The 9 Best Free Project Management Software for Businesses in 2024

3 boards — monday’s free plan allows for three separate boards so that you can run three concurrent projects. Across all three boards, you can add and track 200 items (tasks, projects, or customers). You can also filter by team members, @ team members, upload files, and switch between various views including Kanban, calendar, and dashboard.

File upload — monday offers free users 500MB to upload and store relevant files within the work management system so that you can host all the necessary project info in one single place for your team to access.

Templates — monday offers four specific project management templates so that you can set up your project in a matter of minutes. Choices include project requests and approval forms, single projects, project portfolio management, and customer project management. You can also import data directly from Excel to ensure nothing is lost in the switchover.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into monday’s paid plans, how much they cost, and what is included in each.

Free — Up to 3 boards, unlimited documents, 200+ templates, 8 column types, iOS and Android apps.

Basic — Everything in Free, plus unlimited free viewers, unlimited items, 5GB storage, prioritized customer support, and dashboards based on 1 board.

Standard — Everything in Basic, plus Timeline and Gantt chart views, calendar view, guest access, 250 automations and integrations per month, and dashboards based on 5 boards.

Pro — Everything in Standard, plus private boards, chart view, time tracking, formula column, 25,000 automations and integrations per month, and dashboards based on 10 boards.

Enterprise — Everything in Pro, plus enterprise-scale automations and integrations, security and analytics, multi-level permissions, advanced reporting and analytics, tailored onboarding, and dashboards based on 50 boards.

monday.com’s free plan is an ideal starting point for solopreneurs or freelancers. It’s free forever for less than two users, and thanks to its quick set-up templates and user-friendly design, it’s very easy to use.

Due to the user limit, the free plan is not suitable for larger teams, who may want to check out ClickUp or Wrike, which have unlimited free users.

Subtask management — Dealing with overwhelmingly complex tasks? Break them into more manageable subtasks to provide your team with clear, actionable steps.

2GB — With 2GB storage across your account, this is plenty of room to store your project’s necessary files. For comparison, monday offers 500MB, so this is a significant advantage of Wrike.

Client collaboration — Some free project management tools limit guest access, but not Wrike. You can invite clients, contractors, and other stakeholders to your project for free, but they won’t be able to perform approvals until the Business plan.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into Wrike’s paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Free — Unlimited users, project and task management, 2GB storage per account, board and table view, and web, desktop, and mobile app compatibility.

Team — 2-25 users, unlimited projects, tasks, custom fields, and request forms, 20 free collaborators, interactive Gantt charts, 50 automations per month, custom workflows, chart, calendar, and dashboard view, 2GB storage per user, and integrations and open API.

Business — Everything in Team, plus 5-200 users, folder structure, project blueprints, custom items, 200 automations per month, AI risk prediction, 30+ file formats, resource management, time tracking, unlimited dashboards and reports, and 5GB storage per user.

Enterprise — Everything in Business, plus 5 unlimited users, SAML-based SSO, 2FA, custom access and users, admin permissions, 1,000 automations per month, and 10GB storage per user.

Pinnacle — Everything in Enterprise, plus locked spaces, advanced reporting, team performance dashboard, budgeting and billable hours, 1,500 automations per month, and 15GB storage per user.

Wrike’s unlimited user limit and guest access permissions make it an excellent free project management option for projects with numerous stakeholders and team members.

Its 2GB data capacity and enterprise-level security ensure that all parties can access required project documentation without compromising on data security.

Task and activity tracking — Track team tasks and activities from within your CRM without having to switch platforms.

Contact management — Automatically import your contacts to HubSpot’s free contact management system and see all of your customers in one place, complete with their contact details and your past communications with them.

Invoicing and accounting integration — HubSpot is recognized for its high compatibility with other apps, including Quickbooks and Xero. As a project manager, managing budgets and paying contractors is key, so it’s ideal to have a central database like HubSpot that works alongside specialized accounting tools.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free tools, here’s an insight into HubSpot’s paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Free Tools — Up to 5 users, basic features for task and activity tracking, integrations with HubSpot CRM, marketing, sales, and customer support hubs, email campaigns and tracking, meeting scheduling,

Starter Customer Platform — Everything in Free tools, plus 1:1 technical support, 1,000 contacts, and more generous limits on features like segmentation and reporting.

Professional Customer Platform — Everything in Starter plan, plus 2,000 contacts, custom reporting, more advanced CRM features like contact scoring, workflow triggers, bulk AI duplicate management, and the possibility to split your team into 10 sub-teams.

HubSpot is a vast ecosystem of connected apps that can be adapted to fit your own workflows. If you are already using tools from HubSpot, I recommend using this platform over other free project management platforms to create a seamless experience.

It’s also a great option for managing marketing or CRM-related projects; you can handle everything under one roof since HubSpot offers its own marketing and CRM software.

