We've tested 14 free project management software providers and found out that ClickUp currently has the best free plan. The plan includes a fantastic collection of features, including custom project templates and automations, a range of customization options, and, importantly, no limit on how many users can participate in your project.

Without needing to spend a cent on ClickUp's free plan, you'll be able to streamline user workflows with pre-built and custom automations, access a full suite of task management features, and display all your data in charts and widgets on a data dashboard. To top it all off, ClickUp's free customer support provision is much broader than what's on offer from other competitors, and there's even 24/7 live support available on the provider's free plan.

If you'd like to compare project management software aside from these free plans, visit our comparison page to find out how they stack up against one another, and which one is best for your business.

In this guide, you'll find:

ClickUp: free plan overview

There's a reason ClickUp's free plan, Free Forever, tops our list. It has all the task management features you could possibly need, some preset data visualization tools, and 24/7 live support. The (very minor) downside is that there's a five-project limit, but you can easily create another free account with a different email address once you max it out.

A couple of features have usage limits on ClickUp's free plan. Gantt Charts, Custom Fields, and Resource management tools are limited to 100 uses, whereas Milestones can only be used 10 times. Other tools, like a time-tracking function, are included with ClickUp's free plan, but not with no-fee packages offered by its competitors.

For example, monday.com doesn't have Gantt charts or Milestones on its free plan, and Jira, Wrike, and Zoho don't offer any resource management capabilities on their free plans.

Setting up with ClickUp is a straightforward and simple process. Accessing the tools and functions you need within the program is pretty intuitive, and it doesn't require any menu diving. All in all, ClickUp was a joy to use and scores 4/5 for usability according to our research team, second only to monday.com.

Unlike providers like Teamwork, ClickUp does have an automation builder and this is available for use on the free plan, although it was reasonably tough to master compared to some other ones, such as Asana's. There are also not many features for post-project feedback included within ClickUp's free plan.

ClickUp's List view with live chat assistant. Image: Tech.co's testing process

ClickUp paid plans pricing

Much like the provider's free plan, ClickUp's Paid Plans score very highly across the board, particularly when it comes to task management, customer support, workflow creation, and data visualization. ClickUp's first paid plan, the Unlimited plan, is available for $7 per user, per month, and the big difference is that the usage limits are removed from certain features.

If you'd like to compare paid plans across different providers, head over to our review of the best project management software currently available.

monday.com: free plan overview

With Kanban Boards and a spreadsheet-style view, monday.com's free plan has plenty of ways to view tasks. It also has useful collaboration features: a whiteboard, which isn't included in a lot of free (or paid, for that matter) plans in the project management world; and a form builder, which is useful for compiling post-project feedback.

On top of this, its free plan has an impressive number of preset charts and widgets – you can make your own custom widgets too. There's also a dashboard function that allows you to keep track of all your project data.

For ease, monday.com uses a system called ‘Items', which are customizable rows and columns that can be used to input task information. This makes setting up a real breeze and it means you can effectively add as much or as little detail as you want.

However, there's a user limit of just two (perhaps the biggest downside) and only 500MB of storage on its free plan. The other thing worth knowing is that its free plan only lets you track tasks, rather than create projects. Sadly, many of the features that helped monday.com score 4.3/5 for usability in our last round of testing are not included with the free plan.

monday.com's chart builder. Image: Tech.co's testing process

That being said, monday.com's free plan still has a wealth of useful tools that, together, create a genuinely useful organizational space for individuals and teams of two.

monday.com paid plans pricing

In our latest round of project management software testing, monday.com receives particularly high scores for its paid plans when it came to usability, collaboration, data visualization, and, of course, customizability. The paid plans for monday.com start at $8 per user, per month for the Basic Projects plan, and there's no user limit on that package.

If you've got the budget for a paid plan, see how monday.com compares with its competitors.

