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Just testing out Asana and I am already looking for a Mac app. I am using Slack, Things and Wunderlist as Mac apps and this is, IMHO, a must have when. Asana offers free mobile apps for Android and for iOS. For testing, we installed Asana on a Google Pixel running Android 9.0. We had no trouble downloading the app and singing into an account. Fluid is an applications that let's you create Mac apps out of any website or web application. In this case, from Asana. Go to FluidApp.com and download the app. Asana Android and iOS mobile apps All apps, Made by Asana, Google Download the Asana mobile app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device to plan your day, share ideas, and get team updates on the go. I heard that, Mac OS will also support IOS apps with new version. This might help us to use Asana app on Mac if Asana doesn’t do anything for native app. But it won’t solve the Windows users problem.
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- ProsFlexible, fast, and modern design. Capable free version. Feature-rich. New Timeline view makes it easier to manage dependencies.
- ConsNot ideal for graphics-intensive work. Can't switch between Task and Kanban project views after creation.
- Bottom LineAsana is a top-notch collaboration tool that helps teams manage all kinds of tasks. Although it may be confusing at first, its flexibility and vast capabilities are well worth the initial effort it takes to get started.
Productivity enthusiasts love Asana—and for good reason. This online team collaboration tool specializes in workflow management, but it also handles the nitty-gritty of task management with aplomb. That said, Asana should not be confused with full-on project management software, despite its new Timeline feature. It includes neither native time tracking nor other advanced tools we expect to see for full-scale project management. But for managing tasks and workflows, it's a flexible and elegant tool that you can bend to your will. Asana is one of the best collaboration and productivity apps for teams and an Editors' Choice.
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Pricing and Plans
If you want to see what Asana is all about, the service offers a free account tier for teams of 15 members and fewer. The only other major restrictions are that you can't use Asana's Timeline view, advanced Dashboards, or advanced search tools. We discuss all these features in detail later on. Free account users get all other task management features, however, including the ability to create tasks, assign people to them, add due dates, write comments, and attach files. There are also no limits on the number of tasks or projects you can create. We recommend using the free account for at least a few weeks with a small test group before upgrading to a paid tier of service.
Asana Premium costs $119.88 per person per year or $11.99 per person if you pay monthly. The Premium account includes everything in the free account and removes the limits on team sizes, dashboards, and search tools. Premium accounts come with a few additional perks, including Asana's Timeline feature, private teams and projects, custom fields, task dependencies, administrative controls, and priority support. Private projects are only accessible to invited members, while projects that are not private are accessible to everyone on the team.
Very small teams of 15 people or fewer who want Premium features pay a lower rate: $75 per person per year, or $7.50 per person per month. Student groups can also contact the company for a free six-month trial of Asana Premium. The price has increased in the last few years, but people who have existing and active Asana agreements can continue at the lower rates.
For comparison, Todoist Premium costs $29 per year for personal use or $29 per person per year for teams. On the high end, Podio starts at $9 per person per month or roughly $86 per year if paid annually. So Asana is a lot more expensive than Todoist, but is close in price to Podio's Basic and Plus plans.
Asana has kanban board features, too, so other popular kanban apps, such as Trello, Wrike, and Volerro, are also fair game for comparison. Trello charges $119.88 per person per year, the same as Asana. Volerro charges just $7.99 per person per month. Wrike charges nearly the same amount as Asana Premium for its Professional tier of service ($117.60 per person per year) and a much higher rate for its Business grade service ($297.60 per person per year)
What Is Asana?
Asana is a workflow management tool that you primarily use to manage tasks. It differs from traditional project management apps namely due to its lack of structure. Asana is like a deck of cards, whereas project management software is like a board game. Board games are designed to be played with a series of preset rules. It's unusual for players to stray too far from these set instructions, although everyone might agree to some modifications from time to time.
