14 Best Notion Alternatives Free For Personal Use & Students
Taskade
Posted on May 6, 2022
Notion has been in the market since 2015. In the time that Notion has been around, there have been plenty of reviews about the popular productivity tool.
It's no surprise that people have been trying to find the best alternative to Notion. Some find it to be a versatile tool to have in their arsenal, while others find that overloading software with features isn't the best way to go about things.
No matter what your take on Notion is, we've curated a list of the best alternatives to Notion so that you can find the productivity tool that is best for you.
Contents [hide]
- What Is Notion?
- Taskade
- Evernote
- Google Keep
- Todoist
- Any.do
- Remember the Milk
- TickTick
- Trello
- ClickUp
- Miro
- Monday.com
- Asana
- Airtable
- Basecamp
- Why Taskade Is the Best Free Notion Alternative
What Is Notion?
Notion is an all-in-one software that has several uses to help improve your productivity. Founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao, Notion was made available to the public in 2015 with the main aim of helping people be more productive.
In 2018, Notion launched Notion 2.0 which further improved on its promise of being an all-in-one tool for its users. Notion 2.0 was voted 'Product of the Month' in March 2018 by Product Hunt, a community-driven website that is used to launch new tech products.
The software is packed with features to allow it to be as versatile as possible. However, upon using the tool, you may find yourself needing an in-depth onboarding session to learn how to use the software to your benefit.
What are some features of Notion?
Notion combines multiple tools such as project management, to-do lists, note-taking, wiki creation, and more into one unified software. Notion's main goal is to increase your productivity by reducing the number of apps you need to get your work done.
Notion is heavy on features and also supports integrations with other apps. When using Notion, you create content on pages by filling up blocks with content.
Although Notion does have a steep learning curve due to it having a lot of features, it can be a useful tool to help you and your team get work done. Having multiple features also means that Notion is flexible, meaning that you can use it for just about anything.
However, this comes at a cost as users have voiced out that Notion can be complicated to use at times.
What Is Notion Good For?
Notion tries to be an all-in-one productivity tool, and this means that it has multiple uses. Its flexible nature means that it can be used by both teams and individuals.
Notion can be good for you if you're a beginner who's trying out new productivity tools. It offers unlimited blocks and pages on its free plan, with the ability to create multiple project views as well.
This means that you have the freedom to experiment with it and get started on improving your productivity. However, do take note that you might be overwhelmed with the steep learning curve that Notion has.
Notion can also be used for teams who are looking for a tool to collaborate and get work done. Its product wiki template also helps teams get a head start on creating knowledge bases for projects or the company.
However, unlike Taskade, Notion does not have built-in video calls and chat ready to go in its workspaces. Notion has a comment function on the top of each page which can function as a makeshift chat section. However, full-blown chats will result in your project being pushed further down the page.
You have the option to integrate Slack with Notion, but this just means that you'll have an additional tool to toggle between to get your work done.
Taskade's built-in free unlimited chat and video conferencing allows you to collaborate and get work done in real-time all on one app.
What Are Some Limitations of Notion?
Although Notion has plenty of benefits, there are also some drawbacks to consider.
For starters, Notion is not intuitive to use. There is a steep learning curve when using the app due to the fact that Notion tries to be an all-in-one software. Newcomers to Notion will find that the page layout may be confusing. It takes some getting used to before you're able to use the software to your benefit.
One of the common problems that have been reported is that Notion is not good for taking long-form notes. This is because if you use a lot of slashes (/) in your note-taking, Notion tends to start a function with each slash. Constantly deleting these unwanted functions might have an effect on your train of thought.
Even though Notion has features that can allow for good collaboration, proper collaboration tools such as sharing pages and page permissions are only unlocked with a team plan. Notion's free plan limits collaborators to only 5 guests. You'll definitely have to fork out some cash if you want to collaborate with more people.
While Notion does a good job of being an all-in-one app, it lacks a focus on being good at one particular thing. If you're looking for an app to do a little bit of everything, then Notion is probably right for you.
However, if you're looking to do something more focused such as effectively collaborating on a huge project, or even taking detailed long-form notes, then Notion falls short.
How much does Notion cost?
Notion offers its software at four different tiers which include the free personal plan, personal pro, team, and enterprise plan.
- Notion Free Personal Plan
- Notion Personal Pro Plan -- $4 per month for each user
- Notion Team Plan -- $8 per month for each user
- Notion Enterprise Plan -- Contact sales
Now that we've touched base on what Notion has to offer, let's look at some of the best alternatives to Notion in 2022.
Taskade
Taskade is an online productivity and collaboration tool that was founded by John Xie, Dionis Loire, and Stan Chang in 2017. The Y Combinator-backed startup aims to help remote teams and individuals get work done faster and smarter.
Taskade is where remote teams get work done. With Taskade, you can organize tasks, take detailed notes, automate repetitive workflows, collaborate via built-in video chat with your team, and more, via an all-in-one unified workspace.
