Agile encourages that a little of everything, including design, development, and testing. Portions of the project are done at the same time—as opposed to the traditional approach to projects, where one phase is closed and completed before the next begins. Agile encourages short, frequent feedback loops and embraces changes to requirements. In traditional project management (sometimes known as Waterfall), feedback is usually not collected until the very end of the project and changes are discouraged.
Agile Project Management has been around for decades, yet thousands of companies and managers have difficulties when transitioning from traditional to Agile when managing projects.
Here is a list of top 5 free Agile tools for project managers to help them improve decision making time:
- Icescrum
- Taiga
- Scrumpy
- Hansoft
- YouTrack
- TeamGanttBest for easy and flexible Gantt charts
- NutcacheBest for project budget management
- Process StreetBest for retail & consumer companies
- AsanaBest for small teams & freelancers
- Pivotal TrackerBest for project portfolio management (PPM)
Below you’ll find an overview of each of the 10 best agile project management software, with screenshots, feature overviews, and pricing.Jump to agile project management software overviews
Are you curious to know, what CSM Certification is all about? You can watch the CSM Certification Course Preview for free here
Icescrum
Created by a French company called Kagilum (KAnban-aGILe-scrUM) SAS in 2011, Icescrum is a free and open source solution for teams of any size. This tool is compatible with Linux, Windows, and Mac—and integrates with a variety of popular apps like Box, Excel, Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive, Slack, and more.
Cost: free download. The cloud version starts at $35 USD per month.
Got 6 minutes? Check out this video: it’s a sample of our course Introduction To PMI-ACP® (Agile Certified Practitioner) Training:
Taiga
Awarded Best Agile Tool 2015 by the Agile awards, and Top 11 PM Tools 2016 by Opensource.com, Taiga offers better functionality than many paid tools, including backlogs, sprints, Kanban boards, and QA, along with the ability to import from Trello, Jira, Asana, and Github.
Cost: Public projects are completely free; private projects start at $19 a month.
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Scrumpy
The unique selling point of Scrumpy software is that it allows long-term story views and is completely written in Java. It is specifically designed to help a product owner maintain a meaningful long-term backlog of user stories.
Cost: Completely free.
Explore our library of Agile and Scrum articles. Happy reading!
Hansoft
Hansoft’s fast and intuitive interface, powerful find/report tools, and a host of other features can run different project management methods depending on your project. Hansoft is scalable and configurable since it was inspired by the Project Management Institute (PMI), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and Large Scale SCRUM (LeSS). Its core feature critical for planning and tracking is the backlog, which can be refined by any custom attribute to your deliverables.
Cost: Completely free for up to 2 users. It allows unlimited projects and programs.
YouTrack
We found that YouTrack has the best reporting feature of any tools on this list. Whether you’re looking for burndown charts, timeline reports, and more—all available on a live dashboard. Newest features include improved, project-based swimlanes, advanced visibility options, and time report improvements.
Cost: Free for ten users and 5GB of storage. Paid options are based on the number of users and start at $20 per month.
Agile encourages that a little of everything, including design, development, and testing. Portions of the project are done at the same time—as opposed to the traditional approach to projects, where one phase is closed and completed before the next begins. Agile encourages short, frequent feedback loops and embraces changes to requirements. In traditional project management (sometimes known as Waterfall), feedback is usually not collected until the very end of the project and changes are discouraged.
Agile Project Management has been around for decades, yet thousands of companies and managers have difficulties when transitioning from traditional to Agile when managing projects.
Here is a list of top 5 free Agile tools for project managers to help them improve decision making time:
- Icescrum
- Taiga
- Scrumpy
- Hansoft
- YouTrack
Are you curious to know, what CSM Certification is all about? You can watch the CSM Certification Course Preview for free here
Icescrum
Created by a French company called Kagilum (KAnban-aGILe-scrUM) SAS in 2011, Icescrum is a free and open source solution for teams of any size. This tool is compatible with Linux, Windows, and Mac—and integrates with a variety of popular apps like Box, Excel, Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive, Slack, and more.
