free project planning software gantt

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Free desktop project management software

Ganttproject is easy to use, easy to start.

Available for Windows, macOS and Linux. Downloads in seconds, installs instantly and ready to build projects immediately with zero setup.

Easy to use

Simple, intuitive and uncluttered user interface will let you break down the work, build a Gantt chart, assign resources and calculate project costs in minutes.

If you need some guidance into the basics of working with GanttProject, please watch this awesome video tutorial on YouTube:

Easy to export

GanttProject can export documents to Microsoft Project format and import existing documents. If you need custom processing of the project data, export to CSV or Excel is available. Reports and printable charts can be produced with export to PDF and PNG.

Easy to collaborate

With GanttProject Cloud, a commercial cloud-based project and collaboration server built for GanttProject.

GanttProject is mature, popular and trusted

Established in 2003.

GanttProject was born in 2003 and we published countless maintenance and major updates since that time. And you know what? In 2024, GanttProject still can open documents produced years ago.

Thousands of users

A few thousands of people download GanttProject weekly. They can be can be found in nearly 200 countries on all continents and speak 25+ languages.

What do they say?

GanttProject is Free Software

Free as beer.

All GanttProject packages are available for free. There is an option to choose a paid download and pay as much as you wish to support those who work on GanttProject.

Free as speech

GanttProject is an open-source software distributed under GPL3 license. You can download the source code, modify it and redistribute under the terms of GPL3.

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Free online Gantt chart tool that's easy to use

Create stunning Gantt charts in minutes. Perfect for visualizing project timelines and keeping everyone on the same page. 100% free to use.

Your project, your way - craft Gantt charts with a smile!

Plan and visualize your projects effortlessly, collaborate with your team in real-time, and keep everyone on the same page.

Drag & drop, quick editing

The ultimate solution for efficient project management.

With our user-friendly interface, you can easily create, edit, and manage Gantt charts, helping you stay on top of your project timelines. Say goodbye to complicated software – our tool allows you to simply drag and drop tasks and milestones, making project planning a breeze.

Get ready to boost your productivity and streamline your projects with our quick and easy Gantt chart creation tool!

All your projects in one place

View and manage multiple projects all in one convenient chart. You can easily track the progress, timelines, and dependencies of various projects simultaneously. It simplifies project management by providing a holistic overview, helping you allocate resources efficiently and ensure projects are on track.

It's a time-saver, as it enables you to make better decisions, spot potential bottlenecks, and keep everything organized in a user-friendly way. It's the ultimate project management superpower!

Critical path for tasks

Critical path is like your project's GPS, helping you navigate the shortest route to success. It identifies the sequence of tasks that must be completed on time to ensure your project stays on schedule. By highlighting these critical tasks, it allows you to focus your efforts on what truly matters, making your project management a breeze.

This is a game-changer because it helps you avoid delays, keep things organized, and meet deadlines with confidence. It's your trusty ally on the road to project success!

Automatic project scheduling

Auto-scheduling is like having your very own project manager in your software! It takes the headache out of manually adjusting your project timeline. With a click of a button, it rearranges tasks and dependencies to ensure your project stays on track.

It saves you time and minimizes human error, making sure your project runs smoothly from start to finish. No more late nights reorganizing your Gantt chart – let auto-scheduling do the heavy lifting for you. It's like having a reliable co-pilot on your project management journey!

Export and share

Share and preserve your project timelines with ease! Export your meticulously crafted Gantt charts in multiple formats, including PDF, image, Excel, and even Microsoft Project (MPP).

This flexibility makes sharing and collaborating a breeze, whether you need to send a sleek PDF report to stakeholders, attach an image in an email, or work seamlessly with your team in Excel or Microsoft Project.

It's all about convenience and versatility, empowering you to tailor your exports to your specific needs. So go ahead, create, customize, and share your Gantt charts effortlessly with our export feature – your project management companion at its best!

Totally FREE ! Everything included.

• Unlimited projects
• Unlimited tasks
• Drag and drop
• Day, week, month, year views
• Critical path calculation
• Auto scheduling
• MS Project, PDF, Excel export

Frequently asked questions

Is ganttile really free to use.

Yes. Totally free with all the features included. You can create as many projects and tasks as you need. You don't have to pay anything.

Why is Ganttile free to use?

Ganttile was created by the people behind Breeze project management software . Breeze is a simple to use proect management tool with project boards and task lists. The Gantt chart feature is also included in Breeze. We made Ganttile free to help everybody get started with managing projects.

Can I view and manage multiple projects on Ganttile?

Yes, Ganttile offers a convenient view that lets you track progress, timelines, and dependencies of various projects in one collective chart, simplifying multi-project management and resource allocation.

What is the Critical Path feature in Ganttile?

The Critical Path feature in Ganttile identifies the series of crucial tasks that determine the shortest timeline to complete a project. It helps focus efforts on essential tasks to avoid delays and meet deadlines effectively.

Does Ganttile have an automatic project scheduling feature?

Ganttile’s automatic project scheduling feature acts like a virtual project assistant, adjusting your timeline dynamically, ensuring that your project planning remains flexible and on track.

What makes Ganttile different from other Gantt chart tools?

Ganttile sets itself apart with its ease of use, features like auto-scheduling, and the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously. It's designed to make project management accessible, efficient, and effective.

Create your Gantt charts now for free!

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• What is Agile Project Management?
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• Agile Project Management Certifications

17 Best Free Gantt Chart Software of 2024 (Honest Reviews)

The best free Gantt chart software provides the ideal way to stay organized and plan projects, whether you’re alone or with a team. Here are our top five free Gantt chart software tools:

Our work is supported by affiliate commissions.

There are a lot of free Gantt chart software tools out there for those who don't want to spend a lot on costly software. Many modern Gantt chart tools come with a free version or don't require you to pay, giving you all you need to manage a small team or take care of low-budget projects.

You can access a free-forever Gantt chart or opt for the free plan of a paid Gantt chart generator. Keep in mind that these free software still provide full-service features that would improve your productivity and help you stay on top of projects.

We have compiled a list of the best free Gantt chart software in this guide.

Best Free Gantt Chart Software of 2023

Here is the best free Gantt chart software of 2023:

• Zoho Projects
• OpenProject
• Online Gantt
• ProjectLibre Cloud
• Tom's Planner
• RationalPlan

Best Free Gantt Chart Software Overall

• Guest, private, and protected chart permission options
• Focus on security through multiple security features
• Unlimited tasks and members on a free plan
• Custom exports
• Customer-centric features
• Suitable for teams and solo users
• Cost-effective for teams and organizations
• Poor time tracking tool
• Lack of customized reports
• Initial learning curve

ClickUp is our first choice for anyone looking for free Gantt chart software. This impressive platform is well-known for its extensive range of free features and seamless functionality. This Gantt chart tool helps you to easily manage business projects, goals, and processes.

ClickUp is a free Gant chart tool with simple-to-use and efficient features. You can easily customize your Gantt chart and use multiple views. The platform is feature-rich, with all the features arranged without giving you a cluttered interface.

In addition to this, there are tools for resource and budget management. ClickUp has impressive Gantt chart functionality, but more features are unlocked when you pay.

Key Features

Automated gantt chart.

ClickUp offers a highly customizable and automated Gantt chart view with other views, including calendars, lists, and boards. You can assign tasks to team members, and project scheduling is a breeze. The charts are flexible.

Progress Percentage and Milestones

Although a Gantt chart allows you to visualize project progress, ClickUp calculates how far you've gone in percentage form. This is based on your completed tasks. Furthermore, you can create milestones in your project.

Seamless Critical Path Calculations

ClickUp's Gantt chart comes with a critical path. This shows you the tasks you need to complete to finish your project and makes it easy to reschedule and prioritize without falling behind on schedule.

2. TeamGantt

Best free gantt chart software for small teams.

• Exports in PDF format
• Intuitive interface
• Efficient project performance and progress tracking
• Easy conversion of tasks to groups and milestones
• Not enough third-party integrations
• High cost for large teams
• Sharing function is not ideal

TeamGantt is an ideal Gantt chart tool for small teams and startup companies, and it can be easily used for free. It provides a centralized location where all your tasks, projects, and documents can be stored and feature a sharp and easy-to-use interface.

TeamGantt is next on our list, offering a 30-day free trial and a free plan. Even in the free plan, the software still offers a sizeable number of features.

The free Gantt chart tool is used by major brands like Netflix, Nike, and Amazon and is customized using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Asides from the chart, you can set up to-do lists, calendars, capacity planning, and manage resources with TeamGantt.

Timeline Tracking

TeamGantt has a unique feature in its Gantt chart that allows you to view the planned timeline and the actual timeline if you're falling behind schedule. The Gantt chart is easy to make and can be zoomed in or out to view your project plan and timeline fully.

Team Management Tools

You can efficiently work within your small team or startup with team availability and resource management tools. Stay on budget, ensure no one is overloaded with work, and more.

Dedicated Mobile App

TeamGantt allows you to monitor your projects and team while moving with their mobile app. The Gantt chart is well-designed to be readable and easy to understand on a small screen.

3. Monday.com

Best free gantt chart software for customization.

• Advanced reporting and analytics
• Private boards and documents as well as guest access option
• A dashboard that combines up to 50 boards
• Free plan and 14-day free trial
• Limited reporting tools
• Limited activity log
• Lack of robust integration options
• Lacks powerful task dependencies

No software does it better than Monday.com when it comes to customizing your Gantt chart and managing projects. This free Gantt chart maker is ideal for simple and complex projects, with multiple data views and customization tools. It is easy to set up and automate your daily project tasks, keeping you and your team in the loop.

Monday.com is well-known as one of the best Gantt chart tools, and it offers a free plan that lasts forever. There is a 14-day free trial on all the paid plans.

The software is a multi-functional platform with a powerful Gantt chart that you can customize to every little detail.

Plus, it has an extensive range of project management tools, including time tracking, task management, and automation.

Import From Excel

Asides from being easy to customize, Monday.com allows you to import plain spreadsheets from Excel into the Gantt chart. After turning excel files into smart boards, you can view them as Gantt charts without any hassle.

Multiple Views for Efficiency

You can view your Gantt charts in Kanban, Timeline, Workload, and other views with the simple push of the button. So, you and your project team can keep track of the progress efficiently.

Integrate with Different Tools

Monday.com has a wide range of integrations to save time juggling between different applications. These include Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack, Dropbox, Zoom, Google Calendar, Excel, LinkedIn, and more. It comes with a downloadable Gantt chart app.

Best Free Gantt Chart Software for Team Collaboration

• A free plan with a comprehensive list of features
• Integrations with file-sharing and cloud storage services such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox
• Branded and customizable workspaces and workflows
• Detailed analytics and insights to calculate deliverables
• Two-factor authentication support
• Overwhelming for new users
• Difficult onboarding
• Lack of UI customization

Small and large teams who want to work together seamlessly can benefit from Wrike, as the free Gantt chart tool has a wide range of tools for top productivity. These include reporting tools, real-time insights, and time tracking, ensuring all team members are on the same page.

Wrike is the best way for teams to stay connected while working on a project. The Gantt chart software offers a 14-day free trial and a free plan and is highly flexible to support scalability.

Companies like Google, Walmart, and Dell use Wrike, as it combines its Gantt chart and team collaboration tools with a wide range of project management features.

Control Multiple Projects in One Place

You can manage and monitor different projects on the free Gantt chart maker, using their features like critical path analysis, baselining, and snapshots. It allows users to import MS Project and Excel files into the Gantt chart.

Team Collaboration Tools

The highlight of this free Gantt tool is its collaboration features and automated reporting system. Team members can receive real-time updates using the approval system, time tracking, and shareable Kanban boards.

400+ Integrations

Besides having different Gantt chart diagrams at your service, Wrike comes with over 400 integrations for project management and teamwork. They allow you to copy data from these apps into the Gantt chart. Wrike has integrations for CMS, CRM, emails, software/IT, business intelligence, file storage, messaging, export/import, business intelligence, and more.

5. Smartsheet

Best online gantt chart software for team management.

• Integrations with multiple cloud tools and calendars
• Extended import and export options
• Easy and quick chart creation through templates
• Automated alerts and custom notifications
• 30-day free trial
• No free version
• No mobile app
• Lack of reports on user activity

Smartsheet is the ideal online Gantt chart maker for team leaders and project managers who want to stay on top of their teams. Ideal for remote and physical teams, Smartsheet provides a powerful Gantt chart with a project roadmap for easy management.

Smartsheet is a free Gantt chart tool that seamlessly works with your existing system and reduces the onboarding process. It is well-known for its essential task management tools and offers a wide range of Gantt chart templates to assist you in making your project roadmap.

Although it doesn't have a free plan, it offers a 30-day free trial.

Team Administration Tools

Smartsheet offers different features for project managers to track team availability, task completion, and project progress. Using the Hierarchy feature, they can create sub-tasks and assign team members to them. They can edit the due date, task duration and details, and color-code tasks, which the team members see as real-time updates.

Easy Onboarding for Gantt Chart

Although the Gantt chart is easy to create, Smartsheet provides instruction videos and templates, cutting the onboarding time drastically. It can be shared with clients and stakeholders outside the Gantt chart app.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

With Smartsheet, you can save time on your repetitive tasks through automation. The intuitive visual editor allows you to combine different actions and conditional paths once; for example, you can set up B to happen whenever you do A. Alerts, requests, and updates are automated.

6. GanttPRO

Best for intuitive ux and ui.

GanttPRO is the ideal free Gantt chart creator for anyone looking for usability and an intuitive user experience. It does not have a free plan but offers a 14-day free trial, making it ideal for short-term projects.

After the trial, you can either purchase a paid plan or cancel your account. The Gantt chart software is visually attractive and allows you to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Multiple Workspaces

GanttPRO allows you to create multiple workspaces, whether for a personal or team project. You can assign workspaces to your team members and ensure that only they have access to it or set up a shared workspace for everyone to stay in the loop. The Gantt chart can be shared with those outside the app.

Resource Planning Tools

With this free online Gantt chart tool, you can properly manage and plan your resources. The tool allows you to assign resources to particular tasks on the chart's timeline. You can instantly calculate the entire project costs based on the cost per hour and working hours and relocate resources to stick to the budget.

Critical Path and Auto Scheduling

The Critical Path feature makes it easy to prioritize your project tasks and sets up the shortest road to completing your project. The chart automatically adjusts with the auto-scheduling function on GanttPRO whenever you change the date, timeline, or dependencies. You don't have to adjust every little feature after making one change.

• Extensive data import and chart export options
• Intuitive portfolio Gantt charts
• Access permissions for guests
• Simple and easy to use
• Ability to map task dependencies
• Document sharing and storage
• The mobile version needs improvement
• No freemium version

7. Zoho Projects

Best for gantt chart automation.

Zoho Projects is a free Gantt chart online tool that focuses on keeping you on track when managing a project. The Gantt chart functionality is highly responsive and automated, making it easy for you to create and make changes to your timeline and dependencies.

