5 Best Open-Source Project Management Software

So, you are in the market for an open-source project management software.

Ideal, because in this article we have our compilation list for our top picks, and we compare the features and pricing for you. 

If you just want the best choice, we’ve added that right at the top of the article as this was what is most requested by our customers and what we see the best feedback with. So, that’ll be the “can’t go wrong” option.

Otherwise, feel free to explore all the options we’ve reviewed on the market to find something that might fit you a little better.

Enjoy the list!

The Best Open-Source Project Management Software

In an era where customization and transparency are highly valued, open-source project management software is gaining significant traction. These platforms offer the flexibility of modification, allowing organizations to tailor the software to their unique needs.

Beyond customization, they promote community-driven improvements, ensuring a dynamic tool that evolves with user feedback and industry trends.

1. Monday

Monday integrates client emails, collects leads with forms, and refines marketing campaigns through scrupulous analysis that greatly enhances your relationship with clients and creates more business opportunities. It’s an easy-to-use platform that simplifies organizational tasks for sales and marketing teams.

Monday Features

Here are some features that make Monday a unique CRM:

• Software development: Monday provides templates to help your technical team quickly organize tasks, find bugs and improve iterations. You can add indicators to let the team know what you are working on and analyze the resource allocation. Every project has a specific ID that can be used; to track it among other tasks. Clients will automatically be alerted once the error is solved to reduce downtime and keep customers updated.
• HR structuring: Monday lets users manage recruiting process and track employee progression through its HR tools such as Applicant Tracker, Employee Engagement, Attendance Tracker, Recruitment Tracker, and Vacation Tracker. You can boost the team spirit of your employees by creating specific goals and giving constructive feedback on their work.
• Inventory Management: Businesses can record product and asset details while setting automation to get regular updates about sales and inquiries. You can create new templates to match the company’s requirements and integrate Monday with other applications to make the tasks easier. Moreover, Monday generates a unique QR code for each product so your clients can coherently buy the inventory.
• Marketing and Creative attributes: Monday can bridge the gap between creative thinking and marketing strategies by merging them into a single platform. You can create visualizations on campaign effects, share ideas and create personalized operations to make information accessible for employees.
• Sales operations: Monday offers CRM customization to make the leads attainable and manage all opportunity stages at a single interface. You can see the combined effect of marketing and sales campaigns to make adjustments accordingly. Moreover, businesses can centralize the available data for ease of use and synchronization of operations.
• IT workspace: You can add educational content for new recruitments to learn skills faster and ensure quality work. Monday lets you set access permissions for tasks and strictly follows security protocols to prevent cyber attacks on your CRM database. You can integrate IT tools and put technical work in order on Monday.

Monday Pricing

Monday CRM offers 4 pricing options depending upon your business size and requirements.

“Individual” plan is free of cost and lets users record work-related activities. 

“Basic” plan is priced at $10/month for a single user and offers 5GB storage along with customer support.

“Standard” plan is worth $14/month for a single user and offers additional collaboration tools. 

“Pro” subscription costs $27/month for an individual and offers chart view along with time tracking.

“Enterprise” plan is made specifically for large businesses and includes quality security features. You can contact support to get a quote on the “Enterprise” package.

2. Trello

Trello allows your project teams to work together and maintain coordination between all departments within your business organization. It empowers project management by providing; the necessary tools and workflows to keep up with the scaling demands.

Trello centralizes your project details in one collaborative location, making it easier to track, manage and complete multiple tasks.

Trello Features

Here are some exclusive features of Trello:

Multiple Views: Trello offers users the ability to switch between their preferred; views and brings a unique perspective to project management. It enables you swiftly execute your ideas into actions by providing clear visibility into every ongoing task. Trello Board view breakdown the project into multiple steps and updates the Workspace every time a task is near completion.

Dashboard: With the dashboard, you can gain actionable insights into your business processes so you can prevent bottlenecks and maintain efficiency. It allows users to customize key metrics and anticipate a team’s requirements.

