- Best for freelance business: Asana
- Best for affordability: nTask
- Best for complex projects: ClickUp
- Best for creative teams: Notion
- Best for time tracking: Wrike
- Best for Agile teams and developers: Jira
- Best kanban board views: Trello
- Best for team communication: Basecamp
Freelancing can be overwhelming for those who cannot keep track of their client project timelines, often leading to missed deadlines. Project management software can help freelancers and individuals stay organized and on top of their clients’ project schedules. However, there are hundreds of project management software options in the market. How do you ensure you select the right tool?
We analyzed the best project management software for freelancers and individuals to help you determine the best option. We will review and compare each tool’s features, pricing, usability, pros and cons.
SEE: Check out our list of the best open-source project management software.
Top project management software for freelancers comparison
Here is how the top eight tools stack up against each other.
| Free plan | Starting price (per user per month) | Mobile app | Time tracking | Gantt charts | Kanban boards | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asana | Yes | $13.49 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| nTask | Yes | $4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ClickUp | Yes | $10 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Notion | Yes | $20 | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Wrike | Yes | $9.80 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Jira | Yes | $8.15 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trello | Yes | $6 | Yes | Requires Power-Up | No | Yes |
| Basecamp | No, 30-day free trial | $15 | Yes | Available via add-on | Available via add-on | Yes |
Asana: Best for freelance business
Asana is a cloud-based project management tool and is considered one of the best. It makes it particularly easy to manage freelancers—Asana sends daily task reminder emails with due dates to assignees as an extra push to ensure tasks are completed on time.
With its Agile project management capabilities, teams can monitor project progress, track individual tasks and plan sprints. Asana’s to-do lists help users prioritize their work and stay on track. Aside from its general project management features, Asana also offers niche-specific use cases for event planners, human resources, engineering, IT departments and design teams.
Pricing
- Personal: Free for up to 15 team users.
- Starter: $10.99 per user per month, billed annually, or $13.49 per user billed monthly.
- Advanced: $24.99 per user per month, billed annually, or $30.49 per user billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Contact Asana’s sales team for pricing information.
- Enterprise+: Contact Asana’s sales team for pricing information.
Standout features
- Integrations with over 200 tools, including Slack, Salesforce, Figma and Microsoft Teams.
- Gantt chart and Kanban board views.
- Team management allows admins to add, remove and manage members.
- Asana allows teams to collaborate with vendors, contractors and partners on the platform.
- Portfolio management.
- Content calendar planning and management.
Top Asana integrations
Asana integrates with hundreds of tools across 12 categories.
- Communication: You can connect Asana with various communications software like Microsoft Teams, Vimeo, Rewatch, Neuralmind and Happeo.
- IT and development: You can integrate Asana with tools like ServiceNow, Looker, Okta, RoleUp, GitLab and GitHub.
- Sales and services: Asana supports Salesforce, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk, and HubSpot.
- Files: Asana integrates with file management apps like Box, Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly customizable | Single assignee is the only option for tasks |
| Workflow automation is advanced and easy to use | Time tracking is only available for Asana Business and Enterprise customers |
Why we chose Asana
Asana encourages collaboration by allowing freelancers to communicate with clients and team members within the platform easily. It provides features like comments, file sharing, and real-time updates, ensuring everyone involved in a project stays on the same page and can work together effectively.
For more information, read the full Asana review.
nTask: Best for affordability
nTask is a cloud-based project management tool built for small businesses and teams, students, NGOs and freelancers. It’s a relatively new tool, founded in 2015, but has quickly moved up the ranks in the PM industry by being user-friendly and balancing quality service with affordability. It allows users to allocate resources, monitor project milestones, and track budgets and finances.
nTask’s dashboard offers users four views — list, grid, calendar and kanban boards — allowing teams to customize it per their needs. It also fosters collaboration among location-independent teams, allowing them to work on documents and share and store documents.
Pricing
- Basic: Free for a team of up to five members.
- Premium: $3 per user per month, billed annually, or $4 per user billed monthly.
- Business: $8 per user per month, billed annually or $12 per user billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Contact the nTask sales team for pricing information.