Cost: free download. The cloud version starts at $35 USD per month.
Got 6 minutes? Check out this video: it’s a sample of our course Introduction To PMI-ACP® (Agile Certified Practitioner) Training:
Taiga
Awarded Best Agile Tool 2015 by the Agile awards, and Top 11 PM Tools 2016 by Opensource.com, Taiga offers better functionality than many paid tools, including backlogs, sprints, Kanban boards, and QA, along with the ability to import from Trello, Jira, Asana, and Github.
Cost: Public projects are completely free; private projects start at $19 a month.
Free PMI-ACP Course
Learn the Basics of PMI-ACPStart Learning
Scrumpy
The unique selling point of Scrumpy software is that it allows long-term story views and is completely written in Java. It is specifically designed to help a product owner maintain a meaningful long-term backlog of user stories.
Cost: Completely free.
Explore our library of Agile and Scrum articles. Happy reading!
Hansoft
Hansoft’s fast and intuitive interface, powerful find/report tools, and a host of other features can run different project management methods depending on your project. Hansoft is scalable and configurable since it was inspired by the Project Management Institute (PMI), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and Large Scale SCRUM (LeSS). Its core feature critical for planning and tracking is the backlog, which can be refined by any custom attribute to your deliverables.
Cost: Completely free for up to 2 users. It allows unlimited projects and programs.
YouTrack
We found that YouTrack has the best reporting feature of any tools on this list. Whether you’re looking for burndown charts, timeline reports, and more—all available on a live dashboard. Newest features include improved, project-based swimlanes, advanced visibility options, and time report improvements.
Cost: Free for ten users and 5GB of storage. Paid options are based on the number of users and start at $20 per month.
As a project manager, you know that getting everything done on time is a top priority. These Agile tools can help you and your team become more productive and more nimble.
Project
- monday.comBest for UI & ease of use
- SmartsheetBest for customizability
- KintoneBest for custom project workflows
- WrikeBest for cross-departmental collaboration
- Forecast.appBest for workflow automations
- TeamGanttBest for easy and flexible Gantt charts
- NutcacheBest for project budget management
- Process StreetBest for retail & consumer companies
- AsanaBest for small teams & freelancers
- Pivotal TrackerBest for project portfolio management (PPM)
Below you’ll find an overview of each of the 10 best agile project management software, with screenshots, feature overviews, and pricing.Jump to agile project management software overviews
Agile PM Software FAQ
What Is Agile Methodology?
How Is Agile Useful For Software Development Teams?
Is There Free Agile Project Management Software?
Agile project management software has similar features to standard project management software (time tracking tools, task management, project reporting). However, agile PM software delivers them in feature sets for agile work: Kanban boards or swimlanes, burndown charts, real-time collaboration & messaging features, and story points management.
Agile project management tools are software designed to support and bolster agile ways of working. Agile tools support project planning through robust goal development and task prioritization that aligns with these overall project goals.
These features are meant to enable agile teams to have better sprint planning, real-time change management, and high-impact team collaboration.
Further reading: What Are Agile Project Management Tools?
To help you work to an agile approach, I’ve compiled a list of the best agile project management software for you to evaluate and compare.
Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best agile project management software? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Is the tool UI-optimized for Android and iPhone mobile devices?
- Usability: Agile project management software is usually for evolving, dynamic teams who work at a fast pace. To rank well in terms of usability, the software should be easy to learn, easy to integrate with other tools, and easy to use in real-time for quick collaboration. Does the tool have usability bonuses like a project wiki or drag-and-drop organization?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Any pre-built integrations? Does it integrate with agile-oriented integrations for collaboration (like Slack, Teamwork Chat, or Google Docs); continuous adaptation tools, like bug tracking (Zoho Bug Tracker, DebugMe); and customer satisfaction tools (Qualtrics Customer XM, Hively)?
