Monday vs Asana: What is The Best Project Management Software for You?

Excelling in project management requires a mix of technical expertise, effective communication, and the right tools. Today, project management tools have become the backbone of team productivity. These tools streamline project workflows, enhance team collaboration, and ultimately improve team performance. Among the top contenders in this space are monday.com and Asana. Both are great options with many similar features. But which is the best one for you? 

Read on for a detailed comparison of Asana vs. monday.com and see how they stack up in terms of features, pricing, ease of use, and more.

4.6

Price – Starting from

Basic

$9

/mo /user

Free Trial, Money-Back Guarantee

Pros

• This project management software is easy to navigate
• The site uses reliable and user-friendly tools
• The organization of the platform is effective

Cons

• The help and support area needs to offer more options
• The help and support area should have more extensive testimonials and videos

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4.1

Price – Starting from

Personal

$0

/mo

Up to 10 teammates

Pros

• Multiple views for projects and tasks
• Easy for non-technical users to get started with the platform
• Track the workload of individual contributors in real-time

Cons

• Doesn’t have built-in budget tracking
• Because of its expansiveness, it’s not suitable for a single project

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Asana vs. monday.com — Simple Comparison Table

Overview of monday.com & Asana 

monday.com is a cloud-based project management software designed to improve team productivity. As one of the popular project management tools, it is used by organizations of all sizes, from emerging startups to established businesses. Monday’s key features are its highly customizable workflows, powerful integrations, and intuitive interface.

Asana is a project management software for startups and small and medium-sized businesses. As another popular project management tool, it evolved over the years into a structured task management platform that supports team collaboration, project planning, and workflow management. Its key features are its sophisticated automation, extensive number of integrations, and project tracking and collaboration capabilities.

Features Comparison 

Although monday.com and Asana share similarities, they have distinct differences in features and functionality that give both unique strengths. Let’s highlight the core features of each tool and examine them closely.

Task Management

Task management directly affects how teams organize, track, and execute their work. Both monday.com and Asana offer robust task management features, but they approach task organization and execution differently.

How they compare

monday.com offers a more visual and customizable task management experience with strong automation features and multiple ways to view tasks. Asana focuses on clear task organization, dependencies, and milestones. While Asana might be faster at task creation due to requiring fewer details, Monday.com shows much more information at a glance. Creating tasks in both platforms involves setting task goals, assigning tasks, and monitoring tasks within the software. The choice between the two will depend on your team’s preferences, as there is not much to separate them in this regard.

monday.com

monday.com champions a flexible task management system, using the term ‘pulses’ for tasks. Each pulse features its own activity log, FAQ section, comments section, and file attachment functionality. You can create, assign, and monitor the progress of your pulses through the action boards on the task manager.

Users can create custom board structures and workflows, and add columns to monitor task status, priority, deadlines, and assignees. Tasks can be viewed in formats like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and timelines. You can also create custom automations to streamline repetitive tasks, e.g., notifying team members when a task is assigned to them. Coupled with advanced filtering, sorting, and search functions, monday.com facilitates an efficient task management experience.

Asana

Asana takes a more structured approach to task management. Users can create detailed task descriptions, set deadlines, delegate tasks, and observe task progress through different stages. You can manage tasks via lists, boards (Kanban-style), or timelines (Gantt-style).

The ‘My Tasks’ tab on the home page is dedicated to viewing soon-to-be-completed tasks, helping users stay on top of deadlines from the outset. Clicking on a task reveals all its details and attached documents. You can set dependencies between tasks to indicate which tasks need to be completed before others can start. When a task is complete, the assigned team member is automatically notified. Important tasks can also be marked as milestones to provide a clear indication of critical points in a project timeline.

Integrations

Integrations provide additional functionality to project management platforms. Both Asana and monday.com tools offer robust integrations with several popular applications to maximize the benefits of their software.

