7 best free project management software for small businesses on a budget

Our overall pick for the best free project management tool is ClickUp, a slick, modern tool that has a fantastic free tier for small teams, and good value plans for larger ones.

Free project management (PM) software is a smart choice in today's economy. Businesses are grappling with a cocktail of challenges relating to record-high inflation, interest rates, and energy bills. SMEs need to maintain a strong cash flow and keep overheads to a minimum.

But there are limitations to free project management software. Many free plans are designed for solo users, so growing workforces will find them repressive. They can miss out on specific features that you might need, and also put caps on things like integrations or user count.

Below, we've listed our top choices for the best free PM options that don't scrimp on functionality. Between June and July 2023, we carried out rigorous testing on each app to see how it tackles simple, and complex, project tasks. Read on for the top seven free project management tools (including free plans and free trials):

What do our results say is the best free project management software?

1. ClickUp boasts a full-featured freemium tier and has excellent discounts and deals available for upgrades, making it the perfect choice for early-stage startups.

2. monday.com has an outstanding free plan which makes task management simple. Its effortless customisable templates might just tempt you to pay up for one of the good value premium tiers as your business grows.

3. Teamwork is best for companies working to tight client deadlines, thanks to its specialist time tracking and resource management tools.

We’ve carried out extensive research, in collaboration with an independent analyst, to weigh up the pros and cons of the top freemium plans for small businesses with 1-20 employees.

Read on for an in-depth review of each option. Or, for a quick snapshot of each competitor's highs and lows, check out our free cost comparison tool.

What is free project management software?

Project management (PM) software is a business tool used to help teams plan, action, and review, their projects. It can be used for everything from simple day-to-day task management, to month-long campaigns. As long as you have an objective you're aiming for, the software can help you to create a roadmap to reach it.

ClickUp Free

Founded in 2017, ClickUp is relatively new to the market, but has already made a name for itself as a modern, all-in-one platform. We awarded ClickUp first-place in our research as a result of its huge list of features that surpasses big-name players like Asana and Jira.

We were impressed by the volume of information that ClickUp gave us. In our workspace, we could see comments from colleagues and spot tasks that had been delegated to us.

ClickUp promises a ‘free forever’ payment option and it is certainly possible for businesses to get by with the feature-rich ClickUp Free for a long time.

Its collaboration features are especially outstanding. By consolidating various communication tools, like task comments and user tags, ClickUp Free becomes an effective team working tool that means you won't have to spend hundreds on third-party messaging apps.

As well as this, the ClickUp Free tier has a huge array of both essential and advanced features including:

• Custom views
• Portfolios
• Goals
• Mind maps
• Dashboards
• Spreadsheets

As an added bonus, Clickup Free didn’t present a steep learning curve for users. It provides a lot of preset functions which made it easy for our testers to hit the ground running after a relatively quick onboarding.

However, during testing, we were frustrated by the speed of the platform. The app became unresponsive frequently, particularly when importing data. One tester had to manually add in dates and milestones to a project, which proved time-consuming. As a result, we gave ClickUp Free an okay ease of use score of 3.9 out of 5.

We also would have liked to see more integrations available with ClickUp Free; specifically for marketing. While rival brands like Trello, Asana, and Teamwork connect with third-party apps like HubSpot for free, ClickUp lags for this function.

ClickUp Pricing

When reviewing ClickUp pricing, we awarded the platform a score of 4.4 out of 5 for pricing features. Its average price across all pricing plans are very competitive, and startups could feasibly use the free tier for their full first year in business without needing to upgrade.

Nonetheless, while ClickUp’s free tier might be its biggest USP, its higher-tiered payment plans are similarly low cost and high value.

ClickUp Unlimited costs around £5.49 per user, per month when billed annually (£7.84 per user, per month when billed monthly), and this unlocks an unlimited number of uses of important features like dashboards. Our experts say it’s the ideal investment for scaling companies taking on more projects or commissions.

