Project Management for Mac: The 5 Best Tools of 2019

Today, software solutions are available not only inside your browser but also on multiple devices, such as desktop, laptop, and mobile. According to statistics, MacOS makes only about 13% of the global operating system market scene. However, when considering the privileges and benefits of MacOS, leading providers approach the matter very seriously. Even if you prefer to operate within a Mac-only environment, there are plenty of terrific options to choose from when it comes to project management for Mac.

Project management for Mac: the best on the market

The real value and convenience start to materialize with the help of desktop apps explicitly tailored for MacOS. These enabling web designers, creative teams, developers and other teams to reap all the benefits of project management. Furthermore, desktop apps are easier to access without having to worry about that one tab among 25 others on Safari. On the downside, not every vendor enables all the features of their tool on the desktop app. Also, if your team is using a combination of different operating systems, the desktop app may cause compatibility issues.

Other than these minor drawbacks though, the top five list we provide below should be sufficient for your needs. Here are the best project management software for Mac choices of 2019:

Monday.com

Founded in 2012, Monday is one of the top project management software on the market. The tool allows users to monitor projects, manage responsibilities and priorities, as well as communicate in context for every task. It is suitable for teams of all sizes thanks to the flexible pricing mechanism.

When considering project management for Mac, Monday.com features a well-designed MacOS desktop app. You’ll need OS X 10.9.0 or later to use it, and it offers all the functionality of the browser version. On the downside, it costs a minimum of $25/month, on top of the price you pay for the browser version. The software also features a native iOS mobile app. It allows you to communicate with team members, as well as view and edit tasks.

The tool is extremely user-friendly with close to no learning curve involved. Also, it’s extremely visual. It has built-in templates for multiple project types, which can be customized to seamlessly fit your organization’s needs.

The drag and drop functionality allows you to organize different tasks and projects by assigning various colors for easy interpretation. At the same time, you can prioritize important tasks to make them stand out. Furthermore, the main dashboard offers a bird’s eye view of everything that’s happening in your company.

The time tracking and management feature come especially handy when working on multiple projects simultaneously for extended periods. It allows users to visualize all progress in a timeline, understand the deadlines and track the teams’ efforts. Considering all the ups and downs, Monday.com is probably the best project management software for Mac available today.

SmartSheet

SmartSheet was founded in 2005 and has customers in over 190 countries around the globe. The software is recommended to sales teams that require efficient task management and pipeline tracking. The flexible pricing mechanism makes SmartSheet a great choice for businesses of all sizes.

The browser version of the tool works flawlessly on nearly every operating system – Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry – and the support team keeps everything up-to-date constantly. Project management for Mac with the help of SmartSheet is super easy thanks to the robust set of features and the absence of a learning curve. The vendor also offers a native mobile app for iPhones and iPads, which requires iOS 5.0 or later to operate. The app can be used to send notes, add updates and edit existing sheets on the fly. Also, mobile images can be directly uploaded to specific task rows, which is a convenient way of adding visuals and tracking expenses.

Among standard features like document collaboration, file sharing, user access, permissions, and multiple integrations, SmartSheet offers well-designed contact management and budget reporting features. Also, custom project templates, various degrees of automation, multiple project views and highly organized dashboards help teams improve their productivity while reducing the chance of errors.

Wrike

Founded in 2006, Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform that highly emphasizes collaboration and efficiency in the workplace. Headquartered in California, the company currently has over 500 employees and over 1 million users across the globe. The software is suitable for a large variety of teams thanks to the robust set of features it offers.

Like Monday.com, Wrike is an excellent tool for project management for Mac. It offers a MacOS desktop app with all the features of the browser version. Moreover, the desktop app can be fine-tuned to receive and respond to notifications faster, while being able to open multiple tabs for different tasks inside the app, just like you would inside a browser. To access the app, you’ll need to be at least a Business Plan user, which starts at $24.80/monthly.

The brand also offers an iOS mobile app, which enables a lot of functionality on the go. It includes real-time collaboration with team members, creating and managing tasks, monitoring projects and accessing reports.

Among other standard features, Wrike offers a live activity feed for users. This stream showcases real-time updates on all products and instant status reports. It’s designed similar to notifications that appear on the lock screen of your smartphone. This allows you to get a quick view of the latest updates across all products.

The in-depth reporting features of Wrike are presented in a separate tab. The dashboard gives users access to multiple reports including those that you can customize and set-up yourself. Another important aspect is that Wrike takes security very seriously, making it an excellent software for project management for Mac.  The tool is compliant with EU-US Privacy Shield and Swiss-US Privacy Shield, and has physical data centers in the EU and the US that are used to store sensitive information.

FunctionFox

Founded in 2000, FunctionFox is a project management and time tracking software that we highly recommend to creative teams of all sizes. The set of features includes file sharing, to-do lists, project calendar views, project templates, various types of reports and dashboards, etc. Also, the software is adaptable to any project management methodology.

As a tool for project management for Mac, FunctionFox is a great choice since it operates flawlessly on all operating systems including MacOS. While it doesn’t feature a desktop app like Wrike or Monday, it does have a free iPhone and iPad app that allows users to access projects and sheets anytime, anywhere.

The core strengths of FunctionFox are in-depth reporting and analytics, as well as time tracking and management features. Users get access to such reports as productivity, status reports, expenses, workload capacity, etc. You can also build your own reports with the Advanced Report Builder feature. Overall, FunctionFox is a great project management for Mac software to consider.

Airtable

Founded in 2012, Airtable is a robust project management tool suitable for businesses of all sizes. We recommend it to teams that value organized work and seamless collaboration above all else. Airtable is incredibly easy to use even by beginners, once you get the hang of it. The smart use of simple terminology and visual icons for each tab and feature make navigation very intuitive.

With Airtable, project management for Mac becomes highly convenient due to the robust set of features available on the MacOS desktop app and iOS mobile app. The desktop app closely resembles the browser version of the tool and gives you access to all features. It requires OS X 10.9 or higher to set-up. The mobile app incorporates a lot of functionality as well, including collaboration with team members, organizing tasks and projects and customizing database fields on the fly.

In contrast to traditional project management apps, Airtable utilizes databases to organize projects, tasks, and content. The interface of a database is fully customizable and resembles a spreadsheet. You get to add, rename and reposition any field in the database to suit your needs. Moreover, the tool offers a whole bunch of pre-made database templates for you to choose from.

Conclusion

Finding a great tool for project management for Mac might seem easier said than done, but the modern market offers a lot of flexibility in this matter. While the five options above represent the best project management tools for MacOS based on a number of metrics, there are other choices as well. Browse our top project management systems and find the best program that is compatible with your team, your hardware, and your needs!