How they compare

Asana’s integrations tend to be more task-specific, with an emphasis on time tracking, productivity, and reporting, while monday’s integrations cover more use cases, from CRMs to financial tools and marketing platforms. Both platforms integrate seamlessly with Adobe Creative Cloud, along with other tools like Slack, Zoom, and various marketing apps. Ultimately, your choice depends on the existing tools your team uses. Asana edges out this round for the sheer number of integrations available for free.

monday.com

This project management tool boasts over 200 integrations that allow users to connect their favorite tools and centralize data in one place. This integration ecosystem includes popular apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, and Zoom. The platform also features a marketplace where users can search and add additional apps to expand the functionality of their boards.

monday.com’s integrations are not available on the free and basic tiers, and the Standard plan limits integrations to 250 actions per month. Heavy users might need to invest in the pro plan to get up to 25k actions per month.

Asana

The app store features over 300 integrations, categorized into groups like Google + Asana, communication, reporting, productivity, and product management. Unlike monday.com, there is no limit to how much you can use integrations on Asana, even on the free plan. The platform’s open API allows for the creation of custom integrations for more tailored solutions. However, the absence of a search bar in the app section means users must browse categories to find what they need.

Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools are essential in project management software, as they enable teams to communicate effectively, share resources, and work together seamlessly. 

How they compare

monday.com offers more collaboration support than Asana, thanks to its collaborative whiteboard product. It allows team members to brainstorm ideas and concepts together in real-time. For all of Asana’s workload management and task visibility features, achieving similar real-time collaboration requires third-party integrations.

monday.com

monday.com is designed to create a unified workspace where teams can collaborate effortlessly. Boards serve as the central hub for important project information, and the status column updates in real-time to keep everyone on track with deadlines. The platform offers document collaboration tools that allow multiple users to create, edit, and contribute to a document’s completion within the same ecosystem. This means everything is done within monday.com’s work OS, and there’s no need to switch between different apps to work on documents.

monday.com also features whiteboards, chat, and video integrations that mimic in-person team collaboration. Customizable notifications ensure team members are updated on task changes, and messages can be grouped with the tasks they pertain to prevent loss of vital information.

Asana

The collaboration tools on Asana are built to help teams work on common goals more efficiently. Team pages serve as a central hub for project-related communication and updates, while the standard Inbox platform allows direct messages to teams and individuals. 

Asana’s unique workload feature provides visibility into how busy team members are across projects, allowing for better planning and workload management. There’s also the multi-homing feature, which allows one task to belong to multiple projects. 

Reporting

Reporting features provide insights into project progress and team performance. It helps business owners make data-driven decisions. monday.com and Asana’s reporting dashboards give you an overview of activity happening across all projects. 

How they compare 

monday.com has more data visualization features, and you don’t need a paid plan to access its reporting dashboard. Asana’s reporting capabilities are more accessible in its higher-tier plans, with a focus on real-time data insights.

monday.com

monday.com offers advanced functionalities like stacked charts, pivot tables, and workload views for data visualization. Stacked charts are useful for tracking sales, performance, or task completion over time. The workload view gives managers a clear overview of their team’s capacity, allowing them to redistribute tasks as needed to balance workloads. 

Asana

Asana’s reporting dashboards are built to provide real-time data insights with ease. Its Universal Reporting feature simplifies data transmission across your organization. You can visualize reports in burnup charts, bar charts, donut charts, and more, with several customization options for filtering the data points you want to see in the reports. However, Asana’s advanced reporting features are only available in the Advanced plan or higher.

User interface and ease of use

Both monday.com and Asana are incredibly user-friendly and intuitive, even with their extensive number of features. You’ll hardly experience a serious learning curve with both platforms.

