The Best Free Agile Project Management Tools for Your Business
Every company wants to deliver quality products as efficiently as possible—and that takes effective project management. But traditional project management frameworks aren’t always the most efficient, as they follow a linear approach when delivering products. This means the most valuable improvements are only added at the very end of a development cycle.
Because of this, delays in the release schedule are often inevitable, as product teams will have to revisit particular stages of the development cycle to incorporate the necessary changes. An agile approach to project management can change that by breaking down the processes involved, and implementing improvements throughout the development process, rather than just retrofitting everything at the end.
That being said, implementing an agile framework into your development processes doesn’t come without its challenges. Thankfully, there are tons of tools available that help you create agile project frameworks for any project. And here at Findstack, we’ll be helping you find the best tools for the job.
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What is an agile project management tool?
An agile project management tool helps businesses quickly break down complex projects into smaller tasks and track progress in line with the agile project management philosophy.
They usually come with features such as project planning templates, task management and tracking, collaborative editing for documents and reports, and integration with other tools popular with agile teams (e.g., Slack).
These tools enable teams to plan projects quickly, assign tasks to members, track progress in real time, and generate reports as well as store data for future reference. They also allow managers to respond to changes in the project scope, budget, or timeline on the fly by offering full visibility into progress and next steps.
Why are agile project management tools important?
Superior quality product
Agile project management tools allow you to create higher-quality products since it involves a lot of testing during the development process. The iterative approach makes it easier to iron out all the little kinks in your project before its completion.
Increased business value
You can use agile project management tools to create a bigger focus on customer value and satisfaction. Since agile project management is broken down into segments, there are more opportunities to seek out and action customer feedback.
Adapt to unpredictable situations
Agile project management tools allow your business to adapt to sudden changes that come up during projects. If something unexpected occurs, you can easily pinpoint the problem to a specific task or person and adapt accordingly.
Criteria to consider when selecting agile project management tools
- Collaboration & communication tools: Agile project management tools should allow team members to communicate and collaborate on projects. These are core parts of the agile methodology, so your chosen tool should offer a good amount of support for them.
- Tracking for workspace history & changes: Since agile frameworks emphasize collaboration, your tool needs to track your workspace’s history. You should be able to look back at discussions, tasks, and change in order to understand why something happened and how it affects the project.
- Effective search options: Your chosen tool should offer an efficient and easy-to-use search system that helps you quickly find or organize your work.
- Scalability: Your chosen tool should offer the option to scale if your business takes off, and you require more features, support, or user seats.
Best free agile project management tools
1. Wrike
Best Overall
Wrike is a project management software suitable for companies of any size. It provides a range of templates that support various management styles, including sprint and Kanban. This means you’re getting real-time updates on task progression, making it easier for you and your team to stay up-to-date on your projects.
Key Features
Project dashboards: Get an overview of your project all on one dashboard, and monitor analytics like your team progress, tasks by status, and more.
Automation Engine: Automate common, recurring actions away by creating simple rules.
Cross-tagging: Organize your tasks and subtasks by cross-tagging them into the relevant folders.
Pricing
Wrike offers five different plans:
Free:
- Board view
- Web, desktop, and mobile apps
- Project and task management
Team ($9.80/user/month):
- 2-25 users
- Unlimited projects
- Unlimited tasks and subtasks
Business ($24.80/user/month):
- 5-200 users
- Cross-tagging
- Automations (200 actions/user/month)
Enterprise (custom):
- 5-unlimited users
- Custom access roles
- Automations (1000/user/month)
Pinnacle (custom):
- Advanced reporting and BI
- Budgeting and billable hours
- Automations (1500/user/month)
2. Trello
Easiest To Use
Trello is an easy-to-use agile management tool, which allows you to create tasks and monitor their progress using Kanban boards. The tool has a very shallow learning curve compared to many other tools. It has a simple UI that’s easy to navigate, so you can quickly set up your workspace.
Key Features
Trello views: You can create boards, cards, and lists to personalize your workspace. View your tasks using different displays, such as timeline, table, and calendar.
