If the development of open source Scrum tools was in vogue some years ago, a lot of these projects have now been abandoned. Some are still active, but this is because their development is sponsored by a commercial hosted option. There is however an alternative to manage your Agile software development projects if you have a low budget… and a small team. Some providers of commercial Scrum tools provide a free version of their software, often with some limitations.

Only Scrum tools that offer a long term free commercial product features are mentioned in this article, not the tools that have only a time-limited trial version. We also dot not include companies that claim to offer Scrum tools… with an interactive Gantt chart ;O) Free Scrum tools often come with some limitation, which are mainly the number of users or the number of projects that you can manage with the tools and naturally the support you can get. If you are however a small Agile team, mainly less than five developers, focused on the development of a single product, these limitations about the team or the product will not harm your Agile software development project. Be careful however in how much you invest in a “free” tool as we have noticed in our previous update (September 2018) the disappearance of many offers and a general trend toward limiting the number of users from the remaining vendors. This evolution continues (March 2019) as we have removed vendors that don’t offer free option anymore and updated several tools that mostly lower team size limits (not the case for Riter or VersionOne). For free tools that are not based on a commercial offer, please consult our article Free Online Scrum Tools. If you know a free tool that is missing from this list, please use the comments or the contact form to inform us.

Updates

January 7 2020:

* removed Thoughtworks Mingle (no longer available)

* added Atlassian Jira, Broadcom Rally Software, TTB

March 19 2019:

* removed ScrumDo, TargetProcess, Z-Stream (Zamic)

* updated Herogami, Riter, VersionOne, YouTrack, Zoho

September 3 2018:

* added Riter (beta), Z-Stream

* removed TinyPM

* updated Hansoft, Herogami

April 3 2018:

* added Krosswall , ScrumTotal

November 13 2017:

* added Scrumdo, SprintGround, Taiga, Zoho Sprints

* removed ProjectCards, Rational Team Concert, ScrumDesk (desktop), AgileWrap, Bright Green Projects, QuickScrum, Rally, ScrumNinja, Sprint.ly, Uzility

* updated ScrumDesk (hosted), Agilefant, Hansoft (moved to desktop), Herogami, iceScrum, ScrumHalf, ScrumTool, VivifyScrum

October 12 2015: added Visual Studio Online

August 24 2015: added ScrumDesk

June 17 2015: updated IceScrum

June 9 2015: added VivifyScrum

January 5 2015: added Uzility, removed ScrumDo

August 26 2014: added Herogami, Mingle, YouTrack

May 23 2014: ScrumHalf

May 12 2014: added Agilefant

May 5 2014: added QuickScrum

February 4 2014: added Sprint.ly and easyBacklog

November 21 2013: added Flying Donut, Hansoft and Yodiz

This article presents a list of commercial tools for Scrum that are available for free. We have divided this list into two categories: the tools that you can install on your own hardware infrastructure and the tools that provides Scrum features as a hosted service that distributed teams can share. Tools that propose only a free trial limited in time are not included in this list. Although the information below has verified when the article was written, the free availability of the tools may vary according to vendor policy. Do not hesitate to contact us to add additional free commercial Scrum tools to this list or to communicate modifications in the information listed below. The tools are listed in alphabetical order. If you know a Scrum tool that is missing from this list, please use the contact form and we will add it in a next update.

Local / Desktop Tools

Hansoft

The feature set of Hansoft spans over agile ALM (Application Lifecycle Management), PPM (Product portfolio and program management) and Social collaboration. The tools woks on Windows and Mac OS.

Limitations: 5 users

Web: http://www.hansoft.com/

Hosted Tools

Acunote

Acunote is a project management and Scrum tool that provides powerful analytics for data-driven project management.

Limitations: 5 users

Web: http://www.acunote.com/

Agilefant

Agilefant is a Backlog management that has a local open source and a cloud commercial versions. It scales from personal todo-lists to large-scale multi-team development projects and portfolio management. It also supports long-term product and release planning needed for true organization-wide agility.

Limitations: 1 users

Web: http://agilefant.com/

easyBacklog

easyBacklog is an intuitive time saving backlog management tool for Agile practitioners working in or with agencies. It is a completely free service that will help you manage your backlogs

Limitations: none currently (November 2017)

Web: http://easybacklog.com/

Flying Donut

Flying Donut is a powerful, simple, effective, Scrum software. You don’t need to adapt your implementation of Scrum to use Flying Donut. Flying Donut can easily be used by any Scrum team, with no configuration.

Limitations: 3 users, 1 private project

Web: https://www.flying-donut.com/

Herogami

Herogami is an agile project management tool with a kanban twist and an integrated approach with document management, wiki and calendar.

Limitations: 3 users, 5 projects

Web: http://www.herogami.com/

iceScrum

iceScrum Cloud is the commercial version of the standalone open source Scrum tool iceScrum. This agile project management tool allows to manage the product backlog, releases and sprints with a visual taskboard. It offers also integration with the Jenkins continuous tool and various bug trackers.

Limitations: 1 user, 1 project, 3 apps, limited storage

Web: https://www.icescrum.com/

Jira

Jira Software is an online Agile planning and tracking tool created by Atlassion. Jira allows to create user stories and issues, plan sprints, and distribute tasks across your software team. You can also prioritize and discuss your team’s work in full context with complete visibility with Scrum and Kanban boards.

Limitations: up to 10 users, limited features

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

Krosswall

Krosswall is an online Agile project management tool for all type of projects. Scrum and Kanban wall/board are an integral part of the tool. Krosswall handles the synchronization between story/task walls, all statistics are updated fully at all times.

