Best Free Project Management Software 2024: Ranked & Compared

All businesses want to save money. One simple way to trim your outgoings is by opting for one of the best free project management software over a provider’s paid-for packages.

The top free project management software plan we’ve tested is ClickUp, allowing businesses to customize workflows across many of the same features as its paid tiers, including automation and Gantt tools. Its fully functional free plan, fitted with unlimited users and task allowances, lets you test whether the software suits your team’s organizational needs before committing to greater spending.

Second in our ranking, and previously our number one pick, is monday.com. It’s the most user-friendly platform we’ve used and has many of the top features, too, but its user limit of two seats and further feature limits have allowed ClickUp to take the crown.

Read on for a full-length comparison of all other attractive plans, including the likes of Wrike and Teamwork, detailing what each free software plan offers and what prices you could expect to pay should your business need to scale its operations in the future.

Best Free Project Management Software Compared

Here’s a quick overview of what each of our top seven rated free project management software plans offer for absolutely no monthly fee.

1. ClickUp

What are ClickUp’s free project management key eatures?

The key draws for ClickUp’s free plan are:

• Unlimited tasks, users, and custom views
• Great customer service
• Generous customization options (including 100 monthly automations)

Is ClickUp’s free plan enough for you?

With unlimited users and a particularly generous offering of unlimited tasks, this is a great choice for any team size and any project size. The storage limit of 100MB is a bit low, but it’s not uncommon in free plans. And you get plenty of useful tools like collaborative docs, whiteboards, sprint management, and a basic custom field manager.

If this sounds like it would facilitate what you’re looking to do and would suit your team well, then there are no other hidden problems here. Simply put, we think ClickUp’s free plan is the best balance of features, user-numbers and overall usability.

How does ClickUp’s free plan compare to its competitors?

ClickUp outperforms its main rival monday.com when it comes to overall feature functionality across task management, project & workflow creation, data visualization, and collaboration. In short, it has 1,000+ templates to monday’s 200+, over 15+ view types (including Scrum, Kanban and sprint dashboards) to monday’s seven, and 1000+ integrations to monday’s 200+.

It even has agile reporting, which monday doesn’t explicitly offer, that software development teams may require, as well as time tracking on all plans compared to this being a Pro/Enterprise exclusive on monday.

ClickUp’s free plan also wins out in terms of customer support. Both offer 24/7 support however, monday.com requires you to upgrade to a paid plan to access its chatbot, phone and email service. ClickUp gives you a live support chatbot with all free accounts, albeit live agents are on paid plans only.

We did find ClickUp slightly less user-friendly due to it being more word-based than monday’s beginner-friendly UI, while you’ll get 500MB of storage on monday’s free plan to ClickUp’s 100MB.

But, in general, it is far more usable than Jira and Zoho, and has more features than options like Teamwork, even if monday.com is our usability champion as we’ll discuss shortly.

And, crucially, as stated, ClickUp offers unlimited users and tasks for nothing, while monday.com limits you to just two seats on its free plan. That could be the deciding factor for many. After all, if you don’t have enough space for your team all those features monday offers will go to waste. With ClickUp, everyone gets a free seat.

Is it worth upgrading from ClickUp’s free plan?

Down the line, you may need to increase the capacity of ClickUp’s project management software via a paid-for plan. As the name suggests, its Unlimited plan allows you unlimited use and extent of tools including Gantt charts (instead of 60 on the free plan), boards, calendars, dashboards, guests, user permission controls, and lists, too.

And its Unlimited plan is the cheapest paid tier on this page besides from Zoho’s more limited Premium tier ($4). Here are the prices for that plan and its other paid tiers.

2. monday.com

What are monday.com’s free project management key features?

The key draws for monday.com’s free plan are:

• Most of monday’s paid tiers’ collaboration features (embedded documents and whiteboard collaboration)
• Over 200 templates for projects and items
• Accessible and usable iOS and Android apps

Is monday.com’s free plan enough for you?

For a smaller team, monday.com’s free plan should be a great starting point, but may not be a suitable plan for a long-term investment. Its two-team member limit is a little less than standard and was previously five when we first wrote this page a few years ago, albeit that’s perhaps suitable for a startup business. Conversely, we think having unlimited docs on three boards is pretty generous from a free plan. monday’s usability – its best offering – is a constant across all of its tiers, even the free one.

Should you need more users on a free plan, we recommend looking at ClickUp. It’s the next highest-performing free software from our tests and offers unlimited users as part of that package.

How does monday.com’s free plan compare to its competitors?

