Monday.com Review: Is It Actually Worth the Price?
Monday.com is everywhere. The colorful ads, the celebrity endorsements, the promises of transforming your workflow. But does it actually deliver?
I've spent considerable time testing Monday.com's project management platform, digging into its features, limitations, and pricing quirks. Here's my honest take on whether it's the right fit for your team.
What is Monday.com?
Monday.com is a work management platform that helps teams track tasks, manage projects, and collaborate at scale. It's particularly well-suited for businesses that need extensive collaboration and integration—think marketing teams, IT departments, and project management offices.
The platform offers a centralized workspace with dashboards and integrations with other tools that improve productivity and reduce context switching. Beyond basic project management, Monday.com has expanded into CRM (Monday Sales CRM), software development (Monday Dev), and service management.
Monday.com Pricing: What You'll Actually Pay
Here's where things get interesting—and a bit annoying. Monday.com uses a "bucket pricing" model that catches a lot of people off guard.
The pricing plans start at a minimum of 3 seats, then ascend in multiples of 5. If you have a team of 4, you need the 5-seat option. A team of 6? You're paying for 10 seats. This can quickly inflate costs if your team size doesn't align with their increments.
Here's the current breakdown (billed annually):
- Free: $0 for up to 2 users. Limited to 3 boards, basic features only.
- Basic: $9/seat/month. Unlimited boards, 5GB storage, prioritized support.
- Standard: $12/seat/month. Timeline, Gantt, and Calendar views. 250 automations/month.
- Pro: $19/seat/month. Private boards, time tracking, formula columns, 25,000 automations/month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. Advanced security, 250K automations/month, multi-level permissions.
Monthly billing runs about 16-33% higher than annual, depending on the plan. For a small 5-person team on the Basic plan billed annually, you're looking at $540/year.
For detailed pricing comparisons, check out our Monday.com pricing breakdown and cost analysis.
What Monday.com Does Well
Intuitive Visual Interface
The platform has a clean, modern interface that's genuinely easy to navigate. Within a few minutes, most users can create a project board and start assigning tasks. The visual boards make it simple to see who's working on what at a glance—no digging through menus or complex navigation.
Flexible Customization
Monday.com offers over 200 templates for different industries and use cases. But the real power is in customization—you can build workflows tailored to your specific processes without writing code. Construction teams use it differently than marketing agencies, and the platform accommodates both.
Strong Automation Capabilities
The automation features are legitimately useful. You can automate repetitive tasks like status updates, notifications, and reminders without any coding. Higher-tier plans offer up to 25,000 automation actions monthly—enough for most teams to seriously streamline their workflows.
Extensive Integrations
Monday.com offers over 200 ready-made integrations covering communication tools (Slack, Microsoft Teams), CRM platforms (Salesforce, HubSpot), file storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive), and more. If you're running Gmail or Outlook, you can sync emails directly to tasks. The Zapier integration opens up thousands more connections.
Multiple View Options
Beyond the standard table view, you get Kanban boards, Timeline/Gantt charts, Calendar view, Map view, and Chart view. This flexibility lets different team members work in whatever format suits them best.
Where Monday.com Falls Short
Pricing Structure is Confusing
The bucket pricing model frustrates users. Adding 2 people to a 15-person team means paying for 20 seats—you're covering seats you don't actually use. Some users find the pricing structure confusing, and costs can quickly add up as teams grow.
Essential Features Locked Behind Higher Tiers
Time tracking—a basic project management feature—requires the Pro plan at $19/seat/month. Single sign-on, a crucial cybersecurity feature even for small businesses, requires Enterprise. Recurring tasks are considered automations and limited to higher-tier plans.
The Free Plan is Very Limited
The free plan caps you at 2 users and 3 boards. It's fine for personal projects or a quick test drive, but realistically, any actual team will need to upgrade quickly.
Learning Curve for Advanced Features
While basic task management is straightforward, there's a steep learning curve when you start digging into complex automations, formulas, and advanced reporting. Some users report that the onboarding resources could be more up-to-date.
Mobile App Limitations
The mobile app works, but it lacks full desktop functionality. Performance can be sluggish when switching boards or loading large projects. If your team works primarily from mobile, this might be a dealbreaker.
Gantt Charts Could Be Better
The Gantt view isn't great for actually building a project schedule. It's more useful for visualization than planning. If Gantt charts are central to your workflow, you might find Monday.com's implementation lacking compared to dedicated tools.
Who Should Use Monday.com?
Good fit for:
- Marketing and creative teams managing campaigns and content calendars
- IT departments tracking projects across multiple stakeholders
- Project management offices needing visibility across initiatives
- Teams that prioritize visual management and customization
- Organizations already using tools in Monday's integration ecosystem
Not ideal for:
- Solopreneurs or very small teams (the bucket pricing hurts)
- Teams needing advanced time tracking on a budget
- Industries requiring rigid audit-ready structures
- Heavy Gantt chart users who need robust scheduling
- Companies where mobile is the primary interface
Monday.com vs. The Competition
Compared to competitors like ClickUp, Asana, and Teamwork, Monday.com's pricing is competitive but not the cheapest. ClickUp offers a similar feature set at $12/user/month for their Business plan.
However, Monday.com's customer support tends to score higher than ClickUp's. The platform is available 24/7, and most users report quick response times.
For a detailed head-to-head comparison, see our Monday.com vs Asana breakdown.
Security and Compliance
Monday.com takes security seriously. The platform is certified to SOC2 and ISO 27001 standards—considered gold standards for business software security. It also complies with GDPR and HIPAA requirements.
Two-factor authentication is available for all accounts. Enterprise customers get single sign-on, IP restrictions, and detailed audit logs. However, many important security features are limited to the Enterprise plan, which might frustrate security-conscious smaller teams.
The Verdict
Monday.com is a solid project management platform with genuine strengths in visualization, customization, and automation. The interface is clean, the integrations are extensive, and most teams can get value from it relatively quickly.
But it's not perfect. The bucket pricing model can inflate costs awkwardly, essential features like time tracking require expensive plans, and the mobile experience needs work.
If you're managing project-driven teams and need a flexible, visual work management platform, Monday.com is worth considering. The 14-day free trial (which starts you on the Pro plan) gives you enough time to test whether it fits your workflow before committing.
Just run the numbers carefully on pricing. That "$9/seat" can balloon quickly depending on your team size and feature requirements.
Try Monday.com
Ready to see if Monday.com fits your team? Start with their 14-day free trial—no credit card required. Test the automations, build some boards, and see how it handles your actual workflows before deciding.
Related Resources
Still researching project management tools? Check out these related guides: