11 Best FREE Microsoft (MS) Project Alternatives (Mar 2023)

Microsoft Project planning tool helps you seamlessly keep plan and track of your projects. However, Microsoft Project needs considerable training and experience to use. Moreover, this project management tool does not allow you to focus on any specific industry.

Here is a list of Top Microsoft Project Alternative tools and software. This MS Project Alternative tools list comprises both FREE (Open source) and Commercial (Paid) project management tools with popular features and latest download links:

Top Alternatives to Microsoft Project (Open Source/Paid)

Name	Monday.com	ClickUp	Smartsheet	Teamwork	Wrike
Features	✔️ Manage everything in one workspace ✔️ Set up in minutes	✔️ One app to replace them all. ✔️ All your work in one place: Tasks, docs, chat, goals, & more.	✔️ Smartsheet allows automating actions using simple rules ✔️ Helps to simplify budget and planning	✔️ You can track every billable minute and deliver every project. ✔️ Helps you to increase profitability and grow your business.	✔️ Enables you to view real-time reports ✔️ It helps you to turn strategies into actionable plans to achieve success.
Price	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	Start for free
Review/Rating	4.7	4.7	4.6	4.5	4.4
Link	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website

1) Monday.com

Monday.com is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Project. It offers a clean interface with color-coded features. This easy-to-use software is suitable for big or small teams. It also offers a user-friendly mobile app and highly customizable workflows.

Features:

• It allows you to collaborate with your team in one shared workspace.
• Provides colored timelines and options to sync timelines with the calendar.
• It offers highly customizable workflows.
• Helps you to bring your team together, anywhere, and anytime.
• It provides a map view for location-based projects.
• Monday.com founded in 2014
• Offers AES-256 encryption
• Export your reports in Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like Chart, Kanban, Form, and Table
• Free plan offers 5 GB storage, and 2 Users
• Provides instant notification via Email, and Desktop
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, centralized workspace, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, Excel, and Zapier
• Offers pre-built templates for Marketing, Project Management, Sales & CRM, Design, Software Development, and HR
• Provides project management status like Add, Edit, and Done
• Offers Collaboration, Productivity, Views and reporting, Security & privacy, Administration & control, Automations, and Analytics
• It provides customer support via Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, and Web
• Price: Plans start at $8 a month. 18% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
It offers unlimited users and boards.	Adding the number of users costs you extra money.
Provides specific plans for businesses based on the number of users.	The subtask addition process can be difficult.
Offers a Kanban-style visual layout.
Allows you to handle complex projects.
Provides services in multiple languages (English, Dutch, French, etc.)

Visit Monday.com >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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2) ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management system created for all kind of users. It helps you to organize projects using a hierarchical approach. It incorporates core capabilities of all the business process sales, marketing, design, and development.

Features:

• ClickUp centralizes everything, to work effectively and efficiently from a single dashboard
• People get different ways of viewing their tasks and projects
• It offers machine learning capability. This helps project managers create accurate and realistic estimates and timeframes to manage their projects
• ClickUp founded in 2017
• Offers AES-256, and 2FA encryption
• Export your reports in Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like List, Board, Calendar, Doc, and Chat
• Free plan offers 100MB storage, and Unlimited Users
• Provides instant notification via Email, and Desktop
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, centralized workspace, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with ClickUp, Slack, GitHub, GitLab, Webhooks, Everhour, Dropbox, and Figma
• Offers pre-built templates for Creative & Design, Engineering & Product, Finance & Accounting, HR & Recruiting, IT, Marketing, and Operations
• Provides project management status like Active, Done, and Closed
• Offers Automations, Whiteboards, /Slash Commands, Reminders, Proofing, Goals, and White Label
• It provides customer support via Email, Chat and, Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and Web
• Price: Plans start at $9 a month. 45% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
It offers a freemium plan for basic services.	Reporting features are not so great.
Provides a customer-centric approach.	Not an ideal project management tool for individuals.
Offers a highly efficient dashboard view.
Good customer support.

