Everyone has a different way of managing projects. Some people like to use their inbox to keep track of tasks. Others prefer to visualize work on a Kanban board or in a calendar view, while some even prefer the old pen and paper system.
That's fine on an individual level, but when you collaborate on projects as a team, you need a flexible and capable project management tool that works for everyone. And with so many teams working remotely, there's an even more pressing need for a task management app that can help track projects, collaborate, and keep everyone in the loop.
As a freelance writer, I've worked inside tons of different project management setups across my clients—I've seen how each app approaches the standard features, the potential of great, streamlined collaboration, and the consequences of poor project management. The good news: free project management software can give you the flexibility you need to manage tasks, communicate with stakeholders, and maintain project visibility—without paying a cent.
I've been updating this list for several years. This year, I considered nearly 70 free project management tools, and after extensive testing, I've settled on my top eight picks.
The 8 best free project management tools
- Trello for visually managing projects
- Asana for teams
- ClickUp for customized task views
- Wrike for spreadsheet-like features
- Paymo for freelancers and small agency teams
- Airtable for building a customized project management app
- Jira for developers
- Height for AI features
What makes the best free project management tool?
How we evaluate and test apps
Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of
how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.To narrow down the list of the best free project management online tools, I looked for apps that met the following criteria:
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Free for unlimited projects. All the project tracking software I chose lets you manage an unlimited number of projects for free.
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Hosted. There are a lot of great, free, self-hosted project management applications, but they take longer to set up and manage. I was looking at task management software that's hosted by the companies that provide the tools. If you're interested in free, self-hosted project management software, I'd recommend checking out
Taiga,Lavagna, andRedmine. -
Collaboration and sharing features. The free project management apps included here make it quick and easy to add team members to your project management setup and control user types and permissions.
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Flexibility. The best project managers are flexible enough to handle multiple teams, project types, and organization styles, so I looked for apps that support a number of different views and
project management methodologies. -
Integrations. A great project tracker should fit seamlessly into the rest of your stack, so I've only included apps that integrate with other popular software like email and Slack, calendars, and document storage.
After filtering for those criteria, I ran each remaining contender through a similar testing protocol that included:
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Going through the signup process and any onboarding provided
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Creating a new project and choosing a primary methodology (Kanban, Scrum,
Gantt, etc.) or view (list, table, calendar, etc.) for it -
Creating a number of new tasks and adding various details, like due dates, links and attachments, and user assignments
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Toggling between view options and testing out any additional methodologies offered
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Inviting new users and setting permissions
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Toggling between team-wide and individual views
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Testing out any unique features like time tracking, client views, or AI
After running each app through that workflow, I landed on the top eight free online project manager tools you see below.
Note: I selected tools that offer web apps (though many offer synchronized web, mobile, and desktop apps). If it's not important to you that your project planner is accessible online, you may also want to consider
ProjectLibre andGanttProject in addition to the apps listed below. Both of these tools are powerful desktop-only apps that are designed to be alternatives to Microsoft Project.Need more features and have a bit more flexibility in your budget? Check out our recommendations for
the best project management software for small business.The best free project management software at a glance
|
Best for |
Standout feature |
Free plan |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Trello |
Visually managing projects |
Customizable Kanban boards with unlimited Power-Ups |
10 boards per workspace and unlimited cards |
| Asana |
Teams |
Flexible project management methodologies |
Unlimited projects and tasks and up to 10 users |
| ClickUp |
Customized task views |
14 different task views |
Unlimited tasks and users |
| Wrike |
Spreadsheet-like features |
Best-in-class project tracking |
Unlimited projects and users |
| Paymo |
Freelancers and small agency teams |
Built-in time tracking, invoicing, and expenses |
Unlimited tasks and users and up to 5 clients |
| Airtable |
Building a customized app |
The most customizable app with lots of templates |
Unlimited bases at 1,000 records per base and up to 5 users |
| Jira |
Agile software development teams |
Purpose-built for developers and engineers |
Unlimited projects on 1 site and up to 10 users |
| Height |
AI features |
Use AI to create subtasks, suggest task improvements, and auto-detect duplicate tasks |
Up to 1,000 active tasks and 10 users |
Best free project management software for visually managing projects
Trello (Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android)
Trello pros:
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Super customizable boards with unlimited Power-Ups
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Most visual interface of any of the apps I tested
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Tons of templates to get you started
Trello cons:
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Free users are limited to Kanban
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User/team management features require an upgrade
Start by creating a new board from scratch or choosing a template from dozens of options across marketing, sales, design, team management, and beyond. Add a handful of lists for your tasks (each list is a column), and customize those lists with the steps in your workflow (e.g., to-do, doing, and done) or as separate parts of your project (e.g., development, design, and distribution). Next, add your tasks as visual cards in each column—with labels, due dates, members, checklists, images, attachments, and comments to keep everything in one place.