Smartsheet: free plan overview

Smartsheet's free plan is limited compared to its paid offerings, but will still come in handy if you're a solo user. You'll be able to make up to 2 sheets to track tasks and projects – and of course, if you need to manage three or four concurrent projects, you can always make another free account.

There's also 500MB of storage up for grabs, plus you'll be able to log in with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Apple ID for extra security. You won't get any dedicated customer support options, but you'll have access to Smartsheet's help and learning center, which is quite extensive and covers a lot of ground.

With Smartsheet's free plan, you'll get to access some of the task management features and project views available on its paid plans, such as the Grid view, Card view, and the Gantt view, which is pictured below:

Smartsheet's spreadsheet view and “Conversations” tool. Image: Tech.co's testing process

Smartsheet paid plans pricing

In our last round of testing, we found Smartsheet to be the most usable project management software on the market. It has dedicated features for a much wider variety of tasks than simpler software like Trello. It also excelled when it came to data visualization, complex task management, and building automations, but it's pretty impressive across the board.

Paid plans start at $7 per user, per month for the Pro plan, and there's also a $25 per user, per month Business plan and an Enterprise plan without public pricing.

Wrike: free plan overview

Wrike offers one of the only Free plans on this list that doesn't set any user or project limits. It also has a great range of features designed for measuring progress, such as Milestones, and you can make custom project templates, too. If you'd prefer to use a preset project template, those are included on the free plan – with templates designed specifically for Agile teams.

Overall, Wrike's free plan is still one of your best bets for measuring the progress of your project. The spreadsheet-style view, ‘Table', makes amending your project very easy, and there's a Kanban board for tracking the progress of tasks. There are only a few collaboration tools, but the free plan does integrate with Slack and Microsoft Teams.

There is, however, a noticeable lack of data visualization features, like charts and widgets, very few collaboration features, and no custom fields. In this sense, we found Wrike quite similar to monday.com because many of the best features are reserved for paid tiers, including Wrike's automation builder and a Gantt chart that auto-populates itself in the Gantt view.

The Calendar view in Wrike. Image: Tech.co's testing process

Wrike paid plans pricing

When it comes to Wrike's paid plans, The Professional Plan ($9.80 per user, per month) is the cheapest paid plan available with Wrike. It has preset and custom widgets for data visualization, task commenting, and dependency functions.

If you like the sound of this, compare Wrike with other project management software to ensure it's right for your business.

Jira: free plan overview

Jira's free package is comprehensive – you'll have access to all the customer support options (bar phone and 24/7 live support), and there are task management features galore, including Gantt Charts, Kanban Boards, and custom fields.

Jira is great for Agile teams that find Kanban boards the easiest way to visualize their project workflow. There are also burndown charts on the free plan, which are useful for teams using the Scrum framework to organize their operations.

Impressively, you get a full suite of data visualization functions; project templates; and pre-built, custom automations on Jira's free plan. While this makes it one of the better free plans out there and its more comprehensive than providers like Zoho, which doesn't offer automation or project templates for free. However, what you don't get with Jira's free plan is a host of collaboration features.

Although Jira has all the functions you need to successfully manage a project, it does take a little bit of time to adjust to when compared with monday.com. “Users are likely to encounter a steep learning curve with Jira – it has a clean interface, but I did find myself menu diving to complete some tasks,” comments our chief project management researcher.

The Timeline view in Jira. Image: Tech.co's testing process

Jira paid plans pricing

Jira puts no limits on projects or users on any of its plans, nor on how many programs you can integrate with Jira. Then there's the obvious Confluence integration (another Atlassian product) for document editing, which is useful. Jira's first paid offering, the Standard plan, is available for $7.75 per user, per month.

Find out how Jira's paid plans stack up against competitors here.

Teamwork: free plan overview

Teamwork's free plan has a number of useful collaboration features, including a project message board, task comments, and a limited resource management tool. it also includes task management options, like Milestones, that make the package a good, free offering.

