Top 9 Free Timeline Software Solutions for Different Kinds of Projects

The 9 Best Free Timeline Software Solutions of 2023

1. Connecteam — The best all-in-one free online timeline software for businesses

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   

   Connecteam is an award-winning, free online timeline software solution designed especially for deskless workers and remote teams.

   With Connecteam’s employee timeline, HR managers always have a clear overview of every milestone in each employee’s journey – from the day they started onboarding to their five-year anniversary at the company, and beyond.

   Managers can clearly see their employees’ progression within the company, such as:

   • Salary changes
   • Department changes
   • Team changes
   • Position changes
   • Milestones & anniversaries
   • Annual reviews

   This easy-to-read roadmap of each employee improves decision-making and easily determines who to give raises to and who to keep in the company. And employees get peace of mind knowing that every crucial detail of their employment is on record.

   While other solutions on this list provide timelines for different purposes such as project planning and brainstorming, users can also perform these valuable activities via other features that Connecteam provides.

   For example, you can conduct all employee training via the app, building courses on any topic or skill, that employees can follow one step at a time, in chronological order.

   With Connecteam’s wide range of HR-related features, managers can:

   • Praise employees for their achievements through digital recognition and rewards
   • Easily store and manage all employee documents in one place
   • Test their knowledge with customizable quizzes and provide instant feedback

   Also, employees and managers can build ideas together via employee team chat, ensuring all work-related discussions stay on the app and are easily searchable.

   As an all-in-one solution, Connecteam allows managers to track employee work hours, make employee scheduling easy, and maintain compliance through digital checklists and forms.

    

   Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Join Connecteam!

   Key Features

   • Employee timeline

   • Customized milestones

   • File attachments

   • Training & Courses

   • Recognition & Rewards

   • HR documents

   Pros

   • Extremely easy to use

   • The ability to access features via shortcuts

   • Superb value for money

   • Excellent customer support

   Cons

   • Large number of features can be overwhelming

   Pricing

   Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users

   14-day free trial, no credit card required

   Start your free trial
2. 

   Monday.com — Good for: Setting deadlines and ETAs

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   One of the best free timeline software solutions for businesses on this list is Monday.com. This work management software allows managers to create, allocate and oversee multiple projects, and supports timelines with task management. This means that deadlines can be easily set and met, ensuring team members are always completing tasks on time.

   Monday.com guarantees that every task can include descriptions, file attachments, comments, progress indicators, and more. Truth be told, the timeline is one of many view types that admins can add to specific work boards. With Monday, admins can see who is working on each project, track its progress, and the client each project is supporting. Its timeline allows admins to set the start and estimated completion dates of each project, giving the assignee an idea of how long the project should take.

   Monday’s timeline view also gives admins an overview of each project, its timeframe, and the ability to change the order of how tasks are viewed (categorized by groups, status or assignee). It’s also possible to expand or condense the timeline view by the day, week, month, or year.

   It’s a completely different kind of timeline compared to Connecteam’s, a feature that helps HR managers keep track of employees’ milestones.

   Learn more about Monday.com

   Key Features

   • Timeline view
   • Shift project in bulk
   • Export timelines to Excel
   • Project customization

   Pros

   • Dashboards are very customizable
   • Ideal for task management

   Cons

   • Price rises drastically between plans
   • Poor customer support

   Pricing

   Starts at $8/user/month Trial: Yes — For the Pro plan Free Plan: Yes

3. 

   Preceden — Good for: Sharing timelines on social media

   Available on

   • Web

   

   Preceden is a free online timeline maker, allowing users to build and add multiple events and add various details such as the title, description and date. Hover over an event and these details will appear highlighted for easy viewing. Prices vary depending on how many events you need to add to a timeline, as well as how many timelines you need to create.

   One of the huge benefits of Preceden is that users can create different kinds of timelines, whether they need to plan projects or present events that have already happened (like an employee’s history).