Is the ClickUp Free plan worth it?

Yes; for startups that are in the very early stages of growth, ClickUp Free is excellent value for money. It allows you to create an unlimited number of tasks, and has lots of premium features (eg. Kanban boards) that are only available with the more advanced plans of rival software like monday.com or Wrike.

That said, users can only create up to five spaces per month with ClickUp Free, which means teams with more than three employees will likely quickly outgrow the free tier. We recommend startups ugrade to ClickUp Unlimited as soon as their budget can afford to ensure the tool doesn't end up limiting hiring plans.

monday.com Free

The monday.com free plan provides a premium organisational tool for sole traders or those running a business part-time, who want to test out a number of apps before they invest in a budget option.

The platform's ease of use score is a huge 4.5 out of 5 according to our research, largely due to a familiar and intuitive interface that means every tab, button, and feature is where you'd expect it to be. New users will be able to master it overnight.

We were able to flip between multiple dashboard views quickly, giving us lots of flexibility over how to manage our hypothetical project.

Those who are just starting out, perhaps by going freelance, will like monday.com for its simplicity. It is an incredibly easy-to-use platform that encourages creative thinking and problem-solving with its online whiteboard feature.

During our ease of use testing, we discovered that the more complex features (ie. budget tracking) require workarounds, which can take a while to grasp. Sometimes, the monday.com free plan explained the workarounds via their knowledge base but other times they didn't, leaving us in the dark.

Sole traders won't need to worry about this problem as they are more likely to be using the platform for day-to-day tasks than long-term project management. Comparatively, group work is not really catered for in monday.com.

Projects with multiple collaborators or stakeholders will struggle with the lack of dashboards, or a team instant messenger, to monitor colleagues’ progress. Both of these are, by comparison, available on ClickUp Free for no charge.

monday.com Pricing

While monday.com calls its freemium tier Free Forever, there is a time limit for how long businesses can use it. While the ClickUp Free plan could realistically be used by a business forever, monday.com users should upgrade to the Basic plan once they have more than two team members.

Luckily, monday.com pricing is very fair. monday.com Basic provides teams of 3+ employees with an attractive and colour-coded view of a larger project timeline through monday’s famously customisable templates – and all for a low monthly cost of just £7 per user, billed annually.

Is the monday.com free plan worth it?

Small businesses can use the monday.com free plan to demo the platform. Naturally, monday.com's free plan is not a sustainable solution for businesses due to its two-person cap, however. Teams of three ore more should upgrade to the lowest-tiered plan, monday.com Basic, to gain access to monday's wealth of customisable templates and project management tools.

Use the time to train staff members on basic tasks, and migrate any project data. That way, when it's time to upgrade to monday.com Basic, you can start using the software from the minute your contract begins.

Teamwork Free Forever

As its name suggests, Teamwork Free Forever is an outstanding project management software for working in a specific task force or department. It gets a very acceptable score for features of 3.7 out of 5, largely due to its unique focus on tracking staff time. That makes it an excellent tool for SMEs working to tight client deadlines.

We were able to easily set up a budget for our project in Teamwork – a feature Jira, monday.com, and Asana all lack in their free plans.

Time tracking is a very valuable tool for small businesses which is why a lot of PM systems (including Asana and monday.com) only host this feature on their paid-for plans.

Teamwork Free Forever is the anomaly, offering this plus lots of other managerial-specific functions that can help SME users to meet deadlines by optimising their resources. For example, Teamwork's ‘milestones’ feature alerted us when a specific target has been hit (or missed) by another team member.

One thing we were surprised to see missed off the list of free Teamwork features was a team instant messenger. For a brand that prioritises team-working, Teamwork Free Forever users can only send emojis or files to other team members. Plus, they'll have to pay a special additional charge for the privilege.

Teamwork Pricing

Users who upgrade to Teamwork Deliver for £9.99 per user, per month (billed annually) will find it an expensive leap compared to scalable rivals like ClickUp and monday.com.

