25 Best Free Project Management Software: Tools Try in 2024

As a project manager, I’ve learned one thing for sure—this job is not for the faint-hearted. 

A typical day in my life is a constant whirlwind of racing after deadlines, juggling resources, and engaging stakeholders—each of these is an uphill climb (especially the last one when you have tricky clients). 

In my early career years, I struggled with even the basics. Between scrambling to meet client and stakeholder requests and trawling through reports and analytics, I’d end up missing an important to-do or two. Or three. You get the drift. 

Luckily, I eventually figured out how to make work (and life) easier with project management software. I now have solid processes and systems in place and use tools and automation to do a lot of the heavy lifting for my projects. 

In this blog, we’re diving deep into 25 free project management tools designed to fortify your workflow. From task tracking to stakeholder communication, they’ve got you covered, and the best part? It won’t cost you a dime. Let’s dive in!

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What is project management software?

Project management software is designed to assist in managing the activities, resources, information, and tasks related to a project. It offers structure and organization for projects of any size so that teams monitor project progress from start to finish.

Most project management tools typically include specialized features to streamline the project management lifecycle:

• Resource allocation lets project managers match the appropriate resources to what the specific job needs
• Task lists, whiteboards, and chat channels allow teams to work together in real-time or asynchronously
• Reporting capabilities provide leaders with insights into the project’s progress

Teams have more projects taking up their work time. From meetings to deep work and informal projects to goal tracking, many things are moving simultaneously in a short amount of time.

Without the right project management software, we essentially create more tasks, inefficiencies, and fear-based decisions.

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The Best Project Management Software in 2024 at Glance

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Top Features to Look for in Project Management Software

Not all project management tools are created alike. 

Project managers may use free project management tools for simple projects or enterprise-grade resource management tools for complex requirements. They may use them for time tracking or project planning. The possibilities are endless.

For this reason, you must select a suitable set of features. To simplify this selection, I’ve categorized the top features to look for in a project management tool into three themes: core functionalities, advanced features, and additional considerations. 

Core functionalities

The core functionalities of such a tool include:

• Task management: We use task management features to create, assign, and manage tasks, set due dates, define priorities, and highlight dependencies. Breaking larger projects into smaller tasks helps in effective task management
• Collaboration features: As projects become more participative, you want project management software with collaboration tools. The platform should bring teams together on the same virtual page, sharing documents and conversing. Pick something that helps teams be teams. In fact, I’d recommend getting a few team members to do the product trials with you before finalizing the tool
• Knowledge management: Any project management tool contending for the top spot must offer intuitive and customizable ways of creating, managing, and sharing documentation. I have often found searchable, editable, and sharable project briefs, SOPs, templates, wikis, etc., to be a game-changer in a project’s success 
• Planning and scheduling: Remember what I said about project management tools being your eyes and ears? In that vein, you want project planning and scheduling features so you can see all the tasks at various stages. At the very least, you want to have Gantt charts, task lists you can translate your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) into, time tracking, budgeting, workload analysis, and the ability to add milestones and dependencies
• Artificial intelligence: AI tools were once a nice-to-have feature for a project manager but are table stakes now. All leading project management software today comes with AI capabilities to help you get more out of available data and resources. From fueling informed decisions to automating and accelerating workflows—AI in project management is an absolute game changer

Advanced capabilities

The advanced features take care of project complexities to cover:

• Resource management: Project managers must allocate and move resources around based on changing project demands. Whether it is shared resources like tools and platforms or limited resources like talent or budget, resource management features are a must in a tool for productivity and performance. This also includes time tracking, goal tracking among others
• Reporting and analytics: Data analysis and reports help track and manage project health and performance against goals. It is helpful to have data-backed real-time reports and dashboards that calculate time spent, cost incurred, value earned, etc. Interventions powered by this data keep everything on track
• Automation: “I love spending hours on grunt work,” said no project manager yet! We love productivity tools that help us automate routine and repetitive tasks. Automated updates and workflows minimize manual work without compromising on speed or accuracy
• Customization: The ideal project management software will let you customize workflows, dashboards, and project views to fit your team’s specific preferences or needs. For example, we use custom fields to capture project-specific information and define access control to manage project details

Additional considerations

Project managers looking for the best solution will also have additional considerations like:

• Integrations: Working with tools that connect easily with each other is another level of peace. Check if the project management software integrates with other apps, platforms, and systems like CRM, accounting software, etc. Also, see if these are native integrations or will need a third-party tool
• Data security and privacy: If you’re late to this party, consider this: 7 out of 10 global consumers are worried about their data privacy. So, ensure that the platform offers adequate data security and privacy controls to enjoy absolute ownership of your data
• Scalability: I touched upon this earlier. Whether working on a product or a feature, you want something that will grow with your project—and vice versa. So, evaluate whether the project management tool can scale up or down in response to your changing needs. Also, scalability can be horizontal and vertical; review the software on both lines to get more bang for your buck
• Ease of use: You may be a digital native comfortable with technology and project management tools. However, you will also be working with stakeholders who may not be as technologically adept. Test your preferred project management tools for intuitiveness and user-friendliness (to ensure adoption) and simple navigation (to maximize usability)
• Pricing: Whether you select a pay-as-you-use subscription model or a license fee, accounting for the face value investment would be a rookie mistake. Calculate the comprehensive cost—including one-time costs, recurring expenses, and even add-ons—and check whether it fits your budget and team size

Read more: The different types of project management software

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25 Best Free Project Management Software in 2024

The best free project management software depends on your team size, industry, and needs. Here are some of the top free options:

1. ClickUp – Best free project management tool with AI

Get Started

I stumbled upon ClickUp’s project management solution by accident. It was circa 2020 when everyone was looking for remote project management tools to get work done, even in the middle of a global pandemic. I was weighing my options around that time, and ClickUp was also finding its feet.