Visit ClickUp >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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3) Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a collaboration tool for your project management. It is a work platform that offers exceptional speed to business. Align and execute a process for better, faster and lower-cost onboardings

Features:

• Offer security, user management, and single sign-on capabilities for team and project management
• Smartsheet allows automating actions using simple rules
• Helps to simplify budget and planning
• SmartSheet founded in 2000
• Offers AES-256, and TLS 1.2 encryption
• Export your reports in PDF, HTML, Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like Gantt, Grid, Card, and Calendar
• Free plan offers 500 MB storage, and 1 User
• Provides instant notification via Email, and Desktop
• Offers custom reports, charts, and Time Tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with AWS, okta, DocuSign, Workplace, salesforce, Microsoft, Slack, Webex, Brandfolder, and Tableau
• Offers pre-built templates for Retail, Entertainment and Hospitality, Construction and Engineering, Technology, Finance/Financial, Nonprofit, Manufacturing, and Telecommunications
• Provides project management status like Hold, In Progress, Not Started, Complete, and Canceled
• Offers Secure, Scalable, Unified, User driven, Adaptable, Automated workflows, Security & Enterprise Control, and Collaborative
• It provides customer support via Chat, Phone, and Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Web, Android and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $9 a month. 29% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
It offers a variety of plans and packages that can be easily scaled and customized for any business need.	The activity log is limited compared to other project management tools.
Easy integrations	Very steep learning curve.
Enables automated workflows across spreadsheets.
Supports hybrid spreadsheets with cross-department data.

Visit Smartsheet >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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4) Teamwork

Teamwork is an easy-to-use project management system. This tool allows companies to maximize their project management processes. It allows you to manage projects, clients, freelancers, and your team in one place.

Features:

• You can track every billable minute of every project.
• Helps you to increase profitability and grow your business.
• Teamwork also helps you to avoid unnecessary meetings and get things done quickly.
• Run your client services business with the advanced features and flexibility.
• You can easily import all your tasks and projects with one click.
• Teamwork founded in 2000
• Offers AES-256, and 2FA encryption
• Export your reports in PDF, Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like Table, Board, List, and Kanban
• Free plan offers 100 MB storage, and 5 User
• Provides instant notification via Desktop, email, and push
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, centralized workspace, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Slack, Hubspot, Google Drive, Dropbox, Zapier, and QuickBooks
• Offers pre-built templates for Engineering, Cross-functional, Operations, Marketing, Creative, and Project management
• Provides project management status like Completed, active, and late
• Offers Collaborate, Deliver, Report, Custom Fields, Project Portfolio Workflows, Workload Resource Management, and Resource Scheduling
• It provides customer support via Email, Chat, and Ticket
• Supported Platforms: Windows, macOS, Mobile, Cloud
• Price: Plans start at $13.99 a month. 29% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Create task lists, tasks, and subtasks to break down the work into action items.	Does not offer team chat option.
Simple and intuitive design	Not have enough integrations.
Work directly and intimately with your clients on projects
Great customization options

Visit Teamwork >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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5) Wrike

Wrike is a Cloud-based collaboration and project management tool. It is one of the best ms project alternatives which helps you to scale across teams in any business. This free microsoft project alternative tool allows to set priorities and align your team to work faster and smarter.

