A free project management software (more often referred to as project management software or PMS) is a software application that enables its users to perform project management functions under their control. There’s no shortage of free project management software available on the web. Whether you need a catchy visual timeline or a simple tool to assign and delegate tasks, this roundup of favorites will help you manage and track your projects using the best project management software for business use.
Project management tools are the project manager’s answer to manage projects. Simple projects require nothing more than a checklist while other complex ones require proper planning, assigning tasks, setting deadlines, making sure that everyone sticks to them, and tracking the time spent.
The need to quantify, objectify, segregate and delegate tasks properly and proportionately is of high importance and that’s where the use of modern tools comes in. There’s a lot of project management software tools out there, and if you’re new to project management, it can be hard to identify what’s essential, what’s beneficial, and what’s not worth your time.
Functions of a Project Management Software
There’s a whole gamut of features and functions that free project management software offers. These include:
1. Collaboration
Project management software help teams to collaborate in real-time, without members having to spend tons of emails whenever they have a query or want their managers to review their tasks.
These software tools also provide quick access to all the documents and information team members might need. Some also enable you to add metrics and charts that showcase the work progress of teams and employees.
2. Schedule and Plan
With project management software, you can plan out the whole course of your project. You can allocate the number of resources you’ll need and the kind of people you need on your project.
You can also pin the high-priority tasks so that they can be accomplished first, and you don’t have to reschedule all other tasks around it. Also, project management software tools can be very helpful in setting goals and estimates as to the amount of time and money that will be needed to complete the project.
3. Monitoring
With project management software, every little process that a project comprises is like an open book. All the tasks, resources, and time is allocated and everyone can access that information.
This is why monitoring is a piece of cake if you’re operating on a PM software. Nothing can escape a manager’s eye and this will result in higher accountability on the employee’s end.
4. Resource Management
There are four broad categories of resources that projects usually require: equipment, money, digital assets, and materials.
Project management software provides you a clearer picture of where all your materials have been allocated. This way you can always see when you need to refill your stock, or if there’s more efficient management required.
5. Budget Management
Each project has a specific cost assigned to it, along with contingencies and profit. Managers need to accomplish projects such that the cost never exceeds the set limit.
Project management software helps you manage expenditures efficiently by providing weekly or monthly reports so that you’re always aware of whether or not you’re managing your budget properly.
Airtable
Airtable is a flexible platform that allows teams to create and customize business solutions for project management, work tracking, and collaboration. It offers ready-to-use project management templates, including project trackers, program management, and project planning with Gantt charts. Airtable has a free plan for individuals and teams that includes unlimited databases, a variety of work views, and a 2GB attachment limit per user. The free plan also comes with access to desktop and mobile apps, as well as real-time collaboration and commenting.
Trello is a simple way to organize your projects with Kanban boards. And with a free plan that allows for unlimited boards and users, it’s a tool that anyone can use. Freelancers can use Trello to plan their assignments on a personal board, and teams can use Trello to build a complete project workflow with visibility at every stage.
Start by creating a new board from scratch or choosing a template from dozens of options across marketing, sales, design, team management, and more. 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 (now 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 can make Trello boards for everything—personal and work tasks alike—to get your work done in a way that best fits your needs.
Asana
Asana is a flexible saas project management tool with a focus on collaboration. There are workflows that automate recurring tasks. It is intuitive with different task displays and supports custom fields and forms. You can even invite unlimited guest users. There are also options to build custom rules and approval workflows.
Asana offers a lot for productivity and collaboration while a lot of the core project management functionalities are handled through integrations which may not be ideal for all users. It’s good for all-size businesses but not ideal for freelancers. Some users feel Asana’s interface is overly simple and the system is too rigid, but it has strong task management and collaboration features. If your style of project organization software matches well with Asana, you’ll love it.