In our research, we found that monday.com is the most user-friendly platform of the providers we reviewed. Wrike and ClickUp are both close behind, but monday’s interface is just too clean to give it anything other than first place.

One thing that stands out is monday’s notification system: it’s one of the best we’ve used. When someone completes a task, it automatically alerts the next person in the pipeline (assuming you’ve set up the workflow to do this) so they can begin their work.

Its feature range is ahead of the curve too. Customizable fields and workflows are present and correct, unlike Wrike which requires additional payment for both, or ClickUp which has a limit of 60. And its 500MB of storage loses out to Wrike’s 2GB or Zoho’s 5GB total but is five times more than ClickUp’s 100MB.

However, it’s not all good news as its free plan increasingly has a number of other limits. You used to be able to carry out some basic automations and integrations, but now you must have a paid tier to access this, unlike ClickUp and Wrike which offer unlimited integrations and limited automations (five for ClickUp or none natively for Wrike, albeit, unlimited via integrations).

And where monday.com really fails to live up to our expectations is in user numbers, as discussed above. Both ClickUp and Wrike offer unlimited users which allows for greater flexibility and usability for a zero-cost plan. Likewise, its paid plans, as we’ll discuss shortly, aren’t quite as cheap as some other providers like ClickUp, Zoho and Jira, but they’re still competitively priced considering the features you get.

Is it worth upgrading from monday.com’s free plan?

You can upgrade from monday.com’s free plan at any point – and scalability should be a key consideration for any business in our view.

It’s in the middle of the pack in terms of costs, not starting with the cheapest prices but not the most expensive either. But considering we value its paid plans as the best project management software around, we think these prices are well worth paying if you are thinking of upgrading down the line. These are the costs you can expect to pay for its various other packages.

3. Wrike

What are Wrike’s free project management key features?

The key draws for Wrike’s free plan are:

• Unlimited users
• 2GB of storage
• Account-wide work schedules

Is Wrike’s free plan enough for you?

Strangely enough, we reckon Wrike’s free plan is a better deal than its lowest-paid plan (the Team plan). For example, both offer 2GB of storage but, where the free plan offers unlimited users, the Team plan only allows up to 25 users.

So, to answer the question, yes, Wrike’s free plan will likely be enough for a team that isn’t looking to supercharge their subscription with loads of features.

How does Wrike’s free plan compare to its competitors?

In our free plan ranking, Wrike comes in right behind ClickUp and monday.com. And despite this, we reckon its features and limits might trump them both.

For instance, Wrike has powerful task dependencies and task-filtering options that monday restricts access until you reach higher-priced plans. It also has more storage at 2GB compared to 100MB – ClickUp and 500MB – monday.com. Like ClickUp, it allows for unlimited integrations on its free plan and offers over 400 possible connectors (ClickUp allows for 1,000+ for free, though Monday requires you pay for integrations and automations).

Where it performed comparatively poorly is in customer support. Free users only have an email support line during regular business hours, whereas paid users get 24/7 phone and live chat support.

Is it worth upgrading from Wrike’s free plan?

It’s important to consider scalability and should you need a few extra features than Wrike’s free package, then its paid plans may be of use.

Besides the changes in storage and user limits discussed above, the Team plan brings a major benefit of custom fields, workflows, and statuses into play, as well as the use of calendars, dynamic Gantt charts, and dashboards.

These are the prices it currently offers on its paid-for plans at the time of writing (and unlike other plans on this page, they are only paid monthly rather than yearly, but still sit below $10 per month at their cheapest).

4. Teamwork

What are Teamwork’s free project management key features?

The key draws for Teamwork’s free plan are:

• Milestones and dependencies
• Gantt charts
• Phone, live chat, and email support

Is Teamwork’s free plan enough for you?

As far as limits go, Teamwork is quite restrictive as free plans tend to be. You can have five users, five projects (previously this was two), 100MB of storage, and two custom fields, though its feature extent beyond this decent starting point is a little average.

There are restricted customization options, and no advanced reporting or integration options, though there are some features that your team might absolutely need, such as dependencies and milestones to manage your project timelines.

You can also view Gantt charts, create a team calendar and of course, do basic task management from setting due dates to assigning team members. We also loved using its chat feature to talk to colleagues, which is something many project management software options don’t allow for, especially on a free plan.

How does Teamwork’s free plan compare to its competitors?

Teamwork is the definition of ‘middle of the pack’. In our usability testing, our testers decided it outperformed Jira in terms of ease of use, but couldn’t beat our leading picks ClickUp and monday.