How they compare

Asana’s pared-down functionality and uncluttered interface simplifies the process of adding new tasks. monday.com, while intuitive, has more hidden menus and icons without labels, which can be a slight hurdle for some users. Aesthetically, monday.com boasts neat, minimal, and colorful dashboards, whereas Asana’s UI is considered more traditional and less visually appealing, but still functional. Ultimately, the choice between the two may come down to personal preference, but rest assured, you can’t go wrong with either option.

monday.com

Praised for its clean and tidy interface, monday.com users find that it instantly organizes their workflow. The platform scores highly for task management and data visualization, with a minimalistic yet feature-rich UI. The platform is highly customizable and offers a mobile app for on-the-go access.

Asana

Its user-friendly interface allows convenient access to tasks, messaging inbox, reporting, and portfolio features from a single panel on the left-hand side. Its clean and intuitive layout makes it easy for new users to navigate and understand the platform’s functionalities. Training your team to use Asana is likely to be straightforward.

Customization options and scalability

Project management software should offer enough flexibility for users to set up their views and custom fields as they desire. 

How they compare

While Asana may not offer as much visual customization as monday.com, it remains highly adaptable and scalable for teams of all sizes. However, monday.com comfortably takes the lead in this round.

monday.com’s

The customization options are one of its best features. It allows users to personalize boards, workflows, and dashboards to their specific needs. You can adjust design elements like colors and sizes to match visual preferences, and conditional coloring helps highlight key information. 

The platform scales with your team, providing a flexible structure that can handle everything from simple task management to complex project tracking. Its ability to adapt to the changing priorities of businesses makes it suitable for teams of all sizes and industries.

Asana

Asana focuses more on security and scalability for large enterprises, with features like mandatory two-factor authentication, approved workspaces, and enhanced admin controls. The Customize menu acts as a central hub for managing and scaling work, offering fields, apps, forms, task templates, and bundles to automate workflows. With features like portfolios and workload management, Asana remains manageable even as projects and teams expand.

Monday.com vs. Asana Pricing Comparison

monday.com and Asana both provide free versions and multiple paid plans to accommodate different team sizes and needs. They also offer generous discounts for students and nonprofit organizations. 

How they compare

While monday.com offers cheaper paid plans, Asana’s free plan delivers lots of features typically found in paid versions of other project management tools. Your choice between the two will depend on your team’s size, budget, and specific needs.

monday.com Pricing Plans

monday.com offers a free plan and four paid plans. You save up to 18% by choosing annually billed plans. 

Asana Pricing Plans

All Asana plans include iOS and Android mobile apps and over 100 integrations with apps like Zoom, Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365. The platform uses per-user pricing, with discounts available for annual billing. Asana’s Starter and Advanced plans also include the AI-powered Asana Intelligence feature that optimizes workflows.

Customer Support Comparison

monday.com and Asana both have extensive help sections to address common user queries.

monday.com

monday.com provides 24/7 customer support through phone, email, and live chat, with inquiries typically responded to within the hour. Their self-service resources include a knowledge base, video tutorials, webinars, and a community forum where users can find answers and learn best practices.

Asana

Asana’s support is more reliant on self-service resources, with email and chatbot the primary contact methods. The chatbot directs users to relevant articles or escalates issues to a support ticket if necessary. Email support responses may take up to 24 hours. Their Help Center features tutorials, videos, support articles, a community forum, and suggested use cases for premium customers. While there’s no direct phone support, users can submit inquiries through an online contact form.

User Feedback

monday.com

Feedback on monday.com’s customer support is mixed. Some users commend the quick response times and helpful resources, while others have reported challenges with the depth of support for complex issues.

Asana

Asana users have generally found the support bot and help center useful for finding information and resolving issues. However, many users have expressed a desire for more direct contact options and quicker response times for more complex problems.

Asana vs. Monday.com Pros and Cons

Use Cases: Asana vs. monday.com

Both monday.com and Asana provide powerful task management and collaboration features, but they excel in different areas. Both platforms offer various views and layout features that help users manage projects effectively by tracking, prioritizing, and visualizing task progress, managing overlapping tasks, and keeping projects on track as circumstances change.

