Quick answer
For a team of 10, Plane's free plan (up to 12 users) and Trello's free plan (up to 10 collaborators per workspace) cost nothing on our 27 October 2026 read. Basecamp charges a flat $79 a month for up to 10 users. Asana Starter costs $10.99 per user per month on annual billing. Past 15 people, Basecamp Pro Unlimited at $199 a month annually becomes the cheapest paid option here.
The headline price of a project management tool tells you little until you match it against two numbers: how many people need an account, and how many projects run at once. This guide prices five tools at 3, 10, 15 and 25 people, using figures read from each vendor's pricing page on 27 October 2026.
The costs side by side
Monthly cost for the whole team, on annual billing where the vendor prints it. The cheapest plan that allows the seat count.
| Tool | 3 people | 10 people | 15 people | 25 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asana | $32.97 (Starter) | $109.90 | $164.85 | $274.75 |
| Basecamp | $0 (Free, 1 project) | $79 (Pro) | $99 (Pro Plus) | $199 (Pro Unlimited) |
| Plane | $0 | $0 | $90 (Pro) | $150 |
| Trello | $0 | $0 | $75 (Standard) | $125 |
| monday.com | $27 (Basic) | $90 | $135 | $225 |
Free plans come with other limits besides seats. Basecamp Free allows one project, Trello Free allows 10 boards per workspace, and Asana Personal is designed for 2 people. Profiles with every plan we read: Asana, Basecamp and Plane.
Asana
Asana prints both billing periods: Starter at $10.99 per user per month annually ($13.49 monthly) and Advanced at $24.99 ($30.49 monthly). Personal is free for 2 users. Paid plans allow unlimited members.
The constraint for growing companies is identity management. SAML single sign-on is listed under Enterprise, which is quote-priced. Admins on paid plans can require Microsoft sign-in, which covers some but not all cases.
Basecamp
Basecamp is the only tool here that does not charge per seat. Its packages are Free (1 project, 3 users), Freelancer ($29 a month, 5 users), Pro ($79, 10 users), Pro Plus ($99, 15 users) and Pro Unlimited ($199 a month on annual billing, $329 monthly) with unlimited users and projects.
Every package caps projects as well as people. Pro allows 8 projects and Pro Plus 12. A 10-person agency with a dozen live client projects needs Pro Plus or Pro Unlimited, whatever its headcount.
What does a free plan of 12 users actually include?
Plane offers the largest free tier we found: up to 12 users. Pro costs $6 per user per month annually ($8 monthly) and Business $13 ($15 monthly), which adds SAML single sign-on. The code is AGPL-3.0 open source.
Two caveats from the pricing page. The free plan has no advanced exports. And some Pro features carry a "Cloud: No, Self-hosted: Yes" marking, so the same plan behaves differently depending on where you run it.
Trello
Trello's free plan is "Free for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace", with up to 10 boards and unlimited cards. Standard costs $5 per user per month annually ($6 monthly), Premium $10 ($12.50 monthly), and Enterprise $17.50 billed annually. SSO comes through Atlassian Guard, a separate subscription that starts at $4 per user per month.
Trello is the simplest tool here: boards, lists and cards. That is the reason teams choose it, and also its limit once work needs dependencies or portfolio reporting.
monday.com
monday.com's work management plans are priced per seat per month on annual billing: Basic $9, Standard $12, Pro $19, with a free plan of up to 2 seats. Monthly-billing prices were not shown in the text we read, and single sign-on was not mentioned. Treat the per-person costs in the table as a guide, because seat-bundling rules can change the total. Confirm your exact team size on the page.
How to choose
- Up to 12 people, lowest cost: Plane free.
- Up to 10 people, light task tracking: Trello free.
- A team of exactly 10 that prefers one predictable bill: Basecamp Pro, if 8 projects are enough.
- 16 to 50 people, flat cost: Basecamp Pro Unlimited.
- Cross-team portfolios and reporting: Asana Advanced, budgeting for Enterprise if you need SAML.
If your projects involve customers, see what a matching CRM costs at the same headcount in our CRM comparison.
Key points
- Free seat limits vary widely: Asana 2 users, monday.com 2 seats, Basecamp 3 users, Trello 10 collaborators, Plane 12 users.
- Basecamp sells flat packages with user caps, ending in Pro Unlimited at $199 a month on annual billing for unlimited users.
- At 25 people on annual billing, Plane Pro ($150) and Trello Standard ($125) were the cheapest per-seat options.
- SAML single sign-on starts at Business on Plane and at Enterprise on Asana.
- Plane is AGPL-3.0 open source; some Pro features are listed as self-hosted only.
Questions
Which project management tool has the largest free plan?
Of the five we priced, Plane's free plan allows the most users: up to 12, according to its pricing page on 27 October 2026. Trello's free plan allows up to 10 collaborators per workspace, with up to 10 boards. Asana and monday.com free plans stop at 2 users or seats.
Is per-seat or flat pricing cheaper for a small team?
It depends on headcount. Basecamp's flat Pro package costs $79 a month for up to 10 users, which works out below most per-seat tools at exactly 10. But it caps projects at 8. At 16 or more people only Pro Unlimited fits, at $199 a month on annual billing.
Which of these tools can I self-host?
Plane is the only one of the five that publishes its code as open source. Its repository states it is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. Its pricing table marks some Pro features as available on self-hosted deployments only, so read the plan columns carefully before deciding.
When do I need SAML single sign-on, and which plan has it?
Companies that manage staff accounts through an identity provider usually need SAML. On the pages we read, Plane offers it from Business at $13 per user per month annually, and Asana lists it under Enterprise. Trello provides SSO through a separate Atlassian Guard subscription starting at $4 per user.
Why is ClickUp not included?
ClickUp's pricing page showed two different sets of plan names and prices on our read date, and we could not tell which one was current. We only publish figures we can attribute to a vendor's page with confidence, so ClickUp will be added once the page is consistent.
Who wrote this
Stackfeature Research Desk
The Research Desk is a shared byline, not a person. Work published under it is compiled from vendor pricing pages, documentation and licence files, each linked and dated in the piece. Nothing under this byline claims hands-on testing unless the piece says so and links the evidence.
Citing a figure from this page? Carry its date with it. Prices here were read on the date shown above, and corrections are logged.
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