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Best free project management software for small teams in 2026
Free project management software is not a trial, and the four tools on this page each publish a $0/mo plan you can keep. The differences that decide it are member limits, how many boards you get before the paywall, and what the first paid step costs once you outgrow the free plan. ClickUp's Free Forever plan is $0/mo for unlimited members, Trello's is $0/mo with a 10-board workspace limit, and monday.com's is $0/mo for up to 2 seats.
Prices last re-checked 2026-10-05. Numbers are read from each vendor's own pricing page; any exception is flagged under "What to watch".
Which one should you pick?
- Pick ClickUp if you need the best free plan overall. Visit ClickUp
- Pick Trello if this trade-off works for you: simplest free board. Visit Trello
- Pick Asana if you need the best free plan for teams that need due dates. Visit Asana
- Pick monday.com if this trade-off works for you: free trial that becomes a paid seat fast. Visit monday.com
The short answer
Short answer: Best free plan overall: ClickUp Free Forever is $0/mo with unlimited members and the widest spread of views for the money, so a five-person crew never has to buy a seat to keep working. Its paid path starts at $10/mo when you want the time-tracking and goals layers.
Best free plan overall: ClickUp
Free Forever is $0/mo with unlimited members and the widest spread of views for the money, so a five-person crew never has to buy a seat to keep working. Its paid path starts at $10/mo when you want the time-tracking and goals layers.
See ClickUp pricingSimplest free board: Trello
Free is $0/mo, drag-and-drop, and explains itself on first login, which matters when half the team has never used a project tool. The catch is 10 boards per workspace before it nags you to upgrade.
See Trello pricingBest free plan for teams that need due dates: Asana
The free tier is $0/mo and pushes you into timelines and dependencies organically, but headcount is where it pinches first. Paid starts at $10.99/mo billed annually when the team grows past the free seat count.
See Asana pricingFree trial that becomes a paid seat fast: monday.com
Great board UI and quick adoption, but the free plan is $0/mo for up to 2 seats only, so anything bigger lands on Basic at $9/mo billed annually ($12 month-to-month).
See monday.com pricingThe prices, plan by plan
ClickUp
ClickUp is free for unlimited members with 100MB storage, then $7 per user per month on Unlimited, $12 on Business and a custom quote for Enterprise, billed annually.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free Forever | Free | Unlimited members, 100MB storage, unlimited tasks, board and list views |
| Unlimited | $10/mo, or $7/mo billed annually | Per user. Unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards, Gantt, 1,000 automations/mo |
| Business | $19/mo, or $12/mo billed annually | Per user. Advanced automations, time tracking, workload, 10,000 automations/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom quote. SSO, advanced permissions, white labelling |
What to watch: ClickUp prints the annual per-user rate by default; the monthly-billing rates come from the page's monthly toggle.
Source: https://clickup.com/pricing, read 2026-10-27.
See ClickUp pricingAsana
Asana is free for up to 10 teammates, then $10.99 per user per month on Starter, $24.99 on Advanced and a custom quote for Enterprise, billed monthly.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | Free | Up to 10 teammates, unlimited tasks and projects, list/board/timeline views |
| Starter | $10.99/mo (no annual discount published) | Per user. Timeline, workflow builder, 250 automations/mo, 500 form submissions/mo |
| Advanced | $24.99/mo (no annual discount published) | Per user. Goals, portfolios, workload, time tracking, 25,000 automations/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom quote. SSO, SCIM, data residency, advanced reporting |
Prices checked 2026-10-05.
What to watch: Asana's pricing page shows the same per-user rate whether you pay monthly or yearly, so we record no annual discount rather than inventing one.
Source: https://asana.com/pricing, read 2026-11-02.
See Asana pricingTrello
Trello is free for unlimited cards and up to 10 boards per workspace, then $5 per user per month on Standard, $10 on Premium and $17.50 on Enterprise, billed annually.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per workspace, 10MB attachment limit |
| Standard | $6/mo, or $5/mo billed annually | Per user. Unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields, 250 workspace command runs/mo |
| Premium | $12.5/mo, or $10/mo billed annually | Per user. Calendar/Day/Table/Timeline/Dashboard views, AI, 1,000 command runs/mo |
| Enterprise | $17.5/mo (no annual discount published) | Per user. Organization-wide permissions, SSO, 250 workspace command runs/mo |
What to watch: Trello prints the annual per-user rate by default; the monthly-billing rates come from the page's monthly toggle. Enterprise is quoted at the same rate either way.
Source: https://trello.com/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Trello pricingmonday.com
monday.com starts at $9 per seat per month on Basic, $12 on Standard, $19 on Pro and a custom quote for Enterprise, billed annually; monthly billing costs more.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Up to 2 seats, 3 boards, 1,000 items |
| Basic | $12/mo, or $9/mo billed annually | Per seat. Unlimited boards, 5GB storage, 1,000 automations/mo |
| Standard | $14/mo, or $12/mo billed annually | Per seat. Timeline, Gantt, calendar, guest access, 250 automations/mo |
| Pro | $24/mo, or $19/mo billed annually | Per seat. Time tracking, formula column, private boards, 25,000 automations/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom quote. Enterprise auth, audit log, multi-level permissions |
What to watch: monday.com prints the annual per-seat rate by default and switches to the monthly rate with a client-side toggle. Both sets are the vendor's own numbers, but the monthly figures come from the toggle rather than the static HTML.
Source: https://monday.com/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See monday.com pricingQuestions people ask
What is the cheapest option here?
ClickUp is the cheapest way in because its Free Forever plan is $0/mo with unlimited members - you pay nothing until you need guests, extra storage or the goals layer. Trello Free is also $0/mo, but its 10-board workspace limit is the tightest ceiling of the four.
Which free plan has the highest member limit?
ClickUp, with unlimited members on Free Forever at $0/mo. Asana and Trello give you a working free tier for small teams, while monday.com's $0/mo plan stops at 2 seats, so it is the first to force a purchase on a growing team.
Does ClickUp really have a free plan in 2026?
Yes. ClickUp's Free Forever plan is $0/mo for unlimited members and includes list, board and doc views, and its first paid step is Unlimited at $10/mo. The limitation is storage rather than headcount: 100 MB on the free tier.
Is Trello still free or did it move everything behind a paywall?
Trello Free is still $0/mo. The limits that bite are 10 boards per workspace and a fixed number of automations, and the next tier (Standard) is where unlimited boards live.
Which paid plan is cheapest when the free tier is no longer enough?
ClickUp Unlimited at $10/mo, or $7/mo billed annually, is the cheapest upgrade on this page and keeps the unlimited-member model. monday.com Basic starts at $9/mo billed annually ($12 month-to-month), and Asana Starter starts at $10.99/mo billed annually.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not accept payment for placement, and the price tables are generated from the same dataset we re-check weekly. Full disclosure. How we check prices.