Project Management Software (often referred to by the abbreviation PMS) is an online software solution that helps companies organize, schedule, and complete their projects. It is used to monitor progress on each project, set deadlines, and assess items that are on-track or in need of adjustment.
Project management software is any software which allows you to perform tasks such as scheduling, resource tracking, reporting and other useful features. These applications help you organize and track the progress of your projects. Used by businesses and organizations across diverse industry verticals, project management software aims to streamline procedures and provide accurate information about key project events and changes in variables that might impact the outcome of a project.
What does project management software do? It’s designed to keep teams on task, on schedule, and on budget. For many businesses, project management is a must have for every aspect of their operation from office tasks to those outdoors. From those simple home chores that seem to drag out into a month long endeavor, to the IT projects that touch every department in a business – Project Management is a necessity without which a company would be swamped with requests and unable to meet the needs of customers.
Let’s take a look at some of the best Free Project Management software available, so you can select the best fit for you and your team:
1. Click Up:
If you want to manage tasks efficiently, including managing your more substantial tasks, full projects, small tasks, and notes, you’ll want to check out this service. It’s designed to let you customize everything, so you have a system that works for you. It also enables you to do automatic scheduling with estimated times, and you can choose who gets to see what on the system. That way, when you bring your team into the system, they’re not automatically privy to everything.
You can set goals and see how they’re doing as well as changing up the view that works best for you, check on the status of projects and more. You’ll also have an inexpensive rate because this system is paid based on how many people you have on your team. You only pay $4.99 per person each month.
Click Up Features:
- Task tray
- Notepad
- Assigned comments
- Dark mode
- Integrations
- Assigned comments
- Multiple views
2. Instagantt
If you want online Gantt software, this is the way to go. It’s designed to work with Asana (which we’ll talk about in a moment) and also allows you to link schedules from other sources. That means you only have to put in all of your information once, and you’ll be able to see it across each of your different platforms. You can set up timelines and tasks as well as managing and monitoring your teams’ workload. While you’re at it, you’ll be able to see everything in a format that works for you and your team.
If you’re not using Asana, you can still get a lot out of this system, including monitoring and assigning tasks, assigning due dates, and evaluating progress. All of these things come in several different price points that will help you work with the team that you have and keep apprised of everything that needs to be done.
Some of Instagantt’s awesome features are:
- Gantt and workload view
- Task and subtasks
- Public snapshot sharing options
- Timelines
- Multiple projects and workspaces
- Dependencies and milestones
- Critical path
- Team collaboration options: notification and task assignment
- Estimated and actual cost
- Custom view and custom fields
- Custom color options for progress bars
- Risk and priority
- Baselines
- Drag & drop
- Diverse exporting options: Excel, image and PDF
3. Trello
The second tool to make it to our list of best free project management tools is Trello.
At the moment, Trello is one of the most widely used project management software in the market with more than 1.1 million daily active users.
A task management tool working primarily on the principle of adjustable Kanban boards, Trello makes workflow visualization easy for you. It helps in instant tracking of all the tasks and activities that are in line, under progress or have been done.
The boards are open-ended and can be edited in any way the user wants. The choice of making these boards private or public is also available for the users.
Key Features
- Kanban boards for workflow visualization
- Easy drag and drop of tasks to instantly indicate the status
- Tags, labels, and categories for organizing tasks
- Public and private access to boards
- Email notifications and reminders
- Checklists management for quickly checking off tasks
- Comments within tasks for quick collaboration
- File attachments to give context to your work
- One of the best marketing project management software
4. TeamGantt
With this tool, you’re creating workflows, and you’re doing it in a way that’s simple for people to understand and get a handle on. You can create different projects, milestones, and tasks and even use it on any of your devices. This system works on iOS, Android, Google Chrome, and Web. That means any of your users and team members can access it no matter where they are or what type of device they use. And you can check in to see just what they’re doing through the snapshot view.
You get to assign high, low, and medium priority to tasks, see how your team is doing and even set up the start dates and due dates for everything. You’ll also be able to use Gantt style timelines to keep an eye on everything. And you can try out the whole thing for free for 30 days. Then you pay based on the number of people who are on your team.
Some of TeamGantt Features:
– Drag&Drop
– Guest permission
– Baselines
– Multiple project view in one Gantt chart
– Guest permission
– Baselines
– Tasks & Subtasks
5. Wrike
Coming with a robust set of features, Wrike is one of the first choices of managers when it comes to project management.
Suited for teams of every size, Wrike provides flexibility while getting things done. The dashboard of the application comes with multiple useful features like my overdue tasks, due this week, and overdue, etc.
Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about losing track during team discussions, as the live activity stream and team member mentions make your work easy for you.
Key Features
Some features of this free tool are:
- Tasks and subtasks management
- Time tracking with tasks
- Pre-built project templates
- Gantt charts for visualizing the project schedule
- Live activity stream for staying up to date
- Team mentions for referring to a relevant team member
- A workload view for better resource management
- Custom user groups to ensure secure information exchange
- Progress tracking reports monitoring performance
- Enterprise project management software
- One of the most popular project management software in the market
- Project portfolio management software
6. Asana
You want to be able to keep track of everything that everyone is working on, and that’s where Asana does well. This program gives you the ability to create the task list you want and then move it as much as you like. You also have a visual project timeline that you can use to see everything you need to get done. You can even set up your progress, note due dates, and make sure that scheduling and rescheduling are simple and easy.
What makes this application even better is that it works with several of your other favorites. You can link it to your Slack, Outplanr, Google Calendar, and Dropbox. All of these links make it easy to integrate, and they also ensure you don’t have to put in information all at once. Plus, you can choose between different fee schedules to find what works for you. From free to enterprises.
Asana Features:
- Document Management
- Project Management
- Time & Expense Tracking
- CRM
- Collaboration Tools
- Portfolio Management
- Resource Management
- Integration with Instagantt
7. Smartsheet
If you want your team to be able to collaborate on anything and everything, this is a great way to go. It offers you attachment options so you can upload files directly into the system from Google Drive, Onedrive, Dropbox, and many of your other favorites. You can even see who is busy and who isn’t on your team so you can contact people at more convenient times. All you need to do is take a look at the dashboard.
While you’re at it, you’re able to set up different permissions, and you can make sure everything is maintained and updated correctly along the way. That’s because it sends out automatic update requests to make sure everyone is on the same page. When you’re ready to try it out you’ll find time-tracking, reporting, resource management, and planning. It’s all entirely cloud-based, too, so you can access it from anywhere. Plus, some plans vary from $14 to $25 per month.
Smartsheet Features:
- Spreadsheet templates
- Predecessor tasks
- Automated workflows
8. ProProfs Project
ProProfs Project is a well-developed project management software that has a user-friendly interface and offers a gamut of features. Even mobile apps are available for both Android and iOS platforms, which enables its users to handle immediate project-related requirements on the go.
Although this project management tool is easy to use, 24/7 customer support is available on various service channels like telephone, live chat, and email. It allows users to get a satisfactory resolution to their queries within a couple of minutes.
Key Features
- Gantt charts for the visualization of project progress
- Easy drag and drop to prioritize projects
- Task comments for quick collaboration
- Swift email notifications
- Calendar view for planning tasks for the entire month
- Time tracking to calculate productive hours
- Automated invoicing for flawless client billing
- Powerful reporting to get insights into team performance and task progress
9. Paymo
Paymo grabs the 7th spot on our list of best free project management software. The tool comes with some pretty powerful project management features to help you manage your projects effectively from initiation to project closure.
Paymo provides comprehensive task management, project management, resource management, and invoicing, all under one platform.
For tracking the time you take for accomplishing a task, just turn on the Paymo application and let it run in the background. At the end of the day, it will show you the recorded time being spent on each application for a particular task.
Key Features
- Tasks and subtasks management
- Kanban boards for workflow visualization
- Resource scheduling and resource management
- Gantt charts for project scheduling
- Web timer to calculate the time spent on tasks
- Comments within tasks to quickly collaborate
- Invoicing functionality to bill clients
- Built-in project templates
- Budget and expense management
- Enterprise project management software
- Project portfolio management software
10. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 combines project management and collaboration in one tool, and it’s free, making it one of the most trusted project management applications today. It comprises a social intranet, in-app video conferencing, screen-sharing, HR and customer management tool.
You can organize tasks within your projects and track projects using Gantt charts. Moreover, it enables you to track employee workload and deadlines as well.
The tool also comes with comprehensive CRM management features that allow teams to manage their sales pipeline, automate marketing, and provide customer support through multiple communication channels.
Key Features
- Activity stream intranet center
- Bulk email to simultaneously send invites
- Calendar sharing for collaborating on schedule
- CRM with multiple powerful reports
- Email notifications and reminders
- Extranet for inviting external users to your workspaces
- File sharing and versioning
- Instant messages to provide timely feedback
- Task management with task reporting
- Time management for billing clients and tracking performance
- User profiles and user groups for managing the entire organization
- One of the best marketing project management software
- Number one Enterprise project management software
- Free online project management software
- Project portfolio management software
Conclusion
If you’re looking to improve the way that your team runs and to make sure that you’re on top of everything, then you need the top 10 best project management tools in 2020. Well, that’s precisely what we have here. Hopefully, one or even several of these will turn out to be the best tool for your team. You can make sure that you have everything you need to keep your team on task and ready to go, no matter what you need next. Each of these tools has excellent features, and we know that you’re going to love them. Check out how each of them can work for you and where you can get signed up with any of them.