On Taskade, you can also take advantage of multiple board views including a Mind Map View which is unavailable on Notion. Use this view to see your data presentend in a horizontal tree-structured manner and map out what you have in mind.
Get a headstart on your projects and find a suitable structure for your notes via Taskade's versatile collection of templates. Simply choose from a wide variety of templates and add them to your projects to get started instantly!
Taskade is a supercharged productivity app that both individuals and teams can use to collaborate on projects in real-time.
Taskade is the best free Notion alternative. Get started instantly for free today.
Key Features of Taskade
- Project Views. Visualize your projects in several different ways. Cycle between the List, Mind Map, Org Chart, and Board views to work the way you want.
- List View. This is the default view on Taskade. Create new lists here.
- Board View. This view lets you work horizontally like a Kanban board. Visualize your workflow and tasks in this full-width view.
- Mind Map View. Unlike Notion, Taskade offers a Mind Map view to help you work in a horizontal tree-structured manner and map out what you have in mind.
- Action View. Work in table view and stay organized with your task due dates, and more.
- Org Chart View. Get things done by breaking down larger tasks into smaller ones.
- Calendar View.View all your tasks with due dates in a Calendar View, arranged by Month, Week or Day.
- Real-time Communication. Chat and video conference with your team for free while collaborating in real-time on the same page.
- Zoom In, Zoom Out. Get a bird's-eye view of the workflow by zooming out on all project views, or zoom in to focus on a specific area.
- Fold/Unfold. Fold (collapse) a parent task/bullet element to hide its subtasks. Indent outline elements with ⌨️ Tab and unfold lists with ⌨️ Shift+Tab.
- 500+ Templates. Choose from 500+ templates across 26 categories to improve your productivity and workflows. Customize existing templates or create new ones across your workspaces.
- Multi-Select. Select and format multiple blocks or bulk assign them as tasks to other team members. You can also copy, paste, or indent selected blocks.
- Customize Sub-Tasks. Customize the format of your sub-tasks at individual levels. Choose from headings, numbered lists, shapes, and more.
- Recurring Tasks. Add due dates with start and end times to tasks within your project and set them to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly.
- Move Tasks. Move and copy selected tasks to other projects across any workspace. You'll receive a pop-up notification on completion.
- User Roles & Permissions. Manage collaborators and assign user roles/editing privileges (Owner, Admin, Editor, Checker, Viewer).
- Sort Tasks. Sort sub-tasks/children elements by completed/uncompleted stats or the due date. Task sorting can be accessed from a convenient pop-up menu.
- Search. Search within projects or globally across workspaces and subspaces. Instantly browse and jump between projects anywhere in the Taskade.
- Keyboard Shortcuts. Navigate projects, create content blocks, reorder elements, and complete tasks using a set of handy keyboard shortcuts.
- Team Calendar. Aggregate all tasks and projects in a shared calendar. The Taskade calendar integrates with Google (two-way), Apple, and Outlook.
- Reorder Tasks. Lists in Taskade aren't set in stone. Reorder tasks and find them a new home with intuitive drag-and-drop mechanics.
- Project History. See all the changes made by you and other collaborators. Click on the entries to navigate to the edited items within the project.
- Version History. Taskade saves snapshots of your project so that you can restore a previous version of your project with a single click.
- Export and Print. You can export your projects as plain text or markdown files. Attach them to emails, presentations, or for print.
- Cloud File Upload. Share files directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, and Box in your projects with our integrations.
- Breakdown Larger Tasks. Organize your thoughts with Taskade's unlimited hierarchy to break down large projects into tasks.
- Quick Search. Use CMD / CTRL + K to jump between any projects within Taskade web and apps.
For an exhaustive list of Taskade's features, click here.
Taskade Pros
- Free-forever plan is loaded with features
- Real-time collaboration within the same project
- Multiple board views including a Mind Map view
- Free built-in video call and chat function in each project
- Customizable templates to give you a headstart
- Work and chat in the same window, in the same app
- Frequent updates based on user/your feedback and suggestions
- Tabbed workflow for working with multiple Projects
Taskade Cons
- No gantt chart view (yet)
Taskade Pricing
- Taskade Free Plan
- Taskade Unlimited Plan -- Starts from $5 per month
Click here for more information.
Evernote
Evernote is a digital note-taking application that was founded by Russian engineer Stepan Pachikov. Pachikov was fascinated by the way that humans store information, which made him create Evernote to help people organize their thoughts and store more information.
Pachikov started working on an Evernote prototype in 2002. He worked on it for 6 years before feeling confident enough to beta launch the product to a limited audience. After its launch, Evernote grew exponentially and had more than 10 million users by the end of 2011.
Coincidentally, Evernote also became profitable in 2011, with a reported sales figure of around $16 million for that year.
Evernote pioneered digital note-taking and remains one of the most popular note-taking apps today. If you're interested in a more in-depth discussion on Evernote's history from day 1 to what it is today, check out our article on it!
