15 Best Free Project Management Software For Remote Teams (Features & Pricing Reviewed)

Building remote teams is one of the best ways to drive innovation and collaboration in a modern workplace. The only problem? Many of those aspiring organizations don’t have the right workflows, strategies, and apps to reap the benefits. But don’t worry, we did the heavy lifting for you and compared the best project management tools for hybrid and fully distributed teams.

Let’s dive in! 👇

🌟 Productivity Tips For Remote Teams

Creating a well-synced remote team isn’t easy.You need apt leadership, a balance of hard and soft skills, as well as the right communication and collaboration dynamic.

Equipping your virtual team with the best project management software is also key, but we’ll get to that in a moment. So, what else do you need to get your squad off the ground?

💬 1. Sustainable Communication Dynamic

Communication expectations tend to differ across teams and departments.

Mike from sales and Emma from design may use chat and email daily, but their communication cadence—frequency and rhythm—are vastly different.

When you bring those two on board, you need to figure out a new cadence and communication dynamic so that remote team interactions don’t interfere with the actual work.

As an added bonus, things will be easier if you’re using a project management tool that a majority of your staff are comfortable with.

✅ 2. Manage Workflows Holistically

A remote workplace can (and often does) get chaotic. Sure, everybody technically works on the same project, but they do so using unique techniques and domain-specific sets of tools.

The overarching goal is to unify workflows, project management tools, and business intelligence to increase trust and transparency amongst remote teams.

🌟 3. Create a Single Source of Truth

Knowledge management is king in hybrid and remote organizations.

The ability to effectively store, organize, and share information lets teams increase velocity, which is paramount in a remote setting.

Create a single source of truth – a knowledge base or a team wiki – and make sure your remote team has 24/7 access to critical business intelligence.

The good news? 

All of the collaboration tools we compare below (you’re welcome!) will help you check those boxes. So, what do you say we take a look at prices, screenshots, and collaboration features to find the perfect match? 👇

🧘‍♂️ Best Free Project Management Software

Taskade

Have you ever wondered why so many collaboration tools are so darn confusing? After all, how many features, tabs, and menus do you need to get stuff done? If you’re looking for powerful software that won’t give your users a headache, Taskade has you covered.

Taskade boosts transparency and project visibility by bringing your tasks, documents, communication, and of course, your team, under one roof. Now you can finally work and chat in the same app, in the same window, without jumping between platforms.

Your remote team is a unique blend of subject matter experts, all with strong workflow preferences. So, why not give them the freedom to work the way they want? Cycle between flexible project views that include lists, boards, mind maps, and more.

Every project manager worth their salt knows communication is everything in the project management world. That’s why Taskade comes with free, integrated video conferencing, chat, comments, and VoIP calls so your team can stay connected 24/7.

If you’re looking for a task and project management app for your remote team, Taskade is your best bet.

Project Management in Taskade 🌟

• Workspaces, Folders, and unlimited Projects to organize anything
• Flexible workflows (Kanban, Org Chart, Mindmap, Table, List)
• 500+ customizable templates across 26 categories
• Team permissions and workspace management features
• Synchronization with Outlook, Microsoft, and Google calendar
• Countdown timers, recurring tasks, and assign with @mention
• Bulk assign, bulk due dates, and multi-select for quick editing. 
• Activity feed, project history, and notifications to stay in the know
• Branding options (logo, custom backgrounds) to make you feel comfy
• And much more…

Check the full list of Taskade features here. 🐑

Notion

Notion aspires to be many things. But it also turns out to be a solid collaboration and communication project management tool for remote teams. The platform offers a holistic approach to project management, even if its customizability may be a bit overwhelming at first. Give Notion a go if you want to spend some extra time building workflows from scratch.

Alternatively, here’s a list of alternatives to Notion.

Project Management in Notion 🌟

• Good for planning, knowledge bases, and team wikis
• Includes List, Board, Calendar, Table, and Gallery views
• 100+ project templates and a databased-oriented workflow
• Real-time collaboration with team permissions
• Task/project management, chat, and comments
• Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive integrations

Want to know why Taskade is the best free Notion alternative?