Features:

• View real-time reports and status for all kind of team projects
• Helps you to turn strategy into an actionable plan to achieve success
• Provide accurate and up-to-date info to make them create an exact deadline
• Wrike founded in 2006
• Offers 2FA, AES-256, and TLS 1.2 encryption
• Export your reports in PDF, and Excel
• Visualize your project using various views like Calendar, Board, and Table
• Free plan offers 2 GB storage, and Unlimited User
• Provides instant notification via Email, and Desktop
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, centralized workspace, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Salesforce, Tableau, Microsoft Teams, MediaValet, Tenovos, Github, JIRA, SAML, and Slack
• Offers pre-built templates for Marketing, Creative, Agile, Operations, IT & Engineering, Project Management, and Professional Services
• Provides project management status like New, In Progress, Completed, On Hold, and Canceled
• Offers Effort Management, Budgeting, Job Roles, Proofing, Cross-Tagging, Real-Time Reports, Automations, and SSO
• It provides customer support via Phone, Email, and Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Android, and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $9.80 a month.
• Free Trial: Start for free (No Credit Card Required)

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.	The user interface is difficult to understand.
Offers reliable security protocols in place.	Limited mobile app and project tracking features.
Provides a single platform for all your business needs.
24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat.

Visit Wrike >>

Start for free (No Credit Card Required)

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6) ActivTrak

ActivTrak is a project management software that enables you to analyze your workforce and productivity. It helps you to identify your workflow bottlenecks of people, processes, and technology.

Features:

• You can see which websites and applications boost your productivity.
• Enables you to share productivity data with your team.
• It helps you to visualize your employee work patterns with ease.
• You can easily generate a detailed report for the audit trail.
• ActivTrak founded in 2009
• Offers MFA, AES-256, AES-128, and TLS encryption
• Export your reports in Excel
• Visualize your project using various views like Grid, and List
• Free plan offers 3 GB storage, and 3 User
• Provides instant notification via Email
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with salesforce, Slack, ServiceNow, Azure, Zendesk, Zoom, Asana, Workday, ADP, monday, and Lattice
  Offers pre-built templates for Sales, and Marketing
• Offers Dashboards, Productivity Reports, Team Summaries, Application & Website Usage Workload Management, Productivity Coaching, Benchmarks & Goals, Personal Insights, and Screenshots
• It provides customer support via Phone, Email, Chat, and Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Web
• Price: Plans start at $10 a month.
• Free Trial: Life Time Free Basic Plan

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Easy-to-use and very fast tool.	Lacks keystroke logging.
Offers tracking ability of the Activity Log.	Dashboard widgets can’t be customized.
Quick and intuitive user interface.
Offers extremely detailed data interrogation analysis and reporting.
It helps you to tracks productivity on a per project level.

Visit ActivTrak >>

Life Time Free Basic Plan

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7) Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a collaboration & project management tool created by Zoho. The software helps you to plan your projects, assign tasks, and communicate effectively.

Features:

• Everyone working on a project can log his/her billable & non-billable hours using timesheets
• Create an issue and track them as they get fixed and tested
• The team will always access the latest version of all project documents
• Zoho Projects founded in 2006
• Offers AES-256, and AES-128 encryption
• Export your reports in PDF, Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like List, Table, and Custom
• Free plan offers 10 MB storage, and 3 User
• Provides instant notification via Email, and Desktop
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Zapier, Slack, Bitbucket, Github, Gitlab, Gitea, Dropbox, Box, JIRA, Basecamp, Zendesk, and Servicenow
• Offers pre-built templates for Restaurants, Architecture & Interior, Health, WellBeing, Businesses, Events, Photography, Services, and Blogs
• Provides project management status like Inprogress, and completed
• Offers Task Management, Customizations, Team Collaboration, Automation, Time Management, Charts and Reports, and User Administration
• It provides customer support via Phone, Email, and Chat
• Supported Platforms: Android, and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $5 a month. 12% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: 10 Days Free Trial (No Credit Card Required)

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
User experience and interface that are familiar	Need to improve the search for tasks.
Communication features	Dashboard functionality is not good enough
A variety of integrations are available

Download Link: https://www.zoho.com/projects/

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8) Asana

Asana is an ideal project management software for small teams. It is available in three different versions Free, Premium & Enterprise.

