easy and smooth.

Moreover, Plaky offers a collection of features that give the best overall experience for any project:

• Unlimited users, boards, and items in the free plan, 
• Clean and easy-to-master interface,
• Plenty of project management template options, etc.

With a free plan that topples all free plans and even includes 24/7 support from the get-go, Plaky is sure to be the go-to tool for any Mac user’s project.

What’s new in Plaky?

Plaky’s most recent feature is Gantt view, which allows for a visual representation of task sequencing and overlap on a horizontal chart. Available to paid users, Gantt view offers improved team transparency and enhances project planning, monitoring, and execution.

Type of plan	Plaky free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 14 days
Free plan	Yes, for unlimited users
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $4.99 per seat per month ($3.99 when billed annually)

#2: Notion — best for task management 

Notion is a great tool for both personal and professional use. With plenty of customization options, it can handle most of the requests you might have.

Whether you’re using it for tracking freelancing tasks or for a full-scale project, Notion allows you to make use of its simple-looking interface in complex and imaginative ways.

Notion Pros	Notion Cons
— Great task customization options — Guest access in the free plan	— Analytics only available in the Enterprise plan — Unappealing interface

What do you get with Notion?

Notion’s free plan is more extensive than most — specifically great for external collaboration. You can invite up to 10 guests to your project, which is a perfect fit for a freelancer or a small project.

Notion is also extremely customizable — I found myself feeling like I’m playing the Sims amidst professional work. You can tailor the layout of your project fields and create your own labels, status tags, and plenty more. 

However, I did find the interface not too pleasing to the eye — there is barely a touch of color, so it felt very monochrome.

On the downside, there are plenty of features not available in the free plan. One of those is a crucial feature for project management — workspace analytics. If that doesn’t work for you, you should check out a Notion alternative.

Why is Notion best for task management?

Notion dedicates plenty of space to the tasks you are assigned to, giving you a separate page for you to view all of them across all projects. It also has dedicated pages for a task list, personal journal, sprints, etc.

As you start up a task in Notion, you’ll be greeted with plenty of options for creating its description, with the 3 most useful being:

• AI support — you can type in the results you want from a specific task into the AI chat form, and it will give you task suggestions.
• Formatting options — you can format the text in your task descriptions in expected ways, with headings and bulleted lists. But, there’s also a variety of additional options, such as to-do lists, quotes, tables, etc.
• Task templates — you can create templates for repeating tasks.

What’s new in Notion?

In its latest update, Notion added the Notion Calendar — a tool that allows you to quickly manage your time, as well as create documents relevant to certain events. It also has a built-in scheduling tool — which is quite useful, considering they also just added the ability to connect multiple Google accounts to the calendar. 

Type of plan	Notion free plan and pricing
Free trial	No
Free plan	Yes, up to 10 guests
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $8 per seat per month

#3: Hive — best for project analytics

Hive is an Agile-friendly tool, incorporating both Gantt charts and Kanban boards in its views. It gives options for collaboration and creating clear task objectives, combining that into an interface that is not too hard to get used to.

Hive also lets its users help determine which features will be added next through a voting system on their user forum.

Hive Pros	Hive Cons
— Automation options — Plenty of analytics options	— Limited mobile app — Advanced analytics are not available in the free plan

What do you get with Hive?

With Hive, you can improve communication between a team member doing a task and the task reviewer — with its Proofing feature, Hive eliminates unnecessary back-and-forth communication.

You can also set up Automations to make working with repetitive tasks easier. For example, a social media management board could have a “Fact of the week post” task automatically added every Tuesday.

Why is Hive best for project analytics?

Hive offers board-specific analytics for every basic parameter you’d want to see. It’s easily accessible — I found it accidentally a couple of minutes after opening the app — and it has a clear overview with download options.

Besides that, Hive has an analytics add-on app, which gives plenty more options for detailed and more professional reports. However, this option is only available in premium plans.

What’s new in Hive?

Hive rolled out a hefty update in December 2023, but the most prominent novelties are being able to set default settings for projects and goals showing units of measurement — like actions completed — instead of only currencies.

Type of plan	Hive free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 14 days
Free plan	Yes, up to 10 members
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $12 per member per month

#4: monday.com — best for new users

As widely used as it is, you’d assume that monday.com is great for large, professional organizations — but I’d argue its greatest strength lies in its utilization for startups and small businesses.

This is in part due to how accessible the software is to new users but also the sheer number of templates that it offers.

monday.com Pros	monday.com Cons
— Intuitive and easy to use — Plenty of automation options	— Limited free plan — Most security and administration features are only available in the Enterprise plan

What do you get with monday.com?

From the get-go, monday.com’s interface is easy to get the hang of and intuitive to use. It has many capabilities for you to discover, but the interface doesn’t flood you with information as soon as you enter the app — you discover features naturally as you use it. This gives you ample time to figure out how you can best utilize the app for your organization.

monday.com has plenty of automation options, which come into play the more you use the app. For example, you can set up automated notifications — like getting notified when a team member completes a certain task.

