10 Best Project Management Software for Freelancers

A freelancer’s professional life can be hectic — even unpredictable. Full-time freelancers who have to juggle multiple projects and clients, in particular, need all the help they can use to manage their work. A good freelance project management software can help with managing projects, handling deadlines, keeping notes, and sorting out project tasks.

Photo by Tranmautritam from Pexels

What Should You Look for In Freelance Project Management Tools?

With so many project management software for freelancers in the market, how do you find the right one?

Even before you begin trying various tools, you first need to identify the challenges and constraints you deal with in your work. Freelancers are different and deal with different issues. Once you have a list of problems you need to solve, it will be much easier to use them to find the right software for you.

As a rule of thumb, the right software must have these core features:

• Platform and Device Support — The software should work on the devices and platforms you use. For instance, if you primarily use a desktop, you can choose a tool for your computer or go with a web-based version. If you prefer to take your project manager wherever you go, it should also have an app for your smartphone.
• Collaboration and Communication — The software should support collaboration with teams and other stakeholders for the project. The collaboration feature often goes hand-in-hand with private and team chat features. If your clients like to stay on top of your projects as you work on them, it would be easier to invite them to the project rather than send email updates all the time.
• Task and Project Scheduling — Look for a project management tool with good scheduling features. The scheduling feature may have activity dependencies and a way to baseline current and future projects. It also makes it easier to stay productive while working from home.
• Project Management and Tracking — Most top freelance project management tools also feature project management and metrics to measure them. This feature should enable you to know how well all and any project is progressing at any time. The tool you go with should also have a dashboard to track, monitor, and resolve issues.
• Document Management — Document management is another great feature of the right project management tool for freelance. If you have to work with many documents in your projects, this feature will make it easy to control access to them on the cloud, share them with clients, or allow team members to make changes and updates.
• Resource Management — Finally, look for a freelance project management software that provides a way to manage your work resources. These include human resources and other tools you use in your work.

The 10 Best Freelance Project Management Software

For a freelancer, finding the ideal project management tool is one of the most underrated productivity hacks. Here is a list of the top freelance project management tools you should check out.

1. Monday.com

Monday.com is another top project management software with features that make it ideal for the modern-day freelancer. The developers hype Monday.com as the ideal tool for solo freelancers, media development businesses, marketing teams, and pretty much any business with a remote workforce.

The features of Monday.com check all the boxes for a freelancer looking for all the essential tools in one place. It is built to simplify collaboration, comes with portfolio management tools, and supports teams, boards, and items with subitems. However, the catchiest feature you will notice with this project management tool is how colorful the platform’s design is.

Features:

• Uses boards and columns for task management
• Checklists make it easier to break large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks
• Easy project automation to streamline workflows and recurring tasks
• Supports integration with popular third-party tools and apps freelancers use
• Monday.com has a colorful, easy-to-use, intuitive interface
• Provides real-time insights that are accessible right from the dashboard

Pros:

• Highly customizable
• Has a modern and practical user interface
• Guided automations streamline self-training and support resources

Cons:

• Complex pricing structure

Pricing:

• Individual: Free for 2 seats
• Basic: $24/month
• Standard: $30/month
• Pro: $48/month
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.7/5 (6,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (3,000+ reviews)

2. Trello

No name is as synonymous with online project management as Trello, and for a good reason. Trello is one of the most popular web-based freelance project management software that has been around for over a decade. It is a highly visual and adaptable tool that millions of freelancers use to make their life easier and manage solo and team projects online.

The ease and popularity of Trello come from its three-tier information system: Cards, Lists, and Boards. As a freelancer, you can choose which information system to use based on your work and expand their capacity with the tens of features built into the app.

Features:

• Detailed and quick overviews of cards, lists, and boards
• Automated deadline tracking and real-time progress with meter and checklists
• Powerful team collaboration
• Integration with countless third-party tools, extensions, and plugins
• Mobile app views support
• Simple drag-and-drop editing
• Easy label-based organization with support for tags and comments
• Individual and team/group task assignments

Pros:

• Multi-platform support
• Excellent support
• Expansive community and in-depth knowledge base
• Simplified organization, chats, and file-sharing

Cons:

• Limited file sizes and storage

Pricing:

• Basic: Free
• Standard: $5/user per month
• Premium: $10/user per month
• Enterprise: $17.50/user per month

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.4/5 (12,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (22,000+ reviews)

3. Asana

If you are looking for a powerful project management tool for freelancers with minimal whistles and bells you may not need, you must try Asana. This project management tool is very user-friendly but with powerful task and project management, team collaboration and communication, file storage and sharing, and integration tools.

Asana stands out as a tool streamlined to manage daily tasks and strategic initiatives. The developers market it as the right software for anyone looking for a tool to help them achieve more and faster, accomplish more tasks with less, and manage teams and tasks confidently.

Features:

• Streamlined task management to plan, track, report, and collaborate on projects
• Workflow and process management automation
• Powerful document and resource management tools
• Multiple-project views with lists, calendars, portfolios, and timelines
• Powerful integration with accounting software for budget and expense management

Pros:

• Feature-rich free plan
• Organized and efficient task management
• Expansive and powerful integration with third-party tools
• Gamified task and project tracking

Cons:

• Lacks time tracking feature for projects
• Limited assignable tasks for teams

Pricing:

• Basic: Free
• Premium: $10.99/user per month
• Business: $24.99/user per month

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.3/5 (9,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (11,000+ reviews)

4. Notion

The developers of Notion software position it as the most versatile project management software with the most diverse use cases. One of the use cases they hype the most is student or freelancer. Sure enough, this tool has most of the most important features a freelancer would need to plan, track, and update multiple projects and tasks.

Notion project management tool also focuses on recurring tasks and phases of each project lifecycle. If your work involves managing lists of tasks, sharing and updating documents and project attachments, shuffling schedules, and executing automated workflows, you may find Notion the right tool.

Features:

• Feature-rich but easy-to-use note-taking
• Cross-platform project and task management
• Table-view database
• Powerful document tracking and management
• Robust wiki for customizable data types
• Detailed roadmaps for complex workflows
• Customizable templates

Pros:

• Easy to use once the user is familiar with its features
• Clean user interface
• In-depth knowledge base, user guidelines, and roadmaps

Cons:

• Navigating around Notion can be tricky for first-time users

Pricing:

• Personal: Free
• Personal Pro: $4/user per month
• Team: $8/user per month
• Enterprise: Contact sales

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.6/5 (1,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (1,000+ reviews)

5. Hive

Hive is a balanced, feature-rich, and budget-friendly project management team for solo freelancers and teams. If you need a project management tool with all the features that you can use to stay on top of your projects, this may be it.

At its core, Hive is a project management tool with powerful time management, team collaboration, and automation features. It also has a great in-built communication tool and easily integrates with popular email, chat, and video conferencing tools. The most notable selling point of this project management tool that makes it ideal for a freelancer is its flexible project views feature which makes it easy and practical to collaborate and even report progress to clients in real time.

Features:

• Visualized project layouts
• Extensive monitoring tools including actionable project insights and productivity metering
• In-depth reporting and analytics right on the dashboard
• Automation of critical and recurring tasks
• Convenient proofing and approvals for project stakeholders
• Powerful integration with third-party tools including cloud storage, file editing and sharing, and other project management tools

Pros:

• Combines many features from other project management solutions on a single tool
• Versatile for both freelancers, project managers, and other stakeholders such as clients
• Trash bin acts as safety net for deleted cards and files

Cons:

• Complicated task dependencies and navigation
• Fragile pop-up notifications

Pricing:

• Solo: Free
• Teams: $12/user per month
• Enterprise: Contact sales

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.6/5 (400+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (160+ reviews)

6. Todoist

Todoist claims to be the ideal tool for anyone looking for a simple and convenient way to finally organize their work and life. It promises to help you achieve this with tools that make it possible to become organized, focused, and calm while working.

If you need a tool that extends beyond your freelance work to include all actions you do in your day-to-day life, you must consider Todoist. As its name hints, this freelance project management tool can help you organize your to-dos in a deceptively simple way.

Todoist has tons of templates of tasks and projects, can connect with other tools you already use, and uses sophisticated analysis to recommend personal productivity ideas based on your work and life.

Features:

• Quickly convert emails to tasks
• Use a browser extension to add websites, bookmarks, and articles as tasks
• Numerous personalizable project templates
• Track and manage tasks with convenient scheduling and completion dates
• Visualized productivity meter
• Automation of projects and to-do lists
• Easily sync projects with third-party calendars and productivity tools

Pros:

• Simple interface with powerful tools for freelancing on-the-go
• Great tool for solo user and collaborating teams
• Lightly-packaged tool with great mobile app and browser extensions
• Very affordable especially for solo freelancers and small teams

Cons:

• Limited feature to add features to tasks and to-dos

Pricing:

• Starters: Free
• Pro: $4/user per month
• Business: $6/user per month

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.4/5 (700+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (1,900+ reviews)

7. Basecamp

Basecamp is more than just a project management software; it is mainly a collection of tools built for users to collaborate more easily and conveniently. These tools bring file-sharing, scheduling, client access, and messaging to a central location.

While it was designed for businesses to get organized and for remote teams to collaborate, Basecamp can also work well for solo freelancers and teams. It has an intuitive interface split into three sections: Projects, Team, and Company HQ,

Features:

• Central message boards that support alerts, questions, comments, and public links
• Pings for direct user-to-user messaging and Campfire casual chat room for members of the project
• Powerful search and bookmarking
• Assignable to-do lists with follow-ups and reminders
• File storage and document sharing with integrated history log and Google Docs
• Email forwards and Clientside for project tracking and submission
• Reports and notifications

Pros:

• Straightforward interface and features makes it easy to get started
• Well-built messaging and communication features
• Ability to create and share projects with specific clients

Cons:

• No project-specific deadlines
• Basecamp is costly with a single price

Pricing:

• $11/user per month

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.1/5 (5,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3/5 (14,000+ reviews)

8. nTask

Working and succeeding as a freelancer today is all about coming up with the best home and office methodology to streamline your work. One such approach you may have heard about is simplified work management. What you may not have heard is that nTask pioneered it.

nTask has stayed true to its successful approach to work that focuses on using the right tools and techniques to manage time, tasks, resources, and teams. Over time, nTask has expanded its features and capabilities to include using to-do lists, managing meetings, tracking issues, and empowering discussions with follow-ups and decisions.

Features:

• Simplified project planning with work capacity and resource allocation
• Team chats
• Task tracking with to-do list management
• Clear work management with dock view
• Task break-downs with sub-tasks and set deadlines
• Visualized task dependencies, progress, and milestones
• Powerful document and file management
• Custom colors

Pros:

• High project transparency with simplified productivity monitoring and information sharing
• Task-based work management with efficient tracking
• Personalizable statuses and workflows

Cons:

• Lack of advanced reporting features
• Limited file attachment sizes

Pricing:

• Premium: $3/user per month
• Business: $8/user per month
• Enterprise: Contact sales

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.4/5 (17 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.1/5 (97 reviews)

9.TickTick

You, as a freelancer, can do many things to boost your mental and physical health, especially when you are overwhelmed. One of them is getting a simple project management tool without a steep learning curve. In this regard, TickTick wins as a project management tool for freelancers with all the core features you need, but you will not need to stress learning to use it.

TickTick is an interesting choice for a freelancer as it comes off as a hybrid of task manager and project manager. It is an effective to-do list app with advanced features to schedule, manage, and organize all aspects of your work and life. This software can also be a good tool to use just to boost your productivity or minimize work-related stress.

Features:

• Easily turn notes and emails into tasks
• Track task durations and deadlines with customizable alerts
• Manage projects by easily breaking them down into folders, tasks, lists, and check items
• Powerful prioritization, search, and sorting tools
• Multiple and multi-colored label calendar views
• Pomodoro Timer and white noises to battle fatigue and procrastination
• Simplified collaboration with task assignments

Pros:

• Inspiring gamified time tracking with achievement scores
• Lightweight with powerful mobile app companion
• Intuitive interface and simple navigation

Cons:

• It is not a full-fledged project management tool

Pricing:

• Basic: Free
• Premium: $27.99/user per year

Ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.5/5 (81 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.8/5 (88 reviews)

10. ClickUp

If you have been freelancing for some time but have not yet tried ClickUp, you have no idea how easy this tool can make your life. This project management tool is designed and built to simplify your life and organize your work. It makes it easy to keep track of all your work in one place and offers convenient ways to keep track of deadlines and project progress.

The Spaces feature is one of the top reasons that ClickUp is the best freelance project management software today. This hierarchical labeling feature makes it easy for you to track and organize your gigs from the dashboard. It further makes it easier to break the gigs into lists of clients, projects, or tasks and to categorize them into folders.

Features:

• Flexible task management with automated features such as preset actions and triggers
• Integration support for thousands of popular freelancing tools
• Streamlined teamwork and collaboration features for different project and gig types
• Convenient document management and file sharing with teams and stakeholders
• Real-time reporting with built-in goals, progress, and resource management
• Time estimates and expectations management for teams and tasks

Pros:

• Has powerful project management features that are easy to learn and use
• Freelancers can invite guests to projects at no extra charge
• Inspiring app and feature designs
• Supports all major platforms including smartphones and smartwatch

Cons:

• The many features and tools may be too complex or overwhelming for the needs of the typical freelancer

Pricing: (List all pricing options out in bullet form like below)

• Basic: Free
• Unlimited: $5/user per month
• Business: $12/user per month
• Business Plus: $19/month per user
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

Ratings and reviews: (Add G2 and Capterra reviews, bulleted like below)

• G2: 4.7/5 (5,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,000+ reviews)

Final Thoughts

Your life and work as a freelancer can be easy and smooth or complex and unbearable; the greatest determinant is how well you manage your projects and time and balance your professional and personal life.

There are many tools out there built for this specific purpose, each designed to work differently. You may have to do some research and try a few tools to find one that suits your needs. This list should be a great starting point for your search.