Overview of Project Software 

However, due to the social and ethical differences of people from different parts of the world, despite having a common working language, communication can be an organization's biggest obstacle to success. In your good day, managing multiple projects can be a daunting task whereas on certain days it can become impossible if any unforeseen problem comes through your way.

Difficulty in communication in your project management leads to confusion and creates stressful experiences for your employees, and affects the common goal of the organization.

Therefore, to deal with these problems, various software for project management has been developed to keep your company on track without creating chaos, along with streamlining your process and keeping all the employees on the same frequency.

What is Project Management Software?

In simple terms, it is software management systems used for project planning by various industries. It is also used for resource allocation and project scheduling which helps project managers and their team for budget control, project exchanged documentation and quality management.

It serves project managers and their teams to collectively complete their task on schedule along with managing resources and cost.

The functions of Project Manager Software include time tracking, resource planning, task distribution, team collaboration, budgeting, etc.

It is also referred to as Project Portfolio Management (PPM) or Task management software.

Project Software assists project managers and teams to fulfill client’s requirements. There are a lot of useful software available and selecting the right tool can lead to confusion as individuals may not know where to begin.

Most companies related to different industries make use of online project software which is based on cloud technology and is provided as software as a service (SaaS) by application service providers (ASP).

These project manager apps nowadays are progressing beyond expectations and expanding their functions with their feature combinations which makes it difficult for any online project planner to select any particular Project Software.

While managing and running projects, there are many things to be taken under consideration right from managing resources to tracking deliverables and from collaboration with team members to budget management.

For choosing the right software, the above holds true as well. Below given are 20 free project management software for windows and their reviews. This software list will help you to compare Project management software and select the best among them.

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List of Best Project Management Software 

1) Project.co

- Project.co Overview:

Project.co is a project management online software that is a system of client-facing project management and is really good at connecting you and your team with your client's team in one place.

Every part of your work is capable of being set up as its own project with its own discussion feed, team, task, payments, and notes. Available project views and tasks such as scheduler, kanban, and calendar view will provide you with an ideal view that’s happening within your team. The time spent on each project can also be recorded.

- Project.co Features:

• Ability to add or invite both the internal and external users really quickly.
• Task views can be filtered providing you with the task list of every individual, department, or the whole team.
• Able to securely and quickly accept card payments through the project management system by integrating payment solutions.
• Each project has its own discussion feed with email alerts with the facility of replying by email without logging in.
• Reporting tools that have the capability of measuring your most or least profitable and efficient projects.

Project.co Cost:

This project control software is free for five internal users and up to five active projects, after which the paid options start with $7 per user per month.

2) Basecamp

- Basecamp Overview:

Basecamp is a top project software which is widely popular within project management teams. It consists of collaboration features like designated areas for discussion where the user can leave comments.

It also helps to find any item or conversation by using its powerful search tool along with a recap of the updates and status of the project your team is working on.

Few drawbacks are that it does not include customization options and milestones, cannot assign tasks to more than one user, or add an estimation duration for the task.

- Basecamp Features:

• Create a place in Basecamp for each project or team.
• Involves everyone who is working on the project.
• Provides dedicated project management tools to discuss plan works, give status updates, ask questions, share files, etc.
• Reflects what happened when no meetings were conducted.

- Basecamp Cost:

For students and teachers, it’s a project management free software, but for the business purpose, it will cost $99 per month.

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3) ProofHub 

- ProofHub Overview:

PrrofHub is an online Project Management tool that has been developed to work in a simple and efficient manner mainly intended for small and growing businesses.

- ProofHub Features:

• Ability to create discussion topics and bring all the team and client discussion in one place thus eliminating long emails.
• Ability to assign tasks to one or more team members and prioritize them with clear deadlines.
• Keeps your documents and files organized at one place and finds them quickly whenever required.
• Creates an organizational workflow and defines custom roles to stay in control of who gets to access what.

- ProofHub Cost:

This software price ranges from $45 to $99 per month on the basis of storage and the number of projects needed.

