Seven changelog tools with genuinely free tiers, compared on what the free plan actually includes — caps, catches, and all. Facts verified against each vendor’s published pricing as of July 2026.
Every changelog tool claims a free plan. The details differ wildly: some cap users, some cap posts, some cap monthly active users on your whole app, and one has been frozen since 2021. If you’re choosing a changelog tool with a budget of zero, what matters is where each free tier’s limits actually bite.
Here are seven that are genuinely free to start, in rough order of how much changelog you get for nothing.
1. ReleasePad
Free tier: a limited number of published posts, the public changelog page, and the basic in-app widget. No credit card, no time limit, no MAU or seat metering.
ReleasePad is the only tool on this list whose free tier includes the thing that makes changelogs sustainable: connect a GitHub repository on the Pro plan and AI drafts release notes from your commits and pull requests. The free tier is manual-entry but upgrade-shaped — everything you publish stays published if you never pay, and the Pro plan is a flat $35/month per product when you outgrow it. Open source projects and non-profits get Pro free on request.
The catch: the post cap. Ship weekly and you’ll meet it — that’s the business model, honestly stated.
Best for: engineering-led teams that want a changelog which eventually writes itself.
2. Canny (Free plan)
Free tier: changelog and public roadmap included, unlimited posts and boards, 25 tracked users, 5 admin seats.
Canny is a feedback platform first — the changelog is the last step of its feedback loop — but its free plan genuinely includes it. The generosity is on the feedback side: unlimited posts, boards, and even unlimited AI feedback capture. The changelog-side constraints are real, though: no email notifications to subscribers, no custom domain (you live on yoursubdomain.canny.io), no privacy controls, and a set of anti-spam “unlock” steps before full use. Our ReleasePad vs Canny comparison covers the full picture, including how tracked-user pricing climbs from $79/month once you upgrade.
The catch: 25 tracked users is tight — anyone who posts, votes, or comments counts.
Best for: teams that want feedback boards and a changelog in one free package.
3. Beamer (Free plan)
Free tier: under 1,000 monthly active users, positioned as a try-out plan.
Beamer is the marketer’s changelog — polished WYSIWYG editor, in-app notification center, segmentation. The free plan works for genuinely small apps, but note the metering unit: your app’s MAUs, not your changelog’s readers. Cross 1,000 MAUs and you’re shopping tiers ($49/month Starter for 5,000 MAUs, $99 Pro for 10,000, billed annually — feedback and NPS are $99 add-ons each). The full breakdown is in our ReleasePad vs Beamer comparison.
The catch: MAU metering means your app’s growth, not your changelog usage, decides when free ends.
Best for: marketing-led teams at small scale who want announcement polish.
4. Featurebase (Free plan)
Free tier: one admin seat with the core suite — feedback boards, roadmap, changelog.
Featurebase is the most direct Canny-style all-in-one with a usable free plan. One seat covers a solo founder fine; the trade is per-seat pricing from $29/seat/month once teammates need admin access. Like every feedback-first tool, the changelog is a module you fill in by hand.
The catch: one seat, and costs scale with admins, not usage.
Best for: solo founders who want the full feedback suite free.
5. Headway (Free plan)
Free tier: the basics — hosted changelog page and widget, manual entries.
Headway deserves an honest asterisk: it’s a solid, simple changelog tool whose own changelog shows no new feature since May 2021. The free plan still works and the $29 Pro tier hasn’t changed either, but there’s no AI, no email notifications, no analytics, no API — and no visible development. We looked at the stagnation question in detail in our Headway alternatives roundup.
The catch: you’re adopting a product that appears frozen.
Best for: teams that want the absolute basics and accept the maintenance risk.
6. GitHub Releases
Free tier: all of it, forever.
If your users are developers, GitHub Releases is a legitimate changelog: versioned, dated, Markdown-formatted, RSS-subscribable, tied to tags, and machine-readable via API. Pair it with conventional commits and a generator and the notes half-write themselves.
The catch: invisible to non-technical users — no widget, no page on your domain, no analytics. Everyone who needs your changelog must think to visit your repo.
Best for: developer tools and open source projects.
7. Keep a Changelog + a static page
Free tier: everything, because you build it.
A CHANGELOG.md in the Keep a Changelog format, rendered on a static page, is free, version-controlled, and machine-readable by default. Grab a skeleton from our changelog template pack and you’re running in an hour.
The catch: everything a hosted tool gives you — widget, distribution, analytics — is now your engineering backlog. Our build-vs-buy analysis runs those numbers.
Best for: teams with full control requirements and spare engineering time.
The Comparison at a Glance
| Tool | Free tier limit | Changelog auto-generated? | Paid starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReleasePad | Post cap | Yes — from GitHub commits (Pro) | $35/mo flat |
| Canny | 25 tracked users | No | $79/mo (tracked-user metered) |
| Beamer | 1,000 MAUs | No | $49/mo (MAU tiers) |
| Featurebase | 1 admin seat | No | $29/seat/mo |
| Headway | Basics only | No | $29/mo (unchanged since 2021) |
| GitHub Releases | None | Via conventional commits + generator | Free |
| DIY static page | None | You build it | Free |
How to Choose
Choose by where the words come from. Every tool above except two asks you to type each entry by hand forever. That’s fine at one release a month. At AI-assisted shipping pace, manual entry is the reason most changelogs quietly die — the free plan you pick matters less than whether the tool has a path where the writing stops being your job.
Choose by who reads it. Developers in your repo → GitHub Releases costs nothing and fits. Non-technical users in your app → you need a hosted page and widget, which points at the SaaS tiers above.
Choose by which cap you’ll hit. Post caps hit when you ship a lot. Tracked-user caps hit when your community engages. MAU caps hit when your product grows, even if nobody reads the changelog. Pick the cap that correlates with your success least — or the one whose paid tier you’d be happiest paying for when you do hit it.
Pricing and free-tier details verified against each vendor’s published pricing pages as of July 2026. They change — check before committing.
Further Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free changelog tool?
It depends on where your changelog content comes from. If your releases originate in a GitHub repository, ReleasePad's free tier is the only one that AI-drafts entries from your commits. If feedback collection matters more than the changelog, Canny's free plan includes a changelog alongside its boards. If you just need a hosted page and widget with manual entries, Headway's free plan covers the basics — though the product hasn't shipped a new feature since 2021.
Is there a completely free, no-limit changelog option?
Yes, two: GitHub Releases and a self-hosted CHANGELOG.md published as a static page. Both are free forever with no caps — the cost is convenience. You get no in-app widget, no analytics, and no non-technical-friendly hosted page unless you build one. They fit developer tools whose audience already lives in the repo.
Does Canny have a free changelog?
Yes — Canny's help center confirms every plan includes a changelog, including Free. The constraints sit around it: the free plan caps at 25 tracked users, requires anti-spam unlock steps, and the changelog gets no email notifications, no custom domain, and no privacy controls. Those need the Pro plan, which starts at $79/month billed yearly.
Is Beamer free?
Beamer has a free plan for under 1,000 monthly active users, positioned as a try-out tier. Beyond that you're into MAU-based pricing: Starter at $49/month for 5,000 MAUs, Pro at $99 for 10,000, billed annually — and feedback and NPS are $99/month add-ons each.
When should you upgrade off a free changelog tool?
Three common triggers: you hit a hard cap (posts, tracked users, or MAUs), you need distribution the free tier withholds (custom domain, email notifications, analytics), or writing entries by hand stops scaling with your shipping pace. That last one is the structural upgrade — the fix isn't a bigger manual tool, it's automation from your commits.
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