Our verdict
Pick Asana for structured cross-team project delivery, monday.com for visual flexibility across many workflows.
Asana and monday.com are both polished work management platforms with strong free tiers and similar price points. Asana is more opinionated about projects and tasks; monday.com is more flexible and visual.
Choose Asana if…
- You manage cross-functional projects with dependencies
- You want goals and portfolios
- You prefer structured task management
Choose monday.com if…
- You want to model many types of work on boards
- Visual dashboards matter
- Non-technical teams need a very gentle learning curve
Side by side
| Criterion | Asana | monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 8.5 / 10 | 8.4 / 10 |
| Features & fit | 8.8 | 8.7 |
| Ease of use | 8.8 | 9.0 |
| Value for money | 7.9 | 7.6 |
| Support & reliability | 8.0 | 8.2 |
| Security & privacy | 8.4 | 8.2 |
| Integrations & ecosystem | 9.0 | 8.6 |
| Starting price (indicative) | Free for small teams; paid from around $11–14 / user / month | Free for individuals; paid from around $9–12 / seat / month |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Cross-functional teams | Non-technical teams |
Feature by feature
| Feature | Asana | monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, for small teams | Yes, very limited |
| Views | List, board, timeline, calendar | Table, board, Gantt, calendar, many more |
| Automations | Rules on paid tiers | Recipes with monthly action limits |
| Seat model | Per user | Seat bundles (e.g. 3, 5, 10) |
| Goals & portfolios | Strong on higher tiers | Dashboards on higher tiers |
| Best for | Task-centred teams and cross-team work | Visual, customisable workflows |
Pricing compared
Asana
| Plan | Indicative price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | Free | Up to 10 users |
| Starter | ≈ $11 / user / mo | Billed annually |
| Advanced | ≈ $25 / user / mo | Billed annually |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | — |
monday.com
| Plan | Indicative price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Up to 2 users |
| Basic | ≈ $9 / user / mo | Per seat, annual; sold in seat buckets |
| Standard | ≈ $12 / user / mo | — |
| Pro | ≈ $19 / user / mo | — |
| Team size | Asana | monday.com |
|---|---|---|
| 5 seats | $55 (Starter) | $45 (Basic) |
| 10 seats | $110 (Starter) | $90 (Basic) |
| 25 seats | $275 (Starter) | $225 (Basic) |
Indicative USD list prices; excludes tax, add-ons and promotions. Confirm on each vendor’s site.
Structure vs flexibility
Asana provides a clear project-task model. monday.com lets you design boards with any columns, which is flexible but needs conventions.
Pricing structure
monday.com sells seats in bundles with minimums; Asana prices per user with tier minimums. Small teams should model both.
Automation
Both include automations with limits by tier. monday.com's recipe-style automations are very approachable.
Pricing structure
Asana prices per user, while monday.com sells seats in buckets, so a team of six may pay for ten seats. monday.com's entry tier is cheaper per seat, but automation and integration limits on lower tiers can push teams to Standard or Pro. Compare the tier you need at your exact headcount.
Beyond project management
monday.com is often used as a light CRM, HR tracker or content calendar thanks to its flexible boards and dedicated products such as monday CRM. Asana stays focused on work management, with goals and portfolios that suit organisations running many cross-functional projects.
Pros & cons
Asana
- Clean, intuitive interface
- Multiple project views
- Goals and portfolios
- Key features on higher tiers
- Can get expensive at scale
monday.com
- Extremely flexible boards
- Easy to learn
- Attractive dashboards
- Seat bundle minimums
- Automation limits by tier
Key features of each
Asana
- Timeline. Gantt-style planning with dependencies.
- Rules. Automations for routine actions.
- Portfolios. Track many projects at once.
- Forms. Capture requests directly into projects.
Integrates with: Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Salesforce.
monday.com
- Boards. Custom columns for any workflow.
- Automations. Recipe-based no-code automations.
- Dashboards. Combine data across boards.
- Integrations. Connect email, CRM and more.
Integrates with: Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Zoom, HubSpot.
Who should avoid each
Skip Asana if…
- Software teams needing deep dev tooling
- Very price-sensitive teams
Best for: Cross-functional teams; Marketing and operations; Managers needing portfolio views.
Skip monday.com if…
- Teams of one or two on paid plans
- Heavy dependency planning
Best for: Non-technical teams; Businesses tracking many types of work; Visual dashboard lovers.
Switching between Asana and monday.com
Migration difficulty: Moderate
Both import CSV and offer importers from each other, but automations, custom fields and dashboards must be rebuilt.
- Export active projects only; archive finished work.
- Recreate custom fields and templates first.
- Import projects and assign owners.
- Rebuild automations and dashboards.
- Run new projects in the new tool only from a fixed date.
Weigh it your way
Adjust the weights to your priorities to see which tool comes out ahead for you. Print or export the result for your team.
| Tool | Features | Ease | Value | Support | Security | Integrations | Your score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Asana | 8.8 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 9.0 | 8.53 |
| 2. monday.com | 8.7 | 9.0 | 7.6 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.43 |
Drag the sliders to match your priorities. Scores are our editorial sub-scores; weights start at the values we publish on the methodology page. Nothing you change is stored or sent anywhere.
How our scores and weights work · Add a third tool side by side
Frequently asked questions
Which is better for marketing teams?
Both are popular. Asana suits campaign planning with dependencies; monday.com suits visual content pipelines.
Do both have free plans?
Yes, with limits on users and features.
Does Asana or monday.com have a free plan?
Asana has a free plan; monday.com has a free plan. Indicative starting prices: Asana — Free for small teams; paid from around $11–14 / user / month; monday.com — Free for individuals; paid from around $9–12 / seat / month.
Which is cheaper for a team of 10, Asana or monday.com?
On indicative list prices, the cheapest paid plan that fits 10 users costs about $110 per month on Asana (Starter) and about $90 on monday.com (Basic), so monday.com is cheaper at that size. Taxes, add-ons and discounts are excluded — and the plan you actually need may be higher.
Which scores higher in our review, Asana or monday.com?
Asana scores 8.5/10 and monday.com 8.4/10 on our weighted rubric. Asana leads on 4 of six criteria. A higher score does not make it right for every buyer — see the “choose if” lists above.