However, the upgrade does get you access to billing and invoicing – two crucial resource management areas that will save a lot of time and money for SMEs.

Is the Teamwork Free plan worth it?

Like monday.com, Teamwork Free should not be thought of as a long-term PM solution. It is definitely not the most full-featured free plan for SMEs. Particularly when compared to rivals like ClickUp, it is hugely lacking in project creation areas like preset templates and custom project templates – plus, there's a pesky three user limit.

Teams with more than three employees will need to upgrade to the next plan up, Teamwork Standard, to ensure your software is not only available for a certain percentage of team members. To support a larger team base, Teamwork Standard will also give you access to a team messenger tool.

Wrike Free

Wrike’s features are mostly centred around delivering complex and high-volume projects that require large teams. Having recently updated its freemium platform to allow for an unlimited number of users, SMEs with a lot of junior workers to manage would benefit most from this system.

We were able to easily add guests (internal and external) to review our project – great for working with stakeholders.

Wrike Free hosts all the essential features for a freemium plan. It also has a generous allowance for spreadsheet usage, making it useful for scheduling and monitoring work allocation, which neither Jira, Teamwork, Trello, or Teamwork offer.

We really liked how in-depth the platform when it came to task management. We were able to create sub-tasks of sub-tasks, making complex project management with a lot of collaborators run much more smoothly than if we had been using a more stubborn format like Excel or Google Sheets.

Wrike Free’s more sophisticated tools do sacrifice some fundamental PM functions. We gave it a score of just 3.7 out of 5 for features due to its poor collaboration features (no instant messenger is available in the free version) and complete lack of dashboard tools.

We were also disappointed to find out that Gantt charts (the staple feature on Wrike's paid-for plans) are not available for free. This also means users lose access to Task Dependencies (the ability to make a task's success dependent on another's); a useful prioritisation tool.

Wrike Pricing

Customers can get by with the Wrike Free platform if they are planning a short-term project. However, if your company deals with regular commissions and tasks, the lack of features will start to limit staff.

Upgrading to Wrike Team for around £8.14 per user, per month (pricing is only available in US dollars) brings a significant uplift in functionality with users then able to access features like Gantt charts and dashboards. Our complete guide to Wrike pricing has more information on how much you should expect to spend.

Is the Wrike Free plan worth it?

Given Wrike's low cost, we would recommend small businesses upgrade to Wrike Team to take advantage of the many core and advanced project management features that it provides.

Chief amongst them being a Gantt chart, which can be very helpful for large teams needing to prioritise resource management and calendar planning (monday.com only offers this on its Pro plan). You'll also get preset widgets, the ability to create dashboards, and task dependencies.

It's worth noting that all of these features are available for free (although with a limited number of uses) with ClickUp. SMEs that want to take advantage of these tools might consider trialling them first with ClickUp Free.

Jira Work Management Free

Data is at the heart of Jira’s platform, which massively outpaces any competition when it comes to reporting and analytics. However, Jira’s more complex interface is primarily a development and engineering tool and while it can be used by other industries, we wouldn’t advise it for anyone without software experience.

The Jira dashboard condensed all of our project management information, making reporting and analytics easy.

Compared to all other brands on this list including our number one choice, ClickUp Free, Jira Free is the undeniable champion for data reporting. It had every feature we analysed including a custom chart builder for users to measure any project metric.

Workarounds are necessary for just one area: tracking budget. Jira Free lacks a dedicated budgeting feature so we had to use custom fields to display budget info. Thankfully, with this approach, updating budgets on Jira is a simple as filling in a field on the task screen.

Less tech-savvy users will likely encounter a steep learning curve with Jira Free. Whilst it has a clean interface, during testing we found we had to carry out a lot of menu-diving to complete basic project tasks, such as setting up a simple missed deadline notification. Ultimately, we gave it a fairly average ease of use score of 3.2 out of 5.

