Free and Open Source Project Management Tools

This article contains a selected list of free and open source project management software tools that can be used to manage software development projects. The features provided by traditional open source project management tools are the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), the Gantt and PERT charts, Critical Path Management (CPM) to describe the sequences of tasks, for the project planning, resource allocation graphs, mind maps, tasks management, work and sprint completion monitoring and risk management.

2-plan Desktop

2-plan Desktop is a free standalone and portable project management tool for project managers that works on all systems where you can find Java (Windows, MacOS, Linux). This app provides its own unique graphical project breakdown structure tool that covers the people, process and product components of a project. It offers a large feature that includes Gantt chart, textual and graphical work breakdown structure (WBS), resource allocation graphs, mind maps and risk management. 2-plan Desktop is part of an eco-system that includes the 2-plan Team is an open source project software and the Work 2-gether Scrum task board online tool.

Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/to-plan-team/
System requirements: Windows, Mac OS X or Linux with Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
License & Pricing: Free software.

92five

92five is a self-hosted project management application with a PHP backend and a JavaScript frontend. A commercial version 2 has been released.

Website: https://github.com/chintanbanugaria/92five
System requirements: PHP, MySQL
License & Pricing: Free software.

AtroPM

AtroPM is a simple, but powerful, configurable, open source Project Management Software, inspired by Github and Gitlab, which is based on the AtroCore software platform. AtroPM (as well as AtroCore) is distributed under GPLv3 License and is free. It has a lot of features right out-of-the-box and is thus an excellent tool for managing any kind of project. AtroPM is a single page application (SPA) with API-centric and service-oriented architecture (SOA). It has a flexible data model based on entities and relations of all kinds.

Website: https://github.com/atrocore/atropm
System requirements: Unix-based system. Ubuntu is recommended, PHP, MySQL (not MariaDB).
License & Pricing: FGPL-3.0 license .

DooTask

DooTask is an open source online project task management tool that provides various document collaboration tools, online mind maps, online flowcharts, project management, task distribution, instant IM, file management and other tools; at the same time, the messaging function uses asymmetric encryption technology to make your communication safer. It provides templates to meet a variety of team collaboration scenarios, while supporting custom templates to meet the team’s personalized scenario management needs, you can intuitively view the progress of the project, team collaboration more convenient.

Website: https://github.com/kuaifan/dootask
System requirements: PHP, MySQL
License & Pricing: AGPL-3.0 license

Ever Teams

Ever Teams is an open source work and project management platform. It provides work and workforce management, time management, time tracking, activity tracking, productivity tracking & metrics, projects / tasks & issues management, organizations & teams, integrations (GitHub, JIRA, …) and more.

Website: https://github.com/ever-co/ever-teams
System requirements: Node.js, React,
License & Pricing: AGPL-3.0 license

Focalboard

Focalboard is an open source project management that allows to create task management boards. It is alternative to tools like Asana, Trello, and Notion. Focalboard helps software developers stay aligned to plan software development roadmaps, manage tasks backlogs, monitor the completion of tasks, reach milestones, and achieve goals. It helps define, organize, track and manage work across individuals and teams with simple customizable boards.

A set of board templates is available to speed the implementation of the tool. Focalboard comes in two main editions:
* Mattermost Boards: A self-hosted or free cloud server for your team to plan and collaborate.
* Personal Desktop: A standalone, single-user Mac, Windows, or Linux desktop app for your own todos and personal projects.

Website: https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard, https://www.focalboard.com/
System requirements: desktop (Windows, Mac, Unix) or server
License & Pricing: open source software.

fx-project

fx-project is a free Open Source PHP Project Management Software with powerful expansion packs. It provides a dynamic interface for project planning. Simply use the mouse to plan your project on the calendar, assign the necessary resources with a click, and see immediately how busy they are. The workload of the resources for each individual task is graphically displayed and dynamically changed when tasks or subprojects are moved, so that you can immediately find the best time for execution. With this task planner, you can quickly define the necessary tasks and resources. Tasks that belong together organizationally or in terms of time are grouped into subprojects, resulting in a tidy project structure.

Website: https://www.fx-project.org/
System requirements: PHP Platform, Database PostgreSQL or SQLServer
License & Pricing: GNU General Public License

GanttProject

GanttProject is a free open source project management tool that allows managing project and scheduling tasks using the traditional project planning techniques of Gantt and PERT charts. It is a desktop software written in Java that works on Windows, MacOS and Linux platforms. Created in 2003, this software has been continuously updated with a last release in January 2019. GanttProject is available in 25 languages.

WebSite: https://www.ganttproject.biz/, https://sourceforge.net/projects/ganttproject/
System requirements: Windows, MacOS or Linux
License & Pricing: Free and open source software under GNU

Huly

Huly is an all-in-one open source project management platform that aims to be an alternative to tools like Linear, Jira, Slack, Notion or Motion. You can manage your teams with data-driven insights and streamlined sprint planning. Huly allows to prioritize and track your backlog with a full view of your project landscape. It provided also the capability to personalize your Scrum or Kanban boards to mirror your team’s workflow.

You enjoy 2-way Github integration so that you can manage your tasks and projects more efficiently and stay on top of your work. You can track velocity, burn-down, and other critical metrics without leaving Huly. You achieve team synchronization with shared calendars, meeting agendas, and transparent daily planning that supports team availability and absence tracking.

WebSite: https://huly.io/, https://github.com/hcengineering/platform
System requirements: Node.js
License & Pricing: EPL-2.0 license

LibrePlan

LibrePlan is an open source web application for project management that allows project planning, monitoring and control. This project management tool allows planning the organization in a collaborative way and has a multi-project scope, which means that the allocated resources are shared among projects.

Website: https://www.libreplan.dev/
System Requirements: GNU/Linux operating system.

OpenProject

OpenProject is an open source project management software that supports the project management process along the entire project life cycle: From project initiation to closure. OpenProject also provides an easy way to plan and communicate your product roadmap and break it down into a detailed release plan. Kanban, Agile & Scrum teams can iterate fast and release constantly. OpenProject provides the perfect tool to support agile product development methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.

Website: https://www.openproject.org/
System Requirements: GNU/Linux operating system.

Plane

Plane is a simple, extensible, open source project and product management tool. It allows users to start with a basic task tracking tool and gradually adopt various project management frameworks like Agile, Waterfall, and many more. Some features:

• Issue Planning and Tracking: Quickly create issues and add details using a powerful rich text editor that supports file uploads. Add sub-properties and references to issues for better organization and tracking.
• Issue Attachments: Collaborate effectively by attaching files to issues, making it easy for your team to find and share important project-related documents.
• Layouts: Customize your project view with your preferred layout – choose from List, Kanban, or Calendar to visualize your project in a way that makes sense to you.
• Cycles: Plan sprints with Cycles to keep your team on track and productive. Gain insights into your project’s progress with burn-down charts and other useful features.

Website: https://github.com/makeplane/plane, https://plane.so/
System Requirements: Ubuntu, python

ProjeQtOr

ProjeQtOr (formely Project’Or RIA) is an open source collaborative project management software. It is a tool designed to be a Project Organizer as a Rich Internet Application. Web based, it is very easy to use and targets to include every feature needed to the management of your projects. ProjeQtOr includes a Bug Tracker to monitor incidents on your projects, with possibility to include work on planned tasks of your projects. Listed as one of the underdogs project management software, the frequent updates, the very active support and the growing community refers to it as a tool that is worth a try.

Website: https://www.projeqtor.org/
System Requirements: PHP / MySql stack
License & Pricing: GNU General Public License v2 and v3

Redmine

Redmine is a flexible open source project management web application eleased under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 (GPL). Written using Ruby on Rails framework, it is cross-platform and cross-database. It features per project wikis and forums, time tracking, and flexible, role-based access control. Redmine includes a calendar and Gantt charts to aid visual representation of projects and their deadlines. Redmine integrates with various version control systems and includes a repository browser and diff viewer.

Website: http://www.redmine.org/
System Requirements: Redmine works on Ruby on Rails
License & Pricing: GNU General Public License v2

Rukovoditel

Rukovoditel is an open source project management tool based on PHP and MySQL. It allows creating your own application, the most suitable for your activity. Rukovoditel is multilingual, which removes language barriers for foreign employees, allowing you to work with the native language system.

Website: https://www.rukovoditel.net/

SO Planning (Simple Online Planning)

SO Planning (Simple Online Planning) is a free web-based open source project management tool that aims to provide the basic functionalities of project planning: defining projects, people, resources, tasks and using all these to create a project plan. It provides a visual timeline that allows managing resources involved in multiple projects, making it easier with color codes. SO Planning is a multi-language tool that is currently available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Hungarian and Danish.

Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/soplanning/ and https://www.soplanning.org/
System requirements: Apache server, PHP5.2 or higher, MySQL database
License & Pricing: open source, GNU General Public License 2.0

TaskJuggler

TaskJuggler is a modern and powerful, Free and Open Source Software project management tool. Its new approach to project planning and tracking is more flexible and superior to the commonly used Gantt chart editing tools. TaskJuggler is project management software for serious project managers. It covers the complete spectrum of project management tasks from the first idea to the completion of the project. It assists you during project scoping, resource assignment, cost and revenue planning, risk and communication management.

TaskJuggler provides an optimizing scheduler that computes your project timelines and resource assignments based on the project outline and the constraints that you have provided. The built-in resource balancer and consistency checker offload you from having to worry about irrelevant details and ring the alarm if the project gets out of hand. The flexible as-many-details-as-necessary approach allows you to plan your project as you go, making it also ideal for new management strategies such as Extreme Programming and Agile Project Management.

Website: https://taskjuggler.org/
System requirements: Ruby
License & Pricing: open source, GNU General Public License 2.0

Worklenz

Worklenz is an open source project management tool designed to help organizations improve their efficiency. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing projects, tasks, and collaboration within teams. The main features of Worklenz are:
* Project Planning: Create and organize projects, assign tasks to team members.
* Task Management: Break down projects into smaller tasks, set due dates, priorities, and track progress.
* Collaboration: Share files, leave comments, and communicate seamlessly with your team members.
* Time Tracking: Monitor time spent on tasks and projects for better resource allocation and billing.
* Reporting: Generate detailed reports on project status, team workload, and performance metrics.

Website: https://github.com/Worklenz/worklenz
System requirements: Node.js version v18 or newer, Postgres version v15.6
License & Pricing: open source, AGPL-3.0 license