Zoho Projects does have a free plan, and it's a real one — not a 14-day trial dressed up as "free." The catch is how little it covers: a small cap on projects and users, no Zia AI, no custom fields, and Gantt and issue tracking that vary depending on which of Zoho's own pricing documents you read. If you're searching for a free Zoho Projects alternative because that cap is the wall you just hit, here's the honest comparison — including where Zoho still makes sense.
What does Zoho Projects' free plan actually include?
It covers the basics: task lists, a Kanban board, subtasks, a whiteboard, and a monthly allowance of workflow automations (reported around 50 actions/month). That's enough to run one small project end to end. Storage is capped at 5GB.
Where it gets confusing is the exact user and project limits — and this isn't us being vague, it's Zoho being inconsistent. Zoho's own published pricing comparison PDF lists the free tier at two projects and three users; most third-party trackers (Capterra, Tech.co, several review sites) report three projects and five users instead. Either number runs out fast: add a second real initiative or a fourth teammate and you're negotiating with a cap, not just evaluating a tool.
Where does the free plan run out?
The project cap is the first wall — once you're running more than two or three things at once, which most teams past month one are, the free plan stops matching how you actually work. The second is AI: Zia, Zoho's assistant, is reported as excluded from the free tier entirely, so there's no AI feature to try before you commit to a paid plan. The third is depth: no project templates, no custom fields, and issue tracking is thin or absent depending on the source, which matters if your "projects" are really a backlog of tickets.
None of this makes Zoho dishonest — a free tier that funnels you toward Premium (reported around $4–5/user/month) is a normal shape for the category. It just means the free plan is a trial run for the paid product, not a durable home for a growing team.
Most "best Zoho Projects alternatives" roundups you'll find on the current search results don't say any of this plainly. A few are written by the alternative tool itself and rank their own product first, which is worth knowing before you trust the order. Others list ten or twelve names in a table without saying which ones are actually free versus which just have a free trial, or what exact feature gets gated when a vendor's free tier runs out. That's a real gap: a searcher trying to decide whether to migrate off Zoho deserves to know the caps, not just a list of logos.
Is Zoho Projects still worth it on a paid plan?
If your company already runs on Zoho — CRM, Books, Desk, People — Zoho Projects' paid tiers plug into that ecosystem in a way nothing else does, and that integration is a genuine reason to stay. Its Gantt and time-tracking tools, once unlocked, are mature and purpose-built for teams that bill by the hour or need resource allocation across projects. If you're already paying for the rest of Zoho's suite, the project tool is usually the cheapest reason to leave it.
There's also a fair case for Zoho on price alone once you're past the free tier: reported Premium pricing (around $4–5/user/month) undercuts Asana, Monday.com and Wrike, each commonly reported in the $9–11/user/month range for a comparable paid seat. If what you actually need is cheap per-seat Gantt and time tracking inside an ecosystem you already pay for, that's a legitimate reason Zoho Projects beats switching anywhere, Comuna included.
What do you get with Comuna instead?
There is a free Zoho Projects alternative without a project counter or a user counter: Comuna. Unlimited projects, unlimited members, no plan tier above the free one. Kanban, Table, Calendar, Gantt and Diagrams are all included from the first session — the Gantt view and the project cap Zoho gates by plan are just there, free, from day one. See the full feature list for specifics.
The bigger gap: Zia is excluded from Zoho's free plan; Comuna's AI coworker is included on the only plan there is. Connect Claude or ChatGPT once — OAuth, no API key, about a minute — and your existing AI subscription becomes a real member of the board, not a chatbot bolted onto the sidebar. It creates cards, moves them through columns, writes notes and comments, and every action carries its own name and badge instead of vanishing into an anonymous activity log. When it hits a decision that needs judgment — closing an ambiguous card, reassigning ownership — it opens a small approval request instead of guessing; you approve, ask for changes, or reject. That's pull, not push: the AI works when you or a scheduled prompt trigger it, not as an unsupervised background process running around the clock. Read the fuller model in what an AI coworker actually is.
Chat channels and DMs are built in too, plus notes and a wiki next to the boards — so a small team on a tight budget isn't stitching together Zoho Projects, Zoho Cliq, and a separate notes app just to get what Comuna ships as one free product.
How do the free plans actually compare?
- Projects — Zoho: capped (2–3, depending on which Zoho source you trust). Comuna: unlimited, always.
- Members — Zoho: capped (3–5, same caveat). Comuna: unlimited, always.
- AI — Zoho: Zia reportedly excluded from the free plan entirely. Comuna: connect your own Claude or ChatGPT at no extra charge, with real board membership.
- Views — Zoho: task lists, Kanban, basic Gantt on free; depth varies by plan. Comuna: Kanban, Table, Calendar, Gantt, Diagrams, Canvas, all included.
- Storage — Zoho: 5GB on free. Comuna: attachments up to 50MB per file, no storage ceiling tied to a plan tier.
- Chat / notes / wiki — Zoho: Cliq and Notebook are separate Zoho products. Comuna: chat channels, DMs, notes and wiki, all built into the same workspace, free.
Where Comuna genuinely doesn't compete: if your team already lives inside Zoho's CRM, Books, and Desk, the native integration between those products and Zoho Projects is real value we don't try to replace. Check the integrations page if a specific Zoho connector is load-bearing for your workflow before you switch anything over.
Also worth reading: a free ClickUp alternative, a free Wrike alternative, and a free Hive alternative.
Is there a genuinely free Zoho Projects alternative, or just another limited free plan?
Yes — Comuna doesn't have a paid tier above the free one, so there's no project or user counter to hit later. Zoho Projects' own free plan caps both (reports vary between two and three projects, three and five users), with Zia AI reportedly excluded entirely from that tier.
Does Comuna cap the number of projects or users like Zoho's free plan does?
No. Zoho Projects' free tier is capped on both; Comuna has no cap on either, because there's only one plan. See free forever for the specifics.
Can I keep using Zoho CRM or Zoho Books if I switch Zoho Projects to Comuna?
Yes, nothing about switching your project board touches the rest of your software stack — Comuna doesn't replace a CRM or invoicing tool, it replaces the project-management layer. If deep native integration between your CRM and your project tool matters more than an AI coworker, that's a real reason to stay on Zoho's suite.
Does Comuna's AI do more than Zia does on Zoho's paid plans?
The comparison isn't feature-for-feature — Zia focuses on predictive insights and chat-style assistance inside Zoho's own apps. Comuna's AI coworker is a board member: it creates, moves, and completes real cards and writes comments under its own identity, included free, with no separate plan to unlock it.
Comuna is free forever — no credit card, bring your own AI. Spin up a workspace and try it.