Limitations: 1 project, limited features

Web: https://www.krosswall.com/

Rally

Rally in an online Agile tool that serves as a central hub for teams to collaboratively plan, prioritize and track work on a synchronized cadence. Agile teams can visualize their work in the form of lists, boards or timeline views, and more importantly—they can understand how their day-to-day work aligns to the greater goals of the business. Rally provides comprehensive roll-ups of progress, dependencies, alignment and plan health, so teams and groups can make intentional decisions and stay ruthlessly focused on value.

Limitations: up to 50 named users, limited features, only valid for the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA.

Web: https://www.broadcom.com/products/software/agile-development/rally-software

Riter

Riter is an online project management tools that applies artificial intelligence (AI) to project management. It provides intelligent sprint planning by analyzing developers habitual schedule, previous experience and accuracy in tasks estimation. Then Riter compares the load for a sprint with the team expected productivity to predict probable failures and warn you about them. Riter aims to be equally suitable for all types of companies, regardless of their team size, development methodologies and projects scales.

Limitations: unlimited projects, unlimited users, Full API, up to 10 free connected bots

Web: https://riter.co/

TTB

TTB is smart and flexible visual tool which helps to build true Agile process in your company. It provides the clear vision of each aspect of the project statuses. You can prioritize the project items, estimate and start your first Scrum sprint or work using a Kanban flow. If you prefer a more classical approach or if your organization follows a hybrid project management approach, TTB can also automatically build Gantt Charts based on your team size, priorities, and ticket estimation. This is a real-time process, and the chart is instantly reshaped when you make changes in the project backlog or apply a filter. This feature allows you to get a visual picture of the upcoming development process, estimate the duration and problem areas, choose the optimal size and structure of the team. Moreover, TTB automatically tracks all the tickets progress and displays it on the same chart! This allows team members to focus on the most important tasks, track real progress and make necessary adjustments on the fly.

Limitations: up to 10 users

Web: https://www.agilettb.com/

ScrumDesk

ScrumDesk is an online Scrum project management tools for onsite or distributed teams to manage agile projects simply with an interactive task board.

Limitations: 4 users

Web: http://www.scrumdesk.com/

ScrumHalf

ScrumHalf is a tool that supports agile projects based on Scrum framework. It has several features for helping the customer and the project team. It offers a version in Portuguese.

Limitations: 2 users, 1 project

Web: http://www.myscrumhalf.com/

ScrumTool

ScrumTool provides a taskboard for agile projects management.

Limitations: 2 users, 2, projects, 20 backlog items

Web: http://scrumtool.me/

ScrumTotal

ScrumTotal is simple online Scrum tool that covers all the common usage scenarios in Agile project management. It is a cloud-based web application which works on Android and iOS devices. The sync-up feature on mobile and desktop allows to use it on the go.

Limitations: 15 users

Web: http://www.scrumtotal.com/

Scrumy

Scrumy is a project management tool loosely based on Scrum.

Limitations: Limited features

Web: http://www.scrumy.com/

Silver Catalyst

Silver Catalyst is an agile project management tool for Scrum and Kanban teams that use lean or agile methods.

Limitations: 1 user

Web: http://toolsforagile.com/

SprintGround

SprintGround is an intuitive tool that software developers use to significantly increase efficiency of their projects. SprintGround support Scrum and Kanban and includes useful planning and management tools like Product backlog, Burndown chart and Kanban board.

Limitations: 3 users, 2 projects, limited storage

Web: http://www.sprintground.com/

Taiga

Taiga is a project management platform for Agile developers, designers and project managers who want a beautiful tool that makes work truly enjoyable. It has both a open source version and a commercial hosted offering.

Limitations: 4 users, 1 project

Web: https://taiga.io/

VersionOne – Team Edition

VersionOne is a Scrum tool that allows centralized story and defect management, release and sprint planning, online storyboard, taskboard and testboard.

Limitations: Limited features

Web: https://info.collab.net/TeamEdition.html

Visual Studio Online

Visual Studio Online provides cloud-based collaboration services for version control, agile planning, continuous delivery and application analytics for Visual Studio, Eclipse, Xcode or any other. The tools for Agile teams allow to use Kanban and Scrum. You can capture, prioritize, and track work with backlogs and customizable Kanban boards. Work items link directly to code to ensure transparency and can be used to build rich dashboards for easy reporting.

Limitations: Limited features

Web: https://www.visualstudio.com/

VivifyScrum

VivifyScrum is a single page cloud-based Agile project management tool that allows you to easily configure and organize your team. You can choose between Scrum and Kanban board. The Scrum board offers a Product Backlog, Sprint and Burndown charts.

Limitations: limited features and storage and only one active sprint and one external integration

Web: https://www.vivifyscrum.com/

Yodiz – Starter Edition

Yodiz is Agile Scrum tool and issue tracker. Yodiz has a large set of features with nice user experience. There are boards for Sprint, Releases and issues management. Prioritized Product Backlog and Epics are also available.

Limitations: 3 users, unlimited projects

Web: http://www.yodiz.com/

YouTrack

YouTrack is a software development tools that implement bug tracking and agile project management with support for both Scrum and Lean methodologies. It helps to manage your backlogs, create a number of sprints, group your tasks in swimlanes, move your tasks around the board, track progress and detect bottlenecks early and more.

Limitations: 3 users

Web: http://www.jetbrains.com/youtrack/

Zoho Sprints

Zoho Sprints is an online Agile software development tools that provides features to create user stories, add estimation points, stay on track with personalized scrum boards, and schedule your review and retrospective meetings from one place.

Limitations: 3 users, 2 projects, 500MB storage space

Web: https://www.zoho.eu/sprints/