Trello Maps: Trello provides inbuilt interactive maps tl track field services and views the locational information pertinent to every project. It’s a valuable feature for businesses that have agents in the field and allows managers to track the latest updates regarding what’s happening in different project sites.

Butler: Trello offers an automation feature named “Butler” that allows you to create no-code integrations, workflows and bots to automate repetitive procedures. You can set pre-defined instructions for every automation and ensure the system quickly updates the relevant members every time a task is completed. You can turn on the suggestion feature, and Trello will identify your repetitive actions to suggest single-click automation that simplify your workload.

Power-ups: With Trello’s featured Power-ups, users can add third-party plugins to enhance the functioning within their Workspace. You can integrate valuable tools like; Jira, Google Drive, Slack and any other relevant sources to access your files and documents within Trello’s unified database.

Template creation and customization: Users can switch between templates to provide their teams with a blueprint for efficient project management. You can access the templates made by other users and create new ones to share with the Trello community. It helps you go digital with your work management and allows customization to the existing templates so they can meet your specific project requirements.

Trello Pricing

Trello offers 4 Pricing options for businesses to use the platform for project management.

The “Free” plan offers unlimited storage along with intrinsic project management tools and is best for teams looking to get acquainted with Trello.

The “Standard” plan offers advanced checklists, along with the basic features included in the “Free” pricing option. It is priced; at $5/user/month upon annual billing.

The “Premium” plan offers a dashboard view to get analytical insights along with the features included in the “Standard” pricing option. It is priced; at $10/user/month upon annual billing.

The “Enterprise” plan allows users to maximize Trello’s functionality and create unlimited workspaces. It is priced; at $17.5/user/month upon annual billing.

3. Backlog

Backlog is specifically designed; for developers and their teams. It helps everyone in the loop and track progress with automated Gantt and burn down charts. Developers can easily log issues and bugs, discuss them with comments and reach optimal solutions faster. With Backlog, you can release high-quality software faster.

Backlog Features

Here are some exclusive features of Backlog:

Project management: Backlog provides you with complete control of your projects. You can envision your work routines and plans to enhance productivity and execution. Additionally, you can disintegrate tasks into subtasks and assign them to different personnel. It ensures you fully use your team’s capacity to develop the best possible product. Every developer company has to ensure swift processing of instructions, and with Backlog, you can do so effortlessly.

Bug Tracking: Backlog helps your software testing teams to visualize disruptions and track bugs. You can view reported issues and outline them for the assigned employee. Backlog provides real-time updates to your team members about errors or exceptions. So your testing teams can quickly resolve the issue and get the program running. Additionally, Backlog continuously records all code changes and creates a live archive that updates with entries. It ensures your bug tracking team can view which lines caused the crash or disruption.

Task Management: Backlog allows you to efficiently distribute tasks among your team members by analyzing their current work capacity. You can see who’s accountable for the tasks and contact the relevant profile for submissions. Additionally, you can set issue statuses that show the current status of any raised inquiries or tickets.

Version Control: Backlog introduces version control specifically for IT teams and software developers. It enables you to record the source code of an application under development and restore its primary version upon bugs or errors. Additionally, you can compare how a code is affecting your application and whether the change is positive or not.

IP address Control: Backlog diminishes security compromises by providing IP address control. You can ensure only certain profiles have access to; your interface by setting IP restrictions. Additionally, you can view which IP is logged: in currently.

Backlog Pricing

Backlog offers 4 Pricing options for IT businesses and software developers.

The “Free” plan is priced at $0/month and includes 10 Users. It offers 100MB of storage space.

The “Starter” plan is priced at $35/month and includes 30 Users. It offers 1 GB of storage space.

The “Standard” plan is priced at $100/month and includes unlimited users. It offers 30 GB of storage space.

The “Premium” plan is priced at $175/month and includes unlimited users. It offers 100 GB of storage space.

4. Notion

With Notion, you can capture thoughts, manage projects and handle your business. It gives you a clean open surface where you can plan your projects. Additionally, Notion is a customizable and scalable platform that handles your growing requirements effortlessly.