Despite my initial hesitation, ClickUp impressed me with some neat project and task management features, document organization, progress tracking, etc. I liked that I could do a lot even with a free account—you can add unlimited users and tasks to their Free Forever plan.

That said, what I most appreciate about ClickUp is how it has developed over the years. The speed of updates and new releases at ClickUp is amazing. I’ve witnessed features being added and the user experience becoming more user-friendly, and now they’ve added AI, too. The 3.0 version feels like their best yet.

However, what truly stands out is the AI tool—ClickUp Brain.

AI-powered project management

While some of the other project management software we’ll discuss later have AI baked into them, ClickUp Brain, the AI assistant, is in a league of its own.

ClickUp Brain connects your entire digital infrastructure—from people to tasks to documents within ClickUp and even all connected apps. This has helped our business tech stacks become increasingly navigable and searchable. 

The AI Knowledge Manager can give us contextual and instant answers about anything within and connected to ClickUp. 

As an AI Project Manager, ClickUp Brain automates tasks, shares progress updates, fills data into tables, and generates summaries. It can even automatically suggest and create sub-tasks for your tasks and remind you when something is overdue. I love being able to generate stand-ups and meeting summaries in a single click. 

The AI Writer for Work has made my work 10x easier. Here’s how:

ClickUp Brain can write and edit for you based on your prompts. If you don’t have one, you can choose from the collection of 100+ role-based prompts. It also improves your writing with built-in grammar and spell checks, generates quick replies to messages, and transcribes audio files.

But that’s not all ClickUp offers; its other project management features are just as powerful.

Effective task management

ClickUp allows you to organize your project details in a hierarchical format across Space, Folder, Lists, Tasks, and Subtasks. It also lets you add checklists, subtasks, and custom fields to tasks for granular tracking.

I like being able to define relationships and interdependencies at a task level so I never miss an essential to-do. The priority flags also help my team determine which tasks to pick up first.

What’s more, ClickUp helps you speed up day-to-day processes. It offers over 50 customizable automation recipes you can connect to actions, triggers, or conditions. You can also tailor the user experience with 35+ customizable ClickApps that add capabilities to the project management software.

Collaborative working

ClickUp Docs helps teams create, edit, and share documentation with each other and with external stakeholders. You can add comments, make rich edits, and link docs to tasks for easy knowledge-sharing.

Whiteboards in ClickUp help you ensure that all stakeholder inputs are incorporated into the project scope. I use the Whiteboards to build out my workflows (as I am a visual thinker!). I can even embed docs, web links, and images to add depth and context to a Whiteboard.

Resource management

Tracking progress is easy in ClickUp; set up your objectives within ClickUp Goals, assign each to relevant owners, and build your customized ClickUp Dashboard for real-time tracking. Add widgets as you see fit and share the dashboard with relevant stakeholders. 

I also like being able to switch between different View types in multiple projects; the Gantt Chart view gives me a high-level overview of projects, while the List view shows me each task with its status, owner, priority, etc., and the Board view lets me drag and drop tasks into ‘in progress,’ ‘done,’ ‘to start,’ etc. Kanban-style. 

Templates

Over 1000 different templates are also available in ClickUp, which can help you hit the ground running. 

Download This Template

One that I find super-useful is the ClickUp Project Management Template. It gives you a head start on your projects. It includes advanced features for complex project needs and will set up an organized workspace for you with a few clicks. Essential views like List, Kanban, Form, etc. are included. 

The template makes it easy to organize tasks by pre-setting fields such as priority, time estimate, success metrics, etc. Use it to avoid planning from scratch and execute your projects efficiently.

ClickUp makes life easier every day. 

And I’m not the only one who feels that way— a G2 review says,

“I am obsessed with everything. The AI tool is such an amazing value add. I love the variety of view options under each space. I love the inclusive options for repetitive tasks. I love the easy and clear commenting features, it makes it very easy for my team to all stay in the loop while collectively working on various tasks. It is overall just the best task management software on the market and I have tried them all!“

ClickUp best features

• Manage project workflows and organize your work effectively with ClickUp Tasks 
• Visualize, track, and manage your Tasks with more than 15+ ClickUp Views ranging from Gantt charts to Lists to Kanban boards and more
• Collaborate with your team in the ClickUp Chat View—discuss ideas, share updates, and directly Assign Comments as action items to your team members
• Find anything within and connected to the app with ClickUp’s Universal Search
• Centralize and organize project information with AI-powered ClickUp Docs—write, edit, share, and collaborate in real-time 
• Plan and manage schedules precisely with the native ClickUp Time-tracking app that you can even use from the Chrome extension
• Track and benchmark project status with rich and interactive ClickUp Dashboards that you can customize as you need and share with stakeholders
• Connect and track company, team, and individual goals with ClickUp Goals 

ClickUp limitations

• The mobile app doesn’t have all the features of the desktop app yet
• New users may find the exhaustive list of features overwhelming

ClickUp pricing

• Free Forever
• Unlimited: $7/month
• Business: $12/month per user
• Enterprise: Custom pricing
• ClickUp Brain: Add to any paid plan for $7 per Workspace member per month

ClickUp ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5.0 (‎9,400+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5.0 (4,000+ reviews)

What users have to say about ClickUp

2. Notion – Good for reporting, analytics, and APIs

Notion is a free comprehensive project management tool that offers a versatile all-in-one software for teams to collaborate and manage projects effectively. It provides features like task management, team collaboration, and knowledge management in a single platform, allowing users to create custom databases, Kanban boards, and calendars. Notion’s user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it easy for teams to organize tasks, share ideas, and track progress in real-time.