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent, and flexible? Typical agile project management software ranges from $10 to $25 per month or per user; do these tools fall along that expected curve? How many users and projects are included in the price? Is scaling easy?
Key Features Of Agile Project Management Software
The best agile project management software will have all or most of these features:
- Roadmap Maintenance & Backlog Grooming: Agile PM is a constant flow of adaptation and evolution, which means constantly having to rethink important planning items like roadmaps and backlogs. Do the tools have anything in the way of product backlog management and roadmap revision and tracking?
- Use Case Document Template: Does the tool have built-in structures to help with Use Case summaries? Is there a place to store use case descriptions and information, like from interviews with SMEs and market research?
- Discovery Tracks & Delivery Tracks: Can the tool easily separate and prioritize fantabulous new ideas/planning vs critical delivery items?
- Team Velocity Gamification: Does the tool somehow encourage and reward speed? Agile means reacting fast to ongoing twists and turns, so the tool should have some way to ensure this is happening reliably—even if it’s just a really cool way of putting alerts in front of the right people quickly.
- Sprint Review Reports: After an agile sprint, does the tool have the capacity to provide critical feedback needed for any sprint review meetings?
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Overviews Of The 10 Best Agile Project Management Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the software for agile project management on my list showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.
- 14 days free trial
- From $17/month for 2 users
monday.com – Best for UI & ease of use
monday.com makes it easy to manage your agile projects in one place. Users can save time with workflow automations, visualize their information in views they prefer (Gantt, Kanban, timeline, calendar, tasklist), and make use of tons of templates and integrations.
Because monday.com so easy to navigate, most users can onboard quickly using the built-in tutorial wizard and training videos. Features like private messaging, uploading files, user tagging, drag-and-drop charts, and click-to-edit data fields are intuitive enough that even low tech individuals can learn fast.
monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier.
monday.com costs from $10/user/month and they offer a free forever plan for 2 seats and limited features. Enterprise pricing details are available upon request.Visit Website
- 30 days free trial
- From $14/user/month
Smartsheet – Best for customizability
Smartsheet is a no-code platform that’s flexible and dynamic enough to handle both single project and end-to-end work management. According to their website, Smartsheet is trusted by more than 90% of Fortune 100 Companies.
Smartsheet pioneered the work on no-code platforms and has worked on the technology for over 15 years. Their goal is to help your business grow by giving you the ability to conveniently automate workflows, successfully align your global teams, and most importantly to rapidly build a virtually limitless number of scalable solutions.
Smartsheet integrations include Microsoft and Google apps, as well as development essentials like Jira, and useful business apps like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Box, and Tableau. The platform is extensible through a REST API and webhooks.
Smartsheet costs from $14/month and offers a free trial. Enterprise pricing details are available upon request.Visit Website
- 30 days free trial (no credit card required)
- From $24/month/user with a minimum of 5 users
Kintone – Best for custom project workflows
Kintone is a cloud-based agile project management platform that allows project managers to track, prioritize, and review their team’s tasks on the platform’s mobile and desktop applications. They can also view, edit, and automate workflows.
Kintone was built with collaboration and ease of use in mind. Its built-in communication channels and chat tools allow users to discuss projects with teams directly in the database and in real-time. It also gives users the power to create tailored project management solutions (such as new steps in workflows or additional data fields) using its drag-and-drop interface even non-coders will find easy to use.
Kintone integrates with Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Tableau, Dropbox, Salesforce, HubSpot, and many more through Zapier.
Kintone starts at $24/user/month.Visit Website
- freemium version
- 14 days free trial
- From $9.80/user/month
Wrike – Best for cross-departmental collaboration
Wrike is a project management software with a collection of agile tools for managing projects, and the tool is suitable for teams of five or more. This highly configurable agile project management software allows users to customize workflows, dashboards, and reports.