   Other selling points include its user interface, which is clean and to the point. It’s easy to reschedule events on the timeline by dragging and dropping them. Many businesses will benefit from the ability to share timelines on social media and embed them into their own website.

   While Preceden is an excellent option as a free timeline software, it doesn’t possess all-in-one capabilities. Although Connecteam’s timeline has a different purpose to Preceden’s, as purely to help HR managers track employee milestones, Connecteam boasts a much wider range of features to help business owners manage employees more effectively. It includes an employee time clock, a shift scheduler, internal communication and employee training.

   Learn more about Preceden

   Key Features

   • Sort functions through digital layers
   • Quick online sharing and embedding
   • Enlarge and minimize selected events
   • Drap and drop tasks

   Pros

   • Easy to customize the user interface
   • Possible to make timelines private

   Cons

   • Can only make 1 timeline with up to 10 events with the free version
   • There are many chart functions in the free version that are locked

   Pricing

   Starts at $149/year Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: Yes

4. 

   Office Timeline — Good for: Creating straightforward timelines and solo projects

   Available on

   • Web
   • Windows

   

   With Office Timeline, it’s easy to add tasks and coordinate them by color, dates and descriptions. Rescheduling tasks and events is easy with its drag and drop capabilities.

   Project managers can customize designs to localize them to specific audiences. This includes the ability to set start and end dates, as well as events and milestones. If project managers aren’t interested in creating their own timelines, they can also select templates instead.

   It’s also possible to create project roadmaps and incorporate them from Office Timeline directly into Microsoft Powerpoint. However, the free version of Office Timeline is fairly limited in functionality and doesn’t include any collaborative features, which is where an employee communication app like Connecteam truly shines.

   Learn more about Office Timeline

   Key Features

   • Drag and drop rescheduling
   • Task color coordination
   • Set deadlines and add milestones
   • Share and embed timelines online

   Pros

   • Can export timelines to Microsoft Powerpoint
   • Can build original timelines or select templates

   Cons

   • Free version has limited functionality
   • Lacks collaboration features

   Pricing

   Starts at $59/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

5. 

   Sutori — Good for: Delivering presentations

   Available on

   • Web
   • Windows

   

   One of the most effective free online timeline makers for schools, Sutori helps teachers and students alike build interactive timelines for all kinds of digital assignments. With Sutori, classes can tell stories, solve mathematical equations and deliver powerful presentations by adding bullet points, pictures, audio clips and videos to their timelines.

   Admins can customize the software’s features depending on the class’s educational needs. Beyond class presentations and projects, users can also share timelines directly to social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.

   It’s clear though that Sutori differs heavily from an employee management software solution like Connecteam – and therefore, it’s difficult to compare the two solutions as they cater to completely different audiences. With that said, a department of teachers can still benefit from Connecteam’s wide range of features.

   Learn more about Sutori

   Key Features

   • Social media sharing
   • Audio and video embedding
   • Customization features
   • Lesson plan builder

   Pros

   • Can download timelines in PDF
   • Can embed timelines onto websites and social media

   Cons

   • Not a good solution for professional or personal use - purely educational
   • Each event is a web page, which diminishes the timeline's simplicity

   Pricing

   Starts at $120/educator/year Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

6. Tiki-Toki

   Tiki-Toki — Good for: History lessons

   Available on

   • Web
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   As educational free online timeline makers go, users can’t go too wrong with Tiki Toki. This free online timeline software is designed to make history lessons as engaging as possible with timelines being displayed in 3D. The end result looks very professional, with quality graphics and the ability to categorize events via color codes.

   Tiki-Toki’s key strength is its customization features. Users can change titles, dates, timeline duration, text, and add a variety of media such as images and videos. Zoom settings mean that users can adjust how big or small users can enlarge a specific event during a presentation. Also, in the free version, you can save each timeline as a PDF, print it, or export as a CSV file.

   There are some downsides – like the fact that you can’t allow others to edit a timeline and you can only add up to 200 events. While Connecteam is aimed at a completely different audience, it’s worth mentioning that there is no limit to how many events one can add to a user’s timeline.

