/ Compare free plans, limits, and real costs.
Quick Verdict: The best free project management software of 2026 include Wrike, Airtable and Monday.com as free tiers of paid software and Plane, OpenProject, Leantime and Taiga as actual free project management software.
Free tiers of paid software attract just 8% of users on average to become paying customers, which is the reason why free plans are built to feel almost enough, but not fully enough. 34% of developers currently use at least one self-hosted project management tool, compared with 19% in 2022, mainly to avoid being locked in and increased costs of the per seat pricing models.
Not every free project management software is equal. Some offer an actual free plan without strings attached, others disguise their 30 day trial as free, leaving you with a bill on day 31. This article ranks the best free project management softwares by distinguishing them between two categories: those providing actual free plans and those just giving 30 days trial as free.
For a broader comparison read our detailed article on the best project management tools guide.
An actually free software provides permanent access without any time limitations. In contrast with a free trial, it doesn’t require making any payments on a fixed timeline though some restrictions might be present permanently.
| Tool | Type | Limitation of Free Plan | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wrike | Free tier of paid product | Unlimited users, 200 active tasks, 2GB storage | Gantt charts on a budget |
| Airtable | Free tier of paid product | 1,000 records per base, limited automations | Spreadsheet-style tracking |
| Monday.com | Free tier of paid product | 2 seats, 3 boards, 200 items | Solo users only |
| Plane | Free and open source | No user cap on Community Edition | Modern Jira/Linear alternative |
| OpenProject | Free and open source | No user cap, self hosted | Classic Gantt style planning |
| Leantime | Free and open source | No user cap, self hosted | Teams new to project management |
| Taiga | Free and open source | No user cap, self hosted | Agile and Scrum teams |
| Acorn | Free and open source | No account or server needed | Peer-to-peer, no hosting |
Based on current public pricing as of June 2026; free plan limitations change often, so check current terms before subscribing.
The vast majority of best free articles usually mix two very different types of software into one list. Free tier of paid software is a free trial meant to showcase what paid plans can offer and to make the user sign up for it in the future. On the other hand, free open source software doesn’t have any such trap; you host it yourself and there’s no cap on the number of users waiting to kick in. They both can do their job very well. The difference is in what you actually agree with.
A free tier of paid software always comes from a company selling a paid plan and the free version is designed to lure you into buying the paid one. An actual free open source software has an open source code you or your host can look through and no company benefits from your staying on the free version, as there’s no paid one to pull you up to.
Freemium softwares convert a median of 8% of free users into paying customers, according to 2026 research of 200 B2B software solutions conducted by ChartMogul and ProductLed. A quarter of such software solutions convert less than 2.5% of users. Free plans are designed in such a way to include a certain cap (users, tasks, storage), generous enough to form a habit, but tight enough that your team will eventually have to pay.
Difference between a free plan and a free trial: a free plan doesn’t expire, though it caps users, projects, or storage permanently. A free trial expires on a fixed date and requires payments to continue using the software.
Some solutions advertise themselves as free when they actually run a timed trial. Example: a Slack based AI project management software promotes itself as Get Started Free on its homepage, while the actual terms of use are a 30 day free trial with the pricing starting at $8 per user per month upon the end of the trial. Such plan isn’t actually a free one, but rather a sales funnel. Before subscribing your team to any software advertised as free, check its pricing page, not its homepage headline, for the presence of the word trial.
A team of 1-2 people will fit into almost any free plan, including very tight 2 seat plan offered by Monday.com. A team of 3 -10 people will need a free plan with no hard limit on the number of users, like Wrike or Airtable. A team of more than 10 people will have to avoid all seat capped free tiers and opt for open source tools, like Plane or Taiga, not charging per user at all.
Cloud solutions (Wrike, Airtable, Monday.com) require just sign up and nothing else, but the company hosting the solution keeps control over your data and limitations of the free tier. Self hosted solutions (Plane, OpenProject, Leantime, Taiga) require a server and some technical setup, but there’s no company deciding when your free plan expires.
If yes, then cloud solutions with clear (though not cheap) upgrade paths, like Wrike or Monday.com, won’t require future migration. If your team will remain small or you want to avoid paying subscriptions forever, an open source solution won’t put any such pressure at all.
If draft, summary and automation using artificial intelligence capabilities are an important part of the process, free tiers of almost all solutions strip all of them out or limit very heavily, please check the best AI project management tools guide for AI features included at each price point. Most old-school open source solutions have no built in AI at all, but self hosted AI solutions for technical teams are available.
Overview: In January 2026, Wrike revamped its free plan to offer unlimited users, board view, table view and Gantt style charts, which is pretty unusual for a free plan. The only project management tool that allows you to make a timeline without having to pay anything for it.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Wrike’s paid Business plan as of June 2026 is about $25/user/month. There is also a less expensive Team plan for $10/user/month.
Who should use it: Solo project planners or very small teams who don’t need to pay for real Gantt charts as long as their projects don’t exceed 200 active tasks.
Overview: Airtable combines a spreadsheet and a lightweight database allowing you to build a project tracker, content calendar or client pipeline without sticking to a preset template. Quite a rich free plan compared to other tools.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Airtable’s paid Team plan as of June 2026 is about $20/user/month.
Who should use it: Teams preferring a flexible and spreadsheet-based solution rather than a predefined project management layout.
Overview: Monday’s free plan is limited to 2 seats and 3 boards making it unsuitable for teams but still usable for a single person managing personal or freelance projects.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Monday.com’s paid plans as of June 2026 is around $9–12/user/month.
Who should use it: A single freelancer or consultant managing their own projects, not a team. Check out our comparison between a workspace based tool and Monday.com (ClickUp vs. Monday).
Overview: Plane is a modern and actively developed open source tool with an interface close to Linear and far from interfaces of other old open source solutions. Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 licensed and has no user limit.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Plane’s Community Edition as of June 2026 is free for per seat $6 for Pro. Plane is also available in hosted Cloud with paid plans.
Who should use it: Technical teams capable of self hosting the software who prefer a modern interface and total data ownership.
Overview: OpenProject has been actively developed since 2012 and has more than 20 million downloads of Community Edition so far, giving it more track record than other open source alternatives. It is meant for classic project management.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for OpenProject’s Community Edition as of June 2026 is free and basic is of $7.25 per user/per month. Also available in paid Enterprise cloud edition.
Who should use it: Teams that work in Waterfall style timeline and require Gantt functionality over a modern interface.
Overview: Leantime is focused on a more simple, lean methodology approach, designed for teams who have never used dedicated project management software before.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Leantime as of June 2026 is free and self hosted. AGPL 3.0 license.
Who should use it: Small teams or first-time software adopters who need a simple solution.
Overview: Taiga is designed specifically for Agile and Scrum workflows, sprint planning and backlog views are tailored for software teams working in this manner.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Taiga as of June 2026 is 5€ for enthusiast plan.
Who should use it: Development teams working in Scrum sprints who need a solution designed for that process.
Overview: Acorn is a solution with a completely different approach. Runs on Holochain, peer-to-peer framework, so there is no central server or any company hosting your data at all. Fully open source and AGPL license.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: The current price for Acorn as of June 2026 is free to download with no paid plan available.
Who should use it: Privacy conscious or experimental teams who are ready to sacrifice usability in favor of data independence.
Self hosted adoption is on the rise. A new survey from JetBrains reveals that 34% of development teams use at least one self hosted project management tool, compared to 19% in 2022. Data control due to GDPR and other regulations, unpredictable per seat pricing from SaaS vendors and deeper integration with internal systems are the most frequently mentioned reasons. Additionally, the self hosting aspect of Docker based deployment is quicker than the previous one, making it easier for smaller teams to get up and running.
So far, Wrike is the winner in terms of raw capabilities: unlimited board and unlimited users to Monday’s 2-seat, 3-board wall. The free plan is only applicable in the case of one person, while Wrike is for a small team, until you reach the 200 task limit.
Plane has an advantage in terms of interface and set up speed, and it has a more modern interface, closer to Linear. OpenProject is good at planning depth because it has taken over a decade to develop the more advanced features of planning packages (as well as the Gantt features). Use Plane for a more clean and daily experience, OpenProject for classic, structured project planning.
Both are generic working areas and not specific PM tools. For this reason, Airtable focuses more on structured, spreadsheet-like data, which is appropriate for managing numerous similar records such as tasks or client projects. Notion has a focus on documentation and freeform pages, plus project tracking that is not pre made, but created from database templates.
Built specifically for small Agile teams without the cost and complexity of Jira, Taiga is free and self hosted. Jira has much more enterprise functionality and reporting, and, at scale, a much higher per seat price once a team moves out of their free tier. Typically, small dev teams begin with Taiga and transition to Jira when they require enterprise level reporting or third party app integrations.
| Tool | First Paid Trigger |
|---|---|
| Monday.com | Bringing in a third team member |
| Wrike | When the Task backlog exceeds 200 active tasks |
| Airtable | One base that exceeds 1000 records. |
| Plane, OpenProject, Taiga, Leantime | Self hosting is always free (as is paid trigger) |
| Moving From → To | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Trello → Plane | Easy: Both are board based and same kind of mental model |
| Monday.com → Wrike | Medium — board structure differs, some manual rebuilt |
| Airtable → Jira | Hard — record based data is unable to be mapped to ticket based workflows |
| OpenProject → Plane | Medium – data exports without problems, interface adjustment takes longer |
If you are looking for a direct comparison to the board style tools that you are comparing to Asana before migrating, the Trello vs. Asana comparison is a good reference.
| Tool | Hosting | Real Limit | Setup Effort | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrike | Cloud | 200 active tasks | Low | Gantt on a budget |
| Airtable | Cloud | 1,000 records/base | Low | Spreadsheet style tracking |
| Monday.com | Cloud | 2 seats, 3 boards | Low | Solo use only |
| Plane | Self hosted | No user cap | High | Modern interface |
| OpenProject | Self hosted | No user cap | High | Gantt depth |
| Leantime | Self hosted | No user cap | Medium | First time users |
| Taiga | Self hosted | No user cap | Medium | Agile/Scrum teams |
| Acorn | Peer-to-peer | No cap, alpha stage | Medium | Full data independence |
Both Wrike and Monday.com have mobile apps, as do most cloud SaaS tools, and they are both functional in that they provide task updates and notification. Airtable’s mobile application provides nearly as much desktop flexibility as its desktop version, with the ability to view records offline. Self-hosted tools tend to lag behind: Plane, Taiga both have a web app that is usable in mobile browsers, but no dedicated native app, while OpenProject’s mobile experience is the least mobile friendly of the bunch. Cloud based tools are the better option for anyone that’s mainly using a phone to manage projects.
| Tool | AI on Free Plan? |
|---|---|
| Wrike | No — AI features are only available in the paid tier |
| Monday.com | Limited trial only |
| Airtable | Limited, capped usage |
| Plane, an OpenProject, a Taiga, and a Leantime | No inbuilt AI – technically, it is possible to use self hosted AI add ons |
For most of the tools on this list, AI depth is generally lacking in free plans and only becomes available at a paid tier. To get a complete description of the AI specific tools that are actually being automated, consult the best AI project management tools guide.
Making a late switch in order to use different tools takes time too – rebuilding the boards, re-training a team, and exporting information that may not fit in the new tool seamlessly. If you choose a plan which is free yet allows for expansion, you won’t have to do a rushed migration a few months in.
Open source tools are non-subscription and not free of effort because they must be self hosted. There’s someone who must setup the server, apply patches and manage backups. This is a reasonable sacrifice for a team that has some technical skill. It can consume more time for a team with none than a small monthly subscription can.
A team of 3 – 5 people typically reap the most benefits from using Wrike’s free version or Airtable, as both options do not reach caps or limits very soon. For teams that are nearer to 10 people, consider Plane or Taiga because they don’t require a user cap, thereby eliminating the squeeze altogether. See the best project management software for small business guide for more info about software specifically for small business, as well as paid software.
For solo founders and pre-revenue startups, the free version of Monday.com, or Airtable, would be a better idea; they don’t need a growing team to make sense. After a few employees are added to a start up, costs are kept at zero for longer with Wrike’s free plan or with an open source project such as Plane, which doesn’t charge a 2-seat cap as does Monday.com.
The strongest indicator that it’s time to pay: the team is spending more time working around the limits of a free plan than on the actual project work. Typically, this becomes visible when someone is manually managing overflow work on a spreadsheet or when they have reached their user limit which prevents them from adding a new employee. The best AI project management tool guide is for teams who have a problem with automation depth instead of number of seats, which is typically where a paid plan provides value.
The following should be considered when making a recommendation by Use Case:
| If you are… | Consider |
|---|---|
| Solo freelancer | The free plans of Monday.com or Airtable are all right. |
| Small team (3-5 people) | Wrike free plan |
| Growing team (8-15 people) | Plane or Taiga (open source) |
| The technical team who wish to have complete control. | Plane or OpenProject |
| Data privacy first, no need for servers. | Acorn |
| First time software adopter | Leantime |
| Agile/Scrum development team | Taiga |
The following are the top free project management software tools for 2026 that you can use without paying any fees.
A single perfect free project management tool does not exist; it depends on the level of control a team desires and how much effort a team is willing to put into setting it up. If you’re a team looking for a no-fuss, cloud-based tool and you’re not too bothered by the growth ceiling, then Wrike and Airtable are great options for you.
For teams looking to sacrifice the user limit in exchange for full data ownership, Plane, OpenProject, Leantime and Taiga are all great options. Every tool that claims to be “free” should be analyzed on their pricing page before signing up a team in order for the real costs to be discovered, not all free claims are free for good the first month anyway.
Ruth Fertel is a software reviewer. She is a person who looks at software in that way in which others can only fantasize it. She analyzed the software very systematically and in a skeptical manner that is something of a game changer. She studies Software Engineering and has 8 years of writing experience. Now she joined as a Software reviewer expert at TheTweaks. She covers different softwares, tools, productivity apps and their comparisons with having an experience of using them first. She is best in determining whether the tool is placed in a real workflow well or not. She also has the unofficial keyboard shortcuts authority in our team.
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