10 Best Gantt Chart Software for Teams in 2024

Project management is increasingly becoming visual in nature. Stakeholders want to grasp the nitty gritty quickly and in an easy-to-digest manner. This is where Gantt chart software shines.

In this guide, we will look at the 10 best free Gantt chart software so that you can make the most out of these horizontal, data-rich bars. Let’s go! 

But First, What is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Key elements:

• Planning: Plan and schedule projects of all scopes visually.
• Timeline: Visualize projects using horizontal timeline representing project duration.
• Milestones: Graphically represent milestones against time so that project managers can track progress.
• Dependencies: Create dependencies between tasks to indicate which tasks must be completed before others can start.

10 Best Free Gantt Chart Software to Use in 2024

1. Nifty

Nifty’s Roadmap feature provides a bird’s eye view of your current projects. The idea is to automate the process of tracking milestones progress based on how well a task proceeds.

You group tasks together as ‘milestones’ and view them in three different views: ‘Timeline,’ ‘Master,’ and ‘Swimlane:’

The Swimlane view shown above comes in handy if you want to pilot objectives. All you need to do is intersect project milestones and schedule tasks to ensure your project goals are being met.

This visual data also provides insights into which tasks need speeding up so that you can control projects and optimize workloads (as well as deadlines).

Finally, you can color-code tasks based on priority and allocate work accordingly:

If you want to build specific workflows depending on your project needs, you can use reoccurring tasks along with the Milestones (Gantt) layout to deliver projects on time.

Top Features:

• Interactive Gantt charts: You’ll love Nifty’s interactive Gantt charts – you can create and tweak project timelines with ease. Just drag and drop tasks, adjust dependencies, and make real-time updates right on the chart. 
• Milestone dependencies: Nifty’s Milestone dependency helps you to define the order of tasks and set bulk task dependencies. All you need to do is block all tasks in a milestone until the other tasks are completed:

So, if one task depends on another, Nifty will ensure they’re scheduled correctly. Plus, any changes you make to task durations or dependencies are instantly reflected on the Gantt chart.

• Recurring milestones: You can set a repeating schedule for your sprints with recurring milestones:

• Time tracking and progress monitoring: You can easily track task completion and project milestones, so you always know how your project is progressing at any point during the project lifecycle. 
• Integrated communication: You can chat, comment, mention team members, and attach files, all within the Gantt chart and other project management tools. This makes it easy to have project-related discussions on the go.
• Custom fields: You can use custom fields to add granular data to your milestones:

Pros:

• Gantt charts within the Milestones layout are quite extensive, intuitive, and easy to understand
• Despite being a project management software, Nifty offers useful features such as Gantt charts, task management software, and a task organizer – all combined together

Pricing:

• Free forever plan: $0 (with unlimited users and tasks)
• Personal plan: Starts at $7 per month
• Pro plan: Starts at $10 per month
• Business plan: Starts at $16 per month

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G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (400+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5 (400+ reviews)

2. Smartsheet

One of the four views in Smartsheet, Gantt charts within this tool offer a hyper-visual timeline of your work. If your team engages in traditional waterfall project management, Gantt charts can empower you to schedule your work (and the relationships between tasks) with ease. 

The biggest advantage of using Smartsheets is that you get access to no-code automated workflows too.

Top Features:

• Allows you to set dependencies between tasks so that your project stays organized and on track
• The tool automatically calculates the task start and end dates based on dependencies and duration – saving you invaluable time and reducing the risk of scheduling conflicts
• Option to switch between different views, including Gantt charts, calendar views, grid views, and card views
• Helps you to identify the critical path of your project, including highlighting tasks that could negatively impact the project’s overall timeline

Pros:

• Easily create Gantt charts even if you’re not a project management expert, thanks to the drag-and-drop interface
• The free plan includes attachment storage, automation tools, and reporting dashboards

Cons:

• Some users claim that formatting reports to show Gantts is limited 

Pricing:

• Free: $0 (1 user, up to 2 editors)
• Pro: $7 per user/month, billed yearly (maximum 10 users, unlimited viewers)
• Business: $25 per user/month, billed yearly (minimum 3 users, unlimited viewers)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

G2 Rating: 4.4/5 (14,000+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5 (3,000+ reviews)

3. FigJam

FigJam is a whiteboarding tool developed by Figma. Users prefer using this tool because of its extensive Gantt chart library with ready-to-use templates. 

