There is no doubt that project management solutions help streamline workflows and boost team productivity. However, not everyone needs advanced features. A basic or free version is enough for their needs. In some cases, business leaders or project managers want to try out the free version before upgrading to a paid plan.
This list highlights the best free project management tools for 2023. You will also find information on the benefits and limitations of using free software for project management and our methodology for compiling this list.
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This table compares the top free project management tools in terms of relevant features, support and starting price for paid plans.
| Software | Gantt charts | 24/7 customer support | Kanban boards | Mobile app | Starting price (per user) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| monday work management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $8 per month |
| Asana | Only with paid plans | Yes | Yes | Yes | $10.99 per month |
| Airtable | Only with paid plans | No | Yes | Yes | $10 per month |
| Wrike | Only with paid plans | No | Yes | Yes | $8 per month |
| Trello | Not available | No | Yes | Yes | $5 per month |
| ClickUp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $7 per month |
| Smartsheet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $7 per month |
| MeisterTask | Limited (Timeline feature) | Yes | Yes | Yes | $6.50 per month |
| Notion | Limited (Gantt chart template) | No | Yes | Yes | $8 per month |
| Teamwork | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $5.99 per month |
monday work management often features on the best project management software lists, as it offers everything you expect from a top project management solution. The free version of monday work management features all main dashboards, but the number of items you can create is limited. You also get a search function, team collaboration tools, file upload, kanban view and several other features on the free plan. That said, you won’t be able to invite clients or viewers on the free plan, making it ideal for individuals and small teams.
monday.com offers more than 200 integrations, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, Google Chat, Google Sheets, Zoom, Jira, Tableau, Zendesk and Hubspot.
We chose monday work management because of how intuitive and adaptable its free version is. The 200+ templates it offers will meet the needs of teams of all sizes, and its kanban boards are easy to set up and follow. The free version also offers up to three boards with up to two members.
For more information, check out our full monday Work OS review.
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Asana is a flexible project management and collaboration tool offering multiple views, customization tools, automation and more. Asana’s free plan offers many features, including unlimited storage and team messaging tools. You also get various project views, including calendar, kanban, lists, workload and more. However, the free plan is limited to three project views, no timeline views and fewer admin controls.
Some of the top integrations in Asana include Microsoft Teams, Splunk, Adobe Creative Cloud, Asana for Salesforce, Tableau, Google Drive and Canva, among many more.
Even though it can take a while to adapt to Asana’s vast features, Asana is a thorough project management tool that constantly surprises you with the breadth of its feature set. You can use it to manage almost any kind of project. You get unlimited projects, tasks, storage, comments and activity logs in its free version, with List, Board and Calendar views, plus free integrations with everyday apps.
For more information, check out our full Asana review.
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Airtable is a project management software that evolved from spreadsheets, but over time it has changed its interface to be more modern and streamlined. The excellent free version of Airtable offers a host of features and multiple views, including kanban boards, gallery view and grid view. With the free plan, you get limitations on revision history and file storage.
Though it doesn’t have the most integrations, Airtable has some quality integrations, the most popular being Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce, Jira and Zendesk.
For spreadsheet-style project management, Airtable is highly customizable and has a great, user-friendly interface. You can use this free project management app to create databases without having to write a single line of code. Airtable’s free tier offers unlimited databases and all views except for Gantt and timeline.
For more information, check out our full Airtable review.
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Wrike is an adaptable project management software suitable for all industries. It’s also highly customizable and offers robust collaboration tools. The free plan is ideal for solopreneurs and small businesses. Users get access to kanban boards, tables, spreadsheets and 2GB of storage space. An advantage of Wrike’s free plan is that you can access artificial intelligence features such as AI subtasks creation.
With over 400 integrations, Wrike’s integrations include Google Drive, Box, GitHub, Jira, IBM Watson Workspace, Bitbucket and more.
While Wrike’s features for the free tier are limited, its incorporation of generative AI for rapid content generation for its Work Intelligence solution saves lots of time that would’ve been spent on content, communication and workflows. Aside from the AI project risk prediction feature, all its Work Intelligence features are available in Wrike’s free plan.
For more information, check out our full Wrike review.
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Trello is this list’s most easy-to-use free project management software. The interface is based on kanban boards, making it easy to manage and visualize projects.
The free plan includes unlimited cards, lists and up to 10 boards per team. This means that if you need less than 10 boards, you can use the free plan forever. The only major limitation of the free plan is that you only get to upload files that are 10MB or less.
Trello’s 190+ integrations, which they call Power-Ups, include Slack, Miro, Jira Cloud, Dropbox, Confluence, Salesforce, Microsoft Teams and Zapier.
Strictly within the confines of free kanban boards, Trello is arguably the top tool. We chose Trello because of how straightforward and intuitive its kanban boards are. Trello also impresses with its Power-Ups, which are unlimited in the free version, although some may require you to pay.
For a closer look, check out our in-depth comparisons of Trello versus Asana, Wrike, Airtable, ClickUp and monday work management.
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ClickUp is a popular project management tool known for its extensive features. Even the free version of ClickUp is loaded with useful tools for project management. This includes unlimited users, activity views and custom fields. The free plan allows you to create up to five spaces, one for each project flow.
ClickUp boasts over 1000 tools, with some of the top native ones including ClickUp API, Slack, GitHub, GitLab, HubSpot, Toggl, Harvest, Google Drive, Figma and Microsoft Teams.
ClickUp is such a multifaceted project management tool, even in its free tier. It offers most views you’d expect from a great project management tool, but aside from the List, Board, Calendar, Table, Doc and Chat views, all the other views have restrictions or are unavailable for free. It is highly customizable and has lots of integrations, and aside from views, you get a taste of workload management, dashboards, reminders, mind maps, whiteboards and custom fields in ClickUp’s free tier.
For more information, check out our full ClickUp review.
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Smartsheet merges the functionality of spreadsheets with the capabilities of a solid project management platform. It brings a much-needed approach to managing complex projects using powerful spreadsheets, making it particularly valuable for teams that are comfortable with spreadsheet-style interfaces but need more advanced project management features.
Smartsheet offers 90+ integrations across communication, data visualization, content creation, automation and security. They include Slack, Teams, Google Chat, Tableau, Power BI, DocuSign, Adobe Creative Cloud and Zapier.
Through its unique blend of traditional spreadsheet layouts with modern project management features, Smartsheet simplifies complex workflows and makes it natural to collaborate on projects with a spreadsheet interface. The free version has all the automated workflow features, though automation triggers are limited to 100 per month. Smartsheet also feels easier to use than Airtable, the other spreadsheet-style project management tool on this list.
For more information, check out our full Smartsheet review.
MeisterTask is a visually appealing project management tool that offers a Kanban-style approach to task management. It prides itself on simplicity, intuitiveness and security and is a worthy consideration for teams that find visual workflows and interactive task and project management appealing.
MeisterTask offers integrations like Slack, Trello, GitHub, Zapier, MindMeister, MeisterNote, Gmail, Spark, Microsoft Teams and Zendesk.
There’s something about colorful designs and Kanban boards that just fits. MeisterTask has understood the need to deliver a visually appealing and intuitive interface that makes task management a breeze. With these vibrant Kanban boards, teams can enjoy a more interactive way to manage tasks.
For more information, check out our full MeisterTask review.
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Notion is a free project management software tool that excels in note-taking and offers a layout whose customizability proves to be impressive. It is adaptable enough to be used by individuals, small businesses and enterprises across design, engineering, product and management teams. Teams that need a flexible workspace for both project management and documentation must consider Notion.
A few integrations included in Notion are Jira, Slack, GitHub, Asana, Zapier, Make, Tray.io, Slapdash, Miro, Figma, Google Drive and Webex.
We chose Notion for its unparalleled flexibility and specialized note-taking abilities. The platform allows you to create a workspace that’s as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Its free plan is especially generous for individual users, with tens of templates and almost no restrictions on blocks and basic integrations.
For more information, check out our full Notion review.
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Teamwork is a free project management tool that is particularly well-suited for client work, which often involves marketing teams, creative teams, agencies, consultancies and more. It has a lot of features, ranging from customizable templates to milestone tracking, which makes it adaptable for many different types of projects.
Teamwork integrates with many tools, which include HubSpot, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skyvia, Atarim, Stripe, Integrately and more.
We chose Teamwork for its versatility. The platform offers a range of features that are particularly useful for agencies, consultancies and other client-focused teams. Its milestone tracking makes it easy to manage projects from start to finish, while its invoicing features make it seamless to export invoices based on logged billable hours from Teamwork to accounting software.
For more information, check out our full Teamwork review.
The most significant benefit of free project management software is that you get to try the software without having to pay anything. The best project management software offers a variety of features in the free version, so for some businesses or users, the free plan will be all they need for their project management.
In addition, the free version provides a feel for the user interface and overall functionality of the software, so if you want to upgrade, you have a good idea of what to expect from the software.
The limitation of free project management software is specific to each solution. Some of the more common limitations may include:
When choosing the best free project management software for your needs, you must decide which features are most important. For example, if you need software with 24/7 customer support or Gantt charts, you must shortlist vendors offering those features.
Once you have shortlisted a few solutions based on specifications, you need to dig deeper through expert reviews and customer ratings. You should also test out the software to make an informed decision if it is the right fit for your needs.
We used the software’s features, pricing, customer support, usability and other criteria to compile the best free project management software list. Each software’s popularity, user ratings, expert reviews and hands-on experience were evaluated.
The evaluation was focused on the features offered in the free version of each software. This includes features such as file sharing, project views, collaboration tools and mobile app.