Wrike is another project management software that boasts of having top clients. Companies like Hootsuite, Google, L’Oreal use this tool. When it comes to setting up, Wrike has a pretty simple interface and is easy to start with. This tool is mainly suitable for companies with large teams, mainly medium to large businesses.
Some key features include:
- Interactive Gantt charts for a visual representation of the project schedule with easy drag and drops feature.
- Online work and project calendars to view the most up-to-date tasks and schedules.
- Drag and drop dashboards that you can customize in accordance with what you want to view.
- Has its own inbuilt document editor.
This free project management software is recommended for people who want a simple and easy to use surface. Wrike also offers many integrations and works seamlessly with OpenOffice, PDF, JPG, PNG, Adobe Creative Suite, and Microsoft Office file formats.
MeisterTask
MeisterTask is a task management software that provides teams an overview of work in progress and enables them to track tasks from idea conception to delivery. It has a simple but solid foundation of functionality that includes a dashboard, projects, and tasks. MeisterTask is intuitive and customizable for all types of teams. A free plan enables an unlimited number of users to manage up to 3 projects with customizable project boards and access to mobile apps. The plan also includes limited integration, file attachments with a 20MB limit per file, and email support.
Quire is a free project management software for teams with big ideas. It lets users break down projects into task lists, focus on work with a sublist view, and streamline workflow with a Kanban-style board. Quire provides tools that allow teams to arrange, prioritize, and visualize tasks and resources. It also has a versatile Gantt chart view, mobile apps, and a variety of report charts. The software is completely free to use for up to 35 teams, with 30 users per team, and up to 80 projects.
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is a popular offering from Zoho that helps businesses keep track of tasks, collaborate, bug tracking, and run intuitive reports. The tool offers features like Gantt charts and the ability to billable hours on multiple projects simultaneously. Zoho Projects also boasts a very impressive suite of communications tools, including real-time chat and forum pages
Many users say the Gantt charts are cumbersome to use and reporting breakdown may not be sufficient for large teams. You can share documents from within the tool.
Paymo is a project management app and time tracker with a free plan that makes it easy for freelancers to plan, prioritize, and keep track of their work for multiple clients and projects.
Work is bucketed into three categories: clients, projects, and tasks. For each task, you can assign due dates, set priorities, and add descriptions and attachments. You also have two options for how to view your tasks—as a list or in a Kanban board—or use Paymo’s filter to sort all of your tasks for every client and project by status, due dates, priorities, and more.
When you’re ready to start working on a specific task, just select that task in Paymo’s time tracker and click the play button to start tracking your time. When you stop the timer, it adds the time to your timesheet and attributes it to the right task, client, and project.
When it’s time to bill your clients, use Paymo’s time reports to pull the exact data you need. You can even set work hours and hourly rates for your team to make billing a breeze. Export, print, or share the report with your clients in a detailed list view or as a pie graph or bar chart, or take the data and use it to create a branded invoice directly in Paymo. You can even set up your invoices to allow for online payments through Stripe, PayPal, and more.
You can also use Paymo’s Zapier integration to connect your freelance projects with other workflows, connecting Paymo to other task management apps or your calendar.
Teamweek is an easy team planning software and is ideal for teams who want to focus on planning and collaboration workflows.
Some key features include:
- You can share your project timeline with clients to keep them informed.
- Gives a daily overview of each team member’s workload so that managers can stay up to date with regard to what they’re doing.
- Integrations with Slack, Github, Chrome, Mozilla, and many more so you can import your tasks.
Teamweek is very intuitive and simple to use and provides great workflow overviews with the help of color coding making it an awesome free project management software.
Conclusion: Free project management software is extremely versatile. It frees up your time in several ways. You don’t have to pay for expensive monthly subscriptions, so you can work with whatever service offers the best features for your needs. With several free project management tools to choose from, there are countless possible setups. For example, you could set up an in-house tool that only employees have access to, or use a cloud-based tool that lets multiple people work off of the one project. If you need help deciding on the best option for your needs, this ultimate guide will show you a variety of ways free project management