Best Project Management Software for Scrum Teams

Website: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Best for: Full scrum by the book

Starting price: $9.70 per user/month (billed monthly)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Backlogs, sprints and burndown charts built in; deep search and automation rules

Cons: Setup and admin take real time; the free plan caps at 10 users

Jira is the tool most scrum teams compare everything else against. Standard costs $9.70 per user per month on monthly billing for the first 100 users, and Premium costs $19.60, with lower per user rates above 100 users. The free plan covers up to 10 users. The backlog holds epics and stories in priority order, sprint planning pulls the top items into a sprint, and the board shows each story moving from to do to done across the sprint.

Burndown charts, velocity reports and sprint reports come built in, so the scrum master can see whether the team will finish the sprint on time without building a report by hand. Automation rules can assign new stories to the developer on duty or move a story to review when a pull request opens. The cost is admin work: custom fields, workflows and permission schemes take time to set up, and a team that skips that setup ends up with a board that nobody trusts.

Website: https://linear.app

Best for: Fast cycles for development teams

Starting price: $10 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Fast keyboard driven issue tracking; cycles with velocity reports

Cons: Free plan caps at 250 issues; no built-in burndown chart

Linear is built for software teams that want issues to move fast. Basic costs $10 per user per month when billed annually, and Business costs $16. The free plan covers unlimited team members but caps at 250 issues and 2 teams. Work enters through a triage inbox, gets labelled and assigned in seconds, and moves through cycles that mirror sprints, with velocity reports at the end of each cycle.

Projects group related issues into a product bet or a release, and roadmaps show the order of work across the quarter. GitHub and GitLab integrations link each issue to the code that implements it, so a story can be traced from the backlog to the merged change. The limits matter for strict scrum teams: there is no built-in burndown chart, so teams that want one track it in a sheet or a separate report, and the 250 issue cap on the free plan fills fast on an active team.

Website: https://www.zoho.com/sprints/

Best for: Lowest cost dedicated scrum tool

Starting price: $1 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Dedicated scrum features at $1 per user; timesheets and release tracking included

Cons: Smaller integration set than Jira; interface feels dated next to Linear

Zoho Sprints is a dedicated agile tool with the lowest entry price in this guide. Starter costs $1 per user per month when billed annually, Elite costs $2.50 and Premier costs $5. A free plan is available. The tool is built around scrum: a backlog holds user stories, sprint planning pulls them into a sprint, and the board shows each story moving through the sprint, with velocity charts and burndown reports at the end.

Timesheets, estimation and release tracking come included, so the team can log effort against a story and see how a release is shaping up without a second tool. Zoho Sprints connects to Zoho Projects and to GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket for code links. The limits are the integration set, which is smaller than Jira, and an interface that feels dated next to Linear or Shortcut. For a small team that wants real scrum features at a very low price, though, the value is hard to beat.

Website: https://clickup.com

Best for: Flexible scrum on a tight budget

Starting price: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free Forever plan with unlimited tasks; sprints with points and custom statuses

Cons: Feature depth can overwhelm new users; some views slow down with large workspaces

ClickUp gives scrum teams a lot of function for little money. The Free Forever plan includes unlimited tasks and unlimited members, and Core costs $9 per user per month when billed annually, with Business at $17. Sprints carry points, custom statuses and automations that move a story to the next stage when the work is done, and the board, list and calendar views let the team switch between a sprint board and a release schedule without moving data.

Docs and whiteboards sit in the same workspace, so sprint planning notes, retrospectives and release notes stay next to the work. Goals track sprint targets, and dashboards show velocity and burndown across sprints. The weak point is focus: ClickUp ships so many features that a new team can spend its first week clicking through settings instead of running a sprint. Large workspaces with thousands of tasks can also load slowly in some views, so keep the structure simple.

Website: https://asana.com

Best for: Structured sprints and milestones

Starting price: $10.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Clear task lists with subtasks and approvals; timeline view for sprint plans

Cons: Timeline and workload need the Advanced plan at $24.99; no native burndown chart

Asana suits scrum teams that want clean, structured work instead of a deep configuration project. Starter costs $10.99 per user per month when billed annually, and Advanced costs $24.99. The Personal plan is free for up to 10 teammates. Each sprint becomes a project, each story becomes a task with subtasks for the steps, and milestones mark the sprint goal and the release date that the team works toward.

Timeline view maps sprint work against a release date, and rules can route a completed story to the reviewer who owns that area. Asana integrates with Jira, GitHub and Slack, so sprint tasks can link back to the code change or the discussion that prompted them. The limits are clear: Asana has no native burndown chart, so teams that want one track it in a sheet, and the timeline and workload views that matter for sprint planning sit on the Advanced plan.

Website: https://shortcut.com

Best for: Lightweight iterations for dev teams

Starting price: $8.50 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Simple stories, epics and iterations; strong GitHub and GitLab links

Cons: Free plan covers up to 10 users; reporting is thinner than Jira

Shortcut is a project tracker built for software teams that find Jira heavy. Team costs $8.50 per user per month when billed annually, and Business costs $12. The free plan covers up to 10 users with core features. Work is organised as stories inside epics, with iterations that mirror sprints, and objectives that group epics into a release or a product bet for the quarter.

GitHub and GitLab integrations link each story to the branch and the pull request that implements it, so a story can be traced from the backlog to the merged change. The interface is fast and spare, with keyboard shortcuts and a clean board that new team members learn in a day. The limits are scale and reporting: the free plan ends at 10 users, and the reports are thinner than Jira, so a team that needs detailed velocity and burndown analysis will outgrow Shortcut sooner.

Website: https://monday.com

Best for: Visual sprint boards for mixed teams

Starting price: $9 per seat/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Board views with timeline and calendar; automations for status changes

Cons: Free plan covers only 2 seats; time tracking sits on higher tiers

monday.com starts at $9 per seat per month when billed annually on the Basic plan, with Standard at $12 and Pro at $19. A free plan covers up to 2 seats, and Basic plans carry a 3-seat minimum. The board layout fits scrum work well because each story becomes a row, each status column shows the stage, and each date column shows the sprint deadline. Timeline and calendar views show sprint work against a release date.

Automations move a story to review when the work is marked done, assign the next task to the developer on duty, and send a reminder when a sprint goal slips. Forms collect bug reports and feature requests in a standard format, which feeds the backlog without manual entry. The main limits are the small free plan and the fact that time tracking, which many scrum masters want for sprint effort, sits on higher tiers rather than Basic.

Website: https://www.teamwork.com

Best for: Scrum teams that also serve clients

Starting price: $9.99 per user/month (billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Tasks, milestones and time tracking in one place; client facing project views

Cons: Free plan covers up to 5 users; scrum features are lighter than Jira

Teamwork fits scrum teams that also deliver client work. Basics costs $9.99 per user per month when billed annually, and Accelerate costs $24.99. A free plan covers up to 5 users. Tasks, milestones, time tracking and workload views sit in one workspace, so a team can run its sprints and track the billable hours behind them without a second tool.

Boards show sprint work by status, and milestones mark the release dates that clients see. Client facing views let a customer check progress without seeing internal discussion, which suits agencies and consultancies that run scrum for clients. The limits are scale and depth: the free plan ends at 5 users, and the scrum features are lighter than Jira, with no native burndown chart, so a team that follows scrum strictly will feel the gap.