Zoho Projects offers time tracking features, workflow automation, and more. You can use the free plan, which allows for two projects and three users or take advantage of the 10-day free trial.

Task Schedule Tracking

You can easily schedule tasks and track progress using the Zoho Projects Gantt chart. The automated chart keeps your critical task dependencies updated, so you and your team members are always in the loop. It has a unique feature that alerts you whenever you stray from the timeline in your chart.

Little to No Learning Curve

Anyone can start using the free Gantt chart on Zoho Projects, as it offers an intuitive user interface. Onboarding takes a concise time, and the charts are very colorful, making them more appealing and easy to understand. The software offers different color themes and dark or light modes based on your needs.

Multiple Integrations

Zoho Projects comes from a family of other project management tools, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, Zoho Mail, Zoho Recruit, and more. All these apps are available as integrations and third-party integrations like Google Calendar, Drive, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Box, Dropbox, Slack, Chrome, Zapier, and more.

• Color coding
• Multiple template options
• Drag and drop editing function
• Ease of use
• Fair pricing plans
• Responsive customer support
• Task and project tracking is efficient
• Poor dashboard functionality
• High learning curve

8. OpenProject

Best for mac and linux users.

OpenProject is one of the most highly efficient free Gantt chart software options for only Linux and Mac devices. The software comes with a Community plan offered for free with no limit on the users or projects.

There is a 14-day free trial. OpenProject allows you to set up project timelines on your Gantt chart, make them visible to team members, and share them with stakeholders.

Open Source Software

OpenProject is an open-source Gantt chart tool, so you're required to download and install it to your system. You can operate the software on Linux, Mac, or Docker machines. The Community software comes with regular updates and new releases, all available for free. It is easy to use and reduces the onboarding time.

Highly Responsive Gantt Chart

The free Gantt chart on OpenProject is easy to configure and customize. Once you activate the chart, you can easily set task dependencies, set milestones and project goals, and manage tasks at once. Asides from setting dependencies, you can place predecessor and follower tasks on the chart. All of this is possible with the drag-and-drop interface.

Multiple Views and Zen Mode

The Zen Mode provides a bird's eye view of your Gantt chart by going into a full screen. It shows you an overview of your project timeline and progress. You can create project overarching timelines and subprojects, offering different views to your Gantt chart.

9. Online Gantt

Best software for instant use.

Online Gantt is a free-to-use Gantt chart tool and one of the best on our list. What sets this apart from others on our list is that it is entirely instant, with no download or signup required.

It is free forever, so you need to know how to open the online website and get started with your Gantt chart. The Gantt chart is easy to use, with a simplified website design and monotone colors.

Easy to Use Gantt Chart

You can quickly start using Online Gantt by opening the website. The free Gantt chart might not have features to customize the design, but the template is already set up for you. All you need to do is name your project and set your task dependency. You can search for tasks, save them and create new ones.

Export Your Gantt Chart

Online Gantt allows you to export your Gantt chart to Excel. You can download it as an image or PDF file, making it easy to show the chart to team members and stakeholders outside of the website.

Multiple Views

Online Gantt allows you to view your project timeline in the form of the chart view and the edit resource list. You can manage the resources needed to complete your project with the resource list. It allows you to zoom in and out of your chart, providing a very close view or a bird's eye view of the chart.

Best for Non-Designers

Canva is another impressive online Gantt chart software, standing out from others with its visually aesthetic design. Canva is an excellent online designer, but the Gantt chart is set up with the non-designer in mind, easy to use with the drag-and-drop interface.

You only need to sign up on Canva and choose one of their templates to get started. The Gantt charts are colorful and easy to customize.

Professionally Designed Gantt Charts

Even if you're not a designer, Canva offers you an impressive selection of over 20 templates that have been professionally designed to meet your project needs. You can easily find a Gantt chart template that matches what you're looking for and input your project and tasks.

Publish, Share, Download, and Embed

The free Canva Gantt chart diagram can be published or downloaded and shared with others outside the app. The chart is in very high resolution and presentable to your stakeholders and team members. You can embed the chart into your presentation and reports, and any other document to show to clients.

Versatile and Aesthetic Design

Canva offers you a well-designed, versatile Gantt chart design. You can change the color of your entire chart, different elements, and texts. It provides you with varying designs of arrows, which you can use to show interdependent tasks. The chart can be shared with others, and they can edit it on their computer or smartphone and send it back.

• Additional templates for slideshows, presentations, infographics, graphs, and emails, among others
• Integrations with multiple external social media and content creation platforms
• Free trial and free plans
• No learning curve required
• Limited templates
• Limited export settings
• Limited functionality of the free plan

11. ProjectLibre Cloud

Best open source gantt chart.

ProjectLibre Cloud is a recently released free Gantt chart software that advertises itself as an alternative to Microsoft Project. It is an open-source project management software, and the Gantt chart offers a lot of room for customization.

ProjectLibre Cloud comes with a free desktop version, although keep in mind that the software is still in beta. You can sign up as an early user to get started with the free Gantt chart generator.

Open Source Platform

ProjectLibre Cloud is an open-source platform, which makes it compatible with Linux, Windows, and macOS devices. This is much better than MS Project since it does not support macOS devices, so you can open your MS Project files with ProjectLibre Cloud. The platform is available in multiple languages and is easy to download.

Wide Range of Customizable Tools

You can extensively customize your Gantt chart on ProjectLibre Cloud, which would fit the unique needs of your business and project. Although there are many customizable tools, keep in mind that this makes the learning curve very high. It might take a while to get the hang of this software.

Extra Features

This free online Gantt chart creator comes with a multi-project feature that allows you to manage different tasks and projects in one place. It comes with extra tools like resource pools, histograms, RBS and WBS charts, network diagrams, and project management.

12. Toggl Plan

Best tool for attractive design.

If you want a free Gantt chart creator with stunning visuals and top-notch project planning tools, Toggl Plan is ideal for you. The software comes with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, suitable for those who need a free Gantt chart generator for the short term.

After the free trial, you can decide to pay for one of the two plans. Toggl Plan is designed similarly to MS Project and allows for collaboration within and outside the software.

Flexible Gantt Chart Tool

Toggl Plan offers a highly flexible Gantt chart that anyone can easily set up and adjust with the drag and drop interface. You can modify one part whenever there's a change, and the rest of the chart will automatically be updated. It has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, allowing you and your team to use it on the go.

Team Timelines

With Toggl Plan, project managers can view their team members' schedules and assign tasks based on availability. It makes it easy to distribute and balance the workload and prevent overworking. The tool provides notifications whenever someone changes the Gantt chart.

Collaborate Easily

Asides from collaborating within your team, Toggl Plan comes with a public access link that allows you to keep clients in the loop. You can send the link of your Gantt chart to other stakeholders outside of the app without signing up.

• Time tracking
• Great overview and clear timeline
• Simple user interface
• Extensive range of features for the free plan
• A bit of a learning curve
• Costly premium plans

13. Gantter

Best for remote collaboration.

Gantter is an impressive, online Gantt chart software that makes it easy for those who work from home or are a part of remote teams to stay organized and productive.

The software is seamlessly integrated with Google and available in over 20 languages, which global teams find helpful.

Gantter offers an AI-powered Gantt chart that instantly suggests your project's risks, resources, and tasks. You can start using Gantter with the 30-day free trial, but you might have to pay for a paid plan after that.

Google Integration

Gantter's design is inspired by Google, making it easy for any Google user to get the hang of it. It is integrated with different Google apps like Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Sheets, and Google Comments. This Google-inspired design allows real-time multi-user editing, keeping your schedule updated.

Tracking and Analytics

With this free Gantt chart maker, you can track the project status and progress, the resources being used for the project, and the workload of all your team members. Gantter has features for analyzing risk and features built-in analytics. You can quickly draw up reports with the tool.

Import and Save on Cloud

Gantter is cloud-based software, making it easy for you to save and access your Gantt chart. You can share the Gantt chart with other stakeholders and keep them in the loop of your project. Plus, if you have your file in MS Project, you can import it to Gantter and save it there.

14. Agantty

Best for project management.

Agantty is a free-forever Gantt chart generator, giving you access to a wide range of premium features. Unlike other Gantt tools on our list, there is no paid plan, although the company releases paid extensions sometimes to improve your use.

Agantty thrives on its simple Gantt chart, with no learning curve. The Gantt chart offers a clear overview of your projects and tasks, preventing you from missing a deadline or milestone.

Gantt Chart Simplicity

Using the drag-and-drop interface, you can easily set up your Gantt chart on Agantty. By moving them, you can organize tasks, projects, and team members. It allows a project manager to filter their tasks and that of their team members so that they are properly structured and easy to sort out. The software comes with a top-notch mobile app.

Rights Management

Agantty offers team managers complete control over the Gantt charts. So, they can control which team members see what and who is allowed to make corrections. They can assign global and project-based rights and assign tasks to those in the team. It allows for seamless collaboration between team members.

Reminders and Lists

Users can easily set reminders for themselves or send them to other team members via email, ensuring that everyone in the team is on the same page. You can export tasks for particular coworkers and timeframes as PDFs to send outside the app.

• Free to use and open source
• Peculiar chart export options
• Portfolio Gantt chart
• High security for your data
• Unlimited teams and guests
• Keyboard shortcuts
• High security
• No comment/chat feature on tasks
• Bit of a learning curve

15. Tom's Planner

Best for personal productivity.

Freelancers and small teams can turn to Tom's Planner , another reliable online Gantt chart tool. Tom's Planner is super easy to use, eliminating the learning curve that comes with Gantt charts usually.

It offers a free plan, but it only supports one project with 200 activities or tasks. But to get access to unlimited projects, you need to pay for the tool.

Thousands of Templates

Tom's Planner offers over 500,000 Gantt chart templates, so you can easily find one that matches the type of project you're working on. The Gantt charts are created with a drag-and-drop interface. Regardless of the template you choose, the charts allow you to track progress with icons, percentages, traffic lights, colored blocks, and more.

Easily Find Tasks

Gantt charts can get large, especially when working on a big project. But, you can easily find tasks on Tom's Planner by using the search filter, which includes filters like team, resource, and activity. Collaboration with other team members is possible with Tom's Planner, and everyone can watch the project status as it changes.

Import and Share Charts

If you were creating Gantt charts or project schedules on MS Project, Excel, Basecamp, or Trello, you can import them to Tom's Planner and continue working on them there. You can share your chart with others, including anyone outside the app, making it easy to keep others in the loop.

• No learning curve
• High-quality templates
• Easy to use and customizable
• The software design is a bit outdated
• No function to limit the calendar size

16. Instagantt

Best for tracking projects.

Instagantt is a free Gantt chart software plugin built for Asana, the popular project planning platform. But, you can use the software outside of Asana, as it is a standalone tool. Instagantt comes with a seven-day free trial with no credit card required.

After this, you can cancel the plan or pay for their individual or team subscriptions. This online Gantt chart maker is best for setting task relationships and tracking projects. It has essential features like critical path and baseline.

Workload Management

Instagantt comes with a workload management tool that shows how many resources or tasks a user has on hand. This feature prevents overworking and helps with team management. The software offers the resources you have left in the project timeline and allows you to assign workload with the drag-and-drop interface.

Extensive Tracking

The free Gantt chart tool allows you to track progress for every project task and subtask. You can track the changes to the schedule and team member availability in real-time. The Gantt chart maker allows you to track risks and ensures you're on schedule.

Multiple Views and Dashboard

Instagantt comes with two other views if you don't want to use the Gantt chart view. These are the board and Kanban views. There is a very detailed dashboard that shows the evolution curve of your project and compares it to the ideal curve. It is updated automatically.

• Uncommon undo actions in case of mistakes
• Exports in PDF, PNG, or CSV formats
• Instant snapshots
• Baselining for expense management
• Difficult to integrate with Asana
• Lack of support for moving multiple tasks at once

17. RationalPlan

Best for quick onboarding.

Finally, on our list is RationalPlan , which is the best free Gantt chart software option for speedy onboarding.

The free project management software is designed for teams and project managers and makes it easy to track work progress, manage budgets and allocate resources.

You can use the RationalPlan Cloud plan for free, although it limits you to two projects, two users, and 100 tasks. All the paid plans come with a free trial.

Project Management Tools

RationalPlan comes with a wide range of project management and collaboration tools. It allows you to track workload and resource availability, manage projects, set milestones and recurrent tasks, and portfolio management.

Finance Management Features

The software allows you to estimate project costs and budgets, to prevent wasting and properly use resources. You can measure finances through standard and overtime rates and project performance.

Multiple Gantt Chart Features

You can set up a structure of projects and sub-projects with inter-project dependencies using RationalPlan. You can set milestones, connect tasks to resources, upload documents, and set access rights. RationalPlan allows users to create reports and deliver them to stakeholders and clients.

A Gantt chart is a tool that shows the visual timeline and progress of a particular project. It looks like a bar chart and allows you to plan projects, assign tasks, and review progress. Rather than making your Gantt charts yourself, you can use software online and set it up with a few clicks.

You can create Gantt charts for free by using free Gantt chart tools. We have recommended the top free Gantt chart makers in the review, and you can check out our top choices like ClickUp , TeamGantt , Monday.com , Wrike , and Smartsheet .

First, sign up on a free Gantt chart software, although some instant platforms don't require signing up. Some software requires downloading on your system. After creating your account, you can name your project and start setting task dependencies.

Excel does not have a fixed Gantt chart template. But, you can create one by creating a stacked bar chart and customizing it to show the start and due date of your project. You can then input the tasks and dependencies in the bar chart. Although you can use it for free, using a dedicated online Gantt chart creator is easier.

Microsoft Office 365 does not have a Gantt chart, but you can get a Gantt chart maker under Microsoft Projects. It features a critical path function and other workflow management features. The software is loaded with project management features.

Try These Free Gantt Chart Software Tools and Apps

Individuals, small teams, and startups who cannot afford a Gantt chart tool can resort to the free software instead. Whether the software is always free, comes with a free plan, or offers a free trial, there are different ways to use a Gantt chart without breaking the bank.

While you can try these free Gantt chart software tools, the paid Gantt chart makers usually come with more features and fewer limits. For even better project management, you can purchase project management tools online instead.

But just because it's free doesn't mean it's low-quality. That's why we compiled only the best and trusted free Gantt chart software tools, so start improving your productivity today.

With that said, here are our top five free Gantt chart software:

You might find these links useful if you need more resources before choosing a Gantt chart maker.

• ClickUp vs. Monday.com
• ClickUp Pricing: Is the Free Plan Good Enough?

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Anastasia belyh.

Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.

The best free project management software in 2024

These are the 8 best options for free task management software..

Everyone has a different way of managing projects. Some people like to use their inbox to keep track of tasks. Others prefer to visualize work on a Kanban board or in a calendar view, while some even prefer the old pen and paper system.

That's fine on an individual level, but when you collaborate on projects as a team, you need a flexible and capable project management tool that works for everyone. And with so many teams still working remotely, there's an even more pressing need for a task management app that can help track projects, collaborate, and keep everyone in the loop.

As a freelance writer, I've worked inside tons of different project management setups across my clients—I've seen how each app approaches the standard features, the potential of great, streamlined collaboration, and the consequences of poor project management.

The 8 best free project management tools

Trello for visually managing projects

Asana for teams

ClickUp for customized task views

Wrike for spreadsheet-like features

ActiveCollab for freelancers and small agency teams

Airtable for building a customized project management app

Jira for developers

Height for AI features

What makes the best free project management tool?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

To narrow down the list of the best free project management online tools, I looked for apps that met the following criteria:

Free for unlimited projects. All the project tracking software I chose lets you manage an unlimited number of projects for free.

Hosted. There are a lot of great, free, self-hosted project management applications, but they take longer to set up and manage. I was looking at task management software that's hosted by the companies that provide the tools. If you're interested in free, self-hosted project management software, I'd recommend checking out Taiga , Lavagna , and Redmine .

Collaboration and sharing features. The free project management apps included here make it quick and easy to add team members to your project management setup and control user types and permissions.

Flexibility. The best project managers are flexible enough to handle multiple teams, project types, and organization styles, so I looked for apps that support a number of different views and project management methodologies .

Integrations. A great project tracker should fit seamlessly into the rest of your stack, so I've only included apps that integrate with other popular software like email and Slack, calendars, document storage, and more.

After filtering for those criteria, I ran each remaining contender through a similar testing protocol that included:

Going through the signup process and any onboarding provided

Creating a new project and choosing a primary methodology (Kanban, Scrum, Gantt, etc.) or view (list, table, calendar, etc.) for it

Creating a number of new tasks and adding various details, like due dates, links and attachments, user assignments, and more

Toggling between view options and testing out any additional methodologies offered

Inviting new users and setting permissions

Toggling between team-wide and individual views

Testing out any unique features like time tracking, client views, or AI

After running each app through that workflow, I landed on the top eight free online project manager tools you see below.

Note: I selected tools that offer web apps (though many offer synchronized web, mobile, and desktop apps). If it's not important to you that your project planner is accessible online, you may also want to consider ProjectLibre and GanttProject in addition to the apps listed below. Both of these tools are powerful desktop-only apps that are designed to be alternatives to Microsoft Project.

Need more features and have a bit more flexibility in your budget? Check out our recommendations for the best project management software for small business .

The best free project management software at a glance

Best free project management software for visually managing projects, trello (web, macos, windows, ios, android).

Trello pros:

Super customizable boards with unlimited Power-Ups

Most visual UI of any of the apps I tested

Tons of templates to get you started

Trello cons:

Free users are limited to Kanban

User/team management features require an upgrade

Trello is simple project management software that gives you a way to organize your projects with Kanban boards. And with a generous free plan that allows for 10 boards per workspace and unlimited 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. Or check out these 6 ways to automate Trello .

Create Trello cards from new Typeform responses

Create new Trello cards from new Google Calendar events

Trello price: The free plan includes unlimited cards and members, 10 boards per workspace, unlimited Power-Ups, and 250 automated commands each month; upgrade for $5/user/month (billed annually) to the Standard plan that includes unlimited boards, custom fields, advanced checklists, up to 1,000 automated commands per month, and more.

Want to use Trello as a team? Learn how Trello uses Trello for its own project management needs. Want to use it as a personal to-do list? Here's how to use Trello for GTD .

Best free project management software for teams

Asana (web, ios, android).

Asana pros:

Flexible with project management methodologies between projects and users

Great, focused My Tasks view

To-do list style made better with team features

Asana cons:

Expensive upgrade

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 .

Create Google Calendar events from new Asana tasks

Create Asana tasks from new Google Forms responses

Asana price: The free Basic plan includes unlimited projects, tasks, and storage; up to 15 users; and list, board, and calendar views. Upgrade for $10.99/user/month (billed annually) to the Premium plan that adds Gantt and timeline views, extensive reports, and Asana's "coming soon" AI feature.

Learn more about how to use Asana for GTD and how to take advantage of Asana's hidden features . Or see how ClickUp and Asana stack up in our comparison of ClickUp vs. Asana .

Best free project management software for customized task views

Clickup (web, ios, android).

ClickUp pros:

11 different task views and 4 page views to choose from

Super generous free plan

ClickUp cons:

More involved set-up process

Potential for some lag during testing

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), and Embed (to add apps and websites next to your tasks).

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. Plus, with a newly revamped task details screen, you can view details, create subtasks, and add attachments more easily than you could before—you can even track time right inside the task.

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 .

Create Google Calendar events from new ClickUp tasks

Add starred Gmail emails as tasks in ClickUp [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

ClickUp price: The free plan includes unlimited tasks and users, up to 100MB of storage, and up to 60 uses of Gantt charts, mind maps, dashboards, and timeline views. Upgrade to the Unlimited plan for $7/user/month for unlimited list, board, calendar, and Gantt views, unlimited dashboards, and guests and permissions.

Tip: If you're a HubSpot user, you can create new tickets from ClickUp, and then use contact or customer information to launch personalized marketing campaigns.

Best free project management software for spreadsheet-like features

Wrike (web, windows, mac, ios, android).

Wrike pros:

Spreadsheet-esque UI

Best-in-class project tracking features

Wrike cons:

More limited free plan than most

Less customizable

If it were up to you, would you manage your projects in a spreadsheet? If so, you might like Wrike. Wrike offers the same flexibility of a spreadsheet—with columns for every bit of info you want to track about tasks. (If you like spreadsheets but need even more customization, head down to our review of Airtable .)

Wrike lets your team update the status of tasks at various intervals—in-progress, on hold, canceled, or completed. Additionally, you can set the status of projects to green, yellow, red, on hold, or canceled, making it easy to create your weekly project status reports.

While you can do a lot with Wrike's free plan, its best features—including time tracking, Gantt charts, and custom dashboards—do require a premium plan. If you're running a small operation now but planning to scale in the future, Wrike grows alongside you, giving you all of the tools you need to run both a single small project and many concurrent large ones.

If you're interested in the free plan, Wrike's Zapier integrations can help you do more with the project management app, like automatically creating tasks in Wrike from other tools.

Share tasks in Wrike via Slack messages

Create Wrike tasks from Trello cards

Wrike price: The free plan includes unlimited projects for unlimited users; upgrade for $9.80/user/month (billed annually) to the Team plan that includes Gantt charts, shareable dashboards, and more.

Read more: Wrike vs. Asana

Best free project management software for freelancers and small agency teams

Activecollab (web, windows, macos, ios, android).

ActiveCollab pros:

Built-in features for time tracking, billing, and expenses

Capable user permissions

ActiveCollab cons:

Less flexible for use cases beyond client management

Free plan and Plus plans limited to 3 users

If you're looking to manage client projects and other details like invoicing and time tracking in one place, ActiveCollab is a great option.

Built for agencies and freelancers, the app includes thoughtful details to streamline client management. You can estimate and track time for each task, set the task as billable (or not), and manage expenses right from the task details screen.

Even the free plan includes capable user permissions that make it easy to let clients into your process without exposing anything you don't want to. Simply check the Hidden from clients box to hide any task from client users, or add the Client+ add-on to enable a more collaborative user role for more hands-on clients. Select Workload from the left-hand menu to manage assignments and team bandwidth, and click on Reports to get a pulse on client invoices and payments, projects and tasks across the team, and track time and expenses.

With ActiveCollab, you can quickly create and send professional-looking estimates and invoices and integrate with your payment processing or accounting software to streamline billing. You can also connect ActiveCollab with Zapier to automate task creation, notifications and updates, and more.

Create tasks in Active Collab from new labeled Gmail emails [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Post new comments from Active Collab to Slack

ActiveCollab price: The free plan includes unlimited projects and tasks for up to 3 members, with task dependencies, and list and Kanban views. Upgrade to the Plus plan for $9.50/month (for 3 members) to add Gantt and calendar views, project templates and recurring tasks, and more.

While ActiveCollab has a more generous free plan, Paymo is another great option built for managing a client-centric workflow. I didn't include it here because the free plan is limited to one user and three clients. But if you have a smaller operation, Paymo is a user-friendly alternative with strong client and billing management features, including unlimited time tracking and invoices.

Best free project management software for building a customized app

Airtable (web, ios, android).

Airtable pros:

The most customizable app on this list

Lots of templates to help with initial setup

Airtable cons:

More involved setup process

Less familiar interface than most

Most expensive upgrade on this list

If you've tried other project management software and haven't found the one , Airtable will let you build it. The app is ready out-of-the-box with a default view similar to a spreadsheet, and it suggests a handful of templated projects based on your team within the company. You can start from one of the suggested templates, browse the rest, or build your own project (called a "base") from scratch.

But the real power of Airtable happens when you customize it . It will take some upfront effort to tailor Airtable to be exactly what you need—but if you're willing to spend the time, the sky's the limit. You can customize everything from the methodology and view type to column headers, field types, data validation, and more.

Head over to the Marketplace to choose from over 80 apps that help you integrate, analyze, and enrich your projects, or build your own custom apps. Airtable also integrates with Zapier , so you can do things like automatically track important information in Airtable, get notifications for activity in your Airtable base, and more .

Create detailed events in Google Calendar from new Airtable records in views

Add new Typeform entries to Airtable as records

Airtable price: The free plan includes unlimited bases, up to 5 users, 1,000 records per base, and 6 view options, including grid, calendar, and Kanban; upgrade for $20/user/month to the Team plan for 50,000 records per base, 20GB of attachments, Gantt and timeline view, and more.

Best free project management software for Agile software development teams

Jira (web, ios, android).

Purpose-built for developers and engineers

Prominent issue tracker

Over 1,000 integrations

Limited free plan

Not flexible for use across diverse teams

While the app also offers a Kanban view, Jira is built for Scrum and Agile workflows. When you first sign up, the onboarding flow asks a few questions about your team's projects, level of experience with different methodologies, and deadlines—then it recommends a methodology and project template for you.

For Scrum projects, you'll add epics to the Roadmap page. Then you can add issues to your backlog individually, filling in details and assigning them to sprints. Project tracking happens on a Scrum board, the homepage for each project—you can customize column headers and edit task details and status.

Jira's catering to developers and engineering teams doesn't stop there: the app also integrates with other development tools like GitHub, GitLab, Sentry, and Jenkins to make quick work of updating and tracking your backlog. And while you can't control user access on the free plan, it does include up to 10 users, so it's ideal for self-contained or smaller dev teams.

You can get more out of the free plan by using Jira's Zapier integrations to automatically create new issues in Jira based on Slack messages or GitHub issues. Try these Zaps and check out more ways to automate Jira .

Create Jira Software Cloud issues from new messages posted to a Slack channel

Generate Jira Software issues from new GitHub issues

Jira price: The free plan includes unlimited projects on one site, up to 10 users, and both Scrum and Kanban boards; upgrade to the Standard plan for $7.75/user/month for more granular user permissions, 250 GB of file storage, and more.

See how Trello and Jira stack up in our app comparison, or take a look at Asana vs. Jira .

Best free AI project management software

Height (web, mac).

Height pros:

Generous free plan

Genuinely useful AI features

Height cons:

Less flexible Kanban view

Height is a great option if you're looking for genuinely useful AI features. While some of the apps I tested offer AI-powered features, most either require a paid plan or just aren't that intelligent. Height is different.

The app doesn't overpromise on AI, but it definitely delivers. The feature (called Copilot) is still in beta and likely to be revamped in a major way when the company launches Height 2.0 (which I haven't tested). Even still, today's version can already generate a catch-up summary of a task's chat history, create subtasks from chat messages, auto-detect duplicate tasks, suggest task improvements, and more. (You can see auto-generated subtasks in the screenshot I took above.)

By this time next year, many of the other project management apps on this list may well offer these same features, but for now, they're a big stand-out for Height.

And with four clean view options (spreadsheet, calendar, Kanban, and Gantt) all available for free—plus unlimited users, 100 automation runs per month, and full access to Copilot—Height also offers a competitively generous free plan.

You can do even more with Height by connecting it to Zapier to automate task creation, notifications, and more. Here are some examples.

Create new Height tasks from Slack mentions

Create detailed Google Calendar events for new Height tasks assigned to users

Create height tasks for new or updated airtable records.

Height price: The free plan includes unlimited tasks and users, spreadsheet, Kanban, Gantt, and Calendar views, 100 automation runs, and AI task management features. Upgrade to the Team plan for $6.99/user/month to get unlimited lists and custom attributes, full search history, 100 MB file uploads, and more.

What's the best free project planning software?

Honestly, online project management tools are a dime a dozen. And a lot of them will advertise "free" plans that aren't really free—meaning you can't actually manage all your projects without upgrading. The best free task management software will let you do what you need to do without spending a dime. And, as your needs change, they'll support you with more robust features at higher tiers.

The good news: free project planning software is...free. So you can test your options, see what you like (and what you don't), and then decide. Here are more tips on how to choose online project management software .

Related reading:

RACI: A map for team structure (with template)

ClickUp vs. monday: Which should you use?

21 project management templates to organize any workflow

Asana vs. Basecamp: Which should you use?

Airtable vs. Trello: Which should you use?

Airtable vs. Asana: Which is right for you?

Originally published in May 2017 by Matthew Guay, this post has had contributions from Jessica Greene, Maria Myre, and Emily Esposito. The most recent update was in October 2023.

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Kiera Abbamonte

Kiera’s a content writer who helps SaaS and eCommerce companies connect with customers and reach new audiences. Located in Boston, MA, she loves cinnamon coffee and a good baseball game. Catch up with her on Twitter @Kieraabbamonte.

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10 Best Free Project Management Software Tools Compared (2022)

Staying on top of work is challenging. 

You can somewhat organize work using tools to manage your tasks, calendars, and notes. 

And, while most of these tools are free, bringing all the workflows together can be a nightmare. And, if you work with a team, it becomes more difficult.

Thankfully, today you have access to free project management software. These tools help you plan work, manage tasks, and collaborate with your team — without paying a dime.

We looked at dozens of the best project management tools and settled on these ten. 

Let’s look at these free project management tools.

Quick Overview Of The Top 10 Free Project Management Tools

Here’s a quick comparison of the best free tools for managing projects. Click on the tool’s name to learn more about it below.

Criteria For Choosing The Best Free Project Management App

Here is what we looked at to shortlist the top 10 project management apps from the dozens of options available.

• Is it free forever? You can try a lot of project tools for free. But once the trial period expires, you have to either pay or move on to another tool. In this list, we only considered those tools that are free forever.
• Does it have planning, task management, collaboration, and team management features? We eliminated to do list apps, project planners, team calendars, or timesheets that offer only one set of functionality.
• Is it hosted online? Desktop tools like ProjectLibre and GanttProject can be downloaded and used for free. But with more teams working from home, we decided to stick to online project management tools. Free, self-hosted, web-based tools like Redmine are an option too. But maintenance is a big hassle with self-hosted apps.

Overview Of the 10 Best Free Project Management Software

Now that you know which tools made it to this list and how we chose them let’s look at these tools in detail.

Toggl Plan has a very generous, forever free plan. 

For solo users, you can manage unlimited projects with the free plan. This makes Toggl Plan suitable for most freelancers and consultants.

Free features in Toggl Plan

• Plan unlimited project schedules using the Plan timeline. 
• Zoom in on a week, month, or quarter to get a bird’s eye view of your project timeline . 
• Track critical dates using color-coded milestones.
• Manage unlimited tasks on the timeline or Kanban boards. Create customized task workflows to match your team’s needs.
• Collaborate on tasks with file attachments and comments.
• Visualize team availability and workloads using unlimited Team timelines. 
• Share read-only Timelines and Boards with clients and vendors.

Features available only in paid plans

Paid plans are affordable, ranging from $9 – $15 per user per month. You get the following additional features when you upgrade to a paid plan.

• Recurring tasks.
• Assign multiple team members to a task.
• Annual timeline overviews.
• Role-based access rights.
• Data export.

Trello’s forever free plan comes with unlimited users, unlimited personal projects, and only ten team projects. This puts Trello’s free plan among the best task management apps for solo workers. However, small teams will quickly reach the ten project limit.

Free features in Trello

• Create unlimited personal Kanban boards and task cards.
• Manage up to 10 team boards.
• Customize task workflow to match your needs.
• Use the free calendar powerup to plan tasks. Note that you can use only one power-up in the free plan.
• Attach files and notes to tasks.

Trello’s paid plans are slightly expensive, starting at $12.50 per user per month.

• Manage unlimited team boards, power-ups, and workflow automation.
• Group Kanban boards.
• Custom task fields.

Asana’s forever free plan is good for up to 15 team members and for an unlimited number of projects. However, you only get 1000 tasks per project. This makes Asana suitable for small projects.

Free features in Asana

• Manage unlimited projects for up to 15 users.
• Track up to 1000 tasks per project using lists or Kanban boards.
• Visualize project plans in the calendar view.
• 100+ free integrations.

Asana is relatively expensive, starting at $13.49 per user, per project. However, upgrading to a paid plan gets you lots of useful features:

• Unlimited tasks per project.
• Gantt timelines with milestones.
• Team workload management .
• Approvals and proofing.

MeisterTask

Meistertask’s free plan limits you to 3 projects. However, you can add an unlimited number of team members to these projects. This makes it one of the best free task management software for teams that work on a limited number of projects.

Free features in Meistertask

• Manage up to 3 projects using Kanban boards.
• Customize project workflows to match your team’s needs.
• Attach files up to 20 MB in size to task cards.
• Mobile apps.
• Email support.

MeisterTask’s competitive paid plans start at $4.19 per user per month. 

But, to get a decent project management feature-set you’ll need to upgrade to at least the Business plan, which costs $10.39 per user per month. Also, MeisterTask only supports annual billing according to their pricing page.

Upgrading to a paid plan gets you:

• Gantt timelines.
• Recurring tasks and custom fields.
• Task workflow automation.
• Role-based access control.
• File attachments up to 200 MB.

Wrike’s free plan comes with unlimited projects for up to 5 users. However, the free plan does not have planning features. This makes Wrike’s free plan suitable for freelancers and small teams working on simpler projects.

Free features in Wrike

• Manage unlimited projects for up to 5 users.
• Kanban board and spreadsheet view to manage tasks.
• Collaborate using file-sharing options with up to 2 GB storage.

Features available only on paid plans

Wrike’s paid plans start at $9.80 per user per month. However, all plans are billed annually. Upgrading to a paid plan gets you the following features:

• Gantt chart timeline and calendar views.
• Custom fields and task workflows.
• Project templates.
• Time-tracking.
• Project and task approvals.

Basecamp is a simple project management software.

It has a free Personal plan which comes with up to 3 projects for 20 users. However, you cannot create a team project. This makes Basecamp’s free plan suitable for freelancers.

Free features in Basecamp

• Manage tasks in up to 3 projects with to do lists.
• Collaborate with file sharing and message boards.
• Up to 1 GB file storage.

Basecamp has a single paid plan at $99 per month for an unlimited number of users.

• Unlimited projects and users.
• Private team projects.
• Unlimited clients and contractors.
• 500 GB storage space.

Citrix’s Podio comes with a free plan for up to 5 users. While you can create unlimited projects and workspaces, you’re limited to 500 tasks per account. This makes Podio suitable for freelancers and small teams working on very small projects.

Free features in Podio

• Unlimited projects for up to 5 users.
• Up to 500 tasks per account.

Podio’s paid plans start at $9 per user per month. Upgrading to a paid plan gets you:

• Unlimited tasks.
• User management and a read-only for new users.
• Automated workflows.
• Visual reports.

Redbooth’s forever-free plan is limited to 2 project workspaces and 2 users.

It’s free plan is suitable for freelancers working on ongoing or personal projects. However, for a team, it doesn’t offer much as a free project management software.

Free features in Redbooth

• Use it as a project planning software with Gantt timelines.
• Track tasks on a calendar or a task list.
• Collaborate using team conversations.
• Up to 2 GB storage space.

Redbooth paid plans are priced from $12 – $18.75 per user per month. Upgrading your account to a paid plan gets you:

• Unlimited project workspaces.
• 5 GB – 50 GB storage space.
• Workload management.
• Video meeting collaboration.

Paymo has a generous free plan for freelancers. It’s free plan has all the features to make it one of the best free project management software tools for solo-workers.

Free features in Paymo

• Create and track tasks using lists and Kanban boards.
• Track time spent on tasks.
• Generate time and expense reports for tasks.

Paymo’s paid plans range from $11.95 – $18.95 per user per month. Upgrading gets you:

• Gantt chart timelines.
• Unlimited project templates. 
• Generate invoices and expense reports.
• Employee scheduling and workload management.

Todoist is one of the best to do list app out there. However, you can also collaborate with your team on tasks. Todoist free plan comes with:

Free features in Todoist

• 80 projects at up to 5 team members per project.
• Task management.
• Recurring milestones.
• Access to all integrations.

Todoist paid plans are the most affordable at $4 – $6 per user per month. Upgrading to a paid plan gets you:

• Up to 500 projects and 50 people per project.
• Team collaboration using comments and file attachments.
• Task reminders.
• Team inbox.
• Role-based access for admins and members.

That’s All In Our List Of Free Project Management Software

As you can see, not all free plans are equal. Some plans offer a limited number of projects, while others limit your features.

But as a freelancer, you don’t have to settle for less.

Toggl Plan’s free plan comes with everything — planning, task tracking, and collaboration.

So why not give Toggl Plan a try? Sign up for a free trial account now.

Jitesh is an SEO and content specialist. He manages content projects at Toggl and loves sharing actionable tips to deliver projects profitably.

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Take a peek at our most popular categories:

Free Online Project Management Software

Save time on project management, and keep on track with collaborative online tools you can use anywhere.

Supercharge your profits and efficiency

Quick and easy with no training required, easy team adoption, track time and give client updates without headaches, and so much more.

Features that make project management easier.

Get full control of projects and track progress

Get an accurate picture of your team’s workload and progress.

See who’s busy and who’s free across all active projects. Ensure work happens in the right order with dependencies. Track actual vs. estimated hours to prevent costly overages.

Project management tools that adapt to you

Easily switch between different project views with a single click.

• Gantt chart
• Kanban board

Start planning right away, no training required

Drag and drop tasks for fast and easy project management.

• No training required. Start by simply adding tasks in your gantt chart
• Get up and running in only 5 minutes
• See more gantt chart features

No more endless email threads

Organize all your tasks, documents, and chats in one place.

• Safely store all your important information together in your project plan
• Always find the latest files, conversations, and updates in your online gantt chart
• Upload documents and add comments directly to a project or task

Integrates with your current toolset.

Friendly support from actual humans.

Get a response from support in as little as 5 minutes during weekday hours, with weekend and evening support available.

Best free project management software of 2024

Manage your projects for free

• Best free project management software in full

Best overall

Best content marketing tool, best for simplicity, best for remote working, best for small business, best for tracking, how we test.

Project management is an essential activity within the workplace. It is the application of known processes and methods to achieve project goals within some defined constraints.

1. Best overall 2. Best content marketing tool 3. Best overall 4. Best for simplicity 5. Best for remote working 6. Best for small business 6. Best for tracking 7. How we test

Every project must have a leader (or multiple leaders) that assigns tasks to each team member, and everyone must contribute to the project’s success. It can be difficult to manage projects manually, but the good thing is that many software platforms make it easier. 

Project management software makes it easy to plan, organize, and manage human resources to achieve project goals, and you’ll find it being used in virtually every serious enterprise. We scoured the web to identify the best free project management software so that you don’t have to. All the platforms we’ll mention are good choices to adopt for project management within your organization.

We've also listed the best free office software .

Reader Offer: Save 18% on Monday.com annual memberships Monday.com is an easy-to-use and customizable work management platform, enabling teams of all sizes to plan, manage and centralize work. Get started now and boost your team's communication and productivity.

Preferred partner ( What does this mean? )  

Best free project management software of 2024 in full:

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

Trello is arguably the most popular project management tool worldwide. It was created in 2011 by a company called Fog Creek Software (now Glitch) and sold to Atlassian in 2017 for over $400 million. 

Trello offers a free plan for individuals and teams that want to manage their projects effectively. With the free plan, you can create up to 10 boards per workspace and unlimited project cards. You get unlimited file storage, although the size of a single file is capped at 10 MB. You can access the platform via the web or download the app on your mobile device, and Trello is notably friendly to mobile users.

The free plan supports two-factor authentication for extra security. Enabling this feature means that access won’t be granted to any user’s account except two modes of identification are provided (the first is the username and password and the second is usually a one-time pin sent to the user’s phone number or email address). 

With Trello, a lead project manager can easily assign tasks to their subordinates and track their progress in real-time. The free version alone provides ample features to manage projects effectively, but you’re free to subscribe to a premium plan to get access to advanced features such as organization-wide permissions, public board management, and single sign-on.

Read our full Trello review .    

• ^ Back to the top

2. Monday Work Management

If you're looking for a way to keep your team organized, Monday.com is the way to go. It's a great way to plan, monitor, and manage your work. You'll get access to your own workspace, and then you can use boards to keep track of all the stuff you need, from tasks to projects to workflows. 

You can customize the boards with columns that show all the info you need, like task titles, dates, who owns what, status, and what's most important. Plus, you can use the collaboration features on Monday.com to make it easier for your team to communicate with each other. This helps you better understand what needs to be done, make better choices, and work faster with pre-made automations. Finally, you can keep track of the whole project with a dashboard that can bring all the info from different boards together. 

We love that there are five different plans to pick from, with the lowest one being free forever which has two seats and three boards. The others start with the Basic plan, which has at least three seats and costs $8 a month, but you can get a discount if you pay annually. To get access to automations, you need to move up to the Standard plan, which costs $10 per seat and has a maximum of 250 seats per month. Finally, there's the Enterprise plan, which is totally customizable. 

The company offers a range of support services, including chat, email, and phone calls. Additionally, a free trial is available for the paid plans, as well as smartphone apps for iOS and Android devices.

Read our full Monday Work Management review .

3. Microsoft Planner

Almost everyone knows Microsoft , the company behind the Windows operating system . Apart from Windows, Microsoft offers many other consumer and business software, including some that don’t require extra payment. Microsoft Planner is bundled for free for every organization already subscribed to the Microsoft 365 software suite. It’s a simple, visual tool for organizing teamwork in professional settings.

The main draw to Microsoft Planner is its simplicity. There’s no struggle to set it up; just access it via the web link or download the app on your iOS or Android device, then sign in with your Microsoft account. Note that personal Microsoft accounts aren’t permitted to use Microsoft Planner, but only organization accounts under Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Planner works using the Kanban project management methodology, which was developed by Japanese automaker Toyota to improve manufacturing efficiency. The Kanban system involves dividing a project to-do list into three sections; the backlog, the list of items currently in progress, and the list of completed tasks. As the project proceeds, you can move items from one section to another with ease. This methodology helps companies keep tabs on a project’s progress in a visual, interactive way.

With Microsoft Planner, lead project managers can monitor everything about the progress of their project in one place, and the same applies to the other employees tasked with fulfilling the project. The platform automatically visualizes project tasks into pie and bar charts to make them easy to monitor.

This platform is famous for its ease of use and simplicity, but it doesn’t offer as many advanced features as you can find on other competitors such as Trello. 

Remote work took off rapidly after the Covid pandemic of 2020 and increased the need for companies adopting this model to have suitable project management systems. Fortunately, Nifty, an app launched in 2017, fulfills that need.

Nifty is much more than project management but nonetheless excels in this sector. It makes it easy for project leads to assign tasks to their subordinates and monitor the progress of the project in real-time. You can choose from one of several project management visualization methods including Kanban, List, Swimlane, and Timeline. This gives users the ability to choose the method they prefer instead of being locked to one method as with many other apps.

The "My Work" section of this app is where you keep track of all task assignments, activities, and time logs. You can filter tasks by important factors such as due dates, assignees, and milestones to see exactly how a project has progressed. You can even automate task assignments if you don't have the time or patience to do that manually. Likewise, you can set up recurring tasks based on specific dates or statuses.

The free version of Nifty supports a maximum of 2 active projects, which is quite small. But, if you pay for a premium subscription, you can manage as many projects as you want and get unlimited storage.

5. Zoho Projects

Zoho is an Indian software company famous for providing affordable alternatives to popular software tools. It offers a project management tool called Zoho Projects , with a free plan that offers many features. If you wish to upgrade, the premium plan is relatively affordable, making it an ideal option for small businesses with tight budgets.

With Zoho's free project planner, you can easily map out your project goals and identify the progress as your team works on them. You're free to assign tasks to other members of your team in a few steps; you can do that manually or automate the process. You can create timesheets to log billable and non-billable hours, which is useful for consultancies working on projects for external customers. There's built-in integration with Zoho's invoicing tool, so you can automatically generate invoices from your timesheets.

You can access Zoho Projects either via the web platform or by downloading the app on your iOS or Android device. The platform has an intuitive interface that makes it easy and enjoyable to use, but we observed that the task search function didn’t work well.

Zoho Projects has integrations with many third-party software tools to provide extra functionality. For example, you can link it with your Slack account for instant workplace communication and Dropbox for file storage.

Read our full Zoho Projects review .  

Asana is a popular web or mobile-based “work management” platform. It offers an extensive feature set and makes it easy to manage and collaborate on projects in professional settings. 

The premium version of Asana starts at $11 per user per month, which is costly, but, fortunately, there’s a free plan that anyone can adopt. The free Asana plan lets you assign unlimited tasks and manage an unlimited number of projects. You can also store an unlimited number of files, although each file is capped at 100MB. 

The free plan supports collaboration for up to 15 team members. Anything above that number, and you’ll need to pay for a premium plan. 

You can access Asana via the web interface or by downloading the mobile app on iOS or Android. The platform has integrations with over 100 third-party apps to offer extra functionalities, e.g., Microsoft Teams for audio and video conferencing or Okta for single sign-on. 

Asana has a lot of project management and collaboration features, which is good. However, this means that new users may find it difficult to navigate their way around the platform. Too many features to manage and understand can be overwhelming, but the good thing is that you can get used to the platform with time. 

Read our full Asana review . 

We've also listed the best productivity tools .

The first thing we considered was the features that each platform offers. Does it have features that enable teams to manage and collaborate on projects? What unique features set it apart from the competition?

We also considered the ease of use because that’s important for every software, especially those that’ll be used by non-technical users. Pricing also played a part, although all the platforms we mentioned offer free versions. Other important factors we considered include customer support, cross-platform compatibility, performance, and security. 

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Stefan has always been a lover of tech. He graduated with an MSc in geological engineering but soon discovered he had a knack for writing instead. So he decided to combine his newfound and life-long passions to become a technology writer. As a freelance content writer, Stefan can break down complex technological topics, making them easily digestible for the lay audience.

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25 Best Free Project Management Software: Plans to Try in 2024

Erica Chappell

Managing Editor

May 8, 2024

Looking for the most powerful project management software in 2024?

There’s no doubt that project management software helps you become more productive in managing your workflow.

How do we know? 

Because you can track tasks completed, the time spent, and compare that to your performance over the long run.

And when you use project management software correctly, most of the challenges of managing virtual teams go poof.

Project success requires the right tools and processes, but you don’t have to break your budget to stay on top of projects. Instead, take advantage of these great project management software options that will keep your agenda organized and ensure your team is always on track.

If your team has never used any project management software or tools before, this list will give you a great head start regarding the different options to try out.

In this article, we’ll highlight the top options and help you find the best project management software that will fit your team, your personality, and your needs, no matter what task you need to accomplish!

Read our related articles on the best task management software and product management tools .

What is project management software?

25 best free project management software in 2024, 2. meistertask, 6. bitrix24, 10. todoist, 11. airtable, 12. teamgantt, 13. teamwork projects, 14. freedcamp, 15. redbooth, 16. basecamp, 17. activecollab, 22. toggl plan, 23. zoho projects, features to look for in free project management software, benefits of free project management software.

Project management software is designed to assist in managing the activities, resources, information, and tasks related to a project. It offers structure and organization for projects of any size so that teams monitor project progress from start to finish.

Most project management tool s typically include specialized features to streamline the project management lifecycle:

• Resource allocation  lets project managers match the appropriate resources to what the specific job needs
• Task lists, whiteboards, and chat channels allow teams to work together in real-time or asynchronously
• Reporting capabilities provide leaders with insights into the project’s progress

Teams have more projects taking up their work time. From meetings to deep work and informal projects to goal tracking, many things are moving simultaneously in a short amount of time.

Without best-in-class project management software, we essentially create more tasks, inefficiencies, and fear-based decisions.

Here are the 25 best project management software to help you start managing projects right away.

ClickUp is project management software equipped to handle all your team’s workload. It simplifies the process of collaboration and multi-step workflow management. Thanks to its scalable Hierarchy framework, even the most complex of projects are neatly organized into manageable tasks and subtasks while providing teams the flexibility to toggle between different views of the same project data— right from a single, unified space.

ClickUp offers a plethora of customizable features that empower teams to transform ideas into action and structure project roadmaps centered around key milestones. Moreover, ClickUp’s impressive integration capabilities allow it to seamlessly connect with over 1,000 other work tools for free. These include Slack, Google Drive, Figma, Loom and more! This integration prowess of ClickUp not only refines your project management process but also propels your projects and brings your team a step closer to accomplishing their goals.

ClickUp best project management features:

• Extensive online support, interactive webinars, and proactive customer service are all in place to help you maximize the use of the platform
• ClickUp Task Tray to securely parks minimized tasks for easy access and reference at any time
• Adaptable Project Time Tracking and report generation from any gadget. This allows you to seamlessly switch between tasks or even add time retrospectively
• Comprehensive Start Dates, Due Dates, and Exact Times for pinpoint accuracy when establishing deadlines and key milestones
• Use the watchers feature to keep team members and stakeholders updated automatically about any task-related activity
• @mentions and assigned comments implemented in tasks, subtasks, and Chat View to engage everyone relevant in the discussion
• ClickUp Hierarchy gives you more flexibility and control to organize everything from small teams to enterprise companies
• Implement over 50 Task Automations to optimize any project management process
• ClickUp AI for project management, which integrates machine learning capabilities to streamline tasks, automate repetitive actions, and intelligently analyze data for actionable insights

What you get in the free version of ClickUp:

Most companies demand premium prices for what ClickUp delivers for free.

You enjoy access to unlimited users, tasks, and multiple product features in the Free Forever plan . There are no limits to which task management options or which project management features you can use!

The result? An effective project plan , every time

• Customized views: Do you prefer to see your tasks on a Scrum board or a list? Organize and view your tasks in a List, Box, Gantt chart, Board, Table, or Calendar view. Additionally, you and your team can switch between different views with just a click. Select a view that works best for you, and quickly find the task you’re working on
• Workload Management : Easily allocate resources using Workload view and Pulse to gauge your team’s current workload .  Recent studies show that nearly half of American employees feel burnt out. If you’re running a remote team, this can instantly boost your team productivity!
• ClickUp Dashboards : Access high-level views of everything in your Workspace. With Dashboards, you can use Customizable Widgets to gain important insights on people, Sprints, projects, tasks, and more. Dashboards are also great for Agile project management and product development.
• Assign Comments : Do comments slip through the cracks? Assign Comments as a task, and set up specific dates and times to follow up. This feature makes remote project management super easy
• Priorities : Is your team unsure of which tasks are most important? Set up custom priority levels and collaborate on various tasks based on their urgencies and importance
• Reminders : Don’t let important tasks, start dates, and due dates slip from your memory with ClickUp’s Reminders. Need to save time? Create Recurring Reminders instead
• ClickUp Goals : Set Goals for your whole team. Track Targets like numbers or a simple yes/no. You can also use this to set weekly sprint goals for your Agile and Scrum software projects.
• ClickUp Mind Maps : Visualize your thoughts and ideas with Mind Maps
• ClickUp Whiteboards : Visually collaborate with your team in real time! Project management whiteboards are the fastest way to bridge the gap between brainstorming and getting work done. Link to tasks, files, Docs, and more.
• Custom Fields : Set up project management the way you want it. Add columns for contact info, notes, project budgets , etc.
• Custom Task Statuses : Create Custom Task Statuses to track project progress 
• Gantt Chart view : Create effective project plans, manage project closures , and manage dependencies with ease. Using Gantt Charts , you can also quickly schedule multiple small and complex projects
• Drag and Drop : This is a key feature, especially if you have multiple teams in ClickUp. Drag, drop, move, and re-assign tasks to people, clients, or Teams in just a few steps, no annoying menus required.

ClickUp is conscious of how work actually gets done, which sparked our motivation to obsessively create features to enhance productivity . And because ClickUp interacts with so many essential team collaboration tools, your team will hum along as it’s always done… just faster and more efficiently on multiple projects.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an individual user or project manager, ClickUp has you covered. 😊

There’s a free plan available to your team, along with an upgrade to unlimited storage for just a few dollars more a month. Feel free to try out the free version with all the features, and upgrade to unlimited storage at any time.

ClickUp Pricing

• Free Forever Plan  (best for personal use)
• Unlimited Plan  (best for small teams ($7/member per month)
• Business Plan  (best for mid-sized teams ($12/member per month)
• ClickUp Brain: Available on all paid plans for $5/Workspace member/month

What people think about managing projects in ClickUp:

“Clickup has so many great tools to grow our team and I’m always finding better and faster ways to do things. We have seen tremendous productivity growth in our team since using Clickup.” – G2Crowd

“ClickUp has completely changed how I work. I cannot imagine not using it. It has almost gotten to the point where if it isn’t on ClickUp, I won’t be doing it. It takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it it becomes exponentially useful.” — G2Crowd

“While we had already been using ClickUp, we started implementing an agile approach and using sprints for our team. ClickUp has been invaluable in this regard! We are more productive, have better oversight regarding what everyone is busy with, more transparency and are better able to communicate with the rest of the company regarding expected completion dates. The online resources are brilliant to learn how to make the most out of ClickUp. I cannot recommend this tool enough!” — G2Crowd

Any Kanban board fanatics in the house? MeisterTask is the way to go for you guys. This project management software tool tries to make Kanban boards more practical.

Your tasks, comments, notes, due dates, etc, are all set up like Kanban boards in one place. It’s a flexible project board and cloud-based project management tool.

MeisterTask best project management features:

• Task assignment and progress tracking
• Kanban boards for task management
• Unlimited automations
• Gantt-style timelines for scheduling and assigning tasks

What you get in the free version of MeisterTask:

• Unlimited projects and unlimited users
• Two integrations (Slack or Zendesk)
• Checklists, comments, tags, task and time tracking features
• User-friendly interface
• File sharing and attachments (up to 20MB)

What people think about managing projects in MeisterTask:

“The one thing I’m not really happy with is the inability to batch move tasks from one section to another. I don’t know why we can do that! You can only move one task at a time. Also, the scroll bar is pretty small and hard to click on because it’s pretty skinny. The free version doesn’t support recurring tasks, so that’s something to be aware of if you are not going to pay for it.” – Capterra Verified Review

“I wish the free version had more projects – something like 4 to 6 would be great. My budget may allow me to purchase the full (I think Pro) version. I am using this for just myself right now, but can see how a business could make use of it. Like most To-do apps, a decent snooze feature is lacking. Sometimes I am in the middle of working on a task and need a few more minutes to finish up – snoozing an upcoming item is always helpful.” – Capterra Verified Review

Nifty is a project management tool that aims to keep you focused on managing your work, not tool. Collaborate with your team and clients in one app with a variety of features like chat, tasks, docs, and calendar. Create a proposal for your projects and automate your progress tracking.

Set goals and timelines, collaborate on tasks, establish a knowledge hub, create docs and wikis and balance workloads .

Visualize your project in Nifty as Milestones (similar to Gantt view), or choose from its other three views including Timeline, its board-like Swimlane view, or from a birds-eye with Master overview.

Nifty best project management features:

• Milestone tracking and project timelines
• Task management with automated progress updates
• Team collaboration tools
• Task assignment and prioritization
• Integrated communication channels

What you get in the free version of Nifty:

• Unlimited team members, guests, and clients
• 100 MB storage space
• Tasks, Milestones, Discussions and Docs
• Workflow Automations and Custom Roles and Permissions

What people think about managing projects in Nifty:

“Nifty is a product that excels in many client environments. Its ease of use makes it a powerful tool for managing our client portfolio.” — Stefan Schmidt, Executive Partner, Hemmersbach

“Nifty is still in its early days, you might find some bugs here and there, but the team is always very fast to respond when you report something or if you send a feature request. Regarding its interface, there’s nothing to dislike. I think Nifty is headed in the right direction, it just needs a bit of time to mature, but in the meantime, it’s perfectly functional and does what it says, making project management easy.” — G2Crowd

Trello has become a popular free project management app in the last few years by introducing the Kanban board approach to the masses. And you can use it even if you don’t use Agile or Scrum project management methodologies.

However, Trello isn’t perfect. Especially for user’s looking for a free project management solution.

Starting in April, 2024, Trello Workspaces will be limited to 10 collaborators per workspace, making Trello an expensive option for larger teams.

Check out our Trello and ClickUp comparison and list of Trello Alternatives .

Trello best project management features:

• Plugins to link to other apps and project management tools
• Project views including Kanban boards, timelines, and calendars
• Custom fields to structure information for the entire project
• No-code automations in each Trello board
• Project templates for repeatable workflows

What you get in the free version of Trello:

• One integration per board
• Up to 10MB for files

What people think about managing projects in Trello:

“So far Trello is doing a great job. What is advertised is done as expected. The only thing I will like to mention is the modern user interface. I would really like to have a new and fresh look for this software which will make the user experience more effective.” — G2Crowd

“Trello is a great tool, but it’s restricted in terms of the projects it can manage. Trello is ideal for little tasks, but not for large ones.” – Capterra Verified Review

Be a master of none or a niche player? That’s an age-old question.

Bitrix24 is an intuitive free planning software and project management solution that tries to solve multiple business needs at once. Great for some businesses, especially small businesses, but it kind of depends on both your personality and your team’s habits.

The annoying bit is, you’re probably using several of these tools already. In that case, integrating may be better than going all out for a one-stop-shop solution that’s confusing!

But as a free project planner , it offers you tasks, Gantt charts, and task dependencies. The only cap is with the number of users and storage.

Bitrix24 best project management features:

• CRM integration for client project management
• Task and goal setting with deadline reminders
• Gantt charts for task progression
• Real-time team collaboration tools
• Project time tracking and reporting

What you get in the free version of Bitrix24:

Task management.

• Kanban boards

Resource management

• 5GB of storage

What people think about managing projects in Bitrix24:

“Bitrix is riddled with whimsical graphics that smooth over the transitions from page to page. They ultimately slow down the experience and draw the eye away from the more critical business elements of the page. On top of that, helpful reminders reminiscent of ‘Clippy’ show to block key functions of the page, making them hard to ignore and, at the end of the day, frustrating.” — G2Crowd

“I liked all the features and functionality it offers but since the interface was too cluttered with things my team didn’t need it had a negative impact on productivity since it took too long to find things.” – Capterra Verified Review

Hive is a project management platform that helps teams work together online, whether they are back in the office, fully remote, or mixing the two with a hybrid model. Hive Solo, the platform’s free-forever plan, offers full project management functionality for teams of 1 or 2. This makes it one of the best free project management software for small teams, freelancers , and entrepreneurs.

With its simple user interface, Hive makes it really easy to get started right out of the box. And with all of the standard task management and collaboration features, there are plenty of useful tools to keep your team organized, no matter where you’re working.

Hive best project management features:

• Project action cards for detailed task management
• Gantt chart view for progress tracking
• Integration capabilities with numerous apps
• Collaboration tools including chat and email
• Analytics dashboard for project overview

What you get in the free version of Hive:

• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited projects and tasks​
• Unlimited collaborative notes
• Gantt, Kanban, calendar & table views​
• Email in Hive​
• Native chat messaging​

What people think of managing projects in Hive:

“We recommend using Hive for project management for companies of all sizes and all natures. Hive can adapt to the nature of work you do and it can be easily adjustable to your work style. So, why not get a good platform that knows the project management work and will ease your life in the longer run.” – James Cooper, G2 Reviews

“You do not need to be a qualified project manager to get the immediate benefits of using Hive. The interface is very intuitive and it’s easy to see how your project is looking within 10-15 minutes.” – Gary Bright, G2 Reviews

nTask is a simple but powerful project management solution that makes it easy to manage complex workflows.

Made to bring project teams on one place, and collaborate to achieve business goals. The platform’s simple structure, and ability to create unlimited workspaces is loved by users. It gives a bird’s eye view for the project progress to help managers making effective decisions.

However, the basic free plan has no reporting tools and Gantt charts feature.

