Best Project Management Software for 2025 Expert Picks (Includes FREE)

Managing projects across multiple tools and messages can quickly become chaotic. The right project management software keeps everything in one place – tasks, communication, files, and timelines.

In this guide, we’ll show you the best tools for 2025, including both free and paid options. You’ll learn what features matter most and which platforms suit different types of teams – from freelancers to large agencies.

You will be able to:

• Identify the key features that matter most to your team, such as task management, resource allocation, workflow automation, and time tracking.
• Recognize which software is best for your specific needs, whether you’re an Agile development team, a client-focused agency, a large enterprise, or a startup looking for the best free project management software.

Let’s get started!

What is Project Management Software?

Project management software is a specialized application designed to help teams plan, execute, and monitor a project’s entire lifecycle from initiation to completion. It provides a centralized platform for organizing tasks, assigning responsibilities, setting deadlines, and tracking the progress of different goals.

These tools ensure that all team members and stakeholders have access to the same up-to-date information, which significantly reduces miscommunication and streamlines workflows.

Modern project management software includes simple task tracking as well as a suite of tools for advanced collaboration and resource management. These include features for communication, file sharing, budget tracking, and generating detailed performance reports.

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Why Businesses Need Project Management Software in 2026

You would think that your team doesn’t need project management software, but in 2026, it will be more necessary than ever. This is mainly due to the complexities of the modern workplace and a steep rise in the number of remote work options.

These tools bridge geographical gaps by creating a unified digital environment where collaboration can happen seamlessly. This ensures that all team members remain aligned on priorities and progress regardless of their physical location.

Key Features to Look For in Project Management Tools

When comparing tools, focus on features that boost both individual and team productivity:

• Task creation, assignment, and deadlines
• Multiple views like Kanban, Gantt, and calendar
• Built-in collaboration through comments, mentions, and file sharing

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Top 10 Project Management Software for 2025

Asana – Best for Team Collaboration

Asana is a leading project management tool often praised for its exceptional design, which makes it easy to collaborate. Its intuitive interface ensures that all team members, regardless of their technical skill, can easily track their responsibilities and understand how their individual tasks contribute to the larger project goals.

The platform is built around the principle of transparency and provides multiple ways to visualize project progress and maintain open lines of communication. This helps to keep entire teams aligned and focused on their objectives.

Key Features

Asana is equipped with an extensive set of features designed to enhance teamwork and streamline project execution. Users can manage workflows through various perspectives, including simple to-do Lists, visual Kanban Boards, timeline-based Gantt charts, and shared Calendars to keep track of important deadlines.

It also includes a powerful Workflow Builder to automate routine processes, which saves time and reduces manual effort. If you want a higher-level view, then you can use the Project Dashboards and Universal Reporting, which provide real-time insights into progress.

Pricing Plans

Asana offers multiple pricing plans to accommodate different team sizes and needs.

• Personal: This free plan is ideal for individuals or small teams of up to 10 members. It includes unlimited tasks, projects, and messages, along with list, board, and calendar views.
• Starter: At £9.49 per user per month (billed annually), the Starter plan is designed for growing teams. It includes everything in Personal, plus features like a timeline view, project dashboards, a workflow builder, and automations to help manage and track projects more effectively.
• Advanced: For larger companies that need to manage work across multiple departments, the Advanced plan is available for £20.99 per user per month (billed annually). This tier adds advanced capabilities such as Portfolios for managing groups of projects, Workload for resource management, native time tracking, and integrations with tools like Salesforce and Tableau.
• Enterprise: This custom-priced plan is tailored for large organizations that require advanced security, control, and support. It includes all Advanced features plus enhanced administrative controls like SAML, guest invite permissions, custom branding, and dedicated 24/7 support.

monday.com – Best for Customizable Workflows

monday.com has earned its reputation as a top-tier project management tool due to its exceptional flexibility and highly customizable workflows. It is almost a Work Operating System (Work OS) that allows teams to build and adapt their own applications and work management tools to fit their exact processes.

