Growing your team and willing to boost project productivity with a dedicated tool? Or maybe want to replace your current project management software with something less costly and more effective? Here are 7 open-source tools popular with users in 2023, according to Capterra.
What is open-source project management software?
A project management (shortly, PM) system is an application that helps assign and track tasks, manage the project team, and retrieve productivity stats to control and improve team’s performance. Ultimately, it is applicable everywhere: sales, product development, content creation, QA, inventory management, etc.
Typically, a project management system combines such features as management of tasks, subtasks, and milestones, work with project documents, reporting, calendar integration, and communication tools.
Coming in all shapes and sizes, every project management software is different in terms of applicability, pricing model, or a specific niche orientation.
Here are 7 diverse open-source solutions, each having its own benefits to offer.
ONLYOFFICE Workspace
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5*
ONLYOFFICE Workspace is a full-stack collaboration platform incorporating project management, document management and editing, mail, CRM, calendars, and communication tools.
Project management module of ONLYOFFICE Workspace features essential and extra tools for project management: tasks, subtasks, and milestones, time tracking, Gantt Chart, reporting, flexible user roles, and more.
Project management module is integrated with document management system for direct access to documents, as well as with CRM and Calendar.
It is possible to create private projects and manage access to separate module sections and have full control over what users and managers can see and what actions they can perform.
Deployment: SaaS/on-premises
Mobile apps: Yes
Pro version: from $5 per user/month*
Free version: Yes
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GitLab
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.6*
GitLab is a popular DevOps platform for optimizing the work of developer teams throughout the whole lifecycle.
Key features of GitLab include resource management, team management, collaboration, bug tracking and reporting, application security and vulnerability management, workflows, deployment automation, and analytics.
Automatic testing and reporting features of the software allow improving overall code quality standards. Milestone-based task tracking and reporting functionality ensures effortless and transparent control of workflows, with ability to speed up the production and testing process.
The solutions can be used for such tasks as business digital transformation, cloud transformation, GitOps, Agile development, security and governance, and compliance improvement.
GitLab provides opportunities for application extensibility and integration of external components based on API.
Deployment: SaaS/on-premises
Mobile apps: Yes
Pro version: from $19 per user/month*
Free version: Yes
Bitrix24
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.1*
Bitrix24 is an online workspace encompassing the core productivity apps that includes elaborate project management tools, CRM, communication instruments, website builder, and various analytics.
The project management system incorporated in Bitrix24 offers an array of task management tools that include dependency tracking, activities, deadlines and milestones, prioritizing, To-Dos, issue tracking. Progress is assessable through dashboards and Gantt Chart.
In projects, it’s possible to create templates, track time and expenses, take care of budgeting and planning, create project maps. The tool supports Agile and Waterfall methodologies for team workflow organization. Calendar view is available.
As for integration opportunities, the system has open APIs for integrating external apps and databases as well as data import and export tools.
Deployment: SaaS/on-premises
Mobile apps: Yes
Pro version: from $46 per 5 users/month*
Free version: Yes
Odoo
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.1*
Odoo is a versatile open-source ecosystem of office productivity applications for accounting, team collaboration, sales, inventory management, and human resources.
It offers components for project management and planning that help manage resources, optimize performance, visualize project data, and communicate.
Odoo offers different views for managing and tracking workflows: Kanban view for managing tasks and issues, Gantt chart view for browsing dependencies and timelines, and calendar view for scheduling the deadlines.
Odoo adds new tasks and issues automatically right from emails, which is useful for customer care and sales teams. There are tools available for specific needs, such as financial project management and invoice and contract management features.
Deployment: SaaS/on-premises
Mobile apps: Yes
Pro version: from $11.90 per user/month*
Free version: Yes
Tuleap
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.6*
Tuleap is an open-source software development and project management tool for DevOps and Agile teams that features bug tracking, document management, product management, and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools.
It incorporates a dashboard to get insights in project events, ability to create project roadmaps, and a flexible task management system with means to distribute responsibilities and track task statuses. Tuleap employs methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
Tuleap also offers Git integration for source code management and versioning.
Deployment: SaaS/on-premises
Mobile apps: No
Pro version: from €5 per user/month*
Free version: Yes
Orangescrum
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.3
Orangescrum is a collaborative work management software that offers project management features for planning, tracking, resource allocation, time tracking, and project visualization.
The all-in-one system includes Kanban dashboard, Gantt chart, invoicing tools, project and task templates, notifications and event updates, reports, To Do, and other tools.
Multiple projects can be organized and managed with Scrum and Kanban boards depending on your team’s preference. Tasks feature detailed tracking and linking attributes, allowing to analyze a wider picture of company’s projects, as well as go into individual details of each project or team member performance.
Available integrations to extend functionality and link resources include Slack, Dropbox, Zoom, Zapier, OneDrive, SSO, GitHub, and Google services.
Deployment: SaaS/on-premises
Mobile apps: Yes
Pro version: from $8 per user/month*
Free version: Yes
GanttProject
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.2*
GanttProject is a free project management app for desktop on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It features a planning and scheduling dashboard based on Gantt chart with project history, work schedules, and tasks.
It is very useful for time tracking, providing work timelines for each team member and allowing to browse and manage working schedules, and approving team member leaves and day-offs.
Among the tool’s features are budget management instruments, project templates, dependency tracking, Gantt chart, as well as task, milestone, and project progress tracking.
The software is free for all purposes, but you can optionally contribute $5 to the app development upon download.
Deployment: Desktop
Mobile apps: No
Free version: Yes
Summary
Choosing the right project management app depends on your team size and task nature and diversity, as well as your infrastructure specifics and the need to integrate other apps you use in the system.
Open-source tools for project management can serve teams of any size and with any working model at a lower or no cost while providing the same or even better instruments for daily collaboration tasks.
If you are looking for an open-source alternative among project management software in 2023, we recommend you to check out GitLab, Bitrix24, ONLYOFFICE Workspace, Odoo, Tuleap, Orangescrum, and GanttProject.
*Prices and Capterra ratings accurate as per date of publishing.