Wrike’s simple interface enables users to switch between Kanban boards, interactive drag-and-drop Gantt charts, and workload views to visualize priorities. Wrike features a number of easy-to-use agile templates, backlog management functionalities, spaces for collaboration and feedback, and agile reporting and analytics. Other features include agile folder organization and automated task management.
Wrike’s features can be configured for each individual team’s needs, and the tool also offers a variety of specific solutions depending on the type of team or organization, including solutions for marketing teams and professional service teams.
The software offers more than 400 pre-built native integrations, including popular file management software from Microsoft, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software from Salesforce and Marketo.
Pricing for Wrike starts at $9.80/user/month. There are four different price points, including a free version and plans which offer the ability to invite free external collaborators to a paid account.Visit Website
- 14 days free trial
- From $29/user/month
Forecast.app – Best for workflow automations
Forecast is an agile project management software for agile teams. The tool offers adaptive work processes and workflow automation to save project managers time and track projects, tasks, and milestones.
The platform uses AI to help make estimates, so users can get a more accurate view of sprint capacity and monitor velocity. Also included are AI-powered auto-scheduling and time entry suggestions. Forecast offers a centralized location for the team to groom the backlog, plan sprints, track progress and velocity, and discern where processes can be improved.
Forecast also integrates with the tools for developers, such as Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitLab, and Jira.
Forecast paid plans start at $29/user/month, and a 14-day free trial is available.Visit Website
- freemium version
- 30 days free trial
- From $24.95/user/month
TeamGantt – Best for easy and flexible Gantt charts
TeamGantt is an online project planning software that lets users create visual charts and timelines where you can easily plan, schedule, and manage your projects with flexible deadlines, milestones, and dependancies. TeamGantt is trusted by largely successful companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Nike.
TeamGantt gives you the ability to create and customize project charts by dragging and dropping items, switching between different project views with a click, and filtering tasks according to signee, priority, or other tags.
TeamGantt integrates with quite a number of productivity apps like Slack, Trello, Dropbox, Zapier, and RESTful API just to name a few.
TeamGantt is free for personal use for up to 3 people and costs from $24.95/month. TeamGantt offers a 30-day free trial. Visit Website
- 14 days free trial
- From $7.95/user/month
Nutcache – Best for project budget management
Nutcache is an all-in-one agile solution for managing your entire project lifecycle with an emphasis on team collaboration. Within Nutcache, users can customize tasks within a workplace, track project budgets, and manage time and expenses.
Nutcache offers a variety of easy-to-use project budgeting tools that agile teamswill love, including budget analytics with motion graphics and notification flags for overruns. Agile teams struggling with cost and scope maintenance will also appreciate their easy estimates vs actuals reports.
Nutcache integrates with PayPal, Stripe, QuickBooks, Dynacom Accounting, 2Checkout, Authorized.Net, Gmail, Google Drive, Github, Slack, and hundreds more using a paid plan through Zapier.
Nutcache is free for a maximum of 20 users. For paid plans, Nutcache costs from $7.95/user/month. Customized pricing for more than 150 users is available upon request.Visit Website
- freemium version
- 14 days free trial
- From $25/user/month (min. 5 users)
Process Street – Best for retail & consumer companies
Process Street is an agile project management software used by popular retail and consumer brands like Anytime Fitness, H&M, Hitachi, and The Economist. They also service companies across industries such as technology, services, non-profit, real estate, financial & insurance, and healthcare & pharma.
Process Street has everything you would expect from an agile PM solution: project planning, resource tracking, process management, workflow automations, proofing & approvals, and templates & checklists to keep things running smoothly. Retail and consumer companies will appreciate the ability to add rich media to your documents including images, videos, and text files for a more comprehensive product database.
Process Street integrates natively with Close.io, Google Workspace, Gmail, Yammer, Salesforce, Zendesk, Typeform, Slack, Pipedrive, Asana, Wufoo, Trello, ITGlue, Zoho CRM, HelloSign, GitHub, Evernote, Watershed, Airtable, and other popular apps. You can also access 2000+ integrations using a Zapier account, which comes at an additional cost.
