I first started to learn the basics of project management software free download when I was in college. The professor in my project management class had us compile a list of project management software free download that he would review and approve. This was a fun task and I found great success in it. However, there were some pitfalls along the way as well.
So, your company has decided to use software for project management (on one platform), so you can keep track of all your projects. That’s great! The key question is: what type of software should you choose and which free project management software or free project management app can help you deliver high-quality results?
Trello (Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android)
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.
For even more flexibility, use Trello’s Zapier integrations to connect Trello with your favorite apps, like Gmail and Slack
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.
Asana (Web, iOS, Android)
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.
ClickUp (Web, iOS, Android)
Most project management apps let you choose from only a handful of task views, like a list, calendar, or Kanban view. Additional views, especially Gantt charts, are usually a premium feature. ClickUp is different.
It’s a simple and free project management app that lets you choose from 11 different task views, including Gantt charts and mind maps. There are also four different page views: Chat (which displays conversations alongside your tasks), Doc (which lets you create docs, wikis, and knowledge bases), Embed (to add apps and websites next to your tasks), and Form (to add a form next to your tasks to gather, organize, and collect data).
ClickUp’s dashboards are just as customizable, letting you choose from more than 20 different widgets so you can only highlight the most important project information.
There’s a lot to parse when you’re first getting started with ClickUp. The onboarding process won’t be as simple as Trello, for example, but the extra customization is worth it—especially when it’s completely free. Plus, the company has done a great job with guided in-app onboarding to get you started.
With ClickUp’s Zapier integrations, you can connect ClickUp with your favorite apps. Try one of the automations below, or read about why ClickUp users love Zapier.
ClickUp Price: The free plan includes unlimited tasks and users, up to 100MB of storage, and up to 100 uses of Gantt charts, mind maps, dashboards, and timeline views. Upgrade to the Unlimited plan for $5/user/month for unlimited list, board, and calendar views, unlimited dashboards, and guests and permissions.
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
Project.co
Project.co is a client-facing project management system that connects your team with your clients’ teams in one place. Each piece of work you do can be set up as its own project, with its own discussion feed, notes, tasks, team, and payments. You can also record time spent on each project.
A variety of different task and project views are available, including calendar, scheduler, and Kanban view — to give you an overview of the work that’s happening within your team.
Features include:
- Ability to quickly add/invite both internal and external users
- Discussion feed for each project — with email alerts (and the ability to reply by email without logging in)
- Variety of task views — which can be filtered — giving your whole team, each department, and even individual users their daily/weekly task lists
- Reporting tools that measure your most and least profitable or efficient projects
- Ability to integrate payment solutions and quickly, securely take card payments through the system
Pricing: Free for 14 days; $10/user/month
Wrike
Best free project management software for customizable views
View and adjust team member workload with drag-and-drop capability.
Wrike is an award-winning project management software for teams of five up to an unlimited number of users. The tool allows users to customize workflows, dashboards, reports, and request forms and get advanced insights with reporting tools, resource management, and allocation.
Wrike’s simple interface enables users to switch between Kanban boards, drag-and-drop Gantt charts, and traditional workload views. Wrike also features task lists, subtasks, schedules, shared workflows, file sharing, and real-time communication and collaboration.
Wrike is easy to navigate with an interface that has distinct spaces for folders and tasks. You can switch between the home screen and timesheets, dashboards, calendars, reports, and stream (for notifications and messages). Wrike also has a dedicated help center with interactive training, videos, a ‘Getting Started’ guide, and a community.
Wrike also offers a variety of specific solutions depending on the type of team or organization — including marketing teams and professional service teams, and the tool offers a variety of templates for common organizational processes.
Wrike offers 400+ pre-built native integrations, including the most popular file management software from Microsoft, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software from Salesforce and Marketo.
Wrike Free is the best free work management software plan on the market. Those with a free plan can have unlimited users on their account, and with real-time edits and updates, app and cloud storage integrations, and newly added subtask management.
For companies with additional needs or who would like even more customizability, Wrike offers four paid plans to suit any size organization, starting at $9.80/user/month. From small establishments to large enterprises, Wrike helps all teams do the best work of their lives.
14 days free trial, Freemium version for unlimited users
From $9.80
Toggl Plan
Toggl Plan is an effective project management tool to automate your task delegation process and visualize which project tasks have been completed, and which haven’t. If your team often collaborates with other departments on projects, this might be a useful tool for you.
Features include:
- Gantt-chart visualization to track important deadlines and projects
- Integrations with Slack, Github, Evernote, and others
- Team collaboration option through shared calendars and task notes
Pricing: Free for 14 days; $8/user/month (Team); $13.35/user/month (Business)
Paymo (Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android)
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.
Paymo Price: The free plan includes 10 users, unlimited projects and clients, 1 GB of storage, and up to three invoices; upgrade for $9.95/user/month for the Small Office plan that includes unlimited invoices and users, 50 GB of storage, and project templates.
Conclusion:
So, your company has decided to use software for project management (on one platform), so you can keep track of all your projects. That’s great! The key question is: what type of software should you choose and which free project management software or free project management app can help you deliver high-quality results?