Monday.com Review: Is It Worth the Hype?

Monday.com is everywhere. The ads, the sponsorships, the constant "award-winning project management" claims. But does it actually deliver for your team, or is it just another over-marketed SaaS tool?

After extensive testing and research, here's my honest take: monday.com is a solid, highly visual project management platform that works great for teams who need flexibility and customization. But it's not cheap, and several important features are locked behind higher-tier plans that can make the cost add up fast.

Let me break down exactly what you're getting, what you're not, and whether it makes sense for your business.

What Is Monday.com?

Monday.com is a work management platform that helps teams track tasks, manage projects, and collaborate using customizable boards and workflows. It's built around visual boards that you can configure with different views—Kanban, timeline, calendar, Gantt charts—depending on how you work.

The platform offers four main products:

• monday work management – General project and workflow management
• monday CRM – Sales pipeline and customer relationship management
• monday dev – Software development team workflows
• monday service – Ticketing and service operations

Most people searching for monday.com reviews are looking at the work management product, so that's what I'll focus on here.

Monday.com Pricing: What You'll Actually Pay

Let's talk money, because this is where monday.com gets complicated. For detailed pricing breakdowns, check out our monday.com pricing guide and monday.com cost breakdown.

Here are the current prices (billed annually):

• Free: $0 – Limited to 2 seats and 3 boards
• Basic: $9/seat/month – Unlimited items, 5GB storage
• Standard: $12/seat/month – Timeline/Gantt views, 250 automations/month
• Pro: $19/seat/month – Time tracking, private boards, chart views, 25,000 automations
• Enterprise: Contact sales – Advanced security, 250,000 automations, multi-level permissions

Important: Paid plans start at a minimum of 3 seats, then jump to 5, 10, etc. So if you have 4 people, you're paying for 5. A team of 6 needs to buy the 10-seat plan.

Monthly billing costs about 20% more than annual. For a team of 3 on the Basic plan, you're looking at $27/month (annual) or $36/month (monthly).

The Real Cost for Small Teams

Let's do the math for a 5-person team on the most popular Standard plan:

• Annual billing: $12 × 5 = $60/month ($720/year)
• Monthly billing: $14 × 5 = $70/month ($840/year)

That's competitive with tools like Asana but pricier than ClickUp's $12/user Pro plan that includes time tracking (which monday.com locks to Pro tier).

Try Monday.com Free →

What Monday.com Does Well

1. Visual, Intuitive Interface

This is monday.com's biggest strength. The interface is clean, colorful, and genuinely easy to navigate. Within a few minutes, most users can create a board, add tasks, and assign team members without training.

The drag-and-drop functionality works smoothly, and the platform feels modern. If your team has struggled with clunky project management tools before, monday.com's polish is refreshing.

2. Highly Customizable Boards

You can configure boards with 20+ column types on paid plans—status, date, person, timeline, numbers, formulas, and more. This flexibility means you can build workflows for almost anything: marketing campaigns, sales pipelines, product roadmaps, or event planning.

The 200+ templates help you get started fast, though most teams end up customizing heavily.

3. Solid Automation System

Monday.com's no-code automations are genuinely useful. You can set up rules like:

• When status changes to "Done," notify the project owner
• When a date arrives, move item to a different group
• When a new item is created, assign it automatically

The automation builder is visual and doesn't require technical knowledge. Standard plans get 250 automations/month, which is enough for smaller teams. Pro bumps this to 25,000/month.

4. Strong Integrations

Monday.com connects with 200+ apps including Gmail, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. For teams already using these tools, the integrations reduce context-switching and keep everything centralized.

5. Multiple View Options

Depending on your plan, you can view the same data as:

• Table view (spreadsheet-style)
• Kanban boards
• Timeline/Gantt charts (Standard+)
• Calendar view
• Chart view (Pro+)
• Workload view (Pro+)

This flexibility lets different team members work in whatever format makes sense for them.

Where Monday.com Falls Short

1. Important Features Locked Behind Higher Tiers

This is my biggest complaint. Time tracking—a basic feature in many project management tools—requires the Pro plan ($19/seat/month). That's a significant upgrade just for one feature.

Single sign-on (SSO), which many businesses consider essential for security, requires the Enterprise plan. Even recurring tasks are technically automations and require Standard or higher.