4) Trello 

- Overview:

Trello is a different kind of Project software. It is an online kanban tool which indicates that it is able to visualize the whole project in a single view. Trello has a special feature of making cards and moving them around on the board.

- Features:

• Trello helps your team to stay organized for work, side project, or even the next family vacation.
• Provides details by adding comments, due dates, attachments, etc. directly to Trello cards. Collaborates on projects from beginning to end.
• Built-in workflow automation with butler.

- Cost:

The business class package costs $9.99 per month and includes unlimited power-ups. The enterprise package costs $20.83 per month. Trello also offers a project scheduling software free package with unlimited boards, cards, lists, and members.

5) Asana

- Overview:

The Asana project software keeps your work organized by offering projects, task, dashboards, and conversations. The best feature as per user feedbacks which this project scheduling software has is adding custom fields and tracking only what is important for you.

Asana is a project tracking software as well provides you with all that is required to keep in conjunction, and hit deadlines to reach your goals.

- Features:

• Boards make your work processes more transparent by organizing work like sticky notes and every stage of task tracking.
• It provides to do list for capturing each step of processes or project work and manage every step from the beginning to the end.
• Capable of mapping out plans on a timeline for you to see the comparison between tasks and keep the work on track in the event of any change in plan.

- Cost:

The basic version provides free software management downloads. The premium version which offers sign up will cost $9.99 per month. There is an enterprise package the price of which is given upon request.

6) Wrike 

- Overview:

Wrike is one of those project software that is cloud-based. It is very useful in keeping track of routine activities along with ensuring that the project is completed with a predetermined cost and within a planned time frame.

- Features:

• Capable of being integrated with business tools for project management like Microsoft project software free download excel, Dropbox, Google project planner apps etc.
• Provided with an option which is capable of transforming emails into task.
• Streamlines collaboration by keeping your whole team on the same frequency. Capable of updating task description, mention others, and comment in real-time.

- Cost:

This software offers various versions including a basic free project planning software version. The professional version costs $9.80 per month for 5-15 users. The business version costs $24.80 per month for 5-200 users and the market version costs $34.60 per month.

7) LiquidPlanner

- Overview:

LiquidPlanner is one of the software for project management which is capable of adapting to your business without any manual intervention. For instance, when a user's resource and requirements change, it will update these changes automatically.

- Features:

• It offers cross-project updates displaying your progress track, budget, and risk of all projects at one time.
• Provides analysis on managing project performance, profits, viewing cost, and monitoring utilization of resources, trends, and client portfolios.

- Cost:

On the basis of team size and features, LiquidPlanner has three packages. The small team package costs $9.99 per month whereas the professional and enterprise package costs $39 and $69 respectively.

8) TeamGantt 

- Overview:

TeamGantt is amongst those best software for project management that works really well for smaller businesses because it is not too difficult to get it set up and you can start using it within an hour.

You can provide access to your colleagues to the Gantt chart and they will be able to even it. Cons include that it doesn’t provide the feature of communication and collaboration.

- Features:

• Capable of adjusting your timelines, reordering tasks and changes the dates in a single click.
• Provided with an easy to access availability tab that is capable of managing resources, staying on budget, and ensuring that everyone is working.
• Capable of displaying document and update of every project on a single page with function to share them with both internal and external stakeholders.

- Cost:

This is one of the best project management free software for one project and up to 10 users and costs $175 for unlimited projects and users.

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9)Backlog 

- Overview:

Backlog is a project software that provides collaboration and online project management tools in an organization for different teams. There are special features for each team where you can manage tasks and projects wisely. The development team can address issues while leads can be tracked by the sales team within this tool.

- Features:

• Backlog provides Gantt charts or boards which helps to quickly view completed tasks, a task which are in progress or need attention.
• It makes it easier to record and track bugs and converts reported matters into clear outlines for you to quickly get into details.
• It offers a great feature of viewing and discussing all the tasks in one place and notifies when a new task is assigned to you and lets others know when you have finished the task.

- Cost:

The cost of both Unlimited and enterprise edition package is available upon request.