Its customer service is similar to monday’s, offering email, a help center, and community forums, but not as good as ClickUp’s since it lacks 24/7 support coverage and live options for free customers. It’s not taking home any gold medals, but it’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Is it worth upgrading from Teamwork’s free plan?

Where Teamwork is fairly middling in terms of the price of its paid tiers. Teamwork used to have a affordable Starter plan costing $5.99 per user, per month. However, now its cheapest plan is Deliver at $9.99 per user, per month, but that’s still around average compared to the other options on this page. You can see the full list of prices below, paid yearly or monthly.

5. Jira

What are Jira’s free project management key features?

The key draws for Jira’s free plan are:

• Apps and integrations
• Automations (for a single project)
• Agile reporting

Is Jira’s free plan enough for you?

With a member limit of 10, Jira’s free plan will likely be able to accommodate any small team or business. You can only run a single project at a time with 2GB of storage. You also get 100 rule executions per month in terms of automation but its free plan is largely limited to subtasks on basic Scrum and Kanban boards.

We couldn’t find any information on how many tasks you can have but, if you’re only tackling one project at a time, it probably won’t be too small.

How does Jira’s free plan compare to its competitors?

Jira falls a little short when comparing it to competitors, though could still be worth considering.

On the surface, it is an appealing choice. It offers the same high 2GB storage as Wrike, though without its unlimited user allowance.

However, its free features don’t match the other top project management software, lacking the likes of mind maps or other project views like Gantt charts supplied by ClickUp, amongst others. Even if it offers some automation potential, monday has more robust capabilities for nothing in a much more user-friendly package. Designed for software development teams, Jira is comparatively complex in its interface and requires a steeper learning curve in our view.

Its main glowing spot used to be its customer service, which previously beat monday.com, ClickUp, Wrike, and every other platform on this list. However, now you need its Standard plan to get access to its leading 2-hour response time; with the free plan, you have access to its large and active community forums plus its detailed knowledge base.

Is it worth upgrading from Jira’s free plan?

Jira offers several other packages should your operations outgrow its free plan – and we think that’s an important consideration for businesses before they get settled into a free project management software. They’re some of the cheapest options on this page, too.

Its Standard package brings in user roles and permissions, external collaboration, 1,700 automation per site per month, 250GB of storage, and 9/5 support. And at around $7.10 per user when paid yearly, it’s one of the most affordable paid tiers on this page.

Here are what price points you can expect for each plan, paid monthly or yearly.

6. Zoho Projects

What are Zoho’s free project management key features?

The key draws for Zoho Projects’ free plan are:

• Integration with other Zoho products
• 5GB storage
• Mobile app (iOS and Android)

Is Zoho’s free plan enough for you?

You’d need a pretty small team for Zoho Projects’ free plan to be worth an extended period of your time. With only three team members and two projects, it’s the second smallest plan on our list (after monday.com).

Besides that, it acts more like an extended trial than a full-on plan. Features are limited with you only having a basic Kanban board and no Gantt charts, automation options, or templates to play with either. You do get 5GB of storage, however, which is more than any other free plan on this page.

However, if your team is used to using Zoho products, then it’s a great call because it’ll all seem familiar, and possibly support your integrations.

How does Zoho’s free plan compare to its competitors?

There are two categories where Zoho Projects trumps its opponents. One of them is price: it earned the highest rating in this category of any providers we looked at because its first paid plan is only $4 per user, per month. That’s the cheapest paid tier on this page. We normally wouldn’t factor that in on a page about free plans, but when Zoho’s free plan feels so much like a trial for a paid plan, it’s worth mentioning.

The other good point is its customer reviews. It comes in second only to monday.com and ClickUp with many users praising its value for money compared to other providers.

Is it worth upgrading from Zoho’s free plan?

Zoho has only two paid-for plans, noticeably fewer than the other project management software on this page. But they are particularly affordable and crucial given the limiting nature of its free plan, as discussed. Below are the prices for each of them, when paid yearly or monthly.

7. Asana

What are Asana’s free project management key features?

The key draws for Asana’s free plan are:

• 10 users; unlimited projects, and tasks
• 100+ integrations
• Unlimited file storage

Is Asana’s free plan enough for you?

There’s no world where the answer to this question is ‘no’, at least when it comes to limits and the capacity for a large team or business. The fact that there’s no limit on projects, tasks, or storage, means that the only reason this might not be enough for you is due to missing a specific feature you’d need or that you need more than 10 users at a time.

How does Asana’s free plan compare to its competitors?

If Asana put just a bit more into their interface and features, they’d be one of the all-time greats. For example, Asana is just slightly less easy to use than monday, Wrike, and ClickUp, and their customer satisfaction score follows that same trend.