Process Street is free to use for up to 5 team members. Paid plans cost from $25/user/month (min. 5 users) and come with a14-day free trial. Visit Website
- freemium version
- 30 days free trial
- From $10.99/user/month
Asana – Best for small teams & freelancers
Asana helps teams succeed at every project by staying in sync, hitting their deadlines, and reaching their goals with Asana’s Work Graph data model. All over the world, teams of all sizes trust Asana with their projects, programs, and processes.
Asana lets you view your data in the following views: board, list, timeline, and calendar where you can store and visualise information on your projects including tasks, subtasks, milestones, task assignees, sections, custom fields, and so much more. Users can make Asana as simple or as comprehensive as they see fit.
Asana integrates with Microsoft Teams, Adobe Creative Cloud, JIRA Cloud, Salesforce, Tableau, Slack, Clockwise, MS Office 365, Google Calendar, Gmail, Power BI, Outlook, ServiceNow, JotForm, Google Drive, Looker, Vimeo, DropBox, Trello, GitLab, and a growing list of other apps. Plus, a plan with Zapier or Tray.io can let you access other apps to connect with Asana.
Asana is free for users just starting out. Paid plans with Asana costs from $10.99/user/month and they offer customized enterprise pricing details upon request.Visit Website
- freemium version
- 30 days free trial for paid plans
- From $10/month for upto 10 users
Pivotal Tracker – Best for project portfolio management (PPM)
Pivotal Tracker is a project management tool that features shared backlog and priority views and iteration guides to give your teams a real-time source of truth and the ability to produce results quickly and consistently no matter how many projects you’re working on.
With Pivotal Tracker, users can automate planning to get rid of time spent on managing timelines and missing deadlines. Emergent integrations are addressed from the get-go thanks to Pivotal Tracker’s team velocity calculations that also help teams sustain a healthy rhythm and steady progress.
Pivotal Tracker integrates with many popular productivity tools like Slack, GitHub, Jira, Zendesk to name a few.
Pivotal Tracker costs from $10/month for upto 10 users. Pivotal Tracker offers a free trial along with customized pricing upon request.Visit Website
The Best Agile Project Management Software Comparison Chart
Other Software for Agile Project Management Options
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Microsoft Projects – Microsoft’s answer to project management software; great for those already working within the MS system with Office or Microsoft 365.
- Trello – A simple Kanban board tool for agile projects with a generous freemium plan for up to 10 boards/workspace & 250 automation.
- Atlassian JIRA – Project management software that’s great for software developers with issue and bug tracking built in. Free to use for up to 10 users.
- GitHub – Where you can code, collaborate, develop, automate, and secure software in one place plus learn from an active community of millions of developers. Free with limited features, paid plans start at $4/user/month.
- Perforce – Project management software for developers in just about every industry including gaming, automotive, healthcare, government, finance, and even film and animation. Perforce’s Hansoft is free.
- Workfront – By Adobe, this enterprise project management software prioritizes producing reports within minutes, making risk mitigation and waste reduction the standard. Pricing details are available upon request.
- ActiveCollab – Simple and easy-to-use all-in-one project management tool for those who need to stick to a budget, maximize Budget vs Cost reports within the platform. Free for 14 days, and costs from $7/user/month.
- SprintGround – Built for software and web developers for task management, bug tracking, collaboration, and supports various methodologies. Free forever for 3 users and 2 projects.
- TargetProcess – Highly visual and modern platform to manage portfolio, products, and teams for a truly agile organization. Pricing details are available upon request.
Conclusion
As a project manager, you know that getting everything done on time is a top priority. These Agile tools can help you and your team become more productive and more nimble.
Project managers are always in high demand, and an Agile certification validates your knowledge in Agile and Scrum practices. If you’re ready to take your career to the next level, take Simplilearn’s online Agile and Scrum certification training.