Selecting the right project management software package for your business can be a time-consuming and difficult task as there are many software providers available that offer project management solutions and you want to invest in the right one. This is why we have compared some of the leading project management software providers for you so that you can see what each of them have to offer. This article explores the key features and plan options available from Monday.com and Asana, and we hope that this is useful in helping you decide if one of their plans is suitable for you.
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Key features
All the software plans have a variety of features available which can be difficult to compare across all the plans and between the providers, so we have selected a range of key features that businesses may require from their project management software to compare. Please note that the list is what is available on their highest level of plans and not all features may be available on the lower levels of plans, so we advise that you check the plan thoroughly before purchasing it as this is only designed to be a guide.
| Features | Monday.com | Asana |
|---|---|---|
| Project overviews | Yes | Yes |
| Project planning | Yes | Yes |
| Assign tasks | Yes | Yes |
| Timelines and milestones | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow builder | Not stated | Yes |
| Approvals and proofing | Yes | Yes |
| Portfolio management | Yes | Yes |
| Issue logs | Yes | Not stated |
| Performance monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Project templates | Yes | Yes |
| Reporting dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Free guests | Not stated | Yes |
| Third party integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Process automation | Yes | Yes |
| Collaboration tools | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Technical support | 24/7 customer support available on all plans and Premium support on Enterprise | Premium support available on all plans except Basic |
Comparing options
Both Monday.com and Asana offer a range of tiered plans that build on the number of features that are included in the plan as the price increases. Monday.com offers five plans which include a free plan and an Enterprise plan. Asana offers four plans which include a free plan and an Enterprise plan.
Below are the tiers of plans that are available from the two providers.
Free
Monday.com offers a free plan that is called Individual that is suitable for individuals but allows up to two seats and provides them with the ability to keep track of their work and share it with one other person. The plan includes unlimited boards and documents, over 200 templates, over 20 column types and mobile apps available on iOS and Android so you can access it from anywhere on any device.
Asana offers a free plan that is called Basic which is designed for individuals and teams that are just getting started with project management and need software to help them manage tasks and personal to-do lists. The plan includes unlimited tasks, projects, messages, activity log, file storage with a file size limit of 100MB, and allows you to collaborate with up to 15 teammates. The software includes list review projects, board view projects, calendar view, assignee and due dates, project overview, project brief, mobile apps to access from anywhere, time tracking integrations and over 100 free integrations.
Basic plan
Monday.com offers a Basic plan that allows you to manage team tasks and simple projects. In addition to the free plan features, it also includes unlimited projects, items, sub-items, free viewers and sharable forms, as well as file management, full API access and Kanban view.
Asana also offers a Basic plan that is free and the details of this plan are above under the free heading.
Mid-level plan
Monday.com offers a Standard plan which provides the ability to plan and track projects and tasks with visualisation tools and automation. The plan includes all the features in the Basic plus Gantt charts, calendar view, guest access, custom notifications and reminders, filters, simple project portfolio management, basic analytics and reporting dashboards. It also includes two-way email integration with Gmail or Outlook, calendar sync with Google and Outlook, up to 250 automation actions per month and up to 250 integration actions per month.
Asana offers a Premium plan which is designed for teams that need to create project plans that give them confidence and assists them in tracking team projects with a variety of features and resources. In addition to the features included with the Basic, the Premium plan includes timeline, workflow builder, unlimited dashboards, reporting across unlimited projects, admin console, unlimited guests, private teams and projects. The software features also include advance search, custom fields, forms, rules, start dates and times, task templates and milestones.
High level plan
Monday.com offers a Pro plan that provides software that can manage projects and processes from A-Z with powerful analytical tools and automation. It includes all the features in the Standard plan as well as task and project dependencies, milestones management, advanced permissions, allocation and management of resources, time tracking, unlimited boards and advanced formula capabilities. It also includes reporting and analytics dashboards, advanced portfolio management, integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams and Todoist, up to 25,000 automation actions per month and up to 25,000 integrations actions per month.
Asana offers a Business plan that is designed for teams and companies that need to manage work across initiatives. It includes everything in Premium plus portfolios, goals, workload, approvals, proofing, custom rules builder, forms branching and customisation, lock custom fields, and advanced integrations with Salesforce, Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau and Power BI.