It is a useful tool to manage project budget, project planning, task management, time tracking, and managing risks.

The tool helps you to create custom fields and statuses for the project. We wish to see a better team communication feature in projects, rather than just task comments.

nTask best project management features:

• Comprehensive task management with subtasks
• Meeting scheduling and follow-ups
• Risk management tools for project risks
• Budgeting and cost management
• Gantt charts for a visual project timeline

Here’s what you get in the free version of nTask:

• Unlimited workspaces
• Five team members
• Issue tracking
• Unlimited tasks
• Meeting Management

What people think about managing projects in nTask:

“The good thing about this type of tools is that it centralizes everything in one place, the work is done in an organized way, with due planning and with the least number of errors, from the Gantt diagram view you can visualize the progress and determine the strategic line of your projects, and it is pleasant to look at.” – Capterra Verified Review

“nTask in generally is an awesome product but there are some stumbling blocks. It offers limited integrations and steep learning curve. One can face some problems when using it for the first time. The calendar view functionality should be more elaborated.” —  G2Crowd

Asana is a very well-known project management software tool that’s used by a lot of teams.

Users generally like Asana because it’s a visually appealing tool that utilizes projects and sections to keep work organized and gives the team clarity about who’s in charge of what in your project planning.

This project management software is simple to use compared to most other project management software solutions. You can quickly move your task and assign work with their drag-and-drop feature.

What bothers us is Asana’s reliability with its rapid growth. And all we want for Christmas is less downtime!

Not sure about Asana? Check these Asana alternatives to compare Asana’s features with ClickUp , Trello, Monday and more!

Asana best project management features:

• Color categorization in project calendars
• Automation Rules to send requests to team members or projects
• Calendar views for personal projects or team projects
• Expanded timelines to optimize resource utilization
• Reports for insight into workflows and tasks

Here’s what you get in the free version of Asana:

• Unlimited tasks, projects, and conversations
• Basic dashboards
• Basic search

What people think about managing projects in Asana:

“Asana’s feature set and complexity require a relatively steep learning curve for the uninitiated. That hampered roll-out efforts in my organization, along with the fact there is no desktop app for Asana. After nearly a year, I’m still figuring out all the features and best uses, so it would be nice to have a variety of case studies/examples from which to glean best practices.” – Capterra Verified Review

“Overall, we love Asana as a robust project management tool for our team, but it takes a good deal of adapting and getting used to before you hit your stride with it.” – Capterra Verified Review

Take a look at our Asana and ClickUp comparison!

In Todoist, it’s easy to quickly capture thoughts and ideas on your phone and then get reminded about them later.

You can plug in deadlines, like pay bills in three days, and the project management app will automatically remind you.

However, you don’t get any real-time collaboration features in the basic free version.

Also, did you know Todoist was built as a personal task management app and not as a project management app for businesses and team collaborations? So to easily manage your teams and their tasks, you’ll have to opt for the paid plan or a different tier version.

Read our take on Todoist vs. ClickUp and learn about other top alternatives to Todoist .

Todoist best project management features:

• Task lists with priority levels and due dates
• Project tracking through color-coded graphs
• Collaboration features for team tasks
• Integration capabilities with various apps
• Task reminders via email, SMS or push notifications

Here’s what you get in the free version of the Todoist app:

• Access on 10+ platforms
• Recurring due dates
• SSL secured connection
• Sub-tasks & sub-projects
• Task priorities (four levels)
• 80 Active projects
• Five people per project

What people think about managing projects in Todoist:

“I haven’t found a way to get integration with Google Calendar in a way that works for me. It syncs tasks, but the manner in which it does so isn’t fluid with the way that I work, so that is probably due to user error or my personal preference and less likely a reflection of the program.” — G2Crowd

“I use ToDoist to keep track of tasks sent to me by clients. I don’t use it for project management, extensive notes, or workflow so much as a simple to-do list of projects that need to be completed. Sometimes you don’t need to write a lot of details – you just need to be sure you do the task and todoist is the best software I have found for that.” – Capterra Verified Review

Airtable is a beautifully designed, table-meets-database solution. It takes what you love about Excel and Google Sheets and puts a modern web-based project on it.

Think of Airtable as a fancy spreadsheet that helps you track inventory , lists of reference items, or as a bootstrap CRM.

Essentially, Airtable is a super-friendly, non-intimidating database for the 21st century, disrupting traditional database management systems that rely on SQL or other complex languages.

If you’ve used Excel as a project management tool in the past, then you may want to look at Airtable. However, we don’t recommend spreadsheets for project management.

Because dedicated top free project management tools do the job better!

Bonus: Read about Airtable’s best alternatives .

Airtable best project management features:

• Integrations with Box, Salesforce, and Google Calendar to pull in other data
• Interface Designer tool to build and share custom interfaces
• Shareable forms to populate records into the Airtable base
• Software development tools to build robust reporting systems
• Automations with Javascript functionality

Here’s What You Get In The Free Version of Airtable:

• Unlimited bases
• Unlimited scheduling views
• Rich field records
• 2GB of storage
• Two weeks of historical data

What People Think About Managing Projects in Airtable:

“I love Airtable because I am able to build simple but useful custom programs and databases while knowing basically zero code. Although there are really key features that stop Airtable just short of perfect, it is still leagues better than a normal spreadsheet for sure.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I hate that it doesn’t have reminder/follow up capabilities especially knowing they advertise as a team collaboration tool that’s used for customer service.” —  G2Crowd

Compare Airtable and ClickUp for project management.

Like how Gantt charts make everything clear as day?

Then TeamGantt is made for you.

It’s a free project management software with a sole focus only on Gantt charts.

This software tool is impressive at building out and visualizing Gantt charts so you can see what tasks may overlap and who’s responsible for what.

It’s also a great tool for measuring team and individual progress against project milestones .

The funny thing is for a software that takes pride in their Gantt charts, you get just ONE Gantt chart in the free plan. Yikes!

TeamGantt best project management features:

• Easy-to-read Gantt charts for scheduling
• Task assignment with dependencies and milestones
• Team availability management
• Time tracking for better productivity analysis

Here’s what you get in the free version of TeamGantt:

• One project
• Basic project planning and collaboration
• Three users
• Team availability and workload

What project managers think about TeamGantt:

“The free version only allows one project. The next step up is not that expensive though.” — G2 Crowd

“I like the versatility and easiness when using this program and managing tasks.” — Capterra Verified Review

Looking for great Gantt chart software? Read our article on the top free Gantt Chart software and if you’re a construction company, our article on the best construction project management software .

Check out these TeamGantt alternatives !

Teamwork Projects is a very well-known project management system or software geared more for audiences needing enterprise management with single sign-on, HIPAA compliance, and premium support.

Their paid plans have many feature options for teams and offer a suite of tools such as billing and invoicing.

However, their free tier is quite limited.

Many clients and teams will pony up for those advanced features, but it’s a risk if you don’t want to be locked into a long-term pricing plan. For instance, in the Pro plan, you get lots of integrations such as Dropbox and Slack, way more storage, and up to 50 users.

Teamwork Projects best project management features:

• Task and sub-task creation and assignment
• Gantt chart for project timeline visualization
• Time tracking and billing features
• File storage and versioning for effective document management
• Inbuilt team communication tools

What you get in the free version of teamwork projects:

• Two active projects
• Limited task boards
• Color themes

What people think of Teamwork Projects:

“The software seems to be popular just in Europe, so there are a few third-party apps which have developed something connected to Teamwork, but it has access to the API and webhooks to compensate.” — G2Crowd

“Teamwork excels at tasking and basic project management, but don’t count on it for any company or portfolio insights and/or big picture views. This is a good tool for small teams that worry about pipeline and traffic control but not for large interconnected teams that require account management, efficiency evaluation or budget oversight.” – Capterra Verified Review

Try out these Teamwork alternatives !

Freedcamp gives you multiple views, including a list, Kanban board, and Gantt chart view.

It also has a wall for social communication and private tasks, along with white labeling for client spaces, invoicing, and CRM capabilities.

But here’s the thing, the free plan is very limited, and the paid plans begin at $1.49 per user per month.

And in their own words, it’s a “minimalist” plan!

We wish that they went even more minimalist with a free plan, though.

Freedcamp best project management features:

• Task lists with sticky notes for instant information capture
• Calendar view for easy task scheduling and monitoring
• Dedicated discussion boards for team collaboration
• Issue tracker for efficient problem management
• Cloud file storage for hassle-free document management

Here’s what you get in the free version of Freedcamp:

• Unlimited users and tasks

Time tracking

• Discussion boards
• Password manager
• Personal task manager

What people think about Freedcamp:

“Freedcamp does not update as often as I would like. Software should constantly be changing to stay relevant with trends and industry needs.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I don’t like the fact that it has no mobile application. That would be great to communicate and manage tasks straight from the mobile.” — G2Crowd

Need to streamline your team’s work and to help them focus on your most important tasks? Redbooth has you covered.

It features a simple, user-friendly interface that helps teams feel comfortable right away. Managers feel empowered to change workloads and resources very easily.

On the downside, Redbooth doesn’t let you assign tasks to multiple people.

Clearly, the fact that there’s no “I” in “team” doesn’t apply here.

Redbooth best project management features:

• HD video conferencing for effortless team collaboration
• Detailed Gantt charts for task flow visualization
• Time tracking to ensure project timelines are met
• Task templates to streamline repetitive processes
• Easy file sharing for seamless document access

Here’s what you get in the free version of Redbooth:

• Assigned users
• Gantt charts
• Conversations
• Community forums/email support

What people think about managing projects with Redbooth:

“Redbooth is really just good for a supplemental side kick role software. Like in our company we use it is supplement to Procore . It defintely has its limitations, but it serves its purpose.” — Capterra Verified Review

“It’s super fresh and flexible. Seems like the best thing since sliced bread when you start using it! My team thought it was going to be great.” — Capterra Verified Review

Check out how ClickUp compares to Redbooth .

Basecamp is a popular project management and team communication software for easy team collaboration.

One of the main cons of Basecamp is that it does not provide the same level of customization and flexibility as some other project management software. While basecamp is designed to be an easy-to-use platform, its rigidity can make it difficult to tailor the software to specific projects or teams.

If you’re looking for a simple task manager with real-time communication features for your team members, then Basecamp can be a great pick.

Basecamp best project management features:

• Project management timeline to view everything from start to finish
• Hill Charts to visually see progress uphill or downhill over time
• The Hey! menu streamlines notifications in a single menu
• Check-in with an automatic poll for the team
• Chat and messaging system

Here’s what you get in the free version of Basecamp:

• Three projects
• Storage space of 1GB

What people think about managing projects with Basecamp:

“ When it was used for a small team to collaborate, it was great. When I started using it for client communication and deliverables, it frustrated both me and my team.” — Capterra Verified Review

“Overall, Basecamp is a solid product that I use almost daily to manage projects. I haven’t had any major issues with the software but would like to be able to easily reference tips and tricks to improve my workflow.” — Capterra Verified Review

If you’re a fan of simple design, Kanban boards and a sleek UX, take a look at ActiveCollab . An easy-to-use tool that allows you to streamline projects, communicate with your team, and collaborate with clients .

Divide projects into tasks with flexible start dates and deadlines that you can assign to the team or invite clients to view as needed.

ActiveCollab can be visualized as a list or in Kanban view, has an integrated stopwatch to track time on tasks and has an integrated app to chat or share files.

ActiveCollab best project management features:

• Timekeeping functionality with interactive Gantt chart
• In-app communication tools and file sharing
• Task dependencies and automated rescheduling
• Budget tracking to monitor project finances

What you get in the free version of ActiveCollab:

• Up to three members
• Unlimited projects and clients
• Task dependencies and automated scheduling
• Mobile&Desktop app

What people think about managing projects with ActiveCollab:

Our team manages all of our projects through ActiveCollab, and that includes budgeting, tasks, and time management . Without it, we’d be lost in a sea of emails and Slack messages.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I wish it would connect to other project management tools such as basecamp, asana, etc. I work with many contractors and vendors and if I could do everything in active collab, then it would create a ticket in their platforms, it would be awesome.” — Capterra Verified Review

Paymo is a free project management software for single users and team managers looking at resource management . It also offers Kanban boards and time tracking that allows freelancers to keep track of time tracked for every client easily.

Paymo best project management features:

• Real-time task comments for effective team communication
• Visual project timeline with Gantt charts
• Advanced task management with multiple users
• Time tracker widget for better time management
• Invoice creation to manage project finances

Here’s what you get in the free version of Paymo:

• 1GB of space

What people think about Paymo:

“Absolutely love the granular control on the reports and ability to manage users, projects, tasks and more.” — Capterra Verified Review

“I would recommend this service to every middle sized company, which is looking for a good solid isseu tracking software.” — Capterra Verified Review

Podio is almost like a cocktail of free project management software and messaging tools. It offers conversations in the app, and you get an overview of all your tasks.

It supports numerous integrations with popular software like ZenDesk, Evernote, and Google Drive.

Podio best project management features:

• Integrated team collaboration tools with file sharing
• Reporting capabilities with visual project dashboards
• App integration for expanded functionality
• Automated workflows to streamline tasks

Here’s what you get in the free version of Podio:

• Integrations
• Chat capabilities

What people think about managing projects with Podio:

“Reliable communication with the team through the chat function. Good personal task management and also knowledge management . Even though we stored our files in a cloud service, we ‘indexed’ and sorted our knowledge through Podio.” — Capterra Verified Review

“The Podio CRM system is customizable to your personal needs. You can easily create separate workspaces and add the apps needed for ease of access and organizational needs.” — G2Crowd

If your team isn’t large and don’t want to pay for a project management tool, take a look at Hitask. This free project management software is free for up to five users and gives you unlimited tasks and projects.

Hitask best project management features:

• Task assignment with deadlines and priority levels
• Shared calendars for team scheduling
• Document management with file attachment to tasks
• Team collaboration through chat and comments
• Project reports and analytics for task overview

Here’s what you get in the free version of Hitask:

• Up to five users
• Unlimited tasks and projects
• Shared task lists, projects, and calendars
• 0.5 GB of space

What people think about Hitask:

“This product is very easy to use, but the user interface is not very intuitive. The pricing is fair, considering what you will get in return. If you plan to use this for a personal reason, then this tool may be sufficient.” – Capterra Verified Review

“Hitask is a great and reliable solution for project and task management. It has a very intuitive and user-friendly interface which makes it easy to use. It integrates with other great softwares like Google Calendar, Gmail which makes it more effective.” – Capterra Verified Review

When looking for the best project management software, consider Zenkit. With Zenkit, you’ll get a decent spread of features and templates for easy workspace setup.

While they do make setup easy, the 5000 item limit can be a barrier to entry for most busy teams.

Zenkit best project management features:

• Multiview planning with Kanban, table, list, or calendar
• Task hierarchy and dependencies setup
• Collaborative tools with team assignments and mentions
• Time tracking for better productivity management
• Integration capabilities for project management

What you get in the free version of Zenkit:

• Unlimited collections
• 3 GB of storage
• Up to five members
• Up to five teams

What people think about managing projects with Zenkit:

“It is easy to use from day one since most tools are structured very user-friendly. I like the efficiency it provides for sharing information and tasks with my team.” — Capterra Verified Review

“For free users the data storage is very low, that’s the only dislike I have regarding Zenkit. Also the user interface gets too cluttered at some phases, there’s a lot of scope to improve the interface.” — G2Crowd

Toggl Plan is one of the best project management tools for effective team planning and task management.

The software is very easy to use, and suits project managers managing small teams.

Toggle Track best project management features:

• Timeline view for streamlined project planning
• Taskboard for team workload management
• Easy drag-and-drop interface for task adjustments
• Shared timelines and taskboards for team collaboration
• Color-coded tasks for better task categorization

What you get in the free version of Toggl Plan:

• Unlimited project milestones
• Shared timelines

What people think about managing projects with Toggl Plan:

“I felt the mobile experience was lacking. It’s amazing for long term planning, even weekly planning, but gets awkward when it comes to daily planning or planning in fine detail for timetabling. It’s great for regular arrangements, but gets messy when it comes to extraordinary events.”— Capterra Verified Review

“Toggl has made some great UI changes in recent years, but a more robust way of customizing your interface and views would be a bonus, especially since this is a program I use nearly all day and check in with frequently. Some additional timer views or even color themes would be fun.” — G2Crowd

Zoho project is another efficient project management software. Whether you need to manage documents, collaborate with your team conveniently, or have bugs fixed with an issue tracker , Zoho can handle it.

Zoho Projects best project management features:

• Comprehensive task management with custom fields
• Gantt chart view for project scheduling
• Time tracking tools and timesheet approval process
• In-depth analytics with customizable reports
• Integrated document management systems

What you get in the free version of Zoho Projects:

• 10MB file storage
• Two projects
• Viewer for Gantt chart
• Calendar & Forums

What people think about managing projects with Zoho Projects:

“User interface can be a little confusing (difficult for newbies).”— Capterra Verified Review

“The thing which I like about Zoho projects is that it helps me in maintaining my efficiency of completing the task in a given time frame with its time tracking feature. This software is easy to integrate with other Zoho softwares and helps us in tracking the progress and maintaining the productivity of our team.” — G2Crowd

Try out these Zoho alternatives !

Last on this list of project management software is Yodiz. This software aims to simplify project planning and project tracking with smarter insights.

Yodiz is a great option for teams who use Agile and Scrum methods. You can also use Yodiz’s Zapier integrations to connect with apps like Slack and GitHub or calendar apps like Google Calendar.

But for a tool that aims to simplify project planning, Yodiz doesn’t offer Gantt charts even on their starter paid plan.

Yodiz best project management features:

• Agile project management with Scrum and Kanban boards
• Issue tracker for efficient problem resolution
• Backlog management for effective project prioritization
• Real-time chat and discussions for team collaborations
• Visual release board for tracking project releases

What you get in the free version of Yodiz:

• Unlimited projects
• Up to three users

What people think about managing projects with Yodiz:

“Help documentation is basic – Comparatively Fewer integrations, but with Zapier integration – now it is possible to connect hundreds of applications.”— Capterra Verified Review

“It does everything I need: bug tracking, Kanban wall, user story tracking, Github integration, notifications. It’s cheap, it’s effective, and it’s easy to use.” — G2Crowd

Jira is a free project management tool used for bug-tracking and issue-management. It provides software development features like advanced reporting options, including user workload, average issue age, and recently created issues. This allows project managers to analyze project performance, manage issue backlogs, and make data-driven decisions to  plan efficient Sprints .

Jira best project management features:

• Incident Investigation Dashboard to resolve code deployment issues faster
• Assign tasks or create  Jira issues  directly from your pull request
• Time tracking with a color indication for visual project management
• Scrum boards to break down complex tasks
• Project tracking templates

What you get in the free version of Jira:

• Unlimited customers
• 100 email notifications a day

What people think about managing projects with Jira:

“Overall, Jira is just a great tool with a fantastic user friendly interface, which overall provides a nice user experience.” — Capterra Verified Review

“Admittedly, Jira can be a bit overwhelming at first, especially for new users. The myriad of features might take some time to fully explore and grasp. But once you get the hang of it, it’s a powerful tool at your fingertips.” — G2Crowd

Check out these Jira alternatives !

We’ve covered the best project management software to choose from. Now let’s take a deep dive into the must-have features to add to your team’s productivity toolbox!

Collaborative docs

Today’s documentation management systems are a cloud-based repository of  project documentation ,  SOPs , and  meeting notes . This level of knowledge sharing promotes consistency and high-quality content to leverage across the organization. As a result, businesses accomplish three things:

• Documenting processes, procedures, and best practices so critical information is not lost when team members leave or move to different roles
• Reducing the time required to search for information or complete tasks
• Meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining audit trails for legal compliance

Ideation tools

Teams use ideation in their projects to develop fresh, creative solutions to the problems they face. When managing projects, these project management software solutions are as valuable for marketing and sales teams as they are for product teams.

Teams have distinct ways of organizing their tasks, as every project comes with its own set of objectives, scope, and resources. Resource management gives teams control over  capacity planning  and  resource leveling .

If you need a platform to scale both task management and project management, project management tools like ClickUp deliver what teams need within reach to manage personal to-do lists, complex projects, and everything in between.

Goal tracking

As a business grows, it’s harder to proactively communicate the company strategy from the top level to the team and individual levels. For this reason, department leaders turn towards  goal tracking apps  like ClickUp to break down high-level initiatives into granular tasks.

Communication channels

With  69% of people working from home  during the pandemic and  16% of companies hiring remote workers  only worldwide, it’s clear a hybrid workforce is here to stay. The best approach to sustain effective communication in a partial or fully remote workplace is to use  multiple communication solutions  to cover a variety of common use cases. Most organizations will need:

• A chat tool like Slack for day-to-day communication, as well as for team and organization-wide announcements
• A  screen recording tool  like Loom for troubleshooting bugs and walking through complex processes
• A video conferencing tool like Zoom for daily stand-ups, weekly all-hands, and impromptu syncs

Tracking time on tasks, meetings, and any work-related activity (looking at you, compliance training) is an essential practice for every single team member.

Time tracking will help team collaboration so you finish faster when managing projects. At its best, time tracking will provide data to make better business decisions and automation opportunities.

Automations

Automations replace the repetitive work that’s draining creative energy with powerful in-app workflows for any type of job.

Project management software offers numerous advantages that can streamline your team’s workflow and boost productivity. Through these tools, teams can effectively organize tasks, track project progress, and foster a collaborative environment.

Project management software comes equipped with features like tasks, shared calendars, document management, team chat, and comprehensive project reporting. These functionalities not only help in structuring the project’s tasks but also in monitoring each team member’s workload, ensuring that all tasks are allocated efficiently.

Benefits from the best project management software include:

• Reduced labor costs:  Eliminating redundancies and automating repetitive tasks will reduce the time and effort required to complete tasks. As a result, fewer hours are required to complete the same amount of work
• Enhanced accountability and ownership:  Documenting clear expectations and task goals in the project management tool holds team members accountable for their work
• Faster time-to-market:  Aligning communication and  cross-functional workflows  under one platform will help teams manage and deliver projects faster
• Improved time management:  Scheduling and  prioritizing higher value tasks  frees up headspace to put energy into the most important work and less on administrative tasks
• Better resource allocation:  Assigning tasks to the right people distributes the skills and expertise across projects and reduces delays caused by work overload
• Increased collaboration:  Commenting and discussions within a project management app gives teams and stakeholders a dedicated space to ask questions, provide feedback, and align on critical project decisions
• Centralized information:  Storing and sharing information reduces the likelihood of lost or miscommunicated data. Teams also benefit from having project records, pocketed ideas, and documentation within reach under one platform

Find the Best Free Project Management Software for Your Team

Your chosen project management software should be able to do the job. At the same time your whole team should be able to get on board and use its advantages without even considering opting for the paid plan.

The worst situation is when you enthusiastically embark on a new project tool, only to be stymied by its lack of features and functionality, baiting you into the solution’s paid plan.

So why not try ClickUp?

It’s got more free features than any other best project management tools we listed here.

Whether you want to Assign Tasks, create Goals, Time Tracking, use Automations, the possibilities are endless.

So try ClickUp for free today because you deserve efficient and easy project management that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket.

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

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Free Gantt Chart Project Plan Templates

By Diana Ramos | May 24, 2022

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We’ve collected the top free Gantt chart templates for project planning. Use these templates to outline project details and get a broad visual overview of your plan. Choose from multiple file formats, all free to download.

On this page, you’ll find a Gantt project planner , a simple Gantt chart project plan , a construction project Gantt chart template , and other Gantt chart plans with daily, weekly, and monthly views.

Gantt Project Planner

Download Gantt Project Planner - Microsoft Excel

Create a project management plan that includes a Gantt chart schedule, stakeholder list, cost baseline, and communication plan. This template provides sample tasks for a software development or other IT project, and it displays task owners, dates, status, and a visual Gantt schedule. Enter your project details, including a scope statement, starting and ending dates, and all relevant activities. Complete the list of stakeholder names along with their roles, contact information, and expectations. Use the cost baseline sheet to plan and track project costs, and develop a detailed communication plan listing the audience, frequency, methods, and deliverables for various project communications.

Simple Gantt Chart Project Plan

Download Simple Gantt Chart Project Plan Microsoft Excel | Google Sheets

This simple project plan template features a Gantt chart timeline and a spreadsheet. You’ll find ample room for notes on project scheduling, budget, risks, and issues. At the top of the template, enter the project start and end dates to adjust what’s shown on the Gantt chart. List project phases or tasks with corresponding dates to calculate the estimated duration in days for each item. Use the notes portion of the spreadsheet to flesh out your project plan and provide details on each phase.

Construction Project Gantt Chart Template

Download Construction Project Gantt Chart Template Microsoft Excel | Google Sheets

This construction Gantt chart planner shows example project tasks, from demolition and excavation to final inspections. Edit the task list based on your specific project, add beginning and ending dates for each activity, and view your project schedule in the Gantt chart. The Gantt calendar makes it easy to see the timeframe for each task and the entire construction project, allowing for detailed planning while providing a bird’s-eye view.

Multi-Project Gantt Chart Planner

Download Multi-Project Gantt Chart Planner - Microsoft Excel

Plan and track multiple projects with a single Gantt chart template. For each project, add task titles and descriptions, deliverables, costs, and estimated hours. Use the drop-down menu to assign a priority to each project and task. The template calculates the number of days required for each task, as well as total days, hours, and costs for each project. The Gantt chart shows a weekly schedule based on the starting date entered at the top of the template.

Agile Project Plan Gantt Chart Template

Download Agile Project Plan Gantt Chart Template

Microsoft Excel | Microsoft PowerPoint

This Agile project plan template is divided into sprints and features, with a Gantt chart showing the timeline for each. Use the spreadsheet to document feature types, responsible parties, story points, start and finish dates, and at-risk items. The template will help you track the status for each activity and overall progress, so you can adjust your project plan as issues arise. The Gantt schedule provides a color-coded bar chart for distinguishing between sprints.

Gantt Chart Project Plan Timeline

Download Gantt Chart Project Plan Timeline - Microsoft PowerPoint

This template combines a Gantt chart with a timeline format, highlighting project milestones. Label the horizontal bars with project tasks or phases, dates, and duration. Move the bars and milestone markers to the places along the timeline that match your project dates. This template provides a simple visual schedule that works well as part of a presentation or brief summary for stakeholders.

Find more scheduling templates in our roundup of free project schedule templates .

Hourly Gantt Project Planner Template

Download Hourly Gantt Project Planner Template — Microsoft PowerPoint

Create an hourly project plan over the course of a single day, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Enter your activities, along with starting and ending times, and adjust the Gantt chart bars to reflect the duration planned for each task. Use the color key to assign owners or divide tasks into categories. The template also includes symbols for marking scheduled breaks and key events.

Weekly Gantt Project Planning Template

Download Weekly Gantt Project Planning Template — Microsoft Excel

This weekly Gantt planner has room for project tasks and subtasks, owners, duration and percent complete for each task. The Gantt chart is divided into four phases highlighted by different colors, with three weeks in each phase. The schedule is also broken down into days, so you get a daily and weekly view of your project plan.

Monthly Gantt Chart Project Plan Template

Download Monthly Gantt Chart Project Plan Template Microsoft Excel | Google Sheets

Use this Gantt template complete with example activities for project planning on a monthly and quarterly basis. View a breakdown of tasks for each project phase on the chart. Edit the tasks on the bar chart to suit your project, and add important details, such as specific dates. The bold markers for the current date and project end date will help you track performance and manage plan updates.

Gantt Chart Project Plan with Dependencies

Download Gantt Chart Project Plan with Dependencies - Microsoft Excel

View primary tasks, subtasks, and dependencies with this project plan Gantt chart. The template provides columns for work breakdown structure numbering, task descriptions, assigned owners, and percent complete for each activity. You can also see the variance between planned and actual work dates, so you can manage and revise the project plan as it progresses. The Gantt chart features a weekly schedule view with milestone markers to emphasize important events.

Marketing Project Gantt Chart Planner

Download Marketing Project Gantt Chart Planner Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word

Use this template to create a Gantt chart plan for your next marketing project. Edit the example project phases and activities to match your marketing campaign plan. Enter start and end dates for each task to get a daily and weekly view of your project schedule. On the Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers templates, add the project start date at the top of the template to automatically change the dates shown on the Gantt chart. On the Microsoft Word version, manually enter your dates on the chart, then adjust the task bars to line up with the appropriate dates.

Project Plan Dashboard with Gantt Chart

Download Project Plan Dashboard with Gantt Chart — Microsoft Excel

Manage your project plan with this dashboard template. In the notes tab, enter your project data in the corresponding tables to populate the dashboard charts, including Gantt, task status, budget and pending items. The Gantt chart is a basic weekly schedule, providing a quick view of your project timeline. The template allows you to mark high-priority tasks and assign owners. Get a snapshot of your budget, change requests, and overall task status, so you can anticipate revisions.

How to Create an Excel Gantt Chart Using a Template

Creating a Gantt chart is simple when you use a preformatted template. To get the most out of your template, follow our guide to making a Gantt chart in Microsoft Excel . You’ll get step-by-step instructions for creating a project timeline and tips for customizing it.

To determine what type of Gantt chart to use for your project and find more downloadable templates, see our collection of free Gantt chart templates and other project planning tools .

Use Smartsheet to Quickly Create and Update a Gantt Chart Project Plan

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Planner in Microsoft 365 includes:

Real-time collaboration, commenting, and sharing using the Planner app in Microsoft Teams or the Planner web app

Creation and management of content-rich tasks with features including files, checklists, and labels

Tasks organized by My Day, My Tasks, and Assigned to me

Basic plan templates

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Premium plan templates

Timeline (Gantt) view

Task dependencies

Customization and integration

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Task history

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Resources request capabilities

Program management

Project financials, budgeting, and costing

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Project Online desktop client

Project Online

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Portfolio management

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• Create project roadmap

How to create an effective project roadmap in 8 steps

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Even small projects can be complex in today’s highly integrated, fast-paced environment. A project roadmap provides a comprehensive approach to defining and managing the work to successful completion. It clarifies what you’re building and how and why you’re building it. Unlike a project plan , which is more granular and tracks progress, the project roadmap communicates high-level goals, project scope , and resource requirements.

A well-executed project roadmap is an important project management tool to keep teams and stakeholders focused throughout the process with a visual, easy-to-understand document. Use this guide to find out how to create a project roadmap to help teams plan, define, and communicate each project’s essential information.

How to create a project roadmap in eight steps

The simplest way to create a visual project roadmap is to break it into steps, beginning with the goals and scope. With that foundation, you can identify the stakeholders, gather the requirements, break down the work into phases, define the tasks and resources, estimate the completion time, and map the dependencies. The outcome is a roadmap communicating what you’re building and how and why you’re doing it. Continue reading to learn how to write a project roadmap in eight simple steps. 

Jira provides top-down visibility to help teams plan work, track progress, and map dependencies. Jira’s trusted platform for creating roadmaps and its built-in flexibility provide the tools to manage projects from inception to market, no matter what comes up in the process. From stakeholders to developers, the visual presentation speeds understanding and promotes informed decision-making.

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Step 1: Define the project goals and scope

The first step in creating a project roadmap is defining your project goals, which helps determine what to include and save for later in the roadmap. Businesses that deliver high-quality products understand the advantages of keeping projects focused on SMART goals . Though adding features and options that are not part of the requirements is tempting, it’s wise to plan multiple smaller projects, each with its own focus. This will increase overall quality, and time to market, and ensure customer needs are thoroughly met.

The scope is the work the project encompasses. For example, suppose your goal is to improve the cost estimate for new home construction to within a five percent margin of actual cost. In that case, the project scope may include integrating with current supplier data, implementing trending models from artificial intelligence, and building in real-time updates.

To keep the project focused and achievable, the scope may exclude user experience improvements, and stating so helps prevent scope creep .

Step 2: Identify the stakeholders

Identify the stakeholders, team members, sponsors, clients, and other important parties. Highly collaborative teams improve productivity by understanding who is responsible for each project element. This speeds up decision-making and eliminates redundant work. It also promotes effective communication from the very beginning. 

Step 3: Gather the requirements

Requirements provide clear guidelines about what the finished product must achieve. If the scope includes strategic partnerships, the requirements call out the partner, the type of data to integrate, how you’ll incorporate the data, and the project's expected results.

Example statement : The cost-estimating feature pulls real-time inventory data from a supplier via an open API, allowing users to select from available options to see current costs.

Collaboratively rank the requirements according to priority and feasibility. Based on the project timeline, effort, and available resources, this helps the team decide what to schedule versus what to save for later.

Step 4: Break down the project into phases

Break down the work into phases or milestones. Each phase represents a significant project stage with a clearly defined outcome.

For example, phase 1 may be retrieving all partner data reliably on demand; phase 2 may be completing the application user interface based on how the user interacts with the data; phase 3 may be standardizing reports for ongoing user analysis, and so on.

Step 5: Define the tasks and activities

Break down the tasks and activities within the phases to meet the objective. For example, phase 1 may include implementing API keys and validating data accessibility and integrity.

It’s important to engage the team in project collaboration to gain the collective experience of all members. This step refines project planning by ensuring the inclusion of all activities. Identify who is responsible for each activity to prepare for the next step.

Step 6: Estimate the time and resources

You’ve defined the goals, phases, and activities. In this step, a visual presentation helps show the time and resource estimates. Resources include people, technology, materials, and budgets—anything necessary to complete the project.

Draw on the experience of your team to estimate time and resources. Your data engineer likely knows how long it takes to integrate data based on the source's type, volume, and maturity. Security members may identify hardware or policies necessary to comply with regulations. These can impact the budget and timeline, so now is the time to identify them.

Step 7: Identify the dependencies

Map the dependencies to create a project timeline using a Gantt chart , Kanban board, or other visual presentation of tasks. For example, building an interface for external data depends on developing an API or other integration to obtain the data. A visual presentation helps quickly identify bottlenecks, constraints, and resource loads.

Step 8: Communicate and monitor progress

Share your project roadmap with stakeholders and get their approval before the project begins. The outcomes must meet their needs, and adjusting the scope or approach will be easier with a roadmap already in place. Project managers often hold a kickoff meeting to bring everyone together to discuss the work and ask questions.

Communication doesn’t end at the kickoff meeting, though. Be sure to monitor the project's progress and stay aligned on issues. Hold regular status meetings with stakeholders to keep them informed throughout the project.

Essential components of a project roadmap

A comprehensive project roadmap includes the following:

• Goals guide the team’s work in defining what they are building and why.
• Milestones help the team divide the work into achievable phases and show progress.
• Requirements provide the measure of success for milestones and tasks.
• Tasks identify all the work necessary to complete the project.
• Timelines provide the duration and sequence for each milestone and task.
• Dependencies help identify the logical sequence of tasks and improve time estimates.

Choosing the right tool for project roadmapping

Selecting the right tool depends on your project requirements and preferences. Features such as Gantt charts and Kanban boards provide project information in a visual layout that makes dependencies and timelines easier to understand. Jira provides end-to-end project management tools and includes the following roadmap features:

• Boards help teams plan, visualize, and manage the work by displaying pieces of work as visual cards, which you can move between columns or phases and automatically update timeline information. 
• Issues break down large bodies of work into smaller, manageable pieces. You can use issues to capture relevant task information and statuses to keep the team up to date. 
• Timelines allow teams to add epics and map work items, dependencies, and releases.

If you’re ready to create a project roadmap today, use Jira’s free project roadmap template to seamlessly align teams and enhance collaboration.

Best practices for creating project roadmaps

Involving stakeholders in the planning process helps ensure what you’re building meets their needs. Keeping your roadmap simple and visually appealing keeps teams and stakeholders engaged as the project progresses, and updating the roadmap regularly helps the team remain flexible. Expect and adapt to change.

Jira can help teams adhere to best practices. Breaking down complex work into issues provides flexibility to pivot priorities, identify problems early, and stay on track by managing smaller increments of work. Teams can create Confluence pages directly from Jira, providing a single source of information that keeps the project organized from beginning to end.

Create project roadmaps with Jira

Seeing and understanding overarching goals helps you effectively plan and prioritize the work, map dependencies, manage resources, and track progress. Jira provides flexibility in a visual presentation so everyone’s on the same page. Teams can see what they’re working on and what’s coming next in the context of the project goals and effectively collaborate across the business using a central repository.

Project roadmap: Frequently asked questions

What should a project roadmap include.

Nearly every project roadmap, no matter its size, includes the same elements: goals, milestones, requirements, tasks, resources, timelines, and dependencies.

What is an example of a project roadmap?

The project roadmap format can vary based on the type of project. A software development roadmap may include planning, development, testing, and deployment phases. Within each phase, there may be specific milestones based on the tasks and deadlines. 

For example, the development phase may include milestones for data standardization, third-party integration, and pricing and discount computations. Detailed tasks, dependencies, resource assignments, and timelines are within those milestones.

Can you use a template to create project roadmaps?

Teams often use templates to speed up the creation of a project roadmap. Choosing which tool to use should be based on your specific project needs. Highly flexible tools allow you to tailor the process no matter the size and scope of your projects.

Jira provides the flexibility to customize your project roadmap, including templates, and offers end-to-end project management tools to help you move from idea to project to support with a single centralized tool.

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Demand Management: Process, Importance and Tools

The relationship between supply and demand is Economics 101. Whether a business is manufacturing or managing a warehouse, understanding demand management goes a long way to ensure that stock levels are always balanced with customer needs.

This requires first an understanding of demand management and how it benefits business. Next, we’ll outline the demand management process to learn how to implement this planning methodology and how software can facilitate that process.

What Is Demand Management?

Demand management is the process of managing customer needs for a product that a company sells. It’s a planning methodology that tries to forecast what a customer will want, when they’ll want it and the logistics of getting that product to them. By planning, companies can identify and avoid potential problems, such as bottlenecks in production or the supply chain and market volatility.

In manufacturing , demand management comes after supply chain management, such as managing procurement and suppliers, but before portfolio management. Demand management is cross-functional as it crosses many disciplines, from consumer demand, supply teams and inventory to marketing and customer service.

One way to look at demand management is as a bridge between the marketplace and a company’s internal operations. That is, demand management works to create interactions between operations and marketing with the goal of being able to develop actions that align the fluctuations of the market with a company’s strategy, production capacity and customer needs.

Managing production is key to demand management and project management software is essential to that process. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software with resource allocation features to keep teams working at capacity. Use the team page or the color-coded workload chart to monitor your team’s allocation. If some are over- or underallocated, the team’s workload can be balanced quickly to keep them as productive as needed to meet demand. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Is the Importance of Demand Management for Businesses?

Understanding customer demand will benefit any business that manufactures or sells products. Demand management is a crucial part of any business strategy so they have stock on hand to meet customer needs. Here are some other reasons that illustrate the importance of demand management for businesses.

Helps Organizations Establish their Production Budget

Demand management allows companies to analyze and predict changes and trends in market demand. This leads to a reduction in costs due to overproduction or stockouts. It also informs the production budget to make sure that there are enough funds to meet demand but not add unnecessary costs through excess inventory, labor, etc.

Allows Businesses to Meet Customer Demand

Knowing what customers want allows for better planning of delivering it to them. If there’s a spike in customer demand or if customer demand is waning, production planning must follow suit or suffer a loss in business or the cost of carrying unwanted inventory. Demand management allows for a better gauge of customer demand.

Prevents Excess Inventory and Overproduction

As stated above, excess inventory is costly. All that product must be stored, which leads to money spent on items that aren’t being sold. Ideally, a company wants a warehouse full of inventory that will move due to a balance between what’s in stock and the customer demand. Demand management is a way to achieve that balance.

Helps With Supply Chain Planning

Supply chain planning is all about optimizing the manufacturing and delivery of goods. It starts with raw materials, moves to finished products and ends with customers. A clear picture of customer demand will inform these steps, from knowing how much raw material is needed to the quantity of items produced, etc. Demand management, then, is an integral part of this process and helps a business spend only what it needs.

Informs Workforce Planning

Demand management helps managers understand the current and future workforce requirements, which allows them to plan better. The managers better understand customer demand, which leads to knowing how to allocate resources to meet that demand by having the right people with the right skills.

Demand Management Process

Demand management helps businesses to oversee and manage customer demand. To do this, though, requires a process. The demand management process includes knowing what customers want and the steps necessary to fulfill those needs. To plan for current and future demand requires following these six steps in the demand management process.

Demand Forecasting

Demand forecasting is the process of predicting customer needs for a business’ products. That demand determines what adjustments need to be made or if new offerings should be added. Estimating what customers want and how much of each item they’ll want isn’t an exact science. To get an accurate estimate, businesses use many methods, some qualitative and other quantitative. Data, software and analytics are all used in this process, but predictions should always be hedged by noting their strengths and weaknesses.

Demand Planning

Once the forecast is clear, the planning begins. Demand planning is part of the demand management process that enables a business to plan to meet the demand forecast through the production of its products. This is also part of the larger supply chain process and requires an understanding of horizon (timeline for the demand plan), frequency (how often the plan is updated) and granularity (level of detail in the plan). This allows for the creation of a demand plan that meets customer needs.

Demand Modeling

One way to make a more accurate demand forecast and, therefore, have a better demand plan is through demand modeling. Demand modeling uses predictive analysis to understand customer behavior. It looks at things such as the propensity of a customer to purchase a product and how the propensity changes based on things like the price of that product. Historical data is also used to better understand the customers’ behavior.

Demand Capacity

Demand capacity is a ratio that compares the production that a company makes with the demand coming from its customers. When manufacturing, businesses measure demand capacity to make sure they have the production capacity levels that allow them to meet the demand for their products. Calculating this uses several sources, such as sales records, customer feedback, inventory levels, production reports or service logs.

Demand Sensing

Another way to predict customer demand is with demand sensing, which uses real-time data and analytics to understand and predict what a customer will want, when they’ll want it and how much they’ll want. This is done by reviewing sales history, inventory levels and customer behavior, point-of-sale systems, online sales platforms and customer surveys. While not perfect, demand sensing can reduce forecast error by up to 50 percent and increase accuracy by up to 20 percent.

Demand Shaping

Demand shaping is a supply chain strategy that uses tactics such as price and promotion incentives, product substitutions and cost modifications to lure customers to buy specific products. Through these means, a business can influence demand for a certain item to match its planned supply.

What Does a Demand Manager Do?

The person responsible for the demand management process is a demand manager or demand planning manager a professional tasked with overseeing the daily operations of the demand planning team, who analyzes customer and vendor demand to create and refine their forecasts.

Demand managers are responsible for reviewing purchase history, sales history and the marketing strategies businesses use to promote products and stimulate growth. They also evaluate their effectiveness and respond accordingly to improve.

To do this, the demand manager will come up with effective forecast models based on industry trends and demand patterns. They’ll implement solutions to improve the accuracy of demand forecasting, as well. They are highly analytical and have a deep knowledge of advanced mathematical and forecasting policies.

How to Manage Production With ProjectManager

Demand management has a great influence on production. It tells manufacturers how much of a product customers want so they can produce just the right amount or as close to that number as possible. This saves money on labor, storage and more. However, demand management can’t help create a more effective production plan, but project management software can. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software with multiple project views to plan production activities, schedule resources and track labor costs to ensure that manufacturing goes according to budget.

Plan Production Activities

Managers can plan their production activities on robust Gantt charts that link all four types of task dependencies to avoid delays. Once the schedule is made, resources allocated and costs determined, set a baseline to capture that plan so it can be compared to actual progress and costs during production. Real-time dashboards capture key performance indicators (KPIs) on easy-to-use graphs and charts for a high-level overview of production. There are also customizable kanban boards with columns that reflect the production cycle and cards that track costs, progress and schedule resources. Use kanban to manage order fulfillment, too.

Track Labor Costs With Timesheets

Keeping a close eye on labor costs helps manage production costs. Employees can use timesheets that automatically add their hours and are securely sealed once sent to a manager to review and pass onto payroll. While this streamlines the payroll process, it’s only part of what timesheets can do. Timesheets capture labor costs and let managers see how far each team member is in terms of completing their assigned tasks. This allows managers to calculate whether the production is progressing as planned or if resources need to be allocated to get back on track.

Stakeholders can stay up to date with production by using one of the multiple project views to track progress, such as the calendar view, which is more a high-level overview of the production cycle. But there are also customizable reports on project status, portfolio, variance and much more. All can be filtered to show only the data stakeholders want to see and shared with them across formats.

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office or on the factory floor. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams from companies, such as Avis, Nestle and Siemens who are using our software to deliver success. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

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