Project Management tools in 2026, compared by price

We track 26 project management tools. The list below is ordered by what it costs to start, cheapest first. Tools that cannot be put on that scale — usage-based pricing, a free tier, or a price we could not verify — come last, and each one says which case it is. The cheapest verified entry point is OpenProject at $5.95/mo.

How to choose project management software

Project management tools price per seat and gate features by tier, with free plans that commonly cap seats or lock the views teams actually need — timelines, workload and automation usually sit above the entry tier.

Seat minimums exist on some mid-tier plans, and guests are handled inconsistently: sometimes free, sometimes counted as seats. Since these tools are typically deployed on annual contracts, check both the monthly rate and the commitment the better features require.

Before you commit, check:

The feature gates that matter to you: timeline, workload, automation
Seat minimums on mid-tier plans
How external guests are counted and charged
The difference between monthly and annual commitment

No vendor has paid for a position on this page. Price is not quality: the cheapest tool here is not the best one for your team, it is only the cheapest. We do not publish a quality score because we do not have one we can stand behind. How we score tools.

OpenProject
Open-source project management software.
Community edition is free with no minimum users
From $5.95/moverified
Trello
Simple Kanban.
Zero Training: Anyone can understand how to use it at first glance.
From $6/user/mo billed monthlyverified
Monday.com
Visual workflow.
Best Visual Experience: The most understandable UI due to its color-coding and design.
From $9/user/moverified
Smartsheet
Spreadsheet-style work and project management.
Familiar to anyone comfortable in spreadsheets
From $9/user/mo billed annuallyverified
Linear
Best for product teams.
Blazing Fast: The interface responds instantly to every command and keyboard shortcut.
From $10/user/mo billed annuallyverified
ProWorkflow
Project management software.
Quoting and invoicing included from the Advanced tier
From $20/moverified
Aha!
Roadmaps and product strategy.
Roadmaps bundles Ideas, Whiteboards and Knowledge Essentials
From $59/moverified
Asana
Work management for teams.
Intuitive Interface: Excellent UX makes for a rapid team adoption and onboarding.
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
Basecamp
Projects, messages and to-dos in one place.
Flat pricing regardless of headcount
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
BigTime Enterprise PSA
Software development company.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
CEITON
Workflow management system for media industry.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
ClickUp
All-in-one work.
Maximum Features: Includes so many tools you likely won't need another app.
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
DotProject
Project Management Software.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Freedcamp
Project management software.
Free plan covers unlimited projects, tasks, users and storage
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
Helix ALM
Software developed by Perforce.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Microsoft Project
Project management software.
Serious scheduling capability
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Plane
Open-source project management.
Open source and self-hostable
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
PLANTA Project
Project management software.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Productboard
Product management and roadmapping.
Feedback tied directly to roadmap items
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
ProjectManager.com
Online project management with Gantt charts, timesheets and dashboards.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Redmine
Computer bug tracking software.
Free and self-hostable with no seat limits
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Shortcut
Issue tracking built for software teams.
Much simpler than Jira while still capable
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
Teamwork
Client work and project management.
Built around billable client work
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
Tom's Planner
Web-based project management tool.
Pricing not verifiednot a monthly price
Wrike
Work management for larger teams.
Handles complex cross-team workflows
Free tier availablenot a monthly price
YouTrack
Issue tracker and agile boards from JetBrains.
Query language is genuinely powerful
Free tier availablenot a monthly price

Head-to-head comparisons

Two project management tools side by side, on price and on the features we actually checked.

Looking to switch?

What each of these costs to replace, with the closest tools that do the same job.