Kirsten Lamb is a freelance conversion copywriter and content marketer with a specialist focus in technology. She previously studied at Keele University and The University…
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Our Verdict
monday.com is a highly reputable, popular, easy to use, and affordable project management platform
monday.com has a stand-out reputation in the world of project management, and for good reason. monday’s highly intuitive, easy-to-use work management suite has everything most businesses need to streamline their operations, and at an affordable, competitive price.
The easy integration with monday sales CRM and the free plan are the cherries on top — it caters to various needs and budgets.
The free version isn’t as feature-rich as some other options on the market, and time tracking isn’t available on lower-end plans. That said, it’s constantly evolving with new time-saving features such as its AI assistant and advanced dependencies to automate project delivery dates.
I’ve personally chosen monday.com as my work management solution and would recommend it to anyone looking for an intuitive means to effectively manage tasks, projects, and resources from a single dashboard.
Unsure? Be sure to read what I found in my testing for this monday.com review. I’ll also compare it to other market leaders like ClickUp, for example, to help you decide.
monday9.7
Pros
Has a free forever plan for up to 2 users
Intuitive and easy to use
Offers full customizability and 200+ pre-set templates
Easy IF/THEN automations
Advanced dependencies to improve delivery date accuracy
Cons
Time tracking is only available from the paid Pro plan
The mobile app is less user-friendly than the desktop version
monday.com is a leading project management tool — delivering an intuitive, user-friendly interface, several templates, and impressive automations. It also offers a sales CRM platform, widely considered one of the best CRMs for small businesses. Read on for an in-depth monday.com review — I’ll cover pros and cons, pricing, use cases, features, and more.
monday.com combines project management, task tracking, and team collaboration into one visually engaging interface. The intuitive project management platform also offers highly customizable and flexible workflows that can be tailored to fit your unique needs, whether you’re managing marketing campaigns, product launches, or complex project timelines.
During hands-on testing, monday.com stood out for its customizable workflows, which will enable you to build automated processes to win back time spent on repetitive tasks. It’s also compatible with popular tools like Gmail, Slack, and Zoom, allowing seamless integration for communication and collaboration directly within your PM platform.
monday.com Pricing
monday.com is an affordable solution offering a free plan for two users and numerous affordable paid pricing plans. Here are your options compared:
Free Plan
Basic Plan
Standard Plan
Pro Plan
Enterprise Plan
Starting Price
$0
$9/user/month
$12/user/month
$19/user/month
Custom
User Limit
2
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Free Version
Yes
14-day trial
14-day trial
14-day trial
14-day trial
Task/Project Limit
3 boards
3 boards
5 boards
10 boards
Unlimited
Time Tracking
❌
❌
✅
✅
✅
Project Views
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Automation
❌
✅
✅
✅
✅
Custom Fields
❌
✅
✅
✅
✅
Approvals
❌
❌
❌
❌
❌
Templates
200+
200+
200+
200+
200+
Security
2FA
2FA
2FA
2FA and Google Authentication
Enterprise-level security
Integrations
❌
❌
250 actions/month
25k actions/month
Enterprise-level integrations
Free Plan
Free Plan
Monday’s free subscription gives you access to up to 3 boards for 2 users, making it a great choice if you’re a solopreneur or looking for a tool for basic task management needs.
This makes it an impractical plan for businesses with several team members, though. While functionality is limited, Monday’s free version is generous in regard to docs and templates.
With this plan, you get 200+ templates and unlimited docs, and you can use Monday’s iOS and Android apps. However, if you’re looking for more free functionality, you might want to check out ClickUp.
ClickUp free plan gives you access to over 11 board views (from Gantt charts to lists) and additional customization options, alongside time-tracking, which is rare.
Basic Plan - $9/user/month
Basic Plan – $9/user/month
Monday offers a number of affordable paid plans. This starter paid plan costs just $49 per month for 10 users. With it, you can access many of Monday’s awesome project management features.
This includes Kanban boards and templates, as well as unlimited free viewers for collaboration, 5GB of file storage, and even prioritized customer support.