Standout features
- Time tracking and employee timesheets.
- Bug and issue tracking with issue severity and priority tracking.
- Allows users to plan, schedule and set meeting agendas and integrates with Microsoft Teams and Zoom to generate meeting links.
- Supports Gantt chart and kanban board views.
- Integrates with third-party services like Salesforce, Slack, HubSpot, Google Calendar and more.
- nTask is available in seven languages, namely English, Arabic, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and French.
Top nTask integrations
- Video conferencing: nTask seamlessly integrates with communication platforms, such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
- Calendar: nTask supports scheduling tools like Apple, Outlook and Google calendars.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Managers can create to-do lists and assign them to team members | Its free plan lacks project management capabilities |
| Users can create unlimited subtasks | Limited integrations |
| Monitors project progress in real time |
Why we chose nTask
One key factor that makes nTask one of the best project management tools for freelancers is its affordability. Budget is often a concern as a freelancer, and many project management tools can be quite expensive. However, nTask offers a free version with limited features, as well as a reasonably priced paid version that provides access to all features. This makes it ideal for freelancers who want an inexpensive project management solution.
Check out how nTask compares to our list of the top task management software.
ClickUp: Best for complex projects
ClickUp is a versatile project management tool, and its free plan has the necessary features to manage freelancers. With real-time reporting, customizable views, task management and 24/7 real-time support, ClickUp allows individuals and freelancers to manage complex projects.
With ClickUp, project management teams can track their progress, collaborate and visualize their project plan. ClickUp’s integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Sentry, Slack and Figma allow engineering teams to manage development-related projects. Marketing agencies can also use the tool to manage campaign and content calendars, whereas IT teams can use it to track, triage and assign requests.
Pricing
- Free Forever: No cost for 100MB of storage and unlimited tasks.
- Unlimited: $7 per member per month, billed annually, or $10 per member billed monthly.
- Business: $12 per member per month, billed annually, or $19 per member billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Contact the ClickUp sales team for pricing information.
Standout features
- 15+ highly customizable views.
- Real-time reporting.
- Natural language processing.
- 50+ native integrations, including Slack, Google, GitLab, HubSpot, Loom, Zoom and more.
- Task management and planning.
Top ClickUp integrations
- Communication and collaboration tools: ClickUp integrates with popular communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
- Time tracking tools: ClickUp integrates with time tracking tools like Time Doctor, Harvest and Clockify. This integration allows freelancers to track their time spent on tasks and projects directly within ClickUp, making it convenient to log and manage billable hours.
- File storage and sharing: Freelancers can easily attach files from Google Drive and Dropbox to their tasks or projects, ensuring smooth file sharing.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The free plan includes all the necessary features needed to manage freelancers or individual projects. | Steep learning curve |
| Suitable for the management of complex projects | The higher tier plan(s) may be too pricey for small businesses |
Why we chose ClickUp
ClickUp is known for being able to handle complex projects with ease. Whether it’s managing multiple tasks, tracking progress, handling dependencies, or juggling different clients and projects, ClickUp provides a robust set of features to handle the intricacies of freelancers’ work.
For more information, read the full ClickUp review.
Notion: Best for creative teams
Many people consider Notion as just a note-taker app, but it’s more than that; Notion also works as a task and project management tool for freelancers and individuals. It allows users to visualize project progress via kanban boards, task lists and calendars.
The tool is most suitable for creative teams that write often. Notion can be used during stand-ups to take meeting notes and track agendas. Users can also use it to manage their knowledge base via its wiki capability.
Pricing
Notion offers a free plan plus three paid plans. Users can add Notion AI to the free plan or any paid plans at $8 per member per month, billed annually, or $10 per member billed monthly.
- Free: $0 for up to 10 guests.
- Plus: $16 per user per month, billed annually, or $20 per user billed monthly.
- Business: $23 per user per month, billed annually, or $28 per user billed monthly.
- Enterprise: Custom quotes.
Standout features
- Real-time collaboration enables team members to work together on a project from anywhere at the same time.