Features:

• This free Microsoft project alternative tool allows management of up to 15 team members. It also offers basic dashboard and search
• Premium version offers Unlimited dashboard, custom fields, advanced search & reporting
• Enterprise version allows managing team members with advanced admin controls like service account and SAML
• Asana founded in 2008
• Offers 2FA, MFA, 128-bit, and TLS 1.2 encryption
• Export your reports in Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like List, Board, Timeline and Calendar, Files, Teammate
• Free plan offers 100 MB storage, and 1 User
• Provides instant notification via Email, and Desktop
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Splunk, Okta, Salesforce, Tableau, Jira, Slack, MuleSoft, BetterCloud, Clockwise, Zapier, and Workplace
• Offers pre-built templates for Marketing, Operations, Design, Product, Cross-functional, Sales, Customer success, Engineering, IT, and HR
• Provides project management status like New, Ready, In progress, Drafting, Hold, and Complete
• Offers Project management, Views and reporting, Admin controls, Communication, and Automation
• It provides customer support via Chat, and Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Android, and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $13.49 a month. 19% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Simple to use and set up, and it can be customized as per your needs	The notetaking and chat features are not up to mark.
Collaboration Focused	No Time Tracking Features
Offers expansive Integration
24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat.

Download Link: https://asana.com/

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9) LiquidPlanner

LiquidPlanner eliminates outdated plans, missed deadlines, and streamline your work. It one of the free microsoft project alternatives that offers features for IT teams, project managers, development teams, and marketing teams.

Features:

• Priority-based scheduling allows you to keep track of deliverables and deadlines
• Teams can share updates, and recommendations to provide a clearer picture of the project
• Offers drag-and-drop function which allows rescheduling projects
• LiquidPlanner founded in 2006
• Offers SHA-256 encryption
• Export your reports in Excel, and CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like Portfolio, Project, Board, and Grid
• Free plan offers 3 User
• Provides instant notification via Email
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, centralized workspace, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Zapier
• Offers pre-built templates for Project, and Email
• Provides project management status like Inprogress, and completed
• Offers Predictive Scheduling, Perfect Prioritization, Time Management, Intelligent Insights, Ranged Estimation, and Automatic Resource Leveling
• It provides customer support via Email, and Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Android, and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $15 a month.
• Free Trial: 14 Days Free Trial

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Effective	Costly
Great support	Requires training to use
Good time tracking
Unique dynamic features

Download Link: https://www.liquidplanner.com/

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10) Trello

Trello is a tool designed to replace your team’s use of email and chat for task-based communication. It is one of the best ms project alternatives that allows you to collaborate for the project from beginning to end.

Features:

• This open source Microsoft project alternative tool allows your team to stay organized
• You can organize upcoming projects
• Trello stays in sync across all your devices
• Trello founded in 2014
• Offers 2FA encryption
• Export your reports in Excel, CSV, PDF, and image
• Visualize your project using various views like Board, Timeline, Table, Calendar, Dashboard, Map, and Workspace
• Free plan offers Unlimited storage, and Unlimited Users
• Provides instant notification via Desktop, email, and push
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Slack, JIRA, Bitbucket Cloud, Moxtra, Fresh desk, Evernote, Rollbar, and Usersnap
• Offers pre-built templates for Business, Design, Education, Engineering, Marketing, HR & Operations, Personal, Productivity, Product management, and Project management
• Provides project management status like Inprogress, and completed
• Offers Unlimited Cards, Built-in Automation, Assignee And Due Dates, Unlimited Activity Logs, Mobile Device Management, and Unlimited Power-ups
• It provides customer support via Email
• Supported Platforms: Android, and iOS
• Price: Plans start at $5 a month. 17% Discount on Yearly Payment.
• Free Trial: 14 Days Free Trial

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
It helps your team to stay organized	Does not provide a free trial
It helps you to Integrate the different types of apps to streamline the business process	It does not allow managing tasks offline on your computer
It organizes upcoming projects
Trello helps you to stay in sync across all your devices

Download Link: https://trello.com/

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11) Roadmunk

Roadmunk is a visual roadmap software helpful for the project management. It is one of the best alternatives to microsoft project that offers advanced data protection to meet the needs of global enterprise clients.