2 sheets — You can manage two concurrent projects completely free of charge for 30 days.

Multiple views — Although it’s spreadsheet-based, Smartsheet gives you flexibility regarding how you view your outstanding tasks. You can choose between Gantt charts, grids, cards, and calendar views.

Dependencies — Take the guesswork out of your planning by establishing dependencies on your Gantt charts that will automatically adjust according to your schedule. For example, when building a house, you can’t start the electrical wiring until the roof is watertight. If there’s a delay in roofing, this will be accounted for in your planning by rescheduling the installation of electrics.

In case you decide to continue with Smartsheet beyond the free trial, here's an insight into the paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Free — Up to 2 users, 2 sheets, Gantt, grid, card, and calendar views.

Pro — Everything in Free, plus 10 paid users, unlimited free viewers, sheets, forms, and reports, and 20GB storage.

Business — Everything in Pro, plus unlimited users and automations, timeline view, workload tracking, and 1TB storage.

Enterprise — Everything in Business, plus SAML-based SSO, AI features, Enterprise plan manager, and additional integrations and insights.

Smartsheet is marketed as an enterprise-level solution and is trusted by many larger companies, including Uber, LEGO, and P&G to support the successful delivery of complicated projects. Thanks to its attention to granular planning, it’s certainly suitable for more complex projects, such as construction, global marketing efforts, and corporate mergers and acquisitions.

It does not offer a free forever plan; instead, it offers a full-access 30-day trial to its Business plan, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re looking at adopting one of the paid plans in the long term (which I would recommend anyway if you are an enterprise-sized business).

Unlimited tasks — As well as unlimited users, ClickUp’s free plan offers unlimited tasks, while monday only offers 200 tasks per account by comparison. This means you won’t have to slam the brakes on in the middle of the project due to hitting task capacity.

Sprint management — Plan your agile sprints to a T by setting dates, assigning tasks, and priorities to ensure that your team knows what they must complete and when. Any unfinished work can be automated to roll on to the next sprint, ensuring everything gets completed.

Kanban boards — ClickUp’s free plan also works with Kanban boards, another agile technique that emphasizes a continuous workflow and offers project managers complete visibility over outstanding tasks.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into ClickUp’s paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Free — 100MB storage, unlimited tasks and members, 2FA, Kanban boards, sprint management, calendar view, and 24/7 support.

Unlimited — Unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards, Gantt charts, and custom fields, guest access, built-in email, native time tracking, goal-setting, teams, AI features, and Agile reporting.

Business — Everything in Unlimited, plus unlimited teams, advanced automations and time tracking, SSO, Google SSO, timesheets, workload management, timelines, and mind maps.

Enterprise — Everything in Business, plus white labeling, unlimited custom roles, advanced permissions, MSA and HIPAA available, US, EU, and APAC data residence, live onboarding training, and a dedicated customer success manager.

Since the Agile methodology was initially designed for software development, I immediately thought that software development startups would be the perfect match for ClickUp’s free version. Broadly, agile methodology supports flexibility, continuous improvement, collaboration, and feedback, making ClickUp an equally good fit for marketing campaigns, research and development, product design, and event planning.

However, ClickUp and agile techniques are less suitable for industries that require rigid planning and fixed deadlines, such as construction, defense, public sector, or manufacturing.

Timesheets — Ideal for freelancers who need to keep a personal record of time spent on client projects, personal timesheets are included on Teamwork’s free plan. If you’re interested in broader company timesheets, this is included on the Grow plan, at $19.99 per month.

Invoicing — Another key component of a freelancer’s workflow is invoicing, so it makes sense that Teamwork combines this with time tracking. Once you’ve defined how many hours you’ve spent on a certain project, you can assemble your invoice and export it to your client.

Automations — Even on the free version, Teamwork is compatible with a number of popularly used apps, such as Slack, MS Teams, and Xero.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into Teamwork’s paid plans, how much they cost, and what is included in each.

Free — Time tracking, billable hours, client view, project budgeting, invoicing, list, table, board and Gantt views, 2 project templates and custom fields, 100 automations per month, dashboards, and Zapier, Slack, and MS Teams integrations.

Deliver — Everything in Free, plus unlimited client viewers, 20 project templates, 3 custom fields, 5,000 automations per month, team management, project status reports, shared dashboards, burndown reports, and additional integrations.

Grow — Everything in Deliver, plus company timesheets, unlimited project budgets, retainer management, resource scheduling, 50 project templates, unlimited custom fields, 20,000 automations per month, advanced reporting, custom domain and even more integrations.

Scale — Full access to features, 50,000 automations per month, unlimited project templates, more advanced and unlimited reporting.

Since Teamwork is my number one recommendation for a free time tracking tool, it’s an ideal solution for anyone who needs to track their billable hours to invoice clients. For example, freelancers, creative agencies, consultants, or lawyers. Another ideal use case for a free time tracking tool is for nonprofit organizations or creatives to complete grant reports.

