Which free project plan
can support your team?

Start with the people who need access, then list what you will store and how you will share it. This guide compares current published free plans by their access and content limits. It covers Asana, monday.com, ClickUp, Trello, Notion and Basecamp; it is not an exhaustive directory of free tools.

Existing or legacy accounts can differ. Confirm your own account's limits before inviting a client or moving active work.

Three scenarios worth testing

1. Three full members, with no native file uploads

On the checker's default business scenario, ClickUp and Trello pass the member, guest and file checks. Asana and monday.com exceed their member caps. A multi-owner Notion workspace cannot keep creating content beyond its 1,000-block allowance, and Basecamp's Free project is positioned for personal use. Passing these checks does not establish that a tool supports your approvals, reporting or permissions.

2. One Notion owner with ten page-level guests

This has a different shape from eleven full workspace members. Notion's pricing lists ten external guests, while its block help gives a single-owner Free workspace unlimited blocks. Guests access shared pages rather than becoming equivalent full workspace members. The same eleven-person total exceeds Trello's free collaborator ceiling. Check whether page-level access is actually enough for each collaborator's work.

3. A 12 MB attachment

Even when a small team's people count fits, that file exceeds Trello Free's 10 MB upload cap and Notion Free's 5 MB cap. Asana's published maximum is 100 MB per file. ClickUp's 60 MB shared storage should not be interpreted as a confirmed per-file cap: check the upload rule and remaining storage separately. Linking to an external file has different access and ownership implications from uploading it directly.

The details that make a free plan stop fitting

Asana: use the current two-member limit

Older articles can describe larger free teams. Asana's current Personal help distinguishes the two-seat plan from legacy Personal accounts and describes two-member team/project sharing limits. A separate guest billing rule is not proof that your intended free project can be shared with every outside collaborator. The checker marks requested guest access for vendor review.

monday.com: count boards and items as well as seats

Its Free plan starts with three boards and 200 items across the account. Referral rewards can increase items, but the checker assumes none. Free does not provide guest or viewer accounts, automations or integrations. Native uploads can be made through updates; the Files Column itself is not included. A two-person shortlist may still need a paid tier for the actual workflow.

ClickUp: unlimited people do not mean unlimited controls

Free Forever lists unlimited members and guests, alongside 60 MB storage. The guest FAQ says Free guests have full create/edit permissions that cannot be changed. If a client should only view a deliverable, that distinction matters more than the number of available seats. The checker flags unverified per-file upload limits rather than treating the storage allowance as the file limit.

Trello: count the whole workspace

The ten-collaborator limit includes workspace members, single-board and multi-board guests, and pending invitations. Count a person once across the workspace. Free also lists ten boards and 250 monthly workspace command runs. A client on a single board still participates in the free collaborator count.

Notion: guests and owners solve different problems

Its block allowance applies to workspaces with multiple owners. It counts content created since signup; deleting blocks does not give the allowance back. Reducing a workspace to one owner and using guests changes access, so do not treat that as an automatic substitute for a team workspace. Free uploads also have a 5 MB per-file cap, and broad AI access should not be inferred from a trial.

Basecamp: separate a permanent free project from a trial

The Free offering is one personal-use project with five users and 1 GB storage. Paid Freelancer, Studio, Pro and Unlimited packages are separate options with their own trials and limits. For business client work, compare the relevant paid package rather than building a plan around the personal-use offer.

Turn a shortlist into a useful trial

1. Map access: name the owner, team members and outside collaborators; record what each should see and change.
2. Use representative content: bring a small example with the real file sizes, board count and approval steps.
3. Check the exit: test an export and confirm how attachments and shared links will be retained.
4. Price the next stage: get the continuing bill for the team you expect, including guest rules and features behind paid tiers.

Use the project-management trial checklist → · Compare your actual software quotes →

Sources and checker method

The checker applies the published people, guest, upload and storage limits listed in the dataset. It treats unknown limits as review items; it does not fill them with guesses. The Notion block check is a threshold question, not a measurement of your account. Basecamp's published personal-use positioning is a separate eligibility check. Results retain all six products in research order, with explicit reasons rather than a ranking.

Download the source-linked limits dataset → · Research methodology · Suggest a correction

1. Asana pricing ↗
2. Current and legacy Personal plans ↗
3. monday.com pricing ↗
4. Understanding the Free Plan ↗
5. File-upload limits ↗
6. ClickUp pricing and guest FAQ ↗
7. Trello pricing ↗
8. Collaborator limit for free Workspaces ↗
9. Notion pricing ↗
10. Understanding block usage ↗
11. Basecamp pricing ↗