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There are countless scheduling tools that offer free trials and free versions of their software. However, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to create, manage, and optimize project schedules, ensuring that tasks are completed in a timely and efficient manner but need to figure out which tool will allow you to do it for free. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different tools with startups and small teams, with my picks of the best free project scheduling software.

What is project scheduling software?

Project scheduling software is a tool that helps you visually plan, organize, and manage resources for projects. With this software, you can easily plan, execute, and keep track of resources throughout the entire project. Free versions of project scheduling software typically offer basic task management, limited integrations, simple reporting, lower attachment storage limits, and a handful of user accounts.

However, these tools simplify the often complicated process of resource allocation and project planning. They come with a user-friendly interface that allows you to drag and drop tasks, manage dependencies, assign tasks, and set deadlines. This is incredibly useful in providing clarity to the project team and stakeholders. The software offers a detailed project plan, timeline, assigned tasks, a couple of project views, and collaboration/reporting tools to offer insights into the project.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Free Project Scheduling Software

Here is a description of each free project management tool that will help you track project progress based on schedules.

Best free scheduling for startups & freelancers

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats)
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Rating: 4.7/5

Monday.com is a project management app that lets you create spreadsheet-like projects for different parts of your business. The tool has over 200 templates for functions such as marketing, events, real estate, and sales.

To get started, just sign-up and then choose the templates you need. You can customize each one by adding the exact features you need. For example, a realtor can add dates, list prices, and locations. Or a content agency could keep track of publish dates, clients, and writers.

The free version of Monday.com lets you create unlimited boards. Use these for different projects or clients. You can also add unlimited docs and access over 200 templates.

The biggest restriction is that you can only add one other person to your projects. This is fine for freelancers, but you’ll have to pay as soon as your business grows to three team members. At this point, the cheapest paid plan costs $6 per user per month.

Best for its wide selection of pre-made templates

  • Free plan available
  • From $10/user/month
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Rating: 4.8/5

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform, enabling teams to brainstorm, plan, and track projects together in real-time. Its standout feature is a wide range of pre-made templates, quick diagramming tools, and wireframing capabilities, alongside an infinite canvas ideal for complex project management.

The platform supports task visualization by sprint, status, epic, or team and allows for the identification of task dependencies with its Dependencies App. Collaboration tools like voting, sticky notes, and comments also facilitate real-time idea exchange and adjustments. 

Standout features TalkTrack, which allows users to create process explanation videos can be viewed asynchronously. Miro also features a planner tool with capacity planning capabilities, as well as the Miro Assist AI to help generate ideas and paths for you.

Integrations include Webex, Figma, Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Trello, Slack, Asana, Monday.com, Confluence, Notion, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Zoom, and 100+ others. You can access thousands of additional tools using a Zapier integration. This may require an additional expense.

Pricing starts at $10/user/month and they offer a free plan.

Best for scalability & flexibility

  • Free trial available
  • From $5/user/month
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Rating: 4.2/5

Zoho Projects is a free project management platform with project scheduling capabilities designed for project managers (PMs) and stakeholders.

Zoho’s free project planner can be used by project managers of smaller teams and businesses to easily map out their work breakdown structure. The tool is equipped with various core modules such as task and subtask management, issue management, task lists, and milestones. The free planning and scheduling tool also enables project managers to create plans that guide team members on the step-by-step journey of completing their project, thanks to the platform’s built-in Gantt chart view. Project managers who are managing a remote or hybrid team can benefit from Zoho Projects’ collaborative features, including the built-in Feed, documents, Forums, and chat tool.

Zoho Projects is endlessly scalable and flexible using its marketplace of tool connectors and app add-ons. Pick between hundreds of integrations, free and paid options, for customer relationship management, asset management, marketing, design, and more. You can sort add-ons by pricing, user rating, and/or functionality. Certain add-ons are limited to paid Zoho Projects plans but many are open to freemium users, like Hubspot, DocuSign, and SugarCRM.

Features include roadmapping, project management, task scheduling/tracking, customer management, prioritization, and notifications.

