Top 10 project management software for freelancers on a budget

A freelancer's job isn't all about producing quality content; it's also about self-managing all the processes involved, whether onboarding new clients, delivering for existing ones, setting up meetings, or managing complaints. 

Thankfully, freelancers now have access to tools that can help, which may mean extra expenses. That's why we wrote this piece—to share how to find project management software that will assist you in executing large and small projects smoothly, even if your budget is low. You'll have a list of the top tools and some advice on picking the right one for you. Let's get into it.

What is project management software?

Freelancing is more than just doing a job for a client. For instance, if you're an outdoor photographer, your job may require you to first connect with clients, travel to the location beforehand, transport equipment, take the photos, edit them, and then deliver them while waiting for any additional comments or queries the client may have.

That's what we call a project—a collection of related tasks. If you have many such projects you're working on simultaneously, it may be difficult to keep track of where you are in each, which might hurt your performance. That's where project management software comes in. It is any tool that makes it easier for you to organize all the tasks associated with work so you can deliver quality consistently.

How to find the best project management software for you

So much project management software is on the market that you may be spoiled for choice. If this is the case, take a moment to ask yourself the following pertinent questions:

• How many projects are you working on?

• How many clients are you currently serving?

• What are your usual task dependencies?

• How much can you spend? Are you looking for a free tool?

• What's your struggle? Time management, organization, or consistency?

The answers to these questions will assist you in determining which software is best for you. Learning the features of each platform will also help you, so let's go into that next.

Top project management tools for freelancers

Workee

Workee's all-in-one work management tool is designed to assist freelancers with all aspects of their work, not just project management. Whether it is scheduling meetings, our tool can streamline your workflow from start to finish. You can even send bills and receive payments for your services all in one place.

Features:

• Instant website builder with custom fields, designs, and workflows to showcase your personality and areas of expertise.

• Booking and scheduling features for online meetings with clients.

• Automated billing for your services with links to online payment systems so customers can pay you.

• Automatic tax calculations.

• Integration with tools Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Meet, and Stripe. Quickbooks, and soon enough, Zoom.

Pricing: Workee offers a free starter plan and a paid plan. The paid plan costs $29 per month or $290 per year.

Clickup

This app is ideal for freelancers as it lets you create unique workflows for each project. With various views, such as Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and calendar view, switching between tasks is easy. One of ClickUp's best features is the ability to customize everything from widgets to workflows and reminders. Whether you're working on group projects or managing your own, ClickUp is an excellent choice.

Features:

• File storage in the cloud.

• Real-time video and chat communication between teams.

• Capacity to add unlimited tasks and members

• Collaborative documents.

• Workflow visualization with Kanban boards.

• Sprint planning for team members.

• Inbuilt time-tracking.

Pricing: Free plan. Paid packages start at $5 per month for each user and $299 for unlimited users.

Redbooth

If you find yourself overwhelmed with tasks and struggling to keep track of everything, Redbooth can help. This tool optimizes your productivity by streamlining task organization and time management. With Redbooth, you'll receive timely notifications and have full transparency into task progress, enabling seamless collaboration with your team. You can use Kanban boards, activity dashboards, project timelines, and productivity reports to stay on top of your work. Redbooth makes it easy to manage your workload efficiently and improve your output.

Although Redbooth is intended for teams, you can use it successfully as a freelancer. There is no free plan, but it is affordable and offers a 14-day free trial.

Features:

• Task creation and assignment to individual users with details, due dates, and priority levels.

• Project planning and mapping to create a breakdown structure (WBS) with milestones, due dates, deliverables, and interdependencies.

• Gantt visual representations and other project views for internal and external purposes, e.g., for customers and clients.

• Time and expense tracking for accurate billing.

• Dashboards that display project data and KPIs in real time.

Pricing: $9 monthly for Pro; $15 monthly for Business.

Trello

You'll enjoy using Trello for your work management if you prefer visual representations like boards and maps to texts or tables. Trello is simple to use, with a generous free version that allows users to create up to ten boards in a single workspace. You can personalize these boards to help you stay organized and complete tasks. 

Trello comes with Kanban templates that can be customized for time tracking specific to your work.

Features:

• Project-specific task boards, teams, and individuals.

• Task cards with due dates, lists, and labels to help you categorize them.

• Kanban boards for an overview of all team projects.

• Add-ons for increased functionality, such as automation, custom fields, and app integration, based on the user's needs.

• Apps for iOS and Android.

