If you've got a dozen big projects on the go, juggling the tasks and responsibilities of each is nearly impossible without a good project management (PM) app. And while you could do all the planning in Excel or set up Kanban boards in Obsidian, nothing quite beats a fully featured PM suite. The best project management tools give you all the planning you need while keeping out of your way, so the project is being managed, not a million settings.

While you could use any of the big names, there are a ton of awesome open-source software options for managing your projects, which are free for community use. If your needs grow, you can graduate onto paid licenses with official support teams, but you can get a lot of work done without that. These tools are great for personal use, with all the tracking tools you'd need to run your own projects from start to finish.

6 OpenProject

Self-hostable option with Kanban, Gantt, issue and time tracking, and tons more

OpenProject is a powerful project management package that's got a clean, modern interface and the option of self-hosting or using their own cloud services. The benefit here is that you can save some cash for your project's needs by self-hosting, and as long as you don't need more than five users, it'll stay that way forever. Self-hosting also means you're fully in charge of your data, which is always nice to see.

As for the project tools, you get almost anything you could wish for. Kanban and Scrum boards, Gantt charts, time tracking, user control, support for multiple projects, custom fields and workflows, and tons of reporting options. Plus, there's a vibrant community of developers and users to bounce ideas off and to find help if you need it.

You can build sub-projects to chunk larger projects into manageable pieces and pin widgets to the main page for easy data visualization and a macro view of the project. Everyone gets a portfolio page that shows the projects they're part of, the tasks they're in charge of, and the stages of each. Oh, and you can import Excel or other project management software data into OpenProject, so you can continue your existing tasks in your new open-source package.

5 Redmine

Set up your own project management webapp in minutes

Redmine has been around for many, many years now, and while the interface is fairly dated, the performance of this project management tool can't be understated. It's self-hosted, written in Ruby on Rails, and is cross-platform and cross-database to suit your needs. You can set up as many projects as you want, assign users to multiple projects as needed, and see issue tracking, Gantt charts, and other data visualization tools.

You also get the ability to set up Wiki pages per project for documenting organizational memory, have forums for discussing projects, time tracking, and various authentication methods for your users. And it's been around for so long that there's a huge ecosystem of third-party tools, plugins, themes, and more, so if you can't find what you need in the base package, it's almost certainly there as an add-on.

4 ProjectLibre

De-Microsoft your life

ProjectLibre was designed as a direct replacement for Microsoft Project and is compatible with files from that program. It packs everything you'll need into the somewhat dated UI: Gantt charts, Network Diagrams, Resource Management, WBS, and more. It is also translated into 31 languages if you're not a native English speaker.

The desktop version is free and open-source, and there's also a cloud-based version with a subscription attached. That version enables project management from anywhere and has integrated AI functions to create Gantt charts with full tasks, durations, dependencies, and more based on the description you give it. That'll save time on the tedious task of setting projects up from scratch.

3 Taiga

Self-host your own project management tool to stay ahead of the game

Taiga is a well-designed project management tool with both cloud and on-premises support. Unlike many of the others, Taiga doesn't charge for cloud users or for self-hosting, but it does charge if you want premium support from the company, which is fair enough. That gives you the same software package as the enterprise users but a few more headaches to get it running on your own hardware.

It's built to embody Agile methodologies, including Kanban and Scrum, and integrates with popular enterprise software like Slack or GitHub. This makes it perfect for collaboration between a hybrid workforce or for documenting home lab experiments. Thanks to a Docker container, you can be up and running in almost no time at all, and there are multiple import options in case you were using another project management tool before deciding to switch. You also get tons of dashboards for reporting use, visible progress trackers, integrated bug tracking, and integrations through Zapier and other APIs in case you need them.

2 GitLab

Manage your code projects from start to ship

GitLab is a favorite of software development teams, but there's no reason you shouldn't use it at home for your own projects. It brings all the tools that the development, security, and operations teams need to do their job effectively into one dashboard, to cover your entire dev cycle. Or you know, the ill-fated experiments in your home lab that last an afternoon before something goes wrong.

Either way, GitLab has version control, story planning for future use, templates for automating your home lab environment, and more. You can try out the subscription tiers for 30 or 60 days, and after that ends, you can stay on a free tier account forever, which will give you enough to manage your own personal projects. Some features, mainly the AI-powered ones, are only available using cloud plans, and some tools are only available on self-hosted setups, but the core software management tools are there on both.

1 Odoo

Manage every aspect of your business from projects to HR

Odoo has a quirky name and a beautiful dashboard full of tools that you can use. They do subscriptions somewhat differently to other companies, as the first "app" you install is free forever, but you start paying if you want to use any of the other apps. The list is huge, encompassing finance, sales, HR, marketing, services, websites, supply chain, and productivity spheres, so you could really use Odoo for your whole business operations, if you get to that stage.

For personal project management, all you'll need is the Project app, which is in the services group. It offers bright, colorful Kanban boards to play with, a Gantt view for timeline and scheduling use, and a list view for every piece of data you need. You can upload documents, tag tasks and projects to group them together, and it even has inbuilt chat and the ability to include your customers so they can see selected parts of the project as it progresses. You can install it on-premise, with packaged installers for several Linux distros and Windows, or you can run it from source.

Open-source project management tools are powerful, and many give you control over your own data

Keeping track of personal projects can be a chore, but how else are you going to keep on track and complete your passion projects? Being able to keep yourself accountable is key to advancing your skills and shipping any potential products. If you don't need the additional features of these open-source options, you have more traditional options available, with varying levels of subscription attached. They're not able to be self-hosted, though, so while they do have handy mobile apps, you're not fully in control of your project's data.