Open source project management software is similar to its paid counterpart in very many ways. It has the same purpose of tracking issues, tasks, discussions & more. There are no limitations or special pricing; it’s available to everyone for free.
Most of the open source project management software is developer friendly and provides user-friendly interface that allows you to create projects from scratch with ease.
OpenProject
OpenProject is a web-based open-source project management software ideal for agile project management. It offers both a Community edition and paid versions of the platform. The Community edition comes with a wide range of built-in project management features. For example, it comes with a dashboard displaying project status, Gantt charts, and customized workflows. For product management teams, it offers critical features like bug tracking and Scrum backlogs and task boards. It also provides users with helpful reporting and time management features like:
- time tracking
- cost reporting
- calendar view
- shared timelines
The company recommends installing the software in one of the following three ways:
- using DEB or RPM packages
- install a Docker image (provided by the company) on servers with a Docker Engine
- use the Univention Corporate Server (UCS) enterprise operating platform to download the OpenProject application via the Univention App center
Bottom Line:
The Community edition of OpenProject is great for agile project management teams. Especially for teams that plan on heavily customizing the application. Like all open-source software, make sure you have enough developer resources to install and manage the software.
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.
ZenTao
ZenTao is an open-source scrum and real-time collaboration tool. This makes it ideal for development and product teams. This software offers both a free open source version of the platform and paid plans as well.
Certain pre-built features are only available on the paid plans, not on the open-source version. These include Gantt charts, calendar, customized reporting, and customizable workflows.
But the open-source version still offers critical application lifecycle management (ALM) features:
- Story management
- Task management
- Case management
- Testing and release management
- Document management
- CI management
Bottom Line:
ZenTao open-source is well-suited for agile product and development teams. It will work well if you’re looking for a free AM tool. However, it won’t quite fit if you need specific features like Gantt charts, calendars, or customizable workflows. A paid ZenTao plan would better fit your needs in this case.
Asana
Asana is a task management and project management software solution that helps you manage your daily tasks and plan strategic initiatives. The tool helps bring your team together to collaborate on projects and track independent assignments on a single platform.
With Asana, you can track your progress with projects and assign tasks to individual members of your creative team. It helps to map out goals and set deadlines so you can stay on schedule.
You can also submit work requests and review their completion status. The tool offers integration with third-party communication, payment, and cloud storage tools, making it easy to access important files and client data in one place.
Asana offers email and chat support for customers, and it has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.
GitLab
Gitlab is a popular end-to-end DevOps application. It has a global community of developers that use the platform to create and store code. GitLab is also a Git repository for code. Thus, the software enables users to collaborate on projects with other developers.
But it’s also a great open-source platform for agile project planning. It’s especially well-suited for software and application development projects. Developers and product managers can take advantage of the following features:
- Agile planning
- Version control
- Code review
- Time tracking
- Wiki-based project documentation
- Multi-cloud CI/CD
- Security and monitoring
The platform uses an ‘open core’ business model. So along with the open-source version, the company also offers paid versions of the software. GitLab’s Open Source program is still free to use and contribute to by all.
You may not have access to all of GitLab’s pre-built features on the open-source version of the platform. Read more about GitLab’s business model and pricing for certain features here.
Bottom Line:
GitLab is a great free and open-source choice for product managers or developers leading a lean team. It’s designed to help manage the entire DevOps lifecycle. So it’s best-suited for software and application development projects.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management software tool designed for freelancers, creative teams, and small businesses. It helps you organize your projects in one place and split work between team members.
The tool offers a message board that you can use to pitch ideas, as well as send and receive progress updates and project feedback from your team. With Basecamp, you can create checklists and to-do lists to assign items to team members and set due dates for projects.
Another convenient feature is the schedule manager which integrates with your calendar to automate setting up meetings and subscribing to events.
Basecamp offers phone, email, and chat support and has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.
Taiga
Taiga is another open-source project management platform great for agile project management. Like the two products above, the vendor also offers paid versions of the software. The free and open-source version of the platform gives users access to key features like:
- Customizable Kanban boards
- Room for multiple swim lanes
- Scrum capabilities
- Backlogs
- Epic planning
- Burn-down charts
- Sprints and task boards
- Customizable bug and issue tracking
- Filter options for Kanban boards and issue tracking
- Team performance dashboard
- Real-time reporting
- User roles and permissions
Open-source users of Taiga get access to all of the platform’s great features. But the free version limits the number of users and private projects allowed on the platform. Up to three users can work on one private project together. They can work on an unlimited number of public projects and can use up to 300MB of private project storage.
Paid plans allow for unlimited users and an unlimited number of private projects. They also do not offer unlimited storage.
Bottom Line:
Not all open-source tools are necessarily easy to use or have a modern-looking UI. Taiga prides itself on having an intuitive user interface and clean design. This is partly what makes it a great fit for cross-functional teams.
The open-source version of the software is also quite customizable. Users can tailor it to meet their specific business needs. Taiga’s open-source version is a good fit for small cross-functional teams. This platform is ideal for teams that need a user-friendly and free project management tool.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management tool that brings all your projects into one single project management app. The tool helps you organize, view, and collaborate on projects with team members.
Tracking all your projects from start to finish and creating customized workflows becomes possible with ClickUp. You can also add and assign comments on any task or document and stay aligned with your team. The tool offers a global timer that automatically tracks how much time gets spent on each project.
With the ability to create mind maps, you can plan your project ideas and distribute tasks into different project phases. You can also create visual outlines of assignments for your team members.
ClickUp offers phone, email, and chat support. The tool has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.
Odoo
Unlike the other open-source tools in this list, project management is only one piece of the larger Odoo platform. It is primarily an open-source suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Users have access to a stunning array of free functionality on the Odoo platform:
- Finance (accounting, invoices, expenses)
- Human resources (employees, recruiting, time off)
- Marketing (social and email marketing, events, marketing automation)
- Sales (CRM, point of sale, invoicing)
- Websites (website builder, eCommerce, blogs, live chat, eLearning)
- Inventory and MRP (inventory, manufacturing, purchase,)
- Services (Project, timesheet, appointments, approvals)
Odoo Project also seamlessly integrates with the other pieces of the Odoo platform. This is one of the biggest benefits of using Odoo Project. It’s well-suited for activities like product roadmap planning, resource assignment, resource management.
Users can do revenue planning and forecasting using Odoo as well. Odoo Project gives users the ability to fully organize and plan out projects. It makes scheduling tasks and other deliverables easy. Reporting also allows users to analyze project progress. Key project management features include:
- Customizable Kanban view
- Gantt chart
- Pivot table analysis
- Time tracking
- Subtasks
- Document management
- Calendar with due dates
- Real-time team collaboration
- Customizable alerts
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for extra functionality and premium customer support, Odoo offers paid versions of many of their apps. See here for more pricing information.
The open-source version of Odoo Project is ideal for teams looking for not just open source PM tools but other open source tools as well. Its clean and modern user interface makes it a good choice for non-technical teams.
Conclusion
There’s often space for improvement in open source project management. If you want to help or you are already helping, come! Join our efforts and become part of OSSPM.