Still, monday.com has limitations in its free plan, like most apps. Its free plan is more limiting than those of most other apps, offering only 2 seats in your organization. A lot of the security features are also not available in the free plan. So, if you’re looking for something more scalable, you might want to look into a monday.com alternative.

Why is monday.com best for new users?

I’ve already mentioned how easy monday.com’s UI is to get used to — and if you’re still struggling, monday.com has provided many guides and YouTube tutorials to further help new users.

But, startups and small businesses are usually using an app for the first time — and this is where monday.com’s Template Center comes into play. It offers a wide variety of templates to choose from, allowing you to see how a board for the type of project you want to run looks.

Furthermore, you get access to the templates with a free account — which further improves the experience of new users and makes it easier for them to get the hang of it.

What’s new in monday.com?

Most recently, monday.com has added a feature that allows users to add an item on any board from their “My Work” page. They have released a Board Discussion feature, which allows all members of a specific board to communicate in one place.

Type of plan	monday.com free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 14 days
Free plan	Yes, up to 2 seats
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $9 per seat per month

#5: Miro — best for creative collaboration

Miro is a collaboration-oriented tool, and its interactive meeting options are its biggest strength. It emphasizes visual collaboration, with features like whiteboards, videos, and mind maps.

Miro Pros	Miro Cons
— Creative visual collaboration — Supports different formats	— UI can get cluttered — Lacks integrations

What do you get with Miro?

Miro facilitates collaboration by giving you templates for meeting activities, all the while placing an emphasis on creatively productive meetings, with plenty of brainstorming and idea iteration options.

As a tool that focuses on the visual, Miro has a great UI design — dare I say among my favorites in this article. It’s intuitive, and the app uses the trackpad to great effect.

In Miro, you can create many different types of files — videos, images, PDF documents, etc.

Why is Miro the best for creative collaboration?

Miro’s main selling point is its interactive whiteboard. 

The app gives you what is essentially a pen and paper for every team member to write with. You can interact with colleagues in real time, which allows for smooth visual collaboration (and probably many jokes and bad drawings). 

The downside of this is that the workspace can easily get cluttered, with everyone dotting their ideas down willy-nilly.

What’s new in Miro?

Miro recently had major updates, introducing AI to facilitate idea generation — you can chat with it or generate sticky notes, images, etc. 

Furthermore, Miro recently started adding integrations, integrating with Draw.io, as well as Miro’s own apps — Planner and Dependencies.

Type of plan	Miro free plan and pricing
Free trial	No
Free plan	Yes, with unlimited members
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $8 per member per month

#6: Singularity — best for busy freelancers

Singularity is a project management app that’s great for both personal use and managing projects. This offers you a place to schedule all of your tasks — both for yourself and for your project.

It allows you to manage your projects from external sources — like Telegram and email.

Singularity Pros	Singularity Cons
— Setting up tasks without opening the app — Infinite project, task, and tag nesting	— Limited integration options — Only allows one member

What do you get with Singularity?

With Singularity, you get all the features a project management tool should have, such as task management, scheduling, and even setting recurring tasks.

But, it also offers features such as a two-way sync with Google Calendar, so you’re always aware of the time you have — or don’t have. 

You can also nest projects, tasks, and even tags — and you can do this indefinitely.

Unfortunately, the app only allows for one member.

Why is Singularity best for busy freelancers?

Singularity can be used without even entering the app — you can just text it. It offers an AI bot on Telegram which can be used to create tasks externally. You can also do this over email.

To further this concept, you can set up widgets for your desktop which can be used to set tasks on the go. If you’re in an important meeting and you don’t have the time to open your app and scroll through projects, this could be a lifesaver.

What’s new in Singularity?

There’s a new “After completion” mode in Singularity, where a task can be automatically created a specified number of days after another task has been completed.

Type of plan	Singularity free plan and pricing
Free trial	No
Free plan	Yes, for one user
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $2.99 per month

#7: Wrike — best for integrations

Wrike is a popular project management tool that offers detailed views, good collaboration options, and great workflow management.

It uses real-time updates to facilitate optimal collaboration with your project team.

Wrike Pros	Wrike Cons
— Many integration options — Risk detection AI	— Poor UI — Limited free plan

What do you get with Wrike?

Wrike has great automation options, which function on a “WHEN—THEN” system. For example, “When a user adds a file to the task, @mention all assignees”.

Wrike also has a built-in AI that works as a risk detection tool — it notifies all relevant users of potential dangers to the project timeline.

However, a personal grudge I’ve had with Wrike is its interface. The timeline takes up too much of the screen, and there’s no way to minimize it — the only option I’ve found is to make it take up the full screen. It makes the interface cluttered and reduces clarity.

Why is Wrike best for integrations?

Its moniker might come off as bizarre, considering Wrike has fewer than 50 integrations. To be fair, it does offer the most important ones, such as Power BI and Microsoft Teams. But that’s not what earned it the title of “Best for integrations”.

Wrike has an add-on called Wrike Integrate, which allows for more than 400 additional integrations. This leap secured its title. 

What’s new in Wrike?