Notion Features

Here are some exclusive features of Notion:

Workflow Builder: Notion enables workflow customization without any constraints and allows you to define every single metric. Moreover, you can build multiple workflows for a project and utilize them depending on the current status. With Workflow builder, you can automate the recurring tasks and spend time on rewarding issues.

Digital Workspace: Notion offers a digital, scalable workspace that connects you with your work and team. It provides a flexible and configurable workstation that can be modified to fit your work requirement. With Notion, you can use built-in collaborative tools to work intuitively and transparently.

Team wiki: With Notion’s team wiki, you can set up a centralized repository; of information that your business can refer to swiftly. It is configurable and offers pre-made templates to assist you. Additionally, the team wiki can be integrated: with third-party databases through Notion’s built-in compatibility.

Digital Office: Notion ensures you can digitize your business processes and work collaboratively towards the company’s success. It enables you to swiftly distribute the work among team members and track their hours to maintain transparency. With Notion, you will get all the requisite tools; to empower your business and reach your true potential.

Integrations: With Notion, you can rebrand your applications and get contextual details from other platforms. It offers integration with Jira, Slack and GitHub to centralize your project management. Additionally, you can automate tasks within other tools through Notion’s workflows and maintain consistency. Notion’s API supports custom integrations, allowing developers to build public integrations.

Notion Pricing

Notion offers 4 Pricing options that cater specific business requirements depending on your size and niche.

The “Personal” plan is priced at $0 and offers synchronization across devices. Additionally, you can create unlimited pages or blocks.

The “Personal Pro” plan is priced at $4/month upon annual billing and offers a 30 Day version history. Additionally, you can invite unlimited guest accounts.

The “Team” plan is priced at $8/month upon annual billing and offers a collaborative workspace. Additionally, you can invite unlimited team members and set sharing permissions.

The “Enterprise” plan has a customizable pricing option. It offers SAML SSO, user provisioning and a dedicated success manager.

5. Jira

Jira allows you to manage agile in scrum teams, organize your project tasks, capture and record software bugs and simplify your overall business operations. It’s primarily used: to amplify the employee’s productivity and efficiency by providing them with all relevant tools within a single platform.

Jira Features

Here are some exclusive features of Jira:

Scrum Boards: Jira offers a scrum framework that enables your project teams to breakdown complex projects into simple tasks and creates a collaborative environment. It unifies your software teams and allows the project managers to stay on top of every delivery. Scrum boards offer an iterative and visual representation of your projects during the developmental stage and are accessible by everyone within your team.

Roadmaps: Jira Roadmaps help your business teams to efficiently plan the next step in a project by outlining a complete structure. You can get a clear projection of all initiatives within a single section and plan work according to your team’s capacity. Moreover, you can predict outcomes based on your actions and create several versions of a roadmap to select the best possible route.

Agile Reporting: Jira provides real-time reporting tools and insights into your ongoing operations, enabling your software teams to make better decisions. You can get a sprint report, burndown chart and velocity chart to help your scrum teams in delivering projects faster. Jira’s Agile Reporting optimizes your business flow for better performance and continuous delivery.

Open DevOps: Jira provides your developers with the freedom to choose the best tool for a job with its Open DevOps. It’s a toolchain for the whole development cycle where you can mix and match tools according to your requirements. Moreover, DevOps offers a development panel and deployments tab along with a drag and drop automation tool that truly transforms your developer’s capabilities to work on new ventures.

Automation: Jira allows you to create exciting automation that handles repetitive tasks and allows your employees to focus on urgent assignments. It ensures your teams can use automation and workflows to boost productivity and detect issues swiftly.

Jira Pricing

Jira offers 4 Pricing options for its cloud-based solution and a unique subscription for businesses looking for a dedicated data centre.

The “free” plan is priced at $0 and allows you to add up to 10 Users. “Free” subscription offers scrum and kanban boards, agile reporting and single project automation, making it perfect for small teams.

The “Standard” plan is priced at $7.75/user/month and allows you to create project roles along with the basic features available in the free plan.