Its visually appealing and color-coded interface makes it easy to see the status of various tasks at a glance, which helps teams manage everything from simple to-do lists to complex, multi-stage projects with clarity and precision.

Key Features

This platform is built around highly configurable boards, items, and columns, which makes it very flexible. monday.com offers a wide array of column types (over 8 in the free plan alone) and more than 200 templates to get teams started quickly. It also includes multiple project views, such as Timeline, Gantt, and Calendar views, which enable teams to visualize their work in a way that makes the most sense for them.

monday.com is one of the few tools that offer first-party MCP support, which enables secure integration of AI tools like Claude and Cursor directly into your workflows. This allows AI to perform tasks across projects, sales, and marketing by connecting through the monday.com marketplace, receiving commands, and instantly updating data or creating tasks. 

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Pricing Plans

monday.com provides a range of plans suitable for different organizational sizes and complexities.

• Free: This forever-free plan is designed for individuals and very small teams (up to 2 seats). It includes up to 3 boards and docs, access to over 200 templates, and the use of iOS and Android apps.
• Basic: At $9 per seat per month (billed annually), the Basic plan is aimed at teams needing to manage all their work in one place. It includes unlimited items and free viewers, 5GB of file storage, and the ability to create a dashboard based on a single board.
• Standard: It costs $12 per seat per month (billed annually). It adds Timeline & Gantt views, guest access, and a significant increase in automations and integrations (250 actions per month for each), plus dashboards that can combine up to 5 boards.
• Pro: For $19 per seat per month (billed annually), the Pro plan is built for streamlining more complex workflows. It introduces private boards, chart views, time tracking, and a massive jump in automation and integration actions (25,000 per month), with dashboards that can synthesize data from up to 20 boards.
• Enterprise: This plan is custom-priced for large organizations and includes advanced features like portfolio management, enhanced security, and enterprise-grade automations and reporting.

ClickUp – Best All-in-One Workspace

ClickUp is designed to be the ultimate all-in-one productivity platform. It aims to replace multiple disparate applications by consolidating them into a single, cohesive workspace. It brings together tasks, documents, chat, goals, whiteboards, and more, making it an ideal solution for teams looking to streamline their toolset and boost efficiency.

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Key Features

ClickUp is packed with an extensive range of features that cater to nearly every aspect of project and work management. It includes useful tools such as unlimited tasks, collaborative Docs for knowledge bases, and various project views like Kanban Boards, Calendar View, and Gantt Charts for flexible workflow visualization.

It also supports agile methodologies with Sprint Management and offers unique collaboration features such as In-App Video Recording, unlimited Chat, and interactive Whiteboards.

Pricing Plans

ClickUp offers several tiers to support teams as they grow.

• Free Forever: This plan is best for individual users and includes unlimited tasks and members, 60MB of storage, collaborative docs, Kanban boards, and 24/7 support.
• Unlimited: This plan is aimed at small teams and costs $7 per user per month. It includes everything in the free plan, unlimited storage, integrations, Gantt charts, custom fields, and resource management.
• Business: At $12 per user per month, this popular plan is best for mid-sized teams. It adds advanced features like Google SSO, unlimited mind maps and dashboards, workload management, and more sophisticated automations.
• Enterprise: This custom-priced plan is for large organizations needing advanced control and security. It includes features like white labeling, HIPAA compliance, custom roles, a dedicated customer success manager, and live onboarding training.

Jira – Best for Agile Teams & Developers

Jira is the industry-standard project management tool for software development teams. It is renowned for its powerful features tailored specifically for Agile methodologies. It provides an unmatched framework for running Scrum and Kanban workflows, allowing developers to plan sprints, track bugs, and manage releases with precision and deep technical context.

Its entire ecosystem is designed to integrate seamlessly with the developer toolchain, making it the definitive choice for teams focused on building, testing, and deploying software.

