Onplana Schedule
Free Microsoft Project viewer and editor for Windows and Mac
Onplana Schedule is a free desktop app for Windows and Mac that opens .mpp and Project XML files as a Gantt chart with the grid, the critical path and float, lets you edit the plan and save it as Project XML, checks the schedule's health, and shares a copy with your team. No account until you publish.
Updated . The Microsoft prices below were read on microsoft.com that day.
The Windows installer is signed by DevSoft Solutions, LLC. Windows may still show a SmartScreen notice while the certificate is new: choose More info, then Run anyway.
- Free
- Windows and Mac
- Edit and save as Project XML
- XML opens on your machine
- Publish to a free workspace
Microsoft Project freeware for the file you were sent
Someone sent you an .mpp and you do not have Microsoft Project. Onplana Schedule is the free program for exactly that: download it, open the file, and the whole plan is there, with the Gantt, the critical path and float. It is free to download and free to use, editing and saving included, and there is no account until you publish.
Only need to look once, with nothing installed? The online MPP viewer opens the same file read-only in your browser. For the step-by-step, including a Mac and Excel, see how to open an MPP file.
Is Microsoft Project free?
No. Microsoft lists Planner Plan 1 at $10.00 and Planner and Project Plan 3 at $30.00 per user per month, both paid yearly after a one-month trial, and Project Standard 2024 at $679.99 one-time, on microsoft.com on October 6, 2026 (its Planner plans and Project plans pages); there is no free edition.
Onplana Schedule is free: it opens the .mpp you were sent on Windows or Mac, shows the Gantt chart and the critical path, and saves your edits as Project XML. For the other free ways to open the file, the blog's list of free Microsoft Project alternatives compares them, desktop and cloud.
Open, edit, save, share
Six steps, and nothing needs an account until the last one.
1. Open the file
Double-click an .mpp, .mpx, .xer or Project XML file, or drop any schedule on the window. Microsoft Project XML is read on your machine; every other format, a Primavera P6 or Planner XML export included, is converted on Onplana’s servers and the uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours. The app tells you which before anything leaves your computer.
2. Read the schedule
The grid beside a Gantt chart: task names, durations, start and finish, the hierarchy, the links between tasks. Critical-path tasks are red, and every other bar is coloured by how much float it carries, so the shape of the plan reads at a glance.
3. Edit the plan
Type in the grid: names, durations, dates, predecessors in Project’s own notation, percent complete. Drag a bar, draw a link between two bars, insert, delete, indent and outdent tasks. Every change reschedules the plan on the spot, and undo takes any of it back.
4. Save it
Save writes Project XML, which Microsoft Project and Onplana both open. A file you opened as .mpp saves as XML beside it, so the original is never overwritten. While you work, a recovery copy sits beside the file, and the app offers it back if a session ends before you save.
5. Check its health
One click runs the Schedule Health Check: a score, the findings that matter most, and the full report by email. For a Project XML file the check is opt-in, because it uploads a copy.
6. Share it
Publish a copy to a free Onplana workspace and send your team a link. They open it in a browser with the Gantt, comments and assignments. Your edits travel with it; nothing changes in your file, and there is no account to create until this step.
What leaves your machine
The app says so before it opens a file
Project XML opens on this machine. Other formats are converted on Onplana's servers, and the uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours.
You see that sentence before each conversion until you ask the app to stop showing it. A Project XML file leaves your machine only if you run a health check on it or publish a copy, and both are steps you choose. Saving, and the recovery copy the app keeps beside the file while you edit, are writes to your own disk.
| Format | What it is | Where it is read |
|---|---|---|
| .mpp, .mpt | Microsoft Project plan or template | Converted on Onplana’s servers |
| .xml | Microsoft Project XML | Read on your machine. Nothing is uploaded. |
| .xml (P6, Planner) | Primavera P6 or GNOME Planner XML export | Converted on Onplana’s servers |
| .mpx | Microsoft Project exchange | Converted on Onplana’s servers |
| .xer | Primavera P6 export | Converted on Onplana’s servers |
| .sdef, .gan, .planner | SDEF, GanttProject and GNOME Planner | Converted on Onplana’s servers |
Windows and Mac
One app, two builds. Double-click a Project file in Explorer or Finder and it opens here.
Windows
Download or Microsoft Store
Windows 10 (version 1809) or later, 64-bit. The download updates itself; a Store install updates through the Store.
See availabilityMac
Direct download, notarized
macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. The app updates itself.
Questions
Before you install
Is there a free Microsoft Project viewer?
Yes. Onplana Schedule opens Microsoft Project .mpp files free on Windows and Mac, and it edits as well as views: change the plan and save it as Project XML. You do not need a Microsoft Project licence, or an account until you publish.
Is Onplana Schedule freeware?
Yes, in the sense people usually mean: free to download and free to use, editing and saving included. It is not open source.
Is it free?
Yes. Onplana Schedule is free to download and free to use, editing and saving included. Publishing a copy to Onplana creates a free workspace (2 projects, 5 members), and you upgrade only if you outgrow it.
Do I need Microsoft Project installed?
No. The app reads and writes the files itself. Project XML opens on this machine; every other format is converted on Onplana’s servers, and the uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours.
Does my file leave my computer?
Microsoft Project XML files are read on your machine. Every other format, including .mpp, .xer and a Primavera P6 or Planner XML export, is converted on Onplana’s servers, and the uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours. A Microsoft Project XML file leaves your machine only if you run a health check on it or publish a copy. The app asks before it converts or checks a file, each time until you tell it to stop. Saving, and the recovery copy the app keeps while you edit, are writes to your own disk.
Can I edit the schedule?
Yes. Edit names, durations, dates, predecessors and percent complete in the grid; drag bars and draw links in the chart; insert, delete, indent and outdent tasks; undo and redo any of it. Every change reschedules the plan through the same engine Onplana runs, with all eight Microsoft Project constraint types honoured.
What does it save?
Project XML, the format Microsoft Project opens through File > Open and the one Onplana imports. A file opened in any other format saves as XML beside the original under the same name, so the original is never overwritten, and a P6 or Planner XML export is offered a name of its own; a Microsoft Project XML file saves in place. Save As writes a copy wherever you choose.
Can I send an edited .xer back to Primavera P6?
Not as an .xer. An edited P6 .xer or XML export saves as Project XML. Primavera P6 Professional can import that file through File > Import > Microsoft Project, but only for an admin superuser, and custom fields have to be mapped to P6 user-defined fields during the import. The P6 file you opened is never changed.
What if the app closes before I save?
It keeps a recovery copy beside the file after every change and removes it when you save. If a session ends without a save, the next time you open that file the app offers the copy back: recover the changes, or discard the copy and open the file as it is on disk.
Which files does it open?
Microsoft Project .mpp, .mpt and Project XML, the .mpx exchange format, Primavera P6 .xer and XML exports, SDEF, ProjectLibre, GanttProject and GNOME Planner files. A ProjectLibre .pod that is Project XML inside, as most are, is read on your computer like any Project XML file. Excel and CSV plans open through the Open dialog rather than a double-click, and so do files from other schedulers such as Asta Powerproject, Phoenix and Synchro, which convert on a best-effort basis.
Which computers does it run on?
Windows 10 (version 1809) or later, 64-bit, as a signed download or from the Microsoft Store, and macOS 13 or later as a download. All three are live on the download page.
Which languages is it in?
English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Arabic. It opens in your computer's language when it is one of those, and you can change it in Settings at any time.
What happens when I publish?
A copy of the schedule as it is now, edits included, is imported into a new Onplana project with its tasks, links and milestones intact. Your team opens it in a browser. The original file stays where it is, unchanged.
New to the format? Read what an MPP file is.
Choosing between free desktop schedulers? See ProjectLibre vs GanttProject vs Onplana Schedule, or the wider list of free MS Project alternatives, desktop and cloud. Leaving ProjectLibre? See a ProjectLibre alternative that opens your .pod files.
Moving the whole team off Microsoft Project? See how Onplana replaces it for a team, or Project Online and Onplana side by side.
Want the same analysis without installing anything? Run the Schedule Health Check in your browser. It is the check the app runs.
Only need to look at a plan? Open it in the online MPP viewer, the same screen in your browser, read-only.
Holding a Primavera P6 schedule? Open it in the free XER viewer, the same converter, in your browser.
Scheduling a team's plan in the browser rather than a file on one machine? See project scheduling software, the critical path, dependencies, baselines and leveling in Onplana project management.
Starting from a task list in a spreadsheet? Paste it into the free Gantt chart generator and see it as a Gantt chart in your browser, with nothing uploaded.