Integrations include Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Zendesk, and ServiceNow. Integrations via Zapier and Zoho Flow are also supported. Being part of the Zoho ecosystem allows you to connect to several of Zoho’s own services for Sales, Marketing, CRM, customer service, and others.

Zoho Project is completely free for up to three users. Paid plans start from $5 per user/month. A 10-day free trial is available.

Best for simple Kanban boards

  • Free trial + free plan available
  • From $6/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

Trello is user-friendly project scheduling software that uses Kanban boards to keep you on track. The basic idea is that you create a board for each project, add lists such as “To do”, “In progress,” and “In review,” then add tasks to each one.

The thing I love about Trello is how easy it is to use. It’s easy to add tasks by creating a new card. You can then add due dates, collaborators, and a to-do list that shows what you need to do to complete a task.

Moving cards across projects is as simple as dragging them from one list to another. And you can set up an automation that moves tasks when the to-do list is complete. You can also comment on tasks and add attachments to each one.

Trello has a generous free plan with unlimited members and cards. You also get access to the easy-to-use mobile app on Android and iOS.

The downside is that you can only add ten boards per workspace. You also miss out on custom fields, advanced checklists, and the ability to upload files larger than 10MB.

Trello has plenty of integrations, including with Slack, Google Drive, Jira, and Ganttify. If you want to upgrade, the standard plan costs $6 per user per month and premium costs $12.50 per user per month.

Best for time tracking

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $5.99/user/month (billed annually).
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Rating: 4.4/5

Teamwork is a powerful project management solution with plenty of advanced features on the paid plan. The free plan is more limited, but still has much to get to grips with.

Teamwork’s free plan lets you create two projects and add up to five users. You can create tasks and subtasks within each project, and then set dependencies so work gets done in the right order. Calendar, Gantt, and board views provide plenty of insight into project progression, which is great for scheduling.

Time tracking functionality is the standout feature of the free plan. You can track how long activities take manually or with a timer. It’s easy to view all this data on a timesheet, which is useful for invoicing or simply scheduling upcoming projects effectively.

While Teamwork has plenty of integrations, the free plan only offers integrations via Zapier. If you want to upgrade, paid plans start at $12.50 per user per month.

Best for integrations

  • 30-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $13.49/user/month
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Rating: 4.3/5

Asana is an easy-to-use project management system. The thing I like about it most is how easy it is to use. Creating and assigning tasks is super-intuitive. And the drag and drop interface makes moving them to the relevant place easy.

The free plan helps you schedule projects with up to 15 users. You can create unlimited projects and tasks and then assign them to relevant stakeholders. Then create dependencies within a task so people know when they need to work. You can view projects in both calendar and regular view.

Asana’s free version offers integrations with over 100 apps, including Microsoft Teams, Adobe Cloud, Slack, Salesforce, and more. Paid plans start at $13.49 per user per month. For this, you get premium features including task templates and the ability to set start and end dates for each task.

Best for businesses that also need communication features

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $15/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.1/5

Basecamp is one of the longest-standing apps on this list. It offers a unique combination of project management, cloud storage, and team collaboration. Basecamp Personal is a free version of the tool that misses out on some premium features.

All the action happens in a workspace, and each workspace is organized into projects. From here, you can add tasks, create a to-do list, see your project calendar, and communicate with your team.

The most important feature for project scheduling is setting deadlines for tasks that you can view on a calendar. You can also add people to each task so everyone knows what they should be working on.

Basecamp also has built-in communication features. You can chat with other project members and add announcements to the message board. Most other project scheduling tools don’t offer these features, leaving you to rely on a third-party tool like Slack.

Basecamp integrates with plenty of other tools. You can sync your Google calendar with your Basecamp calendar, add Everhour time tracking to your to-do lists, or create Gantt charts from Basecamp projects using Ganttify.

The Personal plan limits you to managing three projects at a time. You can add 20 people to each one, which is more than enough for most freelancers and small agencies.

You also get 1GB of file storage: this is enough for documents, but you’ll soon reach the limit if you need extensive multimedia file sharing. Upgrading costs $99 per month for unlimited users and features.

Best no-code document builder

  • Free Plan Available
  • From $12/month/user

Coda is the most unusual tool on this list. It is a no-code document builder that lets you combine familiar document features into a single file. One document can include spreadsheets, text, charts, Kanban boards, drop-down menus, and headings.