Jira Work Management Pricing

Jira’s prices increased slightly in March 2022, although they remain cheap for business users. Jira Standard is priced at $5 (around £4.04) per user, per month when billed monthly (costs are only available in US dollars) which is just cheaper than monday.com.

Strangely, this payment uplift gives you almost no additional features beyond the free plan beyond more customer support options (live chat and email). We'd recommend sticking with Jira Free given how minimal the benefits are for upgrading.

Is the Jira Work Management free plan worth it?

Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees should absolutely stick with Jira Free. The platform is an excellent way to save money before you're ready to start growing your team.

Our analysts could only spot three areas where Jira Free differs from Jira Standard: user limit, data storage limit, and automation limit. None of these will stop you from managing a project, so we think the freemium tier is good value for SMEs – although you might need to spend money on another file storage system like Google Drive to plug the gaps.

Asana Basic

Asana is a great free choice for SMEs with fewer than 15 employees. Its USP is definitely its huge library of free integrations (we gave it a score of 4.7 out of 5 for third-party apps) for teams to design a bespoke solution. That makes it the ideal option for remote teams needing a workspace to manage every aspect of their project online.

To start messaging colleagues in-app, we simply had to click on a relevant task and the message board to would pop-up.

Amongst Asana Basic’s excellent real-time communication tools is a project message board to instantly share comments and ideas (unavailable with Trello or Jira Work Management) which makes it brilliant for a team working in today’s age of hybrid offices. We've shown what it looks like above.

Alina Cincan is managing director of Inbox Translation, a translation agency. Cincan told Startups: “The comment function allows us to share ideas, add files, and keep track of everything pertaining to that task or project in one place. If someone works on a task I’m involved in then I get notified, which helps me to be on top of the projects I’m interested in.”

During testing, we found that Asana Basic doesn’t offer much scope for workarounds if you’re trying to complete a task which the app doesn’t currently boast a set feature for.

That said, it has made some improvements since 2023: standout being project budgeting. Previously, Asana Basic wasn’t able to track a budget effectively. Plus, its existing spreadsheet functionality lacked formula capability. Now, users can add a budget to tasks, and use formulas to calculate total costs spent.

Asana Pricing

Asana’s free plan certainly holds its own against rivals like monday.com, but it doesn't have the complex features that ClickUp boasts, such as subtasks for divvying up responsibilities, which teams of 5+ employees will find frustrating.

Asana Premium is the best way forward for larger companies with a lot of collaborators. The cost is £9.49 per month, per user when billed annually (£11.59 billed monthly).

Is the Asana free plan worth it?

Yes; it's certainly possible for microbusinesses and sole traders to use Asana completely free forever. It has an unlimited number of tasks, projects, and team messages, meaning for basic, day-to-day task management it's unlikely to hamper growth.

Asana's free Basic version allows up to 15 users to collaborate, and we would recommend it for larger, remote teams. Being able to add CRM, marketing, accounting, and reporting integrations makes it a brilliant solution for those needing a virtual workspace they can use to manage their daily tasks, together.

Trello Free

When it comes to simple, easy-to-use project management software, Trello is some of the most popular. Its user-friendly kanban-board interface lets you keep an eye on your daily tasks and coordinate your overall planning, without over-complicating things. We recommend it to those working on day-to-day tasks rather than long-term projects, such as PR agencies.

Adding a task in Trello was super easy to do – but we did miss a few of the dashboard views available with ClickUp and Wrike, like Calendar or Gantt

Trello is intended to have a gentle learning curve for new users. Because of this, it doesn’t have a lot of the more advanced features that apps like ClickUp Free provide. For those looking to find their feet with an easy bit of software, however, we think Trello Free is the best option. Users can get:

• Kanban boards
• Assignee and due dates
• iOS and Android mobile apps
• Two-factor authentication
  
• Marketing and CRM intergrations

Adding a task is done using a simple pop-up form (pictured above) which can be tailored using custom fields. Because there's no particular field which asks for specific project information (eg. deadlines), we did find it frustrating to edit all of this information again when duplicating tasks.

