Top 15 Free Project Management Software

When it comes to managing projects, keeping everything organized and on track can be a daunting task. There are so many moving pieces to consider, from deadlines and budgets to team collaboration and task management that losing control can be inevitable. That’s where project management software comes in – they are tools that can help simplify the process and make your life much easier.  

At its core, project management software is designed to help you manage your projects more efficiently by providing a central platform to organize all your tasks, deadlines, and team collaboration. It’s a one-stop-shop that can help you stay on top of your projects and ensure that everything is running smoothly. 

The best part is that there are a variety of project management software options available to suit all needs and budgets. While there are many paid software options available, free project management software can be an excellent choice for small businesses or individuals with limited budgets. These options provide many of the same features and benefits as their paid counterparts, but without the financial burden. 

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the best free project management software options available to you. We’ll examine their key features, benefits, and which types of projects and team sizes they are best suited for so you’ll have a better understanding of which project management software might be the best fit for you and your team. 

So, let’s get started and explore the world of free project management software together! 

Criteria for selection

When selecting the top 10 project management software options, we considered a variety of factors to ensure that we were recommending the most effective tools for your needs. Our criteria were based on key features, functionality, and overall user experience. 

We also kept in mind that different projects and team sizes have different requirements, so we selected software options that can accommodate a range of project sizes and team configurations. Whether you’re a small team of just a few people, or a larger organization with more complex project management needs, we have options that can work for you. 

Now, let’s take a closer look at the criteria we used to select the top 10 free project management software options. 

Ease of use: We chose software options that are user-friendly and easy to navigate, even for those who may not be familiar with project management software. 

Customization: We looked for software options that can be customized to fit your unique project needs and team preferences. 

Integration: We looked for software options that can integrate with other tools and applications you may already be using, such as collaboration tool or document management systems. 

Tool Name	Best for	Pricing
Teamflect	Microsoft Teams integration	$4 per user/month
Asana	Tracking progress	$10.99 per user/month
Miro	Whiteboards and mind-mapping	$8 per user/month
Trello	Creating Kanban boards	$5 per user/month
Zoho Projects	Time tracking	$5 per user/month
Wrike	High level projects	$9.80 per user/month
TeamGantt	Creating Gantt charts	$19 per manager/month
ClickUp	Small businesses	$5 per user/month
GoodDay	Resource management	$4 per user/month
Microsoft Project	Collaboration	$10 per user/month
Smartsheet	Creating spreadsheets	$7 per user/month
Teamwork	Creating workflows	$5.99 per user/month
Jira	Cross-functional teams	$7.75 per user/month
monday.com	Performance management	$8 per user/month
Nifty	Budgeting and cost management	$39 per month

Best Free Project Management Software

1. Teamflect

If you’re looking for a free project management software that will integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, look no further than Teamflect! Teamflect is the best choice for organizations of all sizes with its diverse features and modules.

In more detail, Teamflect is an all-in-one performance management system that allows you to set and track tasks, exchange recognitions, provide 360-degree feedback—and so much more.

The aim of continuous feedback is to keep a consistent conversation between team members so that there are no misunderstandings. Teamflect makes this easy—you can share your thoughts and concerns with colleagues throughout the project, not just at the end! 

The best part is –Teamflect is free for organizations with up to 10 users! You can explore all the features mentioned above and more without paying a penny. Here are some other features of Teamflect: 

• User-friendly design 
• More efficient one-on-one meetings with note-taking tools 
• Set and track progress on team and individual goals easily 
• Customizable recognitions 
• Employee engagement surveys 

Teamflect Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

2. Asana

Your current to-do list is okay, but maybe it’s lacking some features that can help you manage your team projects more effectively. This is where Asana comes in –it’s a free project timeline software that lets you break down your projects into smaller sections and sub-lists. You can even use dashboards to see how much progress has been made so far. Asana allows you to add, rearrange, and mark tasks as complete, just like you would in any other to-do list app.

If you have personal tasks or work-related tasks that don’t fit into a specific project, you can create extra lists in Asana that are only visible to specific people. Additionally, your assigned tasks will show up in your “My Tasks” view, providing a quick and easy way to see what you need to take care of. 

