Free management tools are great solution for small businesses that have to be frugal with its budget. Thankfully, not all management tools available today require you to pay to use their services. Some online project management tools like Trello and Asana allow you to use their services for free.

In the context of software, there are two types of free software. The ones that totally free, which mean you can use it without paying anything, and ones that released as a freemium software. The second type usually comes with basic features. You will be asked to upgrade your free plan to use more advanced features.

When it comes to the project management tool, you will also find those two types. If you are running a small business and is looking for a project management tool that you can use for free, here are the items you can consider.

1. Nitfy

Nifty is an all-in-one project management platform that allows teams to plan, track, and deliver projects effortlessly. Nifty’s project-oriented discussions, milestones, tasks, docs, and files keep project members and stakeholders aligned on project objectives while direct messaging facilitates teamwide communication to bridge the gap between planning and delivery. Nifty’s built-in reporting provides cross-organizational reporting on project statuses and team member workloads. Intuitive layout with its all-in-one convenience and you’ve got one browser tab to manage your entire workflow. Mobile and desktop apps allow you to use the platform of your choice.

Nifty free version allows access to the all core features, 3 members, 2 active projects, and storage of 1 GB per user, plus Self-Serve Help Center.

2. Freedcamp

With a belief that collaboration is for everyone, Freedcamp provides a project management tool that you can use for free, despite the premium plan is also available for more advanced features. Freedcamp doesn’t limit you about the number of team members you can manage. You can add as many team members as you want in this tool. Tell me what do you expect from a project management features and you will find Freedcamp offers them. Discussion boards, calendar, time tracking, a messaging board, and subtasks are the examples of features you are going to get from the free version of Freedcamp. Assigning tasks to your team members is also easy.

The basic difference between the free plan and paid plans of Freedcamp is integration. Paid plans allow you to integrate your Freedcamp account with several popular services like Google Calendar, Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. Also, you can attach files in larger sizes. However, a free plan I think is enough for a small business with fewer team members. Moreover, if you want to use Freedcamp as a personal project management tool.

3. Asana

Asana almost always takes part in a project management tool discussion. This is one of the most popular online project management tools available today. And you can use it for free, although you will have to work with several restrictions. The free version of Asana allows you to add up to 15 team members. Asana would be a great tool for a team who is working on a certain product. You can take advantage of this tool to work remotely as a team. The free version of Asana allows you to add unlimited projects and tasks. Your conversations won’t also be restricted. However, you have to be sincere to work with a basic dashboard.

If you need to attach files during the discussion process, you can attach files whether from your local storage or cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive or Box. Assigning tasks, as well as setting reminders, are also quite easy in Asana.

4. Trello

Trello is probably the most popular project management tool. Companies like Google, Adobe, PIXAR to National Geographic are examples of Trello users. Of course, they don’t use the free plan of Trello since they need to manage more team members and more complex tasks.

Trello is also the type of freemium tool. The free version of this tool allows you to add unlimited members, tasks, projects, and checklists. Cloud storage integration is also available for the free version. In Trello you will find several different terms. For instance, the project is called board, while the task is called card.

5. Wrike

Wrike is also a freemium project management tool that you can use to manage the projects of your small team. The free version of Wrike only allows you to add maximum of 5 team members. In general, features offered by the free plan of Wrike are not much different from all tools above. Standard features like task management, file sharing, messaging and real-time activity are available for the free version. Additionally, free plan users can also use cloud storage integration to allow them to attach files. The task management offered by Wrike also allows you to assign tasks as well as setting reminders.

6. Redbooth

Same as all tools above, Redbooth is also a freemium online project management tool. The free version of Redbooth offers rich enough features such as Gantt charts, reporting, and integrations with Google Drive and Dropbox. If you need a comprehensive communication tool to communicate with your team, there is also a free integration with Slack. If you have a team with less than 11 members, then the free version of Redbooth is capable of handling it. The free version of Redbooth allows you to add up to 10 members.

In Redbooth, a project is represented by workspace. The free version is only allowed to create maximum of 2 workspaces, but there is no restriction in terms of the task. You can add as many tasks as you want and assign them to your team members. Just be careful to upload new files to Redbooth as free account has only 2GB of storage space.

7. Easynote

Easynote is one of the simplest free project management tools. It has no complex features like other tools above. You can even see no integration at all (at least until today). Just like the name suggests, the emphasis of Easynote is probably to provide an easy-to-use project management tool. Those who new to project management tools won’t meet any problem to operate this tool.

In Easynote, a project is represented as to do list. Before being able to add tasks and assign them to your team members, creating a project is required. By the way, you can add as many members as you want in Easynote. In addition, this tool also allows you to add unlimited tasks and projects. At the time of writing, all features offered by Easynote can be used for free. The only limitation is on storage space. You have only 1GB of storage. Plus, as I mentioned, this tool hasn’t supported any integration.

8. Task Pigeon

If you need a free project management tool to manage a project with 5 team members then Task Pigeon is the tool you can rely on, other than 6 first tools mentioned earlier above. All free project management tools above allow you to log in via your social media accounts so you can immediately use them without having to be a hassle to create an account. Task Pigeon is not that kind of tool. This tool has a similarity to Slack in terms of use. You will be asked to specify a subdomain first.

Task Pigeon is the kind of project management tool you can use to manage your team tasks. In general, the capabilities of this tool are not much different to similar tools above where you can add tasks, assign them, setting deadlines, attaching files and so on.  Task Pigeon wants to stand in the middle between Todoist (that it thinks is too light) and Asana and Wrike, that it thinks are too excessive.

9. MeisterTask

MeisterTask is a freemium online project management tool that comes with a very nice interface. You will be welcomed by a cool background when logging in to its dashboard. That’s it?

Of course not. This tool is also reliable to manage your team projects. The free version of MeisterTask doesn’t come with tight restrictions. Regardless of the number of the team member you have, you can add them all to MeisterTask. In addition, this tool also allows you to create as many projects as you want as well as adding unlimited tasks inside each project. This tool also gives you the freedom to customize the look of your dashboard. Speaking of integration, the free version is allowed to select two integrations from tens of the offered integrations. MeisterTask is one the highly recommended free online management tools.