The “Premium” plan is priced at $15.25/user/month and allows users to create multi-project automation along with advanced Roadmaps.

The “Enterprise” plan is only available for businesses with at least 801 Users. It is billed annually based on the number of users and unlocks all features of Jira.

The “Data centre” solution provides you with complete control of your Jira environment. It is priced: at $42000/year for 500 users.

Why use an Open-Source Project Management tool at all?

Open-source project management tools come with a unique advantage: transparency. Organizations have full access to the software’s code, enabling them to understand its workings thoroughly and make necessary modifications.

This transparency ensures that the tool can be adapted to fit the specific needs and nuances of a project or organization.

Moreover, the community-driven nature of open-source tools means they’re continually refined. Users from around the world contribute to its development, report bugs, and suggest improvements.

This collective effort ensures that the software remains up-to-date, secure, and aligned with the latest industry best practices.

Why should companies opt for an Open-Source Project Management tool?

One of the foundational pillars of open-source software is transparency. Companies have full access to the software’s codebase, allowing them to understand its inner workings thoroughly.

This transparency fosters a sense of trust. Organizations can be confident in the software’s capabilities, knowing there are no hidden functionalities or undisclosed vulnerabilities.

They have the autonomy to inspect, modify, and enhance the code, ensuring it aligns with their security protocols and operational requirements.

The malleability of open-source tools is unparalleled. Every organization has its unique set of challenges, workflows, and requirements. The modifiable nature of open-source software empowers businesses to tailor the tool to their precise needs.

This ensures a bespoke solution that aligns seamlessly with specific operational nuances. Instead of adapting their workflows to fit a tool, organizations can adapt the tool to fit their workflows, ensuring optimal efficiency and user satisfaction.

Financial considerations are pivotal for any business decision, and open-source tools often present a cost-effective alternative to proprietary software.

While there might be costs associated with customization, training, or support, the absence of licensing fees or subscription costs can result in significant savings.

This cost structure allows organizations, especially startups or small businesses, to access high-quality project management tools without straining their budgets.

Another compelling advantage of open-source tools is the community-driven development. A vast and active community often backs these platforms, comprising developers, users, and enthusiasts.

This community collaborates, sharing insights, troubleshooting issues, and continuously refining the software.

This collective effort ensures a tool that’s not only robust but also benefits from diverse global perspectives, ensuring a well-rounded and continuously improving platform.

Lastly, the scalability and future-proofing inherent in open-source tools cannot be overlooked.

As organizations grow, diversify, and evolve, their project management needs can shift. Open-source software, with its adaptable nature, can be scaled and modified to accommodate this growth.

This ensures that the tool remains effective, relevant, and aligned with the organization’s objectives, irrespective of its size or complexity.

This adaptability is essential in a rapidly changing business landscape, ensuring that investments in tools today remain relevant and effective in the future.

Open-Source Project Management Software, A Summary

Open-source project management software offers a blend of flexibility, community support, and transparency that’s hard to match.

For organizations seeking a tool that can be tailored to their precise needs, while benefiting from global insights and improvements, open-source platforms are an excellent choice. Among the myriad of options in the open-source landscape, Monday stands out with its robust features and user-friendly interface.

While not open-source in the traditional sense, its adaptability and efficiency make it a top recommendation for those venturing into project management. For a blend of customization and out-of-the-box functionality, Monday is a compelling platform to consider.

What Project Management Software would you recommend?

In short, It’s Monday.com.

It’s a platform that simplifies communication across teams and helps hit goals faster, with team management software that maximizes productivity and empowers everyone to work smarter together. You can’t go wrong with Monday.com.

“🚀Try Monday.com For Free, It’s my favorite Project Management Software to use and recommend.” -Scott Max

Monday.com is a user-friendly project management platform that offers powerful tools to streamline complex workflows for larger companies, ensuring efficient operations and delivering impressive project outcomes. Monday.com has you covered for your: Team Projects, Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing needs.

For more details, read our Monday.com Review.