Asana Microsoft Teams Integration: Available 

Key Features:

• Kanban boards for project management
• Subtasks
• Time tracking
• Milestones to guide and track progress

3. Miro

Miro is a versatile and innovative app that can help you with various tasks related to project management and teamwork. With Miro, you can create a list of ideas or topics to focus on for an important project, which can help you stay on track and ensure that you’re covering all the necessary aspects.

If you need to develop a user story or customer journey map, Miro’s intuitive interface can make the process easy and streamlined. Additionally, Miro is great for wireframing a new product concept or idea, as it allows you to visualize your ideas and collaborate with your team in real-time. 

Miro Microsoft Teams Integration: Available 

Key Features:

• Standardized communication and collaboration
• Optional anonymity
• Pre-made templates
• Spreadsheet imports

4. Trello

If you’re looking for a simple and user-friendly project management platform, you might want to check out Trello. It’s a popular tool that’s especially great for small teams who are new to project management and want an easy-to-use platform. With Trello’s Kanban-style layout, you can move projects around and keep track of tasks, all with movable cards that make the process super easy and fun. 

You can attach images or files to any card on any board in Trello, which makes it easy to keep all project-related information in one place and accessible to all team members. Trello also allows you to customize your workflow stages to reflect your actual process. This ensures that your project management workflow fits your team’s needs and helps you stay organized and on track. 

Trello Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• View and manage workflow
• Visual collaboration
• Cards with tasks, subtasks, deadlines etc.
• Kanban boards

5. Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects includes various strong functions for sales and marketing teams, including effective connections, safe cloud storage, and other features such as Gantt charts and time tracking. It is a part of a range of Zoho products, which includes virtual assistant software, meeting tools, and a CRM platform, among other things. This suite of software options can be conveniently combined to figure out the best fit and value for your team’s requirements. 

Zoho Projects also have features such as earned value management which you can track the budget of your project and flexible task hours which allow you to adjust the amount of work hours given to a task daily, rather than having a fixed number of hours assigned to each day of the week. 

Zoho Projects Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Issue management
• Gantt charts
• Project baseline
• Portfolio dashboard

6. Wrike

Wrike is a project management software that has been recognized for its excellence and can be used by teams ranging from five to an unlimited number of users. This versatile project planning software free of charge enables users to customize workflows, dashboards, reports, and request forms and gain advanced insights with reporting tools, resource management, and allocation. 

The user-friendly interface of Wrike allows you to switch between different views such as Kanban boards, drag-and-drop Gantt charts, and traditional workload views. It also features task lists, subtasks, schedules, shared workflows, file sharing, and real-time communication and collaboration, making your project management process a lot easier. 

Wrike Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Organized file management
• Real-time reporting
• Visualized timelines
• Resource management

7. TeamGantt

TeamGantt is a project management tool which offers a freemium version suitable for smaller groups and teams who do not require an upgrade to a paid plan. In addition to specializing in Gantt charts and other task planning capabilities, it tracks workloads and team availability, offers collaboration features like chat and tagging, and customizable alerts.

However, the free version of this tool has limits of 3 users and 1 project that users need to consider. While dependencies can be challenging to navigate when there are many, the tool is very flexible and can accommodate different project structures and constraints, which makes it easy to use. If you’re looking for a free project management software with gantt chart, TeamGantt is a great choice!

TeamGantt Microsoft Teams Integration: Not available

Key Features:

• Gantt-chart templates
• Task management
• Real-time progress tracking
• Workload & team availability tracking

8. ClickUp

ClickUp is another all-in-one project management software that comes with a lot of customization! It allows each user to choose from three different options to view their projects and tasks, making it a great choice for marketing teams that collaborate with sales, design, or development teams. 

It’s important to note that the free version of ClickUp has limited functionality when compared to the paid plans. Although many features are only available with paid plans, the free version still provides many benefits for small teams. While ClickUp may feel like a stripped-down version, it still offers perks like 100MB of storage, unlimited tasks and members, real-time chat, and collaborative documents. These features can be game-changing for small businesses looking to streamline their processes. 