Trello Pricing

Trello has had a major shift in its pricing in the past 12 months, becoming dramatically cheaper than what it was in 2021. Trello Standard, the platform’s second-tier, now costs £4.15 per user, per month when billed monthly (£4.99 per user, per month, billed annually).

However, Trello Standard offers little more than an uplift in user allowances from 5 to unlimited. Trello Premium (£8.31 per user, per month) has more features for your money but these are all available for zero cost from other platforms, like ClickUp Free or Wrike Free. Switching providers is better value for money when looking to upgrade.

Is the Trello free plan worth it?

Yes. We recommend Trello business users stick with the free plan, rather than upgrading to a paid-for tier. Trello is so low on features that you won't be missing out – making it a great, bargain choice for single users that want to manage their project tasks on a Kanban board.

The one reason you'd need to upgrade to Trello Standard would be for the ‘guest access' feature, as this is the only tool that isn't available with the free tier. You can read this one of two ways: Trello's free plan is incredibly generous, or its paid-for plans are noticeably lacking.

How does free project management work?

Like paid-for plans, free project management systems have lots of useful features for managing workload. However, a free software tool is more limited as, for obvious reasons, companies want you to upgrade to a paid-for plan to access more sophisticated features.

For example, ClickUp's freemium plan only gives users 10 automations per month. Meanwhile, its lowest-tiered plan, ClickUp Unlimited, has no cap.

However, free plans will definitely give you access to project dashboards. These are essentially a virtual workspace when you can see every task that needs to be completed, as well as who is responsible for its delivery. Some free platforms allow other team members to be added to dashboards so you can collaborate.

What types of businesses should use free project management software?

Free software plans are not meant for long-term use. They can help you to scale-up your business by delivering on a successful project, but once a company takes on multiple clients or employees, users should upgrade to unlock more sophisticated tools aimed at delegation and collaboration.

That said, freemium tools are good choices for:

• Sole traders and those who might be running their company alongside a full-time job. monday.com Free is our preferred plan for this type of user.
• Startups that can’t commit to a long-term, expensive contract but need a tool that can enable them to take on new contracts.
• Small businesses based offline that need to manage projects irregularly, such as a restaurant wanting to organise a seasonal calendar of events during Christmas.

Of course, it’s not only about size or budget. Purchasing any new business technology requires you to assess the goals of your business to get the most of your investment.

If you are looking to collaborate better with your team, or to find a smarter way to monitor the resources spent on a project each month, then you will need to factor these considerations into your research.

What makes a good free project management software?

Free software often has limitations on the number of users, which can prove irritating for SMEs with larger teams. For this reason, we picked out the best free options for project management software based on how they go against these expectations.

These are:

1. Number of available features – freemium options tend to be close-fisted when it comes to PM features
2. Security – cyber-attacks can be particularly costly for SMEs, but security is not often the focus for work management tools
3. Gentle learning curve – important for small firms that are new to using PM software and want to get to grips with a freemium version
4. Number of users – user limits are common for freemium software and can be tricky for small businesses with fluctuating team sizes
5. Integrations – communication or marketing add-ons are often only included in paid-for plans as they bring so much benefit to business users

Final verdict

Our top-rated free project management software is ClickUp Free, an extraordinarily generous software freemium that compromises on very little in terms of features. Larger teams will need to watch out for the cap on its more advanced tools, but overall we think ClickUp is a strong, accessible choice for any startup with ambitious growth goals.

Project management software is a particularly confusing market to navigate, with a lot of new brands emerging very suddenly and all claiming to bring the most benefit to users.

To speed up the process, we have crunched our research into an easy-to-use cost comparison tool that will give you direct quotes from the most suitable providers in just one minute. Just tell us a couple of details about your company’s needs, and we’ll do the rest.