Features:

• Helps you to select between Timeline View, Swimlane View, or mix-and-match multiple views of the roadmap.
• Helps you to create roadmap across multiple products, portfolios, and teams
• Options for customization with many advanced filters
• Roadmunk founded in 2013
• Offers AES-256, and SHA-256 encryption
• Export your reports in CSV
• Visualize your project using various views like List, Board, and Table
• Free plan offers 1GB Storage, and 1 User
• Provides instant notification via Email
• Offers drag & drop, and charts
• Seamlessly integrates with Jira, and Devops
• Offers pre-built templates for Product, Technology, Project, Agile, Portfolio, Business, IT, Development, Strategic, Marketing, Software, and Program
• Provides project management status like Inprogress, and completed
• Offers Intuitive roadmap planning, Collaborate on product strategy, Create and save unlimited views
• It provides customer support via Email, and Chat
• Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Price: Plans start at $19 a month.
• Free Trial: 14 Days Free Trial

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Easy to set up	Sometimes navigation can be confusing
Intuitive, focused, streamlined user interface	set up is complex
Excellent support team
Easy to build roadmaps

Download Link: https://roadmunk.com/

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12) Basecamp

Basecamp is an effective project management tool which allows you to effortlessly assign tasks, organize your team, and track progress. It’s available with 60-day free trial and three different pricing packages.

Features:

• Add recurring tasks
• This open source Microsoft project alternative tool allows resources allocation and forecasting
• Automated check-ins
• Search filters & notifications
• Basecamp founded in 2004
• Offers AES-256, and SHA-256 encryption
• Export your reports in Excel
• Visualize your project using various views like List, and Calendar
• Free plan offers 500 MB storage, and 1 User
• Provides instant notification via Email
• Offers drag & drop, custom reports, charts, and time tracking
• Seamlessly integrates with Zapier, TaskClone, Pleexy, Retool, ZapUp, Tick, Harvest, Timely, HourStack, Clockify, and Centreli
• Offers pre-built templates for Project
• Provides project management status like Inprogress, and completed
• Offers Unlimited projects, Reliability, Simplified, Refined, Reporting, and File Backup & Synchronization
• It provides customer support via Email, and Contact form
• Supported Platforms: Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android
• Price: Plans start at $11 a month.
• Free Trial: 7 Days Free Trial

👍 Pros	👎 Cons
Easy to set up and flexible	Limited reports
Good document storage	Limited Customization
Built-in communication features

Download Link: https://basecamp.com/

FAQ

❓ What is Microsoft Project?

💻 Which are the Best Microsoft Project Alternatives?

🚀 Which Factors to consider while selecting a Microsoft Project Alternative?

Consider the following factors while choosing a Microsoft Project alternative tool:

• It must allow collaboration on the project so that your business team can work together.
• License cost.
• Integration with other software and tools.
• Choose the tool that can support the increasing needs of your business.
• The cost involved in training employees on the tool.
• Consider the security options offered by software providers.

⚡ What are the drawbacks of Microsoft Project?

Best Microsoft Project Alternatives

Name	Monday.com	ClickUp	Smartsheet	Teamwork	Wrike
Features	✔️ Manage everything in one workspace ✔️ Set up in minutes	✔️ One app to replace them all. ✔️ All your work in one place: Tasks, docs, chat, goals, & more.	✔️ Smartsheet allows automating actions using simple rules ✔️ Helps to simplify budget and planning	✔️ You can track every billable minute and deliver every project. ✔️ Helps you to increase profitability and grow your business.	✔️ Enables you to view real-time reports ✔️ It helps you to turn strategies into actionable plans to achieve success.
Price	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	Free Forever Plan	Start for free
Review/Rating	4.7	4.7	4.6	4.5	4.4
Link	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website	Visit website