With a deck of cards, you have more options. For example, you could play a well-known game with established rules, such as five-card draw, or invent your own game. Let's say you decide to play rummy. Everyone at the table must first agree on which version of rummy to play (straight rummy, 500 rummy, gin rummy, and so on). There's a template for the game, but the exact rules need to be established by all players beforehand.
In the case of Asana, there are just as many predefined ways you can use it as there are custom ways. One more point of distinction is that Asana is better suited for ongoing work, whereas project management apps are typically better for projects with clear beginning and end dates, as well as a deliverable. Building and launching a news website is a project. Writing daily content for a news website is ongoing work.
In more specific terms, Asana keeps track of who is responsible for what task, the information related to each task, and all other information related to that task's progress. If this still sounds confusing, know that setting Asana up for your needs is the hardest part. After that initial period, Asana's open-ended nature is also one of its best aspects. Check out Asana's Guide on how to get started with, and eventually master all of, its features.
Asana's Structure
Before opening up Asana to everyone in the organization, a group of administrators needs to make a final decision on how Asana will be implemented and used. While some collaboration tools tout simplicity, that's really not the case with Asana. Asana is intuitive, but once you get going, its complete lack of structure may make it difficult to dive in without a good amount of forethought. Asana does offer some help with structure with Project Templates, which we discuss later, but the prospect of translating an organizational structure in a way that makes sense could be intimidating.
As for the basic workflow hierarchy, each team is responsible for a series of projects with individual task lists. Each task can have subtasks, as well as an assignee, due date, attachments, comments, tags, and followers. You use these tasks and subtasks to track work. The comments and other data help you understand what's happening with the task so that you don't need to discuss matters over email or some other way. As tasks and subtasks are completed, all of their history and everything that occurred ends up being attached to the task itself. Thus, every work action has meaningful context.
In addition to its ability to keep track of minutia, Asana is also useful for getting a broader perspective on the responsibilities of each team member. Custom searches, which we discuss in more detail later, or even just looking at someone else's task list is an effective way to figure out whether someone is overbooked or underperforming. You can use these insights to make effective changes.
Privacy and Security
Asana secures connections to its site using at least the TLS 1.1 protocol and hosts its data in 'secure SSAE 16 audited data centers via Amazon in the US.' Asana also offers a bug bounty program for disclosing vulnerabilities with the service. Asana recently earned SOC 2 Type 1 certification. Soc 2 Audits are run by the American Institute of CPAs and according to that organization, concern 'the controls at a service organization relevant to security, availability, and processing integrity of the systems the service organization uses to process users' data and the confidentiality and privacy of the information processed by these systems.' As with Slack, you can also check the Asana's status via an online dashboard.
At the usage level, Asana embraces collaboration among all team members. You can certainly keep projects and tasks private in Asana, but the nature of the tool is to allow all team members equal access to see, edit, and interact with information in the app. That said, Asana does allow you to mark projects as Comment-Only or assign this permission level to individual members.
For teams who do use Asana as an open platform, it's very important to maintain dialogue about the rules of engagement to ensure everyone agrees to use the app in the same way, not overwrite one another's work, and so forth. Recently, Asana added new enterprise security options, including the ability to control which apps are usable across the integration and restrict who can add guests.
Look and Feel
Asana is available on the web and via the App Store and Google Play Store, but it does not offer a desktop app. Some collaboration apps, such as Slack, offer desktop variants, but it's not a deal breaker.
Asana's web interface is efficient and responsive, with enough color and design flair to keep it interesting and useful without looking too cluttered. It has some surprises as well, like celebratory animations that appear on screen from time to time, although you can disable these extra effects if they don't appeal to you. Asana also includes a series of keyboard shortcuts called Hacks in its settings section, which add various kinds of functionality and personality. For example, hit TAB+B for a bit of feline fun after enabling the related hack.
The web dashboard is divided into three main areas: a left rail; a main window that changes based on what you select from the left; and a right information box that drills down into whatever you're viewing in the main window. The main window also includes a button for quickly adding items such as tasks or projects, a search bar, and a profile icon. In your profile settings, you can add basic account information, set notification preferences, adjust display preferences and the aforementioned visual effects, and configure integrations with other apps such as Harvest and Zapier. Asana maintains a full list of supported apps and integrations.