Time tracking may be less relevant to fixed scope or fixed budget projects, or those that are measured on the success of outcomes rather than hours spent.

Feeds — Similar to an Instagram or Facebook feed, Zoho’s feeds offer a constant flow of updates regarding your project. You’ll be alerted whenever another user completes a task that is relevant to you, so you’ve always got the latest on your project status without having to check in on your team.

Integrations — Zoho offers integration with some of the most popular third-party collaboration apps, including Slack, MS Teams, and Dropbox.

Document sharing — Instead of attempting to explain that super complex report to your coworker, you can simply share the original document while keeping a central record of it within Zoho Projects. This can help reduce miscommunication and keep the whole team on the same page.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into Zoho Project’s paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Free — Two projects, 5GB data, basic reports, feeds, task management, document sharing, subtasks, dependencies, native and third-party integrations.

Premium — Everything in Free, plus unlimited projects, 100GB data, 20 project templates, Gantt charts, workload management, advanced reports, time tracking, custom views, AI chatbot, budgeting.

Enterprise — Everything in Premium, plus 120GB data, 30 project templates, 10 read-only users, custom fields, profiles, and roles.

With its top-performing collaboration features, I’d say Zoho Projects is better for teams working simultaneously as opposed to freelancers who works independently and is looking for a personal time tracking tool, like Teamwork.

Unlimited tasks and projects — Even on the free Personal plan, Asana allows for unlimited tasks, projects, comments, activity logs, storage, and due dates.

Project views — The free plan gives you access List, Board, and Calendar view, but you’ll have to subscribe to access Gantt charts and timelines.

100+ integrations — Asana’s free plan supports integration with over a hundred popularly used apps including Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and MailChimp.

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into Asana’s paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Personal — 10 teammates, unlimited tasks, projects, messages, activity log, file storage, assignees, and due dates, list, board, and calendar view, mobile app, time tracking, and 100+ integrations.

Starter — Everything in Personal, plus 500 teammates, timeline and Gantt view, AI features, workflow builder, 250 automations/month, project dashboard, custom fields, forms, private teams and projects, and unlimited free guest access.

Advanced — Everything in Starter, plus goals, 100 portfolios, workload management, 25,000 automations/month, approvals, proofing, advanced reporting, native time-tracking, and additional security.

With Asana’s Personal plan, the sky’s the limit with regard to how many tasks, projects, assignees and due dates you want to log. You won’t be able to access the Gantt or timeline view, build workflows, or use automations until the paid plan. For this reason, Asana is great for keeping track of personal tasks in a to-do list style checklist and I can see freelancers or busy students getting a lot of use out of it.

Due to the free plan’s limitations, the paid plans are more suitable for teams with more complex project management and scheduling needs.

Construct-your-own interface — Notion supports a customizable approach, where you’re able to construct your own project management interface with ‘pages’ and ‘blocks’. Blocks can be text, images, or tables, and good news, you can add as many as you wish, completely free of charge. This customizable approach is particularly good for creative projects where a flexible organisational style is necessary.

Permission groups — Maintain a level of control over who sees which projects with permission groups. Available even on the free plan, this allows you to assign only the relevant projects to certain groups.

Custom properties and filtering — With unlimited pages and blocks, your projects have the potential to get quite complicated. Luckily, Notion has implemented custom properties and filtering on its free plan so that you can sift through bulk data and find what you’re looking for. 

In case you decide to upgrade from the free forever plan, here’s an insight into Notion’s paid plans, their cost, and what is included in each.

Free — Unlimited pages and blocks, 5MB file storage, 7-day page history, 10 guests, basic analytics, 10 guest viewers, shared calendar, timeline, board, and calendar view, subtasks, dependencies, basic automations, basic SEO, and integration with Slack and Zapier.

Plus — Everything in Free, plus unlimited users, file uploads, 30-day page history, 100 guests, custom automations, advanced SEO, Google Analytics integration, and priority customer support.

Business — Everything in Plus, as well as 90-day page history, advanced analytics, 250 guests, private workspaces, and SSO.

Enterprise — Everything in Business, plus unlimited page history, advanced workspace permissions, dedicated customer success manager, and additional enterprise-grade security features, including HIPAA compliance.

Notion follows a blank slate approach, which is great for building company databases, like company policies, hiring guidelines, and employee code of conduct.

You can add as many “Blocks” as you want to a blank page, meaning customization is endless. You can build anything—project trackers, attendance sheets, and issue trackers, among others. Notion even lets you publish your pages as websites for free, and the 10,000+ templates are a huge bonus, too.

Notion’s free plan is intended for personal use, with ten additional guests able to view projects. That said, if you’d like to subscribe to the paid plan, it offers a solid large business solution and is even trusted by by large software companies such as Figma, Headspace, and even Pixar.