As you start completing tasks, simply drag the cards to the appropriate list. You can keep track of all comments and tasks that mention you—or that you're watching—from the activity menu.
For more features, Trello's
Power-Up options (unlimited even on the free plan) let you view tasks on a calendar, add voting options on tasks, fade away old tasks automatically, and much more. And you canmake Trello boards for everything—personal and work tasks alike—to get your work done in a way that best fits your needs.For even more flexibility, use
Trello's Zapier integrations to connect Trello with your favorite apps, like Gmail and Slack. Learn more aboutpopular ways to automate Trello, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.Trello price: The
free plan includes unlimited cards and members, 10 boards per workspace, unlimited Power-Ups, and 250 automated commands each month; upgrade for $5/user/month (billed annually) to the Standard plan that includes unlimited boards, custom fields, advanced checklists, up to 1,000 automated commands per month, and more.Best free project management software for teams
Asana (Web, iOS, Android)
Asana pros:
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Flexible with project management methodologies between projects and users
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Great, focused My Tasks view
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To-do list style made better with team features
Asana cons:
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Expensive upgrade
Your to-do list isn't bad—you just need a few more features to manage your team projects.
Asana offers just that. It's a project management tool that lets you break projects down into sections and sub-lists, along withdashboards to see how much of the project has been completed already. You'll add, rearrange, and complete tasks the same way you would in a to-do list app, but with the collaboration and organization features you need to work as a team.For your personal tasks—or the things at work that don't fit into a precise project—you can make extra lists in Asana that are only shared with specific people. Your own assigned tasks will also show up in your My Tasks view for a quick way to see the things you need to take care of.
Whether you're working solo or with a team, you can automate Asana with
Asana's Zapier integrations, letting you connect project information to other apps. Try one of the workflows below, or get inspiration fromthese popular Asana automations.Asana price: The
free Personal plan includes unlimited projects, tasks, and storage; up to 15 users; and list, board, and calendar views. Upgrade for $10.99/user/month (billed annually) to the Starter plan that adds Gantt and timeline views, extensive reports, and Asana AI.Best free project management software for customized task views
ClickUp (Web, iOS, Android)
ClickUp pros:
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14 different task views to choose from
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Super generous free plan
ClickUp cons:
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More involved set-up process
Most project management apps let you choose from only a handful of task views, like a list, calendar, or Kanban view. Additional views, especially Gantt charts, are usually a premium feature. ClickUp is different.
It's a simple and free project management app that lets you choose from 14 different views, including Gantt charts and mind maps, along with Chat (which displays conversations alongside your tasks), Docs (which lets you create docs, wikis, and knowledge bases), and Embed (to add apps and websites next to your tasks).
ClickUp's dashboards are just as customizable, letting you choose from tons of different widgets, so you can only highlight the most important project information. Plus, with a revamped task details screen, you can view details, create subtasks, and add attachments really easily—you can even track time right inside the task.There's a lot to parse when you're first getting started with ClickUp. The onboarding process won't be as simple as Trello, for example, but the extra customization is worth it—especially when it's completely free. Plus, the company has done a great job with guided in-app onboarding to get you started.
