Free plans

What separates the free plans on this page?

ClickUp scores 9 and costs $7 a user. It carries fifteen views including Gantt, workload and mind maps, plus docs, whiteboards and time tracking. The trade-off is real: six hours of onboarding, and the app slowed with 120 tasks and many custom fields.

Jira scores 8.5 at $7.53. It is free for exactly ten people, with sprint boards, backlog grooming, velocity charts and GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket integration. Non-engineers found it the hardest tool here, and configuring workflows and schemes took a day.

Asana scores 8.4 at $10.99. Our team was productive in two hours, the fastest onboarding in the test. Dependencies, milestones and timeline handled every part of the project, and rules automated status changes and assignments. Workload and portfolios need the $24.99 Advanced plan, and the free plan lacks the timeline.

monday.com scores 8.1 at $12. Team members who dislike project tools liked this one, and dashboards, timeline and a plain-English automation builder sit on Standard. Seats come in bundles: ten users cost $120 on Standard, and the free plan is two seats.

Trello scores 8 at $5. Our team needed no onboarding at all, Butler automation moves cards and assigns without a plan upgrade, and ten users cost $50 a month. Dependencies and timeline needed Premium and Power-Ups, and reporting is thin.

Notion scores 7.6 at $10, putting boards, timelines and dependencies inside the pages where work is written up. Building the system took a day, and there is no workload view or time tracking. Basecamp scores 7 at $15: clients join free, every project has the same six tools, and Pro Unlimited is $299 for any number of people. There are no dependencies, Gantt or workload.

What should you check before buying?

The scoring criteria weight task and workflow management at 30, views and reporting at 20, collaboration and integrations at 20, value at 20 and ease and speed at 10. Match those to your team.

• Count your seats against the free tier: Jira is free for exactly ten, monday.com's free plan is two seats, and ClickUp's Unlimited is $70 for ten.
• Decide whether you need dependencies and timeline. Asana's free plan lacks the timeline, and Trello needed Premium and Power-Ups.
• Weigh setup time. ClickUp took six hours, Jira a day for workflows and schemes, Notion a day to build the system, while Asana took two hours and Trello none.
• Check reporting and workload needs. Trello's reporting is thin, Notion has no workload view or time tracking, and Basecamp has minimal automation and reporting.

Which one for whom?

ClickUp suits teams that want every view and built-in docs on one $7 plan and will spend the onboarding time. Jira suits software teams running sprints with Git integration. Asana suits teams that want dependencies, milestones and rules with the fastest onboarding. monday.com suits non-technical teams that take to colourful boards. Trello suits anyone who wants a kanban wall with no onboarding. Notion suits teams that live in docs and want the project inside them. Basecamp suits teams that want six fixed tools and one flat price.

For a software team running sprints, Jira is free for exactly ten people and brings velocity charts and Git integration. If you want every view and built-in docs, ClickUp at $7 covers fifteen views, though it took six hours to onboard. Teams that need the fastest start should look at Asana, productive in two hours, while Trello at $5 needs no onboarding at all.