Another thing to say in Teamwork's favor is that, on the free plan, there's an impressive amount of customer support options. You can contact Teamwork via phone, email, live chat, or search its knowledge base for answers, while a lot of providers don't offer all of these avenues. This helps the provider achieve a score of 3.8/5 for customer support, a far sight better monday.com (2.8/5), which doesn't provide phone-based support.

However, Teamwork's free plan doesn't really have many workflow creation features – including preset or custom project templates. There's also a project limit of two and a user limit of five, and there is no budget management feature on the free plan.

Another downside to Teamwork is that it doesn't provide an automation builder on its free plan. This sets it apart from some of the competition – automations are key to improving efficiency, so it's a shame that this isn't part of the free package, like it is when you use ClickUp or Jira.

Teamwork's Table view. Image: Tech.co's testing process

Teamwork paid plans pricing

Aside from a free plan, Teamwork's paid plans begin with the Starter plan ($5.99 per user, per month) and the Deliver plan ($9.99 per user, per month), the latter of which has custom fields, dashboards, and a 3-user minimum There are also additional plans for larger businesses and enterprises.

For more information on Teamwork's paid plans, visit our Teamwork pricing page. 

Asana: free plan overview

Asana's free plan has a few task management features, including a Kanban board and a spreadsheet-style view. There is a basic level of customer support (email/knowledge base/forum), and collaboration features, like a calendar, message board, and instant messenger.

One upside to Asana's free plan is that there's no project limit on the free plan like the one enforced on ClickUp, and you can create your own project templates or choose from preset options. One big downside is that it's severely lacking in data visualization features, and you'll have to upgrade if you want to build automations.

Asana is an easy-to-set-up piece of software with a tidy and unintimidating interface (see image below).

Asana's List view. Image: Tech.co's testing process

Our SEO Campaign Executive, Katie, likes the way it's laid out.

“You can add multiple teams and multiple projects for each person,” she says. “You can even add tasks to multiple projects. We also have an ‘individual tasks' project with a sub-heading for each team member and then also sub-category focus project with different stages the projects are in.”

The free plan, despite being easy to pick up, is quite limited – especially considering Asana ranks third-best for features and joint first for data visualization. There are task management features, like milestones and task dependencies, that are not available on Asana's free plan, nor are any tools (like charts and widgets) for visualizing data.

Asana paid plans pricing

Asana's paid plans start with the Premium plan ($10.99 per user, per month), which introduces a wealth of custom and preset charts and widgets for showcasing important information, and there are plenty more task management features, as well as pre-built automations. There's also a Business plan and an Enterprise plan with custom pricing.

Find out how Asana compares to the best project management software tools currently available.

Zoho Projects: free plan overview

Zoho wasn't the most straightforward project management software to set up, despite having a variety of dedicated features for budgeting, milestones, tasks, and more. It has all the basic features you need to run a project successfully (even on the free plan). However, our researchers found them slightly harder to find than Zoho's competitors.

Zoho does do well when it comes to collaboration and, on the free plan, this comes in handy – especially if you're part of a project team that likes to communicate throughout the day. Zoho Projects will equip you with a calendar and an instant messaging app, you'll be able to make comments on tasks, and there's also a central project message board.

One other downside to Zoho is the free plan is quite limited, in the sense you can only create two projects simultaneously and there's a user limit of just three. Providers like ClickUp don't put any limits on the number of users that can get involved.

Projec data dashboard in Zoho Projects. Image: Tech.co's testing process

Zoho paid plans pricing

Zoho's free version of its Projects software comes with the same support options as its other paid plans, and there's a large range of task management tools when compared with its competitors. Collaboration features can be found in abundance, but there's a project limit of two and a user limit of three. Zoho's paid plans begin with the Premium plan ($5 per user, per month), which ups the user limit to 50, meaning a lot more businesses can treat it as a serious option.

For more information on Zoho's paid project plans, visit our Zoho Projects pricing page.