This intuitive whiteboarding tool doubles up as a great Gantt chart maker so that you can create document processes, wireframes, and flowcharts. You can also leverage it for brainstorming, ideating, etc.

Top Features:

• Real-time collaboration on Gantt charts where users can leave comments as well as feedback 
• Connectors and shapes easily snap to the grid
• Access to hundreds of templates for flowcharts, organization charts, swimlane diagrams, entity relationship diagrams, etc.
• Ability to customize Gantt charts as per your branding with a color picker
• Easily integrates with Asana, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Notion, Slack, etc.

Pros:

• Extremely user-friendly, making it a perfect option for beginners
• Offers a mobile app and supports unlimited collaborators

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer an offline version
• Integrations with project management tools are limited

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Pricing:

• Starter: Free forever (3 Figma and 3 FigJam files)
• Figma Professional: $12 per editor/month, billed annually
• Figma Organization: $45 per editor/month, annual billing only
• Enterprise: $75 per editor/month, annual billing only

G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (400+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.8/5 (15+ reviews)

4. Miro

Miro is primarily a collaboration tool that offers an interactive project planning experience with its Gantt chart feature. This functionality is exceptionally useful in breaking down project tasks into smaller components.

You can also add dependencies between tasks and view the entire team’s project progress via a single timeline.

Top Features:

• Allows you to create and visualize project timelines, tasks, and dependencies in a clear and easily digestible format
• Lays the foundation for real-time collaboration among team members, whether they are working in the same location or remotely
• Offers users the ability to simultaneously edit and update the Gantt chart
• Provides cards for milestone markers, tasks, due dates, etc.
• Allows tracking of budgeting, resources, etc., via the project dashboard and activity log
• Offers a high degree of customization where you can adapt the Gantt chart to suit your project’s specific needs (think: custom fields, colors, and labels)

Pros:

• A great option for smaller teams on a tighter budget
• Offers the ability to add sticky notes, tasks, images, videos, etc. to your Gantt chart templates
• Allows you to filter the timeline by assignee or task types

Cons:

• Creating Gantt charts is relatively more time-consuming than other tools

Pricing:

• Free: $0 (unlimited team members)
• Starter: $8 per member/month, billed annually
• Business: $16 per member/month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

G2 Rating: 4.8/5 (5,100+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5 (1,300+ reviews)

Do you know; You can embeed Miro in Nifty?

5. ClickUp

A productivity and project management tool, ClickUp offers free online Gantt charts so that you can get a higher-level overview of your workload.

Top Features:

• ClickUp Gantt chart view offers various ways to view your Spaces, Lists, Projects, and tasks in one single Gantt chart
• Project scheduling features such as the Workload view help manage resources, calculate projects, etc.
• Custom statuses for tasks help users manage projects their way
• Ability to assign tasks to multiple assignees and tag tasks with client names

Pros:

• Offers 1000+ integrations with Zapier 

Cons:

• The free plan restricts users to 100 uses of the Gantt view

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Pricing:

• Basic: $0
• Premium: $10.99 per user per month, billed annually
• Business: $24.99 per user per month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5 (3,800+ reviews)

6. Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects offers two types of dynamic Gantt charts: Milestone Gantt view and Chronology Gantt view.

The tool comes with useful bug-tracking and task-management functionalities. If you want to track tasks and project schedules with a visually appealing Gantt chart, Zoho Projects is for you.