10) Flow 

- Overview:

Flow is a project handling software that provides you with a better view of all that is happening at various levels of your organization. This task and project management tool assists with managing and planning projects through a project planning app, workflow, and teams.

- Features:

• Provides a clear project overview example such as a timeline for easy future planning and checking status in a single overview.
• Allows users with in-depth tracking of tasks and organize their project visually with project management.
• Allows users to develop dashboards with separate work for multiple departments.

- Cost:

The starter pack of this software costs $5.95 for a user per month and the pro pack costs $11.95 for a user per month.

11) Plutio

- Overview:

Plutio is a project software that is a complete business management software designed to assist with managing projects and tasks, send invoices, and create proposals. It helps us to stay organized by visualizing time entries of all in a timesheet and by tracking your time from anywhere.

- Features:

• Allows highly project and task integrated communication for everyone within plutio.
• Ability to integrate with third-party project management app like Google project management tool and capable of developing own integrations.
• Capable of creating automated workflows based on timelines and triggers.

- Cost:

Packages include an individual paid plan for $15 per month, studio paid plan for $20 per month and Team paid plan for $30 per month.

12) Celoxis 

- Overview:

Celoxis is one of the top three best online project software in the world. It is simple, to the point, and has an interface that is responsive and includes a project’s Gantt chart views and other project management tools that assist with projecting income and tracking hours.

- Features:

• The most unique features that celoxis software provides are its advanced reporting engine, time-phased data, drill-down charts, and flexible reports.
• Capable of building project plans that are dynamic and adjust to real-world conditions automatically with the help of scheduling project management online tools and powerful planning.
• Capable of allocating resources for tasks on the basis of demand, skill, and availability.

- Cost:

The Celoxis SaaS package costs $25 for a user per month and the On-premise package which is an onetime payment cost $450 for its self-hosting service.

13) Clickup 

- Overview:

Clickup is a project software that is most suitable for task and project management. It assists in customizing workflow, for adding dependencies for tasks and to assign tasks. This project management tool helps you to manage your sprints and resources, view the amount of work your team has, and work in conjunction with other teams.

- Features:

• Capable of ensuring that steps are precisely followed to complete each task and projects are streamlined.
• Capable of organizing tasks and making quick changes and for shuffling tasks while the team adjusting for the new requirements.
• Assists with maintaining timelines, organizing calendars, managing team capacity, and tracking milestones.

- Cost:

ClickUp provides a basic free project scheduling software plan, a paid unlimited plan for 4.55 Euros for a user per month, and a plan suitable for business for 8.18 Euros for a user per month.

14) Notion

- Overview:

The notion is another project tracking software that offers a complete workspace for managers and teams. This tool makes it easy for working together in real-time and makes your workflow more efficient with documents project tracker.

This software is capable of being integrated with some of the best project management tools like Google project software and Microsoft project software.

- Features:

• It offers a beautiful and simple experience of writing with more than 30 types of project software content which can be added.
• Capable of turning your tribal knowledge into easy to find answers.
• It is flexible and lightweight and offers features like kanban boards, tables, lists, etc.

- Cost:

This tool offers a basic project management apps free plan, a personal plan for $4 per month, and a business plan for $8-$20 for a user per month.

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15) Workfront 

- Overview:

Workfront is a software that is very user friendly and provides dashboards which are customizable, a Clear view of all ongoing operations and tasks along with real-time reporting.

Other offers that are provided with this software for project management include project prioritization tools and capacity planning along with notifying teams about work which is in progress. It is also capable of being integrated with systems like Google Drive, Microsoft project management software like outlook, etc.

- Features:

• Ability to measure, manage, and plan work based on data.
• Offers security which is role-based ensuring people have the project management tools definition and information which is required to get the work done and at the same time keeps your intellectual capital safe.
• Ability to configure to support any team project, region, or program across your enterprise.

- Cost:

All packages and pricing offered by work front software are available upon request.

16) Monday.com 

- Overview:

Monday.com is an online software for project management that helps you to create your personal workflow from where you are able to highlight and visualize certain elements such as text, locations, or time management. This tool will help you to save a lot of time by recording important conversations and documents only.

- Features:

• Capable of working in a manner that is best suited to our needs and at the same time keep remote teams aligned and empowered.
• This project software has automated routine work and focuses on what counts.
• It provides a virtual work hub and allows communication and collaboration irrespective of where you are in the world.

- Cost:

This software offers different plans on the basis of team size and users. The basic plan will cost 17 Euros for 2 users per month and a pro plan for 39 Euros for 2 users per month. There is also an enterprise plan, the cost of which is available upon request.

17) Podio 

- Overview:

Podia is the software that was named as the best online collaboration tool by PC mag in 2016. It is considered as ever-growing project software mainly for the purpose of communication for organizations. Podio defines overviews, reports, and content structure and allows users to personalize the platform.

It also allows users from the same organization to interact with each other with an internal intranet environment.

- Features:

• It offers conversations, context, and content together on the same platform.
• Provides progress update in short at a glance as well as in a detailed informative manner.
• Many popular file-sharing services, marketing tools, and customer service products can be integrated with Podio which allows all the teams to work together.

- Cost:

The basic version costs $9 per month and the premium version costs $24 per month. The enterprise package is available upon request.

18) JIRA 

- Overview:

JIRA is a creative project software that is immensely popular and relates closely to agile software development teams. With JIRA teams are able to customize Kanban boards, scrum boards and utilize agile real-time reporting. JIRA has a large set of API’s that allows its users to connect with a lot of third party software.

- Features:

• It offers customized workflow and unlimited custom fields.
• Provides bug and defect management along with seamless source and issue integration.
• Ability to search and filter along with providing advanced reporting. • 

- Cost:

Cost depends upon the number of users and ranges from $10 per month to $1500 per month. You can deploy JIRA on your own server with an onetime payment.

19) Zoho Projects 

- Overview:

Zoho projects is a simple project planning software which is extensive and has a clean and simple interface. This software includes areas ranging from Gantt charts and project planning software to Collaboration software, Document management, and reporting tools.

This software can also be integrated with the Microsoft project management tool, Google management application, and Dropbox.

- Features:

• The project planning feature of Zoho projects assists you with dividing your task into smaller tasks which are better manageable, allowing you to complete your work on time.
• Provides Gantt charts feeds, timesheet, reporting, and collaboration.
• It also offers document management and Google integration.

- Cost:

The costs of plans depend on the number of projects and the storage space. The free plan offered is for one project with 10 Mb storage. The express plan is for 25 Euros per month, the premium plan is for 50 Euros per month and the enterprise plan is for 80 Euros per month.

20) Teamwork Projects 

- Overview:

Teamwork Projects is a project managing software and is great for project management power users. It provides with all the project planning tools required for you to track project development. Project teams can visualize the project with the help of Teamwork software by using Gantt charts, a marked calendar, and set up reporting.

- Features:

• Capable of managing and optimizing team resources directly from teamwork.
• Provides chats, files, messages, and notebooks for collaboration with efficiency and context.
• It offers a panoramic view of your entire project and helps to locate roadblock to prevent your work from stopping.
• The project templates provide high scale performance processes.

- Cost:

Cost depends upon the size of the business and ranges from $69 per month for small offices to $269 per month for large businesses. The enterprise package is available upon request.

Final Thoughts

The selection process of software for project management is very essential for the success of any organization. No two project software can be the same even though they might have a lot of common features.

Before choosing the correct project software you must consider factors such as the size of your team and businesses, familiarization with the software, distinct feature that the software has to offer, and the requirements of the team. If your team is unable to learn your chosen software, despite having several features, it will ultimately provide you with zero benefits.

The key is to choose a system that can be easily implemented and used by your team, not very complicated to create problems and easy to learn.

Finally, let's end this article on a motivating note given by the founding principal of Project Management Essential, Alan Zucker, “Successful implementing an enterprise project management system is difficult, which is cultural, not a tool issue.”

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