monday.com vs Asana: A Comprehensive Comparison
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Our monday.com vs. Asana comparison deep dive into the two project management tools to help you determine which works best for your business.
A reliable project management tool can help teams collaborate efficiently and streamline workloads and tasks to ensure projects are completed on time and within budgetary limits.
monday.com and Asana are software as a service (SaaS) based on the cloud and available to users online. Both of them cater to individuals (solopreneurs) and organizations.
While there are many similarities in features, there are subtle differences in how each tool delivers those features.
And those subtle differences and critical factors, like pricing and customer service, should help you make the best choice.
Quick Comparison
| monday.com | Asana | |
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Starting Price | $9 per user per month | $10.99 per user per month |
| Workflow Management | Kanban board, Gantt charts, timeline, maps, and more | Kanban board, Gantt charts, timeline, and more |
| Set up | Tasks, projects, and portfolio | Tasks, projects, and groups |
| Integrations | 200+ | 270+ |
| Customer support | 24/7 chat, phone, email, and knowledge base | Knowledge base, forum, and contact form |
monday.com Overview
monday.com is a cloud-based platform for project management, offering businesses worldwide the tools to manage projects of different types, scales, and niches.
It brings together various aspects of project management under one place (a singular dashboard).
Moreover, it integrates with various other software and tools project managers and teams may need to use to complete their deliverables.
With visualization and reporting, project managers and team leaders can track the project’s progress, designate tasks, schedule meetings, and address issues.
It was launched in 2014 and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
monday.com also offers a customer relationship management (CRM) tool named monday sales CRM, and a product development tool named monday dev, which are sold separately from the work management product.
Asana Overview
Asana is a cloud-based project management software for the web and mobile that allows businesses to track and manage projects.
It’s a one-stop solution for project collaborations, workflow management, task management, and reporting.
Designed to cater to modern, dynamic businesses with multifunctional teams, Asana’s plans suit independent contractors, small businesses, and enterprises.
It allows teams to use their preferred option to see the project’s progress in different formats/views.
Like monday.com, Asana integrates with diverse applications, which can further bolster the tool’s functionality and streamline communication and data sharing.
It has recently introduced Asana Intelligence, an Artificial Intelligence-based assistant that helps teams accelerate menial tasks and get more out of the tool with increased automation.
Founded in 2008, it’s based in San Francisco, California. Companies like Amazon, Sheisido, and Accenture use Asana for work and project management.
monday.com vs. Asana: Features
It’s essential to bring the features, at least the core ones, under the microscope to determine which works better for your needs.
Here’s a one-on-one comparison of the core features of Asana vs. monday.com:
Task Management
Asana provides comprehensive task management, with tasks in list, board, or timeline views.
All tasks are available under the ‘My Task’ tab, which gives the user control over their assigned tasks. Each task is assigned to one user.
The My Task section contains all the details about the task and relevant files. Simply click on the task and see all the details and documents. Tasks can also be broken into sub tasks.
monday.com has a similar task management system, except it terms tasks as ‘pulses.’
Pulses can be added and assigned to users. They can also have dependencies to ensure tasks are finished orderly.
The task manager can manage all the pulses or tasks, which also shows the task status. Tasks can also have deadlines.
Workflow Management
Workflow management is an integral part of project management.
monday.com displays project workflow as a Kanban board, Gantt chart, or calendar.
For enterprise plans, there are even more workflow management options, such as maps, which may have a bit of a learning curve but may also suit projects with more complex requirements.
Upper-tier plans also have automation features for workflow management but are limited by the number of times you can use them.
Asana offers a decent variety of workflow management options, including different views like Kanban board, Gantt chart, and timeline.
Individuals and companies can choose the workflow that suits their needs. It further allows projects to be broken down into units, making managing large projects more accessible.
Asana also offers automation for workflow management with its paid plans with similar limitations per month as monday.com.
With automation, you can set rules that automate routine tasks and create processes for all teams.
Portfolio Management
With portfolio management, you can manage different projects. This set of features can be useful for project managers overseeing multiple projects and team members working on different projects.
Asana makes it easier for users to switch between tasks of different projects. You can see the status of the projects in one place to keep an eye out for progress.
While monday.com doesn’t have a dedicated portfolio section, the Group feature can be used to bundle and integrate projects.
However, unlike in Asana, you can’t see the progress or status of individual projects in Groups.
Workload Management
monday.com offers a central view for project managers to see the team members’ workload.
They can also put restrictions on workload to ensure people aren’t overworked.
Similarly, it also allows managers to see who is available for more tasks.
Asana also has a dedicated workload management section, providing tools to balance workloads and plan project task capacity ahead.
Workloads can also be viewed as a timeline, so managers can see how workload proceeds for different team members and make adjustments when necessary to allow more flexibility for tasks that may take longer or have dependencies.
All it takes is a click on the person, and all their scheduled tasks appear.
Reporting
Any good project management tool features robust reporting so teams and managers can get insights on project progress and completion and report it to the higher-ups.
Asana has built-in reporting features that offer team performance tracking. It also provides the status of tasks.
With a dedicated dashboard for reporting made from scratch, project managers can create a visual overview of the project to get a ‘big picture’ view of everything.
monday.com offers both basic and advanced reporting options.
Basic reporting involves common key performance indicators (KPIs) of projects that can be used to track progress.
You can create boards that accumulate data from the tool and make it easy to read.
With advanced reporting, for example, Pivot Board, you can get a more granular view of progress and measure it against set benchmarks.
There are other helpful reporting features, such as Performance Insights View or Word Cloud.
monday.com vs. Asana: Integrations
Both monday.com and Asana readily integrate with many other tools.
Integrations, when used correctly, can enhance the experience of these solutions and allow teams to be more productive.
Asana offers over 270+ integrations and APIs that help different business meet their project management needs.
From communication tools like Slack to marketing tools like Twilio, many options exist to incorporate more functionalities within the project management ecosystem.
More importantly, there aren’t any limitations on using these integrations, which means no hidden or surprise costs from using other apps.
On the other hand, monday.com offers 200+ integrations, which makes Asana a clear winner in this category.
However, you can find all the commonly used app integrations, such as Zoom, Google Calendar, Microsoft Teams, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Another big drawback with integrations is that these aren’t available with all the plans. And there are limitations to how much of them you can use.
You’ll have to pay more to use more actions for integrated apps.
As a result, monday.com isn’t as flexible or generous with integrations as Asana.
For teams that heavily rely on other apps for communication, file sharing, and other critical project tasks, the limitation of integration can pose a hurdle.
monday.com vs. Asana: Ease of Use
While there are many factors that influence ease of use, the key considerations are the dashboard, navigation, and support.
monday.com and Asana have intuitive dashboards that can be customized according to your liking. Both products provide templates that make it easy to set up projects. Similarly, both present data in a user-friendly way.
However, when compared, Asana is slightly more user-friendly than monday.com.
This is also evidenced by customer reviews on multiple forums that praise the tool’s user-friendliness.
While monday.com’s interface is visually appealing, Asana’s is more straightforward, with easily navigable project management features.
Asana’s interface may be more suitable for those who prefer simplicity in task management.
Moreover, Asana’s ability to provide an overview of multiple projects in one place also makes it more accessible for project managers, who are often overseeing multiple projects.
Ultimately, the ease of use is a bit subjective, and some users may find monday.com more user-friendly than Asana.
monday.com vs. Asana: Customer Support
In the customer support category, monday.com has an edge over Asana, offering more choices.
monday.com offers 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support. It also boasts a knowledge base with articles and tutorials on using the tool and resolving common issues.
In contrast, Asana doesn’t offer as many contact options. It has a chatbot and contact form for prospective customers.
For current customers, there’s a guided knowledge base for resolving issues and learning about the functions.
It also has a community forum where other Asana users can answer your questions.
As a result, Asana’s customers have reported issues with customer support, citing that they couldn’t find help in certain instances.
Asana vs. monday.com: Security
When using online SaaS tools like monday.com or Asana, you may have reservations regarding security.
Both platforms take the security of their customers and their data very seriously.
They are based on the cloud and use the latest security mechanisms to keep threats at bay.
monday.com uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store and access customer data.
It complies with security standards ISO 27001 and ISO 27018.
On the other hand, Asana complies with ISO 27001 and SOC 2. It also enforces security protocols, including firewalls, to protect customer data.
While there haven’t been any significant data breaches at either provider, monday.com was subject to a source code leak due to an attack on Codecov, a software auditor, in 2021.
Asana vs. monday.com: Pricing
Both Asana and monday.com offer a free tier with minimal functionality.
Most businesses would have to opt for a paid plan as their projects grow, and they need more users, storage, and, of course, features.
Let’s compare the prices of Asana and monday.com.
Asana Pricing
Here’s a rundown of pricing at Asana:
- The Personal plan is free and allows up to 10 team members with unlimited projects, files, activity logs, messages, and more.
- Paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month with up to 500 team members, more view options, 250+ automation actions per month, and many more advanced features.
- Enterprise plans have custom pricing according to business needs, no user limits, and many advanced features like resource management, premium support, and audit logs.
monday.com
Here’s a rundown of pricing at monday.com work management:
- Free: $0, up to 2 seats. Includes up to 3 boards, unlimited docs, 200+ templates, 8 column types, and iOS/Android app access.
- Basic: $9/seat/month on the annual plan, $12 monthly. Adds to the Free Plan and includes unlimited items, 5GB file storage, prioritized customer support, and dashboards based on one board.
- Standard (Most Popular): $12/seat/month on the annual plan, $14 monthly. Builds on the Basic Plan with Timeline and Gantt views, Calendar View, guest access, 250 automations/actions per month, 250 integrations/actions per month, and dashboards that combine up to 5 boards.
- Pro: $19/seat/month on the annual plan, $24 monthly. Enhances Standard Plan with private boards, Chart View, Time Tracking, Formula Column, 25K automations/actions per month, 25K integrations/actions per month, and dashboards that combine up to 10 boards.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Extends the Pro Plan with enterprise-scale automations and integrations, multi-level permissions, advanced security and governance, advanced reporting and analytics, tailored onboarding, enterprise support, and dashboards that combine up to 50 boards.
When compared with Asana, monday.com’s free tier has very limited offerings. Still, it may be helpful for a one or two-person team working on a small project.
monday.com Pros & Cons
Here are the advantages and drawbacks of using monday.com:
Pros
- Intuitive, Modern Interface: monday.com boasts a thematic, intuitive interface that’s dynamic and easy to use. It utilizes colors to distinguish features and functions, allowing users to easily navigate and find what they’re looking for.
- Ease of Collaboration: monday.com’s Work Management product is inherently collaborative, allowing teams and departments to collaborate on projects seamlessly.
- Multiple Assignees for Tasks: A distinguishing feature and advantage of monday.com is assigning multiple users to a single task. This comes in handy when you have complex or big tasks that require more than one person to take them on.
- Stellar Customer Support: monday.com is praised by its customers for its customer support, giving them options to speak to a representative and tutorials and FAQs on various related subjects, tools, and functions.
Cons
- Limited Integrations: Although the number of integrations has increased in recent years, monday.com falls short compared to Asana.
- Very Basic Free Plan: The free tier is limited in terms of users and resources, so most people will have to go with a paid plan to take advantage of what the tool offers.
- Not Great for Multiple Project View: You’re limited in what you can see for multiple projects side-by-side. You can’t track progress for projects grouped together.
Asana Pros & Cons
Here are the advantages and drawbacks of using Asana for your projects:
Pros
- User-friendly Interface: Asana has an intuitive interface with no significant learning curve. Users should be able to learn the ropes in no time. Plus, it makes customizing how the project dashboard appears easy with many view options.
- Impressive Integrations: With over 270 apps to integrate, Asana will blend into your tech stack seamlessly. From common apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Zoom, and Slack to more niche ones like Transcend and Bybrand, businesses can achieve so much through integrations.
- Multiple Project Support: Asana also provides a top-level view of multiple projects. Managers and executives can see and track the progress of different projects from a single pane. This feature can be helpful in large organizations.
- More Resources in Free Tier: If you’re a one-person operation or a small business with a few employees, you may be able to take advantage of the free tier, which packs useful features and abundant resources to start with.
- Team Collaboration: Through its proprietary features and integrations, Asana enables collaboration between team members and different teams/departments. Collaboration is central to its design and functionality.
Cons
- Can’t Assign Two or More People on One Task: Unlike monday.com, you can’t assign more than one user to a task. As a result, teams may have to break down tasks to assign them to multiple individuals.
- Limited Support Options: Asana doesn’t offer a variety of its customer support, limiting them to find help through the knowledge base.
Verdict
monday.com vs. Asana, the latter has a slight advantage in some categories.
For instance, it’s relatively more straightforward to use with a minimal learning curve.
More importantly, it offers many integrations, which can be helpful for enterprises that use tools for everything.
Asana’s emphasis on clarity and collaboration ensures that teams and their leaders can track progress and stay aligned with the project’s goals.
monday.com has its strengths and some clear advantages over Asana. For instance, it allows multiple users to be assigned to a task. It’s also slightly more affordable than Asana.
However, compared to monday.com, Asana’s user-focused design and commitment to ease of use make it a compelling choice for teams seeking a reliable and intuitive project management platform.
FAQs
What is the main difference between monday.com and Asana?
The primary distinction between monday.com and Asana lies in their project management approaches.
monday.com focuses on visual collaboration with customizable boards, taking a more creative and ad-hoc approach.
In contrast, Asana follows a more straightforward organizational structure for tasks and projects, emphasizing efficiency in workflow management.
Is Asana good for scheduling?
Asana allows the scheduling of tasks in a project. It offers timelines and calendars that enable users to plan and track projects efficiently.
These scheduling tools contribute to effective project management, allowing teams to set timelines, dependencies, and milestones easily.
Does monday.com have time tracking?
monday.com does include time-tracking capabilities. This feature allows project managers to monitor and manage the time spent on tasks, providing insights into project progress and resource allocation.
The time-tracking functionality enhances the platform’s utility for teams that wish to optimize their workflow timelines.
Does Asana use AI?
Asana has incorporated AI into its platform with Asana Intelligence. This innovative addition brings exciting features like Smart field, goals, and answers.
These functionalities use AI to automate and optimize many tasks for Asana users, aiding them in managing projects and completing tasks efficiently.
I’m founder of BizStack at Cagri Sarigoz LLC and a passionate advocate for entrepreneurs.
With over 14 years in tech, marketing, and AI, including my role as Head of SEO at CitizenShipper and co-founder of TaleBot at Intale AI, I’m dedicated to sharing genuine, useful product insights and tips.
At BizStack, I aim to cut through the digital noise to provide clear, actionable advice.
And more than all else, I’m a father to a (always) little girl and a husband.
Contact me at [email protected] for assistance.
Co Authors :
Ana is a content writer at BizStack and ensures our content meets and goes beyond our readers’ expectations.