Top Features:

• Offers four task dependency types to manage dates: Finish to Start, Start to Finish, Start to Start, and Finish to Finish
• Allows users to rescale the chart as needed
• Clear color-coded labels provide task statuses at a glance

Pros:

• Offers comprehensive task details by hovering over the task name
• Provides drag and drop between taskbars to set interdependencies 
• Ability to export the Gantt chart as PDF 

Cons:

• Not a great option for Agile teams
• The free plan is restricted to only 3 users

Pricing:

• Free: $0 (up to 3 users)
• Premium: $5.32/user/month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $11.98/user/month, billed annually

G2 Rating: 4.3/5 (350+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.3/5 (400+ reviews)

7. Instagantt

Instagantt is an affordable Gantt chart software that empowers you to optimize resources and streamline workflows. You can use this as an add-on to Asana. 

This cloud-based software also has a project management platform that offers the Kanban board view to enable team members to work on their assigned tasks while monitoring the project’s progress.

Top Features:

• Workflow management helps manage your team’s workload
• Project tracking helps track tasks as well as subtasks
• Change tracking is ideal for tracking schedule changes 
• Critical path feature helps to quickly identify pending tasks 

Pros:

• Comprehensive task details panel where team members can add relevant information for every task
• Offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop scheduling interface

Cons:

• Users need an Asana account to use the free plan
• Time-tracking features can be better
• It is difficult to move linked tasks without affecting others

Pricing:

• Individual plan: $7 per month, billed monthly
• Team plan: $5 user per month, billed monthly

G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (15+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.3/5 (400+ reviews)

What makes Nifty the best free Gantt chart software?
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8. Toggl Plan

Toggl Plan is a free Gantt chart software that allows you to set a duration for each task, including their start and end dates. But you cannot view all the projects in one go. The tool doesn’t have a Portfolio Gantt chart available yet.

Top Features:

• Workload management helps track each team member’s work on a daily basis
• Icebox feature comprises of backlog of tasks that can be dragged on the timeline
• Timeline feature offers multiple views, such as weekly, quarterly, monthly, and yearly

Pros:

• Milestones can be viewed on the project timeline
• Allows users to send a public link for every project
• Provides an option to make milestones visible

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer dependencies
• Export options are fairly limited
• Time-tracking features are not available in the free plan

Pricing:

• Team: $8 per user per month, billed annually
• Business: $13.35 per user per month, billed annually

G2 Rating: 4.3/5 (30+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5 (100+ reviews)

9. TeamGantt

TeamGantt aims to replace desktop Gantt chart software with an easy-to-use interface. Thanks to its click-and-drag action, you can get milestones, tasks, etc., on the timeline. 

The software also offers features such as to-do lists, capacity planning, resource management, etc.

Top Features:

• Customizable views help view tasks in a simple list, via calendar view, or through a Gantt chart
• Team availability helps manage team member’s workloads
• Baseline feature helps compare the original timeline with the actual timeline to understand how well the team is progressing and learn about where the project can go off track
• Offers a % field where you can indicate the level of task completion

Pros:

• Available for free with an easy-to-navigate interface
• Offers a view-only URL for the project, ensuring seamless guest user access 
• Ability to add attachments to Gantt chart on Mac
• Offers useful color coding labels and the ability to toggle between the people or timeline views

Cons:

• Since there are restrictions to the number of projects for which a Gantt chart can be made for the free version, this tool is not friendly for smaller businesses 
• The tool can be laggy at times 
• Does not offer critical path analysis
• Importing data from other tools is an issue
• Does not allow you to edit or move a dependency once a user clicks on it

Pricing:

• Free
• Pro Plan: $49 a month per manager, billed yearly
• Unlimited Everything Plan: $499 a month (down from $799 on sale)

G2 Rating: 4.8/5 (800+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5 (200+ reviews)

10. Tom’s Planner

Tom’s Planner is a flexible and free Gantt chart software that offers multiple templates. Its drag-and-drop functionality allows you to make changes on the fly. With the platform being so simple to use, there’s no learning curve involved.

Top Features:

• Offers 500,000+ free templates or the ability to build your own from scratch
• Filters in your Gantt chart help you find tasks using resources, teams, activities, etc.
• Offers an AI tool to help you create a template based on your project description
• Provides the ability to import project schedules and Gantt charts from MS Project, Excel, Basecamp, etc.

Pros:

• Hassle-free Gantt charts that are ready to be used in minutes
• Offers custom colour coding and easy filtering options
• Provides the ability to export and share Gantt charts easily

Cons:

• Customization of colors and designs is restricted
• The free plan is only available for 1 project and does not offer any collaboration feature
• Hourly scheduling within the project plan is not possible

Pricing:

• Personal: Free for 1 project schedule
• Professional: $9.95 per month for 20 project schedules
• Unlimited: $19.95 per month for unlimited project schedules

G2 Rating: 4.4/5 (5+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5 (5+ reviews)

Benefits of Using Gantt Chart Software

At its core, Gantt charts help simplify your project planning process. 

Project managers can easily create and track multiple projects with the timeline view. Using this information, they can understand:

• How long a project will take
• The extent of resources required
• The key dependencies between tasks
• How to prioritize the order of tasks so that the project is delivered on time

As time progresses, the Gantt chart software will automatically adjust and update the schedule so that you get up-to-date information. 

This means you can say goodbye to pointless meetings about project status and keep all your stakeholders in the know at all times (and at the click of a button).

How to Choose the Best Gantt Chart Software for Your Business? 

Choosing the best Gantt chart software is a 4-step process—one that requires you to analyze your business and project management goals.

Consider the following factors when assessing a robust Gantt chart software for your business:

Factor #1. Core Functionality + Key Features Needed

Start by assessing the tool’s key features provided versus the plan you need. Here’s a quick run-through of important features to look out for:

• Milestones: You should be able to view the project’s key milestones at one glance.
• Auto-scheduling: The tool should be able to schedule the lead and lag time by default.
• Dependencies: You should be able to understand how different tasks are dependent on one another so that you can assess which task needs to be completed first so that others can follow.
• Critical path: Are you able to assign resources to high-priority tasks? Having a clear view of the critical path can help you to figure out the high-priority tasks without breaking a sweat.
• Task progress: You should be able to compare the planned hours versus actual hours of working to plan smarter.
• Export formats: Finally, you should be able to export the Gantt charts in multiple formats and share them with one click.

Factor #2. Usability + Support

When it comes to evaluating the Gantt chart software’s usability and support prowess, ask the following questions:

• Is the software easy to use?
• Is there a steep learning curve involved?
• Does the vendor offer 24×7 support via email, live chat, phone services, and more?
• Do you have the option of getting training or conducting workshops for the team?
• What will your onboarding look like? Do you have access to a knowledge base, how-to tutorials, etc., to make the learning simpler?

If your team is not able to wrap their heads around the software’s functionalities, the output will be skewed, and all that investment will be in vain.

Factor #3. Integrations

Your Gantt chart software should seamlessly integrate with your existing processes and workflows. So, explore the gantt chart tool’s integration with popular third-party tools such as Slack, Google Drive, JIRA, etc.

Factor #4. Pricing

The final consideration is understanding if the software’s pricing aligns with your list of ‘must-have’ features mentioned above. Enquire if the pricing is on a per-user basis.

You can also ask about the features within the free plan and whether there’s an option for a free trial.

Nifty to Your Visualization Rescue

Project managers dealing with large-scale projects can benefit from Gantt chart software in more ways than one.

They can identify the timelines and resources needed to plan projects from the get-go. Plus, a high-level project overview enables them to break tasks into manageable chunks so that the pain points can be addressed granularly. 

If you don’t know where to begin, consider Nifty. Our Roadmaps feature will guide your projects to success. Get started now.

FAQs

What is the best software for Gantt charts?

There are many software options available in the market today. The standout options include Nifty, ClickUp, Instagantt, Miro, etc. Ultimately, the best Gantt chart software is the one that provides a bird’s eye view of your projects that need to be completed by a specific due date in a digestible format. 

Can you make a Gantt chart in Excel?

According to Microsoft, Excel does not have a predefined Gantt chart type. However, you can create a Gantt chart using free online Gantt chart templates.

Does Google have a free Gantt chart?

Yes. Google Sheets provides a free Gantt chart template. To use this template, follow these steps:

• Access Google Sheets
• Search for the template needed by clicking the Template gallery option situated on the right
• Scroll down to the Project Management section. Click on Gantt chart, and you are done!