ClickUp Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Time management
• Proprietary features
• Task management
• Team collaboration and reporting

9. GoodDay

GoodDay offers great flexibility to meet the project management requirements of a diverse team. The software holds several methodologies and views, such as Agile, Scrum, Kanban, waterfall, and Gantt. Also, you can find one-click start templates, resource management and milestone tracking features as a part of this free project management software.   

You can use various approaches to manage each project you create, and you can add more views of the project as needed. Each project also includes a Summary tab where you can see an overview of tasks, events, employees, and much more. 

GoodDay Microsoft Teams Integration: Not available

Key Features:

• Custom statuses and workflows
• Progress tracking
• Time reports and estimates
• Organization events

10. Microsoft Project

Next up, we have Microsoft Project! Although it might not be one of the easiest to learn and use, MS Project is a highly sophisticated project management software that employs advanced technologies to help you schedule projects and distribute workloads efficiently among your team. The tool offers multiple project views, including a grid view, a Kanban-style board view, and a Gantt chart view, and it also delivers customizable reports that are highly shareable. 

MS Project includes a time tracking feature that allows team members to track how they are spending time and categorize time by project or non-project-related tasks. It also has resource management capabilities, enabling users to manage human resources, materials, equipment, and other project-related costs.   

Although Microsoft Project is intended for small and large businesses alike, it isn’t the most user-friendly project management solution on the market. If ease of use is important to you, you may be better off with a different system. 

MS Project Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Project views
• High-quality task management system
• Project roadmap
• Co-authoring

11. Smartsheet 

Smartsheet is a project management tool that allows users to create and share spreadsheets. It’s well-suited for small teams or individual needs and has a clean, simple interface. 

Smartsheet uses the same familiar spreadsheet format we all know and love. You can store, manage and share project data in a cloud-based platform. Smartsheet’s activity log has filters that allow you to show actions based on values such as names of employees, deadlines, and more. Also, using Smartsheet is a breeze with its user-friendly interface and intuitive, step-by-step instructions. 

Once you’ve created your project, you can use its features to assign tasks based on priority level (A-priority sheets are at the top of the list), add notes to sheets as reminders about what needs doing next week/month/year, etc., set up dependencies between different tasks so that one thing won’t get done until another does first…the list goes on! 

Smartsheet Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Resource management
• Pre-made spreadsheets
• Spreadsheet imports
• Content collaboration

12. Teamwork 

Teamwork is an online project management application that allows users to stay organized and work more effectively with their teams. You can set up workflows and quickly train others to use them using Teamwork. 

Teamwork offers lots of features: you can create multiple projects, milestones, and tasks — and you can use it on any device. You can assign tasks to people, set deadlines for each task, prioritize your tasks, and see how everyone is doing. Also, with Gantt-style timelines in the app, you can keep track of all the different things going on. It also features one-click time tracking, making it easy for everyone on the team to keep track of how much time they spend working on different things. 

Teamwork Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Document Management
• Time Tracking
• Collect and visualize data 
• Project categorization

13. JIRA 

Jira is a tool that allows your business to work more efficiently by connecting all its teams. It’s used by organizations of all sizes, including small businesses through to enterprise-level companies. With features like task planning and tracking, this project management app gives users the ability to manage tasks across an organization as well as recurring ones. 

JIRA allows you to manage your projects in an organized fashion by creating issues and then checking their progress. It comes with built-in tools for reporting that help you track all aspects of your projects, from status updates to when work is completed on each task or issue. You can also easily collaborate with others on tasks across multiple departments within an organization so that everyone is working towards achieving the same goal at once. 

It also allows you to assign tasks as needed so that the right people have access when they need it most. You’ll also be able to see what other people are working on in real-time, so you know who else needs help or has questions about where they’re supposed to take their next step (and vice versa). 

JIRA Microsoft Teams Integration: Not available

Key Features:

• Agile Project Management
• Issue Tracking
• Roadmaps and Gantt Charts
• Customizable Workflows

14. Monday.com 

monday.com is an online project management software that enables teams of all sizes to collectively manage their projects, regardless of if they’re distributed or onsite. The tool helps users see the big picture by making it easy to change views and dashboards.  

What makes monday.com so appealing is that you can add or customize any features that aren’t already included. You can also get more detailed reports, and you can add any people whom you want to your list: they could be inside or outside the company. Also, widening the aperture of your project data through many different views is a piece of cake with this tool.  

It integrates with Slack, Google Calendar, and more, so you can work efficiently on projects from anywhere. The mobile app is available for use on iOS or Android devices. monday.com has a free trial available, so you can see if it’s right for your business before making a commitment. 

monday.com Microsoft Teams Integration: Available

Key Features:

• Colorful and easy-to-use interface
• Customizable, adaptive and flexible project management
• Assignment Management

15. Nifty 

Nifty is a project management software that allows teams to plan, track and manage projects across the entire lifecycle. It’s one of the easiest-to-use and customize online project management tools on this list with an intuitive interface, and it focuses strongly on collaboration. With Nifty, you can share relevant information with team members in real-time, as well as track progress towards key milestones. 

Nifty works especially well for teams who are working on projects with a complex lifecycle, including those with multiple phases or lengthy process cycles. It also has tools for budgeting and forecasting costs over time so you can predict how much your project will cost throughout its duration. 

Nifty’s cloud-based platform works from any device, so you can manage your projects while working offline or on the go. The company offers a 14-day trial period so that you can try out its features before committing to their plans (which range from free accounts with limited storage space up to enterprise pricing). 

Nifty Microsoft Teams Integration: Not available

Key Features:

• Discussion module where you can facilitate ideas
• Kanban-style task management
• Time tracking
• Project portfolios

Conclusion

So, that’s all we have to say about the top 10 free project management software! Project management can be hard to pursue without any help from technology, and choosing the best software for your organization is essential for your success. That’s why we first discussed the importance of project management software and how it can help you and your team stay organized, on track, and efficient. We also highlighted the benefits of choosing a free project management software option, particularly for small businesses and individuals with limited budgets. 

We have also discussed the criteria used to select the top 10 free project management software options, which include ease of use, customization, collaboration tools, accessibility, and integration. These factors ensure that the software options we recommend are user-friendly, customizable, and provide the necessary tools for efficient project management. 

Overall, project management software is a crucial tool for keeping projects organized, on track, and efficient. With the availability of free options, anyone can take advantage of this technology, regardless of their budget. We encourage you to consider the options we have highlighted in this article and choose the software that best fits your project and team needs. Schedule a demo with Teamflect if you think it’s also the best project management software out there!  

FAQ

What is project management software?

Project management software is a computer program or set of related programs that enables you to plan, organize, and control projects. It helps businesses and other organizations to accomplish their objectives by providing tools to manage resources, tasks, budgets, and schedules. Project management software can be used to manage a wide range of projects, from small, simple tasks to complex, multi-faceted efforts.

Project management software provides an organized and structured approach to managing projects by helping to define the scope of the project, breaking down complex tasks into smaller, manageable pieces, and tracking tasks, progress, and timelines. It also helps to identify resources needed to complete the project, set deadlines, track progress and budgets, create reports, and assign tasks to team members. By providing an intuitive, visual way to organize and manage projects, project management software helps project managers to easily communicate project objectives, timelines, and goals to team members.

What to look for in project management software:

The first thing to look for in project management software is integration. Having software that can integrate with other software programs is a key factor in making sure that everyone in your organization is on the same page. Integration with other programs can also help streamline processes and make sure that everyone is working from the same source of information. This can help to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of time required to complete tasks.

The second factor to consider is the user-friendly interface of the project management software. This is important because it will make it easier for users to learn how to use the software and quickly become proficient in using it. A user-friendly interface should be intuitive and easy to navigate, with clearly labeled buttons and menus. This will help ensure that users can quickly find the features that they need without having to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to use the software.

The third factor to consider when selecting a project management software is measuring performance. It is important to have the ability to track and measure the performance of your project in order to identify areas where improvements can be made. This will help you to identify areas where additional resources are needed or areas where processes can be improved. Having a system that can easily track performance metrics will help you to make data-driven decisions and to ensure that your project is running as efficiently as possible.