Pricing: Free plan, Standard at $5.00 per month, Premium at $10.00 per month, and Enterprise at $17.50 per month. 

Hive

If you’re a remote freelancer, chances are your clients use different project management software and may assign their tasks to you there. That looks like switching between apps frequently. Hive allows you to consolidate all of your jobs into a single workspace.

Hive is a tool for freelancers to manage multiple tasks efficiently.  Its basic version includes a chat messaging feature, multiple project views, automated workflows, and note-taking tools. The pro version, of course, unlocks more features, but the basic version is still very good.

Features:

• Robust task and project management.

• Gantt, Kanban, and calendar project views.

• Automated workflows for recurring tasks.

• Form builder.

• Collaborative notes for meetings.

• Native messaging.

Pricing: Free plan, paid plan at $12 monthly per user.

Monday.com

Mondays may start a dreaded work week for some freelancers, but not for you, thanks to Monday.com's project management tool. Monday.com allows you to manage multiple clients and connect your work in one place. Monday.com was designed for remote teams, but it may still be a good fit for you if you manage complex tasks and meet multiple deadlines.

Features:

• Capabilities for managing complex tasks.

• Integration with third-party tools. 

• Chat messaging feature for real-time communication with teams or clients.

• Automated workflows, activity dashboard, and newsfeed.

Pricing: Free plan, with paid plans starting at $8 per month per user.

Indy

Indy's is another inclusive freelancing tool that doesn't just stop at project management but extends to nearly all your freelancing tasks. The app includes invoice, proposal, and contract templates to save you time and create professional-looking documents.  It manages onboarding, projects, to-do lists, and messages, offering plenty of file storage space and file-sharing capabilities. Indy comes with time-tracking software.  What's more, you can request and receive payments in one place with payment integrations like Stripe and PayPal.

Features:

• Real-time client communication via chat function.

• Calendar function for scheduling.

• Templates for drafting, editing, and executing contracts.

• Templates for invoices and proposals.

• Project management and time tracking features.

Pricing: Free plan; paid plans begin at $9 monthly for annual billing or $12 monthly. The first three months are free.

Todoist

As you may have guessed from its name, Todoist is an app with the features of a to-do list. It is personal task management software, but freelancers can find it helpful. Todoist uses reminders to ensure that your tasks are always in front of you and that you do not miss anything important.

Features:

• Voice command feature for creating new tasks with due dates.

• Filter queries to keep track of delegated tasks.

• Automatic and location-based reminders.

• Project calendar feeds to visualize your tasks in any calendar app.

• Customizable daily and weekly goal-setting features with streaks.

• Zapier and IFTTT automation.

Todoist is designed to be simple yet powerful enough to take on your most ambitious projects.

Pricing: Free plan, Pro at $4/month, Business at $6/month.

Asana

What if your workflow requires you to delegate some tasks to other freelancers? You need a tool to collaborate with them and keep everyone in the loop. Asana sends daily task reminders with deadlines to assignees to ensure tasks are completed on time.

You can track tasks given to individuals and plan sprints thanks to its Agile capabilities. The app's to-do list feature helps users prioritize their work and stay on track. In addition to its general project management features, Asana provides industry-specific features for engineering, human resources, IT, and design teams.

Features:

• Charts with options for Gantt and Kanban views on the project dashboard.

• 200+ tool integrations, such as Slack, Salesforce, Figma, and Microsoft Teams.

• Content calendar planning and management.

• Niche-specific project management ability.

• Swift and seamless collaboration.

• Portfolio management.

Pricing: Free basic plan; Premium at $10.99 monthly, billed annually, or $13.49 billed monthly; Business at $24.99 monthly, billed annually, or $30.49 per user billed monthly; and Enterprise plans.

Wrike

You will need a program like Wrike to track your time accurately if you are paid per hour. It has a feature that automatically logs the time spent on a task. Wrike also allows you to create as many projects and tasks as you need in a portfolio for easier management.

Features:

• Resource management.

• Hundreds of third-party integrations, including Google, Microsoft, GitHub, and Jira.

• Management of project portfolios.

• Work views that can be customized, such as tables and Kanban.

• AI project risk assessment.

Pricing: Free plan, Team plan for $9.80 per month, Business plan for $24.80 per user per month, billed annually, enterprise and pinnacle plans.

Wrapping up

Make your freelance work exciting by choosing the right tools. We've provided you with a list above to guide you.

Workee tops our list as it is more than just project management software. It is everything you need for your online business. Workee provides the most useful features at an affordable price. You should try Workee now!