Ideal Use Cases for monday.com

monday.com is well-suited for teams that need a visual and customizable approach to managing tasks and complex workflows. It shines in environments where team coordination and communication are essential. With its CRM capabilities, monday.com is perfect for tracking customer interactions and sales pipelines.

Marketing teams will find it useful for planning and executing campaigns with its variety of tracking and reporting tools. The platform also caters to software development teams by supporting agile methodologies, including sprint planning, bug tracking, and integration with development tools.

Ideal Use Cases for Asana

Asana is a simplified platform that excels at basic project management tasks. It is great for coordinating work across distributed teams that need to organize tasks, set priorities, and track progress. The platform’s simplicity reduces the learning curve for new users, while its AI-powered Asana intelligence further streamlines workflows.

These features make Asana appealing to project managers and small business owners looking to adopt cutting-edge software solutions.

Alternatives to Asana & Monday.com

Asana and monday.com are arguably the most common project management tools in the world. Unlike most project management tools, they offer more advanced functionality, making them stand out. But if you feel neither of them suits you, there are other solid options you could explore:

• Smartsheet: A versatile platform that combines the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the power of a database. Perfect for task management and collaboration.
• ClickUp: A comprehensive project management tool with extensive integration features.
• Notion: A flexible workspace that allows you to create and manage tasks, notes, and documents all in one place.
• Trello: A user-friendly tool popular for its intuitive Kanban board approach. Great for visualizing tasks in a simple, card-based format.
• Wrike: A robust project management platform with advanced features like time tracking, real-time collaboration, and detailed reporting. Suitable for large teams and complex projects.

Summary & Key Takeaways

Both Asana and monday.com are powerful platforms; the “better” choice depends on your team’s priorities. monday.com stands out for its ease of use and affordability – it’s often described as extremely intuitive, making it perfect for teams that want to get up and running quickly without a steep learning curve. Its highly customizable boards and built-in collaboration tools (like docs and a whiteboard) make it a flexible all-in-one solution, especially for teams that thrive on visual organization and constant communication. Moreover, monday.com’s lower pricing tiers and 24/7 support availability can be very appealing if budget and support are significant considerations.

On the other hand, Asana excels in offering advanced project management capabilities and integrations. It’s a top choice if you need robust features like complex task dependencies, strong automation workflows, and seamless integration into a large ecosystem of apps your business already uses. Asana’s interface is clean and effective for those who take the time to master it, and it can easily handle intricate projects. Teams that are slightly more tech-savvy or need to manage projects with a high level of detail may prefer Asana’s structured approach. Additionally, Asana’s free plan supports a small team without immediate cost, which can be a deciding factor for tiny organizations or startups.

In summary, choose monday.com if you want a more budget-friendly, user-friendly platform that your entire team can adopt quickly, especially if collaboration and customization are top priorities. Choose Asana if you need a more feature-rich, integration-friendly tool for advanced project planning and you don’t mind a slightly higher learning curve or price point for the added capabilities. Each platform has its strengths – by considering the above categories in light of your team’s needs, you can select the best fit and help you manage your projects most effectively.

FAQ

Q: Is Asana better than monday.com?

A: It depends on the requirements of your team. Teams focused on customization, team management, and reporting would love monday’s features and powerful automations. Teams that prioritize task management, collaboration, and ease of use for new users would find Asana more appealing.

Q: Can you get Asana or monday.com for free?

A: Absolutely. Asana’s free version supports up to 10 users and includes basic task management features, unlimited tasks, and limited integration options. Conversely, monday.com’s free plan is limited to 2 users and has basic features like unlimited boards and 200+ templates.

A: How do the pricing plans for Asana and monday.com compare? 

A: Asana’s paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month when billed annually, with the business plan priced at $24.99 per user per month. monday.com’s pricing ranges from $9 to $19 per seat per month if billed annually, with a minimum of three seats required for paid plans. Both platforms offer enterprise plans with custom pricing.