Per the latest design update, you navigate the interface via the left rail menu, which can also be completely hidden if you want to focus on the main page. From top to bottom, your main options are Home, My Tasks, Inbox, and Dashboard. These options might differ based on your organization's global settings. Home is a new section that shows your favorite and recent projects, while My Tasks shows everything assigned to you or that you are following. If you see a New banner over any project in the Home tab, you can mouse over it to view the latest activity. Inbox is just a feed of Asana activities. You can add specific projects to the Dashboards section to keep track of updates and get an overview of task completion. A yellow dot appears next to Inbox when you have unread notifications.
Thoughtful design makes the main window in Asana bend to your needs. For example, when you click on a project on the left, the main window pops up a contextual menu under the project name, with Timeline, Calendar, Conversations, Progress, and Files. You can also sort items by Assignee or Due Date under any Task View, for example, or choose to only show either completed or incomplete tasks. Tasks glide across the screen when you click and drag them to change their order, which makes reprioritizing really simple. If you want, you can also organize tasks into Sections, but note that these sections don't affect any task classifications elsewhere.
Additional Features and In Use
Asana doesn't skimp on features. When you create a task, you can assign it to a team member, schedule a due date or add a recurring date, upload or link to associated documents, write comments, add tags, and even subscribe or unsubscribe yourself and others to receive notifications whenever changes occur on the task. The Comments section is particularly useful since it supports rich text formatting, comment editing, and direct mentions via the @ symbol among other things.
Tags help make tasks more searchable, and the advanced search function, which we dive into later, is quite good. Interactive checkboxes let you tick off tasks as you complete them—and just as easily untick them if you or another Asana member strikes something off in error. Asana also gives you the ability to create a custom field. You might add a field that indicates a task's priority (low, medium, high), or you could use custom fields to indicate the state of a task (pending, in progress, awaiting final approval).
Asana also integrates a calendar that you can use to keep track of due dates. On a positive note, Asana seems to take user feedback seriously. After receiving overwhelmingly negative feedback about changes to the calendar, Asana reverted the update and is working on making sure that legacy features are maintained in addition to the performance improvements.
Asana does not offer chat features, which is disappointing, though it does integrate with Slack and Microsoft Teams. Asana does provide a space called Conversations, a message board on which team members can discuss issues with one another that aren't directly related to any one particular task. For example, members could discuss the scope of future projects, creative ideas, or procedure. Still, this is not effective for direct messaging or casual conversations.
Asana isn't the most adept tool for graphics-intensive projects either, but it has improved over the years. The kanban view, which we discuss later, is one such improvement. You can upload images to tasks, but you can't mark them up in the app itself. You can preview attached images, however, form the app.
Templates and Views
If you aren't sure how to set up a project, Asana provides a series of templates you can use. To get started, hit the Plus button > Project. Templates is the middle tab. Examples of predesigned templates include Meeting Agenda, Product Roadmap, and Employee Onboarding. Of course, you can create your own template as well aren't stuck to these structures either. Think of them as a starting point.
Another useful feature is Asana's ability to create dependencies between tasks. Let's say we have task A, task B, and task C logged in Asana. If task C cannot get done until tasks A, and then B are complete, we can add dependencies between those three.
Naturally, then, you might expect Asana to have some sort of Gantt chart functionality. Enter the relatively recent Timeline View. Here, users can see every one of their tasks laid out in a Gantt style format. Dependencies are represented by lines between tasks and you can make changes at will. Gantt charts are particularly helpful for seeing how a delay in one task or an extended absence of a team member can affect target dates down the line. Asana also rolled out the ability to organize tasks in the view into sections. Teamwork Projects offers a Gantt chart view, but it's not nearly as well-designed.