Features of Evernote
In essence, Evernote is best described as a digital notebook with added features. Evernote's concept is simple, you create notes which are then stored inside notebooks. You can add tags to your notes in order to keep them organized.
However, this can get pretty clunky especially if you're a heavy note-taker. This is where Evernote's built-in search function comes into play; allowing you to search for notes using keywords and phrases.
Evernote is known for its Web Clipper feature. You can download an extension that allows you to clip parts or even entire web pages and paste them into Evernote. You can highlight key points on clipped web pages to emphasize certain points. These highlights will remain stored in the app until you delete them.
You can use Evernote's templates to get you started on tasks that require more structure such as creating a story dashboard or even a monthly calendar to get yourself organized. This can be a helpful feature to help you kickstart your projects.
An interesting thing that Pachikov did with Evernote is that he implemented a feature to recognize handwritten notes. This was a page he took from a tool he created called 'Calligrapher' in his earlier days which recognized handwritten input on devices. In Evernote, handwritten notes can be captured via an in-app camera.
If you're big on keeping organized, you can utilize widgets to reduce clutter on your Evernote homepage. However, this will require you to upgrade your free account.
How Much Does Evernote Cost?
Evernote offers its software in 4 different plans.
- Evernote Free Plan
- Evernote Personal Plan -- $7.99 per user per month
- Evernote Professional Plan -- $9.99 per user per month
- Evernote Team Plan -- $14.99 per user per month
Google Keep
Google Keep is a digital note-taking software that was launched as part of Google Suite in 2013. When it was first released, Google Keep was given good reviews due to its lean design and simplicity. This meant that it was a simple note-taking tool that was also quick.
It was only later in 2016 that Google Keep started to get mixed reviews. Part of these reviews came from users that found it hard to take long-form notes with the inability to format notes and change workspace views on Google Keep. Generally, good reviews for Google Keep come from it being a note-taking app that is simple and accessible.
Users can choose between a list view or grid view on their board. Notes can also be color-coded or customized with an in-built background. Important notes can be pinned to the top and Google Keep's lean design makes it an intuitive note-taking app to use.
You can also collaborate on Google Keep to take simple notes together or share to-do lists with other users.
You can also use Google Keep to collaborate with other users on simple notes and even share to-do lists. The only prerequisite to this is that other users must also sign in to their Google account to use Google Keep.
In 2021, Google discontinued Google Keep's Chrome app. However, the popular note-taking tool can still be accessed via web browsers and other apps.
Features of Google Keep
Besides customizing backgrounds, Google Keep does have a few useful features to help you take simple notes online. However, the software is only equipped with minimal features to keep things simple.
You can transcribe voice recordings into your notes on Google Keep. To do this, record your voice using the app and your voice will automatically be transcribed in real-time. This is a useful feature to have if you get a sudden hit of inspiration while being unable to type out your notes.
If you enjoy drawing, you can add doodles to your notes. Simply draw and save your doodles on your notes within Google Keep. If you prefer to express your thoughts via drawings, then this feature will come in handy for you.
Google Keep does not have formatting options and this makes it hard for you to take long-form and detailed notes. However, you can transfer your notes into Google Docs easily. Although it takes an extra step to transfer notes from Google Keep to Google Docs, you should be able to continue your long-form note-taking process.
You can organize your notes via labels and also use Google Keep's search function to locate specific notes. However, if you're a heavy note-taker, your Google Keep home page will get messier as you take more notes. Unlike Taskade which is more robust, Google Keep does not have the organizational features that Taskade offers.
Being a simple note-taking tool, Google Keep offers a basic collaboration feature. Simply click on your note and add a collaborator to start taking notes together in real-time. However, this will only work for simple notes. This is because Google Keep lacks a built-in chat feature, making it harder for you and your team to align on ideas.
How Much Does Google Keep Cost?
Google Keep is completely free to use.
Todoist
Todoist is a task management software that was developed by its parent company, Doist. Amir Salihefendic is the founder of Doist, and he developed Todoist in 2007. The main aim of developing Todoist was to help people stay on top of their tasks by organizing it via a simple task management system.
Todoist is completely bootstrapped. Salihefendic has declined any sort of funding and acquisition in order to stay in control of the company. He mentioned in a blog post that he didn't want to have an exit strategy, and instead wanted to create a powerful product that can help people(1).
Since its launch in 2007, Todoist has seen steady growth. The software has around 2 million users in 2014, and over 5 million users as of today.
The software is lightweight with simple features to make it intuitive and fast. In Todoist, you can create tasks which are then housed under projects, or in an inbox. You can create sub-projects within projects and break up big tasks into smaller sub-tasks to help organize your work.
Features of Todoist
Todoist is a simple task management software that allows you to stay on top of your day by organizing your work with the help of a to-do list. Todoist is lightweight and only has features that are geared to help you make better to-do lists.
You use Todoist by creating tasks, which are then organized in projects or your Todoist inbox. You can create multiple projects to break down your tasks into different facets such as for work and for home. If you want to take your organizational skills up a notch, you can create sections within your projects to organize your tasks in groups.
When adding tasks, you can set due dates and assign them to folders without having to manually click them by using commands. Tasks can be color-coded based on priority and recurring tasks can also be automated to help you save time.
Todoist helps you visualize your tasks by offering a Kanban board view that you can toggle to. However, this is the only alternative view that Todoist offers. Taskade on the other hand offers 5 different views for you to visualize your to-do lists and projects.
There are plenty of external apps that Todoist can integrate with. One of the uses of this is to integrate with a third-party email app so that you can reply to your emails via Todoist and check it off your to-do list at the same time.
As a simple to-do list, Todoist keeps it simple and doesn't overwhelm you with a lot of features. It is also available on every major platform so that you can update your to-do lists wherever you are.
How Much Does Todoist Cost?
Todoist offers its software in three different tiers, with additional discounts for nonprofit organizations.
- Todoist Free Plan
- Todoist Pro Plan -- $3 per user per month
- Todoist Business Plan -- $5 per user per month
Any.do
Any.do is a task management software that was founded in 2011 by Omer Perchik, Yoni Lindenfeld, and Itay Kahana. The first iteration of Any.do was an Android app known as Taskos.
After receiving $1 million in funding from angel investors in 2011, Any.do experienced a surge in growth, with over 500,000 users downloading the app within the first month of launch. Two years later, they had over 7 million users and by the end of 2020, Any.do crossed over 30 million users. This makes Any.do one of the most popular to-do list apps today.
On Any.do, users can manage their tasks by creating to-do lists and breaking down larger tasks into smaller subtasks. Unlike Remember The Milk which requires users to upgrade to access the subtasks feature, Any.do offers this feature for free.
The desktop home view is broken down into three sections which are a menu on the left, a task block in the middle, and a calendar block on the right.
Being available across most devices, Any.do gives you the ability to add and check tasks on the go. Additionally, you can integrate Any.do with your device calendar. This would then show all of your daily tasks on your device calendar, ensuring that you're always on top of your day.
There is synergy between Any.do's to-do list functionality and its calendar view, which allows users to easily toggle between the two views and keep track of things. With a simple build, Any.do is easy to use and is used by a large number of users due to its ease of use.
As a simple to-do list app, Any.do would suffice if you're looking for software to help organize simple tasks. You can also collaborate with other users on your to-do lists on Any.do. However, although Any.do is good as a simple task management tool, it lacks features that are required when working on more complex tasks.
Features of Any.do
Any.do is light on features, and that is by design. Being light on features makes it a simple to-do list software to use with minimal onboarding required.
On Any.do, you can create to-do lists and further organize your tasks into subtasks. Doing this helps you to break down complex tasks into smaller actionable subtasks to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.
Your tasks and calendar are closely knitted together on Any.do. Once you've created a task and integrated your preferred digital calendar app, you will be able to see all of your daily and weekly tasks on your calendar.
If you upgraded your plan to a premium version, you will get access to advanced recurring tasks, which allows you to set a task to repeat at customizable intervals. Taskade would be a better free alternative to Any.do because Taskade allows you to set recurring tasks even on a free plan.
Any.do is available on most devices and this gives you the ability to be in complete control of your schedule. You can choose to be notified of certain key tasks throughout your day. Any.do's seamless integration of its task lists with calendars makes it a unique tool to have in your arsenal.
Once you have created a few tasks, you can change your task list view to show you the tasks you have for the day, a weekly view, and even a monthly view. This lets you estimate the workload that you'll have in store for you.
You can also collaborate with other users on a shared task list. Once a list has been shared, you can then assign tasks and add comments to communicate via the app. This would be ideal if you're working together on something simple such as a shopping list or planning simple events.
How Much Does Any.do Cost?
Any.do has two pricing plans available.
- Any.do Free Plan
- Any.do Premium Plan -- $5.99 per user per month
Remember the Milk
Remember The Milk is an online to-do list application. It was created to help people manage their time better by organizing their tasks and to-do lists.
Remember The Milk was founded in 2004 by Emily Boyd and Omar Kilani. The pair were inspired by Gmail and created Remember The Milk to help other people organize their tasks.
After being developed for a year, Remember The Milk was launched in 2005. The task management tool quickly grew in popularity and today, they have over 6 million users.
With Remember The Milk, users can set to-do lists via a web browser, or via mobile with Android or iOS. Part of its charm comes from it being a simple task management tool without being overloaded with features.
Being a simple tool to use, Remember The Milk works best for people who are looking for a simple to-do list app to organize their tasks. Remember The Milk is also frequently compared to Todoist as both tools have somewhat similar features.
Features of Remember the Milk
Remember The Milk is light-on features and is easy to use. The dashboard feels similar to a Gmail dashboard, giving it a sense of familiarity for regular Gmail users. Clicking on 'Add a task' gets you started on adding your first task, which you can then organize by adding tags or putting it in a list.
