If you plan sheet goods on an iPhone, iPad or Mac and would rather pay once than rent, SawKit ($24.99 once, free to try with 25 parts) is the one we would point you to — it is also the one we make. Want it cheaper and on older devices, Boardcut. Need lumber lengths and sheets on an iPhone for almost nothing, SmartCut. Cutting a few times a year, a free web tool is enough. On Windows, CutList Plus fx or MaxCut.
SawKit is our app. Everything below about the other tools is read off their own App Store pages and websites on 26 September 2026, not guessed, and where a vendor does not say something we write “not listed” instead of assuming.
The table
| Tool | Runs on | Free use | Paid | Model | Lumber lengths too |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SawKit (ours) | iPhone, iPad, Mac — iOS/macOS 26+ | 25 parts, 3 projects, 1 stock type | Pro $24.99 | One-time | No |
| Boardcut | iPhone, iPad, Mac (M1+, macOS 14+) | Unlimited parts, per its listing | Pro $12.99, or $1.99 a week | One-time or weekly | Yes |
| SmartCut (Cutlist Optimizer 4) | iPhone, iPad — no Mac | Free download | Premium $1.99 | In-app purchase | Yes |
| CutList Optimizer app (CutList Optimal) | iPhone, iPad, Mac (macOS 11+) | Free download | $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year | Subscription | Not listed |
| CutListOptimizer.com | Web, Android | Limited calculations | Plans not priced publicly; 3-day pass $4.90 | Subscription | Not listed |
| optiCutter | Web | Free plan, “forever” | €9 or €19 a month (€90 / €190 a year) | Subscription | Yes |
| CutList Plus fx | Windows | Trial | $89 · $249 · $499 | One-time | Yes |
| MaxCut | Windows | Community Edition, free | Business $20 a month or $200 a year, per device | Subscription | Not listed |
Two names in that table are easy to mix up. CutListOptimizer.com is the long-running web tool. CutList Optimizer on the App Store is an app of the same name from a different developer, CutList Optimal. They are separate products with separate prices.
SawKit — best if you work on Apple devices and want to pay once
SawKit is a native app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. You type the parts the
way you would say them — 15 3/16, 3/4", or millimetres — and it lays them
out across as many sheets as the job needs, with the saw kerf and edge trim
counted. Grain direction is set part by part, so a visible cabinet side keeps
its grain while a painted back is free to turn. Version 1.1 added six furniture
templates — base and wall cabinets, a wardrobe, a table, a shelf unit and a
drawer box — that fill the cut list from a few measurements. The same purchase
covers all three devices, the app works with no signal at all, and its App Store
privacy label reads “Data Not Collected”. The interface is in eight languages.
On layout quality we make one claim and only one: it matches the leading free web optimiser on all eight projects we tested.
The free download does the whole calculation and draws the layout, for up to 25 parts, three projects and one kind of stock. SawKit Pro, $24.99 once, removes the limits and adds PDF export and printing, the numbered cut order and your own stock list with prices.
The honest limitations. It needs iOS, iPadOS or macOS 26, so an older device cannot run it. It plans sheet goods only — no lengths of lumber. It went on sale in August 2026 and has no body of reviews yet. And $24.99 is nearly twice Boardcut’s one-time price.
Boardcut — best value on older Apple devices
Boardcut covers sheets and dimensional lumber, draws the kerf at its real width, numbers the cuts in order and exports a PDF with the diagrams and steps. Its listing says the free version has no limit on parts; the developer lists vector PDF, CSV export and offcut tracking as Pro features. It runs on iOS 17 and on Macs with an M1 or later on macOS 14, so it reaches devices SawKit does not. Boardcut Pro is $12.99 once, or $1.99 a week. The App Store privacy label says it collects purchases, a device ID and product-interaction data, not linked to your identity; the developer states there is no account, no ads and no third-party tracking. Like SawKit it is new — it launched in July 2026 — and has no rating on the US store yet.
SmartCut — best cheap option on an iPhone or iPad
Cutlist Optimizer 4 / SmartCut by JG Media handles sheets and linear stock — bars, rods, pipes, lumber — with per-part grain locks, kerf, edge banding, a cut-by-cut sequence and PDF export, offline. Premium is a $1.99 in-app purchase, the lowest price in this comparison. It has 43 ratings averaging 4.3 on the US store. It is not available for the Mac, and its privacy label lists contact information linked to you for the developer’s marketing. The same company runs Cutlist Evolution in the browser, free up to 40 parts with paid tiers above that.
CutList Optimizer app (CutList Optimal) — native on every Apple device, by subscription
This app runs on iPhone, iPad and — natively — the Mac from macOS 11, which covers the oldest hardware here. It lists grain direction, kerf, guillotine layouts, iCloud sync, and PDF and DXF export, in forty languages, and its privacy label reads “Data Not Collected”. It has 115 ratings averaging 4.2 on the US store. The catch is the model: $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Over a year that is more than any one-time price on the Apple side of this table.
CutListOptimizer.com — best free tool for an occasional job
CutListOptimizer.com is the web optimiser most people find first. It works in any browser, there is an Android app, and the free tier is enough for a cutting diagram now and then: it limits the number of calculations. Paid plans are billed monthly or yearly, but their prices appear only inside the application after you choose a currency; the one price on the public page is a 3-day pass at $4.90, which suits a single weekend project well.
optiCutter — best web tool for regular use
optiCutter has a free plan it describes as free “forever”, and paid plans at €9 a month (Standard) and €19 a month (Professional), with two months off for paying yearly. It optimises both sheets and lengths, exports PDF, XLS, CSV and DXF, and works in several languages. Being a web app, it runs on anything with a browser — and needs a connection to do so.
CutList Plus fx and MaxCut — the Windows desktop options
CutList Plus fx is the desktop application with the longest record in this niche, sold once: Silver $89 (up to 50 parts per project), Gold $249, Platinum $499, with a free trial and free viewer apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. It is Windows software; Mac owners who use it run Windows in a virtual machine. MaxCut is also Windows-only, with a free Community Edition and a Business Edition at $20 a month or $200 a year per device that adds cabinet libraries, quotes and panel labels. Both are built for a shop that lives at a Windows PC.
How to choose
- You cut sheet goods and own recent Apple devices. SawKit or Boardcut. SawKit if you want grain set per part, the furniture templates and a price label that says “Data Not Collected”; Boardcut if you want lumber lengths too, a lower price, or your device is older than iOS 26.
- You want the cheapest possible app. SmartCut at $1.99, on an iPhone or iPad.
- You cut a few times a year. Don’t buy anything: CutListOptimizer.com, optiCutter’s free plan or Cutlist Evolution will do, and our own free plywood cut calculator works in the browser too.
- You want a native Mac app on an older Mac. The CutList Optimal app runs from macOS 11, by subscription.
- You run a Windows shop. CutList Plus fx if you prefer to buy once, MaxCut if you need quoting and labels.
For the payment question on its own — renting against buying, and working out your own break-even — see cut list software compared: what you actually pay. For the Mac question, a cut list optimizer that actually runs on a Mac.
Prices change. If anything on this page is out of date, the address to tell us is on the support page, and it gets fixed.
Questions
- Is there a free cut list optimizer?
- Yes, several. CutListOptimizer.com and optiCutter both have free plans in the browser, Cutlist Evolution’s web version is free up to 40 parts, MaxCut Community Edition is free on Windows, and SawKit, Boardcut and SmartCut are free to download with limits. For an occasional job, one of those is enough and buying anything would be a waste.
- Which cut list optimizer runs natively on a Mac?
- Of the tools here, SawKit (macOS 26 or later), the CutList Optimizer app by CutList Optimal (macOS 11 or later) and Boardcut (macOS 14 or later on an M1 or newer Mac) install on a Mac from the App Store. CutList Plus fx and MaxCut are Windows software. The web tools run in any Mac browser.
- Which cut list app can I buy once instead of subscribing?
- SawKit Pro is $24.99 once, Boardcut Pro $12.99 once, SmartCut’s Premium $1.99, and CutList Plus fx $89 to $499 once on Windows. CutListOptimizer.com, optiCutter, MaxCut Business and the CutList Optimal app are subscriptions.
- Is SawKit the right choice for cutting lumber to length?
- No. SawKit plans sheet goods — plywood, MDF, melamine — and does not optimise lengths of board. Boardcut, SmartCut, Cutlist Evolution and optiCutter all handle linear stock as well.