Asana

As far as looks are concerned, you can easily mistake Asana for Monday’s (older) sibling. Launched almost 10 years ago, Asana supports remote collaboration with a competent lineup of task and project management features. That includes everything from flexible workflows through work automation to real-time reporting, making it quite a reliable project management tool.

Project Management in Asana 🤝

• List, Board, Calendar, Progress, Form, and Timeline view
• Projects organized into a task list, with subtasks, and milestones
• Document sharing, automation, and approvals
• Custom templates, project export, and integrations
• Workload tracking, team management, and private messages

Want to know why Taskade is the best free Asana alternative? Check our comparison here. 👈

ProofHub

ProofHub is another interesting all-in-one platform that delivers in all key PM areas. That includes a strong communication component with chat, comments, @mention, and announcements on board. ProofHub is also a powerful proofing tool (no surprise there), complete with markup, threaded comments, and file versions. 

Project Management in ProofHub 🤝

• Chat, group discussions, and team announcements
• Flexible workflows (Table, Kanban, Gantt)
• Calendar, daily agenda, project progress report
• Timesheets, version control, document uploads
• Customizable templates, integrations, and more

GoVisually

GoVisually stands out from the competition as a great visual-oriented project management tool for distributed creative teams. The platform will help your team manage multiple projects, submit them for review, and secure approvals the easy way. Consider GoVisually if you’re looking for a user-friendly but powerful online proofing tool.

Project Management in GoVisually 🤝

• Share project links with reviewers
• Invent clients to add comments on projects
• Annotate PNG, JPG, PSD, PDF, and videos 
• Version control, @mention, notifications
• User permissions and client management

Hive

Hive is a communication and collaboration hub for buzzing (no pun intended) distributed teams. The platform has a solid track record with marketing teams, agencies, startups, and in education. Apart from its rich choice of project management tools, Hive packs proofing and approval features for much shorter feedback loops.

Give Hive a run if you’re looking for a collaboration tool to help with your remote projects.

Project Management in Hive 🤝

• Task, project, and collaboration features
• Multiple project views including Gantt and Kanban
• Time and progress tracking with estimates and timesheets
• Chat, comments, proofing, and approvals
• Automation, analytics, and project templates

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is one of the older platforms in the “remote collaboration” flock, but it still holds up pretty well against other tools on our list. Branded as a “dynamic workspace,” Smartsheet improves the visibility of projects across teams and departments. It also enables automation, content management, data collection, and team communication.

Project Management in Smartsheet 🤝

• Dashboards and activity log for project planning
• Calendar and reminders for tracking project timelines
• Automation, add-ons, and integrations
• Permissions and sharing with external users
• Flexible workflows, including Gantt charts and Grids

Monday. com

Project management software doesn’t have to be purely functional (read: ugly). And Monday delivers on the aesthetic aspect. Your team will appreciate a simple and colorful UI, customizable columns, and the ability to handle all kinds of projects. It’s a complete PM package for sales, marketing, and IT teams. 

Project Management in Monday. com  🌟

• Central dashboard for team management
• Visual-first workflow with a simple user interface
• Customizable columns and 200+ templates
• Communication and collaboration on mobile
• Real-time collaboration on files and documents

Find out why Taskade is the best free Monday alternative.

TickTick

TickTick is a task management tool that was founded by Appest Inc in 2013. Appest Inc originally created an app on Android called GTasks. TickTick was then created based on GTasks with added features to help with productivity such as cross-platform synchronization. TickTick was co-founded by Zhimin Chen, and the company’s main goal is to help people get more work done.

TickTick is frequently compared to Todoist because both tools serve a similar purpose for task management and as a to-do list.

Project Management in TickTick  🌟

• Sharing lists and assigning tasks
• Task duration and project timelines
• Task and location reminders
• Task prioritization settings
• Calendar view and integrations

Any.do

Any.do is a task management software that was founded in 2011 by Omer Perchik, Yoni Lindenfeld, and Itay Kahana. The first iteration of Any.do was an Android app known as Taskos.

On Any.do, users can manage their tasks by creating to-do lists and breaking down larger tasks into smaller subtasks. Unlike Remember The Milk which requires users to upgrade to access the subtasks feature, Any.do offers this feature for free.

Project Management in Any.do  🌟

• Recurring reminders
• Any.do Moment view
• Calendar, Kanban, and Agenda
• Chat and notifications
• List and file sharing
• Color-coded tags
• Integrations with Zapier and WhatsApp
• Reminders and event notifications

Google Keep

Google Keep is a digital note-taking tool that was launched as part of Google Suite in 2013. When it was first released, Google Keep was given good reviews due to its lean design and simplicity. This meant that it was a simple note-taking tool that was also quick.

You can use Google Keep to collaborate with other users on simple notes and even share to-do lists. The only prerequisite to this is that other users must also sign in to their Google account to use Google Keep.

In 2021, Google discontinued Google Keep’s Chrome app. However, the free popular note-taking tool can still be accessed via web browsers and other apps.

Project Management in Google Keep  🌟

• Customizable, color-coded lists
• Labels and search functionality
• Integration with Google calendar
• Sharing and task/note reminders

ClickUp

ClickUp was founded by Alex Yurkowski and Zeb Evans in 2017. It is a project management platform that was created to organize projects and tasks. ClickUp gained popularity right away when it was released to the market, and it has since grown to be a $4 billion company.

It is believed that ClickUp has more than four million customers. A variety of reasons contribute to its popularity. Among other things, ClickUp wants to be the only productivity tool users will ever require. All in all, it’s a solid project management tools for individuals and project managers who want to mange their teams without issues.

Project Management in ClickUp  🌟

• Multiple board views
• Breaking down tasks into subtasks
• Assign tasks
• Task status
• Basic communication
• Turning comments into tasks
• Integrates with other apps

Things (Things 3)

Things (Things 3) is a project management app created by German software company, Cultured Code. Released to the public in 2007, the popular task manager has won numerous awards due to its simple design and useful features.

Things is exclusive only to the Apple ecosystem and works well with all Apple devices, making it a popular task manager for Apple product users. It syncs across the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and even the Apple Watch. This allows users to stay connected with the app wherever they are. 

Project Management in Things 🌟

• Hierarchical note taking
• Simple task creation
• Breaking down tasks into subtasks
• Tags and groups for task organization
• Cloud sync
• Supports integrations

Todoist

Todoist is a task management software that was developed by its parent company, Doist. Amir Salihefendic is the founder of Doist, and he developed Todoist in 2007. The main aim of developing Todoist was to help people stay on top of their tasks by organizing it via a simple task management system.

Project Management in Todoist 🌟

• Lightweight and simple to use
• Breaking down tasks into subtasks
• Breaking down projects into sub-projects
• Assigning tasks and due dates
• Color-coding tasks
• Recurring tasks
• Kanban board view

Zenkit

Zenkit is a project management platform developed by a German company, Axonic Information Systems. Launched in 2016, this collaborative software was created to provide a simple, flexible solution to project management that teams can use every day. 

Zenkit is an option for teams looking for a solution that will allow them to keep track of unlimited projects at once. It also allows users to collaborate with their team remotely and to make updates in real-time.

Project Management in Zenkit 🌟

• Web and mobile access
• Kanban board view
• Real-time collaboration with file sharing, commenting, and offline mode features
• Customization such as different views, custom backgrounds, and rich text editing
• Activity tracking with a Gantt chart, calendar, task list, and notifications

🚀 Parting Words

Ready to boost your team’s performance in 2022? Sign up for a free Taskade account or test-drive what we can do for your team by visiting our demo page. Oh, and when you’re done, reach out at 🐑 [email protected] if you have any nagging questions. 

🧰 Before you go… having the best project management tool is just a start. Be sure to check these articles next and add other essential bricks to your digital toolbox.

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4. 🧠  Mind Over Matter: The Best Mind Mapping Tools