If you are like me and like to keep your life as simple as possible, then you don’t need a complicated project management tool. The best free project management software should be easy to use and reliable. That is why I don’t use the big and complex project management tools which cost thousands of dollars and dozens of hours to learn how to use them. I prefer to use free versions of the tools which provide the same functionality, but without unnecessary bells and whistles.
Creating an ideal project is not smooth sailing. It often starts with the desire to be on time, on budget, and delivering quality results. A project manager who has not acclimated himself/ herself with the right project management tools adds up to the overall stress of the project. Every construction project carries own set of solutions. It is up to the savvy project manager to navigate between these varied solutions using practical application of free project management tools.
Trello
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.
Trello Price: The free plan includes unlimited cards and members, 10 team boards, unlimited Power-Ups, and 250 automated commands each month; upgrade for $5/user/month (billed annually) to the Standard plan that includes unlimited team boards and Power-Ups, custom fields, up to 1,000 automated commands per month, and more.
HubSpot Project Management Software
HubSpot’s project management tool includes task creation, task automation, and pre-made to-do lists. It’s specifically designed for marketing teams and integrates seamlessly with Marketing Hub. With this tool, you can keep track of tasks alongside your marketing projects — so that both are integrated and not managed on different tools.
Features include:
- Task management right alongside your marketing workflows
- File attachment capabilities to keep track of important assets
- Pre-made to-do lists to immediately launch projects
- Custom templates for recurring projects
- Landing pages, emails, and workflows available in the same tool
Pricing: Free with HubSpot Marketing Hub
ClickUp
Most companies demand premium prices for what ClickUp delivers for free.
You enjoy access to unlimited users, tasks, and multiple product features in the Free Forever plan. There are no limits to which task management options or which project management features you can use!
The result? An effective project plan, every time
- Customized views: Do you prefer to see your tasks on a Scrum board or a list? Organize and view your tasks in a List, Box, Gantt chart, Board, Table, or Calendar view. Additionally, you and your team can switch between different views with just a click. Select a view that works best for you, and quickly find the task you’re working on
- Workload Management: Easily allocate resources using Workload view and Pulse to gauge your team’s current workload. Recent studies show that nearly half of American employees feel burnt out. If you’re running a remote team, this can instantly boost your team productivity!
- Dashboards: Access high-level views of everything in your Workspace. With Dashboards, you can use Customizable Widgets to gain important insights on people, Sprints, projects, tasks, and more. Dashboards are also great for Agile project management and Agile product development
- Assign Comments: Do comments slip through the cracks? Assign Comments as a task, and set up specific dates and times to follow up. This feature makes remote project management super easy
- Priorities: Is your team unsure of which tasks are most important? Set up custom priority levels and collaborate on various tasks based on their urgencies and importance
- Reminders: Don’t let important tasks, start dates, and due dates slip from your memory with ClickUp’s Reminders. Need to save time? Create Recurring Reminders instead
- Goals: Set Goals for your whole team. Track Targets like numbers or a simple yes/no. You can also use this to set weekly sprint goals for your Agile and Scrum software projects.
- Mind Maps: Visualize your thoughts and ideas with Mind Maps
- Custom Fields: Set up project management the way you want it. Add columns for contact info, notes, budgets, etc.
- Custom Task Statuses: Create Custom Task Statuses to track project progress
- Gantt Chart view: Create effective project plans and manage dependencies with ease. Using Gantt Charts, you can also quickly schedule multiple small and complex projects
- Drag and Drop: This is a key feature, especially if you have multiple teams in ClickUp. Drag, drop, move, and re-assign tasks to people, clients, or Teams in just a few steps, no annoying menus required.
ClickUp is conscious of how work actually gets done, which sparked our motivation to obsessively create features to enhance productivity.
And because ClickUp interacts with so many essential team collaboration tools, your team will hum along as it’s always done… just faster and more efficiently on multiple projects.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an individual user or project manager, ClickUp has you covered. 😊
There’s a free plan available to your team, along with an upgrade to unlimited storage for just a few dollars more a month. Feel free to try out the free version with all the features, and upgrade to unlimited storage at any time.
Airtable
Airtable is a cloud collaboration and project management tool that helps you plan and organize your projects as well as set a roadmap for you and your team.
The tool helps you distribute projects based on use cases and offers advanced filtering and sorting options to arrange unlimited tasks according to your preference. Airtable also contains built-in applications such as a scheduler, webpage designer, and an email marketing tool.
Additionally, you can also automate routine tasks such as sending and approving project requests, scheduling team meetings, and processing bills and invoices.
Airtable offers phone, email, and chat support. The tool has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.
Asana
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 with dashboards 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 from these automations from real users.
Asana Price: The free plan includes unlimited projects, tasks, and storage, up to 15 users, and basic search features; upgrade for $10.99/user/month (billed annually) to the Premium plan that includes project timelines, advanced search, and task dependencies.
Conclusion:
Finding the best free project tracking tool is tough, but luckily for you, I’m here to help. The top project management software programs available today are diverse and feature-packed. They vary in the smallest of ways that actually make a difference in your team’s work.