Automate workflows: Automate actions by creating rules and commands, so important tasks are never forgotten. The AI will also suggest automation for repetitive actions.
Manage tasks: You can create and customize tasks by leaving comments, attaching files, and adding labels.
Powerful integration: Integrate Trello with popular apps, such as Slack, Gmail, and Jira.
Pricing
Trello offers four plans:
Free plan:
- Unlimited cards
- Up to 10 boards per workspace
- Unlimited storage (10 MB per file)
Standard plan ($5/user/month):
- Unlimited boards
- Custom fields
- Unlimited storage (250 MB per file)
Premium plan ($10/user/month):
- Unlimited workspace command runs
- Workspace views
- Simple data export
Enterprise plan (custom):
- Unlimited workspaces
- Attachment permissions
- Power-up administrations
3. GitLab
Best for DevSecOps
GitLab is an open-source platform for DevSecOps that enables teams to quickly and safely build, deploy, and operate apps. As part of that wide scope, it provides a few agile planning features for efficient project management. GitLab supports both scrum and kanban styles of management and aims to help users streamline DevSecOps life cycles.
Key Features
Tasks: You can add a task list and description to specific issues to better understand the problem at hand.
Issue boards: You can view all issues in one place, and easily track progress without needing to switch between interfaces.
Milestones: You can set milestones by assigning a start date and due date, and creating sprint periods. You can then merge requests into those sprints, and organize your tasks into groups.
Pricing
GitLab offers three plans:
Free plan:
- 5 GB storage
- 10 GB transfer per month
- 5 users per namespace
Premium plan ($19/user/month):
- 50 GB storage
- Enterprise user and incident management
- Merge requests with approval rules
Ultimate plan ($99/user/month — scalable):
- Multi-level epics
- Value stream management
- 250 GB storage
4. iceScrum
Best for Scrum Methodology
iceScrum is an open-source management tool that utilizes agile and scrum methodologies. It’s user-friendly and helps you create easy-to-navigate workspaces for teams of any size. The tool offers a variety of features, including backlogs, release planning, and task boards.
Key Features
Manage your backlog: Create stories representing main product features and easily manage requirements using visual indicators.
Plan milestones with confidence: Make sure deadlines are consistently met by setting milestones.
Monitor key success metrics: Track your performance through agile success metrics (or create your own).
Pricing
Pricing page
iceScrum offers four plans:
Free plan:
- 3 users
- 1 private project
- 1 team
- Forum support
Small Team (€8.90/month):
- 7 users
- 3 integrations
Teams (€39.90/month):
- 5 teams
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited private projects
- Unlimited integrations
- Email support
Business (€349.00/month):
- Unlimited teams
- Email/phone/remote support
- 1 SAFe and LeSS support
- Private infrastructure
5. MyCollab
Best for SMEs
MyCollab is an open-source tool available through GitLab aimed at small to medium businesses. It has a clean interface and offers two other features to supplement its main project management feature, including CRM and document creation/editing.
Key features
Project dashboard: View all project data on your dashboard, including timelines, activity logs, and tasks.
Kanban board: Track tasks using kanban boards, filter them by tags, or find tasks through the search bar.
Task view: Create and assign tasks/subtasks, write descriptions, set priority statuses, and add tags.
Pricing
MyCollab is free to use, but they do offer three paid plans for their pricing edition:
Startup ($19/month):
- 10 users
- 2 GB storage
- 10 projects
Small Office ($49/month):
- 20 users
- 5 GB storage
- 30 projects
Professional ($99/month):
- 60 users
- 10 GB storage
- 60 projects
Conclusion
Businesses often use agile project management tools to add flexibility and visibility to their workflow. The tool you choose should support communication and collaboration—two core elements of agile project management. There are a large variety of tools available, but their features can vary greatly.
You’ll need to find the perfect fit for your business, and at Findstack, we can help you with that. We strive to provide detailed, easy-to-read reviews and comparisons that make finding the right software a breeze.
Check out our project management reviews and resources to start your search today.
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