Standard Plan - $12/user/month
Standard Plan – $12/user/month
With the Standard plan, you’ll definitely notice the difference when it comes to additional features. It adds automations and integrations into the mix — giving you 250 per user every month.
This allows you to automate your workflows and easily integrate Monday with the rest of the tools in your tech stack. However, compared to Wrike, for example, you may find integrations lacking.
That said, this plan also gives you access to a visual timeline and Gantt charts — helping your team to easily track task dependencies and deadlines. You can also provide guest access to clients or freelancers.
Pro Plan - $19/user/month
Pro Plan – $19/user/month
The Pro plan was designed to support complex workflows at scale. It’s ideal for project planning and gives you access to chart views and time tracking to help you get your projects delivered on time and boost productivity.
When it comes to automations and integrations, you get 25k actions per month for each user, which is a noticeable jump from the lower-tier plans. You can also create a centralized dashboard.
This dashboard brings together data from 10 different boards — giving you enhanced visual insights into your projects and timelines.
Enterprise Plan - Custom Pricing
Enterprise Plan – Custom Pricing
The Enterprise plan gives you exclusive, advanced features tailored to your organization. This includes multi-level permissions, enterprise-grade security, tailored onboarding, and advanced reporting and analytics.
Designed for large teams, the Enterprise plan allows you to combine 50 different boards when creating them.
monday.com’s project management software offers a range of features — from the usable dashboard to automations. However, there are several stand-out features that you need to know about — including the new AI assistant.
Here are the key features I found when compiling my monday review.
Productivity OverviewsTemplatesAutomationsAI AssistantCRM Features
Productivity Overviews
With monday, you can get detailed overviews of every aspect of your projects from a single centralized dashboard. You can use the visual dashboard to track a number of relevant elements.
This includes your team’s calendar, timelines, and files. Monday also offers several viewing options, including color-coded charts, calendar view, lists, and image-based files.
I love how easy it is to keep track of my projects and organize tasks with the color-coded tabs and images in the different views. That said, I also foundoffers more than just a bird’s eye view of your projects.
You can monitor progress on a very granular scale. For example, the Team Projects Lists show the assignee, a color-coded project status, and the due date. You can also add additional tabs to suit your teams’ needs.
Templates
To get you started, Monday provides a number of templates for different use cases, including team projects, recruitment tracking, sprints, production orders, and loads more.
This allows you to use Monday to track your projects and metrics across departments. The templates are fully customizable, too, so you can switch them up based on what you need.
I also like that Monday is constantly bringing out new templates. The latest ones include product development, contacts, and even content calendar templates.
Automations
69% of people say that automation reduces time spent on tasks. Monday offers several code-free automations, including notifications, task creation, and ready-made automations.
As a project management tool, Monday is an awesome piece of software to help you stay updated on where each of your projects are in the project lifecycle — all without a steep learning curve.
You can set up automated emails when due dates arrive and for any project updates or completions. Not only that, but you can also set up customizable automations based on your project workflows.
Advanced Dependencies is another time-saver, which is ongoing gradual release from now until September 2024. You can add lead or lag times, to automate any changes in delivery date caused by earlier delays in your project — so if one date changes, you don’t have to spend time updating all subsequent date in the timeline.
AI Assistant
What is great project management software without AI? Gartner notes that generative AI adoption is accelerating, and with monday, you can get access to an AI assistant to handle repetitive tasks and offer smart insights for improving workflows.
I was impressed with the scope of monday’s AI when it came to task automation in particular. It’s an invaluable asset that you can use across departments — including operations, product, sales, HR, and marketing.
Here are some of the ways you can use Monday’s AI:
Transform project ideas into actionable notes
Calculate budgets
Write blog briefs and translate content into different languages
Write interview questions for prospective hires
Summarize phone calls and analyze conversation sentiment
Get template suggestions for emails
Prepare GTM strategies
Monday’s AI is constantly developing, with new features being rolled out steadily, so stay tuned for exciting additions. Even in this comprehensive review, I’ve only touched on Monday’s potential; it’s easily one of the best project management software tools on the market right now.
CRM Features
monday also offers an affordable and highly competent sales CRM, separate from the project management solution. It lacks a free plan, but overall it offers excellent value for money.
The monday sales CRM allows you to send bulk, personalized emails, and the July 2024 update allows you to schedule mass email campaigns, so you can reach your customers at the most opportune moment for engagement. Then, you can use the built-in email tracking to check when these emails are delivered and even opened. If you don’t know where to start, you can pick one of monday’s email templates.
I liked how the monday sales CRM lets you embed contact forms on your site for lead generation, too. Once you have the lead, Monday’s lead scoring offers valuable insights into the chances of the deal being successful so your sales reps can better prioritize leads.
I found this all worked really well. It also integrates with Gmail and Outlook, so any email received will be reflected on your monday sales CRM account, and there’s pipeline management.
Plus, as with emails, you have ample templates for leads, contact, and deal management. Overall, monday sales CRM is easily one of the best small business CRM solutions.
This is especially true when you consider that many of these features are unlimited from the start. For instance, you get unlimited boards, custom pipelines, contacts, and free viewers.
You also get 200+ templates to fit your business’s unique needs. As such, some would argue that monday is also among the top enterprise CRMs.
monday’s project management software offers over 200+ different integrations, including Slack, Excel, GitLab, and Microsoft Teams. It also never fails to disappoint when it comes to usability.
To set your integrations up, just click the ‘integrations’ button on the left-hand side of your current dashboard and select the integrations from the visual logos listed in monday’s integrations center.
Despite the many pros of monday’s integrations, it doesn’t offer as many integration options as rivals like ClickUp, for example, which offers 1,000+ integrations with their free and Unlimited plans.
monday.com vs Top Competitors
My monday.com review wouldn’t be complete without seeing how it compares to leading monday alternatives. It’s fantastic for task management and customer relationship management, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everyone.
Here’s how monday.com stacks up against rival work management tools:
Track project times to the second, invite freelancers, clients, and partners, Kanban board
monday.com vs Asana
Asana is a great tool and is one of Monday’s top competitors in the digital project management software space. To start with, Monday is the more affordable option — starting at just $9 per user per month vs $10.99 for Asana.
Both task management tools give you access to a number of views and automations. However, Monday’s dashboards are super visual and easy to use — slightly edging out Asana in this respect.
In comparison, Asana offers additional reporting features — allowing you to track the performance of team members. You can also view team members’ workloads from a central dashboard.
However, Monday takes the edge when it comes to their customer support — offering premium support through phone, email, and online chat support vs Asana’s email and chat-based support.
Both Monday and ClickUp are go-to cloud-based project management tools. In terms of functionality, both offer an intuitive dashboard, time-tracking feature, templates, and a number of integrations.
When it comes to UX, monday shines. It offers a dynamic, visual dashboard that covers every aspect of your projects, fine-tuning the way you handle task management—from timelines to file sharing.
However, unlike ClickUp, monday limits the use of some features — only allowing 250 integration and automation actions each month with their standard plan.
Both providers offer free plans and trials, though. However, ClickUp is better for running multiple projects as it gives unlimited users access to unlimited features compared to 2 users for 200 tasks on Monday’s free plan.
Trello is another powerful tool for task management. Both are affordable, easy to use, and come with a host of cool features — making them ideal picks for tech pros and beginners alike.
While both user interfaces are intuitive and easy to navigate, some users note that Trello’s task card system is overwhelming for larger projects. It’s best for basic task management needs.
One feature I loved in Trello? The community-designed templates from other users and brands — including Buffer’s marketing team, globally-recognized academics, and UNICEF.
Both offer free plans and 14-day free trials. However, they’re generous in different ways — Trello offers unlimited storage space and custom backgrounds, while Monday offers unlimited boards and docs.
monday has favorable reviews across the net. Over 4k reviewers give monday.com a 8.4/10 rating on TrustRadius, for example. In terms of monday sales CRM, it’s rated 4.7/5 on GetApp and 8.5/10 on TrustRadius.
The monday sales CRM offers also has high praise for its ease of use, and the value for money on offer is something many mention — you’d really need to nitpick to find flaws.
Many users of monday’s project management boast how easy it is to use and love the visual dashboards. Reviewers also note that the automated updates to project changes are helpful.
Reviews say project collaboration is a huge plus, too. They add that they can easily use the tool to assign colleagues to tasks and automate project notifications to help keep everyone on the same page.
Several add how it saves time with creating tasks too, and that they’ve saved money tracking project progress. However, some highlight that the app isn’t as easy to use as the desktop solution.
Many noted that monday’s app lacks several features offered on desktop — such as user management. After reviewing the app, I agree that it’s not as user-friendly as the desktop version.
How to Use monday.com – Quick Guide
In this demonstration, I will guide you through the process of setting up my project management system on monday.com. While I won’t be able to cover every detail, you will get a good sense of the interface and hopefully see how user-friendly monday.com is.
Step 1: Set up your workspace
After signing up with your email, which takes minutes, you’ll be able to start creating your own workspace and project boards. A workspace houses your individual boards, which will be used to track individual projects on a more granular level.
Simply click ‘Add new workspace’ in the left-hand sidebar and give it a name. You can also choose whether this will be an open or closed workspace for other team members.
Step 2: Choose a board template
Once your workspace is created, you can begin adding boards to manage individual projects, tasks, and subtasks. While you can create custom project boards from scratch, it can be time-consuming to do so manually.
Instead, I opted for one of the preset templates, of which there are many. I filtered the options to offer specific templates for content production and selected the one I liked the look of for my needs.
Step 3: Customize your board
Even if you use a template, you still have the chance to personalize your board. You can customize it by adding features such as a time-tracking column or color-coded status updates.
To add new columns, simply scroll to the right-hand side of the spreadsheet and use the provided button. I found it easy to use because it allows for click-to-edit functionality. I also liked that the template generates a board with some example items in it as you can see exactly how it works.
Step 4: Switch views
At the top of the screen, under your board title you’ll find a range of options to switch between different board views.
This includes a Kanban board, as shown, as well as a calendar view, team workload, and timeline view. This flexibility allows you to map your project in a way that makes sense for your priorities.
Step 5: Add new items
Adding new items to your board is simple. Just click the blue “New Item” button, and a box will appear where you can enter details such as the title, due date, task owner, and more.
After adding the item, you can continue to edit the fields, providing flexibility throughout the project process.
Step 6: Set up and manage automations
Lastly, I’ll touch upon automations, as it is one of the most valuable features of using project management software and can save you significant amounts of time while standardizing your workflows. You’ll find monday’s automation center in the top right corner of the board.
After opening it, you’ll be met with the below screen. As you can see, the board template has already set up three suggested automations to help support the flow of tasks through my project plan such as notifying me of upcoming deadlines and initiating time tracking when tasks are in progress.
Overall, I find that monday is extremely easy and intuitive to use. It helps you set up a fully functioning project management system in minutes, thanks to its templates and automations. There’s so much more to explore on monday.com that I can’t show you here, so I suggest starting the 14-day free trial to experience it for yourself.
How We Review And Test Project Management Software
We base our recommendations on first-hand testing. All the project management software products we feature, have been tested based on the following criteria.
Features: We ensure the provider offers the basic functionality we’d expect, like task management and scheduling, resource management, built-in communication and collaboration capabilities, and reporting.
Integrations: We check what platforms the software supports for integration, looking for common business tools like CRM software, email marketing platforms, and document management tools.
Collaboration Capabilities: We assess and test the extent of collaboration on offer, including built-in chat, comment threads, mind mapping, and whiteboard capabilities.
Pricing and Scalability: We evaluate the value for money on offer based on the functionality, and we factor in the ease and price of scaling.
Customization: We check whether the platform offers things like custom fields, customizable dashboards, reports, and templates to check how easily the platform can be tailored to different businesses.
Security: During testing, we note what security measures are in place, including authentication protocols, access controls, data encryption, data backups, and compliance with regulations like GDPR.
Ease of Use: We assess how easy the platform is to navigate (across mobile and desktop), and we look for things like easy drag-and-drop functionality.
Reputation: To add to our own analysis of the tools we review, we also factor in feedback from other users to ensure we offer our readers a complete overview.
Support and Training: Some of the best project management tools do have learning curves. As such, we assess the level and quality of support on offer, including any online documentation.
How to Choose the Best Project Management Solution
Here’s what you need to consider when looking into buying the best project management app for your needs:
PriceFeaturesScalabilityEase of UseIntegrationsCustomer Support
First up, you need to consider pricing. Does the solution you want offer a plan at the right price with all the features you need to successfully manage your projects?
Try to consider both value and cost — cheaper solutions may not deliver the functionality you need.
Do the features you’re looking for come with the plan you can afford? Factor in features like automations, integrations, AI, customization options, and similar features. Note that some features, like customizable workflows, may be restricted to the higher-tier plans.
How easy is it to scale with your chosen provider? And how much does it cost to scale with them? These are some of the other factors you should consider. While some solutions may be great options for small business needs, they may not accommodate your needs well as you grow.
You should also consider how usable the platform is for different team members. Does it have an intuitive, user-friendly interface? Does it require extensive onboarding and training to use? What’s the mobile version like? Make use of any free trials to test for usability.
How many integrations do you get with each platform and plan? Some tools offer 200 integrations, while others offer thousands. How many you need and will actually use will depend on the size of your team.
Customer support is another factor to consider. Does your solution offer free, accessible customer support? How is support delivered — via email, chat, or phone? Does your solution also offer an in-person support team?
FAQs
Is monday com really that good?
monday is an impressive cloud-based project management solution. It offers several automations and customizable templates. It also provides a dashboard that’s fun, easy to use, and gives you visual insights into your projects to track progress and team performance.
Who is monday.com best suited for?
monday is a great solution for both large and smaller teams. However, the automation features, host of templates, and AI assistance designed for several different departments — from Sales to human resources, make it an ideal tool for larger organizations with a range of needs.
Is monday good for personal use?
monday isn’t just for teams. You can also use it to stay on top of your personal projects. You can use monday to create lists and effectively manage tasks on a Kanban board, automate reminders, and more.
How much does monday sales CRM cost?
The monday sales CRM pricing plans start at $12/seat/month. There are 3 additional plans on offer ranging from $17-28/seat/month, and there’s a custom plan for large enterprises. monday sales CRM doesn’t offer a free plan, but there is a 14-day free trial on offer with all the plans apart from the Enterprise one.
Is it safe to use monday.com?
If you’re dealing with confidential project planning, you may be understandably wary of using a cloud-based planning system. To give you peace of mind that you data is secure, monday employs a variety of security measures. Firstly, all data sent to and from monday.com is encrypted at 256-bit and transmitted through TLS 1.2, in line with the FIPS 140-2 certification standard. In addition, critical data is backed up every five minutes, and stored in secure physical locations across the US and there are strict controls restricting monday.com employees from viewing user data.
Is the free version of monday.com worth it?
monday.com’s free plan is one of the best free project management solutions on the market right now. It offers project planning completely free, with three boards and two users. This may be too restrictive for larger team sizes, but for solo or small teams it can work just fine.
Techopedia’s editorial policy is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
Kirsten Lamb is a freelance conversion copywriter and content marketer with a specialist focus in technology. She previously studied at Keele University and The University of Edinburgh. She has over 7 years of experience in the marketing industry and has worked with brands like Hotjar and WooCommerce, plus on the tech side of Booking.com.
We uphold a strict editorial policy that focuses on factual accuracy, relevance, and impartiality. Our content, created by leading industry experts, is reviewed by a team of seasoned editors to ensure compliance with the highest standards in reporting and publishing.
Disclosure
When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn how our funding model works. By using this website you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.