Enterprise plan
Monday.com offers an Enterprise plan that provides enterprise-grade business workflows and analytics plus unlimited Premium support. The plan includes everything in the Pro plan plus tailored onboarding, work performance insights, multi-level permissions, enterprise-scale automation and integrations, and enterprise-grade security and governance. It also incorporates advanced features including Premium support, advanced reporting and analytics, advanced integrations with the Jira server, Salesforce and others.
Asana offers an Enterprise plan that is designed for organisations that require additional security, control and support. It includes everything in the Business plan plus SAML, user provisioning and de-provisioning (SCIM), data export and deletion, block native integrations, attachment controls, custom branding and priority support.
Pricing
Both Monday.com and Asana offers a tiered pricing structure that has an increasing number of product features as the plans increase in value. Both project management software providers offer a free plan which offers different levels of access. They also offer a range of paid plans that provide comparable levels although the pricing differs.
Monday.com offers five tiers of pricing which are:
- Individual – is free and is for up to 2 users
- Basic – £7 per user per month
- Standard – £9 per user per month
- Pro – £14 per user per month
- Enterprise – customised pricing, contact them for a quote
Asana
Asana offers four tiers of pricing which are:
- Basic – is free for up to 15 users
- Premium – £9.49 per user per month
- Business – £20.99 per user per month
- Enterprise – bespoke contact them for a quote
Asana offers a 50% discount to non-profit organisations with a specialised plan pricing that is designed to help these organisations work more simply and make an impact.
Customer reviews
Getting to know what a company’s existing or past customers think about them is a good way to understand what it might be like to be a customer yourself, especially in regard to their customer service levels as it is hard to find this out any other way.
There are plenty of customer reviews for Monday.com but at the time of writing this comparison piece, there were only reviews on one of the leading customer review sites explored which was Trustpilot. There were 2,885 reviews on Trustpilot and they had an overall rating of excellent with 77% of reviewers rating them as excellent and 18% rating them as great. Positive comments from reviewers included that it is an easy to use platform, effective automation, provides good collaboration tools, useful for organising tasks and planning, and that it is good that it can be combined with CRM software. Some recent negative comments were about the lack of customer support and the chat function not working well.
There are a limited number of customer reviews for Asana at the point of writing this comparison piece as they only feature on one of the leading customer reviews sites explored, this is Trustpilot. There are 100 reviews on Trustpilot that have an overall score of poor but the reviews themselves are very mixed with 41% of reviews rating them as excellent, 18% rating them as great and 31% rating them as good. The reason for the poor overall score is due to a large number of recent negative reviews which are largely about poor customer service with them being difficult to get hold of as well as problems with cancelling trials, issues with billing and some software bugs. However, there were a lot of positive reviews from previous years that mention that the free plan is good, that it is a great project management tool that is flexible, good for tracking activity, a great collaboration tool and good for managing tasks.
Try before you buy
Monday.com offers a free trial of their project management software so that you can sample their software before purchasing it. They don’t however state how long the free trial period will last. You can sign up for the free trial on their website or you can contact their sales team by completing an enquiry form. However, they also offer a free plan for one to two people with basic features that you could also try before purchasing a paid plan.
Asana doesn’t offer a free trial of their project management software, but they do offer a free plan that is a basic plan that is suitable for up to 15 users so you can sample this software to get feel for some of the basic features before moving on to a paid plan.
Pros
Monday.com’s key advantages are:
- Provides a choice of five-tiered project management software plans catering for different needs and budgets
- Offers a free plan suitable for individuals or two people
- Provides a free trial of their software
- Offers CRM software as well as project management software
Asana’s key advantages are:
- Offers a free plan suitable for individuals and smaller teams of up to 15 people
- Provides tiered plans with increased features to meet different budgets and needs
- Offers special plans for non-profit organisations with a 50% discount
Cons
Monday.com’s key disadvantages are:
- Although customer feedback is positive the comments suggest that support is lacking
Asana’s key disadvantages are:
- Doesn’t offer a free trial
- Customer reviews have been negative recently
- Reviews revealed that customer service levels may be poor