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Key Features

Jira’s feature set is deeply customized to meet software development needs. It offers multiple project views, including a timeline for roadmapping, calendars, and summary views, alongside advanced reporting and dashboards to track team velocity and burndown charts.

Jira also includes powerful automation rules to handle repetitive tasks, and its advanced features in higher tiers support cross-team planning and dependency management, which are necessary for large-scale development projects.

Pricing Plans

Jira offers a scalable pricing model to support teams from small startups to large enterprises.

• Free: This plan is available for up to 10 users and is free forever. It is a great starting point, offering unlimited projects and tasks, various project views (including backlog, board, and timeline), basic reports, and 2 GB of storage.
• Standard: At $8.60 per user per month, the Standard plan is ideal for growing teams. It includes everything from the Free plan, user roles and permissions, a significant increase in automation runs (1,700 per month), 250 GB of storage, and standard business-hour support.
• Premium: The Premium plan costs $17.00 per user per month and introduces advanced features like cross-team planning, customizable approval processes, unlimited storage, and 24/7 support for critical issues, backed by a 99.9% uptime SLA.
• Enterprise: This custom-priced tier is for large organizations requiring advanced analytics, security, and scale. It includes everything in Premium plus cross-product insights with Atlassian Analytics, advanced admin controls, unlimited automation, and the highest level of support with a 99.95% uptime SLA.

Plutio – Best for Client Management & Invoicing

Plutio is a highly versatile, all-in-one business management platform that is particularly well-suited for freelancers, contractors, and small agencies that work directly with clients. It can seamlessly integrate project management with essential client-facing tools, such as proposals, contracts, invoicing, and a built-in client portal.

This unified approach eliminates the need to juggle multiple subscriptions and allows users to manage the entire client engagement lifecycle, from initial proposal to final payment, all within a single ecosystem.

Key Features

Plutio offers an extensive suite of features to manage internal projects and external client relationships. It offers several basic project management tools such as customizable task lists, time tracking, and visual Kanban boards.

However, Plutio excels in its client management features, such as professional proposals, legally binding contracts that clients can sign electronically, and an advanced invoicing system that supports recurring payments, subscriptions, and multiple payment gateways. It also provides a white-labeled client portal where clients can log in to view project progress, access files, pay invoices, and collaborate directly with the team.

Pricing Plans

Plutio offers straightforward pricing plans that are not based on a per-user fee, which makes it very cost-effective for teams.

• Solo: At $19 per month, this plan is designed for a single user. It includes all the important features, allowing an individual to manage unlimited projects and clients.
• Studio: For $39 per month, the Studio plan is ideal for small teams. It includes everything in the Solo plan and allows you to invite up to 10 contributors to collaborate on projects.
• Agency: At $99 per month, the Agency plan is built for larger teams and growing businesses. It includes all features and supports up to 30 contributors, along with the ability to download invoices as PDFs.

Adobe Workfront 

Adobe Workfront is an enterprise-grade work management solution that is designed to handle the scale and complexity of large organizations. It excels at connecting strategic planning with day-to-day execution, providing a centralized platform that gives leaders visibility across entire portfolios of projects and programs.

This makes it ideal for enterprises that need to manage complex, cross-functional workflows, align global teams to strategic objectives, and ensure governance and compliance across all workstreams.

Key Features

Workfront is equipped with an advanced set of features designed for enterprise-level challenges. It includes features such as strategic Portfolio Management to prioritize high-value projects and Resource Management to optimize team capacity and workload balancing on a global scale.

Additionally, it offers sophisticated Workflow Automation, advanced review and approval processes for multimedia content, and dynamic dashboards for extensive reporting. As you might expect, it has strong integration with the Adobe Experience Cloud and Creative Cloud.

Pricing Plans

Adobe Workfront does not offer publicly listed prices, but provides custom quotes based on an organization’s specific needs.

Trello – Best for Simple Kanban Boards

Trello is renowned for its simplicity and mastery of the Kanban board methodology, which makes it one of the most intuitive and visually accessible project management tools available.

It uses a straightforward system of boards, lists, and cards that allows individuals and teams to organize tasks, track progress, and collaborate in a highly flexible, drag-and-drop environment. This visual-first approach makes Trello an excellent choice for managing linear workflows, brainstorming ideas, and tracking personal to-do lists without the steep learning curve associated with more complex software.

Key Features

Trello allows you to move an unlimited number of cards across customizable lists on a board. It also includes features for adding assignees, due dates, checklists, and attachments to each card.

Trello’s standout feature is its “Power-Ups,” which allow users to integrate their boards with a vast library of third-party apps and add new functionalities like custom fields, calendar views, and voting. Higher-tier plans expand on this with advanced features like multiple project Views (Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard), enhanced automation through “command runs,” and AI-powered assistance.

Pricing Plans

Trello offers several plans to accommodate different needs, from individual users to large enterprises.

• Free: This plan is free forever for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace. It includes unlimited cards, up to 10 boards, unlimited Power-Ups per board, and 250 automation command runs per month.
• Standard: At $5 per user per month (billed annually), this plan is for teams that need more organizational power. It includes everything in Free, plus unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields, and 1,000 command runs per month.
• Premium: For $10, this plan offers enhanced views and administrative controls per user per month (billed annually). It also offers different project views (Calendar, Timeline, Dashboard), unlimited command runs, admin and security features, and Atlassian Intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Notion – Best for Knowledge + Project Management Hybrid

Notion is a household name that is already known for its note-taking app, but it also functions as a powerful hybrid of a project management tool and an extensive knowledge base.

Unlike traditional project managers, which are structured solely around tasks, Notion is built on a flexible, modular system of pages and databases. This allows teams to create interconnected wikis, documents, and task boards all within the same environment, making it the ideal solution for teams that want to keep their project plans, documentation, meeting notes, and company policies in one centrally located and easily accessible place.

Key Features

Notion’s biggest strength lies in its highly adaptable databases, which can be customized with properties like subtasks, dependencies, and various field types to function as advanced task managers or project trackers.

These databases can be visualized as boards, lists, timelines, or calendars to suit different workflows. In addition to project management, Notion serves as a collaborative workspace with features like Notion Calendar, Notion Mail (which syncs with Gmail), and the ability to build basic custom websites and forms. The recent addition of Notion AI provides intelligent assistance for summarizing notes, drafting content, and automating tasks directly within your workspace.

Pricing Plans

Notion offers several plans designed to scale from individual use to large business needs.

• Free: This plan is ideal for individuals looking to organize their personal projects and is free for individual usage. It includes full access to Notion’s powerful databases, Notion Calendar, Notion Mail, and a trial of Notion AI.
• Plus: At $10 per member per month, the Plus plan is designed for small teams and professionals. It includes everything in the Free plan, plus unlimited collaborative “blocks,” unlimited file uploads, and the ability to create custom forms and sites.
• Business: This plan is recommended for growing businesses, and it costs $20 per member per month. It includes all the features of the Plus plan and adds enterprise-grade security features like SAML SSO for single sign-on and more granular control over database permissions.

Basecamp – Best for Small Teams & Startups

Basecamp is designed with a strong focus on simplicity and clarity, which makes it an excellent choice for small teams, startups, and freelancers who need a straightforward way to manage projects without being overwhelmed by excessive features.

It is built to provide a single, organized place for all project-related communication, tasks, and files, reducing the reliance on scattered tools like email, chat apps, and file storage services. This all-in-one approach helps teams stay on the same page and fosters a more organized and less chaotic work environment.

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Key Features

Basecamp organizes work into distinct projects, each containing a dedicated suite of tools to keep everything in one place. These include To-Do Lists for tracking tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities; a central Message Board for important announcements and discussions; a real-time group Chat for quick conversations; and a Schedule to keep track of key dates and milestones.

It also includes a Docs & Files section for storing all project-related assets, and a unique “Doors” feature that allows you to link to other essential tools right from your project homepage, ensuring everything your team needs is easily accessible.

Pricing Plans

Basecamp offers a simple, user-based pricing model that is easy to understand and scale.

• Basecamp FREE: This plan allows you to run a single project at a time. It’s a great starting point for those wanting to try out the platform on a small scale.
• Basecamp Plus: At $15 per user per month, this plan is ideal for freelancers, startups, and growing teams. It includes unlimited projects, 500 GB of storage space, and 24/7 customer support. A significant benefit of this plan is that you are only billed for your internal team members; you can invite an unlimited number of clients and guests to collaborate on projects for free.
• Basecamp Pro Unlimited: This plan costs $299 per month (regardless of the number of users) when billed annually (or $349/month if paid monthly) and offers a comprehensive solution for entire organizations. It includes unlimited projects and 5 TB of storage, priority 24/7/365 customer support, a Timesheet upgrade for tracking hours, and an Admin Pro Pack for enhanced control, along with personal onboarding.

Zoho Projects – Best Budget-Friendly Project Management Tool

Zoho Projects is a powerful and extensive project management solution that offers exceptional value, making it one of the best budget-friendly options on the market. It is part of the extensive Zoho ecosystem of business apps. It provides a feature-rich platform that can handle everything from simple tasks to complex projects without the high price tag of many competitors.

This combination of affordability and advanced functionality makes it ideal for small to mid-sized businesses looking for a scalable and cost-effective way to manage their work.

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Key Features

Zoho Projects is equipped with a wide array of features to cover the entire project lifecycle. Its important functionalities include Task Management with customizable views like Classic, Plain, and Kanban, along with dependencies and subtasks.

The platform excels at Time Management and offers built-in timesheets, a calendar, and both planned vs. actual time tracking. For collaboration, it includes Charts and Reporting for in-depth analytics, Issue Tracking to manage bugs and resolve problems, and seamless Integrations with other Zoho apps and popular third-party services.

Pricing Plans

Zoho Projects offers a very competitive pricing structure, including a solid free plan.

• Free: This plan is available for up to 3 users and supports two projects. It includes basic features like task management and a Gantt chart viewer, making it a great starting point for small teams.
• Premium: At $5 per user per month, this plan is designed for growing teams. It supports unlimited projects, offers 100 GB of storage, and includes key features like subtasks, time tracking, and project templates.
• Enterprise: For $10 per user per month, this plan provides advanced features for larger businesses. It includes everything in Premium, plus enhanced capabilities like portfolio management, resource management, custom roles, and a 120 GB storage capacity.

Wrapping Up: Take Control of Your Projects and Your Infrastructure

Choosing the right project management software is an important step toward streamlining your workflows and ensuring you deliver projects successfully and on time. Whether you need Trello’s simple Kanban boards, Jira’s agile power, or ClickUp’s all-in-one workspace, the perfect tool is out there to give you complete control over your tasks and timelines.

However, for digital agencies and businesses, managing the project is only half the battle; managing the final deliverable, the client’s website, is just as important.

Project management software keeps your team’s work organized. RunCloud does the same for your websites.

With auto-healing, server automation, and performance monitoring, RunCloud simplifies complex hosting tasks and reduces the risk of downtime. You can manage client sites as efficiently as you manage projects – without constant manual intervention.

If you are an agency looking to elevate your brand, RunCloud’s Arch functionality (coming soon) allows you to offer high-performance hosting under your own name, just as you would white-label a project report for a client. This is complemented by RunCloud Hub caching, which ensures WordPress websites remain blazing-fast and reliable, keeping your project deliverables online and performing flawlessly even under heavy traffic.

Take control of your servers the same way you manage your projects – with clarity and confidence.

Get started with RunCloud and simplify how you host, deploy, and manage every client website.

FAQs on Project Management Software 2025