Like a comment on my UI gripes, Wrike recently dispatched a dark mode option. They also released a “File lock” option, giving you more control over your own files.

Type of plan	Wrike free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 14 days
Free plan	Yes, for one user
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $9.80 per member per month

#8: Merlin Project — best for mind mapping

Merlin Project is created specifically for Mac, and it shows — the tool has a fun interface, and it’s great for any project manager with a Mac device.

Even though it seems intimidating at first, when you get the hang of it, Merlin Project is a powerful tool for any venture.

Merlin Project Pros	Merlin Project Cons
— Great for mind maps — A large variety of views	— Difficult to learn — No Free plan

What do you get with Merlin Project?

In Merlin Project, you get an extremely wide variety of views. You can view your project through Kanban, mind maps, organizational charts, PERT, phases, etc.

Furthermore, it has an incredible number of filters that allow you to take a look at your project from any angle.

If this sounds intimidating, that’s because it kind of is. It doesn’t help that the General Project Management plan template that I chose took me to a table and timeline view — which looked messy and monochrome. It was only after I found the Mind Map that the app started to make sense.

Why is Merlin Project best for mind mapping?

While I praised Miro in part for its mind map creation, Merlin takes the cake here. It has a clear and comprehensive view of each mind map while allowing you to associate it with the rest of the project easily.

As it allows for brainstorming and note-taking, the mind map view is surely the highlight of this app. My only complaint is that the zoom doesn’t always feel smooth — it feels more like it jumps suddenly to a random spot.

What’s new in Merlin Projects? 

Merlin Projects recently added 6 new fields, related to different project variances — such as cost variance and work variance. They also added more overviews in the work breakdown view.

Type of plan	Merlin Project free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 30 days
Free plan	No
Paid plans	Yes, at a flat fee of $16.99 a month

#9: Teamwork — best for working with clients

Teamwork offers a wide array of project management features that Mac users can take full advantage of in their desktop app. 

Many of its features are great for client work, but the app can also be used for other types of projects.

Teamwork Pros	Teamwork Cons
— Client-based features — Integrated time tracking	— Limited free plan — Fewer customization options

What do you get with Teamwork?

Teamwork has a budget tracking feature, which allows you to track the project budget for a specific task, as well as the whole project. However, this feature is only available in the premium plans.

Still, budget is not the only project constraint Teamwork tackles, as it has a built-in time tracking app. This allows you to log time on specific tasks, receive reminders, and review your timesheets.

Why is Teamwork best for working with clients?

Teamwork has several features that allow for improved client interaction. For example:

• You can add clients to your project as users with fewer permissions.
• You can add clients as collaborative document editors. 
• You can assign rates to specific users and clients.

These, and many more of Teamwork’s features are great for dealing with a large number of clients, so it wins the top spot in this category.

What’s new in Teamwork?

Teamwork recently added a new type of report called the “Utilization report”, which helps you track and manage your project resources. They’ve also updated their template gallery.

Type of plan	Teamwork free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 30 days
Free plan	Yes, for up to 5 users
Paid plans	Yes, starting from $5.99 per user per month

#10: Basecamp — best for resource management 

Basecamp is a pioneer in project management tools, having been made way back in 2004. Still, it has managed to keep up with the times, updating its UI and capabilities to the modern standard.

It’s a great tool to put your project in one place, as it puts great emphasis on organization in neatly divided folders.

Basecamp Pros	Basecamp Cons
— Great resource management  — Simplified organization	— Not ideal for large projects — Possibly too simple

What do you get with Basecamp?

Basecamp sticks to what a project needs most, and from the get-go, puts it right in front of you. The interface is divided into 5 main categories:

• Message board,
• To-dos,
• Docs & files,
• Chat, and 
• Schedule.

While this might seem a bit bare-bones at first glance, it’s great for smaller and beginner teams, and it also serves to improve clarity in organization.

Unfortunately, this app doesn’t offer a Free plan, which might discourage the teams that would most benefit from it.

Why is Basecamp best for resource management?

Basecamp gives you what feels like a desktop partition, in the sense that you can organize your files in folders. It gives everyone a clear overview and lets you find relevant files more easily, instead of having to dig through archives or set up complicated filters.

The only downside is that there are no task-specific file-sharing options, though it seems unnecessary next to such a well-organized file hub.

What’s new in Basecamp?

Basecamp dropped a new version recently, with Kanban and timeline views — a feature that was much needed. It also has a new and improved interface to back them up as well.

Type of plan	Basecamp free plan and pricing
Free trial	Yes, for 30 days
Free plan	No
Paid plans	Yes, starting at $15 per user per month

Choose the right PM software for your Mac

In this post, I tried to list tools with a variety of different uses so that you can choose the project management software that best suits your project’s needs.

Now it’s your turn to check them out and see which one works best for you. I hope that my deep dive into these apps helped reduce the amount of downloads you need to make before your final pick.

Even with the many tools and apps that I’ve reviewed here, Plaky still stands out as the tool with the best and most comprehensive free plan I’ve seen. If you need an easy-to-learn but comprehensive tool for your project, sign up for a free Plaky account today.