And with
ClickUp's Zapier integrations, you can connect ClickUp with your favorite apps. Try one of the automations below, or read abouthow to automate ClickUp with Zapier.ClickUp price: The
free plan includes unlimited tasks and users, up to 100MB of storage, and up to 60 uses of Gantt charts, mind maps, dashboards, and timeline views. Upgrade to the Unlimited plan for $7/user/month for unlimited list, board, calendar, and Gantt views, unlimited dashboards, and guests and permissions.Best free project management software for spreadsheet-like features
Wrike (Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)
Wrike pros:
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Spreadsheet-esque interface
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Best-in-class project tracking features
Wrike cons:
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More limited free plan than most
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Less customizable
If it were up to you, would you manage your projects in a spreadsheet? If so, you might like Wrike. Wrike offers the same flexibility of a spreadsheet—with columns for every bit of info you want to track about tasks. (If you like spreadsheets but need even more customization, head down to
Airtable.)Wrike lets your team update the status of tasks at various intervals—in-progress, on hold, canceled, or completed. Additionally, you can set the status of projects to new, in progress, completed, on hold, or canceled, making it easy to create your weekly project status reports.
While you can do a lot with Wrike's free plan, its best features—including time tracking, Gantt charts, and custom dashboards—do require a premium plan. If you're running a small operation now but planning to scale in the future, Wrike grows alongside you, giving you all of the tools you need to run both a single small project and many concurrent large ones.
If you're interested in the free plan,
Wrike's Zapier integrations can help you do more with the project management app, like automatically creating tasks in Wrike from other tools. Learn more abouthow to automate Wrike, or get started with one of these templates.Wrike price: The
free plan includes 1 space, unlimited projects, and up to 200 active tasks; upgrade for $10/user/month (billed annually) to the Team plan that includes Gantt charts, unlimited tasks, AI features, and more.Read more:
Wrike vs. AsanaBest free project management software for freelancers and small agency teams
Paymo (Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux)
Paymo pros:
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Built-in features for time tracking, invoicing, and expenses
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Generous free plan
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Clean, intuitive interface
Paymo cons:
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Free plan limited to 5 clients
If your project management workflow includes working across multiple clients and billing for time, Paymo is a great option. The app includes features for tracking time and expenses, invoicing clients and accepting payments, and plenty more. Built for freelancers and agencies, many of these features—including adding and tracking time entries, setting a task as billable or non-billable, estimating time, and even tracking your progress toward the time budget—are built right into the task details screen.
You can offer clients extra visibility by adding them as a guest user, allowing them to view and comment on tasks (but not create or edit them). Though limited to five clients, Paymo's recently rejiggered free plan includes unlimited tasks, users, time tracking, and invoices. So if you only work with a handful of clients, you may never have to upgrade.
You can do even more with Paymo's free plan by
connecting the app with Zapier and automating tasks like tracking invoices and blocking time on your calendar. Here are some pre-made workflows to get you started.Paymo price: The
free plan includes unlimited users, tasks, time tracking, and invoices, across 5 clients and up to 10 projects. Upgrade to the Starter plan for $3.90/user/month to get unlimited clients and projects, additional views, guest users, and more.Best free project management software for building a customized app
Airtable (Web, iOS, Android)
Airtable pros:
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The most customizable app on this list
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Lots of templates to help with initial setup
Airtable cons:
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More involved setup process
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Less familiar interface than most
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Most expensive upgrade on this list
If you've tried other project management software and haven't found the one,
Airtable will let you build it. The app is ready out-of-the-box with a default view similar to a spreadsheet, and it suggests a handful of templated projects based on your team within the company. The AI Cobuilder can help you get started building your base, but based on my testing, you're farther ahead starting from one of the suggested templates—or you can build your own project (called a "base") from scratch.But the real power of Airtable happens
when you customize it. It will take some upfront effort to tailor Airtable to be exactly what you need—but if you're willing to spend the time, the sky's the limit. You can customize everything from the methodology and view type to column headers, field types, and data validation.Head over to the Marketplace to choose from over 150 apps that help you integrate, analyze, and enrich your projects, or build your own custom apps.
Airtable also integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically track important information in Airtable get notifications for activity in your Airtable base. Learn more abouthow to automate Airtable, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.Airtable price: The
free plan includes unlimited bases, up to 5 users, 1,000 records per base, and 8 visualization options, including grid, calendar, and Kanban; upgrade for $20/user/month to the Team plan for 50,000 records per base, 20GB of attachments, Gantt and timeline view, and more.Best free project management software for Agile software development teams
Jira (Web, iOS, Android)
Jira pros:
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Purpose-built for developers and engineers
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Prominent issue tracker
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Over 1,000 integrations
Jira cons:
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Not as flexible for use across diverse teams
While the app also offers a Kanban view, Jira is built for Scrum and
Agile workflows. When you first sign up, the onboarding flow asks a few questions about your team's projects, level of experience with different methodologies, and deadlines—then it recommends a methodology and project template for you.For Scrum projects, you can add issues to your backlog individually, filling in details and assigning them to sprints. Project tracking happens on a Scrum board, the homepage for each project—you can customize column headers and edit task details and status.
Jira's catering to developers and engineering teams doesn't stop there: the app also integrates with other development tools like GitHub, GitLab, Sentry, and Jenkins to make quick work of updating and tracking your backlog. And while you can't control user access on the free plan, it does include up to 10 users, so it's ideal for self-contained or smaller dev teams.
You can get more out of the free plan by using
Jira's Zapier integrations to automatically create new issues in Jira based on Slack messages or GitHub issues. Try these Zaps and check out more ways toautomate Jira.Jira price: The
free plan includes unlimited projects on one site, up to 10 users, and both Scrum and Kanban boards; upgrade to the Standard plan for $7.53/user/month for more granular user permissions, 250 GB of file storage, and more.Best free AI project management software
Height (Web, Mac)
Height pros:
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Generous free plan
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Genuinely useful AI features
Height cons:
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Less flexible Kanban view
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Some lag on autonomous features
Height is a great option if you're looking for genuinely useful
AI features. While some of the apps I tested offer AI-powered features, most either require a paid plan or just aren't that intelligent. Height is different.With the recent release of Height 2.0, the app now offers an almost completely autonomous platform powered by AI. Height can generate a catch-up summary of a task's chat history, create subtasks from chat messages, highlight unanswered questions, auto-detect duplicate tasks, and suggest task improvements.
By this time next year, many of the other project management apps on this list may well offer these same features, but for now, they're a big stand-out for Height. Now, I did experience some lag with the autonomous features during testing, but nothing slow enough that you'd notice if you weren't babysitting the app like me.
And with four clean view options (spreadsheet, calendar, Kanban, and Gantt) all available for free—plus unlimited users, 100 automation runs per month, and full access to the autonomous AI features—Height also offers a competitively generous free plan.
You can do even more with Height by
connecting it to Zapier to automate task creation and notifications, and otherwise streamline your project management workflows. Here are some examples.Height price: The
free plan includes 1,000 active tasks, unlimited users, spreadsheet, Kanban, Gantt, and Calendar views, 100 automation runs, and AI task management features. Upgrade to the Core plan for $15/user/month to get unlimited tasks, full search history, 100 MB file uploads, and more.What's the best free project planning software?
Honestly, online project management tools are a dime a dozen. And a lot of them will advertise "free" plans that aren't really free—meaning you can't actually manage all your projects without upgrading. The best free task management software will let you do what you need to do without spending a dime. And, as your needs change, they'll support you with more robust features at higher tiers.
The good news: free project planning software is...free. So you can test your options, see what you like (and what you don't), and then decide. Here are more tips on
how to choose online project management software.Related reading:
- RACI: A map for team structure (with template)
- ClickUp vs. monday: Which should you use?
- 21 project management templates to organize any workflow
- Asana vs. Basecamp: Which should you use?
- Airtable vs. Trello: Which should you use?
- Airtable vs. Asana: Which is right for you?
Originally published in May 2017 by Matthew Guay, this post has had contributions from Jessica Greene, Maria Myre, and Emily Esposito. The most recent update was in November 2024.