- Notion integrates with third-party services like Jira, Google Drive and Slack.
- Notion’s wiki can be used to create knowledge base resources.
- Note tracking and document management keep project details and documentation organized in one platform.
Top Notion Integrations
- GitHub: Integrating Notion with GitHub allows you to collaborate on code repositories and track development tasks alongside project management tasks within Notion.
- Slack: Integration with Slack allows you to receive notifications and updates from Notion directly in your Slack channels.
- Google Drive: You can integrate Notion with Google Drive to easily attach and access files from your Google Drive directly within Notion.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy-to-use user interface | Limited project management capabilities |
| It can serve as an all-in-one productivity tool | Complex initial setup |
Why we chose Notion
Notion allows freelancers to store, manage, and share documents and files within the platform. This eliminates the need for multiple tools and provides a centralized location for all project-related documents.
For more information, read the full Notion review.
Wrike: Best for time tracking
Wrike is a user-friendly collaborative work management and project management tool. It’s suitable for small to midsize businesses or enterprises.
Its time tracking feature automatically logs how many hours and minutes an individual spends on each task. This is beneficial for freelancers paid by the hour. Wrike also allows users to create unlimited tasks, subtasks and nesting, making it easy to manage projects and tasks created across the company as a portfolio.
Pricing
- Free: $0 for unlimited users.
- Team: $9.80 per user per month, billed annually.
- Business: $24.80 per user per month, billed annually.
- Enterprise: Custom quote.
- Pinnacle: Custom quote.
Standout features
- Resource management.
- Hundreds of third-party Integrations with services such as Google, Microsoft, GitHub and Jira.
- Advanced resource and capacity planning.
- Project portfolio management.
- Custom work views, such as tables and kanban.
- AI project risk prediction.
Top Wrike integrations
- Okta: Integrating Wrike with Okta allows freelancers to access their Wrike account securely using their Okta credentials.
- BitBucket: This integration enables seamless collaboration between developers and project managers, enhancing software development workflows.
- Other integrations include, FreshDesk, Asana, GitHub and over 400 more.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Advanced time tracking capabilities | The free plan lacks Gantt chart features |
| Network access (whitelist IP) | Limited customization |
| Budgeting and billable hour features are available | |
| Support is provided in eight languages |
Why we chose Wrike
Wrike includes features for tracking the time spent on each task or project, making it easier for freelancers to monitor their productivity and bill clients accurately.
For more information, read the full Wrike review.
Jira: Best for Agile teams and developers
Atlassian’s Jira is a bug-tracking and project management solution designed for Agile and Scrum teams to manage project tasks and capture and record software bugs. Its issue-tracking feature helps teams manage tasks and bugs in a central location, making it easy to create and assign issues to team members and set priorities and due dates.
Jira is available as a family of three solutions: Jira Core is built for non-technical users, Jira Software is best for software developers and Jira Service Desk is designed for customer support and IT professionals. Jira stands out for its scalability and extensive integrations, making it easy for growing teams to expand with the tool and connect to their existing services.
Pricing
- Free: $0 for up to 10 users.
- Standard: $8.15 per user per month, billed monthly, or $850 per year for User Tier 1 to 10. Pricing changes based on user count.
- Premium: $16 per user per month, billed monthly, or $1,600 per year for User Tier 1 to 10. Pricing changes based on user count.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Best for organizations with over 800 users.
Standout features
- Provides scrum and kanban boards for Agile teams.
- Integrates with over three thousand tools, including Slack, Microsoft Teams and Confluence.
- Enables custom workflows.
- Offers drag-and-drop automation.
- Allows user roles and permission management.
- Provides project roadmaps to keep all team members in sync with project direction.
Top Jira integrations
- Salesforce: Jira allows users to sync data between the two platforms, enabling a smooth flow of information between the sales and project management teams.
- GitHub: Freelancers who work with GitHub can connect their repositories to Jira, enabling them to track GitHub issues and pull requests directly within Jira.