You can also set the start and end dates for your task. For recurring tasks, there is an option for you to repeat tasks to help you save time. Remember The Milk also has a priority feature, which lets you organize your tasks in order of priority so that you can get the most important tasks out of the way first.
Although Remember The Milk does not offer multiple board views, you can change your task view to show you the tasks that you have for the current day, the day after, or tasks remaining for the current week.
Generally, Remember The Milk is only a to-do list application. It is a good way for you to get started with creating to-do lists and using an app to help organize the simpler aspects of your life. You can also share your to-do lists with 2 other users. This works best for simple collaboration on tasks such as a shared grocery list.
However, Taskade is a better free alternative to Remember The Milk because Taskade offers unlimited projects and tasks for free. With Taskade, you can create unlimited to-do lists and collaborate with as many people as you want on the app, making it a better alternative to Remember The Milk.
How Much Does Remember the Milk Cost?
Remember The Milk offers its product in two simple plans which are the Free Plan, and the Pro Plan.
- Remember The Milk Free Plan
- Remember The Milk Pro Plan -- $39.99 per user per year
TickTick
TickTick is a task management tool that was founded by Appest Inc in 2013. Appest Inc originally created an app on Android called GTasks. TickTick was then created based on GTasks with added features to help with productivity such as cross-platform synchronization. TickTick was co-founded by Zhimin Chen, and the company's main goal is to help people get more work done.
In 2013, TickTick was launched on web browsers, Android, and iOS. The app then made its way to Windows and Mac three years later.
TickTick is frequently compared to Todoist because both tools serve a similar purpose for task management and as a to-do list. However, TickTick is different from Todoist due to its calendar view that has gotten good reviews from users.
Features of TickTick
TickTick has a light build which makes it user-friendly. It is not loaded on features which means that beginners can get started on using the tool quickly.
On TickTick, you can create to-do lists and set reminders to make sure that you get your work done. You can organize tasks by storing them within folders and organize them further by using tags. Recurring tasks can also be set to repeat so that you won't have to keep on recreating them.
The gamification of tasks on TickTick gives you an added incentive to get your tasks done on time. Completing tasks on time gives you a higher achievement score. If a task is delayed, the reverse will occur.
Desktop and web versions of TickTick allow you to toggle between the default list view to a kanban view. In the kanban view, you can drag and drop tasks between columns in a similar way to the calendar view. The kanban view in TickTick has simple features such as due dates, prioritizing tasks, and viewing task activity.
TickTicks best feature is probably its calendar view. In this view, you are able to drag tasks around the calendar and use time blocking to organize your tasks. Unassigned tasks can also be dragged into the calendar to automatically give it a due date. However, the calendar view is only available for premium accounts, which means that you will have to pay to get access.
A minor but neat feature that TickTick has is that you have the ability to visualize how much of a task has been completed via a task progress bar. One of the reasons that make Taskade the best free alternative to TickTick is that you can check off and hide completed tasks in addition to having a progress bar for your whole project.
If you're a fan of the Pomodoro Timer, TickTick has a built-in Pomodoro Timer in its settings, which means that you can easily get started on this useful productivity method.
You can also collaborate on TickTick by inviting other users to your tasks or by creating a shared task list. However, this feature is very limited as the free version only allows you to collaborate with one other user.
How Much Does TickTick Cost?
TickTick has a straightforward pricing strategy as it only has two plans available, the Free Plan, and the Premium Plan.
- TickTick Free Plan
- TickTick Premium Plan -- $27.99 per user per month
Trello
Trello is a web-based Kanban board project management application that was founded in 2014 by Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor. It was originally codenamed "Trellis" and was subsequently renamed Trello.
Spolski and Pryor created a prototype of Trello in 2011 and they soon became pioneers of the online Kanban board movement.
After years of steady growth and a 2017 acquisition by Atlassian, Trello is still one of the most popular options for project management software today.
Features of Trello
Trello is a project management software that enables users to manage tasks, organize, and share them across teams. Users create Trello cards representing different tasks and then use the drag-and-drop interface to place these on a Trello board.
Although Trello offers multiple project views, these are locked behind a paywall and you would have to purchase a premium subscription to get access to multiple views. With a free or standard plan, you are limited to the default Kanban view.
How Much Does Trello Cost?
Trello has three pricing tiers available.
- Trello Free Plan
- Trello Standard Plan -- $5 per user per month
- Trello Premium Plan -- $ 10 per user per month
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management software that was founded by Alex Yurkowski and Zeb Evans in 2017. It is usually used by individuals and teams to organize projects and tasks.
ClickUp quickly gained popularity when it was released to the market and today, it is a company that is valued at around $4 billion. Recently in 2021, ClickUp raised $400 million in a Series C funding round. It is also reported that ClickUp has around 4 million users using its platform. What makes this company so popular amongst other similar tools in the market?
Part of ClickUp's popularity comes from it wanting to be the only productivity tool that users will ever need. Although there are limitations to ClickUp which will be covered in the coming sections below, ClickUp does offer a customizable approach to project management.
This means that individuals and teams of all sizes are able to use ClickUp to increase their productivity. You can use ClickUp to create and monitor personal and group projects, making it a versatile tool to have in your arsenal.
On ClickUp, your Workspace represents your business and is further divided into Spaces that break down your business into its functions such as 'Finance' or 'Marketing'. Within these spaces, Folders containing Tasks and Lists are housed within them.
After creating projects, you can assign tasks to your team members with specific due dates to ensure that your project flows as smoothly as possible. Check out some of ClickUp's features below.
Features of ClickUp
ClickUp is loaded with features to help you better manage your projects. Similar to Taskade, ClickUp offers multiple views for you to choose from including a List view, Board view, Calendar view, Gantt view, and more.
The List and Board views can get pretty clunky if you have multiple tasks going on at the same time. If you're keeping track of multiple tasks and projects at the same time, the Calendar view might be a better option for you. The main idea is to let you choose the view that best fits your requirements.
After creating a task on ClickUp, you will be able to add notes, drag and drop files related to the task, and break down the task further into actionable subtasks. Tasks can be assigned to multiple people, and you can also assign people to be 'Watchers' on certain tasks. This means that they will receive notifications when there are updates for those tasks.
Once you get started on a task, you can set the status of the task to keep everyone on your team aligned on the progress of each task and subtask. For example, you can set the status of a task to 'Doing' whilst having a few subtasks 'Closed' to state that you're midway through said task.
Communication is essential to the success of team projects. ClickUp offers a comments section on each task to allow you to leave comments and chat with your teammates. You will get an email notification when you're assigned a task or when there's a comment on your project, ensuring that you stay updated every step of the way.
Comments can also be turned into an actionable task and assigned to your team members. This allows you to quickly assign suggested changes or additional tasks for your project. Assigned tasks can then be resolved, which gives you a notification so that you can keep track of your team's progress.
ClickUp also integrates with thousands of other apps so that you can work on your project using your favorite tools. Although it might be a hassle to choose from the many integrations that are available, this can be a useful feature for you if you already know exactly what tools you need for your projects.
How Much Does ClickUp Cost?
ClickUp offers its software in a few different packages.
- ClickUp Free Forever Plan
- ClickUp Unlimited Plan -- $5 per user per month
- ClickUp Business Plan -- $12 per user per month
- ClickUp Business Plus Plan -- $19 per user per month
Miro
Miro is a visual collaboration platform that was founded in 2011 by Andrey Khusid. Khusid originally created a digital whiteboard called RealtimeBoard in 2011 to communicate his ideas with his remote clients. This eventually evolved into Miro, which has over 20 million users worldwide today.
Recently in 2022, Miro raised $400 million in a Series C funding round. This brings its valuation up to $17.5 billion.
The idea behind Miro was to digitize traditional processes such as writing on a piece of paper or having face-to-face interactions by replacing them with modern tools such as docs and chat. Miro works similarly to Whimsical, as both tools utilize a visual approach to brainstorming and collaboration.
On Miro, users can choose to start work on a customizable empty board or get started with ready-made templates. Boards can be used for a variety of things ranging from project management, brainstorming, wireframe creation, and more.
Features of Miro
Miro has a few features to help you and your team collaborate online.
On Miro, you work on boards that can be customized to fit your needs. Each board is built in the form of a fully customizable infinite canvas. This allows you to collaborate and branch out your mind maps and ideas without limit.
Similar to other visual collaboration tools, Miro also features a drag-and-drop design which makes it easy for you to edit your visualizations. Boards also have tools such as shapes, arrows, and drawing to make it seem as if you're collaborating on a piece of paper.
On Miro, you can collaborate with your team members via chat and video calls to reduce the need to toggle between applications when working. Downloading the Voting Plugin allows your team members to vote on ideas that they resonate with, allowing for better flow on your projects.
Each Miro project starts as a blank slate, which can be quite a daunting task to start. However, this can be made simpler by using Miro's templates to help you get started with your tasks.
Besides brainstorming and planning workflows, you can also manage projects with your team on Miro via a built-in Kanban-style project board.
Additionally, Miro also integrates with other applications such as notion, slack, and box, which gives you the ability to use your favorite applications alongside the app.
How Much Does Miro Cost?
Miro offers its software at four different price points which include the Free Plan, Team Plan, Business Plan, and Enterprise Plan.
- Miro Free Plan
- Miro Team Plan -- $8 per user per month
- Miro Business Plan -- $ 16 per user per month
- Miro Enterprise Plan -- Contact sales
Miro Business Plan
The Business Plan gives you the added ability to invite guests to your private boards. You can also organize smart meetings with a specific set of tools and create better diagrams with advanced packs.
Miro's Business Plan starts at $16 per month for each user.
If you're looking to use Miro for your business, you can also consider the Enterprise Plan which offers premium support, data governance, and added security features.
Monday.com
Originally known as Dapulse, monday.com is a Work OS that was founded in 2012. It is a cloud-based software that allows teams to collaborate and get work done. Roy Mann, Eran Kampf, and Eran Zinman raised $1.5 million to develop the product which was launched to the public two years later in 2014.
In 2017, after receiving negative press about its name, Dapulse rebranded itself into monday.com. To date, after raising over $385 million in total funding, the company was publicly listed in June 2021 with a valuation of $1.9 billion. This makes monday.com achieve unicorn status.
Monday.com is a tool that helps you and your team organize and manage work. Boards on the software are created in the form of a spreadsheet. The difference is that each block on your board is fully customizable to fit your needs.
Sound familiar? That's because it closely resembles Airtable.
Monday.com was created to help you collaborate with others and get things done together. Aside from the multitude of ads that monday.com has on the internet, teams and individuals can use this project management software for just about anything. But this isn't without its drawbacks which we will discuss in more detail below.
Today, monday.com has over 152,000 users and more than 1,100 employees.
Features of Monday.com
Think of monday.com as a fully customizable spreadsheet to help you create the ideal workflow for your team. Columns can be populated with data such as task status, the priority order for tasks, assignee, and more. The idea behind this design is to enable you to create the tool that you need to get work done.
Some of the boards that monday.com offers include the Main board which is visible to all of your team members, Shareable boards for you to share with people outside of your team, and Private boards which are only visible to people that you share it with.
Once you've created a board, you can choose between different views to help you visualize your tasks and projects. Being a project management application, you can break down large tasks into actionably sub-tasks that can be checked when they've been completed.
Monday lacks a few key features such as built-in communication and tackles this problem by integrating with other apps such as Slack. By utilizing Monday's integration feature, you can potentially centralize all of your work into one software. But that's only if you manage to find the right integrations to fit your needs.
You can also automate your workflow on monday.com by creating custom trigger-based automations. If creating automation is something that you're not too keen on doing, you can also try out pre-built automations from their range of templates.
How Much Does Monday.com Cost?
Monday.com is more expensive compared to other project management tools in the market. They have a few plans available including a Free, Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plan.
- Monday.com Free Plan
- Monday.com Basic Plan -- $8 per user per month
- Monday.com Standard Plan -- $10 per user per month
- Monday.com Pro Plan -- $16 per user per month
Asana
Asana is a collaboration and project management software aimed at helping teams get more work done.
It was first created at Facebook as a tool to help people collaborate on projects more efficiently. Codenamed 'Tasks', the tool was created by Dustin Moskovitz, who was a co-founder at Facebook, and Justin Rosenstein, an ex-engineer at Facebook.
'Tasks' was created because Moskovitz and Rosenstein both realized that it took more time to plan and coordinate work than actually getting work done. The duo left Facebook to co-found Asana in 2008 when they found out that this was a common problem that affected everyone else and not just Facebook employees.
Mark Zuckerberg was an early investor in Asana, and the company had steadily increased its popularity over time. In 2018, Asana raised $125 million in a Series D and Series E funding round to help the company expand globally.
The goal at Asana is to reduce reliance on traditional emails and sync-ups. Instead, the company wants to provide a common space where users can manage projects and find all the information they need to get work done.
Essentially, Asana wants to reduce the need for emails and meetings so that people can spend more time getting actual work done.
Features of Asana
Being a project management software, Asana is equipped with a multitude of features to help you get more work done.
On Asana, you can create projects and break them down into detailed tasks to help your team visualize the roadmap. Each project workspace comes with a list view to detail the steps needed for the project, conversations to support team communications, a calendar to view the team's tasks, a project progress view for status updates, and also files to share documents within the team.
Within each task, you can assign it to individual members and set deadlines. Add more information into the task description to hopefully prevent the need to have more meetings to align the deliverables.
If the task is dependent on another task being done first, you can set task dependencies on Asana so that your project flows seamlessly. Additionally, Asana has an approval feature for tasks so that you can approve, request changes, or reject tasks.
Communication in Asana is done mostly within its conversations feature. You can send messages to team conversations to update the whole team working on the same project. Team members can choose to follow conversation threads to stay updated, and also create tasks to move things forward from the chat.
Asana collaborated with Vimeo to launch a video messaging feature. With this feature, you can record video messages and embed them in your workspace to send messages to your team members. Video messages in Asana are also automatically transcribed to help you be more productive.
Asana also integrates with many apps including cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox and Google Drive. This enables you to share information from your preferred storage app.
How Much Does Asana Cost?
Asana comes in 4 different pricing tiers which include Asana Basic, Premium, Business, and Enterprise.
- Asana Basic Plan
- Asana Premium Plan -- $10.99 per user per month
- Asana Business Plan -- $24.99 per user per month
- Asana Enterprise plan -- Contact sales
Airtable
Airtable is a hybrid tool that merges spreadsheet functionality with database storage capabilities. Howie Liu, Andrew Ofstad, and Emmet Nicholas founded the company in 2012 as a solution for businesses to better organize their information digitally.
If you don't organize your information well, it can lead to a lower productivity level in your company. With its cloud database solution, Airtable gives you the ability to build anything from simple to very complex databases to organize all of your information.
Building databases usually require help from engineers, but with Airtable, you can create these databases without having to worry about coding at all. Information stored on Airtable can be filtered and manipulated, helping you to better visualize large amounts of information.
Think of Airtable as a cross between excel and a database that's loaded with more features.
Features of Airtable
Airtable has a few features to help you store and organize your data.
An Airtable Workspace contains Bases, which contain all your project information. Each Workspace will ideally have a few unique Bases which contain organizational information relating to that area.
Bases contain Tables, which take some inspiration from spreadsheets. Information in Airtable is stored within Tables, and you can have multiple Tables within your Base.
For example, you could have a content workspace, which contains an editorial base. Your editorial base would then contain a few tables such as an article ideas table, a blog schedule table, and other tables relating to editorial.
After storing your data, you can switch between a few views including the classic Spreadsheet view, Kanban, Gallery, Calendar, and Gantt view.
Airtable isn't exactly beginner-friendly, but if used correctly it can be a powerful tool to store and organize your information. To make things easier for beginners, Airtable has templates available to help kickstart your project since every project begins as a clean slate.
In contrast, Taskade is a better free alternative to Airtable because Taskade is intuitive and has a wide range of Templates to help you organize just about anything.
Airtable also works with Zapier and Workato so that you can integrate with other apps within your Airtable and also automate certain tasks.
Additionally, you can also create interactive apps in Airtable for your team to use. Apps that you create will be stored by Airtable which means that it's quite a hassle-free experience.
Airtable can be a powerful database tool to have, but that's just about what it is. It isn't a full project management suite that allows for real-time collaboration such as Taskade.
How Much Does Airtable Cost?
Airtable has 3 main pricing plans which include the Free Plan, Plus Plan, and Pro Plan.
- Airtable Free Plan
- Airtable Plus Plan -- $10 per user per month
- Airtable Pro Plan -- $20 per user per month
Basecamp
Formerly known as 37signals, Basecamp is one of the pioneers of online project management. Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim founded the American company in 1999.
Production of the Basecamp software officially commenced in 2003 and it was created using Ruby on Rails, a framework that Basecamp had created for internal use. Ruby on Rails ended up being a byproduct of Basecamp and was made into open-source software in 2004.
37signals was renamed Basecamp in 2014. This marked a shift in the overall company strategy which was to now shift all resources into perfecting the project management software, Basecamp.
As a project management software, Basecamp was created as a tool to help businesses organize projects and collaborate online. Basecamp quickly gained popularity upon release as it was one of the first to offer a new way of collaboration and organization.
With Basecamp, individuals and companies can manage and track projects while communicating, all via one software. Basecamp is usually offered as an all-in-one software to help companies get work done. However, Basecamp also prices its product at a premium price when compared to its competitors.
Read our article if you're interested to learn more about the full history of Basecamp.
Features of Basecamp
Basecamp is an all-in-one project management software that aims to help companies get work done more efficiently. You can use Basecamp to organize your projects and make sure that everyone in your team is on the same page.
In Basecamp, you can organize your teams by creating projects. Each project is equipped with tools to help you get work done.
This includes a message board, a to-do list, a daily schedule, docs & files to share common downloadable files, and campfire for basic chat within the project or team. You have the freedom to rename these tools and also integrate them with other apps to personalize your workspace.
You can have multiple projects within Basecamp, each with a different set of people working together. Additionally, you can also organize people from different teams based on their organizational function as well such as Marketing, IT, HR, and more.
Each team workspace will also have the same set of tools to help you communicate and collaborate with each other.
On a company level, you can align everyone in the company HQ workspace. In this workspace, you can utilize Basecamp's automatic check-in feature to get a gist of how the team is functioning throughout the day.
How Much Does Basecamp Cost?
Basecamp has a very simple pricing structure. There's a free version of the software, and also a paid version which comes at a standard monthly fee.
Also, Basecamp is free for all teachers and students. Nonprofit organizations enjoy a 10% discount from Basecamp's paid subscription.
- Basecamp Free Plan
- Basecamp Business Plan -- $99 per user per month
Why Taskade Is the Best Free Notion Alternative
You and your team can use Taskade to work from anywhere. Use Taskade individually or collaborate with your team for weekly agendas, team meetings, note-taking, project management, product roadmaps, and more.
Make use of customizable board views to visualize your projects into digestible smaller tasks. You can also get more work done the smarter way by making full use of multiple board views.
Collaborate with your team in real-time with free and unlimited chat and video conferencing available on every project. Automatic syncing ensures that your data is always up to date across devices.
Taskade is the simplest way to create task lists, checklists, and workflows. Manage projects and get more work done the simple way with Taskade. Taskade is the best free Notion alternative. Try Taskade for free today.
Posted on May 6, 2022
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