Unfortunately, its free plan doesn’t include many features including Gantt timelines, goal tracking, or any custom field options. You’ll also have to go without any reporting tools and while its storage is uncapped, each file must be 100MB or less.

Their customer support isn’t great either, offering online help and community forums but no access to direct customer support via its free plan. But considering the likes of monday and Wrike are also pretty poor at customer service, if Asana put some investment into that, they’d be able to overtake some of the project management titans.

Is it worth upgrading from Asana’s free plan?

Besides its free plan, Asana has three paid options to offer its customers even greater functionality. Its cheapest Premium plan allows you to collaborate with up to 500 teammates instead of 10, as well as timeline/Gantt views, dashboards, and custom fields.

Here’s a breakdown of what prices you can expect at the time of writing, with its paid plans starting a little above other lowest-cost paid plans at $10.99 per user, per month.

Is Free Project Management Software Enough for You?

The answer to this question all depends on what you need from the project management software. Firstly, as you may have noticed, almost all of these free plans have very tight limits when it comes to members, so the main thing you’ll need to ensure is that your team isn’t too big, or will outgrow a free plan. Sole traders, startups, and very small businesses may find that a free plan fits them quite nicely.

The good news is, even if the answer to this question is ‘no’, project management software is usually extremely affordable. The cost for the lowest paid plan from any provider will typically be in the single digits per user, per month, so, if you need to boost your software’s power, it won’t break the bank.

How To Choose the Best Project Management Software for Your Business

Picking the best free project management software depends on the specific needs of your business. We recommend breaking down that decision into three distinct steps.

1. Identify your priorities

You’ll want to work out what project management functionality and features your business needs most since most free plans won’t offer everything you could ever need for nothing. Here are a few things to ask yourself to help get you to that answer.

2. Test usability

A software’s usability can make or break its effectiveness. We recommend taking advantage of the free plan, or trials of paid tiers, to see how the software fits into your workflow. It could be useful to involve your team at this stage, to get feedback on the software they will be using regularly.

You’ll want to find that actioning things within it, such as updating the status of projects, doesn’t require unnecessary steps for you and your team. After all, a small irritation can grow into a big annoyance when software is used every day, and massively reduce happiness in your team. Ultimately, that will cost you time and money in the process.

Besides doing team usability testing, some things to look out for are:

• Speed of onboarding: The interface should be intuitive, with minimal learning curves for new users. This is more important for businesses with high turnover or large amounts of staff.
• Customization: The ability to customize workflows, templates, and dashboards to fit the unique needs of your team will be crucial to how well a chosen software functions.
• Mobile access: Availability on mobile devices ensures team members can access the tool anytime, anywhere no matter their preferred device or working location. This will be most important to business working hybrid or remote arrangements, where team members could be using a variety of different devices.

3. Consider scalability

Once your team settles into a rhythm of using a particular project management software, you won’t want to change that choice too regularly. Otherwise, your team will need to learn a new system with its own peculiarities every time you make the switch.

As a result, we recommend choosing a tool that can grow with your team and offers paid plans with additional features, user limits, and storage amounts that could be useful to your business in the future.

You’ll also want to consider the cost of those upgrades and whether it would fit your future budgetary expectations.

This all ensures continuity and avoids the need to switch platforms as your needs expand.

How Did We Choose the 7 Best Free Project Management Tools?

Our team of independent researchers scoured the industry, looking for every project management software platform that included a free plan (not just a free trial). After finding all of the platforms with free plans, as well as what those plans include, the researchers then compare each software against its competitors, allowing us to find the cream of the crop. The criteria we look at include.

Scoring criteria

• Feature functionality: Products are assessed on the number of features they provide and the functionality of certain key feature across 4 areas: Task Management, Project & Workflow Creation, Data Visualization, and Collaboration.
• Ease-of-use: Our researchers have a collection of tasks they need to accomplish. The ease and time through which they can accomplish these tasks is tallied up to see which platform is the most usable.
• Customer Support: Again, easy enough – look at the options available and see how each compares against its competitors when it comes to customer support options.
• Integrations: Products are assessed on their integration capabilities. This includes the variety of software types, the number of software, and whether they integrate with market leaders of a given category.
• Security: Products are also assessed on the security they offer to users. This includes specific features and accreditation the vendor has achieved.
• Pricing: Of course, we also look at how affordable each package is. In the case of the free software listed here, we’re looking at the extent of the other features available on each software’s free plan, though we do also consider the cost of paid tiers in our discussion.

After factoring in all of this information, alongside the scores they received, we calculate a final overall score for each project management platform’s free plan.