- Slack: The Jira integration with Slack facilitates real-time notifications and updates to be sent directly to designated Slack channels.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly scalable platform | Complex initial setup |
| Issue tracking is available | Steep learning curve for non-developers |
| Advanced reports and insights |
Why we chose Jira
Jira is built with agile project management in mind, making it ideal for freelancers who work in fast-paced environments. It supports scrum, kanban, and other agile methodologies, providing flexibility and adaptability to their workflow.
For more information, read the full Jira review.
Trello: Best kanban board views
Trello is a kanban project management solution designed for small teams and individuals. Those working on simple projects can use it to track tasks from conception to invoicing, making it a top choice for freelancers.
Trello’s area of strength lies in its kanban board setup and Trello Power-Ups. The board helps visual learners manage their projects easily, while the Power-Ups give the tool extra functionalities.
Pricing
- Free: $0 for up to 10 boards per Workspace.
- Standard: $5 per user per month, billed annually, or $6 per user billed monthly.
- Premium: $10 per user per month, billed annually, or $12.50 per user billed monthly.
- Enterprise: $7.38 to $17.50 per user per month, billed annually. The price per user depends on the total user count.
Standout features
- Integrates with over 200 apps (Power-Ups), including Slack, Google Drive and Salesforce.
- Multi-view support, including timeline, map, dashboard, table and calendar.
- Task and workflow automation.
- Pre-built templates for different user categories, including marketing, design, personal, remote work and more.
Top Trello integrations
Trello supports over 200 power-ups (integrations).
- Slack: Communication and collaboration app to ensure you don’t miss a task.
- Gmail: Let you create new cards in Trello without leaving your Gmail inbox.
- Microsoft Teams: Link Trello to Microsoft Teams to see your Trello boards, notifications, and more in Microsoft Teams.
- Google Drive: Access your Drive files for a project directly from its card, or create and attach new Drive files to a card.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Trello’s standard cloud product is free for users working on open-source projects | Standard and free plans have limited support |
| Trello is user-friendly | Relies heavily on Power-Ups (integrations) |
| Excellent drag-and-drop functionality |
Why we chose Trello
Trello uses a board and card system that allows freelancers to visually organize their tasks, deadlines, and progress. This visual aspect makes it easier to understand project status at a glance.
For more information, read the full Trello review.
Basecamp: Best for team communication
Individuals, small teams and freelancers looking for a collaborative project management tool will find Basecamp appealing. Teachers, students, NGOs and charity organizations can also save money with this project management solution. Basecamp enables users to create projects, delegate tasks, track projects, monitor progress, start chats, add file attachments, and store and share documents.
37signals, a web design company, first built Basecamp as an in-house tool; it’s currently in its third version. With Basecamp, individuals or freelancers can invite their clients as guests without additional charges, allowing them to share project details and progress with the stakeholders involved. Its standard plan offers 500GB of file and document storage, while the Pro Unlimited plan offers five TB of storage.
Pricing
- Basecamp (Best for freelancers, small teams and startups): $15 per user per month, billed monthly, with free guest access.
- Basecamp Pro Unlimited (Best for growing businesses and large groups): $299 per month, billed annually, or $349 billed monthly. This plan does not operate with per-user pricing and is available for unlimited users.
Basecamp also offers free accounts for teachers and students, while nonprofits and charity organizations get 10% discounts.
Standout features
- Integrates with third-party services like Calamari, CData Arc, Ganttify and more.
- Real-time group chat (Campfire) and direct message (Pings).
- Hill Charts provide a visual presentation of project progress.
- Users can consolidate all their notifications in one menu.
- Doc and file creation, sharing and discussion threads.
- Project schedules with dated to-dos, deadlines and milestones.
Basecamp Integrations
- Zoho Flow: You can connect your Basecamp 3 with 650+ apps like Jira Cloud, Slack, Zendesk and more.
- Time tracking: The tool integrates into various time tracking tools Harvest, Everhour, Clockify and more.
- Software development: Honeybadger, Instabug, Ybug, and Git Helpers are some of the software development tools that Basecamp integrates with.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Basecamp’s free trial lasts for 30 days | No free plan is available for business use |
| Free accounts are available for teachers and students | Limited customization |
| To-do lists make it easier to create tasks and assign them |
Why we chose Basecamp
Freelancers can invite clients to Basecamp projects, facilitating effective communication and collaboration throughout the project’s lifecycle. Clients can provide feedback, review progress, and stay engaged in the project.
For more information, read the full Basecamp review.
What are key features of freelance project management software?
When shopping for the best project management tool for freelance use cases, there are several key capabilities to look out for. If the software you are considering lacks any of these features, confirm if it integrates with a third-party service that offers the feature as an add-on.
Time tracking
When working on a project, you need to monitor how projects and project tasks are being handled. Understanding how long it takes your team members to complete tasks will help you set a possible project completion date.
Project management software with a time tracking feature helps organizations working with freelancers — especially those that charge per hour — monitor progress and see how many hours or minutes their freelancers spend on tasks. This helps create a transparent workflow process for both the freelancer and the company.
Kanban boards
Project management tools with kanban boards can help boost team members’ productivity. Kanban is designed to improve an organization’s processes over time and tackle the negative effects of multitasking.
Generally, kanban has three processes: To-do, in progress and completed. This helps to ensure team members are always working on the most important tasks. For the production team, it ensures only the most valuable feature or component is built; this helps to reduce overproduction.
With the kanban board, users can visualize their work, limit work-in-progress bottlenecks and continuously improve.
Affordability
Budget-conscious individuals and freelancers need an affordable way to manage their projects. If budget is a concern for you or your team, look for a tool that offers a free plan or competitive pricing. All of the tools listed in this guide, except Basecamp, offer a free plan, and the free plan, in most cases, is sufficient for individuals or freelancers.
As a note, keep in mind most free plans only offer basic features. If these products’ free plans lack the features you need, we’ve also reviewed the best free project management software.
Gantt charts
When working on projects with lots of dependencies, teams need a project management tool that can monitor progress over time and track milestones. As a means of fulfilling this need, Gantt charts use bar charts to provide a graphical representation of project activities, tasks and/or events. They help teams plan around deadlines and properly allocate resources.
How does project management software help freelancers?
PM tools help freelancers achieve their productivity goals in many ways.
Organization and time management
Freelancers often juggle multiple projects simultaneously, making it challenging to stay organized and manage time effectively. Project management software helps in organizing tasks, deadlines, and milestones, ensuring that freelancers stay on track and meet their clients’ expectations.
Collaboration and communication
Many project management tools offer collaboration features, enabling freelancers to collaborate with their clients and team members seamlessly. Features like file sharing, real-time updates, and comment threads foster effective communication and streamline the workflow, leading to increased productivity.
Client management
Freelancers typically deal with several clients, each with their own projects, requirements, and deadlines. Project management software allows freelancers to create separate project boards or spaces for each client, ensuring that nothing gets overlooked and clients receive the attention they deserve.
Task and time tracking
Project management tools come with built-in task tracking features that help freelancers track their progress on various tasks. This capability allows freelancers to identify potential bottlenecks and address them promptly, ensuring timely project delivery. Additionally, time tracking features enable accurate billing and help freelancers and their clients keep track of billable hours.
How do I choose the best freelance project management software?
The best project management solution depends on factors unique to your organization, team and project. There’s no one-size-fits-all, so we’ve compared eight tools for different user types. To determine the best tool for you, use this guide as a baseline and further research the software that interests you most.
You can continue your research by checking out the full product reviews we’ve written for each solution to learn more about individual features and capabilities. Alternatively, you can sign up for a product’s free trial to test it. If you find the right tool and are convinced it is the best option for you, go ahead and subscribe and onboard your team.
Review methodology
We evaluated dozens of project management tools and selected the top eight based on five key data points: affordability, customer satisfaction, time tracking, ease of use and scalability. We signed up for each tool’s free plan or free trial to gain firsthand experience with its features and overall usability. We also collected user experience data from review sites to determine each tool’s customer satisfaction rating.
If you’re still not sure if these tools are right for you, see how they compare to our list of the best mind mapping software for project management.
Source: 8 Best Project Management Software for Freelancers in 2024