Kanban Boards in Asana
Asana now includes a Board view, designed to give teams a way to manage work using kanban. Kanban apps specialize in helping you visualizing all the work that needs to be done and all the work in progress, with an emphasis on making sure teams don't get overloaded with so many tasks that they lose focus and become less productive. Kanban does this by limiting the number of tasks that can be assigned to a person or department at a given time.
Trello is another productivity app that uses the kanban style. One method is to set up several columns that correlate to a state of completion. It might make sense, to have columns for DEV, QA, and Production for example. To move a task from one stage to another, simply drag it over to the next one.
Note that using this Board View requires you to create projects specifically in this style. In other words, you can't simply switch from the default task view to this style at the time of this review. To change your view, during the Project creation phase, just look under the layout section and select the Board option.
As previously mentioned, Board views can be more useful for teams who work with visual materials, since you can set cover images for each task in a column. Just as with Asana's other views, you can create custom fields when in the Board view and flag comments directly to people with the @ symbol, a useful but less common feature among dedicated kanban apps. Asana doesn't have every desirable kanban feature, however. It's missing swim lanes and work-in-progress limits. KanbanFlow has all these features.
Advanced Search and Reports
Asana includes excellent advanced search functionality. At the top level, when querying for a term, you can specify if you are looking for a task or conversation. Other default fields include: Assigned to, In projects; and Followed By. Further, you can specify whether a task has an attachment, if it is completed, as well as its due date. To drill down even further, you can add Filters for custom fields, People, Tags, Dependencies, and even Subtasks. If you can't find what you are looking for with these tools, it likely did not exist in the first place.
Asana makes it easy to save any of these complex searches as interactive Reports, which live in the left-hand menu for quick access. These reports update as new items match the terms and you can edit the terms of the search at any point. We appreciate this feature as it can be invaluable for managers who are looking to figure out who is being productive. Even for individuals, it's a good way to track individual progress over time.
Asana's Mobile Apps
Asana offers free mobile apps for Android and for iOS. For testing, we installed Asana on a Google Pixel running Android 9.0. We had no trouble downloading the app and singing into an account.
The app is set up slightly differently than on the web, but the interface retains its clean look. For example, most of the navigation links and structures are on the right-hand side of the screen, instead of the left. Once you sign in, Asana takes you directly to your Task List, which is likely where you will spend most of your time. Although all the core functionality, including the ability to create, track, and complete tasks, is in the app, Asana tends to work best on a big screen where you can see a lot of information at once, so the small screen size isn't ideal.
That said, it is definitely possible to be productive from your phone and we appreciate that you can access Asana from anywhere you have an Internet connection. Notably, the apps have a good deal of offline capabilities, too. When you work offline in the mobile apps, you see gray clouds indicating that the content hasn't synced yet, so none of your collaborators will be able to see it until your device reconnects and syncs.
A Deck of Cards
Asana's thoughtful design, fluid interactive elements, and generous member allotment in its free version make it a powerful task-management app for personal projects and teamwork. Its flexibility, extensive feature set, and variety of workflow views are also commendable. For all those reasons, Asana earns an Editors' Choice for collaboration apps. Although it's not cheap and its lack of structure may initially cause some anxiety, we promise that it is a tool well worth using.
Asana
Bottom Line: Asana is a top-notch collaboration tool that helps teams manage all kinds of tasks. Although it may be confusing at first, its flexibility and vast capabilities are well worth the initial effort it takes to get started.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.blog comments powered by DisqusLearning how to manage your projects efficiently can mean the difference between profit and loss for your revenue. In fact, it's estimated that 9.9% of every dollar is currently wasted due to poor project performance. That's a sobering stat, especially if your startup or freelance business isn't turning over a high profit margin to begin with.
The good news: There's free project management software that can give you the resources you need to become more organized and efficient with each new project that comes down the pipeline. From kanban apps to Gantt chart software, here are the 12 best free project management apps for teams on a budget.
Need more features and have a bit more flexibility in your budget? Check out our recommendations for the best project management apps.