Notion best project management features:

• Customizable project dashboards for at-a-glance project overview
• Team collaboration tools like comments and @mentions for seamless communication
• Cross-platform accessibility for easy access on desktop and mobile devices
• Integrations with popular tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Trello
• Templates for project planning, meeting notes, and goal tracking
• Notion AI for writing in Docs

Here’s what you get in the free version of Notion:

• Unlimited pages and blocks
• Sync across devices for up to 1,000 blocks per month
• Collaborate with up to 5 guests

What people think about Notion:

“Notion is highly customisable and its brilliant features are everything I need when it comes to organizing Life. Ease of sharing, syncing, database and project management are some of its great features for me.” – G2Crowd

“Though Notion is great for getting organized, it’s easy to waste a lot of time “optimizing.” Sometimes, a sticky note is just faster, and it’s easy to over-customize and build things you don’t actually need. It’s smart and capable, which is great, but it’s easy to build the “task manager to end all task managers” and make something too complicated that you don’t actually need. The templates are the same story.” – G2Crowd

3. monday.com – Good for security, brainstorming, and workflow automation

Whether you’re a high-growth, high-potential startup or a well-established enterprise, Monday.com can fit your changing needs. We discovered that the project management software’s intuitive UI scales well, allowing teams of varying sizes to perform a range of functions.

Whether you’re managing a simple to-do list or creating a work breakdown structure of a complex project, Monday.com allows you to do it with relative ease. It also lets you switch from the Gantt chart view to calendar views to Kanban boards, depending on the project. 

Unfortunately, you’ll need one of the higher-priced paid plans to access critical features like integrations and automation. Monday.com also doesn’t offer a screen capture feature that’s essential to remote teams.

Monday.com best features

• Take help from Monday AI assistant to automate work and generate content
• Make smarter decisions with customizable dashboards with 30+ widgets
• View your project the way you want with 10+ project views like Gantt charts, Kanban board, etc.
• Leverage no-code building to customize and automate business workflows
• Implement end-to-end task management to match your projects, goals, and workflows
• Collaborate seamlessly using Whiteboard, embedded documents, update section, etc.

Monday.com limitations

• Some users have indicated that the free project management software is heavily watered down, making it feel like a colorful Excel
• A steep learning curve paired with costly pricing is discouraging
• Guzzles high volumes of data, which affects performance and makes the platform laggy

Monday.com pricing

For 3 to 49 seats:

• Free
• Basic: $12/month per seat
• Standard: $14/month per seat
• Pro: $24/month per seat
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Monday.com ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5.0 (10,600+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5.0 (‎4,700+ reviews)

What users have to say about Monday.com

Got the Monday blues? We have Monday alternatives for you 🙌

4. Trello – Good for simplicity and Kanban boards

Trello will suit you perfectly if you’re a visual thinker like me who enjoys managing projects using Kanban Boards.  Trello is an uncomplicated tool that lets you turn complex projects into simple Kanban Boards and ease workflow visualization. The interactive digital Kanban Board helps you quickly update project and task status by moving cards between stages like ‘To Do,’ ‘Backlog,’ ‘In Progress,’ and ‘Done.’

This is an easy way to see progress, problems, and resource constraints. We also found we could use power-ups to add advanced project management features to it without cluttering the interface.

You can use custom fields to personalize and labels to prioritize tasks.  

The tool is simple, but then, it might be too simple. With no custom statuses and the inability to create and track goals, Trello might not fit complex projects. 

Trello best features

• Get a quick project overview with a simple, Kanban-style layout
• Visualize your project’s details as Boards, Lists, and Cards
• Organize project data, such as member details, due dates, attachments, etc., in one place
• Tailor Trello cards to meet specific business requirements using custom fields
• Set automated rules for various actions to automate workflows using the nifty AI assistant called Butler

Trello limitations

• Doesn’t offer real-time chat or smart notifications
• The simple card system may not work for larger and more complex projects
• Collaboration tools and views other than the Board are behind paywalls
• Does not have 24/7 support

Trello pricing

• Free: $0
• Standard: $6/month per user
• Premium: $12.50/month per user
• Enterprise: $17.50/month per user for 50 users

Trello ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.4/5.0 (13,500+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5.0 (23,100+ reviews)

What users have to say about Trello 

5. Wrike – Good for strategic planning and spreadsheet-like features

We found Wrike to be an excellent project management software for managing stakeholders and keeping them updated. Whether you’re collaborating with internal teams or external clients, Wrike keeps everyone informed and happy, even if they don’t have a paid account themselves. 

I found this particularly useful while dealing with a client who didn’t wish to create an account on our project management tool for status updates.

I’ve used it to build interactive dashboards with different permission levels to share information without compromising data privacy and security. While testing the tool, we liked being able to build custom reports and different types of project views. 

What also stood out for us is how Wrike eliminates communication silos. With its real-time updates and proofing tools, you can keep everyone in the loop and promote transparency.

However, I wish they’d also add an ‘Everything’ view and a way to make quick notes like a Notepad.

Wrike best features

• Get through your work faster and smoother with Wrike’s Work Intelligence, an AI tool for project management
• Initiate tasks or projects using a simple request form
• Organize projects into dedicated Spaces and catalog data in projects, folders, tasks, and subtasks
• Visualize work in different layouts like Calendar view, Kanban board, Table view, Gantt charts, and Workload charts
• Simplify stakeholder management using features like cross-tagging, live document editing, proofing, external collaborators, etc. 