2. Gets Expensive as You Scale

The seat-bucket pricing model can bite you. If your team grows from 5 to 6 people, you suddenly need the 10-seat plan—paying for 4 seats you're not using. The cost escalates faster than you might expect.

3. Gantt Charts Are Weak

If you need serious project scheduling with dependencies and critical path analysis, monday.com's Gantt view is underwhelming. It's fine for basic timeline visualization but lacks the depth of dedicated project management tools like Microsoft Project.

4. Learning Curve for Complex Setups

While basic use is intuitive, building complex workflows with automations, dependencies, and cross-board connections takes time. The flexibility that makes monday.com powerful also means there's a lot to learn.

5. Mobile App Limitations

The mobile app works but doesn't match the desktop experience. Users report performance issues when switching boards or loading large projects. If your team works primarily from mobile, this could be frustrating.

6. No Built-in Timesheets

For teams billing clients by the hour, the lack of native timesheet functionality is a gap. You can track time on individual tasks (Pro plan), but generating proper timesheets requires workarounds or integrations.

Who Should Use Monday.com?

Monday.com works best for:

• Marketing and creative teams – Campaign tracking, content calendars, creative workflows
• Project management offices – Multi-project visibility, resource allocation
• Sales teams – Pipeline management (especially with monday CRM)
• Operations teams – Process standardization, workflow automation
• Medium-sized businesses (10-100 employees) – Enough scale to justify the cost, not so large that you need enterprise-specific tools

Who Should Skip Monday.com?

• Solo freelancers – The free plan's 2-seat limit is fine, but you'll quickly hit walls. Better free options exist.
• Teams needing time tracking on a budget – If time tracking is essential, you'll pay Pro prices. ClickUp and others include it at lower tiers.
• Construction/field teams – No built-in timesheets or advanced scheduling policies. Look at industry-specific tools instead.
• Enterprises with strict security requirements – SSO and advanced permissions require Enterprise pricing, which gets expensive.

Monday.com vs. The Competition

Wondering how monday.com stacks up? Here's the quick comparison:

Monday.com vs. Asana

Similar pricing, but Asana has stronger project templates and timeline features. Monday.com is more visually customizable. For a deeper comparison, see our monday.com vs Asana breakdown.

Monday.com vs. ClickUp

ClickUp offers more features at lower price points (time tracking at $12/user). However, ClickUp's interface is more cluttered. Monday.com wins on polish and ease of use.

Monday.com vs. Notion

Notion offers more flexibility as a general workspace tool. Monday.com is better for structured project management with automations. Different tools for different needs.

For more options, check our guides to best project management software and free project management tools.

What Users Actually Say

Across review platforms, monday.com consistently scores well:

• Capterra: Praised for clean interface and easy setup, but some find features "over complicated"
• TrustRadius: 8.4/10 rating, with users noting customization benefits but cost concerns
• G2/GetApp: Common feedback is that pricing can add up quickly as teams grow

The pattern is clear: people love the interface and flexibility, but the pricing structure—especially the locked features and seat buckets—causes friction.

Is Monday.com Worth It?

Here's the bottom line: monday.com is a genuinely good project management tool with one of the best user interfaces in the category. If your team values visual workflows, needs solid automation, and can afford the Standard or Pro plan, it delivers real value.

But go in with eyes open. Know that you'll likely want features locked behind higher tiers. Understand the seat-bucket pricing before your team grows. And compare alternatives if time tracking or budget constraints are priorities.

For teams managing marketing campaigns, product launches, or cross-functional projects who can budget $12-19/seat/month, monday.com is a strong choice. For everyone else, shop around first.

Start Your Free Monday.com Trial →

Getting Started with Monday.com

If you decide to try monday.com, here's my recommendation:

1. Start with the 14-day free trial – You'll get Pro features to actually test what you'd be paying for
2. Build one real workflow – Don't just poke around. Set up an actual project your team will use
3. Test automations early – This is where monday.com shines, so make sure they work for your use case
4. Evaluate at day 10 – Decide if you need Pro features or if Standard is enough

Need help getting up to speed? Check out our monday.com tutorial and how to use monday.com guide.

If monday.com isn't the right fit, our monday.com alternatives guide covers the best options for different needs and budgets.