Work Management Software With a Free Plan

Updated August 6, 2026 · 8 tools checked against their own pricing pages

7 of the 8 tools in this index publish a free tier, and the word covers two completely different offers. ClickUp and Notion state no headcount cap at all and limit something else instead; the rest cap the people, from 20 on Basecamp down to 2 on Asana. Smartsheet names no free tier on its pricing page at all, only a trial. A team of 2 fits inside 7 of them; a team of 5 fits inside 5. Every cap below is quoted from the vendor’s own page and dated.

RangeYourself has no affiliate relationship with any tool on this page as of August 6, 2026: every link here goes straight to the vendor’s own site and earns us nothing. We may pursue one in this category, and if we do we will say so here. Either way the ordering follows published prices and each vendor’s own stated seat rules, and a vendor that pays nothing is listed on exactly the same basis as one that does. See how we make money and our editorial standards.

Every free tier, ordered by how many people it allows

Ordered by stated headcount cap, most generous first. A tool with no stated cap sorts above every capped one, because on headcount alone it is more permissive — but it will cap something else instead, and the middle column says what.

What each one actually caps, in the vendor’s own words

• ClickUp — no stated headcount cap. Card lists: 60MB Storage, Unlimited Tasks, Unlimited Free Plan Members, Collaborative Docs, Kanban Boards, Sprint Management, Calendar View, 1 Form. Vendor’s own wording: “Unlimited Free Plan Members”
• Notion — no stated headcount cap. Card lists: External guest limit 10, Page history 7 days, File uploads Up to 5 MB, Charts 1, Automations: Basic buttons only, Databases including subtasks, dependencies, custom properties and more. Vendor’s own wording: “Free $0 per member / month”
• Basecamp — 20 people. Card lists: Run 1 project free forever, 1 GB of storage, up to 20 users. Vendor’s own wording: “Run 1 project free forever . Includes 1 GB of storage and up to 20 users.”
• Trello — 10 people. Card lists: Unlimited cards, Up to 10 boards per Workspace, Unlimited Power-Ups per board, Unlimited storage (10MB/file), 250 Workspace command runs per month, 2-factor authentication. Vendor’s own wording: “Free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace”
• Airtable — 5 people. Card lists: Unlimited bases, 1,000 records per base, Up to 5 editors, 1 GB of attachments per base, 100 automation runs, Interface Designer, 500 AI credits per editor each month. Vendor’s own wording: “Up to 5 editors”
• monday.com — 2 people. Card lists: Up to 2 seats, Up to 3 boards, Up to 3 Docs, 200+ templates, 8 column types, iOS and Android apps. Vendor’s own wording: “monday.com has a free plan of monday work management which is ideal for freelancers and individual professionals.”
• Asana — 2 people. Card lists: 2 users, Unlimited tasks and projects, List, board, and calendar views, Unlimited storage, 100MB max per file, Status updates, 100+ free integrations. Vendor’s own wording: “Up to 2 users can collaborate for free.”

The ones that publish no free tier

Read this as a statement about the pricing page we checked, not as a claim that no free product exists anywhere. It is what the buyer sees when they go looking.

• Smartsheet: its pricing page names no free tier. What it offers instead is a trial: “30 days free, no credit card required” The cheapest paid seat is $12 a month on Pro.

Which free tiers include any automation at all

3 of the 7 tools whose pricing pages name automations put an allowance in the free tier: ClickUp, Trello and Airtable. The rest start theirs on a paid tier. This is often the first cap a small team actually hits, ahead of the seat count.

• monday.com: automations start on Standard — “Automations (250 actions / month)” at $14 a seat month to month.
• Asana: automations start on Starter — “Unlimited automations” at $13.49 a seat month to month.
• ClickUp: automations start on Free Forever (the free tier) — “5 Active Rules, 100 Automation executions,”
• Trello: automations start on Free (the free tier) — “250 Workspace command runs per month”
• Notion: automations start on Plus — “Custom database automations” at $12 a seat month to month.
• Airtable: automations start on Free (the free tier) — “100 automation runs”
• Smartsheet: automations start on Pro — “250 automations per month” at $12 a seat month to month.

How this page is verified

Every figure on this page was read from the vendor’s own pricing page and is stored with that page’s URL, a verbatim quote, and the date it was checked (most recent: August 6, 2026). 4 of these 8pages render their prices in the browser rather than in the served HTML, so they were read in a browser with each billing option selected in turn. Where a vendor publishes no number, we say so instead of repeating a figure from elsewhere. A blank in the automations or timeline column means the vendor’s pricing page names no such capability, which is a statement about the page and not a claim about the product. Seat floors are applied only where the vendor states one, and only as widely as the vendor states it: a minimum written on a single tier’s card is applied to that tier alone. Totals and percentages are arithmetic on published figures only. See our editorial standards and how we verify.

Which tools are in it. The eight tools a two-to-twenty-person team actually shortlists when it searches for project or work management software, chosen before any pricing was read and not revised afterwards. A tool is included whether or not it publishes a price and whether or not RangeYourself could ever earn anything from it. Nothing is excluded for being expensive, for having a seat minimum, or for declining to publish a figure; a tool that publishes nothing is listed saying so.

Frequently asked questions

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