What Makes Great Free Project Management Software?
To narrow down our list of the best free project management software, we looked for tools that met the following criteria:
- Free for unlimited projects: The apps we chose have free plans that you can use to manage unlimited projects.
- Variety: We included options for various management methodologies—kanban, Gantt charts, Scrum, and to-do lists—so we eliminated some apps simply because there were better alternatives available using the same PM methodology.
- Hosted: There are a lot of great, free, self-hosted project management tools, but they take longer to set up and manage. We're featuring project management apps that are hosted by the companies that provide the tools.
We 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 management app 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.
The 12 Best Free Project Management Apps
- Trello (Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android) for individuals and teams who need a work pipeline
- MeisterTask (Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) for combining project ideation, planning, and execution
- KanbanFlow (Web) for combining kanban, time tracking, and Pomodoro
- Freedcamp (Web, iOS, Android) for managing all projects and communications in a single tool
- Asana (Web, iOS, Android) for creating a to-do list powerful enough to manage projects
- Paymo (Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android) for freelancers who charge by the hour
- Bitrix24 (Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) for classic project management with Gantt charts
- Wrike (Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) for spreadsheet-like features in a project management app
- Podio (Web, iOS, Android) for customizing your project management tool
- Yodiz (Web, iOS, Android) for Agile and Scrum teams
- Agantty (Web) for creating Gantt charts quickly and easily
- AND CO (Web, macOS, iOS, Android) for projects that require invoicing
Trello (Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for individuals and teams who need a work pipeline
Trello is a simple way to start organizing your projects in kanban boards. And with a free plan that allows for unlimited boards and users, it's a tool that anyone can use. Freelancers use Trello to plan their assignments on a personal board, and teams use Trello to hand work off to each other, creating a collaboration pipeline.
Start out with a handful of lists for your tasks, and customize those lists with 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—with labels, due dates, checklists, and comments to keep everything in one place—and drag them to the appropriate list. Keep track of all comments on tasks that mention you—or that you're watching—from the notifications menu.
For more features, Trello's Power-Up options (in the web app's menu) 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 fits your needs best.
Trello Price: The Free plan includes unlimited boards and users, one Power-Up per board, and attachments up to 10MB in size; upgrade for $9.99/user/month (billed annually) to the Business Class plan that includes unlimited Power-Ups, attachments up to 250MB in size, and more granular permissions controls.
Automate Trello with Trello's Zapier integrations.
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.
MeisterTask (Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for combining project ideation, planning, and execution
MeisterTask takes a fresh approach to kanban boards, with brightly colored lists and a dashboard wallpaper. And your team will be more productive, too, since MeisterTask includes automations that are triggered when you drag tasks to new lists. You can send emails, reset due dates, and more just by moving tasks around. You can also see all the tasks you're responsible for—across all of the projects you're assigned to—in your personal dashboard.
If your projects start life in brainstorming sessions with mind maps, you'll have another reason to try MeisterTask: its MindMeister integration. You can plan your project in a mind map, then drag it into MeisterTask to turn each idea into a task. It's one of the quickest ways to turn your team's ideas into an actionable plan for execution.
MeisterTask Price: Free for the Basic plan that includes unlimited projects and users, two native app integrations, and file attachments up to 20MB in size; upgrade for $8.25/user/month to the Pro plan that includes unlimited native app integrations, attachments up to 200MB in size, and a searchable task archive.
Automate MeisterTask with MeisterTask's Zapier integrations.
Want more ideas for how to use MeisterTask as a team? Here's how five teams use MeisterTask and Zapier to boost productivity.
KanbanFlow (Web)
Best free project management software for combining kanban, time tracking, and Pomodoro
Wondering how long your tasks take to complete? KanbanFlow is another kanban board app that includes a timer that logs how long you spend on each task—and how long it stays in a particular list. The timer also includes a Pomodoro mode to help your team work in sprints and remind everyone to take breaks so they stay productive all day.