   Learn more about Tiki-Toki

   Key Features

   • 3D timelines
   • Event categorization
   • Background picture selection
   • Event customization

   Pros

   • Interface is easy to use and attractive
   • Can quickly share online and with the class

   Cons

   • Text-heavy interface can be overwhelming for users
   • Can only create one timeline at a time in the free version

   Pricing

   Starts at $9.50/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

7. 

   Toggl Plan — Good for: mobile

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Toggl Plan is a useful project planning tool and is good for managing team tasks. Admins can organize all projects from beginning to end and assign specific tasks to each team member with its drag and drop tool. It’s also easy to make sure that projects are always on schedule by monitoring progress via the visual roadmap.

   With Toggl Plan’s free online timeline maker, it’s possible to color-code tasks to identify them based on project, team, or individual. Admins can also add milestones and deadlines to tasks, depending on priority. Crucially, the timeline interface translates seamlessly onto the mobile application, meaning users have a clear view of their tasks and can engage regardless of location.

   Again, Toggl Plan and Connecteam’s timeline features differ in purpose and execution – with the former being more focused on task management, and the latter helping to provide an overview of a worker’s employment history in the company they work in.

   Learn more about Toggl Plan

   Key Features

   • Project planning schedule
   • Task management
   • Team and work timelines
   • Alerts and notifications to mobile

   Pros

   • Able to share project progress with clients
   • Attractive and easy user interface on desktop and mobile

   Cons

   • A lack of automated task creation options
   • Syncing with other Toggl products could be better

   Pricing

   Starts at $8/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

8. 

   SimpleMind — Good for: Brainstorming and generating new ideas

   Available on

   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   While it’s not a free online timeline maker in the strictest sense, SimpleMind allows users to access a variety of templates to design various kinds of roadmaps. 15 style sheets are available in its free version, allowing for plenty of customization for brainstorming projects.

   What makes SimpleMind a unique addition to this list is its emphasis on creating brainstorming diagrams. Users can place topics in a free-form layout, and easily add images, photos, notes, and links. It’s an ideal solution for team projects and generating ideas.

   One of SimpleMind’s core strengths is that it is compatible across multiple devices, including Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows. Of course, Connecteam can also be used on all of these platforms. Importantly, SimpleMind’s “mind mapping” and Connecteam’s employee timeline are completely different features, aimed at very different audiences.

   Learn more about SimpleMind

   Key Features

   • Mindmapping templates
   • Free-form or auto layouts
   • Customization features
   • PDF export

   Pros

   • Great for developing and presenting ideas
   • Easy to use and simple interface

   Cons

   • Limited to just brainstorming projects
   • Can’t have multiple users working on same mindmap

   Pricing

   Starts at €24.99 /month, for a single user Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes

9. 

   Lucidchart — Good for: Visualizing data

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Lucidchart is a free online timeline software designed for teams to visualize data through diagrams, mind maps, timelines, and more. With its drag and drop capability, building timelines specifically is an intuitive experience. Users can put shapes in desired orders and add information and images to each one, and connect them with digital lines to produce roadmaps that are easy to follow.

   When you compare it to Connecteam, Lucidchart’s main downside is the fact that data visualization is pretty much its sole purpose. Although it benefits a wide range of audiences, from remote teams, and engineering businesses to educational institutes, Lucidchart doesn’t provide businesses with the wide range of features that Connecteam does, including time tracking, employee scheduling and internal communication.

   Lucidchart integrates seamlessly with tools such as Microsoft Teams and Slack and can be used on Desktop, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android – meaning that users can easily switch from one device to another.

   Learn more about Lucidchart

   Key Features

   • Diagram creation
   • Real-time team editing
   • Drag-and-drop functionality
   • Data visualization tools

   Pros

   • Integrates with multiple project management and business communication tools
   • Can collaborate with co-workers in real-time

   Cons

   • No ability to export PDFs
   • Not a sufficient amount of pre-made templates

   Pricing

   Starts at $7.95/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes