10 Free Monday Alternatives to Get Your Projects off the Ground

When you aren’t on top of project planning details and managing the people involved in completing them effectively, you’ll be lucky to complete a project at all, let alone one that meets your quality standards. But effective project planning and management through dedicated tools changes the game.

Project management tools not only help you organize your projects and set up workflows that help you complete them faster, but they also help you manage your team’s productivity. Monday.com is one of those project management tools that business owners, freelancers, and other workers can’t stop raving about. But you’re here because you’re looking for a list of free Monday alternatives that are just as functional. Before we dive into them, here’s why you might want free Monday alternatives.

Why a Monday Alternative May Be Necessary

We’re long past the days of doing projects without relying on technology and the online world. Your company has doubtlessly and courageously undergone a digital transformation, in which one of the key steps is to use the right tech.

That’s why you started using the Monday.com platform. It’s one of the most comprehensive project management tools. It makes project tracking in the digital realm much more seamless.

You can easily start new projects by creating dedicated vision boards. You can manage project content in a central system and collaborate with your team on it in real time. Reporting features, integrations, and automation tools are available. Monday has even been listening to its customer’s complaints, and implementing Gantt charts and calendar views.

So, why would you want an alternative? Well, pricing may be a factor. Yes, Monday offers a forever-free plan. But you’re only allowed two users and you get access to very basic functions, like the ability to create up to 3 boards and templates.

Time management is another one. Monday has a time-tracking system, but not in the free version. You get access to it with their Pro plan that costs $60/month or $48/month when billed annually.

Finally, Monday is comprehensive. There’s a lot you can do on one platform. Believe it or not, a platform that has nearly every feature and function you could ask for isn’t appealing to everyone. A tool with only the features and functions they need may better suit them.

10 Free Monday Alternatives Perfect for Your Next Project

Whatever your reason for wanting free Monday alternatives, we’ve got you covered. Here are 10 free Monday alternatives that are similarly effective in project planning and tracking, staying on top of time management, and how you manage people.

MeisterTask

If you’re looking for easy-to-use task management software, MeisterTask is an excellent choice. Its goal is to help you organize your projects from start to finish with digitalized workflows and timelines that track progress in real-time.

You can automate steps in your task management workflow and set up templates for recurring tasks. Access to time-tracking in the free plan is another feature that makes MeisterTask worth a try.

Along with access to this comprehensive time management tool, you also get unlimited project members, customizable project boards, and unlimited tasks in each project with the free plan. But you only get to work on up to three projects at a time.

Project Insight

Project Insight is also high on the list of free Monday alternatives. It’s an award-winning project management software that organizes all of your projects, tasks, and team members’ work into a central system. You can standardize your processes with automation tools, track issues, and assign tasks efficiently with intelligent scheduling.

Project Insight has a free plan with unlimited users. The downside is that you do have to pay a $3 add-on fee to access time-tracking and timesheets. But you can customize your plan with them as you see fit.

Hygger

Hygger prides itself on being the “#1 Agile Project Management Tool for Modern Teams.” Teams that adopt an agile project management style need flexibility and a toolbox that allows for continuous work. Hygger has these.

Some of the most notable features include:

• Work in progress (WIP) limits
• Kanban boards
• Live activity stream
• Time-tracking with reports

They have a free plan where you can have unlimited users, unlimited projects and boards, and 100 MB of storage. You can also try the standard and enterprise plans for free for your first 50 tasks and get full access to the platform.

Asana

Asana is a well-thought-out project management platform that makes it incredibly easy for your team to get projects done no matter their location. You have a list of integrations to choose from, like Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Google. You can also create unlimited projects, tasks, and assignees.

Asana has a free basic plan that has a surprisingly long list of accessible features. But its native time-tracking feature is only available for business and enterprise customers. We offer a time-tracker here at Tracking Time that you can sync with Asana if you’re set on this platform and need time-tracking.

Avaza

Along with organizing and collaborating on projects, you can manage expenses and invoice customers, track time, and manage a resource repository with Avaza. Kanban, Gantt & List views of tasks, chat, and reporting features are pluses as well.

You can have unlimited project collaborators, up to five active projects, and five invoices per month with the free plan. But only one user would have timesheet/expense access. So an upgrade to the startup plan would be necessary for bigger teams.

Wrike

Wrike is a versatile, all-in-one project management platform that streamlines project tracking, planning, collaboration, and execution. Some of its best features include:

• The Automation Engine
• Over 400 app integrations
• Gantt charts and Kanban boards
• Time-tracking that syncs with your finance department

Their free plan offers all the tools you need for basic project planning, like task management tools, templates, and unlimited collaborators. But you’ll need the business plan or above to access time-tracking.

Clickup

Clickup might be Monday.com’s biggest competition. It’s just as comprehensive, allowing you to replace all of your project management apps with its single platform. Simplify your work with flexible project management tools, like collaborative docs, real-time chat, and 24/7 support.

The free forever plan has a solid list of project and people management features. But if one sets them apart from Monday, it’s the native time-tracking system that’s available in the free plan. 

AceProject

AceProject belongs on this list of free Monday alternatives because it advertises itself as a free project management software, time tracking, and collaboration tool. Organize information with the click of a button. Keep track of how projects and tasks progress in real-time. And keep everyone on the same page.

All features are enabled in the basic free plan for three users, and three active projects, including time clock, time approval, and time reports.

Hive

Hive is a project management platform built for hybrid teams. You can manage every project in one place, enjoying features like:

• Hive Notes
• Team scheduler
• Native chat messaging
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology

Hive offers a free forever plan that includes up to 10 users, unlimited tasks, and desktop, iOS, and Android apps. Unfortunately, time tracking and timesheets aren’t available in the free plan, but they are as an add-on in the team plan.

TrackingTime

We can’t round out our list of free Monday alternatives without mentioning TrackingTime’s project management software. We offer some of the most relevant features that make project planning and project tracking much more simple and seamless. These features include:

• Customized reports
• Progress tracking within each project
• Keep assets in a central hub and easily share them
• Kanban boards to organize tasks and create a productive workflow

Along with these features comes a definitive time tracker to help you and your team with time management. Track time automatically for each employee, use time-blocking features, and access real-time data on what your employees are doing and for how long.

We offer a free plan for up to three users with basic reporting, time, and task-tracking capabilities.

Elevate Project Management With the Proper Tools

Hopefully, one of these free Monday alternatives fits your needs. Regardless of the project management platform you choose, ensure your IT infrastructure is set up to accommodate this tool and any other technology you implement.

Make sure your network can handle a distributed workforce using various tech tools. Invest in cloud-based security. And ensure you have an IT team behind you that’s familiar with your project management software and additional technologies to create a seamless workflow for your projects and overall operation.

Author’s Bio:

Sam L. Bowman is a freelance writer from the West Coast. He has been writing about remote work and employee time spend for a few years now. Check out his work here.

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