KanbanFlow's Pomodoro timer also asks your team members to record what caused an interruption when they have to pause their focus session timer. These tools together help you find and nix bottlenecks in your workflows—all while pushing your projects towards completion.
KanbanFlow Price: The Free plan includes unlimited tasks and boards, the Pomodoro timer, and productivity reports; upgrade for $5/user/month to the Premium plan that includes file attachments, priority support, and third-party integrations.
Automate KanbanFlow with KanbanFlow's Zapier integrations.
Freedcamp (Web, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for managing all projects and communications in a single tool
For a more full-featured project management tool, Freedcamp gives you a place to manage tasks along with calendar and milestone tools to plan your project's schedule. Tasks can be organized in a standard to-do list or a kanban board, while your most important dates can be split between milestones or the calendar to help with short- and long-term planning.
Freedcamp can easily be your project hub, holding everything you need to get work done. Bring in your files and keep discussions inside your projects—or upgrade to add extra tools for invoicing, CRM, and more—and you'll only need to check one app each day to get your work done.
Freedcamp Price: The Free plan includes unlimited users and projects, attachments up to 10MB in size, and all of Freedcamp's core apps; upgrade for $1.49/user/month (billed annually) to the Minimalist plan that includes premium support, attachments up to 25MB in size, and unlimited task nesting.
Automate Freedcamp with Freedcamp's Zapier integrations.
ClickUp is another project management tool that’s free for unlimited users and unlimited projects. The 100MB storage restriction makes it tough for teams with larger files, but it’s easy to use and offers enough customization to work for any type of organization.
Asana (Web, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for creating a to-do list powerful enough to manage projects
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.
Asana Desktop App For Mac
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 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.
Asana Price: The Free plan includes unlimited projects, up to 15 users, and basic search features; upgrade for $9.99/user/month (billed annually) to the Premium plan that includes project timelines, advanced search, and task dependencies.
Automate Asana with Asana's Zapier integrations.
Learn more about how to use Asana as a team, how to use Asana for GTD, and how to take advantage of Asana's hidden features. Or if Asana's not quite right for your needs, check out some of our other favorite to-do list apps.
Paymo (Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for freelancers who charge by the hour
Paymo is a project management app and time tracker with a free plan that makes it easier for freelancers to plan, prioritize, and keep track of their work for multiple clients and projects.
Add clients, add projects for those clients, and then add tasks to those projects. For each task, you can assign due dates, set priorities, and add descriptions and attachments. You also have two options for how to view your tasks—as a list or in a kanban board—or use Paymo's filter to sort all of your tasks for every client and project by status, due dates, priorities, and more.
When you're ready to start working on a specific task, just select that task in Paymo's time tracker and click the play button to start tracking your time. When you stop the timer, it adds the time to your timesheet and attributes it to the right task, client, and project.
When it's time to bill your clients, use Paymo's time reports to pull the exact data you need. Export, print, or share the report with your clients in a detailed list view or as a pie graph or bar chart, or take the data and use it to create a branded invoice directly in Paymo. You can even set up your invoices to allow for online payments through Stripe, PayPal, and more.
Paymo Price: The Free plan includes one user, unlimited projects, 1GB of storage, and up to three invoices; upgrade for $9.56/user/month for the Small Office plan that includes unlimited invoices, 50GB of storage, and project templates.
Automate Paymo with Paymo's Zapier integrations.
Looking for more apps to simplify your administrative tasks as a freelancer? Here are our recommendations for the best time tracker apps and the best accounting apps for freelancers.
Bitrix24 (Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for classic project management with Gantt charts
Have a large or distributed project team to keep on track? Bitrix24 is a great solution: It combines classic project management features with native collaboration tools. From a social intranet to in-app video conferencing and screen-sharing to HR and client management tools, Bitrix24 is designed to be a one-stop shop for managing projects, teams, and your company as a whole.
Organize tasks within your projects, then use a Gantt chart view to keep everything on track. You can even track employee workloads and deadlines to avoid burning out team members. And if you plan to upgrade from a free to a premium plan, Bitrix24 is one of the few project management apps that has flat-rate pricing rather than charging a per-user fee, which could save you on subscription costs.
Bitrix24 Price: The Free plan includes unlimited projects, up to 12 users, and 5GB of online storage; upgrade for $39/month to the Plus plan that includes up to 24 users and 24GB of online storage.
Can't decide if you need task lists, kanban boards, or Gantt charts most? Zoho Projects (free for up to five users and two projects) includes them all. You can write tasks down in a list, organize them into a kanban workflow, then make sure everything will be done on time with a Gantt chart. We didn't include it on our main list because it doesn't offer unlimited projects in its free plan, but it's a great option to include in your testing if you think you'll eventually want to upgrade to a premium plan.
Wrike (Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for spreadsheet-like features in a project management app
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—combined with reminders and Gantt chart views (premium plans only) that will keep your work on track.
Wrike lets your team update the status of tasks at various intervals—in-progress, on hold, cancelled, or completed—letting you track the status of all project tasks in detail. Additionally, you can set the status of projects to green, yellow, red, on hold, or cancelled, 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, activity streams, and custom dashboards—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.
Wrike Price: The Free plan includes unlimited projects and tasks for up to five users; upgrade for $9.80/user/month (billed annually) to the Professional plan that includes Gantt charts and shareable dashboards for five, 10, or 15 users.
![Mac Mac](https://asanatraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Train-your-team-how-to-use-Asana.jpg)
Automate Wrike with Wrike's Zapier integrations.
Chromecast App For Mac
Podio (Web, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for customizing your project management tool
Want something a bit more customizable? Podio lets you build a hyper-customized project or task manager. With a form-style builder, you'll drag and drop the fields you want in your projects and tasks to gather the data your projects need. You can then visualize your projects and tasks in lists, cards, or calendar views, and use Podio's built-in search to find any item you need in any of your custom apps.
Tying it all together is Podio's internal social network where you can post updates, ask questions, and chat with your team members. You can use it as the hub to keep track of your team's work, with tools for each item you're working on and the discussions about them all in one place.
Podio Price: The Free plan includes unlimited tasks and workspaces for up to five employees; upgrade for $7.20/employee/month (billed annually) to the Basic plan that includes user management and collaboration with external users.
Automate Podio with Podio's Zapier integrations.
Want to customize every part of your project management workflow and be sure you maintain control of your data? Self-hosted project management tools are a great option. For free, self-hosted project management software, we recommend Taiga, Lavagna, Redmine, and Odoo.
Yodiz (Web, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for Agile and Scrum teams
Yodiz offers a surprisingly powerful free tool for teams that use Agile and Scrum methods. It lets you do everything you need to plan your projects, releases, and sprints: create user stories, nest user stories within epics, create sprints and set sprint dates, add estimates in both story points and hours, and view sprint progress on a sprint board.
Unlike a lot of free project management apps that claim they're for Scrum but are really just kanban boards with the ability to add estimates, Yodiz is truly a Scrum tool designed specifically for Scrum teams. It's as powerful as most of the big names in Scrum software—comparable to tools like VersionOne and CA Agile Central—and it's completely free for teams of up to three.
Yodiz Price: Free for the Starter plan that includes unlimited projects for up to three users; for more than three users, upgrade to the Issue Tracker plan for $3/user/month.
Automate Yodiz with Yodiz's Zapier integrations.
Agantty (Web)
Best free project management software for creating Gantt charts quickly and easily
Most project management apps that let you create Gantt charts are feature-rich and robust—great if you need all of the bells and whistles, but cumbersome if you don't. Agantty is different. It's a simple and free project management app that lets you create Gantt charts with projects and tasks quickly, easily, and painlessly.
Just add your projects, enter dates and deadlines, then add tasks to each project. Agantty displays them all on a timeline for you. Need to adjust dates? It's easy. Just drag the edges of a project or task left or right, and Agantty automatically updates the timeline and dates for you. The end result is a calendar that provides a visual of everything your team is working on.
And if you have team members who prefer a simpler task list, just switch to Agantty's dashboard view to see all upcoming and in-progress tasks for the day, week, month, or a custom range. Click items in the list to make edits, or check the box next to a task to mark it as complete.
Agantty Price: Free for unlimited projects and teams and all app features.
AND CO (Web, macOS, iOS, Android)
Best free project management software for projects that require invoicing
Created by the same team that runs freelance platform Fiverr, AND CO is a powerful project management app that gives you all the tools you need to manage a freelance (or other service-based) project from start to finish, totally free for all features, with no limitations.
Once your free account is created, you can log in and click the green Create button to set up your first project, which might include client info, services and fees, contracts, and expenses—everything you need to manage your project on the legal and tax side of things. As you begin working on the project, you can create tasks and organize them by project or list. Since AND CO includes a built-in time tracking tool, you can easily log your work time to individual tasks and projects for more accurate billing.
The biggest downside of AND CO's task and project management area is that it's designed for a single user, so you won't be able to assign individual tasks or projects to multiple team members. But for freelancers or businesses with a single project manager, this shouldn't be an issue.
AND CO stands out for its custom contracts and invoice capabilities, which can be sent to the client for one-off payments or subscriptions, or even to require a down payment before the project work begins. All invoices can be paid directly upon receipt by the client through WePay, Stripe, or PayPal. (Note: PayPal will only work for one-off invoices, and cannot be used for recurring payments.) Once the payment is made, AND CO logs the invoice amount as income, keeping a running tally of income vs. expenses for you throughout the calendar year.
If you find yourself wishing for project management software that offers powerful invoice and subscription payment options, along with tasks and time tracking, you may gravitate towards AND CO for an all-in-one tool with an easy-to-use interface.
AND CO Price: Free.
Automate AND CO with AND CO's Zapier integrations.
Xbox App For Mac
Add Extra Features to Your Project Management App
Need more features from your new project management tool? Zapier integrations help by connecting your project management app to the other tools your team already uses.
Say you want to add tasks to projects via email, but your new app doesn't include that feature. Just connect both your email and project management tool to Zapier, then have Zapier watch for new messages to turn them into tasks in your project management app automatically.
Check out Zapier's project management app integrations to see all of your options, or consider these ideas for inspiration:
Track time and send Invoices
Whether you're working on client projects and need to bill for each hour spent, or are working on your own projects and want to know how long they take, time tracking apps can help you see where every minute goes. Hook up your projects to your time tracking app, and you can log time just by checking off to-dos.
Chat with your team
Team chat apps are a great way to make sure everyone knows what's happening in your projects. Zapier can connect your project management tool to Slack, Discord, Zoho Cliq, and other popular chat apps so you can notify your team about new tasks and deadlines or start new projects right from your chats.
Organize project data
Projects include a lot of moving parts, and Zapier can help pull them all together. Whether you need to add notes to your project, create contracts and other template documents, log your work in a spreadsheet, or anything else, there's a Zap for that.
Don't see the automation you need? Explore all of our app integrations to find exactly what you're looking for, or create your own Zap.
Learn More About Project Management
Project management is far more than just an app—it's a way to take your project from idea to completion. You could just choose the project management software you want and start using it, but your projects will be far more successful if you break your tasks down into steps, add milestones and due dates to keep things on track, and use checklists to ensure each task is completed with the same quality and care.
Zapier's Ultimate Guide to Project Management teaches you that and more. It walks you through the best project management systems, shows you how to manage projects effectively, and showcases the best tools to get things done.
Originally published in May 2017, this post has been updated by Jessica Greene and Maria Myre with each project management app's latest features and pricing, along with new criteria for how we chose the best apps. We also removed several apps from the previous version of this list that didn't meet our new criteria, and we added three great new providers: Paymo, Yodiz, AND CO, and Agantty.