Wrike limitations

• The free version of the project management software lacks features like Gantt charts, dashboards, and automation
• New users will find it hard to learn and use initially
• Some users have found the interface clunky, which gets in the way of work

Wrike pricing

• Free
• Team: $9.80/month per user
• Business: $24.80/month per user
• Enterprise: Custom pricing
• Pinnacle: Custom pricing

Wrike ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.2/5.0 (3,600+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5.0 (2,600+ reviews)

What users have to say about Wrike

6. Miro – Best project management platform for whiteboard-based ideation

Miro is all about creative problem-solving. Its interactive whiteboard has often helped me think outside the box by allowing online brainstorming sessions.  My team collaborates in real time, creating mind maps, digital drawings, and sticky notes—essentially doing what makes them a team. I’ve found that an online brainstorming tool can encourage participation, even from the introverts on the team.

Miro also helps store and organize the output of such idea exchanges for later reference. Whether you’re exploring the UX design of an app or having a collaborative meeting, Miro can set it up in just a few clicks.

While it makes whiteboarding and mind mapping simple, we found that Miro couldn’t help with other crucial dimensions of project management. It’s a fancy (but very nice) whiteboard, which may pinch your pockets when you consider that’s all it does! 

Miro best features

• Create wireframes, project estimations, product plans, dependency maps, journey maps, and simplified flowcharts 
• Harness Talktrack, an advanced facilitation tool for asynchronous collaboration
• Use Miro Assist to auto-generate diagrams, mind maps, code, and summaries
• Improve team collaboration with remote-friendly features

Miro limitations

• Navigating to a particular area is tricky, as you’ll have to scroll past all the content on the whiteboard
• The interface tends to slow down as you embed content, links, documents, etc. or collaborate on the whiteboard
• Has poor access control with little to no transparency about who has whiteboard access

Miro pricing

• Free
• Starter: $10/month per user
• Business: $20/month per user
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Miro ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.8/5.0 (5,500+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5.0 (1,500+ reviews)

What users have to say about Miro

7. Hive – Good for task management

Hive is a project management platform that helps teams work together online, whether they are back in the office, fully remote, or mixing the two with a hybrid model. Hive Solo, the platform’s free-forever plan, offers full project management functionality for teams of 1 or 2. This makes it one of the best free project management software for small teams, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

With its simple user interface, Hive makes it really easy to get started right out of the box. And with all of the standard task management and collaboration features, there are plenty of useful tools to keep your team organized, no matter where you’re working.

Hive best project management features:

• Project action cards for detailed task management
• Gantt chart view for progress tracking
• Integration capabilities with numerous apps
• Collaboration tools including chat and email
• Analytics dashboard for project overview

What you get in the free version of Hive:

• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited projects and tasks​
• Unlimited collaborative notes
• Gantt, Kanban, calendar & table views​
• Email in Hive​
• Native chat messaging​

What people think of managing projects in Hive:

“We recommend using Hive for project management for companies of all sizes and all natures. Hive can adapt to the nature of work you do and it can be easily adjustable to your work style. So, why not get a good platform that knows the project management work and will ease your life in the longer run.” – James Cooper, G2 Reviews

“You do not need to be a qualified project manager to get the immediate benefits of using Hive. The interface is very intuitive and it’s easy to see how your project is looking within 10-15 minutes.” – Gary Bright, G2 Reviews

8. nTask – Good for goal tracking

nTask is a simple but powerful project management solution that makes it easy to manage complex workflows.

Made to bring project teams on one place, and collaborate to achieve business goals. The platform’s simple structure, and ability to create unlimited workspaces is loved by users. It gives a bird’s eye view for the project progress to help managers making effective decisions.

However, the basic free plan has no reporting tools and Gantt charts feature.

It is a useful tool to manage project budget, project planning, task management, time tracking, and managing risks.

The tool helps you to create custom fields and statuses for the project. We wish to see a better team communication feature in projects, rather than just task comments.

nTask best project management features:

• Comprehensive task management with subtasks
• Meeting scheduling and follow-ups
• Risk management tools for project risks
• Budgeting and cost management
• Gantt charts for a visual project timeline

Here’s what you get in the free version of nTask:

• Unlimited workspaces
• Five team members
• Timesheets
• Issue tracking
• Unlimited tasks
• Meeting Management

What people think about managing projects in nTask:

“The good thing about this type of tools is that it centralizes everything in one place, the work is done in an organized way, with due planning and with the least number of errors, from the Gantt diagram view you can visualize the progress and determine the strategic line of your projects, and it is pleasant to look at.” – Capterra Verified Review

“nTask in generally is an awesome product but there are some stumbling blocks. It offers limited integrations and steep learning curve. One can face some problems when using it for the first time. The calendar view functionality should be more elaborated.” — G2Crowd

9. Asana – Good for team collaboration

With Asana, what truly stands out is its user-friendly, decluttered user interface. I don’t have to navigate through clunky menus or overwhelming dashboards, which I appreciate. It’s quite a time-saver, in fact. Its UI is divided into five parts—Sidebar, Header, Top bar, Main pane, and Task details pane.

I liked how each layout element is intentional and intuitive, allowing you to jump right in and get started with project management. You can add your Favorites to the sidebar in Asana for quick navigation.

We liked that Asana helps you start your project quickly with pre-built project templates and an easy-to-use workflow builder. Managing projects is also pretty easy with features like progress tracking and due dates. And the playful animations when you mark a task done will make you smile.

You can easily add your team to tasks and communicate with them using comments. Asana will cut through the clutter and keep you and your team focused on what matters most—getting things done!

However, I realized that Asana doesn’t give you custom task statuses or roles. You also can’t create task checklists or have multiple assignees in a task, which we found limiting.

Asana best features

• Gain a comprehensive view of your project as Boards, Lists, Timelines, Calendars, and Gantt charts
• Set up workflow automation using Forms, Rules, Bundles, and Templates
• Manage resources effectively with features like workload management and time tracking
• Leverage AI in project management with Asana Intelligence for smart fields, summaries, editing, statuses, answers, and digests
• Centralize project management by connecting Asana with 200+ apps (including ClickUp) while enjoying unlimited projects and file storage

Asana limitations

• Building and managing a knowledge base, although doable, is challenging
• Lacks a comprehensive set of project management templates
• Asana Intelligence is not available in the free project management software plan

Asana pricing

• Personal: $0
• Starter: $13.49/month per user
• Advanced: $30.49/month per user
• Enterprise: Custom pricing
• Enterprise+: Custom pricing

Asana ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.3/5.0 (9,900+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5.0 (12,500+ reviews)

What users have to say about Asana 

10. Todoist – Good for personal productivity

In Todoist, it’s easy to quickly capture thoughts and ideas on your phone and then get reminded about them later.

You can plug in deadlines, like pay bills in three days, and the project management app will automatically remind you.

However, you don’t get any real-time collaboration features in the basic free version.

Also, did you know Todoist was built as a personal task management app and not as a project management app for businesses and team collaborations? So to easily manage your teams and their tasks, you’ll have to opt for the paid plan or a different tier version.

Read our take on Todoist vs. ClickUp and learn about other top alternatives to Todoist.

Todoist best project management features:

• Task lists with priority levels and due dates
• Project tracking through color-coded graphs
• Collaboration features for team tasks
• Integration capabilities with various apps
• Task reminders via email, SMS or push notifications

Here’s what you get in the free version of the Todoist app:

• Access on 10+ platforms
• Recurring due dates
• SSL secured connection
• Sub-tasks & sub-projects
• Task priorities (four levels)
• 80 Active projects
• Five people per project

What people think about managing projects in Todoist:

“I haven’t found a way to get integration with Google Calendar in a way that works for me. It syncs tasks, but the manner in which it does so isn’t fluid with the way that I work, so that is probably due to user error or my personal preference and less likely a reflection of the program.” — G2Crowd

“I use ToDoist to keep track of tasks sent to me by clients. I don’t use it for project management, extensive notes, or workflow so much as a simple to-do list of projects that need to be completed. Sometimes you don’t need to write a lot of details – you just need to be sure you do the task and todoist is the best software I have found for that.” – Capterra Verified Review

11. Airtable – Good for spreadsheet-based projects

Airtable is a beautifully designed, table-meets-database solution. It takes what you love about Excel and Google Sheets and puts a modern web-based project on it.

Think of Airtable as a fancy spreadsheet that helps you track inventory, lists of reference items, or as a bootstrap CRM.

Essentially, Airtable is a super-friendly, non-intimidating database for the 21st century, disrupting traditional database management systems that rely on SQL or other complex languages.

If you’ve used Excel as a project management tool in the past, then you may want to look at Airtable. However, we don’t recommend spreadsheets for project management.

Why?

Because dedicated top free project management tools do the job better!

Bonus: Read about Airtable’s best alternatives.

Airtable best project management features:

• Integrations with Box, Salesforce, and Google Calendar to pull in other data
• Interface Designer tool to build and share custom interfaces
• Shareable forms to populate records into the Airtable base
• Software development tools to build robust reporting systems
• Automations with Javascript functionality

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Airtable:

• Unlimited bases
• Unlimited scheduling views
• Rich field records
• Commenting
• 2GB of storage
• Two weeks of historical data

What People Think About Managing Projects in Airtable:

“I love Airtable because I am able to build simple but useful custom programs and databases while knowing basically zero code. Although there are really key features that stop Airtable just short of perfect, it is still leagues better than a normal spreadsheet for sure.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I hate that it doesn’t have reminder/follow up capabilities especially knowing they advertise as a team collaboration tool that’s used for customer service.” —  G2Crowd

Compare Airtable and ClickUp for project management.

12. TeamGantt – Good for visual project timelines

Like how Gantt charts make everything clear as day?

Then TeamGantt is made for you.

It’s a free project management software with a sole focus only on Gantt charts.

This software tool is impressive at building out and visualizing Gantt charts so you can see what tasks may overlap and who’s responsible for what.

It’s also a great tool for measuring team and individual progress against project milestones.

The funny thing is for a software that takes pride in their Gantt charts, you get just ONE Gantt chart in the free plan. Yikes!

TeamGantt best project management features:

• Easy-to-read Gantt charts for scheduling
• Task assignment with dependencies and milestones
• Team availability management
• Time tracking for better productivity analysis

Here’s what you get in the free version of TeamGantt:

• One project
• Basic project planning and collaboration
• Three users
• Team availability and workload

What project managers think about TeamGantt:

“The free version only allows one project. The next step up is not that expensive though.” — G2 Crowd

“I like the versatility and easiness when using this program and managing tasks.” — Capterra Verified Review

Looking for great Gantt chart software? Read our article on the top free Gantt Chart software and if you’re a construction company, our article on the best construction project management software.

Check out these TeamGantt alternatives!

13. Teamwork Projects – Good for client management & milestones

Teamwork Projects is a very well-known project management system or software geared more for audiences needing enterprise management with single sign-on, HIPAA compliance, and premium support.

Their paid plans have many feature options for teams and offer a suite of tools such as billing and invoicing.

However, their free tier is quite limited.

Many clients and teams will pony up for those advanced features, but it’s a risk if you don’t want to be locked into a long-term pricing plan. For instance, in the Pro plan, you get lots of integrations such as Dropbox and Slack, way more storage, and up to 50 users.

Teamwork Projects best project management features:

• Task and sub-task creation and assignment
• Gantt chart for project timeline visualization
• Time tracking and billing features
• File storage and versioning for effective document management
• Inbuilt team communication tools

What you get in the free version of teamwork projects:

• Two active projects
• Limited task boards
• Subtasks
• Color themes

What people think of Teamwork Projects:

“The software seems to be popular just in Europe, so there are a few third-party apps which have developed something connected to Teamwork, but it has access to the API and webhooks to compensate.” — G2Crowd

“Teamwork excels at tasking and basic project management, but don’t count on it for any company or portfolio insights and/or big picture views. This is a good tool for small teams that worry about pipeline and traffic control but not for large interconnected teams that require account management, efficiency evaluation or budget oversight.” – Capterra Verified Review

Try out these Teamwork alternatives!

14. Freedcamp – Good for CRM

Freedcamp gives you multiple views, including a list, Kanban board, and Gantt chart view.

It also has a wall for social communication and private tasks, along with white labeling for client spaces, invoicing, and CRM capabilities.

But here’s the thing, the free plan is very limited, and the paid plans begin at $1.49 per user per month.

And in their own words, it’s a “minimalist” plan!

We wish that they went even more minimalist with a free plan, though.

Freedcamp best project management features:

• Task lists with sticky notes for instant information capture
• Calendar view for easy task scheduling and monitoring
• Dedicated discussion boards for team collaboration
• Issue tracker for efficient problem management
• Cloud file storage for hassle-free document management

Here’s what you get in the free version of Freedcamp:

• Unlimited users and tasks
• Time tracking
• Discussion boards
• Password manager
• Personal task manager
• Subtasks

What people think about Freedcamp:

“Freedcamp does not update as often as I would like. Software should constantly be changing to stay relevant with trends and industry needs.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I don’t like the fact that it has no mobile application. That would be great to communicate and manage tasks straight from the mobile.” — G2Crowd

15. Smartsheet – Good for customer support and workflow automation

Smartsheet is a dynamic project management tool that offers a spreadsheet-like interface for organizing and tracking tasks, projects, and team collaboration. With features like Gantt charts, resource management, and automated workflows, Smartsheet empowers users to streamline processes, set priorities, and meet deadlines effectively.

Smartsheet best project management features:

• Automated alerts and reminders to keep teams on track
• Cloud-based file sharing for seamless collaboration
• Conditional formatting for visually highlighting important data
• Real-time updates and project status visibility
• Integrations with popular tools like Google Drive and Salesforce

Here’s what you get in the free version of Smartsheet:

• 10 project plans
• Unlimited collaborators
• 5 dashboards for high-level project views

What people think about managing projects with Smartsheet:

“Smartsheet has so much potentail. It has made automating many of our internal manual processes easy and efficient. It has freed up time that was spent reaching out to people for approvals. Smartsheet now does that for us. We use it everyday, all day for things as simple and keeping everying up-to-date with what we are all doing to managing all of our training requests and moving items through the pipeline automatically. We have successfully integrating it into the majority of our processes.” — G2Crowd

“There is a bit of a learning curve for those who are interested in diving deeper. It does take some time to learn the formulas which are similar to Excel but just “different enough” that it can throw you for a loop. Our suggestion is that you choose one to two people on your team to become subject matter experts in Smartsheet who can guide the team through the transition.” — G2Crowd

Check out how ClickUp compares to Redbooth.

16. Basecamp – Good for entry-level users

Basecamp is a popular project management and team communication software for easy team collaboration.

One of the main cons of Basecamp is that it does not provide the same level of customization and flexibility as some other project management software. While basecamp is designed to be an easy-to-use platform, its rigidity can make it difficult to tailor the software to specific projects or teams.

If you’re looking for a simple task manager with real-time communication features for your team members, then Basecamp can be a great pick.

Basecamp best project management features:

• Project management timeline to view everything from start to finish
• Hill Charts to visually see progress uphill or downhill over time
• The Hey! menu streamlines notifications in a single menu
• Check-in with an automatic poll for the team
• Chat and messaging system

Here’s what you get in the free version of Basecamp:

• 20 users
• Three projects
• Storage space of 1GB

What people think about managing projects with Basecamp:

“When it was used for a small team to collaborate, it was great. When I started using it for client communication and deliverables, it frustrated both me and my team.” — Capterra Verified Review

“Overall, Basecamp is a solid product that I use almost daily to manage projects. I haven’t had any major issues with the software but would like to be able to easily reference tips and tricks to improve my workflow.” — Capterra Verified Review

17. ActiveCollab – Good for freelancers and small agencies

If you’re a fan of simple design, Kanban boards and a sleek UX, take a look at ActiveCollab. An easy-to-use tool that allows you to streamline projects, communicate with your team, and collaborate with clients.

Divide projects into tasks with flexible start dates and deadlines that you can assign to the team or invite clients to view as needed.

ActiveCollab can be visualized as a list or in Kanban view, has an integrated stopwatch to track time on tasks and has an integrated app to chat or share files.

ActiveCollab best project management features:

• Timekeeping functionality with interactive Gantt chart
• In-app communication tools and file sharing
• Task dependencies and automated rescheduling
• Budget tracking to monitor project finances

What you get in the free version of ActiveCollab:

• Up to three members
• Unlimited projects and clients
• Task dependencies and automated scheduling
• Mobile&Desktop app

What people think about managing projects with ActiveCollab:

Our team manages all of our projects through ActiveCollab, and that includes budgeting, tasks, and time management. Without it, we’d be lost in a sea of emails and Slack messages.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I wish it would connect to other project management tools such as basecamp, asana, etc. I work with many contractors and vendors and if I could do everything in active collab, then it would create a ticket in their platforms, it would be awesome.” — Capterra Verified Review

18. Paymo – Good for resource management

Paymo is a free project management software for single users and team managers looking at resource management. It also offers Kanban boards and time tracking that allows freelancers to keep track of time tracked for every client easily.

Paymo best project management features:

• Real-time task comments for effective team communication
• Visual project timeline with Gantt charts
• Advanced task management with multiple users
• Time tracker widget for better time management
• Invoice creation to manage project finances

Here’s what you get in the free version of Paymo:

• One user
• 1GB of space
• Reporting
• Time tracking
• API

What people think about Paymo:

“Absolutely love the granular control on the reports and ability to manage users, projects, tasks and more.” —Capterra Verified Review

“I would recommend this service to every middle sized company, which is looking for a good solid isseu tracking software.” — Capterra Verified Review

19. Podio – Good for messaging

Podio is almost like a cocktail of free project management software and messaging tools. It offers conversations in the app, and you get an overview of all your tasks.

It supports numerous integrations with popular software like ZenDesk, Evernote, and Google Drive.

Podio best project management features:

• Integrated team collaboration tools with file sharing
• Reporting capabilities with visual project dashboards
• App integration for expanded functionality
• Automated workflows to streamline tasks

Here’s what you get in the free version of Podio:

• Five users
• Integrations
• Unlimited workspaces
• Chat capabilities

What people think about managing projects with Podio:

“Reliable communication with the team through the chat function. Good personal task management and also knowledge management. Even though we stored our files in a cloud service, we ‘indexed’ and sorted our knowledge through Podio.” — Capterra Verified Review

“The Podio CRM system is customizable to your personal needs. You can easily create separate workspaces and add the apps needed for ease of access and organizational needs.” — G2Crowd

20. MeisterTask – Good for cloud-based project management

Any Kanban board fanatics in the house? MeisterTask is the way to go for you guys. This project management software tool tries to make Kanban boards more practical.

Your tasks, comments, notes, due dates, etc, are all set up like Kanban boards in one place. It’s a flexible project board and cloud-based project management tool.

MeisterTask best project management features:

• Task assignment and progress tracking
• Kanban boards for task management
• Unlimited automations
• Gantt-style timelines for scheduling and assigning tasks

What you get in the free version of MeisterTask:

• Unlimited projects and unlimited users
• Two integrations (Slack or Zendesk)
• Checklists, comments, tags, task and time tracking features
• User-friendly interface
• File sharing and attachments (up to 20MB)

What people think about managing projects in MeisterTask:

“The one thing I’m not really happy with is the inability to batch move tasks from one section to another. I don’t know why we can do that! You can only move one task at a time. Also, the scroll bar is pretty small and hard to click on because it’s pretty skinny. The free version doesn’t support recurring tasks, so that’s something to be aware of if you are not going to pay for it.” – Capterra Verified Review

“I wish the free version had more projects – something like 4 to 6 would be great. My budget may allow me to purchase the full (I think Pro) version. I am using this for just myself right now, but can see how a business could make use of it. Like most To-do apps, a decent snooze feature is lacking. Sometimes I am in the middle of working on a task and need a few more minutes to finish up – snoozing an upcoming item is always helpful.” – Capterra Verified Review

21. Zenkit – Good for multiview planning

When looking for the best project management software, consider Zenkit. With Zenkit, you’ll get a decent spread of features and templates for easy workspace setup.

While they do make setup easy, the 5000 item limit can be a barrier to entry for most busy teams.

Zenkit best project management features:

• Multiview planning with Kanban, table, list, or calendar
• Task hierarchy and dependencies setup
• Collaborative tools with team assignments and mentions
• Time tracking for better productivity management
• Integration capabilities for project management

What you get in the free version of Zenkit:

• Unlimited collections
• 3 GB of storage
• Up to five members
• Up to five teams

What people think about managing projects with Zenkit:

“It is easy to use from day one since most tools are structured very user-friendly. I like the efficiency it provides for sharing information and tasks with my team.” — Capterra Verified Review

“For free users the data storage is very low, that’s the only dislike I have regarding Zenkit. Also the user interface gets too cluttered at some phases, there’s a lot of scope to improve the interface.” — G2Crowd

22. Toggl Plan – Good for time management

Toggl Plan is one of the best project management tools for effective team planning and task management.

The software is very easy to use, and suits project managers managing small teams.

Toggle Track best project management features:

• Timeline view for streamlined project planning
• Taskboard for team workload management
• Easy drag-and-drop interface for task adjustments
• Shared timelines and taskboards for team collaboration
• Color-coded tasks for better task categorization

What you get in the free version of Toggl Plan:

• Up to five users
• Unlimited tasks
• Unlimited project milestones
• Shared timelines

What people think about managing projects with Toggl Plan:

“I felt the mobile experience was lacking. It’s amazing for long term planning, even weekly planning, but gets awkward when it comes to daily planning or planning in fine detail for timetabling. It’s great for regular arrangements, but gets messy when it comes to extraordinary events.”— Capterra Verified Review

“Toggl has made some great UI changes in recent years, but a more robust way of customizing your interface and views would be a bonus, especially since this is a program I use nearly all day and check in with frequently. Some additional timer views or even color themes would be fun.” — G2Crowd

23. Zoho Projects – Good for managing documents

Zoho project is another efficient project management software. Whether you need to manage documents, collaborate with your team conveniently, or have bugs fixed with an issue tracker, Zoho can handle it.

Zoho Projects best project management features:

• Comprehensive task management with custom fields
• Gantt chart view for project scheduling
• Time tracking tools and timesheet approval process
• In-depth analytics with customizable reports
• Integrated document management systems

What you get in the free version of Zoho Projects:

• 10MB file storage
• Two projects
• Viewer for Gantt chart
• Calendar & Forums
• 10 users

What people think about managing projects with Zoho Projects:

“User interface can be a little confusing (difficult for newbies).”— Capterra Verified Review

“The thing which I like about Zoho projects is that it helps me in maintaining my efficiency of completing the task in a given time frame with its time tracking feature. This software is easy to integrate with other Zoho softwares and helps us in tracking the progress and maintaining the productivity of our team.” — G2Crowd

Try out these Zoho alternatives!

24. Nifty – Good for tracking project milestones

Nifty is a project management tool that aims to keep you focused on managing your work, not tool. Collaborate with your team and clients in one app with a variety of features like chat, tasks, docs, and calendar. Create a proposal for your projects and automate your progress tracking.

Set goals and timelines, collaborate on tasks, establish a knowledge hub, create docs and wikis and balance workloads.

Visualize your project in Nifty as Milestones (similar to Gantt view), or choose from its other three views including Timeline, its board-like Swimlane view, or from a birds-eye with Master overview.

Nifty best project management features:

• Milestone tracking and project timelines
• Task management with automated progress updates
• Team collaboration tools
• Task assignment and prioritization
• Integrated communication channels

What you get in the free version of Nifty:

• Unlimited team members, guests, and clients
• 100 MB storage space
• 2 projects
• Tasks, Milestones, Discussions and Docs
• Workflow Automations and Custom Roles and Permissions

What people think about managing projects in Nifty:

“Nifty is a product that excels in many client environments. Its ease of use makes it a powerful tool for managing our client portfolio.” — Stefan Schmidt, Executive Partner, Hemmersbach

“Nifty is still in its early days, you might find some bugs here and there, but the team is always very fast to respond when you report something or if you send a feature request. Regarding its interface, there’s nothing to dislike. I think Nifty is headed in the right direction, it just needs a bit of time to mature, but in the meantime, it’s perfectly functional and does what it says, making project management easy.” — G2Crowd

25. Jira – Good for development teams and integrations

Jira is a free project management tool used for bug-tracking and issue-management. It provides software development features like advanced reporting options, including user workload, average issue age, and recently created issues. This allows project managers to analyze project performance, manage issue backlogs, and make data-driven decisions to plan efficient Sprints.

Jira best project management features:

• Incident Investigation Dashboard to resolve code deployment issues faster
• Assign tasks or create Jira issues directly from your pull request
• Time tracking with a color indication for visual project management
• Scrum boards to break down complex tasks
• Project tracking templates

What you get in the free version of Jira:

• Unlimited customers
• 100 email notifications a day

What people think about managing projects with Jira:

“Overall, Jira is just a great tool with a fantastic user friendly interface, which overall provides a nice user experience.” — Capterra Verified Review

“Admittedly, Jira can be a bit overwhelming at first, especially for new users. The myriad of features might take some time to fully explore and grasp. But once you get the hang of it, it’s a powerful tool at your fingertips.” — G2Crowd

Check out these Jira alternatives!

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Benefits of Free Project Management Software

Project management software offers numerous advantages that can streamline your team’s workflow and boost productivity. Through these tools, teams can effectively organize tasks, track project progress, and foster a collaborative environment.

Project management software comes equipped with features like tasks, shared calendars, document management, team chat, and comprehensive project reporting. These functionalities not only help in structuring the project’s tasks but also in monitoring each team member’s workload, ensuring that all tasks are allocated efficiently.

Benefits from the best project management software include:

• Reduced labor costs: Eliminating redundancies and automating repetitive tasks will reduce the time and effort required to complete tasks. As a result, fewer hours are required to complete the same amount of work
• Enhanced accountability and ownership: Documenting clear expectations and task goals in the project management tool holds team members accountable for their work
• Faster time-to-market: Aligning communication and cross-functional workflows under one platform will help teams manage and deliver projects faster
• Improved time management: Scheduling and prioritizing higher value tasks frees up headspace to put energy into the most important work and less on administrative tasks
• Better resource allocation: Assigning tasks to the right people distributes the skills and expertise across projects and reduces delays caused by work overload
• Increased collaboration: Commenting and discussions within a project management app gives teams and stakeholders a dedicated space to ask questions, provide feedback, and align on critical project decisions
• Centralized information: Storing and sharing information reduces the likelihood of lost or miscommunicated data. Teams also benefit from having project records, pocketed ideas, and documentation within reach under one platform

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Find the Best Project Management Software for Your Team

Your chosen project management software should be able to do the job. At the same time your whole team should be able to get on board and use its advantages without even considering opting for the paid plan.

The worst situation is when you enthusiastically embark on a new project tool, only to be stymied by its lack of features and functionality, baiting you into the solution’s paid plan.

So why not try ClickUp?

It’s got more free features than any other best project management tools we listed here.

Whether you want to Assign Tasks, create Goals, Time Tracking, use Automations, the possibilities are endless.

So try ClickUp for free today because you deserve efficient and easy project management that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket.

Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.

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