How does this fit in with project scheduling? Well, you can use the tool to create powerful apps to manage your projects. Just add the features you need to get your work done. If you need some help, start off with one of many project templates that cover everything from task lists, to content calendars, and more.

You can also pull in data from different tools, or send the information from your doc out to other software. For example, you can set up the tool to notify people on Slack when someone completes a task. Each document is fully collaborative, so everyone in your team can work on the same one.

The free tool offers access to pretty much everything Coda has to offer. The only limit is that you can’t hide pages which means docs become complicated. You are also restricted to using 1,000 rows and up to 50 objects.

If you find this isn’t enough, you can upgrade to a paid plan for $12 per doc maker per month. The doc maker is the person who creates the document, everyone else can still collaborate on the doc for free.

Best for Gantt charts

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $24/manager/month

TeamGantt is a tool that specializes in—you guessed it—Gantt charts. This makes breaking complex projects down into smaller steps and milestones easy. And the tool has plenty of features that help with project planning, scheduling, and management.

Why I picked TeamGantt: The tool uses a drag-and-drop interface which makes it easy to add tasks to your project. Project scheduling is as simple as adding deadlines and dependencies so you know exactly when work should be finished. Once you are set up, it’s easy to switch between Gantt, Kanban, and calendar views to get a full overview of your project.

TeamGantt Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a drag-and-drop UI, a multiple-project view, workloads, team availability, a live chat for improved collaboration, portfolio views, reports, and a dedicated mobile app.

Integrations include Basecamp, Dropbox, Slack, and thousands of additional apps using Zapier. You can also build custom integrations using its API.

TeamGantt Plans & Pricing

Pricing starts at $24 /manager/month and provides access to unlimited projects and tasks.

Best productivity platform

  • Freemium plan available
  • From $7/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

Clickup brands itself as a productivity platform rather than a project scheduling tool, but it has plenty of features that make it great at the latter. The free plan has rich functionality and many powerful tools.

The standout feature is the huge array of view options. The free plan gives unlimited use of list, board, table, and calendar views, as well as restricted uses of Gantt, activity, project timelines, workload, map, and mind views. It’s everything you need to schedule projects effectively.

ClickUp also has several features that make it a powerful collaboration tool. In-app email, collaborative docs, and real-time chat make working in a team easy. There’s also limited cloud storage.

Paid plans add unlimited storage, full access to integrations, and the ability to add guests with set permissions. You also get more advanced security and sign-in options. Pricing starts at $9 per member per month.

The 10 Best Free Project Scheduling Software Comparison Chart

Here is a table with some of the information we just covered. Use it to compare the options from this list and, if you want to expand your tool research, we have more options after this chart.

Tools Price
monday.com From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats)
Miro From $10/user/month
Zoho Projects From $5/user/month
Trello From $6/user/month
Teamwork.com From $5.99/user/month (billed annually).
Asana From $13.49/user/month
Basecamp From $15/user/month (billed annually)
Coda From $12/month/user
TeamGantt From $24/manager/month
ClickUp From $7/user/month
Preview Image - 
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	Compare Software Specs Side by Side</h2>

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Options

Here are some more free project scheduling tools that you can check out.

  1. Productive

    Best work management software for agencies

  2. Wrike

    Best for customized solutions

  3. Zoho Sprints

    Best for agile development teams

  4. Office Timeline

    Best for creating beautiful PowerPoint Gantt charts

  5. Hub Planner

    Best for businesses or teams that need to manage complex schedules and resources

  6. Runn

    Best project scheduling for small teams

  7. Freedcamp

    Best free plan with unlimited users, storage, projects, and task management.

  8. Airtable

    Best for project scheduling via spreadsheets.

  9. Google Workspace

    Best for those in the Google app ecosystem.

  10. Microsoft Online

    Best free project scheduling on the web using Excel, PowerPoint and the MS Office 365 suite.

How I Picked The Best Free Project Scheduling Software

First, I researched all the top free project scheduling platforms according to user reviews and popularity. Then, I narrowed down the list by pinning the software against each other based on a variety of factors that make software a good option for project scheduling. Finally, I selected the final list and evaluated them based on the criteria below.

User Interface (UI)

Although a premium plan offers more features, it does not mean you get a different visual experience. The tools on the list look great. They are all free versions of paid tools, so you get the same premium UI as paid users.

Usability

Each tool is easy to set up and use. Those with more features tend to have a slightly higher learning curve, but it can be worth it for the extra functionality.

Integrations

Your project scheduling software needs to work with the other tools your business uses. Common integrations include receiving notifications on Slack or adding storage via cloud platforms like Dropbox. Some free plans limit integration availability.

Completely free to use

All the tools on this list provide great project scheduling functionality at no cost. You can use the tools for as long as you like without paying a cent.

Free Project Scheduling FAQs

Find answers to common questions other people ask about this topic.

What is Project Scheduling Software?

Project scheduling software is a tool that helps you keep your projects on track. It provides an overview of everything you need to do to get work done and enables you to delegate these tasks to team members.

Project scheduling software has a lot in common with both project management software and resource scheduling software.

What key features should I look for when choosing free project scheduling software?

The tools on this list all help you schedule projects in their own way. But they will often have some combination of the following features:

  • Projects: Create spaces for each of your projects to keep tasks separate. This provides crucial insight into how each one is progressing. Free tools usually limit the number of projects you can create, so check the tool you want meets your needs before signing up.
  • Tasks: Tasks are the individual things you need to do to complete a project. The best free project scheduling tools let you create tasks, set due dates, and assign team members to each one.
  • Subtasks and dependencies: Subtasks let you break each task down into steps. You can also create dependencies, so work is always completed in the correct order.
  • Multiple views: Views provide different insights into your projects. The tools on this list provide some combination of Gantt, Kanban, calendar, and task views.
  • Automation: Some tools include automation to help streamline your workflow. For example, Trello lets you set up an automation that automatically moves a task to your “Done” board when you tick off all boxes in the task checklist.

What is the best way to schedule a project?

Scheduling a project effectively is crucial for its successful completion. Here are some key steps and practices to consider when creating a project schedule:

  1. Define project objectives and scope: Clearly outline the project’s goals, deliverables, and timeline. Identify the major phases or tasks required to achieve those objectives.
  2. Break down and sequence tasks: Divide the project into smaller, manageable tasks. Each task should have a clear start and end point, as well as dependencies on other tasks, if any. Determine the order in which tasks should be performed.
  3. Estimate task durations: Work with the project team to estimate the time required to complete each task. Consider factors such as complexity, available resources, and any potential risks or constraints.
  4. Allocate resources: Identify the necessary resources (e.g., personnel, equipment, materials) for each task. Ensure that resources are available when needed and that their availability aligns with the project schedule.
  5. Create a visual timeline with milestones: Utilize project management software or tools to create a visual representation of the project schedule and milestones. Gantt charts are commonly used for this purpose, as they provide a clear overview of tasks, dependencies, and timelines
  6. Monitor and track progress: Regularly review the project schedule and track the progress of tasks. Update the schedule as needed to reflect any changes or adjustments. Communicate progress to stakeholders to ensure transparency and alignment.
  7. Manage changes: As the project progresses, changes to the schedule may be necessary. Anticipate potential delays, risks, or unexpected events. Evaluate the impact of changes on the overall project timeline, resources, and objectives. Prioritize changes based on their significance and seek approval when required.

Overall, the most important part of scheduling a project successfully is maintaining open communication channels with the project team and stakeholders.

Free project scheduling tools are, after all, essentially just collaboration tools that ensure everyone on your team is on the same page. No matter what communication tools you use, a free project schedule, Scrum tool, or otherwise, always ensure everyone is aware of the project schedule, their roles, and responsibilities. Foster collaboration and address any issues or conflicts that may arise.

 

What's Next?

It’s amazing how much functionality you can get without paying any money, and many of the tools are more than enough for not just freelancers and solopreneurs but even small teams and businesses. Next, I recommend you read how to nail project scheduling to wow your stakeholders.

Related tool lists:

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By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. I'm a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut!